Committed: Recent Episodes
Cedric Thompson Jr.
Host Ced explore the role commitment plays in healthy relationships. Weekly guests include experts, celebrities, and friends – each of whom shares from their personal experience with this important topic. A must-listen for anyone seeking to take their relationship to the next level.
I've had a lot of people ask me about my writing and journaling habits over the last few weeks and I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about why it's a significant part of my life. For me, this isn't a record of my day to day life, it's what helped me during my time in the NFL, a habit that benefits my marriage and has helped me grow as a person. If you're interested in learning for yourself, DM me on IG. I'd love to help you.
I think it's natural for us to want a relationship, but have you ever asked yourself if you're ready? Are you ready for all that comes with a relationship? The highs and the lows? Looking back, there were times where honestly, I don't think I was ready for one. In this episode, I want to share my thoughts for anyone out there who's single or dating and dealing with this question.
Music by: Hindz
I was thinking about the beginning of my relationship with my wife and how I was not a good boyfriend at the beginning. To some extent, it wasn't my fault. What I saw in relationships growing up didn't set me up for success. In this episode I want to talk about this and what it took to change these patterns. I think it's important to reflect on my past and learn from it. Not only does it help me, but maybe it can help some of you too.
Music by: Hindz
Similar to last week's mini episode, I wanted to talk about something that's been going on in my life recently. With a 5 month old, my wife is having to take on a lot of work to care for her and that means not being able to get much sleep. I've really started to feel bad for her and trying to figure out how I can help. It's something I've been wrestling with these past few weeks and I've come to learn a lot about empathy because of it. Again, this is a new format for this podcast, so message me on IG and let me know what you think. I'd love to hear your thoughts or even questions if you have those too.
Charlotte and I have talked about infidelity in our relationship quite a few times in this podcast, so we’re not going over that story again. But, we did want to dive deeper into the moment especially from Charlotte’s point of view. She could have left the relationship, but she chose not to because she saw the potential of what our relationship could be long term and believed that our growth was possible. We talk about what she saw while we we were dating that led her to that conclusion, why she said yes when I proposed and how we are now in our marriage. This episode was originally part of our YouTube subscription and released in January 2023.
Today's episode is a little different than our usual conversations. I wanted to talk today about something that's been on my mind recently which is the value of consistency. I've realized that in all parts of my life whether it was football, being a dad and being a good husband started by consistently improving in each of those roles. I wanted to share my thoughts on how I did that and some thing that I thought might help you all too. Let me know what you all think of this format for the podcast, I'd love to hear your feedback.
In this episode, Hindz joins me to discuss the need for people to stop trusting their feelings and look at the facts in their relationships in order to truly love your partner. Then, we talk about the unrealistic dating expectations that people have set because of culture and social media. We all don't want the average life, but we can't all expect that our partner is making millions of dollars either! I really enjoyed this conversation and hope you find something insightful to take away from it. This episode was originally part of our YouTube subscription and released in January 2023.
If you checked out last week's episode with my friend Abdulkhaliq, this week I talked to his wife, Aisha. I really enjoyed hearing her perspective on the Muslim marriage process and how her marriage has been going so far. She had some really great insight on gender roles as well as advice for communication in a relationship.Join the Committed Community: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0InqHG524n3h1DEas18G0Q/join
In this episode I sat down with my friend Abdulkhaliq who recently got married this past year. Before this conversation, I really didn't know much about relationships in Islam besides what the media portrays. I enjoyed hearing more about what relationships and marriage look like in his faith and debating our perspectives from my Christian point of view.
Jared and I originally met at the gym that we both go to and once he told me the story of his current relationship situation, I knew I needed to have him on the podcast. From separating with his wife during the pandemic, to living with his best friend and now dealing with his best friend and ex-wife getting together, it’s truly a unique story. While I wanted to discuss the whole story, what I really wanted to hear about he was he’s found the resilience to move on after multiple people in his life betrayed and broke his trust.
If you watched last week's episode with Libby, this week features her boyfriend Jalon. We talked about his past relationships including calling off a previous engagement. We discuss his career as a professional gymnast and now as a singer and building a record label. Finally, we talk about his relationship with Libby and what it's like to date an older woman and single mom.
I sat down with Libby to talk about her past experiences with a toxic marriage and how that led to an emotional affair. But we followed that with a conversation about the new, healthy relationship that she now has. There is an 11 year age gap between her and her boyfriend and we discuss the effects of that age difference on their relationship as well as dating with a daughter from her previous relationship. Stay tuned for next week to hear her boyfriend’s perspective.
If you listened to last week's episode, this is the follow up to that with Marcus' girlfriend, Bailey. Our conversation started off by talking about her dad cheating on her mom and how that has affected her dating life now. Her positivity and resilience is an example to a lot of us I think. Then we of course of talk about her relationship with Marcus and her perspective on how things are going. I was impressed by Bailey in this episode and I think you will too.
I had my cousin Marcus join me for a conversation to talk about his girlfriend of almost a year and their relationship. With social media and the access to excess, I’m intrigued by these Gen Z’s and how they find love. We talk about how our LA childhoods effected our current relationship issues, learning to communicate and argue better, why he believes they are soulmates and more. I really enjoyed this one and hope you do too. Stay tuned for next week when I talk to his girlfriend, Bailey.
Today I’m talking with my friend Kali about her relationship experiences. We discuss getting out of long-term relationships, escaping an abusive partner and the struggles of being a single mom on dating apps. She showed me some of her messages and all I can say is some of these guys need better pick up lines! It’s rough out there!
Everyone deserves relationships free from domestic violence. If you are in an emergency situation, please call 911 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
After Helen gave her perspective last week, I talked with JJ to hear his side of the story. We talk about why he thinks the relationship ended, co-parenting, dating other people and getting back together.
Today I’m talking with my friend, Helen, who some of you may recognize from an episode 2 years ago when she and her boyfriend and son’s father, JJ talked about some tension in their relationship. Since then, a lot has changed for them. Today, we talk about the complexities of their relationship including the effects of parenthood and careers as well as a breakup vs. splitting up. I hope you find this to be an insightful conversation. Look out for JJ’s perspective next week.
Committed Community, go get your tea, coffee or water and join us. This is a good one.
Last year I had Hindz join me on the podcast to discuss celibacy. I think he has a lot to offer our community and wanted to have him back on for a larger conversation about relationships, love and commitment. He even shares about being public with his own relationship status for the first time.
Today I want to talk about the night I met my wife. Looking back, there were some things about her and what she did, that made me want to be with her even more. In this episode, I want to go over these traits for you and why I think they worked so well then, and could be valuable for you now.
At some point in any relationship, you will see your partner’s true colors revealed. The question is, what do you do next? I think there are 3 things to think about and wanted to share them with you all today. This episode is a little bit different so let me know on IG what you think (@committed.community).
Committed Community, we're back. It's been a while see we've talked and we have some updates for you, both with our lives and the future of the podcast...
Committed Community, we have a spicy one for you guys today. It’s time to talk about our sex life…kind of. We read an article the other day about scheduling vs. spontaneous sex and it was eye opening. People assume that scheduling intimacy makes it less passionate and can even hurt a relationship, but is that really true? Find out which one of us wants to give it a try.
We’re not gonna lie…this is probably one of our more raw and challenging conversations we’ve had on the podcast. If you’ve been listening to some of our recent episodes, you know that these past few weeks have been tough for us. In the midst of that, I (Ced) addressed not feeling loved. In most circumstances, it’s a conversation worth having, but in this case, the timing probably couldn’t have been worse. In this episode, we talk about what happened and what we learned from it.
If you’ve ever been in a relationship, you know that there’s at least that one thing your partner does that you don’t like. You want things to be different…but is that okay? Is it right to try and change your partner? And if not, how can you still improve the situation? From our own experience this isn’t an easy conversation to have with your partner but we have some ideas on how to make it work.
Let’s just be honest for a second and admit that men have to do more work in a relationship, right? Or is it women? This is one of those conversations that everyone has an opinion on. Whether it’s things as simple as the dishes or laundry or something more intense like creating capacity for emotional weight, is it men or women that have to do more? We’ve got a lot of thoughts on both sides of this debate…get ready for a passionate discussion.
Committed Community, let us know some things you do to to support your partner when you don't understand them in the comments. It has taken us years to get to a point where we understand how to support each other when we didn't understand one another. We recently went through a miscarriage and I (Ced) couldn't understand where Charlotte was coming from or going through but I did my best to understand and support her. There have been times where the roles were reversed and Charlotte had to do her best to try to understand me. Hope this episode can help you out Committed Community!
Committed Community we are back and feeling bette than ever! We took a 5 month break that was much needed. Today, we are talking about he ups and downs our break and the importance of taking break in in relationships. Let us know what you agree or disagree with!
Welcome back to episode 2 of CedTalks! Today I'm talking with one of my best friends who played football with me at the University of Minnesota and is now a member of the Houston Texans, Eric Murray. During our college days, Eric and I had similar "motives" I guess you could say. In this episode, we talk about our past, why we did it, and advice we would give our 18 year old self.
As you may have seen in our last video, Charlotte is taking a break from the podcast this month to focus on other parts of life. In the meantime, I wanted to try out a new type of episode, Cedtalks. In this episode, I wanted to talk to someone I’ve been following for a while now on Youtube, HINDZ. We discuss why men cheat and the benefits of celibacy. Subscribe to Hindz on Youtube and follow him on IG - @hindzsight.
Have you ever texted something to your partner that was meant to be nice or funny and they took it as something mean or sarcastic? Texting in a relationship is great for communication, but at the same time, it can be the cause of major issues or arguments. It’s easy to mix up the tone of someone’s message when you don’t hear it from their voice or talk to them in-person. In this episode we discuss our own problems with texting each other and actually figured out a solution while recording!
Whether your in a relationship or not, we’ve all been here before. Your stressed out or tired and you start reacting to the people around you in a mean way for no reason at all. Being in a relationship for many years now, we’ve both been on the receiving end and it’s easy to want to respond back in a mean way. Today we wanted to talk about a recent example of this and give you some advice on how to resolve it rather than making the situation worse.
We've been getting a lot of questions recently on Instagram and Youtube about our February episode on scheduling. Specifically, many of you asked how we find time for intimacy when we have such a busy schedule with work and kids. In today's episode, we wanted to share our successful formula with you and walk through practical steps on how to keep intimacy alive! We created a PDF that allows you to go through the same steps that we did when it comes to creating a weekly and monthly game plan. It's been life changing for us and we hope you feel the same! This is our secret to keeping intimacy alive: https://thecedshop.com/
One of Ced’s friends had an interesting question the other day, “Why do people feel the need to get married? Is it even worth it?” If you’ve been following along these past few months, you might know that we have been going to marriage counseling and this question is one that we have wrestled with answering. Today, we wanted to walk through our answers together and give some advice if you are thinking about getting married too.
Because of things like social media, influencers and celebrities, our society as built this endless pressure to keep “advancing” in life. To buy the newest phone or car, or get married and have children. Many times this conversation involves money and finances as well. Unfortunately, this is all just a result of two things, fear and desire. All of this has become an important topic for us and one that we haven’t really approached much in the past. We recently read and book about finances and it was very eye-opening for us. Rich Dad, Poor Dad Book: https://go.magik.ly/ml/15ef9/
When is it the right time to propose in a relationship? It’s one of the most challenging questions to answer in a relationship. Because marriage shouldn’t be something you just jump into…it’s a commitment! In today’s episode, we wanted to walk you through our mindsets and how we approached getting married. To be honest, we weren’t always on the same page during that time…Don’t forget to check out our proposal story later this week on Youtube too!
As you may know from our previous episodes, the end of 2020 was hard for us. We had a lot going on and it really took a toll on our relationship. Going into the new year we wanted to come back stronger together and have been taking steps to do that. One of the major changes we have made is what we wanted to talk to you all about today. It’s a plan to get our marriage back on track. We wanted to walk you through our experience so that if you think it would be helpful in your own relationship, you can do it too! It all starts with five tough questions to answer first…
FamBam…we are back again after a much-needed break. It’s probably safe to say that 2020 was a really tough year for all of us in a variety of ways. For us, the holiday season was especially tough. The stress of life, work, family, and everything else finally caught up to us and we needed a reset. In this episode, we just wanted to catch you up on what has happened to us this past month and what's ahead. By the way, what do you think of the new logo?
In counseling we are learning the importance of getting back to when we were dating to keep things in our relationship feeling fresh and purposeful. But, what we realized is that we never really “dated” before...well, traditionally dated. In this episode, we discuss the things we are doing individually to get to that space and how we plan on doing it together to help our relationship.
In some of our recent episodes, we have talked about our experience with couples therapy. One of the topics we have recently covered is validation and the need to be seen and heard in a relationship. This has been a challenge in our relationship and we asked our friends Gabe and Chad from GabeBabeTV to discuss it with us and they did not disappoint. They came with the facts! Make sure to subscribe to their channel and podcast!
We understand that communication is key when it comes to any relationships, but understanding each other is DIFFICULT. This is because of the difference in expectations from the giver and receiver of the information. We definitely understand this more after going to counseling and it’s something that we are working on everyday as individuals, and hopefully we can bring it to the table when it is time to “perform.”
Even though it is the same person, who you marry will not be the same as the person you were dating. People are always changing and sometimes those changes can be challenging to deal with. Today we discuss those changes in our own relationship and let us tell you...we're going to be having some discussions after this one.
In this episode, we were joined by our friends, Matt and Glory, or as they are also known as, Slice N Rice. They've made some hilarious videos of themselves trying food, traditional clothing, etc., from their spouse's culture, and we discuss how making those videos has been beneficial to their relationship. We also touch on some more difficult conversations about our experiences this year with racial injustice and Matt's story of being accused of a crime he didn't commit. Make sure to go check out their Youtube channel!!
Meeting your partner's parents for the first time has always been considered a big step in a relationship. They are major figures in your partner's life and you want them to approve of you. But as we've grown together, we've realized how important this moment actually was to our relationship, our marriage and eventually our own family.
Who would have thought when this pandemic started that we would still all be stuck together 24/7 for 9 months straight. Being around each other so much has forced us to face some of our toughest issues in our marriage and made us reflect on how we could have been better prepared for this lockdown. We wanted to share some of those tips with you.
Several people have asked us to talk about this subject on the podcast recently. As individuals, should we be trying to stay attractive for our partner whether were dating, married, etc.? To answer, we went back and step further and asked each other, "what exactly does remaining attractive mean?" It's probably fair to say we didn't agree on the subject...
For those of you who have been listening to us for the past few months, you may know that we have recently started going to marriage counseling together. Our therapist has shown us a lot about ourselves that we didn't know before and we're learning that there's some stuff we really need to work on...
In today’s world, everyone has an opinion about everything, but we never thought that would also include our relationship. It wasn’t until we started posting on Youtube that we began receiving negative comments about it. In this episode, we discuss some of those comments and our reactions to them. Some of our responses may surprise you...
We have a wild for you all today, FamBam! Continuing on from our entanglement conversation last week, we decided to talk about a struggle that we dealt with more in our past, jealousy in relationships. This one definitely brought up some old memories for us and some really good stories. We also have some tips and lessons we learned that we hope will help any of you that might be dealing with this as well.
We've always said we were going to keep it real with you guys, but this one was tough. Today we are talking about our own "entanglement" story...how it happened, the issues it created, and what it took for our relationship to recover from it.
Netflix and Chill could mean just hanging out and watching tv or…it could mean something completely different. If your partner isn’t on the same page with you, this could cause some conflict. Good intentions on both sides could end up causing an argument instead. Today we wanted to talk about unnecessary fights and the miscommunication that they usually result from. Like ours this past week…and yes, it occurred from a plan to Netflix and Chill.
Who would have thought in 4 years as a married couple, that we would have 2 kids, buy a house, and completely switch careers. So much has happened since our wedding day and we wanted to talk about those ups and downs and how we've managed to get through them.
I think we speak for many couples going through quarantine right now and thinking, "Is my relationship going to make it through this?" Unlike any other time we've been together, right now we are forced to be together 24/7. These past few months have been a major test for us, but also an opportunity to learn just how strong our marriage is. In this episode, we talk about our struggles through quarantine and some advice on how we are getting through it.
Today we're discussing a personal topic for us, dating outside our race. Being in an interracial relationship, we did date outside our race, but is that actually wrong to do? Does it hurt our race in the long term to do so? We debate these questions and even talk about our own relationship in this episode. Don't forget to subscribe!
For those of you who don't know, we live in the city of Minneapolis. Where George Floyd was murdered was 4 blocks away from our church, so we were in the thick of everything that was going on in the city. The past month we have been lying low and we are now ready to share our experience of everything that happened.
Is it time for us to go to counseling? It is a question that has come up for us in our relationship the past few months. We have recently gone through a challenging time with everything going on in life and realize that we may need to change our perspective on counseling. In today's episode, we are joined by our friends Ben and Monique. Together, they share about their own experiences with counseling and the effects of mental health in a relationship.
In this episode we are featuring a very special couple, Charlotte's sister Ashley and her husband Ahmed! They are the parents of a 3 year old boy and business partners of a popular Instagram account, Dogs of Instagram. Together we talk about a question that many of you have asked us...can a relationship work across cultures or religions? With Ahmed being from Egypt and Ashley being from the United States, they have some great experience and advice that many of you might find helpful!
We are continuing our February series with couples joining us on the podcast! In this episode, we invited our friends, Helen and J.J. on who recently had a baby! We wanted to sit down and talk about the challenges of becoming new parents and more specifically, the issues it can create within your relationship.
This episode is a major milestone for our podcast, our first guests! Today we are joined by our friends, Greta and Tyssul who have been dating for over 6 months now. As couples, we cover a wide range of topics including marriage, dating, and we even talk about the differences in our relationships, specifically in how we approached sex before marriage.
Society tells us that when you are in love and want to be intimate with your partner, the only option is to do so in a physical way. But that's not true. While it is one way, there is more to it. In this episode, we talk about the different ways in which you can be intimate and how each of them can help strengthen your relationship. We even share our own past experiences...
We love our kids. We can't imagine our lives without them. But that doesn't mean there aren't challenges that come with that. Have you heard of the "terrible two" phase? Let us tell you, it's real. With a toddler now, we are learning that they don't always listen and with that comes the difficulty of disciplining them. In this episode, we talk about the ways our parents disciplined us and how we are looking to do things differently in our family.
Relationships are difficult. In every relationship there will be ups and downs and it takes work to get through them. In this episode, we talk about how to reconnect with your partner when you feel like you are drifting apart. We discuss some of our own challenges and the ways in which we got through them together. But...things also got a little tense too.
Happy New Year! To start off this episode, we wanted to fill you guys in on our plans for 2020 and the new things coming to not only this channel, but also our other channels as well. We also wanted to talk about one of our biggest changes for the new year, budgeting. Since we've been married, we haven't always been the best about how we use our money, but that changes this year!
Whether you are dating or married, this question could still apply to you. When relationships get past the honeymoon stage, there is a temptation to think that the "grass is greener" in other relationships you may see in person or on social media, start to question if you are with the right person. In this episode, we talk about if we ever questioned it with each other...
Breakups are hard. They can take a toll on you physically, emotionally, as well as mentally. In this episode, we wanted to talk about our own experiences with breakups and even the lessons that we learned when we broke up as a couple a few times. They are never easy in the moment, but there are some good things that can come as a result of it and we wanted to share those with you.
Relationships bring about challenges on their own, but do you know what can make things harder? Distance. In today's episode, we talk about how we dealt with being in a long distance relationship multiple times while we were dating. While there were definitely struggles as a result of the distance, you might be surprised to learn that we found some positives in the situations as well.
How do you really know when you're in love in a relationship? Shoud you be waiting 2 months, 6 months, or a year before you start saying I love you? These are tough questions to ask yourself when you first start dating. In this episode, we talk about how we felt we knew when we were in love and share our (somewhat embarrassing) stories of the first time we said "I love you" to each other.
This is a question that both of us have been getting a lot and has been a highly requested topic for some time now. In this episode, we talked about being in an interracial relationship and the ways in which it may differ from other relationships. To be honest, it really wasn't until we started on YouTube that we learned the various ways that society views our relationship and the reactions were...interesting.
In any relationship or marriage, there will be a number of issues that you and your partner will have to work through together. For many people, this means getting along with your in-laws. In this episode, we talk about how our in-laws are involved in our own marriage and the different ways we view how extended family dynamics should look...we aren't quire in agreement on this one!
It's a question that many people ask when it comes to dating. Is it months? Years? In this episode, we talk about how long we think couples should date before getting engaged, as well as advice on when it might be a good idea not to get engaged. We even talk about our own engagement "misunderstanding."
While relationships are about growing closer together, there is still a need to have healthy boundaries for one another. There are many different types of boundaries in a relationship and we discuss the different ones that exist in our own relationship, as well as how we established them. As we talk about in this episode, there is a difference between wanting a boundary and needing a boundary.
This episode is a little different from some of our recent ones. We wanted to talk about something that has been in the news for the last few months now, which is Instagram potentially getting rid of the displaying the number of likes on people's posts. As content creators, this could have a major impact on us...not just for our content, but also our livelihood.
As time goes on in a relationship, both people tend to get comfortable with each other and there becomes less of a need to be constantly impressing each other. As a result, your parter may start to "let themselves go" physically, mentally, and even spiritually. We talk about our own experiences with this and how we have worked through them together.
This topic is pretty relevant to our current season in life right now. In this episode we talk about how our kids are messing up our relationship. We love our kids and they give us the most joy in life, but by putting all our energy into them, it can be easy to forget about being there for your partner as well.
In this episode we talk about what we wish we would have known before we got married. When you get married it is an exciting new chapter in life, but it also means learning more about each other than you did before. Some of those things might have been helpful to know before saying our vows...
In this episode we each tell our side of how we knew they were "the one" for us. For some couples, it can be one moment and for others it's more of a process. We discuss our relationship story and give our advice for how others may know if they found the one.
We're back! We have been gone for a bit, but for good reason...we had our baby! In this episode we talk about a highly requested topic, can men and women in a committed relationship, still have friends of the opposite sex? It's easy for jealousy to get in the way!
This is the third episode of our mini series on gender norms, and the "roles" that men and women play in relationships according to our society and culture. In this episode, we talk about expectations in the home. In our culture, the stereotypical roles are the men go to work and the women stay at home to look after the children. But who says we can't share these roles?
This is the second episode of our mini series on gender norms, and the "roles" that men and women play in relationships according to our society and culture. In this episode, we talk about finances. The societal expectation is that men always pay for dates and should be the "breadwinner" of the family, but is that right?
This is the first episode of our mini series on gender norms, and the "roles" that men and women play in relationships according to our society and culture. In this episode, we talk about family leadership. Our society is becoming more open to strong women, but in a relationship, is there a limit to how strong they should be?
In this episode, we welcome our first guest to the podcast, our friend Richelle, from Australia. Together, we discuss an argument that we had recently in front of Richelle and the emotional responses that resulted because of it.
This is the third episode of our first mini series on arguing, and the unhealthy and healthy ways we've deal with disagreements in our relationship. In this episodes, we talk all about having healthy conversations with your partner. Everyone wants to be hear, but there's a right way and a wrong way to do that.
This is the second episode of our first mini series on arguing, and the unhealthy and healthy ways we've dealt with disagreements in our relationship. In this episode, we talk all about giving your partner space. Learning to give your partner space and time is not as easy as it may seem.
This is the first episode of our first mini series on arguing, and the unhealthy and healthy ways we've dealt with disagreements in our relationship. In this episode, we talk all about the attack. We've all been there...hurting your partner's feelings on purpose.
We all come with baggage we’re carrying from the past. Some of the baggage that can hurt our partners the most is from past relationships. Charlotte and I discuss how we worked through accepting each other’s pasts, and finding healing and peace to move through the past that found its way into our present.
When I, (Ced), used to get mad at Charlotte in our younger days, I would post on social media about how I was feeling with emojis and it would piss Charlotte off. I learned through the years to find healthier outlets to let out steam when I’m frustrated. We dive deeper into talking about our relationships beyond social media with friends and family, and contemplate if saying too much to particular parties helps or hurts your relationship.
This is something that me and Charlotte struggle with a lot. I,(Ced), am a very straight forward, face-value kind of guy. Charlotte isn’t ... she likes to ask questions and drop subtle hints if she wants something. We discuss if reading between the lines is healthy for relationships.