Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - 'A Different World' Reboot, Nolan Wells Updates, and Nithya Raman Joins the Show

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

It's a guest fest this week on Higher Learning!! Leading off the week, L.A. mayoral candidate Nithya Raman joins us, just a few weeks away from the biggest election of her life. But first, Van and Rachel discuss their trip to Sweden and the new cast of 'A Different World.' Plus, they break down what a Mississippi grand jury had to say about the death of Nolan Wells, seven men in a Cornell University fraternity being sued in a sexual abuse case, and Lori Harvey having some detractors when it comes to her business acumen and privilege. (00:00) Welcome to Higher Learning (3:32) 'A Different World' reboot (15:55) Sweden Recap (24:16) Grand jury finds no evidence of crime in Nolan Wells's death (37:05) Cornell University under fire amid sexual abuse lawsuit (48:04) Lori Harvey sparks debate over Create & Cultivate Festival appearance (1:03:01) Nithya Raman joins the show Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Marco Escalante and Jade Whaley Social Producer: Bernard Moore Video Supervision: Chris Thomas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo-Yo Thought Warriors. What is up? How I Learning is on. It's I Van Lathen Jr. It's me, Rachel and Lenzy. When did you put those glasses on? This is the second, they go. They're clear, so maybe you ain't seen them.

See what I'm saying? They got glasses. I'm like, boom, in this motherfucker, nigga. The fuck. Why don't you don't like them? Not really. Yeah, you know, they're an acquired taste, because these are the clear ones.

Yeah, I don't think clear looks good on us. What you mean? Like brown skin. Like the all clear glasses, the clear frames, I don't think that they like enhance your beauty. I feel like for me, I should be able to do what I want. You can. You absolutely can.

I think that if the shoe weren't on the other foot and I was like, hey, yo, that don't look good on you, that I would get drug in the comments and all over the place. But because of the difference in the, oh, ah, you can say that to me. You can look at me and be like, you don't look good today. You let me attract that. I didn't say you didn't look good today. You look that.

Everybody looked between, if I looked at you, so I've noticed stuff about you before I got to be honest with the freckles, I said, oh, she's got freckles. I didn't notice it. And you might not like them. That's fine. It's not about not liking them. Even if I didn't like them, I'm not going to be like, hey, I don't think the freckles look good on you.

You asked me. I did say that the freckles were a freckle appropriation. But did you? But you asked me, you said you don't like them. So I have to be honest with you. This is the gas lighting. I wasn't going to say anything. This is the gaslighting.

The way you looked, like, let's say you walked in and you had a new wig on, and I went, oh. I'm not wearing a wig today, though. Well, whatever. Oh, that's not a wig? No, this is a, I have extensions. Okay. Okay, cool. Well, it looks great, by the way.

But let's say you walked in and you had a new wig on. And I was like, oh. You don't like it? Yeah, that's what people are going to say. But that's okay, because I don't even know if I like this because I haven't even looked at it. I keep losing, because I have two different sets of readers. I have readers that are for the computer and then readers that are for books.

Readers. Yeah, different readers. But these are blue light glasses. It makes it sound so much older than... But I spend a lot of time on the computer doing different stuff, so, you know. But look, you guys can make up your own decision whether or not you like it or not. Maybe Rachel has now poisoned the well.

Thank you, Jade, about whether or not you guys like it. So what we'll continue to do on the podcast is in our search for brutal equality. We'll see one day I'll randomly comment on Rachel's appearance. That's fine. You have my forehead. Are you kidding me?

Oh, come on now. Let's be real. Have I ever looked at you and said the forehead looks completely mountainous today? I haven't. Maybe not those words, but come on, then. It's the beginning. But here's a deal, though. Your forehead looks good.

But I've never looked at you like, I don't like the way that looks on you. And if I did, ooh, ooh, ah, ooh, ah, but that's okay. That's okay. Because, you know what? Let me say something. There are differences. There are differences. We should embrace the power matrix that exists between men and women.

A woman saying that to a man is much different than a man saying that to a woman. You know we should bring back, we should maybe do this once a month. Remember when we did the, you like, we complimented each other, but it was a little bit of a backhand compliment. But it was, maybe we should just bring that back once a month. I feel like you can get your shit off if you need to. Yeah, just get your shit off. Like, you know, coming on my glasses out of nowhere.

I don't like the way it looks. It's fine. Look, I'll tell you this. I'm glad that we started here because I want a free woman. From? Having to be decent. And I want to use one person to do this. What's his name again?

Cornell Young the Fourth. Cornell Young the Fourth. Do you know who this is? No. So a different world debuted on Netflix. And people have been watching the different world. The Adventures of Hillman University continue. All right, everybody's into it.

And there is a young man named Cornel Young the Fourth. Cornel Young the fourth is his name. And he has captivated the hearts of women, black ladies, across the country. He is the new latest one. He is the new one of, oh, my God, right? But I've seen a lot of the older sisters be into him, right? How old is he? He's 26.

Okay. Exactly. I want you remember that energy. I want that energy to be remembered. Because when the next 25, 24-year-old hot thing starts coming through the situation, throwing ass and looking great, and the guys look at her and go, damn she's fine, nobody wants to hear creepy old man grow up. It's too much. All of that. I want equality in thirst because I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with the sisters thirsting over this young brother.

sure sure you were going to prom when he was born so what so what you had just got your NBA when he was in the third or fourth grade so what that's okay I remember this reminds me of something else that happened in a different world momo I will never get this do you remember Gary Dorda well I was going to say he's the Gary he's Gary of the show my grandmama my mama mama walked into the room as Gary was talking to Jada Pinkett and went what What? Because he had the dreads and the whole nine

and the eyes. It's the same shit. It's the same energies. I haven't seen the new series yet, but is he supposed to be like, who is he in the show? He's the main lead. Oh, he's the main lead.

Okay, Gary wasn't the main lead. Gary wasn't the main lead, but Gary, shout to Gary, by the way. That's a with it, brother. I love Gary. I saw him like walking on the street the other day. Gary the man. And I was like,

it's Gary. It's Gary. It's Gary, the man. See, look. After all of these, it's Gary, a man, man, man. Shout out to Gary. But I'm saying, ladies, like, don't feel, let yourself feel.

He looks like, oh, boy. Who? Oh. What is his name? Who? Simba. Yeah. Which one is Simba? What's the British guy's name?

What is his name? Aaron Pierre? Thank you. Oh. He looks like Eric Pierre with dreads. Hey, a light-skinned guys fighting back? Is there an insurgency that's happening? You'd have to ask them.

I don't know. A light-skinned guy's making a comeback. But, you know, I don't know if you would really consider this niggas. This niggas, I guess he would be considered light-skinned. No, he's considered light-skinned. But, like, 26, they're like, becomes an age where it's like, it all kind of blends in together. 26 is old enough. Yeah, of course it is.

If he was 22, then I'd be like, no. No. Even at 22, though. Like, even at. It wouldn't be for me. Well, I'm saying is, it's not about the situation of Dayton. It's just about the situation of, look, Your sister, you know what I'm saying?

You just left the AKA prayer breakfast at CBC. You're hanging out with your line sisters. Y'all crossed in 2000, 2001. That's cool. You don't have to cut yourself off from the part of you that looks at him and goes, that's crazy. You don't. You don't have to do that to be decent in this patriarchal male-dominated,

misogynist world. You can be as disgusting as us. Women. you can be as nasty as us. That's totally okay. I encourage you. Don't have to be nasty. You could just be like,

that is a very attractive man. Yeah, you could do that, but you also go say, that young man makes my loins throb. And who talks like that? That young man likes a fire inside of me. That's better. That young man,

I've seen that young man light a fire inside of me. I ain't seen nothing like that since your father. That's what women always say. No, what age are we imitating here? That's what they say. A age group talks like that. I haven't seen anything like that. It's the first time I've seen your father.

You're so dramatic. It was at the CYO dance. In 1975, you ain't never seen nothing like that. Nobody talks like that. That's how they talk. That's how we talk. Have you been around older women as they talk about younger men? Yes, I'm saying older. Yes, I'm saying with age group.

That's why I'm laughing at you. But look, that's not what I'm saying. But, I'm saying, man, Cornell, it's your time, young brother. Except every DM. don't respond to everyone, but look at them and look at the women that you've always looked up to that's in your DMs now. I already know some usual suspects that's going to give this young man around. You know what I'm saying? And I'm saying, brother, embrace it.

Embrace it. Watch yourself, but embrace it. You know what I'm saying? So it's great. But I saw a lot of people debating whether or not this was okay. Ladies, it is okay. I really don't see this as a problem. It's also okay.

for men as well. Okay. All right, it's okay for men. It's okay. Now, if it ends in a teen, you're done. I don't give a fuck. If it's 18 or 19, you don't want to be like R. Kelly talking to Trey. I just got to be able to drink, drinking age. So anything above 21 is what you're saying.

Because the second ago, you said 22, I've made you go down on the age. Yeah, yeah. I will accept anything over drinking. Look at that. Even like 20 sounds too young. You know what that's called? That's called a negotiation. We have parlay in judges chambers. At first, you went in there with your client and you were Like, yo, I think 22.

We had a parlay with the judge. We had in the judge's chambers. And now we got to age. Anything over drinking age. It's okay for you to drink. You can thirst after drinking age. For me, there is a first. Can you just like acknowledge the genius?

Nice. Nice. Please, you can thirst after drinking age. I, you could thirst, but I would not talk to a 21 year old. That is not for me. I don't know, nigga. I don't believe you. I'm going to be honest with you.

I think if Cornell. No, he's too pretty for me. He is a very attractive man. He's too pretty. He's a very attractive man. You know, I saw this. But it's too pretty for me. I saw this video and it was this white guy saying that like,

really pretty women don't like super pretty guys. They like guys that have more personality or things going for them, stuff like that. I think that's largely bullshit, but it was an interesting take. Oh, no. If you have a personality, if you're funny, that goes a long way. Rich and funny go a long way. Rich. With women.

Rich. Yeah, like, women will look past certain things. Like, don't care as much if there's power, there's money, or if you're funny and charming. Right, I think all of those things, yeah, I don't know, I'm not going to speak for them. I'm saying, like, in this situation, ladies, just feel free. Feel free. Young man, it's your time. By the way, did y'all watch a different world?

I haven't watched it yet. Yeah, and watch it. Did you watch it? The original? No. No, the new one. Oh, yeah. What did you think?

What'd you think of it? Let's keep it real. I thought it was okay. I feel like I appreciate the energy, the nostalgia energy it brought. Like, it brought back the same kind of energy that the original had. But the plots were too rushed. The storyline was rushed. I feel like they could have definitely.

The whole show is out? The whole season. Oh, that's right. It's Netflix. Yeah. So you mean to tell me the whole season is a dove for you. You hate it. I just feel like they could have taken their time a little bit more on some of the

storylines. And they could have maybe flushed out some storylines better than they did. Can we have a quick conversation? This is not a topic in the show. Just a quick conversation. I won't let everybody notice. So you have a different world. You also have the show with Tommy Davidson, that's the Martin spinoff.

that was the Varnell Hill Show. So these are shows that are connected to legacy properties in black culture. Okay. So I want to let people know something. Supporting something doesn't mean that you have to like it.

Right? You're supporting a different world or the Varnell Hill show by watching the show and indulging into it. Like you don't have to like a recipe that's not cooked correctly. But what you do, what I would say, though,

the way that you can support something that maybe in the first season of it wasn't to your liking, if you want to culturally support it and see it be around, is give them the opportunity to figure their story out. Absolutely.

The only thing I really ever ask for black properties, be that black restaurants, black businesses or whatever, is to have some patience with what it is that's going on. Now, do you owe that to, like, Netflix or Paramount or, like,

whatever, whatever? maybe not, but culturally, give a little bit of time to kind of get things figured out. This is the first season of the show. Maybe the show comes back. And also remember that there are other shows out there right now that might not be connected to legacy stuff that are phenomenal. They are from Detroit.

Great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, great show. So there's a whole bunch of things that maybe got off to a little bit faster of a start or whatever. But I think a lot of people go back and forth about whether or not. they can like actively not like something that's of the culture. And you don't have to like it all. You don't.

I think legacy is hard too because it's inevitable that if you're going to compare this version to the original version. And the original version obviously has multiple seasons. I don't know if you did that when you watched it. I need to watch it. These are the kids of the original, right? Yeah, pretty much. So, I mean, this is only one season to Van's point,

but I think it's hard to not compare this. I mean, I did it right now. I was like, oh, he's the Gary. You know what I mean? So when I watched the Varnel Hill show, I was expecting almost the version of Varnel Hill that I saw on Martin to be this connected to the show. And it's a total, I mean, Varnel's there, but the show is totally different. So I think it's like an uphill battle sometimes with the legacy. Like it's a pro in the sense that it's attached to something that we all loved and there's the nostalgia.

But it's a con in the sense that there's going to be this comparison to it. So it's an uphill battle of trying to be just as good. good, if not better. The interesting thing about a different world as compared to this show is that a different world didn't find itself in its first season. The first season of... You know, it's funny? I loved the first seasons.

I like the first season. I like the whole thing. The first season of a different world features Denise's character and Marissa Tomei. Yeah. Right? So that show, I'm not saying that the first season of a different world was bad. I'm saying that that show didn't become what it was until substance. subsequent seasons.

Like until Denise was gone, Marissa Tomey was out, and then they expanded on the rest of the characters at Hillman. They got deeper and deeper into the social commentary of the show. Duane's character grew, Whitley's character grew, everybody else filled in the

sort of picture or portrait of what it was like to live at Hillman. So that show, even if you liked the first season, which the first season is completely enjoyable, but that show found itself in subsequent seasons and maybe this show will too. Yeah, I mean, if you watch the beginning of different world

if it was very much so still connected to the Cosby show. Those first those that does Denise in the second season? I can't even remember. I think it's one season she was out. But it was very connected to it. I mean, Bill Cosby's in it Rudy's in it and then I think what made it great was

then it detached from it and it just became its own standalone show. Then the characters had death. Like Whitley in season one is not the Whitley that you can up with. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I am going to watch this. I just haven't gotten around to me. Got around watching it. Sweden, you want to do a Sweden recap real quick? Sweden. You went to Sweden. Well, I mean, you fell in love with Sweden. Love Sweden. You claim you're getting an apartment there. I get an apartment in Sweden. What was it that you love so much? It was

beautiful. It's funny. And I can't remember the guy who actually told me this, but I was aware of this, but he readjusted me in real time. We're at the Spotify thing, talking to a bunch of people. shout out to Spotify, bringing us out there and all that stuff. So I joke. I'm like, oh, man, Sweden is enough to turn you to a Republican. Look at this. No crime by all. It's a joke.

Right? Whatever. It's a joke. It's a joke. It's a joke. It's a joke. But actually, of course, it's the opposite. Sweden and these Nordic countries are the examples of what a society can be if there is an established social safety net.

Social democracy at work in those countries. and what it means to put the basic tenets of society ahead of capitalistic endeavor. Now, I'll say this. Obviously, there are tremendous differences between the cultural makeup of people in Sweden and here. But that only enhances kind of what I like I'm talking about.

I'm not about to look at anybody else and be like, oh, that's the utopia that I'm talking about, because some of these things can be overstated and stuff like that. But like, there are ways in societies where things are complex and there are a lot, different groups of people, you know, it's not as homogenous as it would be in one of these Scandinavian places, there are ways to still take care of people if you believe that everyone is the same and everyone has the same basic needs and basic rights, right? And if you believe that,

whether or not they're black or Latino or queer, then you can establish societies that maybe don't get you to a place where the 7-Elevens are pristine and have fresh baked goods inside of them, which was fucking nuts. But definitely where there isn't rampant street homelessness and your health care system isn't cratering and you don't have undercapitalization of people in American cities and rural areas all around the country. If you don't live in a society where there's an understanding that others must lose so that some have private planes, the standard can be higher and different.

Now, I haven't in any way delved deeply. I was going to ask you. Into this situation beyond my understanding of the Nordic system before this, social democracy before this. But what I do know is that part of the American way is not giving a fuck how your neighbor is doing. That's built into it. And all the criticisms of the system from my point of view are critical. criticizing exactly that. Your society is better if you care how your neighbor is doing.

I agree. Like your society is better. It's better if you care about how the most unfortunate people in your society are living, what they have access to. So I just think that, you know, part of American individualism teaches us that, hey, we're all in a race, and the best people will win that race and the people that fall by the wayside or the people that couldn't handle

the jungle of American competition and capitalism. And I just think at the end of the day, there's always been a cost for that, whether that cost was the Native Americans who were genocided to make this country, or the black people who were enslaved and devalued to make this country, or moving forward, the black people now,

the immigrants now, who are the source of all America's prodigious problems when as position by the right. Just think, you know, maybe we can get past that. But more than anything, I enjoy my time in the 7-Eleven in Sweden. I enjoy my time inside there. You really do.

I walked down the street and I saw people having hot dogs. They were having hot dogs. From 7-Eleven. And I was like, yo, man, what a hot dog man at? I was thinking, I'll try the hot dog in Sweden. I look up and I see a bunch of people dressed up in like all kinds of, and they're standing there waiting for hot dogs inside the 7-Eleven.

I'm like, yo, y'all nuts? Do y'all not know the... They had salad bars. They're going crazy. Like fresh salad bars in the 7-Eleven. They're going crazy. I mean, Jay, you're fucking with it. I was fucking with it.

They got the candy, the Swedish candy on the side. They gave us some of the Swedish candy. They had it in the room. Did you eat some of it? It's called bulbs. They said that to me. I didn't see that. Mine didn't have that.

What did you have in your... Nothing. What did they have in your welcome tray? I don't think anything. If they did, I didn't see it. You didn't have a welcome tray? I had a card But the card was surrounded by different goods

Nope Damn Now there's two ways to look at this There's two ways to look at this I'm sitting out an email The way Rachel's going to look at this Is they didn't give a fuck about this I'm gonna tell you the way I look at it

They left me a fat nigga plate They left me a fat nigga plate Like that See Rachel the way Rachel's gonna look at that is Damn They didn't come within thing for me in Sweden. They left a plate for me. That bitch had caramels

in it. It had chips. They left me a plate that had this... And it's so funny. Somebody said to me, did you get your Swedish candy? And I was like, no. But honestly, I wouldn't have eaten any of that. I struggle when I travel overseas with eating because I'm so picky. I eat the same thing

every day. And it was really just breakfast. You didn't try the traditional plate. What's a traditional plate? The meatball traditional plate with no meatballs. With no meatballs. meatballs. Then what is it? If it's a meatball plate.

It would be like potatoes. There's like a like a cranberry type of like jam thing. That's so good. I had every day I had croissant, pineapple, sliced turkey, and bacon, of course. The bacon was good. Did you get it well done? I got the bacon well done. The bacon was buzzing.

I tried the the scrambled eggs. and it was basically like a scrambled egg soup. Yeah, I know that they don't do stuff as well done. No, I knew. I stick to exactly what it is. I like, we had like a five-course meal. That five-course meal was busing. They started off with some caviar.

I didn't even know I like that shit. And then you got expensive taste, you know what I'm saying? Wait, you never had caviar until then? I don't really fuck with stuff like that. I'm surprised that you eat caviar. You're so weird. It's like, a nigga won't eat like mashed potatoes. It's the texture.

But like caviar. It's like... Because you put the caviar on something that's like a cracker or bread or a chip. We know you like things on a cracker. I'm sorry. That wasn't... See what I'm saying? See?

See? But this, it balances off the glasses. It balances off the glasses. I take full responsibility. No, no, no. It balances off the glass set because you do, you get those in. I do. It's fine.

And that's not right. I'll be better. Oh, no, no. It's our brother's sister. No. Oh, I'm used to it. No, you don't like it. And I'm taking full responsibility.

You know what I do? It's not that I don't like it. I just want, I don't, I want them to know I'm, I'm down for them. Who? Niggas. Yeah, they know that. And they don't. They do know.

They know. And that's why jokes like that cannot be tolerated. They don't know. That was my last one until the next podcast. Okay. I was like, please don't make promises. You can't keep. But that little caviar that they had, it was good.

Yeah, it's great. I love it because it's on top of something like I just can't take soft, mushy textures. I see. That makes sense. Because I'm not just eating caviar, just like out the can. But what did they have? It was caviar, but it was on top of something else. This is the most bougie. Whatever.

Like, we had a con. We had a dinner with the people. We had a good time. We had a good time with dinner. It was dinner that you'd be at, you talk to someone and be like, hey, what are you doing? They'll be like, I'm the global head of sales for Heineken. Like, God damn. And a person across you, it'd be like, I got a free Chipotle card.

Oh, yeah, we did. I was giving a Chipotle card for free foods. We did. Ha ha. Then I had to go to Baltimore. Okay. That's, pleasant trees are done. On the other side of his break,

we'll get into some things that aren't so fun too tough. This episode is brought to by Uber Eats. You can get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Sorry, you can't get a beach delivered, but you can get a peach. A canoe, no. Shampoo, yes.

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Order a minimum of $30, required, valid on grocery, convenience, retail, specialty foods, or flower delivery orders only. Terms and conditions apply. Talk about. Yeah. All right. Nolan Wells' family has released information surrounding this young man's death. Jait?

A Mississippi grand jury found insufficient evidence of a crime and declined to bring charges in Nolan Wells' death, saying the circumstances were consistent with drowning. However, Wells' family and attorney Ben Crump are challenging the drowning. theory arguing that an undetermined cause of death combined with unexplained injuries leave significant unanswered questions about what happened on Horn Island. What are we to make of the entire way that the death of this young man has been handled by authorities in Mississippi? I mean, the district attorney came out and I'm paraphrasing, but basically was like there

was no evidence. It's like what she had to get off, that race was. involved. Like, it is, there's been nothing to show that race was involved in what happened in Nolan Wells. When you start off talking like that, to me, a lot of this investigation, she also called it exhaustive. And so I think it was Ben Crump who said, were you all exhausted by the conversation and everything that was going on in the public involvement? Or was it, was the information and all the evidence exhaustive? It felt like there was this determination to prove that race wasn't involved, that the history and present a day of a narrative that surrounds Mississippi does not, is not what was a factor in this death. That's like one of the biggest

takeaways to me. They seemed so motivated to prove or try to prove that race was not a factor in all of this, more than investigating and weighing out the evidence with everything else. Because some of the stuff like you know grand jury proceedings defense is not involved it's all the prosecutor and the witnesses that testify so it's like the prosecution is putting this case in front of this grand jury right i think it was 23 people um so you i mean you know what was presented in front of them but you don't know how it was done like we don't we're not privy to all of that and when i hear them say oh we just want to make you know race was not motivated or it was not there was no evidence that race was involved. It's like, well, what was your focus as you were presenting it to the jury?

When you hear some of this, I mean, grand jury, when you hear some of the stuff that's coming out, it's like, how were you able to determine that it was a drowning when both autopsy reports said that they couldn't determine what the cause of death was? So how could y'all do that? You're not medically trained. You have no background in that, but you can do something that the experts can't do. That doesn't make sense to me. And so the last thing I'll say about this, to conclude when you're like what to make of all this, I keep going back to the family. We're frustrated,

and we didn't even know Nolan Wells. I cannot imagine how family, friends, community, all the people connected to him feel about the results with this, feel that they've hit a wall, feel very frustrated, exhausted, upset, all of that about just trying to find out what happened to this child. You know, it's interesting about what you're saying is that this is an issue or more to the point, an annoyance, really a crime that you feel sometimes, or feeling that you feel sometimes dealing with white people, white institutions in the regular world. You sometimes meet people, talk to people, you fuck with people.

and out of their mouths, they will tell you in no uncertain terms, just how not racist they are. They will say, I'm not racist. I love everyone. I'm not racist. Race doesn't matter. I'm not racist. I'm not this.

I'm not that. When really the only thing that they would have to do to prove that they are not racist is to treat you and your situation like they would treat anything that is around them. And so when I see authorities in Mississippi hung up on proving that there is no structural or systematic racism in their assessment of this case or in the legal system in Mississippi, I think what a ridiculous aim to even have. Mississippi, Louisiana, these parts of the South, everywhere in America, you cannot exonerate yourself from your history, your past. Or maybe you could. Maybe you could exonerate yourself. Maybe you could move forward by considering everything that a community is asking you to consider.

By being so laser focused on bringing justice to the family and the community that is hurting behind. and death of this young man, that you're not concerned with making sure we know you're not racist. To everybody out there in the world, that's white. We don't care what's in your heart. Let me not say we. I don't care what's in your heart. What I care is the rights and the liberty that I am entitled to, not by any country,

that I am entitled to by the existence of the universe in God. My creator imbued me with the right to dignity, to fairness, and to living as an equal on this planet. That is what I believe. I believe that beyond that, if you don't believe in a creator, that the humanistic pact of civilization demands that. And that we don't get that. And in this situation, we're not letting this go. We're not letting it go the way this situation feels, the way it looks. and the way it smells.

And Mississippi, pulling on the rope, saying, hey, I got black friends. Hey, we're not racist. That's not going to do anything. Be as intent on finding out what happened to this kid as you are about exonerating yourself from a putrid past. This is not me coming at Mississippi. I'm from Louisiana.

I'm saying we have all shared in this. But in this situation, nobody's going to listen to platitudes. is people want facts, they want understanding, and they want you to consider the context of the state and the reality of this thing. They want you to consider that. They want you to consider what it means for his parents to watch this, what it means for his community to watch this.

And to me, in observing this case, it seems as if they were things that they cared about a little bit more than really getting to the bottom of what happened here. Now, we will continue. We will continue to try to find answers about how and why this all happened. Yeah, I mean, I know that there's been a request for the Justice Department to review it. Apparently, the island that it was on is federal land.

So I know the FBI, like, helped in some digital, trying to get some digital evidence and stuff, but there might be a federal way to get justice and all of this, too. So I know that they're still moving forward, not giving up the fight. And I think that that's important for us too, like social media, podcast, television. We just keep making sure that this isn't a story that gets lost in everything else. It's important for the community to be prepared for the fact that this wasn't based in race. Maybe it wasn't. Maybe this was an accident.

Are we victimizing ourselves by being so sure that there's more there there than we might think that there is? But I'm not saying that that's a case, I'm just saying. But I think it's two separate things, right? We're not all saying that the, that what happened to him was racially motivated, but the way in which the investigation was handled could be like a, that's how I more so see it as these preconceived notions that you have about, or like the history with Mississippi, the, the, there seemed to be such an effort to protect the white boys that he.

was with and to make sure their name was clear and they were good more than this investigation of what happened to Nolan. And I think that there is subconsciously some racially motivated things in the way the investigation was handled. I'm not saying that this was a hate crime and this young, a child lost his life because of race. But it doesn't mean that race wasn't in factor in how this whole thing is being handled. This is what we know.

That's what I, that's more. I'm more so lean to the latter. Well said, this is what we know. We know, and this is the lowest form of criticism and observation, guys, I know. I know this is the lowest form. This is the low-hanging fruit. This is the easy thing to say. But this is what we know.

We know that if it was five black guys going out with one white boy and something like this happened, that these five young men would be made the poster child. for American violence, irresponsibility, and the pristine life and future of that young white person, this would be a cautionary tale from see to shining. We know that. We know that this would be delved into and hands would be wrong and they would not stop.

We would know the first and last names of all of the boys that were surrounding this. Was it their incompetence? Was it the schools that they go to? wasn't the music that they listen to. Was it the, you know, their parents, their culture, their lack thereof, was it all of that? Were they jealous of him? Did they take him out there to do something? Wasn't an initiation?

Every single stone would be turned over to get to the bottom of why this tragedy happened with absolutely no thought to how it was going to affect those boys' lives or their futures. because the life that was extinguished would be looked at as so valuable that you had to find a reason why that happened. And we just don't trust you, we don't believe in you, we know what you want. We know that that kid's death

is less important to you than those guys' future. We know. You have the opportunity at every single turn to prove us wrong, but you can't do it. You don't have the wherewithal. And we're never letting it go. Never.

Every time I see somebody post, Nolan Wells, Nolan Wells, Nolan Wells, Nolan Wells, it sparks in my mind that I do not want to forget this. Yeah. I don't want to forget. I don't want to move on to the next story. I don't want to move on to the next thing. I want to remember this young man as much for how he lived and how his parents loved him

and how black parents love their children that surrounds the way that his life was untimely ended. And so, like, that's not going to change. So there's going to be a continuous, like years from now, we will be talking about this, and we're going to continue to talk about it now. So we haven't covered it that much on this podcast. Honestly, I can't speak for Rachel, but I didn't want to be exploitive of this. No, we talked about that. Remember?

It's like I, there's a lot of speculation. It's like I wanted things to play out out of respect for the family, out of respect for just like the way we handle the conversation of it all. Obviously, this is something to talk about as there's a new development, terrible development, but a new development with the case. Right. And like, you know, there are plenty of people out there that are doing investigative work. They're down in Mississippi.

They're talking to authorities that have that capability. I don't want to continuously just talk about something because it's a hot topic where it involves the death of somebody young and black. I want to have something to be able to offer the audience surrounding this and not just use this entire thing for content. Right. But this right here has completely underwhelmed and it does not pass a smell test for me. And so that's where we are with that.

I pray for peace for this young man's family, this kid's family, and we will continue to search for answers till we know everything to the if degree. So every single moment can be accounted for. Every single second can be accounted for. Every single story can be cooperated or disproven. Until every single fact about this is known,

we will continue to demand answers. letting it go. All right. You know, it's funny? It's like, it's not funny. But the next story has to do with like the opposite side of this. J. Cornell University and seven Kive five fraternity members are facing a lawsuit over rape allegations. A former student identified as Jane Doe alleges that in October of 2024, she was drugged and raped at a frat house.

Her attorney claims that after an investigation, only two of the accused were expelled and no one was arrested. Now the former student is suing the school and the fraternity members, claiming they failed to protect her and prevent that alleged assault. So the allegation here is that this young woman was drugged and then a message was sent out by all of these guys that she was up for grabs and come get something. Right. What happened here. What happened here was that it seems as if this university is more concerned, about the futures of these young men, then this potentially heinous crime

that they were involved in. And so Matthew Ingalls, Jonathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gila Lopez, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris, and Scott Kresmer were the guys that were involved in this. And this story is now just becoming something that has made public. Yeah, because she's suing their fraternity, her sorority, the school, and obviously these individuals,

there's some other, I think, corporations and stuff that are involved. When you look at the lawsuit and your point well made that they were more concerned, I agree with you about the futures of these young men being Cornell graduates, almost even more than just like, because at first I was like, oh, it's just about protecting the university, which I do think there's some of that,

but they prioritize these men, which also, creating a culture and an environment and a message by the way that they handled these young men versus how they handled the young woman who ended up dropping out of the school. Shame because after this happened, this was spreading like wildfire. They didn't do anything really, too, got expelled. Other people had to send, right, apology essays. Like, what does that even mean? Their futures go on.

Their names, well, now their names are known, but at the time they weren't. and she has to drop out of school and deal with everything that happened as a result to this, prioritizing these young men over this young woman. But also in the lawsuit, there is a culture here at Cornell University. She speaks of things she did not know about things that the student body had brought up to the university about sexual assault on campus. I'm not sure if it's this particular fraternity, but other instances that happen. multiple, like there was, this was out there, multiple times things had happened and the school did not handle it appropriately. So they're also creating this culture of what's deemed okay and what's

deemed not okay, what is valued and what is not valued. And this is such a heartbreaking tragedy that happened to this young woman. And I applaud her for having the courage to stand up to the university, to these fraternities, to these young men, knowing what she was subducing. to when she was at that school, knowing how this is going to be litigated and people will pick and, you know, tear it apart and judge her for her role in it. That always happens. But at the end of the day, the focus needs to be on these seven men who thought it was okay to treat her as if she wasn't a human being for their own pleasure and acted. And they did for a time like they could get away with it because they knew that they were in an environment that would protect and prioritize them over her. Right. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly.

Allegedly. Allegedly. These are allegations. But there was an investigate. I mean, like, they were reprimanded, just not. Which is what I kind of don't understand. That's the thing. Two were expelled.

So I guess allegedly, but there was some wrongdoing that they saw. Right. Two were expelled. Five had to write essays. I don't know what the essays were, but clearly it was related, I'm assuming to this. Then the city itself did an investigation and did not press any charge. Okay, so let's stay there for a second. And they're also saying, and they are saying that the things that are alleged in this lawsuit,

they said they didn't have that information at the time. Okay. That's what the city is. All right. So the city is saying that they didn't have all of the information. The city police department. City police department saying they didn't have all any information. Okay.

So the fact that there were no criminal charges filed here that they looked into it and there were no, they couldn't come to anything as far as criminal charges. In any way, does that? like hamstring the university I'm asking from a legal standpoint. In that situation, so they because if you expel me, right, if I get kicked out of school

but I'm exonerated criminally is the university from a legal standpoint then exposed to a lawsuit by these kids or their parents saying how can you kick me out of school when I technically didn't do anything because there's no criminal charges filed?

Well, they got kicked out based on school policy. Okay. So like take the separate the crime, which is why the police department got involved. That's school, they said, because that's what the school's defense is, we followed school policy protocol. Right. So that's what he was expelled under, not because that a crime was proven or not. What I'm asking more specifically to the point is, if there are no criminal charges filed,

does that in some way hamstring what the school can do in any way? Or can the school operas? No, because they're following school policies. They're under their own set of rules. Okay, cool. Yeah, yeah. Like that, and like they allege that. They, they expelled.

I don't know why the two versus the five, I'm assuming based on the story because it started off with two. And then there was a text message within their fraternity chat of like, hey, come up here. This is what's happening. But, yeah, like they'll say, they said that they followed their policy. But as the lawsuit alleges, there is a culture here and there's a pattern here of the school and the way that they handle sexual assault claims. Right, which is they seem to prioritize the futures of the young men or the reputation of the university more than anything else. Particularly with prestigious universities, every single time something like this happens, it's an enormous hit to them. Not just in reputation, but as a business, because these schools are competing with each other, not just necessarily for the highest academic standard.

or acceptance rates or anything like that. But they're competing with donations and endowments. They're competing with the amount of presidents and governors and CEOs that they turn out. They are in a race that is very determined by, like, who can accrue the most. They're not just chasing prestige. They're actually chasing, like, real things that can be harvested from their alumni bases. And every time something like this happens, it's a hit on one of them. It's a hit to their, you know, the donations they might get.

It's a hit to their national pride and their reputation. So they are not just protecting these young men. They're protecting Cornell and they're fighting against Harvard or Stanford or Brown or Yale for resources. So they're kind of protecting something that is like not even about the humanity of the students, either the perpetrators or the alleged victims of this stuff. Yeah. But you got to think about. really what the message is that you're sending out. You're an Ivy League school, and so there's a reputation that comes with that of the people

who get accepted, attend, and then graduate from your school. But you're also sending out a message that we also have an environment or graduate men or men attend here where we protect them and we hide away accusations, allegations of sexual assault and you allow them, five of them at least, they can write away. They can just on a couple of pages write away their wrongdoings or things that have been alleged. And then you're putting those men out into a society and letting them know what's okay, how they can be protected, and then basically sending out a message of the way that they, almost as if the way that you handle women or the way you view women can be written away in an essay, can be excused.

That's also what the mindset that you're creating with these men. These men got away with it. I know allegedly, I guess I have to say allegedly, yeah. But they got away. They said allegedly. Yes, yes. But they were able to continue on, except for the two expel, but they'll go to another school.

You know, until today, or until these last few days, no one knew their names. So it was business as usual. But you're also business as usual for them is you can treat women like this. and continue like nothing happened. Right. So let me clarify, explain what I mean when I'm talking about allegations

and talking about stuff. The only thing that I actually wish is that everyone is valued enough to have the state of their life and what they're going through respected by institutions. So whether it's Nolan Wells in Mississippi or this young woman,

take seriously the things that happen to people value their lives enough to investigate what's going on with them in a way that sends a clear societal message that there's a way to treat people and a way not to treat people and that every single life is equal. That is the only thing that you can ask for. That's all you can ask for, right?

And so when we're talking about, you know, what something is an allegation, I can't in my mind tell anyone that I know the truth of either of these situations. What I can tell people, though, is it doesn't seem as if the authorities in either case cared about the victim as much as they cared about the optics. That is the thing that will come back to bite us in the ass as a society every single time. Because that means that we've pre-selected the people who are valuable and who are not valuable, and we will stay in attraction over that for as long as we accept it. That's all I'm saying in this situation.

So we'll see where this goes and what happens. Now I want to turn to something a little bit lighter here, if that's okay. Please. Because I'm going to be honest, I didn't get this one. I got to put, I didn't get this one. I kind of didn't get it. Okay, this was something that we, I didn't understand this one. All right, let's talk about Lori Harvey.

I didn't get it. I didn't get this. I have to be honest. Lori Harvey is facing online backlash after speaking at the Create and Cultivate Festival. in Los Angeles, a two-day conference for women in business. Harvey appeared as a keynote speaker discussing branding, entrepreneurship, and how she approaches partnerships. Some attendees and marketing professionals criticized her advice as coming from a place

of privilege. Let's take a look at what she said. Okay, real quick, she was asked about the power of curation when building brands. Now, just so you guys know what curating something is, it's like, it's creating the ambience, for it or like when you're creator of a museum just so people know like what she's supposed to be describing. You're the one who picks all the paintings and you decide what

goes at the museum. The curator creates an experience for stuff and when you're building a brand, obviously there's creation that's involved. So what was the question? About the power of curating. Okay. When you're building a brand. When you're building a brand. So the power of it. The power of curating.

Okay, so let's hear what she says. Let's hear what she has to say. I think it really comes down to curation, curating the shoots, the events, curating the playlist that gets played at the events, curating the drinks, curating every little detail. I'm really, really focused on details. I know when I go to events, I'm always paying attention to, you know, the cocktail napkins and what they look like and the bar menu and the table setups and how the DJ is playing.

Like every little detail I pay attention to and when it's done really well, I always go and comment on, you know, the event planner. And I'm like, wow, this is amazing. They're like, wow, I'm shocked. You paid attention to that. But those are the things that I think really set apart a great event and also really great brands as they pay attention to details. I'm, okay, so granted, granted, granted, I'm the wrong person to ask about this.

I wear the same thing every day on the podcast. You know what I mean? But what was so awful about the answer? Like, what was so terrible about the answer? So create and cultivate is this huge, huge conference. And it is about like the people that we're speaking are people who have built their, so many speakers. But a lot of it is about, I guess curating. But no, but it's about building brands.

It's about building your business. It's about understanding it all. So people are paying coming all across the country to hear from professionals speak about how they built, whether it's their brand, like I said, their business, how they market, like attract sales advertisement. I wasn't there, so I don't know the whole thing. But they're paying to listen to experts. They're paying to listen to people who have started, I don't want to say from nothing,

but just have built something from nothing, right? Or start from the ground up. The conversation was about the power of curation behind building, brands or something, whatever it was. Right. Yes, she talked about curating and she talked about details, but like the power of it, right?

Like, why is curating important? That's how I, so if somebody, I'm not a marketing professional. So somebody was like, can you talk about the power of curating? Like, why is it important? What does it do for your brand? That's the question. That's not what she said. She said, oh, I pay attention to

details, the playlist, the napkins. So if you're sitting in, if you're sitting in the audience, you want a little bit more depth. And so I think a lot of the criticism was she's sitting up there as supposed to be like a professional, an expert. The information that you're giving to us is not reflecting that. And so a lot of people were like, oh, she's here because felt like she's here because she's a name, not because she has the expertise. And I think that there's this frustration from people who were really about, like the online criticism that I saw, who are really about this life,

who get frustrated when they see someone who they feel like comes from a place of privilege that gets to sit in that seat, when they don't seem to know what they're actually talking about. That's the criticism. But if I say, the question really is,

speak to the importance of the power of curating and how that helps build a brand. Be for real, man. I'm being for real. I pay attention to the, napkins in the playlist. But why is that important? There's another layer to that. Okay, cool. The details are important. But how do those details help you build your brand? How does that, like, create success? How does that help draw people in? Because what she's describing is brand strategy

without saying brand strategy. So why is brand strategy so important? It ain't the napkins in the music. Well, that's creating a vibe. Well, to you, but to you, it's not. I'm not the one online complaining. Well, to them it's not. To her, what she's saying, is building a brand is about attention to detail and brand experiences. What she's saying about what she does, I think she's over one of Kevin Hart's brands. Yeah. What she does, everybody else might day to day send emails, curate things, get feedback. She does the playlist.

That's what she does. That's what she does. Okay. And she said, what? That's not a diss. I'm not laughing. They laugh. That's a diss.

That's not a diss. She does the playlist and does. the napkins and creates an experience that people are going to remember. That's what she does. And so she's up there. She was asked for whatever reason. And then she gave an answer. That answer

to me seems to be in line with the question. Now if it's a poor answer, then that's up for people to judge. But for it to spark outrage, I kind of don't get it. It's a bigger thing of celebrity speakers at these business conferences.

I understand from a festival, why you get people with a name because you want to draw them in. So I understand both sides of it. But the people who pay are truly sitting there because they want to, they don't necessarily want the big name. They want the person who's like built the big business, who's built, who's big on branding or marketing. And the attendees felt like this was lackluster compared to what they paid to get.

That's what they felt. This is not my background. But I understand why you would want somebody with a name, and I understand also why you would be disappointed in that response. Can I just let people in on something? As a panel veteran, as a moderator, and a panel speaker, I want people to know something. A panel is an intellectual concert.

You're paying to see your favorite band. That's what you're doing. Like, please don't go to the panel thinking that you're going to come away with your life change from the information that's on the panel. The panel is essentially these are festivals and concerts and stuff like that.

I'm not saying that you're never going to go to one and feel inspired or learn anything or anything like that. People do go, but the reality is they went to see Lori Harvey, right? There is a direct corollary between the bigger name celebrity and how much you want to hear from them.

So if, in fact, they had a 35-year creative that's sitting up there that's done curation all over the place, they are simply not going to get as many people to come to that panel and sit down, then they would if they would have gotten Lori Harvey. If people want to learn from people who are veterans in these industries, there are so many different ways to learn from them. But when you go to some stuff like this, I tell people all the time, It doesn't matter what the panel is. The panel could be on a really, unless you're going to a panel that is specifically about a direct issue, like a climate justice panel, where you have four eggheads on a stage and they're going back over the history of climate justice and what you can do and what they have done and the next thing to do, most of the stuff that you're going for when you're going to these panels and paying your money, that shit is entertainment.

And the people on the panel, if you watch, if there's a lot of different people, they are competing. They are competing for laughs. They're trying to be funnier than the last person that spoke. They're trying to be more powerful than the last person that spoke. They're trying to be wittier than the last person that spoke. When you are moderating one of those panels, you are making sure that everybody gets a chance to talk because one person will filibuster and everybody is talking to the audience and raising their voice and trying to elicit applause from the audience. very little of that stuff is actually useful. And so in that situation, they have somebody there

that's probably the head of curation wherever they are because they're famous. And you put them there and they give the answer to a question. That's what she do. There's a lot of people that speak at this. First off, she was a keynote speaker. So that's one thing. Two, if I'm going to hear a keynote speaker speak on whatever the topic is,

I'm going to assume that there's going to be more to the conversation. I just am. I think we almost look at things. We just look at it differently. I mean, I'm looking this up. What's the most transformative panel you've ever been to? I don't know. I can't think about that right now. Right. Because there's never been anyone that was actually transformative. No, that's not true. That's not true. I'm just

focused on this right now. Because this is about, okay, so I'm looking this up. It's the world's largest multi-day festival conference and digital media platforms, specifically designed for women in business, entrepreneurs, creators, and corporate leaders. Not everybody who speaks, because I did see a lot of this, is in my algorithm. is famous, is a celebrity.

I was looking at a lot of the discourse. A lot of the people who attended really go to promote their own business and connect with other people. That's the reason why you go. Yeah, networking for sure. That's the whole reason. Wait, they also were going to hear from CEOs

and moguls and bit, like Emma Creed was there. Issa Ray. Famous, famous, famous, famous. Well, Emma has become famous, but I'm just naming the famous people, but I'm telling you there were non-famous people. We just see panels different. I was looking at people talking about what they liked,

what they didn't like about the festival, outside of even Lori Harvey. Like, I was like paying attention to the stuff that they were saying. So I guess my point is, is I understand how if somebody is coming to speak, and especially the keynote speaker at that, she wasn't sitting on the panel with a bunch of other people. Right. I can understand how somebody could expect more from the conversation.

I am shocked that this went as viral as it, did, I think that Lori Harvey is one of the people that people just like to pick on. But I do understand you saying, huh, I thought it was going to be a little bit more deep than that. Guys, we're living in a nonstop outrage machine. I'm just saying, I could see it. And that outrage machine, look, hey, I'm not saying, look, man. But we definitely see panels different. We're living in a nonstop outrage machine.

And sometimes the outrage will be completely warranted. Hey, don't get me wrong, guys. Love a little outrage, okay? But living in that non-stop. nonstop outrage machine. Sometimes we feed the beast with non-issues. We do see panels differently.

The one reason why we see panels differently is because I, when I look at stuff like this, there's a cynicism that comes along with celebrity that is like now just baked into me. And any fucking festival that you go to, way more useful stuff will happen and the people that you meet

and the things that you experience from people who are not on the name of the thing, then anything you will get from the panel, 90% of the time, 90% of the time, those talks or for entertainment purposes. They are intellectual concerts. The reason why I always try to be funny when I'm on a panel, when I'm moderating a panel,

is because I want people to be entertained. because those things are mostly for entertainment. Like, there's only so much, okay, well, we look at that differently too. We look at it. Like Lori Harvey up there as the curator, she gave the answer. She do the playlist. But listen, there were a headline, and she's one of them. There were like seven women who were like at the top.

But then as you scroll down, I don't know most of who these people are. Who are the seven women at the top? The seven women at the top, right? To draw you in. Emma Green, Allandria. Alex Earl Whitney Wolf Hurd Okay

And she is CEO of Bumble Yeah Bumble Jan Adkin She's hair, she is way And Lori Harvey and Hallie Berry Right But listed under that

Because this is a festival, it's days There are a plethora of other women That are on these panels That are CEOs, that are creators That are founders of certain companies So that's what I'm saying is like Of course there's the big draw Every festival, everything is going to have

The big draw of people But then there are other people So most of the people that are speaking are not famous. Do you know when I started to get jobs to, like, moderate panels? When, Van. When it was after what? What you think happened before I started getting offered to do that? Yeah, the Comptured the Kanye thing.

Boom. Boom. You never spoke before then? I never. Oh, see, I did. I spoke before the basketball on panels. I never, I never got asked to do one panel. Okay, I did.

One panel. One panel till after the Kanye thing. I did. Before I was the Bachelorette, I spoke on panels. Right. And nobody knew who I was. Right. I'm not saying, well, I'm actually saying this.

I'm telling y'all right now, pay the money for the festival to go and meet the people. To go and meet those people. Network. Network, meet those people, experience that those festivals and stuff like that are worth it because of that. In between meeting the people, go to as many concerts as you can. and wave your hands in the air like you just don't fucking care. All right, go there. But I'm trying to tell y'all, if y'all are going to these, I've been there, I've been there, I've moderated,

and I'm trying to give the people some games. All right, let's take a break. Okay, guys, we have somebody in the hot seat now, in a hot seat. I hope she's ready. She's an urban planner and Los Angeles City Council member representing District 4, but more importantly, she is embroiled in a contentious, tight, and something. somewhat controversial race for Los Angeles City Mayor against Karen Bass.

Nithia Rahman joins us today on Higher Learning. How are you doing, Councilwoman? I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me. So first question for me is just one that I have. How did you guys successfully steal the election from Spencer Price? Go through the ins and outs of how you were able to rig the election.

I paid tens of thousands of homeless people to vote for me. That's the way to do it. If you're going to steal an election, that's the way to do it. Seriously, though, before we get into the runoff to Karen with Karen... I feel like that's going to be clipped. I thought about it, too. We won't clip it. Before we get...

That was a joke. Dear public, that was a joke. She was joking. That was a joke. That's one of the things that was said. Just give me your overall thoughts on all of the talk around your ascension to the runoff, how a lot of Pratt voters responded to what they thought was voter fraud. on behalf of the Los Angeles Democrats.

One thing I will say is that the length of time that it takes to count votes here, I think does make people distrustful of the results. Okay. You know, so I want to just acknowledge that. And, you know, we're relatively unique across the country in the length of time that it takes to count votes. So I understand that people are like,

hey, it looked one way and then it looked the other. But this is a very common pattern. Progressive voters, younger voters, tend to vote later. And so their votes are counted later. There are mail-in ballots that are coming in. They're counted later. And so we, you know, close election watchers here in L.A.

know that the first round of results are always going to be traditionally your least diverse, your oldest, and your most conservative voters. And as the votes get counted, younger people's votes start showing up and you start seeing a change in the results. Sometimes it changes. outcome of the election, sometimes it doesn't. And in this case, what happened was that the first round of results, which had Spencer Pratt up significantly, ended up reversing, and I ended up getting into second place. So to me, it felt very in line with what I have seen in California over the past

few election cycles. It was not a surprise to me. I was, even on election night, when the tally felt very stark, I was like, we could still get through. I feel very, you know, I feel, I, I very confident that we could see a different result. We don't know. And we're just going to wait and see. But let's make sure that we enjoy this moment. That election night party was a beautiful coming together of all of these different people,

a lot of whom are not really involved in local politics traditionally. And we had a great DJ. And I was like, if you all don't. Yeah, I was like if we don't. Yeah, it was important. I said if you know anything about me, I want you to get on the dance floor tonight. And people did.

It was fun. You're so right, though. I'm not from L.A. And this is how elections go, particularly in this race, too. But it got so much national attention that other people were, you know, and it played into obviously everything that the Trump administration says and Spencer Pratt was doing all of it. So we got a lot of outsiders giving their input when we know here how things typically go.

New poll comes out. UC Berkeley has you ahead of Karen Bass. But what's also interesting is there's still more than a third of voters that are undecided. That's right. That's huge. How are you in these count, like we're what, less than 40 days now? How are you targeting these undecided voters? Well, look, I came into this race.

You know, I supported the mayor in her first election. I raised money for her. I introduced her to my district. I was really excited about her. And I think, like a lot of Angelinos, I've been disappointed by the progress that we've made or the lack of progress in some of the issues that we're seeing here in this city. So I came into this race because I feel passionately about the future of Los Angeles, and I feel frustration about the current state of the city.

And I think that third of voters is out there feeling those same things. You know, I think they like Los Angeles. They grew up here. Maybe they invested here. They're building their families here. They want it to be better. and they feel frustrated that the city is not delivering in the ways that they need, I want to, I want them to take a look at the campaign.

Like, it comes from the same place that I think a lot of people are coming from at this moment, feeling real, real frustration with L.A. And I'm here to tell them, I want to work hard for you. I want to fix the issues that you're seeing. I want to make sure that you can believe in the city again. You can believe in City Hall again. Do you think that one term, four years, is enough time to make an impact? Yeah.

So I don't think it is enough to solve the problems that L.A. is facing. These are huge problems. These are huge challenges that have been building over time. The affordable housing crisis didn't start four years ago. It's been building here for a very long time. Our homelessness crisis didn't start four years ago. But on so many of the things that matter for Angelinos, we are moving in the wrong direction as opposed to the right direction. Things are actually worse than they were before this mayor's term started. And I think that is palpable on the streets. More of our basic infrastructure is not functioning. Tens of thousands of streetlights are out across the city, tens of thousands. And it takes on average a year to fix a broken street light. It used to take

less than a month. And that change has happened under her leadership and under her budgeting decisions. We are fixing fewer potholes than we were before, and your cars can feel it. I'm sure your cycles can feel it. Like the streets are worse than they were four years ago. There's less graffiti being cleared, essential services, there's less garbage being picked up. These things are worse. And some of the things that we've spent hundreds of millions of dollars on, like homelessness, including a lot of money being spent on the mayor's inside safe initiative, hundreds of millions of dollars, $400 million has been spent on that. We've made some progress and then backslid this past year, just not enough progress to warrant the enormous cost that we are facing.

And so for me, I feel like that backtracking, that lack of progress, that lack of accountability, that's palpable. And I'm seeing that frustration from people across the entire city. So you said that you were frustrated with the lack of progress. That frustration was kind of like my soreness, like late onset, because you already endorsed her re-election campaign. Yeah. And then you entered the race just hours before the deadline. Yeah.

So walk us through the 48 hours, because I know a lot, just be honest with you. Yeah. A lot of particular voters, black voters, feel stabbed in the back by that. Yeah. And so for a lot of black voters, it's hard for them to get behind you

because they feel like you knifed the mayor. Mm-hmm. Talk to them and talk to why you decide to get into the race so late. Look, I just want to say to everyone who feels that. I understand that. I understand that completely. And I have such incredible respect for Mayor Bass, her decades of service to the city,

and the place that she holds in a community that she has served for a very, very long time. I am here because I have 10-year-old twins that I am. raising in the city and I don't feel like I can wait four years for the direction of the city to change. And I felt that frustration for a long time. I did endorse the mayor. Every elected council member endorses the mayor. You have to do that when you are in city hall. That's how you get resources. And this mayor's budgeting decisions have made resources so scarce in city hall that endorsing the mayor to get access to those resources becomes all the more important for your constituents. I was fighting for my constituents.

But I was frustrated. I was really frustrated. And a lot of people in City Hall are frustrated. And I kept waiting for someone to get into the race. I thought Rick Caruso was going to get in. I thought there was a supervisor who was thinking about getting in the race. I thought someone would get in the race and challenge the direction of the city, challenge the situation that we're facing right now. Talk about the fact that things are measurably worse than they were.

were four years ago, that things feel like they're moving in the wrong direction as opposed to the right direction and talk about a different vision of the city. And that didn't happen. And when it didn't happen, you know, I felt like I felt like someone needed to step up. Last question on this before we get into your policies and the things you feel like need to be changed. That doesn't really job because you had you'd endorsed her. So you'd both endorsed her, but also hoped that someone got into the race to challenge her. Certainly, Rick Caruso represents, at least from what I know of you, a polar opposite. No, no, no. Yeah. So you're saying that you'd hoped somebody got into the race to challenge. I thought someone would. I thought multiple people would. But you'd already endorsed her. So like,

why would you endorse her and then also hope for a challenger? You all, like every council member endorses the mayor. That is just that every council member has. You didn't mean the endorsement. You endorse the mayor. That is how politics is done here. And I had given that endorsement months prior. I hadn't thought about it very much. No, you know, there wasn't a huge, there, she asked for it. I had supported her in the last race. I gave her the endorsement. And then I grappled with it. Okay. I grappled with it. And it was a tough decision. It was not an easy decision for me to step out there and to run against someone that, I had supported, it was not an easy decision for me to stand up against a culture of

City Hall where you just, you don't challenge incumbency at all in LA. That is not done here in Los Angeles. By the way, that's not done across the entire country. It's not done in the Democratic Party. You don't challenge incumbency. I think that's a problem. And I think when I, so I'm, you know, I'm a progressive. I believe in the power of government to do good things for people.

And I think when you're not out there working to earn the public's trust, when you're not out there trying to deliver results for people every single day, when you're putting your own political survival over budgetary decisions that can actually change things for the better for Angelinos, which is what I saw this mayor doing, I think that destroys trust in government. I think that destroys trust in the government of Los Angeles. and as a progressive, that's the exact opposite of why I'm in politics, why I'm in government in the first place. And I was grappling with watching that happen in front of my eyes as a council member. So I, look, again, I am, I am, I am, this was not a decision I took lightly. This was not a decision that I, that I didn't think long and hard about and about the implications of what what I would be doing, challenging someone who I had endorsed, someone who I have deep respect for, had and have deep respect for. But I do think that it is, it is really important to speak up on how

I think the future of Los Angeles could be better, to speak up about the policies that I think need to change, the way in which decision making needs to change. And I think you're seeing those conversations happen across the Democratic Party, across the country. And I do see my, my stepping up as a part of that broader conversation. I know you've talked about your lack of frustration with the urgency and the focus. You feel like the mayor has had when it comes to the issues that matter the most to citizens here in Los Angeles, like affordability and housing. But then you've also said that four years, it's hard to make an impact on some of these

deep-rooted issues. So as a challenger, you can promise change. But as the incumbent, you know, you have to explain some of these. results. For you, how would you show a sense of urgency and focus when it comes to affordability and when it comes to housing? Yeah. So let me just say one thing about delivering results, right? Yes, you are right that you can't transform decades of problems overnight or even in four years. But you can make a dent. You can make progress. You can push for policies even in the face of opposition. There's a reason why some of these issues are longstanding challenges. It is because they

have entrenched interests that are pushing back against the way that things have been done here, trying to keep that in place, you know, trying to push back against change. You have to go out there and fight for that change. You know, and that's what I want to see from leadership in the city is a willingness to stand up and say, this is not working. And I have demonstrated that in my work and in my district. So in my in my role as the chair of the housing and homelessness committee, I help pass the strongest renter protections this city has seen in four decades. We passed universal just cause eviction protections. We lowered allowable rent increases in rent stabilized units for the first time in four decades. Landlords spent huge against me in my in my reelection for my council district and

they are spending against me again, and we are pushing back against those big, big moneyed interests to fight for tenants. And L.A. has been transformed as a result of my work. That came out of my urgency. I want to deliver that again as your mayor. I want to make sure that we are protecting renters, that we are making tenant protections into the mission of the housing department. I want to make sure that we are keeping communities, including many black neighborhoods, across the city that are facing extraordinary displacement pressures. I want to make sure that the city hall that I build is showing up for them. And that is possible to do.

And I also want to build more housing in L.A. And by the way, I represent a district that has many parts of which have historically resisted new housing because they don't want low-income renters in their neighborhoods. There has been some racism in our planning rules and regulations that have been put into place. Communities have fought back against having, you know, diversity in their neighborhoods, and having people of color come into their neighborhoods. And I have pushed back against that as the council member, and I would push back against

that citywide. We need to build housing across the entire city. We need to welcome communities of diverse communities across every neighborhood in L.A. And I believe that I would be the mayor that would really make the case for that across Los Angeles. Speaking of diversity in color, black, it's okay to say black people here with you. Is there one specific thing in your platform that you feel like is built for South Los Angeles, Lamert Park or Crenshaw? Not something that's for all Angelo's, but something in your platform that you feel like

addresses the needs of those real legacy parts of the city. So I think what I just talked about about renters rights and displacement is, particularly important for black neighborhoods. These are places, so the way in which new development has been playing out across Los Angeles is that white neighborhoods, wealthier neighborhoods have not historically built new housing. But we need more housing. We need more affordable housing. We need all kinds of new housing here in L.A. And so where it has been built is often in District 8, District 10, like black neighborhoods here in Los Angeles have actually built much of the new affordable housing that has come in

and much of the new housing overall leading to intense gentrification and displacement pressures on those communities. The policies that I have pushed for as a council member are designed to support communities that are facing displacement, are really designed to make sure that those communities are staying whole, that the city can actually stand behind them and make sure that the city is supporting them with the full weight of those of those rules and regulations because right now when a renter comes to the city asking for support often the city makes them do the whole runaround it doesn't often show up and support them in the ways that they need we can actually do very very differently by those communities and by those neighborhoods and that's exactly what I would want to do

for black Los Angeles is there is there a specific initiative in there like something that if you had one sentence you could describe to somebody for yeah to Creating an office of tenant protections. There you go. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, exactly. So I want to, as mayor, I want to create an office of tenant protections. I want to make sure the mission of protecting tenants is written into the name of the office.

I want to make sure the housing department shows up for people. And that pushing back against displacement is written into the mission of every employee of that department. Oftentimes, those same communities are overpoliced. Policing has been something that's been in the middle of your campaigning against Mayor Bass. She's actually hit you with the fact that in 2020, you posted supporting defunding the police. She said that you've talked out of both sides of your mouth because it seems as if you've backtracked on that now. I am, just to let you know, a Rahman voter, but also deeply, deeply into destigmatizing the statement defund the police and standing on business as we discuss it. Yes.

It doesn't seem like you are. It seems like you've kind of backtracked from that. I think that that criticism is true. Well, so the question is, what do you believe as it relates to policing in the city? So here's what I have done. I have voted for budgets that have maintained the size of our police force, right?

But I also push back against a contract for LAPD for the police that would have raised salaries for LAPD so much that the city. could not afford to make those payments. It was one of the largest raises that the police union had ever received. And the mayor pushed for that. I voted against that. And that contract ended up bankrupting the city. We had a billion dollar budget deficit as a result. And in response to that billion dollar budget deficit, we had to cut every single city service down to the bone. That's why we're not fixing potholes. That's why we're not fixing streetlights. That's why our homelessness dollars are more limited than they were before. It is because of that one contract that the mayor pushed and I pushed back against. And so I would say, yeah, we need to make sure

that we're responding to 911 calls. We need to make sure that we have a public safety system that works, that when people pick up the phone and call for help, that someone shows up to help them and it is the right person for their call, whether it is an armed officer that needs to come quickly or whether it is an unarmed crisis worker that can help address mental health issues or that can help address the needs of a homeless person that you're calling about, that system we can't build out right now because we paid so much in that contract because of this mayor's push to LAPD that we can't hire 911 call operators to even pick up the phone on time,

and we can't build out a system of unarmed crisis response that can actually service the entire city. So, yeah, let's have a complex conversation about public safety. think it's about fund or defund. The question is, how are we going to build the system of public safety that responds to your calls for help in the ways that you need? That shows up in your neighborhood with respect for black residents that is accountable to the public. That is a much more complicated conversation to me than fund or defund. But I am having that conversation. And I've played that conversation out in my work on the council.

But to your point about destigmatizing it and people getting so caught up on the word defund, what you are essentially, though, describing is not giving more money to the police and allocating money to the services where the citizens can be better helped, whether it's a mental health crisis, whether it's something that doesn't have to deal with police

showing up with guns. That is defunding. Why is that so hard? I think if we, because I guess, I think this is what Van is saying too, is if we explain, focusing on the word defunding and people have tried to make that such a bad word but in essence what it means is

allocating things to where they need to go where the citizens can better be served. Why is that hard to say? That is an essence of defunding. Yeah, but I feel like I've been out there making the case for this better response. I mean, they're hitting me with anti-police ads saying that I'm anti-police.

And what I am saying is I'm not anti-police. I am pro-police accountability. I'm pro police response when you need it. And I am pro building out a system that will actually allow unarmed responders to show up when you need it. What is it going to take to build out that system? That's what I'm committed to as mayor. And I've already done that work on the council. And I just want to say what has been happening in the public is that when you say fund or defund, right,

I feel like you have a much less nuanced conversation than the one that actually Angelinos want to have. When you describe what you just described, right? Everyone's like, yeah, I want that. Right. But if you hear fund or defund, I don't think you can hear anything after that. That's why I think we should talk about it because it doesn't mean what they're trying to make it mean. And I wanted you to explain that more. You talked about the deficit.

What is it, a billion? It was a billion dollars last year and we're still working our way out of it. And, you know, all of the issues that you're dealing with, poor 311, response, all of these kind of essential services that have been graffiti pickup, a graffiti response. We used to have a really good graffiti response program. That has been cut. 911 call takers. We can't hire them anymore.

Civilians in LAPD who are doing investigative work. We can't hire them. I mean, it's across the entire city. Planners to do community plans. Preparation for the Olympics. All of this has been slowed because we are in a budget deficit because of that contract decision. What's one thing that you would cut? Oh.

That you feel like could contribute to lowering the deficit. I think we need to really think about liability management. We have huge liabilities in the city that are currently not managed. About half come from, we have about, I think it's like $300 million annually in liabilities, huge payouts that we're making. And about half of that comes from LAPD, about half of that comes from other departments, everything from broken sidewalks, streetlights falling on people. and people suing and then getting liability payouts, all kinds of other settlements that are

related to personnel issues. Departments need to take greater responsibility for liability settlements. They need to be pushed to manage them better. Every department needs to do that. The policy pathways to doing that are different for each different issue, but departments need to be taking responsibility for these payouts. They need to be taking responsibility for managing these. And we can actually bring liability costs down in the city.

That is something that I'm laser focused on. And I want to make sure that we're actually using those cost savings to invest in other kinds of things. How would you bring the liability cost down? It seems as if there could be something precarious in doing that if, in fact, people are making legitimate liability claims. Like, how do you bring the cost down if lights are falling on people, they're falling on them? Well, you need to fix your broken infrastructure first. Right. So a holistic way.

Yeah, and so for example, here's something that has happened. We have intersections where people have made complaints about safety. We have intersections where there's been a number of recorded car crashes. Third and Fairfax. I'm sure, is it on the highest number? I can, so I used to be a TMZ tour guide. Really? Yeah.

I was a TMZ tour guide. And there were a couple of intersections in the city where I would tell the people on the bus, okay? Just keep your wits about you. Yeah. Because as we're going through this intersection, I'm not sure if we're gonna make it. There are a couple of really bad ones in the city.

But third and Fairfax right there is one of those ones. Right. Well, so look, if there are places where there's numerous complaints that are being made to the city and then there's a crash there, the city can be held liable if we're not making the kind of design interventions or fixing the stop sign or fixing the crosswalk. we are when when we have these big payouts when we are warned about issues and we don't take action that's when the liability settlements become higher so let's look across the city let's figure out where we've been warned about challenges let's make sure that we're addressing those issues first these are places where you can actually do better at reducing costs in the city proactively and making sure that you're actually planning for a safer city so homelessness is up

this year. Yeah. Okay. Now. Not in my district. Not in your district. Yes. Okay.

So it ticked up. It'd been a couple of years of decline. Yeah. Two questions. Number one, why do you feel like homelessness is on the rise again? Slightly, but up. Yeah. Number two, you are on the city council.

So part of the number you would have to own, right? Yeah. I mean, look, so in my district, unsheltered people went down by almost 50%. Okay. In one year. Can you explain the economic makeup of your district? Yeah.

We have a district, I have a district that is, we have fewer homeless people than other parts of the city, for sure. But this is a percentage increase or decrease, and I don't get extra resources to handle it in my district. We get the same per homeless individual that we do across the entire city, right? But the difference in my district is that we have a team in my office that, that, that, that that we invested in that is relentlessly focused on making sure that people who are in encampments are getting connected to beds and that once they're in those beds, we are actually doing the work

to help them get connected to the next step so that they're not returning to the street. And that work is work that we have really, really invested in in the office. We use data systems from the homeless services authority, monitor our shelters. We are kind of constantly in communication with a very fragmented system of service providers. We're pushing the county Department of Mental Health to show up and actually address mental health needs both on our streets and in our shelters. We've hired a additional street medicine team to get out there and to do work that the county is not currently doing.

And so we're really pushing on all fronts to deliver results. That is scalable for the whole city. I just want to say, you invest in oversight resources at the citywide level. That work is not happening right now. We are investing in 8,000 shelter beds across the entire city. We need, as mayor, I will make sure that we are monitoring every single one of those beds, making sure they're filled on any given night, making sure that residents in those beds are actually getting access to case management, moving them along on the pathway towards getting

permanent housing, whether it's reuniting with their families, whether it's mental health services, exactly what we've been doing in my district, using the data tools that are available to us. I want the whole city to do. That's possible to do. I'll invest in the resources to do it. That transparency and accountability and oversight, I think, is what residents of Los Angeles are asking for. I'm in City Hall. I know that that's not happening, city-wide. Why? You feel like the mayor doesn't care about homelessness or is it incompetence on her part? Yeah, like, compare it to the inside safe initiative that she has. Compare what you want to do. and how it would be different because I know that that's been expensive and we had Mayor Bass

on here and she talked about it. But I guess long term feels like it can be effective. Why is what you're doing versus what the initiative that she's created? Because homelessness has been her thing. Yeah. Why do you feel like yours would work versus hers? So Inside Safe is a piece of the city's investments, right? That's about 1,000 beds. We have 8,000 beds across the entire city that we're investing in. The mayor's office has been very focused on Inside Safe as their prime. primary intervention. But our homelessness investments are actually much bigger than that. We're spending hundreds of millions of dollars across the entire city on a range of different programs that all of our tax dollars are going to. And the county is spending money, too.

And a lot of those investments and activities are happening in our city. I want to make sure that we are looking at every single dollar that is being spent and make sure that it is actually yielding results on the ground just like it did in my district. That requires infrastructure in the mayor's office and in the housing department to do that oversight work, to push on the system across every element of it. That requires real staff with knowledge of every piece of that system. Again, we have that in my district. I want to do that work citywide. We can yield better results across the entire city. We have the money, we have the resources, we have invested in these beds. Let's actually make sure that we are delivering results for the entire city.

So personal anecdote. When I first got here, the first place I started playing basketball was at the Lassianiga on 18th Street, at the LA Fitness, should I say, on 18th Street in Lassianna. They got low roofs in there, so you have to change your whole. jump shot because sometimes the ball will hit the roof. But it's one of the first places I started, first places I started to meet people in Los Angeles. So play there all the time, lost a bunch of weight, playing people, meeting people playing basketball. It's fun.

It's the way I built community in L.A. was on the basketball court. This is a true fact that I'm about to give you. I met a lot of people playing ball there. At least three of the guys that I've met, playing basketball. At that gym, it was about 2007, 2007. when I started hooping in. At least three of the guys I've seen on the street. What?

I'm not bullshitting you. At least three of the guys I've seen on the street legitimately walking down the street and having somebody go, van, van, and turn around and it's obvious that these gentlemen, over different times in my time in LA, it's obvious that these gentlemen are living on a street. That tells me that there's a contagion that exists here in the city that's actually deeper than any band aid. Yes, that's right. That can be applied

as to why that is happening to people. Right. Right. Do you have any thoughts on not the person that is living on the street unhoused right now? Right. But the person that will be in five years or 10 years that can't even see that that is in their future. Because that, to me,

is the real way that you get a handle on an unhoused epidemic. What are your thoughts about how you stop that? Well, this is, I think, the crux of the challenge that we're dealing with here in Los Angeles, which is that people want to talk about street homelessness. People want to talk about tents and encampments. But the reality is that housing insecurity is so much bigger and broader than that. Mental health issues are so much bigger and broader than that. Economic insecurity is so much bigger and broader than that.

and I think we need to be able to actually keep people in their homes, keep them stable, help them access the resources that they need, help them access steady work. This is a broader issue. And I think it's one that falls on black neighborhoods far more strongly than it does in other places because of historic redlining, racism, less access. to housing security, all of these issues, historic patterns of incarceration, any engagement with the criminal justice system makes it more likely that you're going to be experiencing homelessness in your future. That's just a fact. And black neighborhoods are over-policed and there is over-incarceration and all of these

issues are connected. So how do we actually make an intervention here that I think really matters for this? So much of the work around that I've been doing, around housing and security has been about keeping people who are in housing in their housing, making sure that when you are in a home, that you can actually stay in that home. And that means making sure that the rules and regulations

are fair to you as a renter, right? Making sure that you are aware of them and making sure that help is coming to you proactively, maybe even before you know you need it or before you know that help is out there. So two changes that I made, that I think are really impactful, it could be really impactful.

We have, for the first time, when someone files an eviction notice in the city of Los Angeles, they have to also file it with the city itself, with the housing department. And so if you get an eviction notice at your home, the city also gets a notification of that, which means that we can actually go out to people,

and we do this in my district. When someone gets an eviction notice, my council office reaches out to them, and make sure that they know all of the rights that they have, make sure that they know all of the resources that they may have access to, and our staff tries to help people stay housed. That is the kind of system that you can build citywide that can actually stabilize communities and keep people housed,

because once someone is on the streets, it is so much harder to get them off the streets and get them the care that they need and get them back into security and stability. And so that is the vision, I think, that we need to be working towards. It's not just about addressing street homelessness, which feels obviously like the biggest humanitarian crisis that the city is facing, but actually stabilizing communities. That also means making sure that we're doing real economic development work. This mayor actually collapsed the economic development department.

It's now under another department in the city. there's not a focus on economic development across L.A. in the way that we need at a time when economic headwinds are very uncertain right now. We need to be investing in our communities. We need to be investing in our communities of color. We need to be investing in black neighborhoods. And the city needs to be doing that work. There's no one at the city right now that is really tasked with thinking about economic development across the entire city. I want to change that. I want to change that as your mayor. And I think black neighborhoods deserve that.

They deserve that kind of outreach and care. They deserve a city that is working its butt off to earn their votes and earns their trust. Now, some of this rhetoric obviously came from when Spencer Pratt was in the race. But in some ways, people look at you like the boogeyman, right? Like they look at the, no, but like they try to paint you like that. You know what I mean. We talked about it a little bit in the way that they would defund the police. Sure.

Other ways that I feel like that that's been done is the fact that you voted against the anti-camping zones. But you also say you want to reduce encampments. And so one question I would like for you to explain is like, how do you do that without enforcement? Because you voted against that. And then the other thing is the DSA. You have the support of it, but you've kind of pulled away. Have you described yourself as politically independent, right? I mean, I am independent.

I'm also proud to have the endorsement. of the DSA and a whole range of other people, but you don't fully align with it. And so I guess I'm wondering in what ways do you differ? And it was that a strategy also to maybe be more palatable to the citizens of Los Angeles? Well, look, here's the thing. You know, I want to win. I want to win this race, right? I want to make sure that voters can can trust me and vote for me. And in order to do that, I think I have to be honest about who I am and my beliefs and the vision. that I want to see for Los Angeles, right? So I hope that I've been doing that through this race.

I want to earn people's votes. And I want to push back against the, what did you call it? The boogeyman. The boogeyman representation of me. Like I'm a mom from Silver Lake. I care deeply about this city. I want to work to make it better. And on encampments, I don't feel.

think that street homelessness should exist at all in a country this wealthy, in its second largest city, like this is a choice that resulted from years of bad policymaking and we need to choose differently, right? I strongly believe it. The particular rule that I voted against would, at its most effective, have spent precious city resources, scarce city resources moving an encampment from one block down the street to another block. What I have been pushing for is resources actually targeted encampments that can actually move them off the streets and indoors. When you have scarce resources, you have to make policies that are going to be the most effective. And we enforce all of the rules and regulations in my district. You know, there's no camping allowed in

parks. You're not supposed to block ADA access. Like the rules and regulations are enforced. The law is the law. but what I want to do is to actually make it so that we're not even talking about what block an encampment is on, that we are actually talking about people being indoors and in safety. That's the system that I've built out in my district. I want to build that citywide. The Olympics are coming though. And when they come here, the Los Angeles City Mayor will crack down on encampments. Whoever is the mayor, be it you, be it Mayor Bass, be it Mickey Mouse, be it Minnie Mouse.

There will be enormous pressure to let us. Let everyone that is visiting Los Angeles from all over the world to if it's in 27 at some point, whether it's quiet or loud, to send cops out there or whomever out there and clean up the streets. The question is, how would you as mayor respond to the pressure to put the face of Los Angeles first and try to hide the almost Gotham City-esque reality? of downtown Los Angeles and other places from everybody that will be visiting. We can talk about how humane we're going to be about encampments, but the rubber is going to meet the road in about six to eight months.

Look, I've talked about wanting to end street homelessness, right? She's not going to do it in a year now. No, no. Olympics or no Olympics, we're going to have to address this crisis head on with more urgency than we have been so far. We absolutely are going to have to. And I think the voters of Los Angeles know that and feel that. That's why they have a sense of frustration right now.

Olympics or no Olympics, that is the mandate for our mayor. And I don't, again, cleaning up the streets, when you have a police officer go out and address an encampment, unless you offer that person a place to go, at best they will move across the street. And so what I will do is I've made a commitment. to cutting tents and encampments in half in two years by the Olympics and addressing almost every tent and encamp across the city by the end of my first term. I think that's possible. And that means ensuring that every bed is full, every unit is full, bringing people indoors and then moving them on to their next step. That system has to work so much better. I feel a real

sense of urgency to do that work. And I will start right away. And I will not rest until it is done. Before I move on to the entertainment movie situation here in Los Angeles, everybody talking about, you know, Hollywood's leaving and all that stuff, very scary. Before I move on to that, what is your plan for downtown Los Angeles? Like, I lived in the Arch District for a long time. Yeah. And just, like, the blocks away from the beautiful, pristine area of the Arch District in a little Tokyo are some of the most devastating conditions I've ever seen.

Yeah. Look, I think in talking about homelessness across the entire city, I think sometimes we have forgotten the epicenter of homelessness, which is Skid Row. And Skid Row is also a place that requires real focused attention again from the city. But I would say all of downtown requires that. I agree. It's not just Skid Row.

it's every neighborhood. There are empty storefronts. There are fewer people walking the streets. There is, you know, there's more blight across different parts of it, particularly as commercial vacancy rates have shot up in downtown L.A. Commercial vacancy rates in those office buildings are something like 35, 40% now. Foot traffic has decreased significantly. And as safety,

becomes more questionable, people don't want to be there. So businesses are actually moving from downtown L.A. to Century City or to other commercial areas instead of staying in downtown L.A., even when they are still investing in office space, that is a huge problem. So how can we actually take that on head on? I think looking at San Francisco's work is one way of thinking about it. It's a smaller scale, but it's something that we can do at a bigger scale here in Los Angeles. They've created a real task force to address street homelessness there that brings together all of the different departments tracks progress, including fire department and police in as part of the frontline responders and make sure that they're targeting people who are frequent users of those

services first and making sure that week to week they're actually making progress and bringing people indoors. They are doing a program called vacant to vibrant, which I'm really excited about, where the city actually leases vacant storefronts and then sub leases them to businesses, to artists, to nonprofits, that is bringing liveliness back to downtown areas that have a lot of empty storefronts. And actually most of those places that have been subleased are actually staying in those units after the sub lease is over, which is really, really exciting. They're investing in things like entertainment zones, activating public spaces, bringing more services in there.

All of that is possible to do, and we can do it in downtown L.A. We have incredible resources there already that are drawing tourists and drawing residents, drawing people who are eating out there. Let's actually make sure that we're working towards improving the entire neighborhood with a real strategy. Moving on to the film industry, you say that LA lost about 40,000 jobs. I think it might be even more now. Under Mayor Bass, how much of that is under her control and outside of it? And how would you, like your LA film office be different from what she did? Yeah, so the industry is going through a lot of change right now.

And I think it's not, it's mergers, it is consolidation, it is AI. Like there's a lot of uncertainty in the entertainment industry. But I think the city needs to do more to make sure that production stays here and that we're fighting for what Angelinos need. Right now, a lot of our rules around production here are from an era when we could take production for granted. When we thought they're going to be here no matter what. Yeah, we're L.A.

Yeah, we're L.A. Of course they're going to shoot here. And now what we're seeing is that productions are moving to New Jersey, to Atlanta, to Vancouver. So what are we going to do to make sure that excessive permitting fees, rules and regulations that seem excessive around things like police presence and fire department rules and regulations can actually be matching those that are in other places that are making it possible for them to shoot in those places? Can we make it faster to get a permit? Why does it take longer to get a permit here than it does in New York City? Can we make it free for smaller productions or for medium-sized productions entirely?

Can we do self-certification rather than permitting that requires any kind of inspections or oversight by the film office at all with some auditing in place? All of these are changes that are possible for the city to make that are really important. Let's establish a real film office in the city. Right now, under this mayor, we have one film and television liaison who is part-time. He's also the chair of the Board of Public Works. I think we need a real staffed office. I would establish that on day one, including people who knew the city and who knew productions. That's really important.

We have to invite productions to shoot here, not just expect that they're going to shoot here. I also think that the city needs a real advocate in Sacramento that is relentlessly fighting for the kind of tax credit that we need. Other states have better tax credit programs, uncapped tax credits that include above-the-line costs, that are structured in ways that don't. Tell people what that means. People that are listening, are not going to know the difference. Oh, like, above the line is like actors and stuff.

The people that you see above the actual line, the names. Right, right. So, like, other places have tax credits that include, like, what Denzel Washington would get paid. Right. Like, yeah, not just stuff they're, you know, shooting and so like that. And the reason why that structure matters is because all of those are costs that matter to a production.

And so if you don't have a tax credit that acknowledges the real costs that a production has, if you don't have a tax credit, right now our tax credit is a lottery. So producers can't count on it. In other places, they can. They know that if predictability is key for business. And they know that if they go to Georgia, they're going to get a tax credit. Here in L.A., here in California, it's a lottery. It's a crapshoot. And so they can't count on it. And so they don't. So this is a moment for the industry that I think is really, really important. It's like a pivotal moment, right?

So this is a moment for the state to be investing in L.A. and in Southern California in the way that they need to. And I will be the loudest advocate for that in Sacramento. Had you been mayor, how would you have handled the prospect of Paramount leaving Hollywood? Well, I spoke out against it even as a candidate against this merger. And I think the merger, you know, I know that there's a court that's put some breaks on it again at this moment. But I think that mergers have been bad for the industry. we've seen huge numbers of job losses. I was very supportive of the Attorney General's case.

I know Paramount was threatening to leave, but I still think that politicians speaking up, pushing for a speedy resolution, undermined what the settlement could be or could have been. You know, I think it took, it undermined the AG's case, and I was disappointed. to see that. Would you have stayed steadfast

in the city's position, the state's position, and called Ellison's Bluff? Do you think that they would have left had the powers that be actually forced them to make that decision? You know, I think that it,

what I think did happen in this process was that the negotiating position that the Attorney General was speaking from, was weakened as a result of politicians saying that they wanted a speedier resolution. Right, because it's also an incredibly dangerous political position to be in to be in power as the oldest studio in Hollywood leaves Hollywood.

So it's kind of a fucked up position to be in. Yeah, yeah. Well, but I think that we should have, personally, I feel like billionaires are going to make threats. and I think it's up to politicians. I think it's up to elected officials to stand up for what is right and to speak up for what is right and to fight for workers

and to stand strong for workers. And I don't think our governor did that. I don't think our mayor did that. And I was disappointed to see that. Rachel, you got anything else? Actually, no. No. Nothing else?

Okay, so, all right. You love Los Angeles. You love Los Angeles. You love it. Who are your three favorite rappers from L.A. ever? Oh, my God. Yeah. Let's see.

I've been listening to a lot of Nipsey Hustle recently. Wow. Look at you media trained. I'm pretty sure they don't trade her on that. Yes, you know what to say. She's wearing blue. That counts for like three right there. Yeah, there we go.

That's three. No, no, continue. You like Nip? Who else? I like, I'm old. I'm 45 years old. So I'm actually older than you, so I appreciate that. Oh, I'm sorry.

I don't mean that. But I'm, you know, I'm sorry, but I still like my old 90s rap. So like, yeah. And, okay. As you search for the names, keep going. I'm sorry. We're here as you, you get it? I'm just shy.

Here it comes. Here it comes as you search for the names. I was just listening to a lot of jimms. in juice. You like Snoo? Oh wow, look at you. I'm just blushing. It's really embarrassing.

That is not, Snoop's popular. Snoop just hosted to VMAs. Rolling down the street smoking endo, that's the type of dysfunction. Is that your drink of choice? That's the type of choice. I'm like so much.

That's look at you. What kind of degenerate? Rolling down the street smoking endo, we drunk, sipping on gin. and juice. Shout out to Snoop. I agree on everything, but we love Snoop. And I also really like Tupac.

Two Puck. That's a great list. So that's a great list. So that's a great list. So your list is then Nip, Pock, Snoop. Pock is L.A., adopted L.A., but as L.A. as L.A. gets. Okay, cool. So two from the Golden Era, one from the newer, rest of peace to our brother, Nip. Rest and peace to two of those brothers.

All right, so look, you know, I wanted to make sure that. Like my cheeks are hot. Look at. You did pray. Because it's what I listen to in my car by myself. You know, it's just the songs of my youth. So let me ask you a question. When I got to ask you now since you listening to that type of shit.

No, no, no, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. Like, you listen, you, you're listening to that. When you listen to your snoop, you're in your car. There's nobody else around.

There's nobody else around. Do you edit or do you not edit? She knows what I'm about to ask. Are you a, or are you an inward sayer or do you? No, I'm a dancer. I'm a dancer. All I'm doing is dancing. So you're doing the dancing. I'm just dancing.

So nobody's going to pose no videos of you driving down the street. No, I'm a dancer, guys. Two of America's Most Wanted. Pitchie Purcha. I'm playing the perfect picture, bumma. Who's just with precision? He's going to go crazy. That's going to go viral. Let it go.

Well, we'll see how the race shakes out. Like, Los Angeles, I still love so much, having so much fun. If all of you guys leave, enjoy the space on the 45, get the fuck out. But we have real problems, and hopefully, win or lose, both you and the mayor, will be dedicated to helping Angela knows get over this hump because I actually do believe that the glory days are not very far away. We have to be committed to building the society that works for everyone.

Do you guys have a debate coming up? In mid-October. Okay, mid-October. Okay, so I do want to ask you about this. Oh gosh. As a ramen voter, what tactics are you using to be a better debate performer? Because sometimes, Nithia, it seems like you get up there and the mayor is very focused and she is good. And sometimes it seems like your power doesn't translate in these debates.

You think that's a fair criticism? Absolutely. But you know what? I really do try and do my homework. and I know my the first debate performance the televised debate that we had in the primary with me, the mayor, and Spencer Pratt

okay, I didn't. Biden-esque. Yeah. Yeah. Didn't, didn't. Yeah. Not that bad. Excuse me.

The last one, Biden was found fine before. Excuse me. I didn't hear him to say Biden. That is not what I was saying. No. But we wanted to hear more from you. Yeah, no, I hear that. I hear that.

But, you know, we had another debate in Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association. By the way, This will let you guys know, that motherfucker was hard to find. You had to go on YouTube and watch it. Like, they didn't, I don't know if they didn't want to. And then it was you guys, look like I was in a high school gym. We were not in a high school gym.

We were in the Van Nuys Sherman Oaks Senior Center. Okay. Like, what the hell? It's like, it's a marriage debate tonight. You can't find a debate. And then you're at a table, you're at a table, in a room full of white people asking the tough questions. I was like, what the fuck is going on?

Like, what's going on? So the one in October we can expect to be better. Yeah. So that will be on. TV, I forget which network it's on, but I will share that with you. I think it's NBC. Yeah.

And I'm excited about that. I would have loved to have had more debates, but here we are. We got one. And the previous one, I think I did better. Okay, no, I did. I watched you do it. It was better.

Yeah, yeah. I was good. I was trying to like, what the hell is going on? And I will just say, you know, I don't, the one thing about me that I'm very proud of is that I really do try and do my homework. and so I knew I had to get better

and so I worked and I'll continue to work. I hope that I will deliver for you as a better debater. We'll talk about it. I can't wait to see it. I love these debates. The debates are like, we talked about panels earlier. I think this is kind of the same thing. Okay.

All right. Nithia, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. My cheeks are still. The Nipsey surprised me. I said Nipsey. Grinning all my life

Rest and peace, brother. All right, thank you, Nathan. Thank you. All right, that was a councilwoman, Nithia Raman, she's running against Karen Bass. It was interesting because there's one Bass voter, one Vaman voter, Raman. I know, but I don't know if she got that

because you just kept saying, I'm a Raman voter and I was just silent. Well, I said it one time. I said it twice. Yeah. Okay, it was twice. I want to later know that like, and I said, I was like,

she's going to get these questions no matter what. But I will tell you, I am in that 33% undecided. Yeah, oh, you don't support black women. Well, you don't either. It's been said. Yeah, you know, I go through it twice a week. Twice a week.

All Joe Soap, though, I'm not the one that been on Congresswoman Crockett head, you know what I'm saying? You're the one that got something. Get her. Get her! Get her! It's called accountability. Oh, shit. I'm glad you said it not me.

We call you in, okay? You do that with people that you respect. You don't just let them go. Like, you say, like, look, this is how I feel. You do that with family. friends. I say this all the time. You know what I wonder? Like the call in thing is interesting. Not because I love that. Call you in.

I call you out. But I always wonder what we do once we get you in the house. Like once you call somebody in, do you call them in and kick them dead and they nuts? Kind of. We're going to call you in. We'll call you in. We got some, it's like, we're just going to have you sit down. We got some, we got some things to talk about. That's it. Okay, big week for interviews.

We're interviewing Abdul El-Syad. he will be on the show. I don't know if that's going to be this week that that's going to come out. Jade. It's up to y'all. It's up to us. It's up to us.

It's up to us. We also have Thursday Nicole Hannah Jones on the show. Now there's a world where we make the Nicole Hannah Jones interview the entire show as we talk about this issue.

It might be. It could be, but there's other stuff going on. There's a lot of stuff going on. Stuff happening. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see.

We're happening. Okay. Thank you to Congresswoman Roman for coming on the show. She could have, I didn't run my slogan by her that she could have used. What was the slogan? Nithia ramen. Eat this with a bowl of ramen. And inside of the bowl is policies.

Like, think about a commercial where... It's so good, man. Think about a commercial where she's dipping into... Oh, and boom. And she just, oh, and then she, boom, housing, healthcare, all of this. And then inside of this is a bowl with all of the hot piping policies. and answers for Nithia ramen. Eat this.

Brand strategy. Bitch. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? You could put bitch as L.W too. Brand strategy. I mean, that's kind of what TMZ used to do. It's like figure out how to waste how to bullshit people.

It's hilarious. All right. You guys, we're done this week, big week. High learning's back in Los Angeles. Take 10 cops off to not stop learning around family, Ethan Jr. I'm Rachel Lynn Lindsay. Bye, guys.