At 87 years old, Pat Seftel has a thought to share on almost everything.
On Tinder: “If you want to meet someone for a real relationship, this is not the way to do it.”
On artificial intelligence: “This could get out of hand.”
On climate change: “This is destroying our planet.”
For more than 10 years, Ms. Seftel has shared these and other opinions on “CBS Sunday Morning,” appearing in semi-regular segments that have become popular with viewers, who eagerly await her life advice and point of view. seasoned view of the modern world.
In the segments, Ms. Seftel usually appears from her home in Sarasota, Fla., in conversation via FaceTime with her son, Josh Seftel, a documentary filmmaker who lives in Brooklyn. The two catch up briefly, then he asks a question, such as what she thought about quarantinethat I asked at the height of the pandemic.
“After talking to my family, I hang up and I’m all alone,” she said in the May 31, 2020 footage. “It’s very hard.”
The invitations, Mr. Seftel said in a recent interview, are usually about current events or about their own lives, but he never tells his mother in advance what he will ask.
“I can’t prepare,” she said during a FaceTime interview. “Before, I was quite nervous.”
The CBS segments come from FaceTime conversations the two began having shortly after the death of Ms. Seftel’s husband of 50 years, Dr. Lee Seftel, an obstetrician-gynecologist, in 2009. Mr. Seftel and his two sisters decided to buy their mother an iPad. in order to better stay in contact with her.
“I enjoyed the conversations,” Mr. Seftel said. “I think she was too. Then one day I was just experimenting and recorded it and put something together.
Rand Morrison, the executive producer of “CBS Sunday Morning,” said in an interview that the Seftels segments have been audience favorites in recent years.
“Josh and his mother became sort of a franchise for the show,” he said. “It’s very satisfying to put them on television.”
These days, Ms. Seftel, a former nurse who became a social worker before retiring, said she experienced an unlikely version of fame because of the videos. She is often recognized around town, in grocery stores and parking lots, she said, and some viewers have sent her letters and gifts.
“It kind of makes my day when someone recognizes me,” she said. “I’m just a regular person. “I’m not a movie star.”
Viewers may be attracted to Ms. Seftel’s videos for several reasons: her frankness, her calm or her wise advice. For Jane Pauley, host of “CBS Sunday Morning,” it is Ms. Seftel’s awareness and perspective that are “unique and fresh.”
“There’s no stridency,” Ms. Pauley said in an interview. “She takes a gentle view of her opinions, without holding back.”
For others, it might be a connection to Ms. Seftel as a mother figure. A viewer named Connie likely spoke for many when she sent Ms. Seftel a letter saying, “I think you are “the mom” to many people around the world.
Viewers may also be moved by his unwavering positivity, even amidst life’s challenges. After a quadruple bypass in 2022, Ms Seftel detailed her recovery in a video and shared her gratitude for being able to do everyday things, like walk again, put on makeup for the first time since surgery, and use motorized carts in grocery stores.
The experience, Ms. Seftel said, taught her to “appreciate everything.”
“Stop taking everything for granted,” she said. “Think positively about everything you experience. »
Ms Seftel said she believes she learned to be positive in the face of difficulties from a young age, after her father died when she was 11.
“We were strapped for money for many years,” she said, adding that those years taught her how to help others later in life. “I know what it’s like to not have things.”
Mr. Seftel said that when he was a child, he and his sisters were used to having people around the house their mother had taken in, including an alcoholic priest and an unhoused babysitter.
“We always had people living with us in our house, sort of strangers, or people who kind of looked like lost souls,” he said. “People have always been drawn to her, to her strength, to her wisdom, even when she was much younger, and it’s a part of our lives.”
Ms. Seftel said that at the time, she just saw people in trouble, people she could help.
“Maybe it’s because I’m like that,” she said.
By now, Mr. Seftel and his mother have collected enough footage from several years of their conversations to make a feature-length documentary. But for now, Mr. Seftel and his mother have no plans to stop talking or change their routine. And Ms. Seftel has no plans to stop sharing her opinions anytime soon.
“I learned a long time ago that people don’t always want your opinion,” she said. “But somehow I end up giving it away.”
