Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Aldis Hodge Talks ‘City on a Hill,’ ‘Black Adam,’ and More, Plus the Cale Gundy Story and the Latest on Alex Jones

Episode Date: August 9, 2022

Van and Rachel are joined by actor Aldis Hodge to discuss latest season of ‘City on a Hill', the importance of being a Black man cast as Carter Hall in the upcoming DC film ‘Black Adam’, and much more (29:26). Van and Rachel also react to the resignation of Oklahoma football assistant coach Cale Gundy (0:50), the latest in the Alex Jones trials (01:14:53), and debate a love story published in the New York Times (17:04). Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Guest: Aldis Hodge Producer: Richie Bozek Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver

problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfairadio.com. The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the finals with Fandul predicts. Predict the spread, total points, and even the game winner. Sign up and get a $25 bonus. Offered by Fandual Prediction Markets LLC, a registered futures commission merchant, 18 plus. Bonus is non-withdrawable and expires seven days after receipt.

Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tool. Restrictions apply. See terms at Fandul.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash terms. Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? Higher learning is on. It is I, Van Lathan, Jr.

And it's me, Rachel and Lindsay. The N-word! We're wasted. No time today. Go ahead and say what you always say. Nigger. No. We're going to dismiss with the pleasantries.

We're going to dismiss with the pleasantries. Because we have a fantastic interview coming up with Aldous Hodge, his show, City on the Hill is on right now. Him and Kevin Bacon. All right. He also played Jim Brown in One Night in Miami. He also is Hawkman in the upcoming Black Adam movie. We have a great interview with him and we gave you some more

time with Alder, so we're going to dismiss with the pleasure trees and get straight into the goddamn N-word. The N-word keeps biting white people in the ankle. Like a fucking rattle. My ankle? It's past the ankle at this point. It's past the ankle.

Go ahead and tell them what you're talking about. Okay, so Kale Gundy, the brother of Mike Gundy, who you guys might know as the longtime head coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys. If you remember that, I'm a man, I'm 40, that guy, Mike Gundy, who's a very successful coach. But Kale Gundy has worked for the University of Oklahoma for years, I think like 20 seasons. He's been there for a very long time. Been there through different coaches, you know, and he was going to come back and be there the coach. I think he's the wide receivers coach.

This year with a brand new Oklahoma head coach, Brett Venables, they just moved on from Lincoln Riley, or should I say Lincoln Riley moved on from them. Correct. Right. Went to USC. And it's an interesting story here about Kel Gundy who has stepped down from his job

as the wide receivers coach there. in Norman, which is where the school is. And I would like to read you the statement from Kel Gundy as to why he did this. I want to read the statement real quick because I hadn't heard about this and then I saw the statement and I automatically knew what happened here. So Richie, give me some dramatic music here, all right, so that I can read what Kilgundy has had to say to the people.

This is long. Okay. It was long, yeah. As a matter of fact, Rachel, I'm going to read the first part, and why don't you take over at the unfortunate reality? We'll do a dramatic reading of this, okay? So pop it up. Okay, let me get it.

So this is from Kail Gundy, who posted this. I moved to Norman fresh out of high school in 1990. It feels like I never left. I've devoted nearly all my adult life to Oklahoma football. My children graduated from OU, so did my wife. For almost three decades, this university has been my home. These players have been my family. Today, with great anguish, I announced my resignation.

I apologize to those who are disappointed by this news. I owe it to Sooner Nation to be transparent about what led to this decision. Last week, during the film session, I instructed my players to take notes. I noticed a player was distracted and picked up his iPad and read aloud the words that were written on his screen. The words displayed had nothing to do with football. One particular word that I should never, under any circumstance, have uttered, was displayed on that screen. Why the fuck did you say it, Kim? In the moment, I did not even realize what I was reading.

And as soon as I did, I was horrified. I want to be very clear. The words I read aloud from that screen were not my word. words. What I said was not malicious. It wasn't even intentional. Still, I am mature enough to know that the word I said was shameful and hurtful no matter my intentions. The unfortunate reality is that someone in my position can cause harm without ever meaning to do so. In that circumstance, a man of character accepts accountability. I take responsibility for my mistake, I apologize. While considering this decision, I have been overwhelmed by the love and support of those who know me, my character, and my love for this program. I truly appreciate the support my players and coaches have shown. That support means more to me than I can express.

It proves what I've always known about hashtag OUDNA. We are a family. So thank you. Nevertheless, I recognize this is a critical moment for Oklahoma football. This team, its coaches, players, administration, and fans do not deserve to be distracted by off the field matters while working to continue the tradition of excellence that makes me so proud to be a sooner. I won't do the program I love the disservice of distracting from this mission. Effective immediately, I am stepping down. Naturally, I leave these sidelines heavy-hearted. Coaching this football team truly has been my life's passion.

But I leave confident that the team will continue to prosper, And I leave with tremendous love for the University of Oklahoma and its athletics department. Sooner born, sooner bred. And so on, boomer. I'll tell you something we say at UT. It's 602 p.m. central time and OU still sucks. Oh, wow. Wow.

You brought the personal rivalry into it. Let me ask you a question, Rachel. Uh-huh. So obviously, this is what we think happened based upon this message. Right, right. Kel Gundy, who has an impeccable record in terms of coaching, has a impeccable record inside the alumni system of OU. People love him.

During a meeting, the players not paying attention. Kail sees that. He picks up his iPad, and there's some rap lyrics written on the iPad. If there's, if, in fact, if, in fact, is that what they said? Yeah, I read this in a little bit of, another account. There was some rap lyrics written on the iPad.

It's possible that this player is actually listening to Apple music and the lyrics of the song are popping up. You know how it does that sometimes? The lyrics of the song are popping up as he's listening to this, right? And for him to have stepped down,

I don't think he could have like a five-cent racial slur. You know? I don't think a five-cent racial slur is gonna do it here. What's a five-cent racial slur? I don't know, like, jigaboo,

which would never be in the song, you know? Like, but, like, maybe even Koon, maybe even Koon. Uncle Tom is a five-cent racial slur. You know what I mean? I think there's some other ones like that, that maybe if it said spade on there or something, like, you know, the five-cent, well, they got a bunch of different names they call us.

I don't think a five-cent racial slur is going to do it. I think you need the fucking whole dollar. and we know what the whole dollar is, that's the dreaded N-word. He says that. I think some players are pissed that he said it because he probably said it. When he read this, he was probably annoyed.

And so he probably said, look, I'm going to read what's on here. It says, my nigger, my nigger. He probably said it like that. And then there were players that didn't like it, and now he lost his job. How in the fuck? Why on guard's,

Green Earth, if you're Kail Gundy, Rachel, if you're Kail Gundy, why on God's Green Earth? Would you ever in a million years say that? Like, what the fuck is going to Kel Gundy's in front of room full of niggas, to be honest with you? It's the wide receivers.

It's not a white guy in that room. Like, why? There's some exceptions to the rule. Sometimes there is actually, I think they do. A walk on or two. I think they do have a white receiver over there. Number one, I think they have a way. I think the nigga be bawling.

Because, by the way, that's changing. Shout out to Hunter Remphro. Shout out to Adam Feeling. These guys are getting busy. Cooper Cup. That's actually changing. So look, shout out to them. My bad.

I'm not hating. But what the fuck? What the hell, man? Well, I even think you're giving. He said he didn't realize he said it. So it's not like he even said, I'm going to take this and I'm going to read it. My first thought was they are unlimited, limitless in the excuses that they have. in why they said it.

I didn't realize I said the words. I mean, man, just you're a person who says the word more often than me. I'm a person who says the word occasionally. Yeah, you like it. Doesn't it stand out to you when you're reading something and you see that word in the text? Whether it's a song, whether you're reading it in literature, whatever it may be, does that word not stand out to you in a bold glimely? layering way more than any other word on that page.

Yes, but let's not. And you're familiar with it. Yeah, let's not even use that word. Let's say it was any other word. Okay, because it's allegedly, we should say that. We don't know what this word was specifically, right? I don't know what the word was. No, no, I'm not saying that though.

I'm just saying that like any word of that elk, right? If I pick something up and it says the K word on it, derogatory towards my Jewish brothers and sisters, I'm not reading that a loud and room full of people. If it says the F word, derogatory towards men in the LGBT community. I wouldn't read that aloud. Like in front of a room in a professional setting,

remember he's on his job. He's not in like, this is not, they're not at bowling night. You know what I'm saying? Like he's on his job. He's at work reading the N-word. Like, I understand and a lot of people have gone to back for him, Joe Mixing.

I hate that. I hate that. Joe Mixing. Go ahead. Joe Mason. Go ahead. Tell me, why do you hate? No, former OU sooner, played underneath him, obviously,

knew him for however many years he was at Oklahoma. Listen, I don't like that because I think it's so disrespectful to say, well, what I know him and he's never been that, I've never seen that behavior. That may be true for you, but you're not around him 24-7. It also is disrespectful to the people who actually were offended and sitting in that room. We don't know exactly specifically what he said. we don't know how he said it. But we know that there were a room full of black folks in that room who were obviously offended

by what he said. So to discredit it based on, say, your experience was this. So their experience, maybe he's not exactly saying that, but he's saying there's no way based on my experience that this could have been his intention. That takes away from the moment at hand. And I don't think that's fair. I'm not saying necessarily that I think he should have been let go. I don't think that that's necessary.

It's not my job to say that. It's the people who were in that room who heard it and were offended by it, how they were affected, because we don't know how it was used. We're speculating at this point. But I would think that OU would have interviewed these players, would have talked to them, and said, how do you feel playing under this person who read these words out loud to you with no regard for how you might feel about it? Like, that's what you have to take into consideration. Do you feel comfortable taking commands and orders from this coach after he just used? the most offensive word, allegedly, possible to you.

And didn't even recognize that he said it. So let's say it's not the N-word. Let's say it's another... It's an offensive word. It's an offensive word. It probably doesn't change it. But let me tell you, I don't know if he deserves to lose his job either.

I don't think that's the point. If, in fact, he did deserve to lose his job, it wouldn't be because of the word. It'd be because he's the stupidest. motherfucker. He's too fucking stupid to fucking have a job. He's too stupid. This is the worst.

Shoot yourself in the foot thing in a long time. Like, I don't understand. Sometimes I think, let me tell you what I really think. What I really think is that I think sometimes white people saying the word energizes them. It's like a connection to their ancestors. Like part of it, I'm serious, man.

I know you are. I really think that part of them, it makes their dick hard to say the N-word because they know in the back of their mind, America is their country and nobody, especially not a bunch of fucking jigibooos, should be able to tell them what the fuck they can't say. So just saying the word makes them feel like, oh my God, like they're nuts.

It's so dumb to be working at a place for this many years, having gendered all of this goodwill, and then read the N-word. Some shit you know you ain't supposed to be doing. Like, I laughed hysterically when I saw this, not because this man lost his job, but how much of a dunce cap do you have to be? Do you think that he intentionally said it?

Or do you really believe him when he said he didn't recognize it? What the fuck? No, no, of course he's, What? I'm reading words. I'm reading words off of a piece of... Your eyes saw it. Your brain computed it and you fixed your mouth to say it. And here's the thing. If he didn't recognize it or as he's saying, let's just take him for his word. He didn't recognize it. That means he shouted that out, gave the iPad back to the player, and kept conducting the meeting.

We're back to conducting the meeting. And that's even more like shocking as if you just said this and then you're just going to go back to business as usual, listen, if it can slip out of your tongue like that that quickly, it has slipped out a number of times. I'm sorry, you don't get that comfortable saying the word like that and not recognize it. I think him saying he didn't recognize it was even worse. And can I just say the other bad part about this is that he's giving himself a pat on the back for resigning. That's what bothers me. As we did our dramatic reading of his tweet, you don't deserve a hand clap because you decided to resign,

which I also don't believe. They gave you that so you could go out on a high horse. But we're not hand clapping you. We're not, I don't want to hear you talk about the love and support that you've received. This is not the time and place for that. And the fact that he mixed that with his apology

lets me know everything I need to know. I'm sure he'll be sporting an OAN shirt like his brother and will be working on his staff up the street. That's true. That's true. He was going to get another job somewhere. And by the way, Mike Gundy did support an OAN, in shirt,

one American news, and then claimed he didn't really know what it was about. And why's in the family? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson have broken up.

Your thoughts? I could care less. What's the next topic? Yeah, I just want to be honest. I almost forgot they were together when I saw that headline. I was like, huh? They've been kind of quiet lately.

That's what I thought. They've been kind of quiet. Do you know what the interesting thing about it was? I'm sure they had a great relationship. and they cared about each other, you know what I mean? I'm sure they did. But it was almost like their relationship

was defined by Kanye's animus towards it. And the moment he stopped freaking out, people stopped caring about them. Interesting. It was almost as if that the one thing that Kanye was doing to make their relationship more hot

was to keep reminding us that they were together. Now, this is not in any way a shot at Kim or Pete, who I'm sure they had a relationship where they cared about each other, right? And they say they broke up because it's like, whatever. But I think the only reason why people were so obsessed with their relationship

is because he was so obsessed with their relationship. And the moment he kind of stopped obsessing about it, which was too late, which he's assessing about it again, because he's posting like, Skeith Davidson is dead. Like, he posts that like. On a New York

York Times headline. Yeah. But the moment he stopped caring about it, everybody else stopped caring too. That's kind of a thing. Okay, let's talk about this next story. That's do with love. Two people got married.

I just want you to know that I tried to reach out to our dear Trudy Joseph because this was something that I really wanted her take on. But she couldn't join us. She couldn't join us. Go ahead. Stevenson, Ricardo Boyce asked Shahirah, Sharhia, Sharia, Octavia Wade, if she would marry him,

if you meet him in the Popeye's parking lot, in May 2020 for the first day, it was the pandemic. They had hooked up on Hinge. I think it would have been three times that they had not been able to hook up. And this last time, they thought that it wasn't going to happen. So he was like, yo, meet me in this parkline. This Popeye's. Parkingline of Popeyes.

It's the pandemic. Not a lot of places to go. They go. They sit down in the parking lot of the Popeyes. Okay. All right. I'm not playing with you. What I'm saying?

Keep going. Look, look. Look, he says they talked so long that he had a meal. He bought KFC across the street because the line of the Popeyes was too long. They shared a sunset and a first kiss at this very romantic situation. When they met, he had been met. met, he was juggling a handful of women. But he said after a couple of dates, those other five women became obsolete very fast.

He cut them off. He proposed that December while they were visiting Barbados for the holidays. His friend thought the trip would be a perfect moment for a proposal, and he bought the ring for the proposal. His friend, Wayne Austin. Boyce paid him back on July. By 23rd, they got married in front of 117 guests in Vermont. I look at this story as a beautiful story of love persevering. So look, so look, I choose to look at this story as a beautiful story.

Love person. Let me tell you what Love beat in this story. Love beat the pandemic. Love beat all those five other women that he cut off to be with her. Okay. love beat vacation because vacation turned into a place where they could get married

where they could propose love one in this situation Rachel, where are you going? I don't, I don't, I, people people are looking at this and they're looking at it in some kind of way as a negative and I really don't see it. You are, first of all, you're an instigator

and that's okay. I will respond. I will respond to all the that you just said. First off, I want to go back to the way you told the story because I'm going to tell it a different way. This woman met this man on Hinge. He had canceled on her twice. The third time they were about to go on a date, he called her and she knew he was going to cancel again. And she said, if that's what you're going to do, don't ever reach out to me again. He then proceeded to say, you know what, why don't we just drive over to this Popeye's parking lot and meet for five minutes? He gave her five minutes.

They obviously had a nice conversation. He went longer than five minutes. But as the text says, he ate a meal from KFC. They shared a sunset and a kiss. He ate that meal in front of her and did not give her anything. because the line of Popeyes was too long. So he ate a KFC. How do we know she wanted something?

They look at the text. He ate this, but they shared this. That is purposefully written. I can't believe it. Then, then they go on. He stops, oh, excuse me, he stops talking to five women because he realizes he doesn't struck gold with this woman. Okay.

Now, the text doesn't say what this man does, but we know what she. does, right? She's got a top job at a great company. Oh my God. She got a top job. I need Trudy. She had a top job at a great company. She had a list, like a life plan, what she wanted to happen in six months a year, this. And then they end up getting married because his friend suggests that it would be a good idea to propose on this trip, not him. And a friend, who does this? This friend buys the ring and allegedly this man paid him back.

Okay. This is a man. First of all, this makes me so sad for single black women out there. Black couple, by the way. This makes me so sad. Is this how, like this to me, this woman so badly wanted her life plan to go accordingly. So badly wanted to hang on to something. So badly wanted a significant other that she was willing to settle for anything. I saw somebody say this man was thinking, I saw somewhere that this, that this, somebody said this man wanted to be a dog. And I have to agree.

That's where we're headed with this one. This woman took all the initiative in this relationship and he took none. This man is what wants to be taken care of and she just wants somebody in her life. And this is so sad to me. These are such. This man had all the options and she had none. He was talking to five women because he was like, oh shit, I got it made right now. This makes me so sad.

You are going so far. love story. You are going so far in assuming all of these things that we really don't know. I'm reading. I'm reading. I'm reading it. I'm reading it. We really don't know.

Number one. There's sarcasm in this New York Times article. Can be else with you? Can be else with you? Number one. Why are we taking away her autonomy to decide what makes her happy? Why are we? Why do we love shame people?

She's, because their relationships might not be, look. She settled. And I feel so bad that she was How did you know that she? I feel so sad she had to do that. How do you know she settled? You know what?

I got to be honest with you, man. This man did not share his food with her. He canceled on her multiple times because he had other options. And then he said, I'm going to give you five minutes. Can I be honest with you? But I'm going to eat this mill in front of you while I do it. This man is disrespectful to her. What I'm telling you right now is men chase women all the time.

All the time. Okay. Men chase women. Women. How many times have you heard a story from a woman? Well, back in the day when it was okay to do this. Now, if she says no, like, if she says no to the date, don't ask her out again. Because you never know where that's going to go.

But how many times have you heard from a woman, at first I wouldn't go out with him. He kept asking. He kept asking. He kept asking. He kept asking. He kept pursuing it. and then I decided, okay, I'll meet them for coffee. Not even go to dinner with them.

Okay, I'll meet them for coffee. Okay, we could do, okay, I'll meet it from coffee. Then all of a sudden, these two people are married, got a bouncing baby, a bundle of joy around the house. So you mean to tell me that just because the gender dynamics here are switched, that all of a sudden is toxic? Like, they had been going out before. They couldn't make it happen.

She said, look. Oh, is that that night? He was canceling on her. But what I'm saying is I've heard that situation before women before, right? Even a situation where I've heard like, hey, I kept flaking on them. I didn't really want to do it. But boom, whatever, whatever. And now they're married.

The only thing that matters, it doesn't matter how they got to the point to where they fell in love. It just matters that they did. And I really think that if we're going to examine what's happening here with the male-female dynamic, we have to examine the toxicity that is now being displayed by women. You're not listening to me Because I'm not saying it's a gender role thing I'm saying this is a man who was not interested in you And I feel like she was settling with him

I'm saying if the genders were swapped No fucking body would have a problem with it If the genders If the genders were swapped No one would have a problem with it Not one person would have an issue with it Not at all I guess I've just heard this story

See to me he seemed to be disinterested with her and was like, fine, I'm just going to flippantly give you some time. And then when I look at things after, I feel like, I personally feel like in that conversation, he heard what she did, what, what all these, all these beautiful things. And it was like, oh. And then maybe it was nice. Maybe he was like, wow, this is a quality woman. Why am I wasting my time?

But if it was a quality woman, he didn't take the initiative to say, knowing her life plan, I want to spend my time with her. Your friend had to tell you this would be a good idea and boss. the ring. This isn't, like, you have to put all this stuff together and realize,

like, this isn't a man who's proactive in any kind of way. I just, I just, it's like, I'm telling you,

I'm telling you straight up, number one, I just got two checks in the mail. One for $23, one for $23. The other one for $3,7. Since, um,

but look, I'm bawling. Look, I'll tell you guys this. I understand. I think we got to get, we got to come off these, I think that these Cinderella stories and these like snow white stories have rotted our brains. Love happens in so many different ways. Love happens.

They met on Hinge, man. Which is not bad. I know people who've got married off of Hinge. Right. So right, right off the bat, it's untraditional. They got to, traditional way. They're getting married. They're celebrating their love. Why do we all have to have an opinion about how these two souls found each other? This article struck a nerve on

Twitter. So obviously, I am not alone in the way that I'm... Oh, you're definitely not. In the way that I'm feeling. Something is not right about this. And I would like for the whoever wrote the article to give us a six month update and then I would like a year and thereafter. And by the way, if they do get a divorce after six months or a year or three years, they won't be no different from the rest of you, motherfuckers. They might not.

I'm just curious. That get married and divorced all the time. That's not the divorce. I just want to know the reasoning. The reason. I want to hear from the sister. I want to hear why the sister let, why it ended.

That's what I want to hear. She loves them. They should have kissed. I hope she does. I hope I'm wrong. In the Popeye's parking lot. It was the pandemic. If I love it, the pandemic.

Okay. What happened to parks? You know what I mean? You could have stood outside. You could have waited until the daytime. And you could have watched the sun rise. I mean, sunset at a park. It was close.

By the way, why are you? That's your standard. You could have gone for a walk. You could have gone for a walk. You could be around in a COVID. It's the pandemic, but I'm going to sit in a closed car. It less than six feet away from you. Get out of here with that mess.

Get out of here. I just. They was kissing. So the pandemic is not an issue. Get out of here with that. But they trusted each other. Maybe they didn't trust other people. Maybe they, okay, anyway, whatever.

All right, you guys, we promised you an interview with Aldous Hodge, whose show City on the Hill is on now, him and Kevin Bacon. He also is starring in the upcoming Black Adam movie as Connor Hall, aka Hawkman. He played Jim Brown in One Night Miami. And he is a friend of the show and someone who we have a. shit ton of respect for. We're going to give you that interview on the other side of this break. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech.

Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner. Or a road trip goes sideways. Catchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors.

So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech. unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four

weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, training is required. Tremfaya is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramfaya today.

Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit trimfair radio.com. You guys, there's a superstar in the house right now. Nah. This is a superstar in the house right now. A guy whose career is just, it must feel so good. Just being taken off like this. Been around for a long time, but it's just part. popping up everywhere.

His show, City on the Hill, is due to come back. When is the show coming back? It's coming back like in a couple of weeks, right? Well, it's actually back now. We're airing now. We're in the second episode.

Just aired. Yeah, yeah. So we hear it now, man. We hear it. And big, big things down the road, two huge movies. All this, Hodge, joins us today. on higher learning, give it up for him.

Look, I got a question. I got to talk about, I got to talk about the show. Let's talk it out. Let's talk it out. I got to talk about City on the Hill, okay? Because, you know, you've had like a wide range of roles that you've played. You played MC Wren. Yeah, yeah.

You played Jim Brown. Yeah. In one of the most devastating scenes that I've seen. Like, you've played throughout the whole but that first scene when we meet Jim is a fucking doozy. Of course, we're talking about one night in Miami.

I didn't think it was going to go that way. Like, I'm serious. I'll tell you like this. Like, I actually just sat with a camp yesterday had some lunch. Camp, by the way, is like, undisputed writing genius. That brother's killing it.

Whatever he's got cooking up, that brother, he's going to hitch out with me, him and Regina on that film. I'm talking about Superstar Tag Team Duo because you don't get that quality of film without the mindset and the partnership that they had on it. You don't get the direction. But with that scene, the thing I love about it so much

is that it was polarizing and shocking for some people, but it's also very honest and real for others. You're from Baton Rouge, right? Of course. Yeah, and you, Rachel, you from Texas? Yeah. Now, look, I don't have those moments in real life. So have I.

It's a couple of folks I had to cut out my life. And then the weird thing to me is that they question and wonder, why did we stop talking? I wonder. You have proven to me that the value of my life as a person, as a man, as a black man, does not mean anything to you based on what you've shown me in terms of how you think. But the surprising thing to me is when audience members, come up and I didn't know it was like that or, you know, people who watch your film and really

feel and love it. I didn't know that happens. And the question I have is in today's time, with all of the evidence that we have, with all the experiences, how do you not know? And how is it so far removed? But then again, there are people who walk around living a completely different existence and experience of what America is versus certain others. You know what I mean? So the thing that I love about that scene so much because that is the one scene I talk about or people talk to me the most about. That thing, man, it did his job.

It was placed perfectly. It hit where it needed to hit. It was a perfect mix of somebody who sat there and thought they respected this person, thought they were an ally, thought they were cool and friends, and then didn't realize how he actually, how degrading his thought processes

when he actually looks at this man. It looks at Jim Brown. And Jim Brown. I mean, Jim Brown. Jim Brown. Yeah. Top, timiddy top,

Timity Top. You know what I'm saying? You know, and it's just like, that's what was real, you know? Well, and City on the Hill.

Yeah. I'm going to move my homeboy because he's like, sure. Don't, don't move. Don't you ever move Grogu. Move Grogu back into the, come on, man.

Make sure you keep Grogu in the, in the, in the, don't move. And I actually know who that is, because if you listen to the podcast, you know. Thank you. Thank you so much. So in City on the Hill, in the City on the Hill, you play basically the police, right?

You're a DA. How do you... So, Chegg. Okay, how do you get ready for that? Tell me about that. What's that like? All right, so Chaggy. So he's in ADA, an assistant district attorney,

and then as we've seen through seasons, he's moving on up. But he's, you know, the DA is the top cop in the city. you know what I mean? But for him working in that office, he got to what he got to because his value system of justice and what that actually is or what it should be applies to everybody, meaning that, you know, as we see in the pilot, his motivation in Boston is taking down bad cops, cricket cops, brothers and sisters who have abused their positions of law,

who have abused their, what they would call power, which is actually responsibility to people. So that's, you know, where he's in there. He's working within a system that works against him, but he's there to shake it up. So for me, in terms of approaching it and dealing with the creator, Chuck McLean on this, for me, the idea was where can I attach my own personal values? And I rock with that. You know, I respect law enforcement, police. I respect that whole.

But I also understand there are people who take positions only to take advantage of their position in. And those people have to be dealt with a question. accordingly. You should not be protected just because of your affiliations. So for me, to be able to represent whatever that voice might be in this particular space and how we get to execute that, I was interested. I was excited to see where it's going to go. Yeah. So my legal eagle, my legal eagle is a little rusty on this podcast. We always talk about that. But you do play, you do play an attorney on this. And my dad is so interesting that you just said that because my dad The judge. The judge always said, if you want to make a difference, you need to be on that side. Because I want it to be a public defender at first. He said, you want to make a difference. You need to be, fans smiling. You need to be in the room, in the room with the people who are deciding what charges are dished out and how it's all going to go down. So I respect that. Do you like playing an attorney? Give me your best legal eagel, your legal jargon. Give us something. You like it. I could tell.

based on my personal deductive reasoning. And how we, you know, no, for me, you know, I don't mind the job title, you know, attorney. What kind of attorney is what I'm interested in? Like, what are you doing and why are you doing it? You know, where are you at? So for me, rocking with being an attorney is interesting because of the lives that person gets to impact. but I wonder how he will be used. Is it in a creative way where we get to see lives sort of unpacked

in a way we never have before? And that's the thing that I'm always pushing for with every character regardless. Granted, you know, it's like, I'm an attorney. That means I'm going to have to be in a suit 24-7. I got three, four, five different suit changes in a day. It's a lot of tie-t tying. You know what I'm saying?

a lot of that. But now, we're in the 90s and we get to talk about different things. And what's kind of wild for me is people say, you know, this is the 90s when we're talking about social justice, rather injustice and race relations and how I'm policing and how it goes on. They're like, well, you know, it's a little different than the 90s. I'm like different from when, where, why, and how. It's not different. Only difference between then and today. technology, access to information, the expediency of getting to that information. But as far as the situations, racial injustice and how we deal with one another, or rather how the criminal law system deals with us, I haven't seen much of a change. I've only seen an evolution

of how things are accomplished based on the tools they have access to, right? So, I'm like, bro, we have in the same conversation, trust. The audience is going to understand and feel it because when you Google, when you turn on the doles, when you do whatever, just to look outside, we've been speaking so loudly, which now, you know, I'm glad that people can, they don't have to have a platform. They can create their own platform. I would say that's probably the primary difference from now to the 90s back in the day. you were speaking and you had to figure out how to galvanize a lot of energy just to get yourself heard and seen today, you don't need as much effort because you got the internet, you got social media, you got all these, and if you use it properly, you can do some, well, you can

get into some real good trouble. Absolutely. So I got a couple more questions about the show because I definitely want to talk to you about some other things after. But we got to talk about Kevin. I wonder what they could be. Yeah, you know, you know what's going on. I want to talk about Kevin Bacon.

Yeah. Because you start, Kevin Bacon, I don't think Kevin Bacon knows what an American treasury is. You know what I mean? I don't think, I don't think, I don't think motherfuckers like Kevin Bacon get that they're Kevin Bacon. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. I don't think he does. I don't think he does.

What was your favorite Kevin Bacon movie before you started working with? Kevin Bacon on this. What was your go-to Kevin Bacon? I would say actually it wasn't even a movie. It was a TV show. I believe it was called The Following. Oh. Yeah.

About the whole cult and, you know, it's, I was like, bruh, that was hard. You know, I was that? But for me, tremors was something. Trimmers is tough. Yeah. Yeah, bruh. Tremors? Because I saw it when I was so young, I would literally be afraid to walk around like on a sidewalk.

When I saw a crack, I'm like, oh, you know what I'm saying? But the one, I mean, like, I got a lot to say about Kev because he's really just fantastic. Just a great person to work with. Great, great in person. He's really humble. I've never seen any side of him other than, you know, a brother who's just cool. He gets it. He's grateful. him and his whole family great. You know, his wife, Kara, she came on and directed as well. Yeah, and he's just a real class act. And it's like you would think because you are Hollywood royalty at that point, you know what I mean, that the, actually I will say this. What I've learned from people who actually understand what their influence is

and know how to use it and they have a healthy respect for the crafting the people around them, they understand how to handle it with so much grace. There's a couple of cats that I see who are Hollywood legends, royalty, and they handle themselves accordingly. That's, you know, Kev, just had the honor of being able to work with Pierce Brosnan. That brother is a gym. You know, with those cats, I sit there and I study and I'll watch because you've got to learn, first of all, if you're an artist, you're a consonant student.

There's never a point where you're going to stop learning. So you've got to understand that going into a room, learning from any and everybody. Folks you rock with folks you don't rock with it. But watching, you know, Kev and other cats like that, you get to learn how to do it right, and how to come into your space as you mature into your career and the best way possible because you're still going to keep going and you're still going to keep leaving an example. But you got to be conscious of what that example is. And that brother, he's dope.

I will say that. I'm going to give you a message to give to Kevin Bacon real quick. All right. I want you to give a message to Kevin Bacon. Tell Kevin Bacon. Wait, Rachel, do you know what the message is? She doesn't know. I do not. And I'm hoping it's not like a six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

It's not a six degrees of Kevin Bacon thing. Tell Kevin Bacon, on behalf of the black community, we have a request. Please don't fuck up. And let me tell you why. Kevin Bacon is beloved, man. He's beloved. We're talking about. We're talking about wild things.

We're talking about he was in a movie about invisible people. Remember that joint? You know what I mean? Invisible man? No, he was in invisible man. Kevin was in, what was it called mirror man or? No, it was clear. I know what you're talking about.

Yeah, like. I can see him. Yeah. He was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And he was in the river wild. If I wake up one day and I see that Kevin Bacon went to the wrong march or is hanging around the wrong people or tweeted the wrong thing, I'm going to fucking lose it, Hodge. No, no, no. Tell Kevin Bacon, we need to be able to believe in Kevin Bacon. Tell Kevin, please don't fuck up, bro. You ain't got to worry about Kevin at all.

No, Kev is dope. I mean, look, I remember having a conversation with Kev, you know, on the show, we go into some really deep pockets of sensitivity when it touches on racism or even racial slurs. Sure. And, you know, Kevin and I both serve as EP's on the show. And I remember him coming to me like, oh, do you think we should have like, you know, like sensitivity counseling, somebody who's. they're on set to be, you know, with everybody, with the actors or whatever.

When we're constantly repeating these words take after take, do you think that, you know, I mean, I would like to, you know, let's bring somebody in to at least be a bounce to talk to, you know what I'm saying? Somebody almost like a therapist or something like that because, you know, he's thinking that way. He's thinking unconsciously about how to address other things and other people who have to deal with things that he doesn't have to deal with. You know what I'm saying? He's very aware of that kind of stuff.

And I thought that was amazing, you know, for him to come and be like, look, do you think this is something that we should really bring to the table? And, you know, because when you're shooting, you know, the intention from our actors is never there to inflict or trigger, right? But when you hear over and over and over, some people do have. episodes where they say, oh, this might be a little bit much. So for him as an actor and as an EP, they want to take care of his people in that way,

I think that's really commendable, but that's what he is. You know, that's the, you know, salt of the earth that that brother is. So, again, I got nothing but respect for Cap. Love to hear that. Hollow Man is the movie. Hollow Man. It's Hollow Man. It's Hollow Man.

Love that choice. Josh Brolin as well. Did you remember that or did Danny lick it up? I have another question. You already know. If you listen to this podcast, you know I looked it up. But the point is,

I educated y'all on it. I think the first time I saw you was on girlfriends. When you were Darwin Davis, and I was a fan of girlfriends. I remember that. And I remember you don't know this fan?

Man's making a confused face. You're not watching. I don't know. Go ahead. My bad. I thought Dural was playing. Here's by pooch, right? On the actual game.

But they introduced, if you're OG girlfriend's fan. They introduced Tia with him before for like four episodes or so somewhere around there to introduce the game because she's

Tracy's cousin, I think. Right? Yeah, it's a backdoor pilot. Yeah. Yeah, I was on the pilot. Yeah, that was back when I was 19. Dang. That's when I first saw you.

I believe that is. So a lot of fans of girlfriends were disappointed when we didn't see you on the game. And then I was looking into it. And I don't know if you're aware of this, but a lot of people were speculating that it had something to do with colorism. Have you seen that? Do you know anything about that? Can you comment on that? Because I was shocked that people, that people, that's what people were speculating.

People were very upset. Well, I'll put it like this. I don't know the full, full weights of the truth on that. I do know that there was a merger with the networks at the time. A lot of cooks in the kitchen, a lot of people had different decisions. So when it came down to the cutting room floor after we did the pilot, I mean, we got picked up. But not all of us got picked up. And I wrestled with that for a long time trying to figure out why, what it, you know.

But then again, where I settled was understanding that God moves things out of your pathway so that you can walk towards the right thing for you. And that set me on a path mentally and professionally to go hustle a different way. And I don't think my career is where it is today if I hadn't adopted that mentality, that hustle that fight. So you have to look at the, for anybody out there who's going through some, you've got to look at. look at every perceived failure as a win because it's going to show you and teach you where your potential is at. It's going to teach you to move. So for me, for everybody, I can't answer the exact question because I ain't got the answers.

But I will say this, why did I get removed? City on the Hill, Black Adam. That's the answer. Wow. Ah, so glad I asked. That's a lesson for everybody, though. Seriously. I hope y'all don't hear that car horn out there.

I don't know what's going on in the streets, but... Before we get to Black Adam, I have to ask you about the Invisible Man. Because let me tell you what happened. Let me tell you what happened. Yes. So I'm watching a movie, Invisible Man. Colleen Kalika's with me. You know, we're watching a movie.

And, you know, it's during the pandemic and stuff when I started... We started to get fluffy. And people are starting to get out of shape. And I'm like, you know, what is all the time? what's doing, man. This nigga's slow, bro. Like, what, it's like, I knew it was going to be a thing.

I was like, I just know my mom gonna call me. She did, by the way, called me, asked me if I knew you. You know what I mean? I was like, I play basketball with his brother and being him don't,

no, don't do it. Hey, stay away. Stop. Don't do it. Don't do it. Who's idea? We got to send us to Ms. Krista.

Who's idea was it to have you? How does that work? Does somebody go? Does war? go, hey, like, we're going to put him in the tank top for this scene with him. And, and, and, and then we're going to make this a meme. Or do you go, I want to come out like, how does that work?

How does that work? How does the swaness? How did the swalleness make the final cut in the movie? Well, at first off, starts off with a conversation with me and the director Lee Wannell, who's dope. He wrote directed that joint. You know, it's like, look, man, this is the way I feel comfortable. my size now and I'm trying to, I'm not trying to fall back.

Because sometimes jobs will tell you, hey, bro, get skinny, stay skinny. Right? You know what I mean? And it's just, it's a lot. So for me, I was in a good space of health and I wanted to stay there. I didn't want to, you know, retract, but he said it's cool. And then, you know, you show up to the wardrobe fit and then they don't have large or extra large. Every size is medium. And you're just like, well, all right, this works. But if it adds to the kids, we're going to rock with. You know, will I change?

I have changed physically for a role. Lost weight, gain weight, all that. But for me, I was just, you know, in that space. I was feeling good and I wanted to stay there. They were like, hey, no. What did you think about when the pictures blew up on Twitter and everybody's sending them around? What did you think?

I didn't even, first of all, I didn't even notice in the beginning. My mom and my sister had to head me to that because I stay off, like Twitter, as far as comments, all that. I stays as far away from that. Yeah, yeah, you got to. Even the nice comments could still be unhealthy. But when it came down to that, I thought it was funny,

but then I started seeing all these memes about my butt. And here's the thing, though. Here's the thing. Because there was a shot, I guess, I was at the refrigerator or whatever, and I had my slacks on, and maybe some folks thought it was a good angle. But people get really,

really dark and they're whaling out. So I saw my body and my face Photoshop on to a lot of unsavory images that we don't need. And I'm sitting there like, no, what the hell is going on? I never want to see this game. But no, it's funny because honestly, I wasn't even feeling like I was doing nothing with myself.

You know, I was like, all right, you know, there's a couple push-ups, some squats. I'm feeling okay, all right. You know, it made me feel all right until I got to that weird stuff. Y'all keep that. Right. You were in some group chats. You were, the meme circulated some group chats.

Yeah, I didn't even realize. Moving on to Black Adam, which you know is not, it's not my world, but I'm learning. I'm learning. I'm like to ask you every single question about every character, every superhero in that film. I'm about to ask you all. Hold on my signal.

What was that? Yeah, see. Yeah, see, she's acting. Oh, oh, no, no. Oh, the signal? Don't worry about it. It's recorded. We can repeat that.

We can go back. I said every week caricature and super world hero in the movie. You're just coming off Comic-Con, which I was there. I went for the first time. Wild, wild experience. Yeah. I actually want to go back and do the whole thing. I was only in for a quick second.

But you did the rounds. You didn't come to my panel. They didn't have me. I'm so sorry. They didn't have me. You're Rachel Lindsay. You know what I'm saying? You'd be on the car.

That's why I tell her. And that's why they didn't have me. They had somebody who was well-versed in the DC universe. They said she wasn't about to embarrass us on this show. Get your girl, man. Get your girl. I'm trying. Next time.

Next time. I want to know this because this was making the rounds. Yeah. At Comic-Connor, what did it feel like to tell the Rock to fuck off? What's that feeling? Look, it's a feeling of maybe I just lost my job. Now, so here's the real. And I told the story on stage.

He's actually, look, even on Rock's Instagram, he posted our whole conversation. Word for word. He called me, and this is first of all, auditioned. It's been a couple weeks that I heard nothing from anybody, right? So yeah, but somebody had been playing my phone. There's somebody who still plays on my phone today. It's talking about, yo, this is such and such. It's my new number. Hit me da-da-da. And you're sitting there thinking you having a conversation with somebody you know. And then you're like, wait, hold up. Wait, what? You know what? You know what I mean? So he hit me from, it was a,

you know, a hidden number. And of course, you know, protected. And it was almost, like a little bit of shock of this belief of not wanting to really give in. So when you hit me yo, it was DJ, I was like, somebody's doing a real good job of pretending to be him because I didn't expect him to call.

That's not how it works. It's your aging and your manager's going to call you. So, hey, this is DJ. Nah, bro. No, bro. No, yo, man, stop playing on my line. You know what I said, bro. Stop effing the right. Like, I don't have time for this. You know what I'm saying? I told him a couple different ways. Stop playing because I had just been through

this a couple times on text with a couple other folks, whoever was playing hitting me, yo, I don't have time. This is not the day. And this is, then he starts talking, and once he starts talking about the job,

you know, you know, sorry you're taking Black Adam. I was like, oh shit, it's real. That's it's really him. Okay, got it.

Mm. You know, right? And, but no, we just laughed about it. We laughed about it, man. And,

um, oddly, enough it's one of the strangest, but I think coolest introductions to, to working with somebody, a relationship with somebody. And we had a great time on set, man. He's a cool brother. He's like an unstoppable machine when it comes to the work ethic and not even just that, but actually the strategic flow of how he handles business.

Interesting. If you want to study how to get a million things done at once, watch that brother. Yeah, he handles business. It's actually one of our first conversations. I said, look, man, I do a lot of things. How do you manage your time? Because I'm trying to figure that out. But, no, once we got past the industry shock and all a lot,

you know, we were able to just talk about how unbelievable this opportunity is for both of us and everybody involved. Because this really is one of those things that it's like a bucket list item. You know what I mean? to be, this is huge, it's crazy. And the fan love has already been insane. I mean, Comic-Con was nuts in the best way possible. So, you know, and I, look, I've seen, you know,

an early cut of the film. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I can tell. No, no, I can tell. I can tell, see, the brother there covered in the Ifth Metal. He's ready to go. Like, like, I can tell.

I can tell Black Adam is one of those ones. So you're assuring us that the movie is going to come out, right? I want to come out. That's what it. Right, right, right. I want to ask you about that. I want to ask you about that. As a performer, and obviously we're talking about the fact that DC,

which is the universe that your movie is going to be a part of, just had a really big film starring a very talented actress that they shot, and the movie is not going to come. come out. They're doing what's called a write down on the movie. The film is bad girl. The actress is Alicia Grace. The movie is not coming out. As a performer, because I think a lot of people talk about, oh, what does that mean for the DC-EU? What does that mean for a streaming service? What does that mean for the storyline? But as an actor, as an actor, if you were her and you had worked on something and that was going to be such a big deal for you, and then it wasn't going to come out.

what do you think that would feel like? How would that affect you? And how did it affect you when you heard it? So I can't imagine what she's going through. I think it's such a loss because I'm sure she went in there, full course, put in 150%. And it's tough. I've been a part of productions that you finish, you complete,

and then they're like, yeah, we can't come out because of this reason. And you're like, wait, wait, what? You know what I mean? I actually know that feeling, maybe not of this magnitude of, you know, pioneering this whole huge superhero franchise. But I have been in a part of projects that had great potential, big projects, big company, studios. And then you're just like, wait, what? You have to figure out, the first thing you have to figure out is how to maintain a peace of mind, you know, sense of yourself because it hits. And it's hard sometimes to recover from because you're not even thinking about the film and itself.

You're thinking about how it lays out the, or how it paves out the road for your career. Now, she's definitely going to work again. She's going to bounce back for sure. She's incredibly talented. And I just hope the bounce back is the rewards from the bounce back come tenfold. You know what I mean? There's, there's, again, going back to that sense of, did I lose something or did I gain an opportunity?

You know what I mean? And this is not what, this is not the totality of what will define her career. But it can pioneer or spearhead her opportunities in a very different way. Right. You know what I'm saying? Because she deserves that shot. So again, I can't imagine what she's going through or what she feels. I just wish her well and I wish her the best because I know that feeling of when you think something

happening and they just, boom, you know, it's almost like somebody pulls a rug out from Monday and you're like, well, why? They give you these reasons. And you say, it still doesn't make sense to me because we still could have made, you know what I mean? We still could have tried, but and honestly,

as a fan, because I grew up a DC fan, I grew up on all the comics, graphic novels, Marvel, all that. Like, I was looking forward to seeing it. Of course. I definitely was too. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I was looking forward to seeing it. I was like,

As a fan, I'm like, yo, what we doing? You know what I mean? But I just, I will say this. I can't wait to see her in the great vehicle that is truly meant for her. I can't wait to see whatever that is that's next. Because she, she going to hit. Please believe. She's going to hit.

Yeah. You know, and she already did, honestly. She already did the setup. She's got the positioning. She's about to go blast off. and, you know, I'm just here to support her whenever she, whenever we get privy to that next move she's making. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like a lot of people are rallying around her and supporting her. Question. Yeah. Question. For someone like me, you know, who's dipping their toe into this world, learning terms like DC, EU.

I didn't know about the EU part of it. They still do the universe. Yes, yes. No, no, I know. No, I know now. I know now. I know now. I know, band's like itching.

I know. But for Black Adam, we're hearing about it. We're seeing, you know, all the talk from Comic-Con and all of that. What would you say to draw me in or what do I need to do to prepare to be ready for this film? Is there something I should watch before? Is there some kind of like leading into Black Adam? If you don't know anything about the superhero world, watch. us to learn about the superhero world.

Because... So I can start from scratch, okay. You can watch us to learn because it is every much an introduction as it is an invitation, right? You're getting an introduction to who Black Adam is. You're getting an introduction to the JSA, the Justice Society of America, who, if you're a real OG fan, you know, Justice Society of America was the very first composed superhero team ever.

Yeah. Boom. So you're getting to learn, you know, a lot of... lot. If you're someone who feels like you're, this movie's not for you because you really don't dig into superheroes and all that, it's for you because it is about a man's journey. He's a champion. He's dealing with real things. And that's the thing that I love about this film and the way they sort of, you know, orchestrated Black Adam's narration is that the brother's coming from a real situation. He's coming from some real emotions about family stuff, about love,

about loss. So at the end of the day, powers or not, you know, you're looking at a brother who is a champion who is fighting for something human.

And we can all connect to that, right? So you don't have to know, you don't have to know how to dance to come to the party. Just show out. Yeah, show up.

Have a good time. Show up. You're playing Carter Hall, which, to be honest with you, we've been waiting to see Carter Hall, Hawkman. He's been on screen before. He's been on screen before.

Smallville. It's been a couple of places, but he's been in live action, but never like this with respect to everybody else who's played the role before. Never in a movie this big with woof-o-o-o-o-o-wings out with this type of budget. That was the one. I first saw it. I'm like, oh, shit. I just put the whoosh-oosh. You see you of it. I did. I sent you to picture. I'm like, don, this is epic. Carter Hall, though, in the past, played been played by white guy. Okay. There is, there are people online that when you're yourself, a black man plays a character like Carter Hall or when Anthony Mackey takes over the mantle of Captain America or when you

have a Miles Morales come in and be in and it's Spider-Man, whatever, whatever it has you. There's talk in the other universe, you guys is competitors, but it's all the same thing. It's all family. that maybe Giancarlo Esposito might be in line to play Professor Xavier that people get mad. Yeah, people get mad. Yeah. Yeah.

What do you say to people who say that you're a black man and you should not be playing a character who's traditionally shown up as white? What do you say to people that get mad about that online? I actually don't say anything to them at all. I just look at, for every one person who was against me, simply because of the color of my skin, there's 10 more people that are jumping out the woodwork, going to bat and defending me.

And I just look at that and I say, all right, we're good. Exactly. You know what I mean? It's the thing. Most of the criticism that I saw, not even most, all of the criticism that I saw about me from people who didn't support the decision, it all had to do with the color of my skin. all I had to do with the fact that I was black.

And I'm talking about thousands upon thousands about tens of hundreds of thousands of, you know, conversations happened. And I saw a lot of nonsense. It had nothing to do with my ability as an actor. That's what I'm there for. You know what I'm saying? So I was like, all right, cool.

We're going to handle this. You know, and speaking with Jaima director, you know, he told me straight up, look, this was about the choice here was about getting the best actor for the role, right? I don't say that to big me up in any

sense, and I truly respect Jean-Mas opinion and his vision because the brother is really a visionary. He's awesome, but Jean McCaule, Sarah, amazing director, he said it was about getting the right actor for the role. And I take that as a huge

honor because now I have something to really take care of when it comes to showing who this is. But if you also, if you want to get into semantics, as far as the character, if you are truly a Carter Hall fan, you know that this brother, one of, one of his main powers, curses really, is that he continually reincarnates. There's a reason for that.

That's awesome. But if you look at the comics, they have displayed him in history as so many different, different ethnicities, right? He's been black. He's been shiny. He's been everything, right? So with this depiction, this is the point of the story that we're telling.

So if you want to argue against the validity of me as a choice because of the color of my skin, just because you haven't seen him depicted as black before, this is still very much valid in line and in step with the comic chronology. So it's actually accurate. So you're mad for nothing. What we're talking about? What we're talking about here? But I'm not going to lie, though, when it happened,

the announcement was made and all that kind of stuff happened because people say some really, some dirty things. And this is an opportunity I've been waiting for for almost 20 years. You know, I've been in the game as an actor for over 30 years. And I have hustled. for dream jobs and dream positions and you just hope that every time you get there to that stage you have that and it's just

going to be a beautiful experience. And for this, this thing was like the biggest of the big. I just want to join a super world just because I'm a fan. Get here and that is my introduction. I said, am I going to let this dampen my

perspective of what this moment is? Am I going to let it define my perspective of what this moment is and take away my joy? or am I going to take it all in and look at how powerful the influence is? Because if people are that scared, that means there are 10 times or 100 times many more people that are that supportive and willing to see it because they need it. It's necessary.

They need to see the representation in as many varied forms as possible so they can believe in something too. I can look at their superhero and grow up and say, oh, I want that cool power. But if I look at a superhero that looks like me, it's not only that I want the cool power. I want to be him and I know I can be him because he looks like him. You know what I'm saying? So there's more value in the aesthetic representation and influence than ever there will be negativity from somebody else's lost words for Twitter figures. You know what I'm saying? I ain't got time for it. But I had to really adjust what my experience was going to be with this because I'm like, yo, they out there talking. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? You can be a wretched place.

I was going to say, speaking of talking, people are already talking about there possibly being a Hawkman's spin-off, whether it's in film or TV. What you know about that? What can you tell us? I'm smiling. I will say this. So I will say this. Speaking of that, you see where the conversation shifts. At first, there's a lot of people against it.

And then it shifts to, man, we can't wait to that. You know what I mean? So you just give it time and eventually positivity grows out of concrete. but I can't say anything to that because we just got to get this first one done first and, you know, you know, I ain't heard nothing. Now it's coming.

No, I really can't. I really can't speak to it. I know, but I tell you guys one thing and Hawkman is one of the most interesting, one of the most compelling characters. No bullshit. See, people see Hawkman and he looks crazy. Even when you're watching the cartoon,

and you're watching it just, when you're watching or you're reading, Hawkman, motherfucker. got a hawk thing and he got wings. So you don't know that you don't know the mythology, the deep mythology that the character encompasses

and just the deep, the richness of the character and the richness of some of the relationships that the character has. So there's fertile ground there for you to ride, for you to fly this Hawkman thing for years and years and years,

Brian, I'm glad that you are. It's in good hands. Thank you. Definitely. my last thing my last thing you have to be one of the most interesting people that have come on this podcast and I'm not just saying this because you've complimented our podcast and there are a lot of talents that you have he's the man there's a lot of talents that you have outside of acting which leads me to that drawing behind you did you do that is they yeah this is a so I used to this is the old drafting table of mine I used to be in um in school for architecture and this one I don't know I probably did that one was like 14 or 15. I just keep it up there for inspiration because I still dig into architecture, but my primary job right now outside of entertainment is horology. I'm a watchmaker, and I've been working on that for a number of years in conceptual design. But I sit here,

I live in art. Art is my language. It's the way I communicate the easiest. Really, you know, when it comes to drawing and sketching, I even own, or co-own an art company called 9B collective with two of my partners Bill Bouté Jr., Mike Wandi, who are an amazing conceptual artists. When I say what they get into, fan, you'll appreciate this. These brothers are

the guys who are working on designing the costumes for like Blade and Black Panther. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah, so when I say conceptual art, I'm talking about the concept art. Yeah, yeah. World building. You know, I mean, my man Mike worked on

the Mandalorian, you know what I'm saying? like real cool, you know what I'm saying? So I support, you know what I mean? Right. But we have a company that we formed primarily because of their experience as conceptual artists. My experience is an actor and a producer and film. And when it comes to the art department, we wanted to support the BIPOC community.

The BIPO community who's very talented but doesn't necessarily get the access to opportunity the way that everybody else does. So that's what we formed about two years ago. and we've actually been working. We've been fortunate enough to really keep it pushing. In fact, still living in the D.C. world, we have the amazing opportunity to work alongside the wonderful costume department and design team on Blue Beetle to help design. Yeah, yeah. We were given the opportunity to help design and help create the Blue Beetle costume and a couple of the things, some world building, some, you know, the villain and, you know, the villain.

and, you know, we worked alongside their artists and their costume team to help produce, you know, what that looked like and, you know, how it's all put together. And it was just amazing experience. And that's also another film that I'm looking forward to see because I know some of the behind the scene and stuff. And the director, An Hell, that brother, I think, I think it's going to be some fire too. So shout to Shout to, Shout to Sholo. And, you know, I can't wait to see that joint. But that's what we do, you know. It's beautiful.

Amazing, man. Art is where I live. Bro, we appreciate you coming on. Before you, I can't let you leave without saying shout out to my old basketball buddy, Edwin Hodge. Sundays, Sundays over at the park in Burbank. Man, Edwin. He's very competitive. You know, I appreciate that.

I appreciate that. His older brother, Edwin Hodge, is an actor. Well, very talented in his own right. be out there. He's in New York right now shooting his show. He's on a show out there for the eye, man. He's killing it. But yeah, that brother, when basketball, you know,

he gets passionate. You know, he's very passionate. Yeah. He gets super. Yeah, he gets very passionate. All right, bro. Man, we're so excited for all your we thank you for the kind words you said about the podcast. But, bro, just the trajectory is just going through the roof, man.

like seriously, it's fun to watch. It's exciting to see. We thank you for joining us on how I learned today, brother. Thank you, man. I really appreciate y'all. Thank you.

I'm going to still keep listening because I'm a fan. I like that. Oh, thank you so much. Appreciate you. All right. Peace. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business.

Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business and even this podcast. That's why I trust Spectrum Business. It keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services,

plus 24-7 U.S. based support, millions of business owners already trust Spectrum business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas.

Somewhere out there is a Chevy truck. And the person who drives it, well, that's a Chevy person. You'd probably know one, your buddy, your sister, ones who always show up, do the first to rise, the last to leave.

They always have that little last extra something and maybe you've got it too. Chevrolet, together let's drive. Visit Chevy.com slash trucks to explore the lineup. Okay, so Thursday we are going to break down. Thursday, we're going to do a monkeypox deal. And we're also going to break down this bill that Joe Biden, who's having a comeback of sorts, was able to get through designed to combat climate change and address health care costs and raise taxes on large corporations. We will talk about that with a guest. in more detail on Thursday.

I do want to talk about a case that I think is very consequential that happened down there in Texas. This past Friday, a Texas jury ordered Info Wars Alex Jones to pay $49.3 million in total damages to the parents of a first grader killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre. For years, Alex Jones on his show, Info Wars, had maintained that Sandy Hook wasn't real. that the families were all actors, that nobody was actually killed, that it was a gigantic host. He was sued. He was sued, and the family won, $0.something million of compensatory damage,

and then $49.3 million in punitive damages. This is not the end. There are cases from other families that Alex Jones will have to answer for, and it looks like this is going to take a large chunk out of his financial portfolio when all of these cases and appeals are finished. He might also face a perjury charge

because he lied and told them that he didn't have certain text messages and did his lawyers in one of the most bonehead moves I've ever seen before my life sit the fucking text messages to the other council and they confronted him with the messages on the fucking stand

when he was up there. he might actually face perjury from the January 6th commission over that stuff. So it's like, go ahead, Rachim sorry. No, no, no, no. I just want to say about that for people. Well, one I want to say, first of all, that attorney is probably going to get sued by Alex Jones for malpractice because this should have never happened. It was an assistant that accidentally a legal assistant that sent over those files, including patient records, which the plaintiff's attorney deleted the medical.

records but kept the text messages, but here's what makes it worse. The defense, or his attorney could have said within a certain amount of days, hey, this is attorney-client privilege and put something in writing and didn't do it. Let the 10 days pass. So that's why it came out in court. This is total malpractice. And it is going to have Alex Jones in a heap of trouble more than what he is facing right now because he got this off a default judgment because, again, they didn't timely reply.

So the judge awarded them a default plaintiff's default judgment in this. So here's the situation. The $49 million in total damages that he was awarded, that he was awarded here is probably going to be a lot less because as I understand it, I did a little digging. Texas actually caps out the punitive damages that you can receive. There's a cap on it. Why do they do that, Rachel?

Well, it's tort law. but it's like, well, I will say Texas has one of the most strict tort law or legislation in the country. It's hard to get a lot of money in Texas in regards to tort law if that is if that is what you're filing your case under. But I don't know specifically why. I just know that it's hard to get money in Texas because of their tort law. So here's the situation. he'll face another case in Connecticut where they don't have that but they really hit him and one of things they had to do in this case was to bring in a forensic accountant which I watched his

his testimony on the stand who went through Alex Jones's holdings and a bunch of shell companies that he runs all of his money through he's already filed for bankruptcy in the case of this and they estimated this man estimated that Alex Jones was worth between $150 and $230 million. At one point, Alex Jones in 2018, at the height of his Alex Jonesness, was generating revenue in excess of $800,000 a day. It's wild. $800,000 a day, all based upon a bunch of lies, right?

And so after years of being assaulted with this just completely, blatant misinformation, disinformation by Alice Jones, these families finally sued. Rachel, what do you think this case means? If, in fact, they are able to enact a severe financial penalty against Alex Jones,

what does this case mean to you? Well, I hope it has people who are on the Alex Jones track or a very similarly situated, scared. because, you know, Alex Jones is always like free speech, free speech, free speech. But free speech doesn't protect you making defamatory statements about people and businesses. It only protects it against things like, I think, science and history and government.

So you can't just lie on people and businesses and think you're going to hide behind the First Amendment. And so I think that this is a huge wake-up call to people who have been lying to the public and profiting off of it. I mean, you see how much he's just making. And hopefully it makes them think twice before they make these outrageous statements. I mean, like, reading into this, you know, like, obviously I knew the story in a general sense, but reading into this, there was one parent that committed suicide. After one losing a child and then after facing harassment. but these people were harassed by Alex Jones followers, believing these lies that he knew was a lie

because y'all in court now he's admitted that he was lying. He's admitted it at this point. He's admitted that he was lied, but he says he didn't do it on purpose. That's what his line is, yeah. He's admitted that it was 100% that he was 100% wrong. It was 100% false. Sandy Hook actually happened.

But he's saying that he believed a bunch of disinformation and then disseminated that, which in it of itself is also, lot. Right, right. So you have to realize these people were believing this, harassing these people to the point where someone took their life, just couldn't handle it anymore. And he's making money off of it, knowing what he's saying is wrong. So I hope that this creates a place, because you've got this conspiracy culture, I hope that this creates a place where we start to see this stuff die. Maybe it'll fuel the fire for people. Maybe people will be defensive. Maybe this

will be another thing that's on the ticket in 2024 that they're fighting for and they're saying that we're taking this away from them. I have no idea. But these people are so dangerous and so is their information. And this is, I think that this is a huge statement, this ruling being issued from the court. And I do hope those text messages are turned over to the committee. And I hope that the committee does something about it. I hope the committee does something about it. I hope everyone who's made a living of torturing people with disinformation, riling up. other people. It was one thing when Alex Jones was talking about Kim Trails and all of that stuff, but once he started getting into this kind of shit and directly affecting people's lives,

directly kicking them in their nuts over the loved ones that they lost, the children they had lost. This is, to me, the worst of the worst of misinformation and disinformation society, the worst of society, period. And whatever happens to him should stand to me as a cautionary tale to anybody else who makes they're living like this. It's not the only time we've seen this. We saw obviously Cardi B sued Tasha K for saying something about her and she was awarded $4 million, which for Tasha K, I would imagine, is a

large sum of money. Now, I'm not taking either one of those people's sides in that situation, Natasha Kay and Cardi B's situation because I don't really know what went on to that degree. But I do know that it was proven that what she put up there wasn't true. And in that situation, you should be made to pay. These are people's lives that you be

fucking with and especially in this situation with the with the Sandy hook. God damn man have you do you I just look bro I've done some fucked up shit I am not what you would consider to be a four star

amazing person I've lied I've cheated I've worked for TMZ I've done all kinds of shit but fucking torturing people torture people that have lost children. My God, man. For 10 years.

Yeah. For 10 years. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, we'll see what happens with the other cases. But hopefully, hopefully, they can track down a lot of the money that he has because he has been very deft at hiding it and putting it in places where people can't get to it. And then hopefully, you know, he can be made to pay. Hopefully his livelihood is essentially newt. because of what he's done to these people's lives.

And it's not fucking fair. All right. We're out. That's enough. We're out. We're out. We're out. We're done. The podcast is over.

Where are you right now, by the way? I'm at my parents' house. Wow. I'm at the parent. The judge is not here. Pretty hair is here. Pretty here's there. That's your room?

This was my old room, but they changed it out. It changed it out. Right. So that's the bed right there. Is that a new bed? But it's a new bed. It's not the same bed. None of this is the same.

I'll tell you why they got a new bed. Man, don't. They put a new bed in that room because they wanted to change up the decor when they went in there and took the house back. It looks like a nice room. When they took the house back. They took their house back. They took their house back, room by room.

And look at that bed right there. See if you can see any handprints on that headboard right there. Stop! Oh, I was in Louisiana. this weekend. That's why I'm here. I went to my family's trail ride right outside of home. Well, it's in Homer, right outside of Street Park. Yeah, we had

a great time. Homa is not right outside of the street. So there's two. There's Homa. And Homer. Homer. Yeah. My people outside of like Minden, Homer. I see. But they really live in the country called White Oak. And it's a bunch of land

that we have out there. My family still lives on it. We had in the family over a hundred years. And it's something we do. been doing it for a while. So I haven't been back in six years. So it was real good. So you did the trail ride? Yeah, but I didn't ride on horses.

I just did the ATVs and I was in the car hanging out the window with my ratchet-ass friends. Let's go. All right. On Thursday, we will also talk about this just this breathtaking picture of Mount Lion that I got. Okay. It's a breathtaking picture of Mount Lion. That's Photoshop. It's Photoshop. I don't think it is.

I don't think it is. Mountline is taking it to a whole deal. Wherever you got it. You know what? When you come on Thursday, I would like for you to present the evidence. I would like for you to enter it into the record and prove to me how that is an actual real photo. That's what you're going to do.

You're going to have your lawyer moment. You're going to have your lawyer moment. I can tell you right now. I can look at it right now and tell that this is a real picture of my online. Whoever sent that to you, I need them to authenticate it. Okay. All right. Look.

We are out. Take the thing, Couts off, but do not stop learning. I'm Van Lathin, Jr. I'm Rachel and Lou and Lindsay. Bye, guys.