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Welcome to another wild ride on Unscripted Pivots, where WTF (Women That Flourish) moments meet real-life humor, heart, and a little IDGAF attitude.
In this episode, Danielle sits down with the queen of not giving a “f*ck,” Lori Altermann, whose unapologetic, hilarious takes on life have catapulted her into TikTok fame with fans who can’t get enough of her unfiltered truth.
They dive deep into Lori’s journey, navigating life’s unscripted pivots with humor and grace—or as much grace as someone with a full-blown IDGAF attitude can muster! From her dreams of being on *Saturday Night Live* to become a TikTok sensation, Lori shares how she’s taken life by the horns, all while making us laugh so hard we might need to invest in some Depends (you’ve been warned).
👑 What You’ll Love About This Episode:
- How Lori turned her ‘I don’t give a fagana’ energy into a movement that resonates with women, men, and even kids.
In this episode, Danielle sits down with the queen of not giving a “f*ck,” Lori Altermann, whose unapologetic, hilarious takes on life have catapulted her into TikTok fame with fans who can’t get enough of her unfiltered truth.
They dive deep into Lori’s journey, navigating life’s unscripted pivots with humor and grace—or as much grace as someone with a full-blown IDGAF attitude can muster! From her dreams of being on *Saturday Night Live* to become a TikTok sensation, Lori shares how she’s taken life by the horns, all while making us laugh so hard we might need to invest in some Depends (you’ve been warned).
👑 What You’ll Love About This Episode:
- How Lori turned her ‘I don’t give a fagana’ energy into a movement that resonates with women, men, and even kids.
- The moment Lori realized life’s too short to care what anyone thinks—and how that freedom fuels her creativity.
- Danielle and Lori bonding over their signature F-words (WTF for *Women That Flourish* and IDGAF for, well… you know).
- A raw, real conversation about how humor was Lori's shield—and when she had to finally take it off.
- Hilarious menopause stories (itchy backs, anyone?), because if you can’t laugh through life’s changes, then WTF are you doing?
This episode is equal parts laugh-out-loud funny and deeply inspiring. Whether you’re curious about life after 50, wondering if you can pivot careers midstream, or just need a good belly laugh, Lori brings the IDGAF energy we all need.
Where to Find Laurie:
This episode is equal parts laugh-out-loud funny and deeply inspiring. Whether you’re curious about life after 50, wondering if you can pivot careers midstream, or just need a good belly laugh, Lori brings the IDGAF energy we all need.
Where to Find Laurie:
- Catch her new podcast, “The Lori Altermann Show”, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Instagram - Danielle Sprouls
Instagram - Unscripted Pivots
Creators & Guests
What is Unscripted Pivots: Inspiring Stories from WTF [Women That Flourish]?
If you’re looking to find connectivity in the female experience, you’ve found the right podcast. Unscripted Pivots (UP) takes a deep dive into how women can masterfully chart their lives only to end up in the most unexpected places. "Life is what happens while we are busy making other plans" and the most unpredictable detours, our “WTF” experiences, can shape us in ways we never dreamed possible. My podcast invites women to redefine “WTF”, calling them “Women That Flourish” moments instead. I’m your host, Danielle Sprouls, aka "The WTF* Lady", and my mission is to bring you weekly interviews with inspiring stories of women empowerment, identity loss, entrepreneurship, leadership, mental health, and more. We’re here to celebrate a woman's adaptability, resilience, and perseverance. No matter our unexpected detours, we can always move UP.
Danielle Sprouls (00:00.958)
Welcome back to Unscripted Pivots where we embrace the WTF moments, women that flourish. Today, we're taking things to the next level with a guest who has mastered the art of living on life on her own terms. Lori Altermann is the queen of IDGAF. I don't give a... Well, you get it. We're going to call a Fagana, okay? Attitude, IDGAF. And yes, I'm wearing her t -shirts on YouTube. You guys are going to see this. I love it. Love it. Love it.
So for this episode, we'll be swapping out the famous F word and we'll be using some other ones we think because I don't know why the hell not. Lori has navigated her fair share of life pivots, both in her career and her personal life. And she's here to share how she's done it with humor and a little bit of grace, but that's not all. Lori is also taking TikTok by storm, which is how I found her. She's got over like, I don't know.
130 ,000 fans in such a short period. They just can't get enough of her and her hilarious laugh out loud moments. Whether she's dishing out life wisdom or cracking us up with her fearless takes, her TikTok adventures are pure gold. She also is the host of a recently launched podcast called The Lori Altermann Show, and she's got her eyes on taking the stage to share her unapologetic truth.
So if you're ready to hear how to handle life's unscripted pivots without giving too many for faganas let's dive in with the one and only Lori Altermann. Welcome to unscripted pivots. Hello, hello. my gosh, I just adore you. Just so everybody knows, I don't really know Lori. We had one brief conversation before this about two weeks ago, maybe I was scrolling on TikTok right before I was going to bed and just coming across and I see her and she's absolutely hilarious.
Lori Altermann (01:32.281)
Thank you for having me.
Danielle Sprouls (01:48.46)
And it was just so well timed because she was announcing the launch of her podcast. so, of course, that piqued my interest being a host myself. And I immediately went to follow that. And then, you know, with that, I got this great t -shirt. I got this great mug because I was one of the, you know, new followers of what she's got tremendous amounts already. And I just I'm so thrilled. So go ahead, tell the listeners out there a little bit about you.
and how you came to be the IDGAF woman.
Lori Altermann (02:20.197)
So, you know, lot of people, I'm going to be 56 in a few weeks, a lot of people say that it took them all their lives not to sweat the small stuff. I am lucky than I never did. However, in my 50s, I care even less. And I noticed when I started on social media about a year ago, that what was resonating with women, but men too, and even kids, was this feeling and this power of
Danielle Sprouls (02:33.995)
No.
Lori Altermann (02:50.435)
Why do we care? So it's all gonna be over real soon. And none of it matters. No one is worried about you, not even your mama. And she ain't even that worried about you. So I've always had that really free feeling of there's only a few things that matter in life. And in my 50s, I don't even know if I can count them on one hand. And the followers and the fans have loved this permission.
Danielle Sprouls (02:54.474)
Yeah, truth.
Lori Altermann (03:19.107)
to IDGAF and it's just become a movement. If the world care more about the things they should and less about everything else, I think it would be much nicer.
Danielle Sprouls (03:29.196)
Yeah. Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with that. mean, even when I was rolling out my brand, know, WTF and people were like, are you talking about what the, know, Fongola? And I said, yeah, because we're talking about pivots, man. And that's where it starts. But when you're going through those experiences, I want you to think about the fact that you are a woman that flourishes. the next time you go, what the fuck? This is what I want you to think about. So it's just that transformation and it's the lighthearted approach to just what life really is.
Now, you know, by way of background, since I spoke to you once before, I know that you always had like this comedic energy within you, and that was a design for living that you had early on. So tell the listeners about what, you know, the younger version of Lori and what you had planned to set out to do and that, you know, you're doing it now. So let's chat about that because it really is fascinating.
Lori Altermann (04:19.653)
So a young me, well, I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm in Philadelphia now. In Atlanta, I grew up in the 70s, 80s, and my world was TV. I am not sportsy, athletic. I was an undiagnosed because they didn't then. ADD, learning, they call it differences now. So my escape was in entertainment, watching TV, and I really simply...
Danielle Sprouls (04:21.26)
Yeah.
Danielle Sprouls (04:37.518)
Mm
Lori Altermann (04:47.489)
just wanted to be on a sitcom or Saturday Night Live because really if you think about it, if you're of our age, that's all that was on. There was three stations and you stood in front of the TV so that you didn't get the and that you would move the little rabbit ears so that it didn't lose its strength. And so I just found in, in Saturday Night Live, especially something that resonated, the skits.
Danielle Sprouls (04:58.062)
No remote.
Danielle Sprouls (05:06.464)
Lori Altermann (05:17.259)
the impersonations, the different, you know, it was very revolutionary. As a matter of fact, I think it's this month or maybe the beginning of October, there's a fabulous, I think, movie coming out about the history of SNL. And it just did me in and I knew I had to be on it. So the track was and still is to do stand up and to do improv. And so after college, I did both.
Danielle Sprouls (05:41.9)
Mm
Lori Altermann (05:47.173)
And I never planned on getting married. I wasn't a girl that dreamed of her wedding. I'm not a kid person. And I thought I'll move to New York and just do it. Well, know, life has a funny way laughing at you. And I met this fabulous guy when I was about 26. He, I lived in Atlanta. He lived in Florida, but he was moving to New York to do training for his job. And I thought, well, what a great reason. I'll visit him. This was...
three, nine, 11, jump on a plane. used to walk me on. Even then I thought it was weird, not safe, but, and I would go every weekend and he worked nights. So I had the whole day alone in New York and New York was very special then, very different vibe. And I met a lot of people. did stand up at night. I met people through that and I met a group of women that worked for Saturday Night Live and it was very sobering. They were unhappy.
Danielle Sprouls (06:21.282)
Yeah.
Lori Altermann (06:45.707)
It was, it still is, but it was definitely before Me Too. Quite the boys club, there was no HR, there was no internet, social media. So women were not respected, their work wasn't respected. And it was long hours, as we know, it's a live show, you know, it starts at midnight on Saturdays, they write all week. And the grind scared me, they scared me. At the same time I was falling in love. And...
Danielle Sprouls (07:03.256)
Sure.
Danielle Sprouls (07:12.565)
Mm -hmm.
Lori Altermann (07:13.889)
a real danger in making money. And I start, I was doing a lot of entertainment. I was a talk show host, a DJ, I was doing standup, I was doing dinner theater, but to make ends meet, also was working, I don't know how I have the energy, I look back, I was also working in TV and radio ad cells and doing really well and making a lot of money. Well, that can be dangerous because you start to get comfortable with it. You know what, I don't even need to.
be on Saturday Night Live and maybe I'll just take this money and I don't have to worry about going to the late night clubs and the smoke and the club owners and I was falling in love. So I gave up that dream. I wasn't upset about it at all. I stayed in sales. I married my husband. I had two girls, the first one in 19, no, in 2000.
Danielle Sprouls (08:07.586)
Mm
Lori Altermann (08:08.017)
And I stayed home, I was privileged and lucky enough to stay home with both of them, which was good because I had had no experience with kids. And my kids, like many, had a lot of health issues and a lot of mental, you know, social, it's no joke, no joke. And I was glad I was there for them. However,
Danielle Sprouls (08:27.576)
Mm
Lori Altermann (08:31.331)
A lot of things happened over those years I didn't deal with. got cancer, my mom died, my kid was almost killed, yada, yada. And when I empty nested, when the second daughter left for college, I had a nervous breakdown. I had never dealt with the trauma. I dealt with it with humor and I was a shell of myself. You know, the girl I was before I became a mom is really the girl I am now.
So the people who know me later in life think I've changed now that I've been in entertainment, on social media, this is really who I was. The mom thing was not the real thing. Although the love was there, I was faking that. So I had this breakdown where I said and knew I needed to get real help to deal with traumas I hadn't dealt with, to face a lot of stuff that was really upsetting. We all have it.
Danielle Sprouls (09:05.29)
Yes.
Lori Altermann (09:24.653)
And on the other end of that, and I went to a real trauma therapist, it's a real thing and it's hard work. It's not like garden variety therapy, it is work. But on the other end of it, I was faced with what do I do with the rest of my life? And people had said, do a podcast, do stand up again, do radio, and none of that resonated. And I was a huge consumer of TikTok and hand the Bible one Sunday night. I was sleeping. I woke up out of a dead sleep.
Danielle Sprouls (09:28.782)
It absolutely is. Yeah.
Lori Altermann (09:54.861)
And I said, I'm gonna do TikTok. I didn't know, it was like words coming out of someone's mouth. My husband looked at me like I had two heads. And I said, I'm gonna do it. I had never used a laptop, a computer. I had never filmed on my phone. Technology is very scary to me. I had to hire college students to even show me how to film. So that's where I went from.
Danielle Sprouls (09:56.725)
Ha ha ha ha!
Danielle Sprouls (10:04.066)
Yeah.
Lori Altermann (10:22.277)
Saturday Night Live back to that. The idea was never to be back in entertainment. It was to dip my toe, but I was lucky and blessed enough that it really took off. And because I'm 55 and I don't give an F, I think there's an authenticity that resonates with a viewer that, look, I ain't gotta do this. I don't have to do this. I wanna do this.
Danielle Sprouls (10:37.452)
Yeah.
Lori Altermann (10:49.985)
I am too ADD to lie. So what you get is what you see, what you get. And I think there was a need for someone my age to put that personality that I had cancer. I didn't have reconstruction. That was a whole other thing that was a little different. And it started out to be just my obsession with skincare makeup and my experience with cancer. And I had to have a hysterectomy and I went into menopause.
But then my humor just came out and it all has blended nicely. I have a lovely, beautiful, special, engaged following on TikTok and now on Instagram and now on YouTube. And it was an unexpected chapter in my life to just say, you never know. All the times I felt like giving up, all the times during this that a lot of friends and family thought it was crazy.
Danielle Sprouls (11:47.234)
Hmm
Lori Altermann (11:47.79)
You gotta just know you got one shot and go for it.
Danielle Sprouls (11:51.34)
This is such an important message. really, I just admire your willingness to put yourself out there. And I want others to understand that this is not an easy path necessarily, but it's an authentic one. And when you're driven by returning to who you actually are at your core, that will propel you in places as long as you don't really give a fagana about what other people are saying. And you really have to park that because your people, they will find you and Lori, your people have found you. And that
group is growing like by the hour. I'm not even going to say by the day. It continues to grow because you bring so much energy and love for what it is that you're doing. Right. And it's so important for us. mean, there's certain things about, yeah, let's be kind out there people. get that, but be authentic and be real, you know? And so, yeah.
Lori Altermann (12:26.245)
Thank you.
Lori Altermann (12:38.981)
So many people are so lonely that I found out and so many women don't feel like they have the permission to think the things that I say out loud, whether it's, love my kids, but I'm happy they're gone or I'm in love with my husband, but every time he breathes, I want to strangle him. Like certain things that you growing up, if you're of our age, you weren't allowed to really think or feel. And so I'm giving permission. You can't help how you feel. You can help how you act.
Danielle Sprouls (12:56.96)
Yeah.
Danielle Sprouls (13:08.384)
Yes, 100%. Well, there was so much that I want to unpack in your life story. Several things resonated with me. One of the things that's grabbing me is that you said that, you know, be careful of when you make money, like what that's going to do. And that resonated deeply with me because I was, you know, stay at home. Well, first I was a lawyer, stay at home mom, then I wanted to get back out because I was like, OK, look, I love the kids, but I don't love this lifestyle indoors.
And I ended up doing commercial title insurance and I thought, well, I'll just do that for a minute because that was going to be the first opportunity to get the hell out of the door. But within a very short time, I was making a lot of money at it and be careful like of that because it's like the golden handcuffs because the inability to not look back and look at your real dream of what it is that you want to do, you know, that starts to exist. Right. So you say in something that maybe isn't really meant for you because it just makes sense.
Dollar -wise, dollar -wise. And there's nothing really wrong with that. We have to earn. mean, you what you did, you raised two kids. mean, yeah, there's bills and there's colleges and there's all sorts of things, but at the end of the day, these golden handcuffs are real and you just start and you have to keep chasing that. so that really resonated with me when you said that. One of the things, I mean, there's so many things about your TikTok and we'll have all the links in the show notes, but I mean, you're just freaking hilarious. You talk about what, okay, Lori and I share the F word in common, like within our branding, right?
Lori Altermann (14:06.157)
Yeah, I had to pay the bills, but.
Lori Altermann (14:26.415)
Thank you.
Danielle Sprouls (14:31.626)
I want to talk to you about some stuff. Okay. We got to bring up menopause because there's menopause. I want to talk to her about men. I want to talk to you about mentorship because of you, you know, being in the male dominated industry, even still to this day, how you're giving back. So let's talk about some words. Let's talk about menopause because you are so damn funny when it comes to that. And women are just eating it up. Mento, Mento. So let's talk a little bit about like, you know, what is like the most, you think laughable moment or
or symptom that you always zero in on when it comes to experiencing menopause.
Lori Altermann (15:06.831)
You know, I did something just yesterday and about the symptoms and I would say the craziest symptom I have and people were commenting back they have it is an itchy back. Don't know why, don't know how, as a matter of fact, it's itching right now just talking about it. It's the same area and it's absolutely a menopausal symptom. And I'll tell you a funny story, another one. My...
Danielle Sprouls (15:20.61)
yeah.
Danielle Sprouls (15:30.816)
Yeah
Lori Altermann (15:33.879)
husband's an eye doctor and I say this because of this story. So for a while my eyesight was getting worse and I was developing cataracts which you can develop from taking I have a chemo drug I take tamoxifen. So it wasn't a shock and my husband's a cataract specialist and he said but they're not bad enough to do anything but the weeks would go on and I just you know more and more I couldn't see one night.
Danielle Sprouls (15:53.304)
Mm.
Lori Altermann (16:00.555)
I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, not my phone. And I was scared. I thought I was stroking out. So my husband was scared. He rushed me to his office. He checked everything in his head and mine without saying it. You have a brain tumor. He saw nothing was wrong. And then he did the old shoemaker's wife. You're fine. You know, that's, that's the wife of a doctor. You're fine. There's nothing. And I said, well, well, yet I'm not because yet I can't see.
Danielle Sprouls (16:06.388)
yeah. God. Yeah.
Danielle Sprouls (16:22.911)
Yeah.
Danielle Sprouls (16:27.788)
I need a second opinion.
Lori Altermann (16:30.191)
So to shut me up, he said, I don't know, your eyes are kind of dry, just put some lubricating drops in. I put them in, I've never seen better. And so from menopause, one of the symptoms is, well, no dry everything, dry eye. And this eye doctor, so yeah, and I'm almost worth having it.
Danielle Sprouls (16:49.047)
Let's try everything with it. And that was the answer. Okay.
Lori Altermann (16:56.771)
because it feels so soothing to put it in. put it in four times a day. I see great.
Danielle Sprouls (17:02.006)
Okay, well, I love to put drops in my eyes too. I use Lumify or Lumify or whatever the hell it's called, that little tiny bottle. It looks like Vizine, but I don't know. It's a better brand. Yeah. Is yours a prescription or drop? It's just a, yeah. Yeah. We tend to have to coat everything after menopause. I don't really, I'm trying to think if I got to itch you back. That's where spouses become helpful being in your life, right? Because they can help you with those itches. But no, my ears, my ears got itchy and I didn't know why that was inside of my ear. Look at her. She's making like, my God, I get it.
Lori Altermann (17:09.733)
Amazing!
Yo! Yo!
Danielle Sprouls (17:31.736)
You know? Yeah.
Lori Altermann (17:32.025)
I have to put ear drops in my ears. It's called, I don't know the name of it, it's from Amazon, but I have to oil my ears now.
Danielle Sprouls (17:36.344)
Yeah.
Danielle Sprouls (17:39.776)
Yeah, there's lots of changes, but there's lots of changes all through life. But when we can poke fun at it and embrace it for what it is, because what's the alternative, Lori? I we could be six feet under, you know? And so, and you're rocking it. And when I see women, you know, turning that corner, becoming the empty nester, which I like to call the bird launcher, right? Right. You've heard that term probably. I mean, I didn't make it up.
And I have four. mean, you I had to like, you know, launch four. And so I get what that looks like. And then you're like, what am I going to be? I worked all through there. mean, when the fourth one became one is when I started going back to work, mostly because I was becoming insane staying home that that's what yeah, against everybody's wishes, including their dads. went back to work and I wanted.
Lori Altermann (18:21.111)
Wow, that's a hard space that you didn't want to stay home and your husband was, how did you deal with that?
Danielle Sprouls (18:26.412)
He wanted me at home. You know, that just looked like I just felt I was going crazy, to be honest with you. When I start to look at him and resent the fact that he was, you know, he also was an attorney and he was leaving every day in a suit and everything seems civil as, you know, somebody's puking on me and I've got another belly because I'm pregnant again. And I loved being pregnant and I loved the kids, but the insanity of that existence. And then my grandmother moved in until she died. And so it her and her oxygen tank and this and that.
She was my best friend, so no complaints there. In fact, I went into a spiral when she did pass because she was just like the core of my life and my home. And I thought, I'm not staying here by myself. And when she died, I was like, I gotta get a job. And somebody offered me a job in insurance. And then, you know, that's what I did for 25 years. And I got.
Lori Altermann (19:08.751)
How long till your husband got on board?
Danielle Sprouls (19:12.076)
when he saw me making seven figures, which only took about a year. Yeah. And then I was paying seven figures in taxes. Then I understood what white collar crime could look like. So I from, I thought, wait, this is bullshit. Okay, this is bullshit. But I was fortunate enough to have really good relationships in New York and just worked my ass off. And so...
He knew the value of that because we were funding their colleges when they were two, three years old and they never had to pay for colleges. And they all went to private colleges and they all got their first car and they got a lot of things because of it. Not just material, a head start. We were saving for a head start. And I was looking just to get back out there and just to do something. And it was quite the career being in Manhattan.
all the fancy stuff that comes with doing commercial real estate sales. It was cool. It was cool for what it was, but it was a mad ass juggle. And I had live in Nanny. mean, there's no way you can just have part -time help when you're trying to navigate that. But what I was going to say is that like, here I am, I just celebrated my 60th birthday. I'm like, what the fong gone? How did that happen? that number, if you would have asked me 10 years ago, if that would have bothered me, I would have said, yeah, that's real. Because everybody's saying like,
30 is the new 20 and 40 is the new 30. But I think they stopped counting back decades by the you get 60. I have yet to hear somebody say, well, 60 is the new 50. I don't think so. But the beauty of it is that so much has changed in this year alone with my career that I feel like I'm almost in state of infancy. I'm like, what the hell is going on? know, approaching things that I know how to do, but focusing them on full time. And who I'm meeting in 2024 is Danielle.
and I'm returning in a way that is just so big and beautiful. And today, I don't have the fear I would have had 20 years ago. That's a beautiful thing about your movement with the, I don't give a fagana because it is what you said, Lori, it's permission, okay, to just be you. Not at the expense of other people, but despite their opinions, because who the hell cares?
Lori Altermann (21:13.815)
We go.
Danielle Sprouls (21:18.048)
If you are looking in a mirror and you like what you see both inside and out, well, that's all we need. That's the litmus test. That's it. And that's what I keep trying to tell women. you know, I mean, look, I celebrate us changing ourselves in ways we want to. We go on the diets or we have Botox and we do the things we do all the things. And there's nothing inauthentic about that. But when it comes to, you know, being a brand, putting out your message, you know, following your calling takes a lot of courage. It takes a lot of guts.
but the liberation that is experienced when you do that. I mean, I can just see on your TikToks how you are glowing because you are being who you are. And so the whole SNL thing and the early years that you were actually tracked for that movement didn't surprise me at all once we started chatting because I thought that's who she is at her core. That's authentically her. And you're so not only just relatable, but it's like you invite
Lori Altermann (21:56.175)
Thank you.
Lori Altermann (22:11.972)
Mm
Danielle Sprouls (22:16.238)
online virtually people into your space. It's almost like one of those things where, I know her. Like they think they know you. Okay. And that Lori is a real gift. That's a real gift. I saw one of your TikToks. was wet in my pants. In fact, okay, I don't own Depends yet. Okay. I don't. I may be 60, but I literally thought, she's going make me laugh so much and I can't get up from this podcast. I might want to buy a pair. Okay. Because I'm going to pee in my pants because I watch your TikToks and I was dying.
Lori Altermann (22:19.481)
Mm
Lori Altermann (22:27.609)
Thank you.
Danielle Sprouls (22:44.62)
There was a TikTok, one of your posts where you're, I guess, on a subway and you're looking to see like if you're famous, right? You're saying, you know, you're like kind of skirting around, like you have to kind of be private so you don't be like recognized. And then like nobody's really recognizing you and your whole shtick there is like, hey, do you know who Lori Altermann is? And I mean, Lori, you're just brilliant. You're brilliant in your ideas, in your delivery.
Lori Altermann (23:05.679)
Thank you.
Danielle Sprouls (23:09.996)
I mean, that takes a lot of work. So where the hell did you get that confidence, okay, to do this at a young age? I mean, you're bringing it out now where, you know, women start to go, how do give a shit? I don't give a F, that's what we don't give here. But where did you get that confidence even early on when it was stacked against you with being a male -dominated field? Like, who told you that you could do this? This is what I want to know. Is it your mom? Is it your dad? Is it your friends? Like, did you come out of the womb that way cracking jokes? mean, tell me, tell me.
Lori Altermann (23:39.503)
You know, I've never thought about it and I've never been asked, but my first reaction is that to compensate, I think in school for not knowing the answer to anything. And I think you are born funny. You can't teach it. It was a very easy go -to. If I can make everybody laugh, then it's not embarrassing that I can't tell you, but one and one is. And I...
Danielle Sprouls (24:06.594)
Okay.
Lori Altermann (24:08.149)
very supportive parents, just, you at some point, and they valued, especially my dad comedy and introduced me to a lot of things that I found funny and shows. But I remember saying to my dad when I was dating my husband, I was with him, who's a doctor, and his friends that were also doctors, lawyers, they were in finance in New York. And I started to second guess, what am I doing? This is the dumbest thing.
and it isn't valuable and I felt less than around all of them. I never even told my husband this. And I remember my dad saying, what you wanna do may be more valuable. Making someone laugh, making them forget their troubles, having them escape for X amount. He said, there's nothing that feels better. So they were supportive.
Danielle Sprouls (24:43.81)
Mmm.
Lori Altermann (25:02.881)
And it just, the humor always came naturally. It's turning it off that I have trouble with.
Danielle Sprouls (25:09.514)
Okay, you know, you're definitely one of those, I don't know, I've heard somebody describe it as like church giggles, you know, like when you're not supposed to laugh in this situation, because I'm the worst, like do not say anything to me where we should not be laughing and then like tell me, yeah, nope.
Lori Altermann (25:21.987)
I've been in trouble at many religious services, many.
asked to leave, asked to not come back.
You know, but I I'd play fairer if you did it at mine, I wouldn't care.
Danielle Sprouls (25:34.868)
Yeah, okay. That is fair. Let me ask you a little bit more of a deeper question because, you know, using humor as a tool, right, to navigate life and to kind of offset any kind of like, you know, weaknesses that we think we may have, something about us being inferior, right? Has that ever like worked against you? Did you ever find a period of time where you were hiding behind that but you weren't able to then address a problem, right? Because we're looking for solutions. We're always looking for probably a way out. But as you described earlier,
There's only a way through. We don't get around shit. You don't heal from that. You got to go through stuff. So was there at any point in time where that was working against you and you really had to kind of switch it off and not get heavy and dark and serious so much as in touch, in touch. Tell me about that.
Lori Altermann (26:20.965)
So yes, that's what happened during parenting is that when tragedy struck or really hard times, rather than be, so my parents and they all, that's not true. They don't all do their best, but mine did, but they were young. They got married at 21. They never dated anybody. They didn't have the tools. It was the sixties and they weren't hippies. They were too just young, very young.
Danielle Sprouls (26:36.265)
That's good.
Danielle Sprouls (26:42.488)
Mmm.
Lori Altermann (26:49.113)
very inexperienced, not worldly people. And so they, when something bad would happen as a child, they would hunker down and they would panic and they would freeze and there was no funny, there was no laughter. was something bad is happening and we're shutting everything down. And so it was very upsetting as a kid. And they did have a lot of tragedy and a lot of bad things like most families do.
Danielle Sprouls (27:18.369)
Mm.
Lori Altermann (27:18.917)
But it wasn't until I got into the real world that I saw, you never do till you see other families the way they live, that people actually still function. They still go to dinner, they laugh, they make fun of each other. And it wasn't until I became a mom that I decided, because we all do this, I'm gonna be different. I'm gonna be better than them. And when tragedy calls me, I'm gonna have what my therapist lately named
Danielle Sprouls (27:32.248)
Mm
Danielle Sprouls (27:46.954)
Yeah.
Lori Altermann (27:48.645)
The Lori show. The irony is I really have Lori. But I would, my child was in the hospital a lot and I would just giggle and laugh and make the, you know, where my parents would just sit in the hospital room like this. I'm making the doctors laugh, my kids laugh. And I am working 24 seven with a pre -show and a dinner show and an after show. And I...
Danielle Sprouls (27:51.628)
And she has the Lori show now.
Lori Altermann (28:15.555)
rather than deal with, wow, this is pretty serious, or this is life or death, or I just said, if I can make everybody laugh. And it just never stopped until it stopped, until I hit a wall because I'd never dealt with any of it except for by being funny. So it was my detriment, had a real nervous breakdown. And in trauma therapy, the therapist said, which was so freeing, I...
Danielle Sprouls (28:34.966)
Mm.
Lori Altermann (28:44.985)
I got pushback with this and I'll talk about this. If you don't feel like being funny, don't. Like I didn't know it was a choice. If you don't feel like talking, you don't have to. So I had to practice not being fun. Like I don't really feel like it. And don't you know when I first did it for the first few months, friends and family would say, what's wrong with you? Is something wrong?
Danielle Sprouls (28:54.114)
Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Danielle Sprouls (29:07.245)
Yeah.
Danielle Sprouls (29:14.049)
Mmm.
Lori Altermann (29:14.499)
And I would say, that's not feeling funny. And I would get called to the car, but well, where's Lori tonight? So it was a hard adjustment. Now I don't even think about it except for to think about, don't feel like being funny. I mean, there's times where now, because I do this for a living, I have to, but before when I was a parent, I was so scared for my kids when they were in certain situations that...
Danielle Sprouls (29:29.196)
Yeah.
Lori Altermann (29:40.611)
I mean, got kicked out of, had a kid and this is no secret, she was in rehab for a while for a very serious eating disorder. And I got kicked out of the place because I'm in the group family therapy and I'm like, you know, anybody want an apple? I just was making some people laugh and the doctors were like, hmm, I wonder why your kid can't eat. So, but to me, my parents would have been,
Danielle Sprouls (29:45.902)
Hmm?
Danielle Sprouls (29:54.502)
morning.
Danielle Sprouls (30:06.794)
Okay, yeah.
Lori Altermann (30:10.009)
like this there and I'm like, why can't we still have fun? And there's a happy.
Danielle Sprouls (30:10.039)
Okay.
So there's a real polarity though, okay, in the situation between you and your parents. It's like, where's the middle ground? But it's a good point. And you came and it is authentically you. But like you said, there was a time and a place for it when you were gonna approach like healing. And when your body started to shut down and your mind followed probably, or maybe it was the reverse. Yeah. Yeah.
Lori Altermann (30:34.839)
I handle my feelings. That's what it boiled down to. I thought if I feel the fear or the sadness, I will die. And it sounds ridiculous to say it out loud, but this therapist would, we would do these exercises where, okay, so you die. You really think your feelings are gonna kill you, but it felt like they would.
Danielle Sprouls (30:41.164)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Danielle Sprouls (30:52.778)
Mm.
Danielle Sprouls (30:57.816)
Yeah, yeah. No, that's a real thing. mean, most people recognize that today if they haven't experienced some version of it big or small, they know somebody who has. That's the truth. People are talking about it more. There's less hiding around. It's like normalizing recovery and supporting mental health. I mean, that's one of the most beautiful things that's happened in the last several years is that I've seen that get
Normalize for God's sakes if we're not having these conversations. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's not weak and probably the strong because that's the again that that's where we can go in our head. That's where we can go in our head and it's not and I'm always saying I'm a proponent of community on this podcast. It's all about community because every time we try to do something alone, it's you you got to ask for help and and not only sometimes it's just a share. Let's okay. That'll bring me to another Let's talk mentorship.
Lori Altermann (31:28.715)
It's not weak.
Lori Altermann (31:33.167)
But I thought it was.
Danielle Sprouls (31:56.672)
Right? So here you are, like kicking ass and taking names as a comedian and just like growing in record pace. It's just crazy good. I mean, are you finding any women coming to you and going, how the hell are you doing this? How do I do this? Where did you do this? Right? Because you're almost going to be representative of, you know, the success and the joy that can come from following that calling. So what does that look like, Lori?
Lori Altermann (32:21.157)
So I, my dad also taught me very early on to ask for help. So in anything I've ever done, I've always found a coach, whether it was for parenting or for employment. And when I started on TikTok, I'm like, I'm going to find a bunch of women on TikTok and bother them. And I reached out to a lot. Well, two reached back and they're huge. And the rest didn't, which is totally fine. I mean, I now get inundated with.
Danielle Sprouls (32:25.227)
Mm
Good.
Danielle Sprouls (32:40.802)
you
Okay.
Danielle Sprouls (32:47.83)
You reached out for them. What do mean you reached out for what?
Lori Altermann (32:50.937)
I, it was almost out of naivety. Now that I look at at the one I reached out to, her name is Erica Taylor, and she is a really big influencer in the beauty world. And because she's so, you would love her. She's so authentic. I just figured I'll just DM her. I didn't realize that she was on the box of L 'Oreal products. Like she's big. So I reached out to her like,
Danielle Sprouls (32:53.164)
Okay.
Danielle Sprouls (33:02.029)
Okay.
Danielle Sprouls (33:12.087)
Yeah.
Lori Altermann (33:17.283)
How come when I'm editing and TikTok this one little, I mean, it just.
Danielle Sprouls (33:22.914)
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Lori Altermann (33:23.393)
And she answered and we developed this friendship. And so she became definitely somewhat of a mentor. Then I did it to this other one wrote me back and I looked at what they were doing and I asked the right questions. I've hired the right people. It's a whole business to monetize, to learn how to negotiate with brands, to learn all of the business.
Danielle Sprouls (33:27.969)
Okay.
Danielle Sprouls (33:31.683)
Yeah.
Danielle Sprouls (33:43.927)
Yes.
Lori Altermann (33:51.555)
the business and of social media, but I hire people. I have some really good people that I hired. So they mentored me in that. And then in terms of being a creator, I got mentorship from these women. And now I crack up that people are reaching out to me. But like I was on a FaceTime the other day with a girl telling her what I do. And she sure enough, she posted and it was great. And it was great to pay it forward.
Danielle Sprouls (33:51.724)
Yeah, I know.
Danielle Sprouls (34:12.387)
Yeah.
Danielle Sprouls (34:18.584)
That's fantastic. I'd love to hear that. Let's talk about your podcast now because that's relatively new and I've listened to a few episodes, right? I mean, you just came out with this in the last, what, two months maybe? Not even, what? Yeah, okay.
Lori Altermann (34:30.661)
So the podcast as it is now, yes, but very, you know, what I really wanted to do, cause I don't want to be on Saturday Night Live unless I'm like a background, but I wouldn't have the energy or the, what I would love to talk about, if you're listening, but I, what I really want to do is have a talk show. So David Letterman meets old Howard Stern meets Conan.
Danielle Sprouls (34:42.604)
That's so untrue. SNL, if you're listening, she does. Invite her. Go ahead.
Danielle Sprouls (34:53.72)
Mm
Danielle Sprouls (34:57.752)
Mm -hmm.
Lori Altermann (35:00.171)
little bit of Johnny Carson. And so very early on, I would sit in my glam room and have a guest on and we would do lives on TikTok. And then I was fortunate enough to become friends with this couple that were just fans and they're like, you need a real show. And then so we moved it to my family room and they said, you need crew. I have a whole production team now in a production studio in the house.
Danielle Sprouls (35:28.194)
That's great.
Lori Altermann (35:28.589)
So this talk show became a podcast and what I love is I do it normally with three guys. my favorite thing about a show or a talk show is the weird mix of ingredients. So that's what I do love about the Howard Stern show. If you look at the players, none of them have anything in common. It's the best kind of dinner party.
Danielle Sprouls (35:49.523)
It's so true.
My husband's the biggest fan of Howard Stern. The biggest.
Lori Altermann (35:57.477)
So the best kind of dinner party parties are when you have unusual guests. If you have everybody who's 55 and white and me and lives in Philadelphia, boring. So I like to mix unlikely guests. So I have on there, my sidekick is a former Princeton basketball player, waspy white guy, 10 feet tall, who has a hedge fund. Then I have my two producers who are 35 and 32.
Danielle Sprouls (36:20.906)
Mm -hmm. Okay.
Lori Altermann (36:27.581)
One is creative, the other one's like a science guy. We make no sense. And then we put in guests that also I'll have rappers on, I'll have my car wash guy on. So the podcast is my happy place, hanging out with cool people, talking about stuff kind of Seinfeldy that you never thought like, wow, very Larry David, never thought about that take on it, but.
Danielle Sprouls (36:52.203)
Yeah, I love it. Yeah.
Lori Altermann (36:55.587)
So that's what the podcast is now. I just started repurposing it on YouTube, but it really is my baby. Well, I do, I happen to do it live because I might as well. It's a great thing for TikTok, but it's, and it only goes live to TikTok, but then it's put up in perpetuity and it's entirety on YouTube. And then I just started to put little drips and drabs on TikTok.
Danielle Sprouls (37:03.182)
So this is done live though, right? I when does it come out?
Danielle Sprouls (37:11.629)
Mm
Danielle Sprouls (37:25.9)
Okay. So when you, when, when I look at your TikTok profile, I see live event. And so I've yet to watch one that way. I've seen it on YouTube. you are just recording it live and streaming it on TikTok. And are there any kind of, I don't know, tech issues when you're doing that through TikTok or is that go seamlessly or what's going on?
Lori Altermann (37:26.127)
But that's my baby.
Lori Altermann (37:48.473)
They, for the most part, goes seamlessly. I mean, at first there was there, there's always some little technical, but then what's good about it is, you know, if it's, if there's an issue or a glitch on tech talk, you know, and it does happen, it's fine. But then afterward I can clean or my production people will clean it up. And I don't plan my podcasts. I, I don't meet the people before I don't talk to them. It's very different. It's very raw. and it just, it's really.
Danielle Sprouls (37:50.882)
Yeah.
Danielle Sprouls (38:16.778)
It's raw and real. Yeah. And how many days a week does that come out? Do you do that just once? Okay.
Lori Altermann (38:18.327)
It's my happy place.
Lori Altermann (38:23.023)
Just once. I do it usually Wednesday afternoons, but we also are going to start going like man on the street. We're going to do like remotes from maybe a Eagles pregame tailgate. may go outside of a DMV and talk to people cause that's also fun to me. Man on the
Danielle Sprouls (38:42.646)
That's the best. I could just see you thriving in that space. Absolutely freaking, yes. just do it. Are you an Eagles fan? Okay, because that's the other thing. You mentioned Howard Stern. My husband, John, is diehard Howard Stern and Eagles as well. Because we're from the East Coast. And even though we're from Jersey, it's a long story, but he's an Eagles fan. And there's a bar that's in Orange County where we live that does all the Eagle games. The Eagles fans rent the bar.
Lori Altermann (38:52.217)
Yes. Yes.
Lori Altermann (38:59.229)
really?
Lori Altermann (39:03.205)
but he loves the eagle.
Danielle Sprouls (39:10.008)
for the games that are played because they can't otherwise really watch that so easily like on TV and they are dressed head to toe in the gear. They treat every game like it's the freaking Super Bowl. There's the teen dances. There's like, you know, the master with the flag and they have games. I mean, like every game is treated that way. It's like next level and it's like a couple of miles from the house. So, so yeah, yeah. Go Eagles for sure. Go birds as they would say. Yeah.
Lori Altermann (39:11.122)
wow!
Lori Altermann (39:14.457)
Yeah. Yeah.
Lori Altermann (39:31.279)
That is shocking.
Lori Altermann (39:35.653)
Go birds.
Danielle Sprouls (39:37.218)
So I know that you have family here. You have a daughter in California and you said you just love LA. So tell us a little about that. When are you gonna come out here next? What's going on?
Lori Altermann (39:48.773)
So I've had a love affair with New York and LA my whole life. I think it's because I was a girl that grew up in Atlanta, which was not exciting. And entertainment to me was New York because of Saturday Night Live and Broadway and LA for obvious reasons. And so I've just, always been very romantic to me. And this is a funny story. This is a really funny story. So when my kids were 13 and 10, they had never been to LA. And so they said, we want to go to LA to meet Justin Bieber.
Danielle Sprouls (39:59.565)
Hmm.
Danielle Sprouls (40:18.925)
Mm.
Lori Altermann (40:19.018)
That's not how it works. But we'll go to LA, but you're not meeting Justin Bieber. So we go to a hotel.
Danielle Sprouls (40:28.104)
god, okay.
Lori Altermann (40:28.685)
It just so happens the Biebs was living there. And this was when the Biebs wasn't well liked. He had just been roasted and toasted on Comedy Central. He had just egged one of his neighbor's houses in Calabasas and he was a sad Justin Bieber. He was in and out of relationship with Selena. And so we are at the pool, just us.
Danielle Sprouls (40:32.325)
No, stop.
Danielle Sprouls (40:40.514)
Okay.
Lori Altermann (40:56.767)
and he walks right up to us and we spent the whole week, we held his dog, we sat with the bodyguards, they took my kids, not even this is the beginning of it, they take my kids to his car, my kids do a soul cycle, he's next to them, we see him serenading Selena in the bar, see him, he was going on tour, we see him in the gym, practicing dancing.
Danielle Sprouls (40:57.029)
Mmm Are you kid
Danielle Sprouls (41:07.702)
You can't make this up.
Lori Altermann (41:26.073)
Then they say, we wanna meet the Kardashians. So, know, I'm giving away the punchline like, well, that is a, mean, this was, next day they're there and now it's the Kardashians. So my kids were messed up to say the least. They thought this is what happens when you go to LA. And so we went constantly after that and we would always see.
Danielle Sprouls (41:34.818)
That's a tall order. Yeah.
Danielle Sprouls (41:51.352)
Wait, wait, wait. Did you see the Kardashians? Justin, Justin knows the Kardashians, I'm sure. So you got to, you got to meet them too. What, what, what hotel were you at? Like the Four Seasons? Where were you?
Lori Altermann (41:56.8)
yeah, they're all hanging out at the pool!
It was called the Mayborn, now it's called the, mean the montage, now it's called the Mayborn.
Danielle Sprouls (42:05.844)
sure. The montage. Yeah. We have that version here by Laguna Beach. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's beautiful. It's absolutely gorgeous. That's hilarious. And then, yeah, that spoiled them for what reality really is. know, I... Yeah. Mm
Lori Altermann (42:10.595)
You should do it's beautiful. Beautiful.
It spoiled them. So then my older daughter went to Emerson College in Boston and they have a campus in LA in West Hollywood. The top of the school, you look at the Hollywood sign. So she got into the program her senior year and has been there ever since. And I, we visit a lot. We're going to be there for a week Thanksgiving. We may be coming to Orange County too. Yeah.
Danielle Sprouls (42:43.086)
my gosh, you gotta tell me, I'd love to see you. I'm about 45 minutes. Yeah, it is. It has such great energy as do you. And you know what? I'm not blowing smoke up your butt when I say I could see you with your own star on that Hollywood, do you know I can't talk? Hollywood. That little track of names with the little stars and stuff. we'll see Lori Altermann on there. Hey listen, the story that you just told is a testament to.
Lori Altermann (42:45.519)
So I just, love LA. I love it.
Lori Altermann (43:05.574)
my gosh.
Danielle Sprouls (43:10.988)
not just your luck, that like it's coming to you. The universe is supporting this journey, right? And I can't think of anything more beautiful than that. I got some like wacky question I wanna ask you, okay? Yeah, this is out of blue. I don't even know why the hell I thought about this before we went on because I've never asked it of anybody, it's random. Okay.
Lori Altermann (43:23.438)
away.
Danielle Sprouls (43:32.564)
So you're dead. Now, obviously we want you alive for a very long time, but you're dead, right? And you get up to the gates and know, St. Peter's going to let you in despite all your swearing with the F word, right? You help people laugh through your whole life and he sees the joy you right? So my question to you, Laurie, is who's the first person that you're hoping to see and what do you want to say to them? So it's obviously somebody who passed. Okay, it's your mom. Okay.
Lori Altermann (43:36.09)
Mm
Lori Altermann (43:43.064)
for many reasons, but I'll just go along with it.
Lori Altermann (43:58.255)
That would be my mom. Be my mom? Yeah.
Danielle Sprouls (44:01.804)
Not everybody would answer that. That wouldn't be my answer. So it be your mom. Yeah, not everybody would answer that way. Yeah.
Lori Altermann (44:04.655)
Fair enough, fair enough. You're right. you're totally right. And I would say.
Lori Altermann (44:15.353)
Where are going to eat? Like this one place here?
Danielle Sprouls (44:16.862)
How long has she been gone?
Lori Altermann (44:24.037)
She died when she was 62. And how long has it been? About 13 years?
Danielle Sprouls (44:26.565)
Mm, too early.
Yeah, yeah, what health issues or?
Lori Altermann (44:33.733)
So my mother at 32 got breast cancer and years later she took the genetic tests and she had the BRCA1 and I got the same testing and didn't have it but I still got cancer because that doesn't mean you're not gonna get it. But what we didn't know is that when you have BRCA1, when you have the genetic predisposition for
Danielle Sprouls (44:37.718)
Mm -hmm.
Danielle Sprouls (44:43.608)
Mm
Danielle Sprouls (44:48.109)
Okay.
Lori Altermann (44:59.077)
breast cancer, it's the same with all cancers. So pancreatic's high up there. She got pancreatic 61, if you know anything about pancreatic. Goodbye, thanks for playing. Worst death I could imagine ever seeing.
Danielle Sprouls (45:04.163)
Mm
Danielle Sprouls (45:08.322)
Yeah, that's aggressive. Mm -hmm. Yeah. Totally. I'm so sorry that that, but I love the, I love the, the share that you want to see your mom first and that you can't wait for that reunion and the joy that it's going to bring to you. Yeah. He's number two. I don't know why in my head I make these lists of things. And I literally think like, if it doesn't happen in that right order, I'm going to get pissed. Like I visually picture myself pushing people out of the way.
Lori Altermann (45:16.249)
Thank you.
Lori Altermann (45:23.939)
And then John Lennon.
Danielle Sprouls (45:37.218)
to get to the ones that I want to catch up with and see. And not all of them are humans. Some of them are dogs. that's, but for me, it's my grandmother. For me, it's my grandmother. I want her to be front and center and knowing how humble she is, she'll probably just wait in the back and I'll be like, no, you get up here, front sister. I miss her dearly. I miss her dearly. It was such a pleasure having you on. I'm going to continue to just watch you just take the world by storm.
Lori Altermann (45:42.701)
Interesting. Okay, yeah. Okay.
Lori Altermann (45:58.098)
it's a pleasure being on.
Lori Altermann (46:03.449)
Thank you.
Danielle Sprouls (46:04.012)
You're inspiring and all the ways to reach you will be in the show notes. there anything you want to share with listeners where we go?
Lori Altermann (46:12.185)
I just think that if you're watching this and you're inspired, my job is done. Period. Mic drop.
Danielle Sprouls (46:16.51)
Yeah. Amen, sister. And if you don't, she doesn't give a fagana. There you go. Awesome. Thank you so much, Lori.
Lori Altermann (46:22.305)
I it's not my problem if you're not a magician.
Lori Altermann (46:29.295)
Thank you, it was a pleasure.