Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Celebrating a Year of Higher Learning

Episode Date: May 28, 2021

Happy 1 year anniversary, Thought Warriors!!! Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay kick this special episode off with a trip down Bachelor Lane (6:40) before debating P. Diddy entering the J-Lo + Ben Affleck conversation (23:39), and NBA fans overstepping once again (33:02), while J. Cole calls it a career after 3 games (42:52). Finally, Van & Rachel discuss the death of Ronald Greene and the ensuing cover up (58:38) before switching gears to celebrate Higher Learning’s 1st bday with a very special mailbag (1:13:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? How I learning is on. It's Zyvan Lathan. And it's me, Rachel Lindsay. Do you know, what are you going to say? I heard you take a breath. What are you going to say, Rachel?

Honestly, I thought you were going to ask me how I was. And I was going to be like, I'm doing fine. You're doing good? You got a leopard shirt on? That's not leopard? That's not leopard? Look at that. Oh, what do you call that?

Tweed. It's like tweed. It's tweed. Tweed? Do you remember fleece? Fleece what? Like a fleece hoodie? You remember that?

I think I still have them. I think I still have. Is that a brand? No, just like an actual fleece hoodie. I remember. Yeah, I still have them. I didn't know what it was to have something that was fleece. Fleece was a whole era in a way.

Do you remember the time in fleece history? Do you remember that? I don't remember it being an error. I don't remember it being as big of a deal as you're making it. Certainly an era Nautica fleece hoodie. You had fleece jacket. And then you could go to, I went to Louisiana Tech. And it was fleece all over the place.

And you could go to the bookstore and buy fleece type shit. Then buy expensive as books. Maybe this is something you were into. Yeah. I mean, I sure. I remember fleasers. You know what? The fleece era might have been before your time, the era of fleas.

Okay. Well. So do you know who Tyson Gay is? Yes. I've been thinking about Tyson Gay and Lolo Jones this morning. Just because, man, I just woke up this morning with Tyson Gay on your mind. It's like, it's funny. It sounds funny.

So Tyson Gay ran a 9.69 second 100 meter dash. 9.69 second. 100 meter dash. Did he just run that or is this you saying that's the fastest he's ever run it? The fastest he's ever run. Okay. Is 9.69. Now the fastest 100 meter dash ever ran, I'm pretty sure is a 95 something that was run by Usain Bolt.

can you imagine being that hyper fast? That amazingly fast as Tyson Gay is. 969 and the 100 is crazy fast. And you're only the second fastest man that's ever lived. That's crazy. No, that's, I can't. If you know anything about track, that's the wild.

So Usain Bolt ran a 9, 5, 8, 2nd 100 meter dash. How did you get here today, Van? I'll tell you. You want to know? This is how my brain works. So I went on tiger droppings.com, which is the LSU. What? Tiger droppings.com.

Is that the sports site? Yes. That's what y'all's athletic site is called. It's the message board. It's not the official LSU. It's the message board. Clear it up. It's tight.

Tigerdroppings.com. I went on there. I went on there and they had a, you know, on the side rail there, they have extra stories about sports. They're tangential LSU sports. Lolo Jones went to LSU and they had Lolo Jones up there. Okay. And then I was thinking, damn,

Lolo Jones doesn't have an Olympic medal at all. She never won one. She was a favorite. I remember she tripped on that hurdle back in 2008. So one of our producers, Trudy, was laughing about that. She thought that was funny. that that happened on Lolo Jones. So she was like, aha, everybody thought she was going to win.

Then she tripped on the hurdle, ruin her dreams. I'm like, God damn, she just fucked up. So I went and I watched it. And it's very, very, very sad that she was winning the race. And then she hit the hurdle and she didn't get it. And then the other lady who won. So Lolo runs the, you guys pull this video up if you're listening along right now. Pull this up unless you're driving, then concentrate on the road.

But if you're, Lolo was willing. winning the race, the 2008 100 meter hurdle final at the Olympics, the final. She was winning the race. She then hit the hurdle and she ended up getting seventh. Everybody passed her up, basically. And after the race is coming to an end, you see her stop and the weight of the moment. Of course. Collapses onto her.

She collapses down. the lady who won the race is also from America. Lolo's teammate. She didn't even go over to check on Lolo. She won. That's what Trudy said. Don't you think you. Don't you think.

I'm not coming down on her. I'm just saying. In that moment, when you've trained for years to get to this place, to be on this stage, and you win and you're not the one who's picked to win, she's in the moment. And on the other end, for Lolo, good grief. She probably hit that mark hundreds, thousands of times. And the one time she missed it was when it counted. That's what's so amazing about the Olympics.

You train and you train. If you're in basketball, I mean, sure, you're only maybe one NBA finals, maybe one this, maybe one that. But most of the time it's over and over and over and over again, right? You're doing something. You got a chance to make them for a mistake unless you make a, but the Olympics over and over and over for one race. One time in Lolo, no medal.

She tried to become a bobsledder after that. Well, she did become a bobsledder. She didn't try. She made the team. She became a bobsledder, but she became a bobsledder, but to win the medal, but then she didn't do it. So that's why I said she tried, but no disrespect. But I'm watching this guy, and I'm thinking,

Tyson Gay, you're wearing a nine-six. 100 meter dash in your second. That's crazy to me. No, that is wild, especially when they're so close. Did you know about one and three people with plaques psoriasis may also develop psoriotic arthritis, which causes joint pain, stiffness, and swelling? Does this sound like you? Listen to what it sounds like to be a million miles away.

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Manage your activity with our consumer protection tool. Restrictions apply. See terms at fandul.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash terms. Breaking news here. I just got a text message. What happened? Somebody was requesting to come on our podcast. Who is this?

Would you want Matt James on the podcast? Of course. He said he really wants to come on higher learning. I do. It would have been great if we could have had them on Memorial Day. because everybody is going to be out. You got the weenies and you can put them on the grill. You roast them up.

It would have been perfect. If we could have had them on Memorial Day, just had a nice cookout with our brother. Yeah, Matt James. Yeah, bring them on there. We'll bring them on there. We'll bring them on there. Tell them to zoom in right now.

What do you think? Hold on. Did you? Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on. I'm actually, I'm going to send a link. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, bring them on right now. Why wouldn't I want Matt James or you think? I don't know.

You could have been like, you know what? The moment's past. I know, no, it hasn't passed at all. Because, you know, you're off the show. We're not watching it anymore. We're not going to recap it. Nah, I want to know exactly what's popping with Matt James because I've been hearing a lot about Matt James in these streets, you know.

Interesting. Interesting that he wants to come on now, by the way. Interesting. Because when it was super popping from Matt James, we had trouble getting to him. But now he wants to come on. I want to know what is he, what is Matt James trying to,

what yarn is he trying to spend for us now? What do you got for us, Matt? I'm interested. We already had his brother. I talked to Matt. Why did he tell you why he wanted to come? No, no, no, no. I was just like, you know, you're out here talking to everybody.

Come on, extra. Come on. He's like, now I'll come on higher learning. Okay. All right. Matt? I said, okay. What is he talking to people about? Like, why are we back on the Matt Jane? Like, what, seriously? Well, like in

Bachelor Nation, people haven't gotten off of it. People are still fascinated on what's happening between he and Rachel since they're, since they're focusing on their relationship. I think he recently came out and said she gave him an ultimatum and that kind of whipped him into shape. What was the ultimatum?

Either you put on this slave outfit or I will not date you. Matt James, if you're listening to this, you probably don't want to come on. Matt, Matt,

Matt, either you dress up like Django. No. If either you dress up like Django or I won't date you, where does chicken Georgia outfit? What was the ultimate? Seriously, though, what was the ultimatum? That's crazy, though.

What if the ultimatum was either you come to an antebellum party dressed up as my man That's funny It's just a joke Guys it's just jokes They know they know you well enough now They know you're jokes

It's just jokes Shout out to Rachel Rachel's fine She whatever man It's cool It's just jokes What everybody gets so mad You're not gonna let this young girl

Relive it or whatever Nah man I'm fucking around I'm sure she's a lovely person They're doing their thing together Yeah And what do they I don't I think Look if they're happy

Exactly just do your thing Do your thing. But why people, a lot of people asking, like, what was the ultimatum? I'm going to paraphrase here, but it was something along the lines of,

you know, either we take this seriously or I'm out. Like, you either about me or you're not. I'm paraphrasing. I do want to say something, though. That is, that is the beauty of being white.

Do you know what the beauty of being white actually is? the audacity. That's why the book, the title of the book, The Audacity of Hope was so poignant, right? The beauty of being white is really the audacity. You know? Like, I'm in this parking spot. You have the audacity to tell me to come hurry up and move,

even though I just tweeted about that. I'm at a stoplight. You have an audacity to tell me to turn my music down, the audacity, the audacity of it. The audacity of her to give him an ultimatum after everything that they have been through. No, no, I'll tell you why, because he was playing with her. Either he, I'm publicly on stage, was like, I don't want it, we can be friends,

she's got to do the work herself, I'm not about it. Fine, if that's the stance that you take, then be about that. Then all this stuff started coming out where he was secretly seeing her. But oh, this other girl came out that was like he's dating me too. But Rachel was just seeing him in New York. So I get it. She's like either you're going to don't play with me. Either be about me or not.

It'd be one thing if she was like, all right, you said you didn't want to be with me on stage? Then we're not together. But that's not the game he was playing. He should be able to date her in secret for at least a year, year and a half. Nah. What's the point? The point, look. I'm sure they were trying to date in secret and then people found, paparazzi found out.

Reality Steve. What's that? Yeah. Reality Steve got to him. Look, I get it. She's a young lady. She can move on in her life. But it was a lot for Matt James, though, because, God damn.

Like, Matt James set America up for the fact that he was going to pick a white girl. He picked a white girl. And the white girl that he picked had slave girls. connections. It's the worst luck I've ever seen. She had, it wasn't slave connections. It was, you know, she had a weird thing. It was the worst luck. Worst luck. So he might be trying to out there to roam the digital landscape and make

sure that it's safe to pop your head back out there a little bit. But I'm interested. He can come on higher learning. I'll talk to him about it. I'll talk to him about it. That's the great thing. We talk about it. Well, apparently he wants to talk to you too. We should actually take a. trip down Bachelor Lane we got to have Matt James

we got to have Chris Harrison okay okay I'm about that if we can get if Chris Harrison has enough time between learning about black Negro history if he has a free hour

because I know that his days are probably packed with black right now imagine Chris Harrison's day Chris Harrison wakes up in the morning. He listens to the Tom Joy in the Morning Show. Which is that still on? It's not even on anymore. It's not even on anymore.

He's listening to vintage episodes of the Tom, during the morning show. And after that, you know what I'm saying? In the middle of the whole thing, I don't know, he's watching good times. He's, you know, Sanford and his son, he's the lighter side of black. And then in the evening, he gets in,

he needs his daily dose of white guilt. So he gets in the roots around, like after lunch because you don't want to watch roots before lunch because that's a lot. Very true. I mean, it might make you sick. So he rides his roots after lunch. Okay.

Then he needs a pallet cleanser back on the positive side. He goes into blackish. Blackish, okay. Blackish. And then at night, you know, before he goes to sleep, I watch Black Panther. Okay. Because you got to believe that black people are capable of anything.

I thought you were going to say a late night show like, Z way or something. No, no, no, no. He's not, he is not nearly, nearly on the level now to where he can appreciate Z-Way show. He's not going to get it. Did you see me on there? I did see you on there. He did a good job. I was, can I tell you? I was nervous. I was nervous. Can I tell you, I was nervous. Because I was, yeah, I was like, what is she going to say? What is she going to say? I was, I don't normally get nervous. She made me nervous. Are you nervous to talk to Matt James? Why? Why? Why? would I be?

I'm just asking. No, Matt James. I talked to Matt James a lot, you know, while he was going through his season and everything. But you've now been cast off. You're like a cast off from The Bachelor. They kicked your ass right out of there. You did too much. You flew too close to the sun, Rachel.

I flew too close to the sun. Update. Matt James says he's skateboarding right now. He needs a warning. He's serious, though. He wants to come on. So y'all heard him, thought warriors. He said he's coming on.

This is the thing with him. That is the white. The greatest excuse for not doing a podcast ever. If you were playing basketball right now, you wouldn't pause the game. That's a completely, that has nothing to do with the merit of what I just said. It's a sport. It's a sport. I love skateboarding is a sport.

I love skateboarding. He's doing his thing. You would be doing yours. You wouldn't stop it to hop on a podcast. Shout out to all the black skateboarders out there that I just disrespected. I did not mean to do that. I did not mean to do that. But, you know, Matt James is like, hey, I'm out there curling right now.

I can't come do the podcast I just said I'm playing squash I like Matt I actually like Matt You're gonna scare him away I know you do I know you do

I actually like Matt a lot I think Matt is real cool I think he's He's a he's a specimen You know He's a specimen Big ass dude Like being all sensitive and shit

Come on the show Matt James Let's talk about You know How you spoke to your father That time What's wrong with you All right Oh, Rachel.

You've seen that video going around of that little white kid slapping his mother? Yeah. I don't know why that meant me. First of all, I'm sure you had seen that video before of that little kid. No, I hadn't. You had never seen that video before? I hadn't. Just like you'd never seen the video of old boy, you posted singing the Miss Jackson song, and that's been out forever.

Never seen that video before. It's been out forever. I never seen it. I had never seen that little boy. Me and your dog. I would have, like so, like so disrespectful. I had never seen that video before. They had to okay that.

Yeah, you can't just put that out. I mean, they got an okay from someone. I don't know if it's kids' bop or something or whatever it is. No, they got to get an okay from Outcast's people to use that. I'm sure they did. I'm sure they probably didn't know. But look, I'll tell you this. That video slapped with the little boy slapping his mom.

That's crazy. Okay, I'll tell you what. When you watch that whole whole thing, because I think that's like Dr. Phil. When you watch that whole interview, though, I felt so sorry for the kid. The kid? Yeah, I did because he was so troubled.

If you watch the whole interview, the kid is so troubled. And his mom honestly didn't know what to do with him. He would talk, and every time he would talk, he would be welling up to cry. he was just it was hard to glean any entertainment out of it you felt like it was exploiting the fucking kid because he was so troubled man it's hard to watch somebody

as trouble now I'll tell you one thing what trouble to no trouble trouble trouble the no trouble the reason why I found out about that video is because my mother happened to see it she sent it to you and she called me that video made her mad like nigger I wish to God you would have ever. I really think my parents would have killed me. Like dead. Seriously dead. Like they'd be in jail.

Everybody would be in jail. Tragedy. Family tragedy. Seriously. My father would have bawled up his fish and punched my face. Broke my orbital bone. The whole nine. Like, I'm, think about that. Think about

you. I don't want to think about what the judge would do. What the judge would do. Can you imagine? I told him he's become a staple on the show. Yes. Everybody wants to know what the judge thinks, what the judge did. What the judge would, what would the judge do? Can you imagine if I reached across and slapped the judge?

It's just so crazy. Our minds wouldn't even go there. The thing is, is that, like, I remember one time we're at Venice Beach, and for some reason I threw sand on these people. I don't know why. Some strangers? You threw sand? Yeah, I don't know why I did it.

I really don't know why I did it. Like there was somebody... Like, wait, wait. You reached scoop down, grabbed a handful of sand and just threw it on random people. And I was throwing it on people. Throwing sand on people.

Oh, wait, you kept doing this. I did it over and over again to the people realized it. So we were watching Michael Collier. Because at Venice Beach, I'm not sure if they still. They used to have guys that would go out to Venice Beach and do stand-up comedy sets. And Michael Collier was doing a stand-up comedy set at Venice Beach, and people were watching.

And I was standing behind, like, the crowd, but we were all watching him on Venice Beach. And I was picking up sand and putting the sand in the wind. And then I noticed that the sand was hitting people in front, and they were kind of like looking around, but they didn't know it was me. So for some reason in my brain, I wanted to continue to throw sand on them until they realized it was me throwing the sand. So I picked up the sand and I was throwing it, letting the wind catch it and then throwing it on the people, throwing the sand, throwing the sand, until all of a sudden this one, this white lady turned around and went, and then when she went, her like that, I started smiling. And then, so I was smiling. until I looked to the left and I saw my dad and I realized that he had saw the whole thing

and my dad was like, I'm going to whoop your ass when we get home. I'm going to whoop your ass. But here's the thing. This was like 11 o'clock at Venice Beach, right? We stayed and had the most magical day at the beach. We went and got cream soda, root beer fucking floats. We happened to run up on a, like a, they were doing an MTV event for Bill and Ted's

bogus journey, the sequel to Bill and Ted. Oh, man. Wow, for you. Oh. Everything. Oh. Were Bill and Ted there? Yeah.

Oh, no, yeah. Well, I saw Count of Rees as he was leaving, like, but they had done an interview. It was some kind of like big promotion. The MTV was interviewing them. It was all in the beach. Bill and Ted's. bogus journey, by the while. I was like, oh, shit, we're all seeing this. We're seeing this stuff. Guys are playing basketball. We don't leave Venice Beach till like 7.30. Like, literally a whole day

at the beach, a whole day at the beach. We get home. My sister is sleep. My mother is sleep. We driving back to Hawthorne. And I'm thinking to myself, there's no way that I'm still catching a weapon because there's no possible way you can't hold on to it. And my sister gets up, goes in the house. My mother gets up, goes in the house. And my dad goes, y'all, we're going to watch a movie. I got to take Van upstairs

and whoop his ass real quick. This man took me upstairs, took his hat off, and said, I saved energy for you. We could have done more. It took his hat off. He said, I saved energy for you. We could have done more,

but I wanted to whoop your ass because you're going to stop fucking with people. Let me tell you something. You telling this story, I thought you were an adult until you said your dad saw the whole thing. You thought I was throwing sand on people as a grown man. What are you talking about?

That's why I was like, you didn't separate the two. We're just talking in conversation. You were like, one time when I was on Venice Beach, I'm like, okay, I forgot that you were out here when you were younger. So I'm just thinking you just moved out here. You're on Venice Beach. Throwing sand at people. That's why I was like, man, what's wrong with you?

Why are you throwing sand? That will be, but see, anybody listening is going to think the same thing until you said, my dad saw me. No, I never threw sand-old. I was like, oh my God, what's wrong with you? No, no, no. All right, let's take a break.

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Okay, we got some heavier topics to get to, so I'm going to start out on the lighter side of things. Okay. Because I saw a picture that I thought was very interesting. Did you see this picture? It depends which picture you're talking about. It's my man, P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, Sean Love Combs. P. Diddy.

Papa Diddy Pop, my fellow producer, my brother on two-distance strangers. Stop. Stop. Stop. It's my brother. Okay. So what you think about? Your brother's picture.

He posted a picture with him and J-Lo and said, hashtag throwback Thursday. And this is amid rumors that J-Lo is now back with Ben Affleck. I don't think those are rumors anymore. Yeah, it's not rumors. It's a fact. God damn, they ran it back. I'm so happy for both of them.

Oh, look, here's my thing. Puff got to let it go. It's not, I mean, you know what I mean? I know Puff, Puff went through a whole thing with the J-Lo deal where, you know, he was making songs about it. It was, I need a girl, need a girl part two. The first was great. Yeah, it was. But see, here's the thing about Jennifer Lopez and Puff.

To my knowledge, Jennifer Lopez never really dated a black guy after she dated Puff. that we know of right that we know of I mean there was some rumors around Drake that that was a thing was Chris Judd Black was he a black dude

I thought he was Latino I don't I don't know I don't know I don't know but remember what happened to end the relationship sure they go to club New York

and people were shot I think JLo got a little bit more hip hop than she was actually in for. Like people got shot, shine with the jail. Like people got it popping at Club New York. I think J-Lo, that was a little too much for J-Lo. Poppe ain't got no shot to get back with J-Lo.

Well, I think J-Lo's reputation was more important to her than her relationship. And whether she was bothered by that or not, she was now linked to that situation while her career was up and coming. And she wanted no part to that. So I think she was like to save my career, I got to cut off all ties with you. Yeah. I don't even think Diddy really wants J-Lo. I don't think Diddy loves the attention, which is what.

No. No, he doesn't love attention. What are you talking about? How could Diddy love attention? Okay, okay. Well, I'll take your sarcasm. Diddy did all of that for the reaction that he is getting right now, like folks like us talking about it,

it being posting on posted on the shade room and all that. He loves the attention. I think it's messy. Why is it messy? Why is it messy? Is it, do you feel like it's messy? Yes,

it's messy. I'm not saying he's trying to mess up their relationship, but like you're changing the narrative to be about you and having people speculate that you want her back and like you're doing all this stuff when clearly she's with Ben. Like at this point, it was speculation now. They've been photographed together at a Miami house.

They're not even hiding it anymore. It is what it is. And what do you do? And also it's a little Is it a little pathetic? It's a little pathetic. The P word. You use a P word with Diddy and is not puff?

It's a little pathetic. Like, Diddy, you're better. You're better than that. You don't need it. It's not funny. It's a little pathetic. So by the way, Chris Judd, his mother is Filipino and his father is Larry Judd, which you would think would be a black dude.

Larry Judd seems to be black. but not. It's a white guy. Okay. So, or it just says, actually, Larry Judd is American.

It doesn't say whether or not Larry Judd is black or white, so he could, you know, we're American, do. Oh, but it says that Judd was an avid athlete,

and he spent his time surfing and golfing as a kid. So, yeah, he's white. So look, here's the deal. I don't know if it's pathetic. I don't know if it's pathetic.

I guess my question would be, it's probably, useless. My question would be what's pathetic if you, let's say for a second that Puff really wanted J-Lo back. Let's just go with that reality. Okay. What would be pathetic about

trying to get her back if he really wanted her back? Well, I don't think, well, I guess that's the thing. I'm making a statement from the place of I don't think he really wants her back. I think he just likes the attention surrounding the fact that he posted a throwback picture of them while she's single again and he's got people talking about him.

And I think that's what he wants. That's to me what's pathetic. It's like you're above. You don't have to do all that. And I think did he really wanted her? He would have hit her up on the side. Well, I think there probably has been some hitting up on the side over the years. There was a story back in the day that he bought up a whole hotel floor or whatever that Puff really wanted J-Lo back.

I believe it. So I guess, you know, the thing is, if you really want somebody back, you try to do stuff. But I personally think, though, that in this situation right here, that it must. might be a little bit extra miffed that she got back with somebody and maybe it wasn't him, you know. So if she was going to reach back into the well from years and years ago of yesteryear, because if I remember it, it was Puff, then Chris Judd, then Ben. I'm pretty sure it was that. Right.

I think it was Puff, Chris Judd, Ben, right? and Ben was mac on her. Ben was dirty macking while J-Lo was married, by the way. It's very true. So I think, you know, but if he was, he's probably thinking, hey, if she's going to go back, or maybe he might be thinking, hey, J-Lo's trying to run it back.

So if she's going back to old guys and going back to old situations, if she's willing to do that, maybe if things fall off with her and Ben, maybe I got a shot. Maybe he's back, you know. Look. I don't think he would do it publicly like that.

I feel like if he really wanted her, they would do a behind closed doors. But that's just my opinion. That's just mine. So you're going on record. You think Sean Combs is pathetic. Stop. That's what you're saying.

That's what you're saying. That's what you said. The act of posting the picture is a little pathetic. What to you makes a certain situation like pathetic? Like what makes it pathetic? It's a desperation in it, right? Like it's clearly seeking attention. You did that to seek some sort of attention,

whether it was from J-Lo, whether it was from the public, whether it was for a headline, I am not quite sure. To me, being who you are, Sean Love-Colmes, for you to do something like that seems a little desperate. So let me ask you this. Forget about this particular situation. What is the line between romantic and desperate? I guess I would have to, that's a hard line to draw, right? that's a hard because if he's been hitting her up on the side and posted this picture

desperate interesting isn't though if it's not being reciprocated well see that's the thing I'm glad you said that because isn't desperate and romantic

isn't the only difference just about how the other person takes it yeah reciprocity meaning if you're in Boston and there's a guy who likes you he lives in L.A. And he drives cross-country to come and surprise you. And you like that romantic.

Absolutely. If there's a guy that you had one date with, right? And or two dates with and you kind of like them. And he drives cross-country to see you. Go home. Go home. Yeah. It really just all depends on how, so there really is no line.

It's just based upon like how the woman feel, how comfortable the lady feels. Yes. Is there anything you think in romance is objectively desperate? No. Is a woman proposing marriage to a man desperate? No, I don't have a problem with that at all. People talk about that all the time. I know.

Why are we assigning roles? Like just if she wants to propose, she feels that way, wants to spend the rest of her life with that man or woman. then let her. Right, right. Could you ever see yourself proposing? If you weren't with Brian, could you see yourself proposing to a guy? I could.

You could. I could. But I'd have to know he was going to say yes. Well, that's the whole thing about a proposal. I couldn't do it and not know. What if he said no? If he said no, could you continue their relationship? No.

Yeah. Proposals are really like, that's why you should just always say yes when everybody's around? No, no. You saw what happened to Melanie and Derwin in the game. You don't say yes just to say yes.

That was the beginning of the end for them. You should always say yes when people are around. Melanie did that and that was terrible. And then later on you can say no. And then, you know, you don't have to go through. Hey, y'all are thinking about proposing or you're about to have to accept.

Don't, please don't accept that advice. That's what I would say. That's what I would say. All right. Last night in the NBA, Russell Westbrook got popcorn dumped on him by a Sixers fan. He was leaving the game for injury. He tweaked something. Hope that he's going to be okay.

These Sixers ended up winning this game. Russell Westbrook was walking out of the tunnel. And you can see when you watch the video a fan pour popcorn onto Russell Westbrook. Russ, it's very upset. Tried to get to the guy. They stopped him afterwards. Russell Westbrook talked about that. he said that the NBA and the media,

well specifically the NBA has to do more to protect the players. It was the other way around. It would be a big, big, huge deal. And he also said that that guy would never throw popcorn on him if he was out on the street with him. Obviously, we know that that is most likely true. I have an angle on this. And I heard Molly Curum say this on ESPN.

You heard who? Molly Curum Rose say this on ESPN. Almost all the times that this happens, nearly all the time, and I went through a lot of the incidents. It is white people throwing stuff, yelling stuff, inserting it, doing this to black athletes.

Is this just because white people make up a significant percentage of the ticket buying public when we're talking about going to NBA arenas. Or is there a deeper issue here with entitlement and what they feel they can do to black men who are on their jobs? What do you think? The audacity, right? Audacity.

The audacity. That should be the next book. What if Obama wrote that book, the audacity of whiteness. It'd be a bestseller. Shit. No, I think it's definitely the latter of what you're talking about. Because when I saw him dump the popcorn on him,

and this isn't the first time something like this has happened to Russell Westbrook or to any player. I mean, with Trey Young, someone just spit on him and just got indefinitely suspended. Are they suspended from those games or the NBA in general? So I think that. The fan is suspended for the rest of this and for I think the whole next season. I'm not sure, though.

See, like, it should be forever because my thought, when I saw him pour that popcorn, they're treating these athletes like their zoo animals, right? Like, your job is to sit there or be out there on the court or whatever the sport may be and entertain me, dance for me, play for me. Like, you're, like, they're specifically there. for that person.

Well, that is what they're, they're, that's what they're there for. Right. But they're treating, but it's almost like they're dehumanizing them, right? When you're, when you're going to walk down

and pour popcorn on another human being, it's like they're treating them like they're animals. That's what that look like to me. You spit on them, you talk to them any kind of way, as if they're machines out there

rather than actual human beings and people, that's what that looks like. And they have to figure out a way to control it. So here's my thing. This is this like puts me in a weird spot. Because sometimes I'm torn between two different schools of thought. Sometimes I don't know if there's too much violence or if there's not enough violence.

In sports? Period. Okay. Because obviously violence sucks and it's bad. You don't like it. Hey, things come to violence. You know what I mean? but man

if there was an opportunity to punch this motherfucker in his head sock his mouth sock his jaw apart you know crack his chin do you think he would have disrespected Russell Westbrook like that

no of course not and you see you get out of control like that before I wonder if I guarantee you something I guarantee you something those people that Jack and Artest, those people that got to put on their ass, Baptist church style, all right?

Those people that got to put on their ass, they ain't going to throw no more drinks on nobody. Their drink throwing days are over. So part of me is like, I wish that the NBA had a rule that if you threw something like that on the guy, that you can either have your ticket revoked for the rest of the season or you can have five minutes with that guy. The society we live in now would do five.

They would do it just to have five minutes. Five minutes with that guy. Just five minutes of Russell Westbrook and his big cobra-looking self. It's the same. It's the same mentality and generation of people who snatch hats off of, you know what I mean? It's like people would do that.

Like what Jake Paul did, people would do that just to have a moment to go viral on social. I know. That's the world we live in. But seriously, you know, this does speak to a level of entitlement. You're talking to a certain guy. You're spitting on people. We all love rowdy fans. We all love rowdy fans. We love it. And we've seen this before, right? We've seen athletes in the past get things thrown at them. This is not the first time we've seen athletes getting things

thrown at them. This happened all throughout the time. We've seen it. But come on, man. I love it how they act like the NBA players, the guys on the court. Like they're the thugs that can't control themselves. They're the out of control people who are live wires. But time after time, after time, we see, quote unquote, good white people, good regular Americans, law-abiding people acting like jackasses and doing shit that thugs would do. And I just wondered like, you know, in the NBA, they got, NBA has to look at that. NBA has to take a look. I heard Stephen A. say something that we should put this person's name out there. We should.

We should goddamn shame them. Shame them. Shame everybody. Shame people when they do stuff like this. It's crazy. What if they started making basketball be in a, in like the same thing format that hockey's in? Like there's like a glass around. I can't do that.

I can't happen. I would hate that too, but I'm just saying. What if it ended up coming down to that? Because. Well, number one, the glass and hockey is part of the game. I get it. So you want to see people, you're trying to tell me,

you want to see, like, I would hate this, but I'm just saying, that would be a way, by Joe L&P. You want to see Russell Westman? That would be a way to control the,

the, out of the extreme fans. Yeah, they got to do more. They got to do more than banning them. It's not working because it's still happening. Yeah, I mean,

look, it's going to happen. I mean, it's going to happen. Also, I think that we're watching closer, more closely, should I say, than we ever have before.

And these things are probably a bigger deal than they were in the 80s, you know. But that's, but that's, those are technically simple assaults, what they're doing, the spitting. Is that a simple assault? Yes. Well, the spitting, the spitting is like, that's a pandemic situation, man. Are you spit on me? I don't want your goddamn fucking viral droplets on me. But how disrespectful is it to spit on something?

It's like the lowest of the low. That's what I'm saying It's a You always say that Would you rather be spit on or smacked in the face I'd rather be smacked in the face I'd probably I think I'd rather be spit on

That's disgusting The smack on the face hurts Somebody's spit in your face I mean you get to choose You don't get to choose where the spit lands The spits is spit in your face Well no that's completely different No

That's how I say it But now you're saying somebody Somebody might like The spit by getting my mouth Or spit in the face Or spit in the face A smack in the face. Your mouth can be closed.

A smack in the face or a spit in the face. Would you rather? I would probably rather get spit in the face. I probably would. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. Number one, because we go on to war either one. We're going to war either one.

You're nasty. And if we go into war, the smack in the face might throw me off my bearings where I'm like, where I'm a little fuzzy in the head. You know, you see those guys in Smack Fest and they get like they're about to get knocked out. What do you think of spit in the face is going to do? You're going to be like, oh. But nothing but piss me off. What if it gets in your eye?

If it gets in my eye, it'll be fine. Nothing but piss me off the spit. The smack might actually take me out of my mind to where I can't get my shit together to go to war. You feel what I'm saying? Because I'm a fucking tough guy. I love to fight. I'm angry and violent and black.

Chris Harrison, you haven't got to that part. I love, I love the smoke. Uh, uh, uh, I'm from the hood. I listen to rap. I love to smoke. Don't fuck with me. I'm giving you what you want, America. I'm giving you what you want.

This is what you want for me, right? Uh, uh, uh, what a bitch is at. Uh. Uh. Uh. Giving you what you want. What is wrong with you today? This is what they want, Rachel.

I'm giving them what they want. Jesus Christ. Speaking of basketball, Jay Coles, his arm. Oh, man. It's over. I laughed when I saw this hard. It's over. It's funny.

I laughed so hard. We were big talking him. Oh, he's pursuing his dreams. He's doing his thing. We had named the next album. Talked about what his career average or his season average would be. Only, did we even make it a week? Did we even make it a week?

We did not. We did not. Well, apparently it's due to family obligation. Yeah, he is no longer on the Rwanda Patriots basketball team. He had a family obligation. Okay, he just shout out to Jay Cole. He just posted his sixth number one album, six number one albums for Jake Cole. Amazing.

By the way, the offseason is an amazing album. So it was dope. Now, here's the thing. This has not gone over flawlessly with some of the other people in the league. Somebody else who plays in the league said that Jay Cole's participation in said league was disrespectful to the game. I think in his total time there, he might have scored five points. I don't think he got to double figures in total points. It was five points, three assists, five rebounds.

You said that in a certain way. You, like, you. Well, we had high hopes for Jay Cole. So, yeah, I'm a little, we had a seven three, three average. So, yeah. I expected more. So yeah, league player, Terrell Stoggin called Cole's production disrespectful to the game.

Which look, I've thought about this. I saw Jake Paul, there's actually Logan Paul. Oh, on first take? On first take. I saw Logan Paul. He was decent. You like him.

I was surprised because I'm, I confused. I've been thinking that Jake was Logan the entire. time. So I realized I had never seen Logan before. So he did a better interview than Jake did. Would you go out on a date with Logan Paul? No.

What if Logan Paul had been on a bachelor? You think you would have picked him, bachelor? No. That would be so funny. I know you think I would because he's white, but no, that's not the case. He's got it right there. He's white. He's got six-pack abs.

He's basically, he's white, he's got six-pack abs. He's, basically one continent away from Brian. No? I can't stand you. All right. Look, yeah, no. So I think there's a negative and positive to Cole's presence is what Stockland said.

The negative part is I think he took somebody's job that deserved it. I live in a basketball world. I don't live in a fan world. A lot of guys that had their careers stopped by COVID. and they're still home working out and training for an opportunity like this. For a guy who has so much money and has another career, just to average like one point in a game and still get glorified, is very disrespectful to the game.

It's disrespectful to the ones that sacrifice their whole lives for this. This is kind of the same argument that you get with Jake and Logan Paul and what they're doing in boxing. Sure, it's a lot of fun that one of those guys would be able to, take on a Floyd Mayweather, right? It's going to make a lot of money. Might, in a lot of ways, be actually good for the sport. The question is, is it disrespectful to boxing?

Is it disrespectful to basketball when these guys jump in and take slots from somebody else that might have worked their entire career to try to be in the – I know so many basketball players are just hoping to make it overseas, right? They're just hoping to get there. And there are a lot of overseas leagues for them to play in. The question is, is that something that Jake Holes should think about before he tries to go play over there? The fact that somebody else might not get that spot. Well, I think it was different when we thought he was going to play the entire season.

Okay. So if he was playing the entire season and he was putting one thing on hold because he was pursuing a dream and he was going to pursue it to the fullest, that was one thing. Nobody really talked about it that way. But the fact that he quit not even midseason at the beginning of the season and has the luxury to do that. that. Yeah, I totally understand this player's sentiments. And I don't even compare it to the Jake Paul Logan Paul because basketball is a team sport. Boxing is not. So there's a little bit of a difference to me because in boxing, you're not necessarily taking somebody's spot. Like people are chosen to fight one another in a match with basketball, only a certain number of people can make the team. So

Jake Holt literally took somebody's spot. To me, I see it more like Tim Tebowish, right? There's We haven't talked about the Tim Tebow situation. There's no reason Tim Tebow should be in the league. And the only reason he is is because he's playing under his old coach. And the fact that he is taking somebody's spot on the roster is an issue. And Des Bryant spoke out about that.

Tim Tebow's been out of the league for 10 years and is able to waltz in and get a spot when other people are just trying to make the practice squad, just trying to make it through camp, just trying to get on another team who've had a much better career than Tim Tebow has, but he gets on it because he's friends with the coach or for whatever reason.

It's not because of his talent. That's very similar to what Jay Cole. I'm not saying Jay Cole doesn't have the talent, but I'm just saying he did take somebody else's spot who may have been more talented, but because of what he could bring to the league, the attention he could bring, the business aspect of it,

that might have given him more leverage to take that spot. I agree with this player. And see, this is my thing. So with the Tim Tebow situation, I have no problem with Tim Tebow getting the opportunity with the Jaguars. He knows the coach. The coach says that's my home.

You look out. Hopefully I get to a point to where I can give some undeserving friend of mine a job. He has a job. No, a job that they want to have. Hopefully I can get to a point to where one of my friends can get an opportunity they would not have otherwise gotten if not for me. And hopefully there's somewhere somebody right now. who is my friend, who is like, we're going to put Van up here and let Van figure it out.

I hope for that because to me, look, if you can't put your homies on, what's the point of getting it? You got to be able to put your homies on. Urban Meyer got the job. Urban Meyer put his homey on. I'll tell you something else about the Jay Cole situation. I understand what these guys saying.

I understand what you're saying. But I could make an argument that it is in the Rwanda basketball teams league's best interest to put J. Cole, that they can bring, that J. Cole can bring something to that team that that other player can't bring. Sure. I didn't even know who the Rwanda, BBC Patriots were before this game. By the way, by the way,

it won't let you guys know in certain areas. I don't know if they notice in the Rwanda basketball league. I don't know if they notice. Okay. But in certain corners of the internet, BBC means something completely different. Okay? It just means something totally different.

Okay. Now, you guys can go find out for yourselves, okay? But the reality is that, you know, what it says, Jay Cole is going to play for BBC, with BBC and Africa is like, it's something completely different, all right? I'm just saying. So it means something, it's a different.

Did you need to say that? I'm just saying. It's like Jay Cole's going to play with BBC in Africa. I'm like, whoa. Okay. All right. Didn't know that about it. But the reality is I personally think that, yeah, you know, you can make an argument that it's like the same reason why Michael Jordan got an opportunity to play minor league baseball. Michael Jordan had been a great baseball player in the past when he was in high school.

The reason why they took the chance on the Michael Jordan baseball experiment was because it was actually good for the Birmingham Barrens, actually good for the White Sox organization. it was something that they could use to draw attention to their league. Those games were sold out and it had a financial effect on that league, right? Just like if they can sell Jay Cole jerseys or if they can sell things like that, it's good for the team. So really when the guy is saying that he's taking a slot from another player, he kind of is, but he kind of isn't because there's not a player that can fill the slot that Jay Cole kind of has.

I totally agree with you if he had stayed the whole season. I think that this statement wasn't made until he quit. He quit on the team. And he said he has family obligations and I don't want to talk. You know, I have no idea what that means. But I'm just saying that's where all this talk came from. It seemed like, okay, he's our teammate. He's committed to the team.

We're committed to him. And then he just bounces. And so it plays into the privilege that this player is saying that J. Cole has. And I think that's the issue behind it. Tim Tebow is bringing nothing to the team. You hate Tim Tebow. I didn't say that. You know, you don't like him.

No, you, but you love, that has never even crossed my mind. You said that in the email. You was like, Tim Tebow was a fuddy-duddy. There was, okay, for the record, there was no email. And my husband went to Florida, so there's, I have to have some sort of likeness for Tim Tebow. He went to Florida. So, well, we beat them niggas, Brian. Okay.

2007 National Championships, LSU. You didn't go to LSU. You didn't go to LSU. We beat them niggas. Just for the record, y'all, Louisiana Tech is not LSU. I took classes in LSU. I changed. I changed.

I transferred back. I did Southern and LSU. There were classes I had to take LSU. For the record. First of all, my entire life, I've been an LSU fan. My whole life. My whole life. Guess what?

We beat them. We beat them. We beat Florida. We beat Tim. We beat Tebow. We beat you. That's okay. You lost.

All right, Tebow, they beat us too. But like, we beat you. You lost, Thiebaud, 2007 national championships. Those are you fighting tigers. I'm saying best college football team of all time two years ago, 19 and no, 15 and no, shall say, Joe Burrow. But look, the reality is this, it's like, you know, with Tebow, does Tebow deserve to be in the NFL? No.

No. He doesn't. At least we can agree on that. We don't. But why? Why do we, somebody looking out for their boy? Isn't that, don't you, let me ask you this. Wouldn't you hope that someone would give you,

that you fuck with would give you an opportunity like that? Let me tell you what Urban Meyer could have given him. He could have been quality control. He could have had a front office position. He could have been an assistant coach. Could have been a quarterback's coach. He didn't have to take somebody spot on the 53 man roster. That's what he didn't have to do.

There are plenty of other jobs that he could have given him if Tim Tebow was in need. not the one he wanted, especially when he already has a job on the SEC network with at ESPN. All right. Well, let me ask you a question. Do you think right now that you're famous enough or qualified enough to host the Academy Awards? No, and I wouldn't want to. But let's say that Emmanuel Acho became president of ABC. I would never do it.

And he offered you the job to host the Academy Awards. No, you got to know your strengths. That's not my thing. Okay, forget about that. Give me something right now, forget about hosting the Academy Awards. Give me something right now that you feel like you're not quite ready for. But you're not quite there yet. My own talk show.

Your own talk show. You're not, you're like, so. I am not there yet. You're not there yet. We're going to eventually be the Black Reasons Kelly. Correct. You're not there with your own talk show. Let's say Emmanuel Acho becomes the head of ABC.

And he goes, the first thing that I'm doing, as the head of ABC is giving Rachel Lindsay her own talk show. Now, here's a deal. While this happens, Jamel Hill is out there. There are all kinds of people out there

who some people might say are... More qualified. She is. More famous, right? Would you say no? Yes. Hire Jamel. You're fucking lying.

There's no way. No, let me tell you why. Because if I get... No, no, can I finish? You get one opportunity to prove yourself. If I was given that platform, I got one opportunity to prove myself in that way. Amanda was like, oh, we're giving you Ellen's time slot

or something like that, right? Let's just say it's NBC. Give me Ellen's time slot. I'm not about to embarrass myself on a public stage knowing I'm not equipped to do so. I'm not doing it. I'd say if that's my- Definitely taking it.

No, let me tell you something. If that's my boy, hold it for me for me for two years. Put me in a position to where I can. Oh, I'm not about to embarrass myself. I'm not ready. I'm going to figure it out. I'm not ready. Look, all Ellen did was dance and treat people back.

Ellen's funny. Like, I'm figuring it out. I'm, I'm a good for you. And I hope that day comes for you. You got a lot of friends. You tell them all about us on the show. You talk about them all the time. So I expect to see you in movies as a backup dancer on stage as a comedian

an opening act. I expect to see it all, man. Go ahead and cash in them opportunities with your friends. None of my friends have offered me something that I haven't deserved yet. So maybe they need a little bit more Urban Meyer in them. Maybe they're too much like you. But I would definitely take it. By the way, you could definitely host your own daytime show.

Stop selling yourself short. You ready for that right now. Imposter syndrome. Could you, couldn't you, the Rachel show would be so great. They don't even have to be us. You deserve your own show by yourself. That was not often he compliments me on the show, you guys. That was really nice.

Come on. Like, you can come on. You got to have a segment called Tell it to the judge. Tell it to the judge. And my dad pops up. Well, your dad pops up where you have, because, you know, people ask advice. This is actually a great segment. Maybe we should do that here.

So, so, like, people ask, people ask advice all the time, but they don't get actually somebody that's willing to tell them. Just how fucked up they are. Right. Right. It's a segment called tell it to the judge. When they come in to ask your dad about the problems. And your dad and your father says things like, well, the problem with you, Susie,

is that you're a foul-mouthed whore. Can you imagine? Tell it to the judge. That works. Okay. Do you want to talk about Kyrie Irvin and saying Boston is racist? No, no, no. We know that.

We know the fans are racist. Damn. I mean, it's well documented that you've seen athletes in not just basketball, but other sports, talk about some of the racist things that have happened to them when they've played in Boston. That's true. Yeah, okay. Moving on. Okay, we're going to take a break before we get to this next one because it is a doozy.

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would be talking about a situation that was going on down in my home state of Louisiana. And we have to talk about it now. We have all the information. We've been able to look, here's the thing. And I want the audience. I'm just going to speak for myself right now. And then, you know, racial, we get your take on it the way you feel. Sometimes I don't want to do these stories.

I know that we have to. I know that that's kind of what the podcast is about. And that's what we've been about since we've started. And we want you guys to be up on this stuff and to be armed with this stuff. And we really appreciate the back and forth when you guys agree with us, when you guys don't agree with us that goes on with some of the things that are happening. But I don't like talking about this all the time. And I'm not just saying that for you guys to break out the violins and feel sorry for anyone.

Like I don't like doing this. But, you know, we have to. Right. We have to talk about these things. we have to discuss these things because there's symptoms of a disease that is just, it doesn't seem to be remedying itself. It's interesting. So down in Louisiana, there's a man named Ronald Green.

He passed away in May of 2019. Video footage of what led to his death has just been released. There had been a confrontation with two white police officers. These guys are state police down there in Louisiana. and they had said at the time that Ronald Green had passed away that he had died from crashing into a tree and injuring his head. The footage that has since been released shows inconsistencies with the police's story. Inconsistencies with the claim that this man died in a car crash. what it shows is an encounter with the police that show them brutalizing him after a traffic violation, dragging him, and talking about the fact that one of the officers had beat on him.

Okay. So the, I can't begin to describe what we're actually talking about here. We're talking about a cover-up. We're talking about a gigantic lie. And a cover-up of a death of a living, breathing human being. One of the state troopers that was involved in this passed away in the car crash last year. And that was shortly after he was, you know, informed of his termination.

So who knows what was going on here. but as of what we're looking at right now looks like the cops essentially beat a man to death or beat him to the point to where not beat a man to death and then lied and said he crashed his car and just right now

two years later this family is getting answers and people are starting to put the puzzle together about what actually happened here So what was the first time you heard about this, Rachel? I heard about it before you. I had been hearing about it and be, I would say, a couple of months ago. I started to hear about it. But I didn't, I did not realize it had been two years.

I just knew that they were putting the pressure on the department to release the video and they had been asking for it. I did not realize it had been two years of them asking for it. And it wasn't just the family. It was journalist as well. putting the pressure on the police department to do what they're supposed to do and release the video to the public. Yeah, yeah.

They had said before that the police said he had died after he crashed his car. Then they changed his story. He said he had struggled with officers and died on his way to the hospital. There was no cause of death on his autopsy, which is incredibly peculiar, at least to me. Maybe if people out there that are listening know a little bit more about that, then you'd know why that was left off. There have been two investigations into this now. There's an internal inquiry right now from Louisiana police and a federal civil rights investigation happening right now. They began at the end of last summer. And there's, of course, like I said before, a wrongful death lawsuit.

Even these investigations didn't stop the police from dragging their feet and releasing the body cam footage from this encounter until just now, just now. And that decision was made. by Colonel Lamar Davis who was the police superintendent Louisiana State Police and he is a black man and he says he wants to move towards healing I'm starting to not understand

how we heal this I don't either I don't understand I don't understand how we heal this and look you know I'm sure that we don't have okay let's let's do something here they're probably based upon the audience that we have here on higher learning

there are probably not very many people who don't agree with us on this particular subject right that are listening to my voice but let's right now just pretend that there are some who don't that that we have some blue lives matter back the blue uh thin blue line listeners who might for whatever reason hear this particular portion of the show in a real way very calm unemotionally, what are we supposed to do? Better yet, what would you do? You're talking to them.

I'm talking to them. I am. If they hear this, like what? If, if in fact, all of these things are just isolated incidents of quote-unquote bad apples and don't represent the fruit of a spoiled tree, don't represent something systemic, even though they happen in different zip codes they happen in different circumstances they happen at different times and they happen to different people does is there anyone out there right now

anyone listening to this that thinks black americans and not just black americans but a significant portion of the of american society should just ignore this that we're wrong and if somebody actually has some evidence to the contrary, I would actually like to talk to it. I would actually like to talk to someone who thinks that this problem is being overblown and that this problem is being exaggerated. I actually want to have that conversation now

because what I need to know is why aren't we all as a community of Americans breaking our backs to stop? Stop this. This is disgusting. This shit right here, this is like 1955, 1960. This is corrupt policing.

This is a human life. I can't understand. Because a lot of people move about their day and they don't pay attention to these type of stories. Or a lot of people don't take the time to understand and read what has been going on since 2019 when Green was murdered. And to the people who would say, oh, this is just an example of bad, police and they're not all bad.

This entire department covered this up. That's how you need to be looking at this. This isn't a few bad cops. This is they had the body camera footage. They've been sitting on this evidence. They've been purposely not releasing it for two years. Yeah. An entire department.

And this is the problem. If you've got bad apples, if you sit there in silence and you do nothing knowing that these problematic people are a part of your department, they represent who you are a police officer and you do nothing. These officers were still on the streets after they murdered him. And one of them actually got arrested on an unrelated incident to this, to what happened to Green, because he was using excessive force again, a totally unrelated charge. So he has a problematic history of doing this.

And they're continuing to allow these people to operate on the force. I it blows my and I and I and I know we talk about it time and time again but it goes back to qualified immunity. Why in the world are we rewarding officers who are murdering people who are lying about it covering it up not just by themselves with the help of the department yet they still keep their pension. They're still on paid leave and they use they abuse their power to attack, take. choke, beat, then brag about it to other officers

on the force. They keep their badge. They keep their gun. They keep their money. And it just keeps happening over and over again. Yeah. Yeah.

You are not wrong. You are right. And I'm just, I'm, I'm just, I am actually trying to understand. What? The only thing to understand is

it's happening. It's a, there's no other, honestly, there's no other side of it. I know you've invited somebody to give you another example. So you're right, but I just want to hear what the thing is. Sure. Because the older I get, the more I'm starting to become less intrigued with my side of things. Because we've lived this.

We're going in and over and through this over and over again. You want a logical, but logical. I want to understand why we're not making. progress. I think I need to understand. Look, I'll be honest with you. I like most young men in life was told that I was going to change the world. That's the, that is the first lesson of patriarchy. The first legend of patriarchy is, hey, you young penis holder, you know what you're going to do? You're going to go out and you're going to make a mark. You're going to be a titan of industry. you're going to be a rock star

you're going to be president of the United States and the entire world is going to revolve around you there's going to be a woman that comes up behind you and takes care of all of your wants and needs there's going to be a little family of many youths and you're going to see that family and mold them in your image as God did to man and there's going to be a little universe

and you're going to control it. A little son that looks just like you. A little daughter that you're going to go out and give to somebody else that you think is like you enough. Right. And you're going to do all of this and you're going to change the world. I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going to. I understand that now. I'm not going to change the world.

The best thing I can ask out of this life is peace while I'm here. I'm not going to change the world. I'm not Dr. King, not Martin. I'm not President Obama. Shit, I'm not Donald Trump. You know, I'm not going to change the world.

I'm not. I can change people. Hopefully I can change enough people. Okay, but I'm not going to change it. So, because I've come to that conclusion and I understand that, what I want to know now

is really sincerely, are deaths, what's in it for you? Now, I know the questions philosophically, and I know the questions intellectually. But someone who's on the other side of this, I want to know, like, our deaths, our poverty, like what's in it for you?

Like, why are you in the way? Like, seriously? Like, you don't even have to be. You don't. And on a lot of these issues, I understand why I feel the way I feel and how I feel is not going to change anything. But what I do want to know is what exactly is the point of being so attached to seeing people doing bad, to seeing people in pain? Would it upset you if the answer is that they're not so attached to that?

They just ignore it. Because I think that might be a lot of what it is. You go ask 10 people They might not have even heard of what's happening And happened in Monroe To Ronald Green So I actually don't have a problem with that Like if you don't

Look I just said a second ago We try not to overindulgent it If you don't really If that's how you feel Hey I just want peace while I'm here I don't want to be bummed out about this And this I actually don't have an issue with that I'm talking to the specific people

With the worldview of the cops can do no wrong Got you cops can't do any wrong. They're doing wrong all the time. Isn't there something wrong with this? They would say, and they would say there's just some bad ones. There's just a few bad ones.

They don't look at it as a system. Like even the other side will say it's not a system issue. It's not a systemic issue. It is a couple of bad, there's some bad people in it, and we can admit that. But they can't admit the system.

That's what they'll say. I think it's great that you want to hear the other side of it, I just think you would be completely frustrated at what you would hear. Maybe start screaming like I did it, right? I'll tell you what, maybe we should do a little bit more

that on the podcast. You want to have some different type of people on here? Really mix it up a little bit. I think people would love that. Let's mix it up. We're going to do that more here in the second half of the year. All right, guys, look.

It's special fun times, okay? This show right here marks the one-year anniversary of higher learning. We are a year old. It's a little bit older than Bozeman. Where's that beautiful puppy? I should give me a hug.

Okay. So because it's the one year anniversary of higher learning, we are so indebted to you guys. We're so happy that you guys showed up for us. We've been growing our audience, okay? Shout out to everybody over at R

slash Thought Warriors, the most popping Reddit. It is. It's been going up on Reddit. People have been hit me about ready. Like, it's popping off over there in Higher Learning.

So thought words. So yeah, shout out to you guys. We're going to do a special mailbag edition right now where we're going to play voicemails of the mailbacks. And then we're going to answer them back. So we're excited to actually hear from you guys. All right. Trudy, give me the song. Mailback time. Time to read your letters and then we'll reply to them. Oh, it's mailback time. Write us with your query. and we'll chime in. All right, let's go, Trudy. Let's start it. We got actual voices, and we don't have a lot of time. You got to get to it.

You got to snap them up. Here's the first one. Hey then, Rachel. This is Tracy from Alabama by way of Atlanta. So all three of us are fun, young, black people from the South. So who you got? Nuck if you buck, wipe me down.

Oh. Oh, do. Wipe me down all day. Wipe me down. I was listening to the remix. So it's got to be the remix. Wite me down. Shout out to Fox. I was definitely wipe me down.

I was listening to that the other day. Like is, wait, wait. Let's do this. Out of White Me Down remix, who has the best verse? Boosy, Fox, or Webby? Webby.

I'm going to go with Fox. I'll be honest with you. I love Boosy the most, but that's a Fox song. and we know that at Baton so I always give the edge to Fox but that's the remix is so I know it is

B-O-O-S-I-E B-A-D-A-Z-Z-Z that's me But no I go to wipe me down I'm actually going to ask Twitter that question because that's a good one

That's a great question But it's wipe me down I go to wipe me down I go to wipe me down I go to wipe me down Oh that's just I'm scratching that it I'm headed to a Bastile

Party this weekend Oh that's what I'm talking about Bachelor Red Party party. We're going to go do some cocaine this weekend. Wow. We're going to Austin, Texas. All right. What would the judge say? What would the judge say? Tell it to the judge. All right, you guys. All right, Trudy, come on. God damn it.

What's good? This is Logan Murdoch from the real ones. I just say hello to Van Lathen. Hello to Rachel Lindsay. Big fan of you both. One thing. I just want to know, Van, why you so out of pocket, bro? You know, why you still out of pocket? I love you. You're like, you know, my work, big bro on this from him. But why are you putting these weird positions where I'd be laughing

and I can't really say nothing back to you when you asked me a question in public forums because you know my face is going to get all red? Why do you continue to do that, man? It's funny. It's hilarious. And I get off of whatever public forum that we're doing laughing. but why do you do this? I think this is weirdly because of our fake, real fake beef that we have.

I don't even know if it's a real fake beef, but it's something, right? Yeah. I think that you're just getting at me, and I don't know what to do with it. But anyway, that doesn't matter. I love you guys, love your show. And wait for, you know, a little collab, a little higher ones. You know what I mean? Double entendre.

Don't even ask me how. But yeah, I love you all. Peace. You guys, that is our co-worker, Logan Murr, from the Ringer. I think Logan Murdoch is the best basketball podcast that working right now. Shout out to all my other friends.

Shout out to Roger Bell and Logan Murdoch. Logan, I do that to you because it's so easy to do. Logan is still out here. He's still a little wet behind the ears. Oh, God. He's still a little wet behind the ears. So I go live with Logan. Logan says something.

And I go, Logan, what's your thoughts on dildos? And he laughs because he's a, he's, he's, a kid. Morgan's like a kid. He hasn't thought about that. I've thought about dildos from A to Z. You can't throw a dildo question at me and have me really like, you know, this is true. Ebony, my sister, you know, she's gay.

She's a lesbian, okay? We know, Van. Thank you. Um, I, you know, I had to, when, when I, when she first made this, you know, like when it first, not when she first told me, because she first told me, it was very, you know, sacred moment. I felt so happy and included in her life that she was, you know,

cool with telling me this and stuff. But then after that, I had questions. So questions like, you know, tell me about strappons. Because that's naturally the first question you have when someone opens up and tells you that.

Look, the first thing you do is you give them space. So hey. Thank you. I'm here. I'm your brother. I love you. You know,

you know, but then you want to know, Hey, just tell me how this goes. How much space did you give her? How much time? I gave her a lot of space. Okay, okay. I gave her a lot of space. I gave her like a day, day and a half. I came back here with her with it like, yeah, okay, cool.

What's up with the strap on still? Like, how does that work? Suction cup or whatever. Okay. Like, like, you know, is it like a special harness? And like, you know, you want to know. But anyway, okay, Trudy, next one, this is fun. Continue to go. Thank you, Logan. Love you, Logan. Hey, Rachel and Vans.

My name is Amanda Baki, and my mail by question is, what is one goal you both have for the podcast this upcoming year, whether it is a guest you want to have a specific topic you want to cover or finally getting some merch out. What do you want to see for the podcast this coming year? I love you both and can't wait for another year of this pod. Thanks. Oh, thank you. I want to be in person. That's what I'm ready for. Yeah.

Also, I'm a little nervous. I'm like, what's that good? We have never podcasted in person. Here we are, 100 episodes in and never done in person. How will we be? I feel like the energy is going to be through the roof. I'm so looking forward to that for everybody. And it should be coming pretty soon.

I think that's the best answer, to be honest with you. We have a lot of goals. Obviously, we want to continue to grow the podcast. But I think being together all in the same setting, also it'll be something subconsciously that just means like, hey, things are back to a decent point. So I think that would be done. I think the in-person shows so you guys can see the aesthetic

so you can see the production will be amazing. That's actually a perfect. And then at the end of the year, have a live show since we're just talking about this year. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, next one. Hey, Van Rachel.

This is Brock. Congratulations on one year of the podcast. I've thoroughly enjoyed it. My question is, what is the biggest misconception that you had about your co-hosts? before starting this podcast. I don't know if I've said this before. I did not think,

first of all, thank you for the question. I did not think Van liked me. Yeah, that's weird. I did not think you liked me, but it's my own insecurities. It's not just you. I do that with people a lot. I don't think they'll remember who I am

and I don't think that they like me. Yeah, that's weird. But I understand. That's weird, though. It's weird because like. And you were so friendly. And we were, well, we were at lunch for hours the first time. And we were all talking and we had a good time.

We talked about everything. And I remember I walked away and I told Brian. I was like, yeah, I don't think that's going to work. He didn't like me. Nah, crazy. Bill hit me up. Bill was like, yeah, I was like, that's good. That's a go.

I think before meeting Rachel, the only way, the only thing I had Rachel was like, you know, Rachel, when she had been on TMZ because I didn't watch the bachelor, right? And I saw her like, that was one time they had y'all riding a horse through Beverly Hills. You know that? Yeah. And like some different things. And so I thought, I thought if you went on the Bachelorette and you were on there with the Bachelorette people that you were maybe.

Corny? Yes. I thought that you was, I thought that it was going to be corny. I thought, I thought that she would be corny. But she is the least corny person I've ever met. She's like super non-corny.

And I was like, yeah, she's not. But I kept that. Yeah, I thought. I would say that too about me. Yeah, I was like, I thought she was going to be a little, a little milk toast, but she wasn't at all. And I think that's kind of what Bill and them saw. Bill was like, Bill said, hey, you know who Rachel Lindsay is?

I was like, yeah. It's like, yo, she's great. She's amazing, super opinionated, very, very. I was like, really? Does she just talk about love and pass out roses? Yeah, I was like, for real? He was like, yeah. I was like, all right, let's do it.

And they were. Gosh, you. You know what that makes me think? So many people out there had that same impression. I'm so grateful for higher learning that I can get some cool points back. Who rides a horse down Rodea? Why are we out doing that? Actually, that was a great experience because being from Texas and then like we do trail rides in Louisiana, bringing out the horses was great.

It was me, this black dude, Anthony, that's who I had taken on the date. He had never been on a horse before. But it was cool. We went into like a horse store, took the horses in. they took a shit. They had to block that out of TV. Apparently you can't show people or even animals

shitting on TV. But yeah, I thought it was a cool experience. No, does that according to you? It doesn't, it didn't see, it just seemed weird. And TMZ was there. I do remember that. And they kept following us and they were like, Rachel, who are you on a date with?

Is this the person you're going to fall in love with? Yeah. Right. So it wasn't me. I was in the office. And like, and, And then I ended up telling a completely different, the clip is still out there. I ended up telling like a completely different horse related story or telling them I grew up with horses or something.

I can't remember how they cut it, but whatever. All right. Last one. Trudy. Hello, Van and Rachel. My name is Laya and I listen to your podcast from Spain. So excuse me my accent and my English. English is not my first language.

But here it goes. My question. Can you remember some time in your life that. something awful happened and a few months later you realized that that was the little push that you need to make a big change on your life for the better. Thank you and congratulations on your podcast and the first year doing it. Congratulations. And thank you, Hilaria Baldwin For that

Amazing question I appreciate you First of all We are worldwide Worldwide Y'all Higher learning Oh

Obviously the answer to that question Is getting fired from TMC That's an easy one That's a great question We don't talk about that though Like did you What was your mindset When you got fired

Fucking petrified Yeah. I was like Jesus Christ because number one, and this is the way that God works in my life. God just makes me figure myself out. God goes, Van, I'm going to give it to you, but you got to figure yourself out before I give it to you. So you say you want to do this, I'm going to make you do it.

So before I could leave TMZ, before I could really get out of there, I felt like God needed me to see what it was like to be on the other side of a headline. Like a TMZ type headline. Not like the Kanye shit, right? Where everybody was saying, oh, you're the best.

Hey, Marcus Garvey. Like, no, I'm talking about, like, it's like, hey, you're one of us. Not that. I appreciate all the love, but like, not that. But they needed, I needed to see what it was like to have a moment, to have it, number one, misconstrued.

And number one, weaponized by a different group of people to make me look bad. and something click baity to be out, a part of you that doesn't represent you to be out, and you needed to see that. And when I ended up on page six, because of something that happened at work, and I'm sitting there in this moment,

it was the purging of me wanting to be a part of that and the understanding of how that was for so many other people, right? Now it's like, I'm sitting here and my reputation is at stake. my future employment is at stake. Now my mom who's taking so much pride in me being on the show, my father who's taking so much pride of me being at the show,

are there going to be people looking at them like, hey, your son's some kind of violent lunatic with what happened at the office. Like, hey, your son is something, hey, like, is this, does this mean it's over for me? Am I now, and I'll never forget one of the first people that I talked to after that. Obviously, I talked to all of my friends.

I talk to my mother. I talked to my father. I talked to my sister, Kalika was there, talked to her. But these are all people that were in my circle. Out of my circle, one of the first people I talked to was Kimmel. Kimmel was like, it's okay, bro. Don't sweat it.

Like, Jimmy's such a good guy, man. Jimmy's such a great guy. I wish we could just do a thing on how dope Jimmy is, man. Jimmy was like, man, it's okay. Don't worry about it. Seriously, it's not a thing. you'll be fine. And I was.

And since then, things have been okay. Since then, what an Oscar? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Since then, things are more than okay. Right, yeah. Things have been okay.

Yeah, we've never even really talked about that. So I'm grateful for that question because I think a lot of our listeners would appreciate kind of the transition and what your mindset was when you went through that. For me, a little similar with career when I came off the Bachelorette, I was riding high. And I was like, oh, everybody knows who I am on the Bachelorette.

And to be honest, I was feeling myself a little bit. And I get a call from ESPN, and ESPN's like, hey, we want you to come here. And if anybody knows anything about me, I majored in sports management. I studied sports law. Like, I'm geeking out that I'm going to Bristol, Connecticut to be on ESPN's campus. And they want to talk to me about a potential job opportunity. And I get there, and I'm just seeing, like, people in the hallway that I admire as a writer or watch on TV and I'm totally fanning out.

I sit there with head of talent and he's just a big Bachelor fan. So he doesn't want to talk to me about a job. He wants to talk to me about The Bachelor and he's like, oh, yeah, no, no, you can't do that here. Nobody knows you in sports. Like, you got to grow your audience. And it completely just deflated me. But I needed that and I needed that no. I needed to be checked.

And I thought, I will prove myself to you about why I deserve to be here and I will make you know me. And it also let me know that you thought I was corny. A lot of the people just saw me as a bachelorette. It's like they forgot that I was an attorney that I had built this entire life before. So I was just a reality TV star. I was just the bachelorette. I was just a little corny. And so for me, that was the kick that I needed to prove myself and to prove to myself and to other people that I can do this. And literally a year later, I was on the B team stepping in and hosting on first take. The biggest show. on ESPN literally a year later.

So I'd say that, you know, as a form of encouragement, but just like if one door closes, like kick the next one open. Don't let it stop you and don't let other people define for you what you're supposed to be doing. First takes, big show.

That's big look. Those are big looks. Big looks. And you know I had the first show when LeBron announced that he was going to the Lakers. That was my first day. Oh, wow.

And so they were like, hey, all eyes are going to be on you. and Stephen A and Max weren't there. So they were like, well, Stephen A. Max now want to come in satellite because LeBron just made this big announcement. And they're giving me a 10 second countdown. They're like 10, 9, 8 in my ear. And they're like, we lost Stephen 8.

It's you and Max. Go. That's my first day on Stephen. I mean, first day. I was like, oh, my gosh. You know what crazy? I never saw that show. I didn't see that show because I was in Anguilla when that happened.

LeBron was staying. Yeah, like LeBron was staying literally right next to us. When he announced? Yeah. Oh. Like we were in Anguilla because remember he had gone to Anguola. No. Yeah,

LeBron was staying like literally like right next to us in the house right next to us. Shout out to Mike down in Anguilla because we got a chance to go tour that house and the house was fucking crazy. All right. That is enough. That was so dope. That was so cool. That was really cool to hear from you guys. Really great to hear from you guys.

Okay. Now. We have a Thought Warrior anniversary video as well. Okay. So, Trudy, I want to see the one year. We want to see the one year Thought Warrior anniversary video. Play it. Give it to us, Trudy.

Now. Yo, yo, yo. It is I also from New York City. And it's me, Paradise, also from New York City. And today we pulled up in our thinking caps to celebrate our favorite podcast, one year anniversary. You guys have the best chemistry. It's been so good listening to y'all.

A special thanks to Van for being so open about your mental health. As someone who's struggled a lot this year as well, it's really helpful to hear that I'm not alone. I just want you to know that your impact is exponential because I talk about things from your podcast with my family, with my coworkers, and the students that I teach. It's been some year, but it's been great going through it with you guys. I've felt all of the things and learned some things.

along the way. Thank you. I love the podcast because it's the only podcast that I can listen to that one moment will have the all emotional in my feelings and the next moment I'm just laughing and enjoying the banter. The show just is so refreshing, and it means a lot because it definitely makes me think of things in a different way that I wouldn't have before.

Hi, you learning. It's a whole mood for me. I love you, Van. I love you, Rachel. You know that because I've said in both your DMs to tell you that. DMs to tell you that. Not like a creep, but sometimes I just feel compelled because Van your passion is igniting. And Rachel, holy shit, you're my idol. Yo, yo, yo, Van and Rach, what is up? Higher Learning is on its one year anniversary. It is I, your former producer, Jackson Sappa. Congrats on making it to a year. So much love to you both.

Van and Rachel, happy first birthday. I feel like I can speak for a lot of people to say that we are thankful for your voice and your opinion and your intelligence. Happy birthday, celebrate, and I can't wait to see you guys again soon. Van and Rachel, congratulations on your one-year anniversary of higher learning. It's such an amazing accomplishment. I'm so proud of you guys. You guys absolutely bring it every single episode, and I can't wait to listen for many years to come.

Congrats, guys. Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. It is I, Kalika Ljoy, Joy, April. And it's me, Daniel Ramon. Yeah. We're here to say congratulations to Van and Rachel on their one-year anniversary of the Higher Learning Podcasts. You guys have done so much for the culture. You got us through a pandemic. You kept us informed on sports, politics, pop culture, and a bunch of other shit we needed to know about.

No. What? What? I'm channeling Van. Nope. Rachel's parents are not going to like that type of language. You know that. All right. True enough. But we're so proud of you guys, and we can't wait to see what you do in the future. From two of your biggest thought warriors, congrats. Well, she's supposed to be being me. She's just like me.

She is supposed to be. I didn't even know we were getting a video. You didn't know that. No, that's so sweet. You guys, thank you so much for putting that together. I'm trying not to cry. I just, I love thought. Warriors, they put our loved ones in it.

That was dope. Trudy, that was the best thing you've ever done. That was excellent. That was you and who? Me and Donnie. We out here. Donnie. Donnie Beecham.

Our producer, shout out to Donnie Beecham. Donald Beecham. That was amazing, you guys. We really do appreciate it. We really do appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah. So that's it.

I mean, I don't know how to, do you have an unexpected ally of the week? Us. Yeah. The thought warriors. The thought. Hot, yeah, everybody who did the video who sent in. We probably didn't get to listen to everyone's voicemail, but all that.

You know, you know what? I'm almost considering changing mailbag to voicemail mailbags. You liked it. You liked it. What you think about that? What do you think about that? I liked it too. It was fun.

We should ask them. I want people to feel comfortable. We'll do both. We'll do both. We'll rotate. Right. I'm so in my feelings right now. I know how to end the podcast.

That was so amazing. Oh, my God. I just love it. This is dope. That's dope. We built this community. No, I just want to have a moment. Where we started for a year ago, we didn't know what it was going to be like.

We were very much so in our feelings when we started. I didn't think my co-host liked me. I didn't think he wanted to start the podcast to where we are now. A hundred episodes later, it's crazy. It's a beautiful thing. It is. It is. Love you guys.

Love y'all. Take the thing caps off, but do not stop learning. We will be back at you guys. on Tuesday, have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend. I am Van Lathen. I'm Rachel Lindsay. We out. Bye guys.