Producers’ Pick | Peggy Rowe: Mike Rowe hated getting dirty as a child!

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This is the Brian Kilmeade Show. She came late and she said, oh I'm so sorry. She said I was vacuuming and I looked at the clock and I realized how late I was. So I jumped right in the shower and then she said, fortunately I vacuum in the nude. And we were all just. And I said, what? You have some clothes on. She said, no, no.

I always take shower right after because I get so hot. And I said, what? You were home alone, right? She said, no, no, Dan was in the next room.

And I never forgot that. I thought, wow, putting herself right out there. And then she said, and sometimes he joins me in the shower. That is Peggy Rowe, the author of a brand new book, Vacuuming in the Nude. You got that talk.

That's why they're talking like that and other ways to get attention. Her special, America's Grandmother, about her new book airs this Sunday, the 21st at 10 o'clock on Fox News Channel at 11. And FBN drops on Fox Nation and on FBN, I should say, and on Fox Nation will be available too on August 21st.

You go to that app, you can click on it, watch it anytime without the commercials. And guess who's in studio? If you're smart enough to watch Fox Nation now, Peggy Rowe, mother of micro. But you should say you should be the son of Peggy. Because she's already a best-selling author at 80 years old. What was that like, Peggy, to become a bestseller at 80? Oh, it was exhilarating.

It really was. I've been wanting to have a book my entire life. You've been writing every day for years? For years. And I've published in magazines and newspapers. But I've always wanted a book.

And it didn't happen until I was 80. And golly, it really has been exciting. Right. It's hard in some ways. It requires a lot of energy to go out and do book events and be on television, etc. But you know, there are advantages.

I've never been part of the Me Too movement. Sexual harassment really hasn't been a problem. It has not, thank goodness.

I mean, that's looking at the glass half full. Yet. Right. So Mike, how great has it been you to see your mom become a bestseller? Because you knew her ability, talent and dedication.

Yeah. I mean, it's the greatest gift. A lot of great things happened to me.

Dirty Jobs was certainly a game changer. And I go down the list. But watching, for as long as I remember, my mom gets up, she grabs her yellow legal pad and she goes out into the world with a number two pencil and she starts interviewing people. Strangers.

A cop on horseback. She writes a story, you know, and the next day it's stuck to the refrigerator with a magnet and my dad takes it down and walks around the neighborhood reading it to people. You know, this is how they live 60 years to 60 years. She wrote with with some encouragement. Right. There's a there's an article in a horse magazine.

There's one in the local paper. But to see her finally become a New York Times bestselling author at 80. Yeah. Personally, it was gratifying. But to but to see the reaction in other people who aren't writers, but who are simply doing what we were talking about before, trying to find the discipline that Hemingway had, trying to find a passion in their life.

My mom proved it's it's really never too late. So what do people tell you when they come up to you? What do they ask you? What do they what do they remark about?

Well, their first question is, what does it feel like, you know, to be an overnight success at 80? And I want to say, I beg your pardon. I've been writing for years.

I am not an overnight success. And so often people will say, you know, I think I have a book in me. I think I'm going to start writing.

And I remind them that they have to do their homework. You take writing courses, you go to writing conferences, you join critique groups, and you work at it. But most of all, you write every day. That's so important. And do you type or write? I use my computer, my word processor.

You made the adjustment? Indeed. And you know, I think about people like Irma Bombeck, who lived years ago. She used a typewriter. And white out.

And white out. And all the times I delete, I'm so blessed to have a computer, especially because I have arthritis. And I think I couldn't use a typewriter.

Right. But now you can hire someone to type for you. You could just pace around the house and say, take this down. I could do that while I'm vacuuming. Yes, you could.

Absolutely. There's an image. So where did the title come from, Mike?

Did you help? Well, I read her draft. And buried in one of the stories was this reference to her friend who vacuums in the nude.

You'll hear the whole story on the special this Sunday. But I'm like, Mom, you know, as visuals go, you know, that's a title. That's a title that people are going to, it begs a question.

And the question, of course, is, do you vacuum in the nude, Mrs. Rowe? Not really. Not yet. That's a yes or no answer. But I have a social media presence. I have hundreds of thousands of followers. And they comment regularly. And one woman actually said to me, Oh, Peggy, I think maybe you're starting a trend.

I'm going to try that. That was not my intention, really. But you know, you can't help it. If America feels more comfortable that way, just to get Americans off the couch, we can't be judging.

No. And look, here's the part of the title that I think is actually more important. It's the it's the little print that says and other ways to get attention. Because if there's a metaphor for these times, that's it. Right.

TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, that I mean, influencers, everybody everywhere is trying to get somebody's attention. And my mom's from a different age. She's from a different time. And and so too, are her friends. And the idea that you can get the attention of your significant other just by pushing a vacuum through the living room and the all together. I mean, that's both that's a weird mix of sweet and dirty, but I kind of like it.

And it would be very off-putting at my age. Right. Especially, yeah. Peggy, let me ask you something about Mike. Was he somebody that liked to get dirty? Was he someone like a grease monkey? Oh, Brian, as a child, I worried about him. He had such an aversion to dirt.

He would walk around mud puddles. He wouldn't touch Play-Doh because it was icky. Play-Doh is icky? Icky. And listen, one day we went to her friends and she was having a finger painting session and Mike wouldn't even come in the room. He didn't want any part of finger painting. Is this true, Mike?

It's true. I worried about him. I was a different I was a different person. I mean, the doorbell would ring. I like the idea of meeting people was horrifying. So shy.

He would dive under the kitchen table when the doorbell rang or run into the hall closet. And have you figured that out? Why? Yeah, I was I was painfully shy. I had a weird stammer.

I was just... You had stuttered? Yeah. Yeah. I was a different person growing up, partly because I was traumatized by the sight of my naked mother cleaning the house. Which is, yeah, it's a full circle.

It's horrifying. But no, no. I decided in high school, literally, with the help of a really gifted teacher, to be somebody else.

You know? And literally, I changed everything. I changed the way I thought about dirt, work. I changed the way I thought about people, about talking, about everything.

I hit the reset button. And what is the real you? No one knows. Hey, what's the real hit? Is this the real Mike? This is the real Mike.

It absolutely is. And, you know, the other day we were doing an interview on the sidewalk, a spontaneous interview. And a man walked by and saw that it was Mike did a double take. And he just yelled, I love you, Mike Rowe.

And he went on about his way, bumped into somebody. What's that like for you as his mom? I feel very proud that Mike is so gracious. People feel safe with Mike. They know that he's going to be polite to them. He's not going to brush them off.

But he's also not really nice to me that much. But still, vacuum in the nude and other ways to get attention. It's out. Go buy it. Watch Sunday. From the Fox News Podcast Network, subscribe and listen to the Trey Gowdy podcast. Former federal prosecutor and four term U.S. Congressman from South Carolina brings you a one of a kind podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to Fox News Podcasts dot com.