Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Chris Harrison: The Return of Traditional Love, Epstein Update, and ICE at the Polls
Episode Date: February 6, 2026Van and Rachel kick off the pod with a Shaboozey conversation before reacting to the latest ‘Michael’ trailer. Then they have a discussion on the latest Epstein release, the funding of ICE, and th...e Texas Senate race, which is turning ugly. And finally, Rachel reacts to the return of Chris Harrison. (0:00) Intro (10:06) Shaboozey apology (20:27) ‘Michael’ trailer reaction (26:27) Epstein files update (43:45 ) ICE reform (58:59) Race and the Texas Senate race (1:18:57) Chris Harrison’s new dating series (1:43:32) Tetairoa McMillan and the N-word Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Jade Whaley Social Producer: Bernard Moore Video Supervision: Chris Thomas Vote here for the NAACP Image Awards: vote.naacpimageawards.net Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors.
What is up?
Higher Learning is on.
It is I. Van Lathen, Jr.
And it's me, Rachel and Lindsay.
What's up, Rachel?
Chilling.
I just got back from Dallas.
You just got back?
You leaving again, though.
Where are you going?
I have a flight in like a couple hours.
I'm going to San Francisco.
I came back from Dallas.
That's right.
Took my nephews to a Mavericks game.
Maverick game.
Did that with Chime.
It was great.
It was so cute.
With Chine?
Mm-hmm.
Even your family time is sponsored by QVC range.
I mean, listen, we're back on the hustle.
But what an experience from, we were right there by the floor.
My nephew's got to go on the court right after.
Kai Rhee turned around and waved at them.
It was really sweet.
Well, now you know what's going to happen to them now.
That's it.
Now they're unvaccinated.
I said waived.
That's all it takes for me.
Whatever.
It was so sweet.
He waved the Pfizer right out.
The man who worked there was like, oh, y'all want to talk to Kyrie and just tapped him.
And he turned around and said hello.
Like, so nice.
Great fucking guy.
I don't really, I don't even know him.
I know somebody who knows him.
He's loyal.
Obviously, he's got a way that he views the world and all of that stuff.
They tried to villainize Kai because Kai wouldn't go along and all of that stuff.
I don't even know Kyrie Irvin like that.
But that's why I want to tell that story because I do feel like he gets that.
He could have easily, like, the worker news.
knew he was nice enough to where he could tap him on the shoulder and he would turn around
and say hi. That's clearly the person he has in a reputation. And it just made my nephew's day.
Like they were and then they're playing Boston. So when they left, we were right there
where the players can't walk by and like they put on their little Tatum jerseys.
The Boston players were there. Jason didn't sign it. But that's okay.
Why would Jason? Jason's not going to sign it. Why not? Because he played for Boston and there
were two little black kids. The Boston rubs off. Wow. Don't do that. They'll do that.
Boston rubs off.
Jalen Brown might have signed it.
Jalen Brown gave them a little fist bump.
Right.
See, Jalen Brown, Kai.
Tatum's a nice guy, guys.
Yeah, I told you that.
Tatum's a nice guy.
I'm sure he's fine.
He's a big Kobe fan and all of that.
No, he didn't see them.
I just be honest with you guys.
I've worked at the ringer for five years now.
I'm sick of Boston bullshit.
I'm sick of it.
I went to Boston and I had a lovely time there
and I felt guilty ever since.
I had a great time in Boston.
I haven't really spent that much time in Boston.
Clean City.
Cool black people.
that talk kind of weird.
You know what I mean?
How they talk?
The black people in Boston,
so it's interesting,
black Bostonians
are a part of my youth.
What do you mean?
They are part of my youth.
All of these black Bostonians,
New Edition.
Oh.
They're like, I'm singing like Black Boston
when I'm a kid, I'm dancing.
New Edition is underrated,
bro.
Fuck y'all.
I don't think they're underrated at all.
They were huge.
They were huge and people,
and they're on tour now.
They're clearly not underrated.
They can still sell out.
shows.
Let me hear your boss.
Let me hear your,
um,
it's hard to,
I can't,
go go for it.
I can't,
it's hard to do it.
I wouldn't know the difference.
Like I,
the ball,
the black Boston accent is,
it's tough,
but like,
it's comforting.
It was comforting to me
for some reason.
I don't know why.
I don't know why either.
Shout out to the thought warriors
I met in Dallas.
Ambrosia.
Ambricia.
And then get the other one's name.
God damn.
That's tough for a job interview.
The other names,
what?
Stop.
Shout out to the thought warriors I met.
It was really nice for people to come up and say they listened to higher learning and they were, you know, excited to talk about the show.
I love.
Now now.
I appreciate it.
Straight up.
That's not like a Reddit name.
But no, I love Boston.
So now I got to take shots at the Boston, the Boston sports anytime I can.
Jesus Christ, I'm C-Hawks.
Please get it done, man.
Please get it done.
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By the way, I did something the last couple of days.
I made a very interesting discovery.
What was that?
I feel like, Rachel,
And before I even start with this, can I just ask you, can I ask for a favor from you?
To be open?
Please.
Yes.
Can I just ask for open-mindedness here?
Go ahead.
Okay.
I'm excited to hear about the discovery.
I found the whitest song in history.
Okay.
So for the last, I'd say, month, two months.
I've been listening to nothing but rock music.
Okay.
My favorite rock band ever, system of a down.
All right.
You know them?
Yes, I'm familiar.
I don't know their music, but why?
So I've been boxing a lot more.
Okay.
So you want the rage?
Huh?
You want the rage from the music?
You know, it's like when I put on my hip-hop playlist, you know, I'm boxing to the rhythm and stuff like that.
But then every once in a while, future comes on and future, like, changes my brain.
Okay.
When future pops on or something like that, I don't want to be aggressive no more.
All right.
Fair.
I want to be the man.
Okay.
But when I'm listening in the system, they keep me mad for an hour straight.
Every fucking song.
System is just asking all, why don't presidents fight the wars?
I'm like, yeah, bitch, why don't they fight the wars?
You know, anyway.
But then title changed.
And title started suggesting other bands that I never really listened to.
I listened to a lot of rock music, but songs that I haven't heard in a long time.
And the song came on by Trapped.
headstrong.
Do you remember this record?
No.
Is Donnie here?
I am and I don't know this song.
You guys don't remember this song?
It goes, back off, I'll take you on.
Headstrong, I'll take on anyone.
You know that record, Donnie?
I know what you're talking about.
That's the whitest song that's ever been made.
Why?
A couple of reasons.
Number one, the lyrics themselves, back off, I'll take you on.
Head strong, I'll take on anyone.
that's white.
That's something that a white boy would say before a fight.
Back off.
I'll take you on.
I'm headstrong.
I'll take on anyone.
And then we all laugh like,
God damn, Trent, what's wrong with you?
Calm down.
You know what I'm saying?
Then when I looked at the band,
the way they spell their name,
trapped.
Yeah, because I just spelled it wrong
when I was trying to Google.
T-R-A-P-T.
Mm-hmm.
That's whack.
Okay?
Yeah, I spelled it wrong.
black. There's nothing
whiter than
trying to do something that you think
black people will think is cool.
Is that what you think they thought?
I think they're thinking, trapped.
We're not going to spell it
with two peas. We're going to spell it
with a P and a T. Where's the band from?
Los Gatos.
Los Gatos. The fuck is that. I don't even look
at that. Los Gatos, California?
Look up Los Gatos.
I thought you meant what does it mean?
I mean, no. Look at us.
I'm telling you right now, this is the whiter song ever.
It's a song that can go on, it's like a, it's a Madden song, it's a FIFA rock song.
It's a song that can play at a commercial, right?
It's a nickel back version, which, by the way, I like their records.
It's a nickel back version of a song.
It's, it's upbeat.
It's a song about, uh, uh, take you on or take on anyone.
It's some white shit.
It has no traces of the black influence in rock,
roll because I started looking for like what's the whitest song ever what's the
whitest song ever made and you think you go into rock music but but you can't really do that
because like especially like pre-1985 you can still really hear the influence of the older
the genesis of rock in a lot of these people's music even in like zeppelin and all of these people
when you listen to like deep purple you can still hear it and then at some point it goes away and
trapped to me is when they came along that is to me that is to me
when it got super white.
It was like alternative rock,
which feels different.
But even the alternative rock,
a lot of it to me,
like the foo fighters.
That's not, it's white,
but it's still not super white to me.
That song Headstrong,
I was trying to box to it,
couldn't do it.
Okay, didn't do it for you.
By the way, it's in Silicon Valley.
Yeah, I bet it is.
I bet it's up there.
I bet they feel trapped.
I want to talk to them.
I want to know what they were thinking
when they made Headstrong.
Y'all know this record.
Y'all never heard that record before?
Maybe.
Okay, for it.
What's the whitest song ever to you?
What's the white song ever made?
What's the white song?
What song ever made?
I mean, off the top of my head?
Give me one.
I'd have to go back to like,
I don't know, like some Frank Sinatra kind of stuff.
No.
No, yeah, that's white.
Wrong.
Too much so.
He's singing.
don't think, I don't think soul
when I think Frank, just because
they say blue-eyed soul does not mean. Oh, blue-eyed soul does not mean.
Oh, blue-ey's got a little soul to him.
I don't. I don't feel that.
Fly me to the moon. I didn't say I don't, I don't like it.
I mean, I'm not saying I don't like it. I just don't feel, that's not,
doesn't feel soul to me. But to me that feels white.
So white's record ever made. What's the right of white's record ever?
I got to think about this one.
Do you know why? It's not headstrong.
It's trapped.
Headstrong.
It's not headstrong.
It is.
We'll figure this out.
It's trapped headstrong.
It is.
That's the whitest.
You can't find a song wider.
Okay.
Like even the song,
you remind me by Nickelback.
The guy's got a little bit too much soul in this voice.
Does it have to be in that genre?
Because you keep picking songs from that.
It's probably going to be in that genre.
The whitest record ever made.
Even country.
People are going to be like country music.
Nope.
It can't be.
It's too influence.
I wouldn't say country.
I wasn't even thinking country.
By the way, shout out to Shibuzi.
Why?
He's finding out.
Isn't this not the first time, though?
Yeah.
Didn't he do something else where black people were like,
you got that wrong?
I don't think that black people should have any problem
with anything that Shibuzi's doing right now.
I think it's interesting that Shibuzi is going through it.
I tell you what,
country music might radicalize Shibuzi.
If they're radicalized Shibuzi, they got a problem on their hands.
It's black people who have a problem with what he said.
With about ICE or what he said about...
About immigrants.
Oh, you're talking about the FBI people.
I was talking about the white people that were mad at him.
They were mad at him for what he said about...
Okay, so black people are mad at him too.
I haven't heard this.
Oh, that's where all the attention is.
Black people are...
I only heard like Megan Kelly and stuff like that.
Oh, no. Black people are very upset with Shibuzi
because he came out and said, immigrants built this country.
Right.
So, I mean, immediately black people were like, now, wait a minute.
And he's, you know, he was like, my mom or my parents were immigrants.
and they built this country.
So then he puts out a statement
and he said, I did not mean,
obviously I recognized that I was caught up
in the moment in the emotion.
I know black people also built this country.
Black people still mad.
They also got people as well.
Interesting.
How do you feel about that?
When he said it,
I immediately knew people were going to be upset
because that's not true.
So you're ignoring.
And I think, I can't remember what it was,
but we've talked about Shibuzy before.
It's not the first time he's done something.
So it plays into this thought that or this preconceived notion
that people have about Shibuzi.
So when he again neglected the black community,
black people were like...
He neglected the black American community.
Yeah, the black American community.
He neglected.
People were like, see, it's when the wars start again.
Yeah.
You know, so they're like, oh, well, Shibuzi's not like us.
He's not black American.
And so for me, I mean, I expected it.
It's just like he put out a statement, he apologized, whatever.
It doesn't move me that much.
But I knew when he said also that same group of people were still going to be upset
because they don't look at it as an also.
Because it looks like he's riding the fence and people think he's trying to please both sides.
And it's like, just say black people built this country, black Americans built this country.
That's what they just want him to say it.
Don't both sides it.
Don't be a jelly roll when you get up on the microphone.
He wasn't that extreme, but jelly roll.
gee golly I'm just a country bumpkin
I don't even have a phone
I don't pay attention
I don't pay attention to politics
I've never heard of that stuff before
I'm just trying to make music
I tell you what I don't know anything
When I was in there I never heard
I never heard a nothing what is a television
I don't is this on the television
I don't know anything
I don't what what y'all got going on over here
I'm jelly roll
and the internet posted pictures of him
with Christy No
of him with Trump
but he doesn't know it
I don't even know how to work a phone
I don't have social media
Hey, look, to be real, just, you know, stand on your shit.
Jelly Roll, if you don't give a fuck, you don't give a fuck.
Yeah, just say you didn't want to talk about it.
If you say that you don't know, then people are going to go crazy.
Something about the Shibuzi thing that's interesting to me, and maybe Shibuzzi is watching
this, maybe he's wondering why he got jumped, you know what I mean, by black people.
I'll tell you guys something.
You know, I've been having conversations.
I did my friend, Court Jefferson's podcast, and we talked a little bit about
I want to talk about what the podcast is about,
but it'll be out later on.
I'll talk about like a phenomenon that happened in the 2010s
and why black people responded to it in the way they did, in my opinion.
Shibuzi probably doesn't understand the specific harm
of what it is that he said and why some black people responded to it.
Now, I'll be honest with you about this.
The way I look at the ADo's FBI movement is this.
I think I'm an internationalist.
I am.
I've come to understand this about myself.
A lot of the specific focus on my identity as a black American for me was based in the pain that I felt, not even a pain that I felt.
It's based in two things.
Number one, the tradition of like who I am.
Like my ancestral home is southern Louisiana.
I can go to a grave and talk about this before and see all of my ancestors there.
My ancestors who built their own tradition and all that stuff.
And I'm very proud of that.
That's what I'm proud of.
Very proud of that, right?
You should be.
Thank you.
And as I got older, we've talked about nigger wake-up calls.
I got nigger wake-up calls from the Black Diagher.
Asper over and over again.
I got niggum wake-up calls when I first heard the term Akata.
I got niggum-wake-up calls when we were on that same Gmail threat
and one of the guys on the Gmail thread that we were talking about Obama
and they said, well, it makes sense that his father is African.
I was like, yeah, come on, man.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
I'm like, guys, we're going to do this.
All right.
Now, I'll say this.
I always diplomatic in having these conversations.
because I want the knowledge.
I got a shout out.
Ashley Jackson,
who is Gibral's younger sister,
one of the most beautiful,
intelligent, capable women.
I've known Ashley since she was a young woman.
She is now,
like a beautiful family the whole night.
Ashley used to be on there,
giving them the business.
Given who?
Our African brothers
that would be on this Gmail thread.
Okay.
Going nuts on them.
Sometimes it would make me feel
a little uncomfortable.
Okay.
So everything she would say.
Back to the point.
It's like,
while I'm an internationalist,
I believe in the dignity of the global south,
the dignity of black people and the strength
of the pan-Africanist movement
and all of that stuff,
I gotta be honest with you.
The Ato's movement,
the focus on the needs
of black Americans specifically,
it's a vital movement.
It's a vital movement.
It's a vital.
It's a vital movement.
Everybody has different jobs.
As long as there's no problem with me looking at this diaspora as something and the way that I aspire to be is look at it as being an inclusive understanding of worldwide blackness.
The people that are saying, hey, there's a special set of circumstances that exist for black Americans here.
And we have to say laser focused on that.
You're not going to give me to talk shit about it.
No, no, no.
I agree with you.
Because I thought you were going to say something else with that.
Because I think the question is when you have a Shibuzi or someone who, you know, is not Black American, do they have a responsibility when they take a microphone like Shibuze did in that moment?
I think that's the question people have to ask themselves for how you're going to take this situation.
I think where we are right now in a country where they're trying to erase the history of us specifically in this country or rewrite it or be revisionist,
that you can't let a moment like that slide.
Because to them, even though we know that Shibuzi isn't a black American, per se,
they don't look at him that way.
So when he gets on the microphone and he says that,
it allows the narrative to be that we did not build this country.
And so I agree with you that there is an importance to the movement
because of what they're trying to do to us in regards to.
to our history.
Even before that, but specifically now,
it's even more heightened.
I agree.
And I think a lot of my scholarship,
shout out to Penil Joseph and other people that,
a lot of my scholarship and my focus on black history,
black power movement,
the black intelligentsia that built the framework
from which we defend ourselves,
it's black Americans are always at the forefront of freeing themselves,
but there is a lot of integration in terms of people whose parents were from other places,
who had lineage in the islands, who had lineage, you know, from Africa, who had from all over the place.
I'll say again, black Americans and the technology and the culture that they invented, they freed themselves.
But it was definitely huge contributions in thought and action from people from all over the diabetes.
And I believe that there's strength in building and maintaining those bonds.
But once again, as long as we can leave xenophobia and unnecessary divisiveness out of these
conversations, which I'm not going to go for, I think someone that says, hey, understanding that
there's a worldwide structure of blackness is very important.
But we have to make sure that these people and their specific contribution to this.
this place that somebody's keeping an eye on that.
And when Shibuzi says something like what he says,
it probably feels very familiar in the same way
that America tries to erase whatever.
I even know you did that Shibuzi.
Damn, I was talking about them and you fucked up.
Shibuzi, I'm telling you, they're going to radicalize Shibuzi though.
I tried to bring a guest on to talk about it, but.
Who was the guest?
Oh, shit, hell not.
See, you being messy.
I know who the guest was.
You being messy.
Just to have a conversation about it as someone,
in the industry. I just thought
it would be a robust
as you like to say. Robust.
Conversation. But, you know.
I'll tell you out something.
Rachel is better.
Rachel is a real G.
I'm just a big ball of emotion.
Be in the morning crying and shit.
Rachel moves in silence.
Because that move right there.
It would have been great.
It would have been great. Yeah, you fucking right.
All right. Let's talk about a great black American.
Let's talk about them.
Johnny?
Johnny.
Michael Jackson, I'm assuming, y'all are talking about.
Donnie.
Assuming.
Let's go.
I'm just, we're all on the same page here.
The trailer for the new movie Michael officially dropped.
We had gotten a teaser before, but the longer extended look was released recently.
Y, got to look at it.
What did y'all think of a movie?
Yo, let me tell you something.
First of all, Samson's in this as Quincy Jones.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I knew that.
I knew that.
We saw that preview kind of.
It's great.
This shit look good, man.
Of course it does.
Looks good.
Coleman Domingo, Nia Long.
Jafar Jackson.
Looks good.
Miles Tellers in it.
Miles Tellers in it.
It looks like an elevated, serious telling of the life of Michael Jackson, which is
once in a lifetime story about the biggest star in the history of pop music.
Yeah.
made me excited too is, I mean,
the Jackson's an American dream
is still one of my favorite
favorite miniseries. I can quote that line
that lines in that movie from the beginning to the
end. But that stopped
at Michael
leaving the Jackson 5.
So what I'm excited about this is
we're going to get the Jackson 5 in it,
which we need, because the trailer
has a lot of Joe Jackson. Of course,
I thought about you. You don't have to
repeat it. We all know the line
you like, but I thought about
you when I saw it. I thought about you.
I thought about you. I thought about you. But I'm glad.
At first when I watched it, I was like, oh, wait. I thought it was just about Michael. Oh,
we're getting the Jackson 5, Michael, all the way to life as Michael, you know, to the end, I'm
sure. So I'm really eager to see the portrayal of this. We've heard about it for a long time.
We waited a long time. It looks good. It looks good. It's my birthday weekend. No, you don't need to
say it. No, I wasn't here.
So what time
Joe Jackson was in an interview?
And they asked Joe Jackson, they said,
yo, Michael alleges
felt he was a kid.
This is so dark.
I don't know anything about him being sick,
but he
did gurgitated, he
he gurgitated all the way to the bank,
you know.
that's an evil man.
You know, Donnie, I don't think you've ever played the clip before.
At least I don't remember.
Do you think he knew what that word meant?
Because he said gurgitated.
Do you think he knew what it meant?
So Michael had said that he was like afraid to perform.
And then sometimes he would regurgitate because he was afraid.
Not fun.
No, I thought he would hit him.
Hit him and Michael regurgitate.
And Joe Jackson said if he gurgitated.
What was wrong with these old niggins?
All our fathers.
What was wrong with our fathers, man?
Our fathers would do stuff, man.
If your dad was born between 1930 and 1955,
I understand, man, what was wrong with these old niggas?
Gurgitated all the way to the back.
It's not funny.
I thought it was regurgiurgiator.
It is regurgitate.
It's Joe Jackson.
I know it's regurgitate.
But Gertitate's a word too, but I'm just saying
I think he...
I don't know nothing about the bits.
I don't even think he knew what it meant.
He just said, well, whatever it was,
he did it all the way to the bank.
But look, here's the thing.
It's interesting.
Joe's deal, you got to think about
Joe Jackson.
I thought about this while I was watching the trailer.
So what if
you starred the Jackson 5
like now in life?
Joe had already
reminds me of like what my mom told me
about my dad in his life
my mom was like you know
a lot of things that your father has done
you center yourself in these things
that's why you say my father did this
my father died she's like
try to think of him as his own person
try to think of him as Van Laith and Senior
you think about Joe Jackson
he worked in a steel mill
he got 19 kids or whatever
he's like you're about to put these little niggas to work
they dance us out of this
steel mill. That's exactly what he did.
Right. According to the movie,
he, well, well, according to the movie,
Tito broke the guitar string. He beat Tito.
Yeah. And then said, I fixed it now play. And it was
shocked at how talented they were and just saw dollar signs and was like,
I'm gonna make a band. Okay. But look,
I know you guys are expected us to talk about all the other things around
Michael Jackson. Not gonna do it.
We're going to go see the movie
It's my birthday
We're going to go see it together
I'm going to go see it
I'm going to dress up
As which
Which version of Michael
That's a good question
I think my favorite version of Michael
Is General Mike
Okay
When it was
It was the military shit
With the glasses
General Mike
Is my favorite version of Mike
Okay
You were talking last week
Or earlier this week
About a Jerry curl
So
No
Maybe this will...
So I'm going back to Zering and I'm going to get more hair transplant.
And then after that, I'm going for the Jerry Curl.
Straight up.
All next year, 27?
I'm with it.
All 27 is Jerry Curl.
I'm with it.
Yeah.
Donnie, let's get into the Epstein files.
You see anybody you know?
The Department of Justice released the largest batch of Epstein files so far.
I mean, it was huge.
Three million more pages of documents and thousands of videos and images and images.
It's tough to go all the way through, but I know y'all have taken a look at some of the latest revelations out of it.
What did y'all think of the newest updates?
This is your jam.
Okay.
Turks and Kikos.
Turs and Kekos.
Banana Kegos.
What was it?
Bailey's Banana and cream.
BBC.
Yeah, the BBC.
Yeah, this is.
Oh, wait, shout out to Gwen's.
Shout out to Gwen.
Shout out to all of this stuff.
Getting out in the batch.
Rokana has coined a term.
I think the term is very apt at looking at viewing, distilling all the information from the Epstein files down into, you know, thoughts or opinions.
He's coined the term Epstein class.
Meaning?
Meaning the class of people that would have knowingly had relationships with just.
Jeffrey Epstein or surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and the reasons why they had those relationships.
There is a thought amongst people that what we are after and people are after is the web of
individuals who were individually responsible and in a group responsible for abusing young girls,
for abusing young women,
selling young women,
incubating young women,
all of that stuff.
That's actually not,
in my opinion,
what we're after.
What is that?
We're after the structure
of people
that could know,
be connected to,
have any thought
that that was happening
or a possibility
and did not have
the moral courage to do something about it.
And the reason why I say that is this.
When you see the way that a lot of people are talking to Jeffrey Epstein,
David Stern, the former commissioner of the NBA,
email to Jeffrey Epstein.
And it says, hey, whatever you guys are doing over there,
orgies or whatever all of that stuff might be.
Hmm.
When you see the way people, Elon Musk,
you're talking about attending the island
with Jeffrey Epstein, all of that stuff, right?
When you see just like the sort of cultural knowledge,
the understanding that there's something untoward,
illicit, that this guy is a freak
that can provide you with the nut that you want to bust, right?
And that these girls are young,
when you see everyone who is just kind of involved in that
And you see where the web goes.
Deepak Chopra, who was talking to Jeffrey Epstein about the type of younger woman that he likes to be around.
All of that stuff.
When you see all of this stuff that was going on, you start to get an understanding of the fact that many people not just knew that he had already been convicted of soliciting sex from minors.
That was the reason why they liked that.
them. The reason why they liked them is because he could plug them into this eyes wide shut,
weird, depraved usury world. And that web is so big. It's not just about people who knew
and who took part and who did all that stuff. It's also about people that were just down for the
party. Just down for the party and didn't care who was throwing it and about how those people
communicate with each other and the favors that they'll do for each other. And that to me, I think,
is an interesting way to look at this. Once again, I have to say this, I'm not criticizing
sex work. I'm not even criticizing intermediaries into sex work. Like, I don't know, I don't want
to come off like holier than now insofar as, okay. But what I am saying is, we're,
We're talking about young women preyed upon being used as currency in a group amongst a group of people that that's what you could bring.
You could provide the young woman to massage someone, the young woman to be abused by someone.
And that's what made you amongst these people the man.
Yeah.
I mean, I agree with you.
I've looked at it more that way, which I'll get to a second, which leads me to the other thought of like, what is it that we're doing here? Because I think the original purpose was, you know, to get these files, to uncover what's in them was obviously for justice for the victims and to a whole and to hold accountable the predators and, you know, the perverts that were involved with all of this, right? But I've been thinking of it the way that you're talking about it in the sense that it really does.
you know, highlight this elite class or Epstein class of people who wanted access or attention
or, you know, there was a level of power that they were trying to get to that they feel like
this type of thing granted them that separated them from another group, a secret society.
You know, you hear about these things. You hear about places. There are sex clubs and stuff that are
secret society kind of things, you know, all over this country. And this was something that was
on a higher level, even that that your money or your position gave you access to.
But I also think it highlights the way this class of people view women.
They looked, they wanted women around.
Whether they were underage or of age, they looked at them as if they were disposable,
whether the woman was, they viewed these women as objects, whether it was in a sexual way,
or just to have them there for their presence as a woman, but they were disposable.
And that's how they talk about them. That's how they treated them. That to me is also something
that we should be attaching to the people that are affiliated with this. They didn't care
about women. That was also how they used their power, like just to throw them to the side,
to use them in the way that they wanted to be. And I think that that speaks to something too about
this class of people.
But at the end of the day, and this is like kind of the question I was coming in with it,
you know, we both see that it highlights a certain group of people and what they desire
and what they wanted and what they were looking, what they were okay with ignoring and
turning a blind eye to or just okay with even being a part of if they weren't ignoring.
They didn't care as long as they had access to it.
We agree on that, right?
So then my thing is, in going back to what the original purpose was, or it is, I should say, in regards to the Epstein files, where do we go from here?
Because even though we're calling attention to this, and I don't think we're the only ones doing that, millions and millions of files have been released.
Nothing that has really come out to the files has pointed to someone that I've seen, unless I'm, please correct me if I'm wrong, where you can, like criminally hold up.
them responsible for something.
It's just information of people talking to Jeffrey Epstein, knowing that he had been convicted
of, what was the exact commission?
I want to say, he was convicted.
He got a sweetheart deal.
He played it down to solicitation of sex from someone not yet 18.
Knowing that and still keeping in communication with him.
Yeah.
Like, it highlights that, but it hasn't really pointed to somebody.
you know, violating, like, there's nothing in the emails that we've seen so far where it's like,
unless, and if it is an accusation, the DOJ has come out and said, well, these are uncorroborated.
Or, you know, like, the FBI didn't, these were just tips.
So it's like, okay, well, this is here.
And we're seeing some wild things being accused of Trump and other people, but it's not corroborated.
These are just tips.
Like, it's so then it's like, so what are we doing?
Where do we go here from now?
have all this stuff, you see all these people were connected to him. What do we do with this? Because
it seems like, and I've seen people, you know, that are loyalists with the MAGA movement saying,
well, it's just an accusation. Nothing was proved. Oh, well, they said that these were just tips.
Like, what are we doing with this now? I think that's like I don't want to sound like I don't care
because I do. It's just like, all right, we're getting the documents. What are we going to do
now. I will say I know that
there are filing
something in the courts because with
the release particularly of these
documents, they revealed
a bunch of personal information
about the victims. They
didn't redact names,
addresses, identifying information
pictures, but
I mean, well,
I'm going on for that, but they didn't do any of that.
So it seems like they've caused even more damage
for the very people who were hurt from this
in the first place. It's like, where are we, what are we
doing now? That's on DOJ, right? Yes, but I'm just saying, like, the only thing to come out is
what we talked about and then that they have damaged these victims even more with the information
that they've released. All the redactions we've seen, but yeah, you put all these victims' information
out there. Like, how did you miss that? You put these people out there in harm's way and harm them
even further than they've already been harmed. So I'm just like, what are we doing now? I think
DOJ in that regard, first of all, two things. Number one, there are a lot of files,
released. There are going to be some mistakes made, but I think the mistakes that are being made
are being made purposefully. I do too. I think DOJ in that regard is testing
it for us that. The purpose of that is for us to have this conversation about whether or not
it's worth hurting people. I'm not in any way removing myself from the conversation around the
victims. Their rights, their sanity, what they've been through, their pain, has to be paramount in
this discussion. However, I do think a way to test people.
people's appetite for this is to purposefully immiserate the people who are victims here to make
us say maybe it's not worth it. I think your question is very interesting and I'll answer it personally
for me. Okay. Where do we go from here? Answer to me easy. Further and let me personalize it.
Man, Noam Chomsky. Nomchomsky was at Fred Hampton's funeral.
Noam Chomsky, who has been a voice in criticism of the American Empire, a voice that has talked about over the years, this country's dedication to lying, to destabilizing any voices that don't go along with the American political corporate status quo.
someone who I've read, whether it's manufacturing consent,
whether it's working for American Dream, whatever it is,
they're emails of Chomsky, giving Jeffrey Epstein advice
on how to beat pedophilia allegations.
They're emails.
There are going to be some people in this
who are going to have relationships with Jeffrey Epstein
or with people surrounding Jeffrey Epstein,
Galane Maxwell,
that frankly, they're going to,
be able to explain it.
They're going to be able to explain it. They're going to be like, hey, like, Gladwell was on
the plane. Gladwell says that he got flown out for a TED talk. He ended up on the plane.
Chris Tucker was on the plane. Being on the plane, not great. Okay.
I also have dinner with someone recently who said that they almost got on the plane and they had
no idea. It was Epstein's plane. Okay. There's some people that are going to be able to explain
this. And then there are certain things that are just inexplicable. And Chomsky, who has been
somebody who I've looked to for intellectual guidance for a long time, having that conversation
with him is inexplicable.
I would like to know that.
I would like to know who needs to be defrocked, who needs to be demasked, and who really
needs to in front of people, male and female, who needs to in front of people have sort of
come to Jesus moment because we're talking about what we will tolerate in the polite society
that we want to create and in the polite society that we want to create it is the one that I want
to create I don't want somebody on text telling someone how to outlast pedophilia allegations. I don't
want that. Look is what it is. That to me is useful knowledge in terms of understanding
who I would like to associate with,
give power to lend credence to their name.
Deepak Chopra, someone who, you know,
for a long time has made their bones and their living
as a spiritual guru that is supposed to be a humanist,
that association to me would have to be investigated and litigated.
So the court of public opinion.
not obviously not just a court of public opinion just I'm an information guy I watched I've been
told you I think I told you about this I've been doing research into the siege at Ruby Ridge
for like the last month just to understand prominent instances of government overreach prior to
this and the way those things win and stuff like that I want to know this stuff and I don't think
that that's wrong I would want to know too I think but what
What I would want even further is some accountability for it.
Like are they, are people, I mean, most people probably aren't even paying attention to this, right?
Like they see a headline and they keep on moving and it dies within, you know, until the next big story comes.
But I guess I would want, in what I was hoping for with the release of these files, is that people are held accountable.
So okay, maybe there's not a criminal act that we see within the emails, but you're affiliating yourself with someone like a Jeffrey Epstein.
What are we going to do with that information?
Yeah, I mean.
And that's why I say the court of public opinion.
It's like MAGA is going to be MAGA and they're going to support no matter what.
But what are we going to do, you know, with seeing a Deepak Chopra or?
Well, the question is, what are you going to do?
I mean, that starts, you can't even begin to have that question, have that conversation if you don't know what's going on.
So the, like, you can't begin to have that conversation.
The question is, hey, look, once again.
It's up to everyone to be able to look at some of this and decide on their own whether or not it meets the smell test or whether or not it's just like no big deal.
Big deal or no big deal.
They'll be up to people.
There are certain people, particularly people who were affiliated with him after he got out of prison.
And they got a lot of fucking questions to answer, you know, a lot of stuff.
that is going on, like, as far as they're concerned.
So it's what it is.
We'll see.
But there's more, and we're going to keep it coming.
We're going to keep the Epstein Files coming, baby.
Or is there anybody, have you known anyone that's been mentioned personally?
I've, not personally, but like, yeah.
I saw a name that I was like, oh.
I know people that have been mentioning there.
Yeah.
But not mentioned in a way where.
It's like the people we're talking about.
Nope.
For me.
Not me.
I don't know people that were mentioned in the inner circle,
but I know people that were mentioned in ways that kind of pulled the veil off
of how things were going in certain places.
Yeah.
Ice.
Donnie?
Yeah.
Steve Bannon spoke on ICE recently.
He said this week that the government is planning to send ICE officers.
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To patrol polling stations during this year's midterm elections,
And he said this a little bit after Trump himself said that he believes that Republicans should nationalize voting.
So, yeah.
You know, I saw something earlier from old Chuckie Chuck Schumer.
Big Chuck, two buck Chuck.
Donnie, play what old Chuckie, young Chuckie had to say recently.
Play with what I put in the group text.
No secret police.
These guys go around.
These people go around with masks.
It makes them more brutal.
They're never accountable.
No one even knows who they are.
There should be no masks except in the most of unusual circumstances.
You know, some guy's picture was put up by a terrorist group or something.
But there should be no masks.
What was the exception?
It's tough.
It's tough.
There should be cameras.
Everyone should have cameras and there should be rules on how they use.
use them.
Okay.
And they have to have regular uniforms.
Not all the stuff they're wearing.
Regular uniforms.
Fanatics.
But we can't get out of secret police.
And we cannot, you know.
Do you think Fanags would do the ice uniforms?
No.
No.
I said he wants to keep the mask.
Don't, isn't he related with reform?
That would be,
that would contradict.
I think Ruben would do it.
Well, then.
What is reform about?
Reform.
I think Fanags would do it.
Okay.
Put the, put the fucking beard up.
I bet Fanax would make the ice uniform.
Cut them off.
The Democrats are going to cook out on this.
Yeah, he's giving you his bullet point list right there.
Which we know, right?
Because you haven't really shown us anything that you're going to take a hard stance when it comes to ICE.
We've said it.
It should be simple.
You should abolish it.
There's no way to reform it at it's the way it is, even the way that the Trump administration
and the Department of Homeland Security has handled it since the deaths of good.
and pretty.
But they gave,
but they have a list of demands,
which we've seen already prior to this,
and that he's pretty much laying out right here.
I'm going...
This is the Schumer way.
I'm going to read out the list of demands.
Have we talked about the list of demands?
Yeah, we talked about it.
So look, I guess my thing is this.
I've talked to a couple of people
in government
over the past couple of weeks about this.
I've gotten
kind of a spectrum
of reaction
to how this should happen.
Okay.
There are hurdles in terms of what can be done about ICE.
ICE is funded in a very direct way.
$75 billion.
It's part of the big, beautiful bill.
So there are,
there is a ceiling on...
Did you say DHS is funded that way?
DHS is.
Yeah, there is a ceiling on exactly how much power
can be used.
This is what I'll say.
To Schumer, to Jeffreys,
to whomever it is.
Whatever the ceiling is,
whatever going
to the mattresses is
on ice,
go there.
This is not one of those
issues, in my opinion, and I
don't understand
how the Democratic
brass manages
to miss the moment
every time it's an art.
It really is impressive.
Whatever the mattresses are,
whatever going to the mattresses is,
whatever the nuclear option is,
whatever burning it down is,
go there on this.
Go there on this.
You have a cultural and intellectual mandate,
not from the left,
but from a large majority of the American people,
to end the madness that they are seeing on their streets,
to restore control.
Like, you have that.
People have seen it.
They've gotten their fill of Trump and his ice assault on Minneapolis,
on Chicago, on Los Angeles.
They don't like it.
This is not what they want.
Yeah.
Your Maga bro podcasters are out.
like you don't have any reason not to be as direct destabilizing and aggressive in shredding ice as you need to be.
Well, and that's the thing too that I just don't understand.
It makes me laugh when you say it's an art.
Because even as you have Chuck Schumer saying the things that he's saying, right,
how can you think that that is going to stop the madness, as you say to your point,
of what ICE is doing.
And Trump, even as you're saying that,
is still playing in your face
because he's saying,
I'm about to use these people.
I want to nationalize voting.
And you're sending out a bat signal
to your supporters,
to, and I'm talking about those who vote for you,
MAGA, also in Congress,
of what it is you want to do
and you want to use this very department
to execute that.
even Republicans are saying that that's problematic.
I know Chuck Schumer thinks that's problematic.
So now he wants to take this force.
Oh, they'll have their uniforms, their new uniforms.
They'll have their body cameras.
They'll have the mask, unless it fits one of these exceptions.
They'll have all those things that you're going to get put in so this can move forward.
This bill can move forward.
But they're going to use that to cause possibly, right?
because this is what Trump is calling for, to cause chaos at polling stations, to intimidate people, to, and yes, that is against the Constitution.
That's not allowed what he wants to do with nationalized voting. But since when has Trump been held himself above the Constitution all the time? So how do we not know he's going to execute these things? We see what happened in Georgia a couple of weeks ago. We see the way that he's talking to podcasters. We see what Steve Bannon is saying.
The very department that you are about to find is about to basically execute voter suppression, possibly.
That's what's being threatened at this point.
So how can you sit there and say that when you see what also Trump is saying this week?
That's what I don't understand.
I guess my question is to Schumer or to leader Jeffries or to any of these other people that are eating around the edges of it, don't you want to abolish ICE?
Fuck everything else.
Fuck what you can do.
Fuck what you can do.
Don't you want to abolish ice?
Don't you want to get rid of it?
At this point, haven't you seen how rotten and putrid the organization is?
Haven't you seen it?
Aren't you going to say enough?
But there's no reason to like whisper this or to, and this is the deal.
We're going to talk about some of the other stuff that's going on, particularly with James
Talarico and Jasmine Crockett.
and I have to be honest with you guys
you know
I'm being called a leftist
a leftist coon
uh
you know
you don't go along with
the center of the Democratic Party
and you get called all kinds of names
and you get disinvited to all kinds of functions
you got disinvited this one
they don't want me around anymore
they don't want me to come to
Man, man.
Who?
I mean, I can't go to the convention sponsored by Nissan and all of that shit like that.
They don't want me around anymore.
I'm not a freedom fighter.
This bitch is on Spotify.
So don't look at me like I'm trying to.
I'm not calling anybody.
What I'm saying is that like these are the moments.
This is not me throwing wrath and lightning bolts from on high from anyone.
Most of the people that I know, even the ones that I disagree with that are inside of this coalition.
they want the best outcomes for people.
Sure.
I really truly believe that.
And we might have different visions and versions of those outcomes,
but they want the best outcomes for people.
I believe it.
What I don't believe, though,
is that when people said abolish the police, right?
Excuse me.
When people said defund the police,
I don't believe that the center of the Democratic Party
had that conversation with them in good faith.
I don't think anyone went.
What do you mean?
Have that conversation with the people who wanted to defund the police.
I don't think they said, okay, what are you guys talking about?
I think they got scared.
And they got scared and they went, okay, this is the group of people that are going too far.
This is the group of people that are saying, you know what?
This is we can easily use their perceived extremism to pull people back to the center
and make a large swath of the American voting public believe that we're the safe ones.
They did do that.
Biden did that.
Right.
So what I'm saying is in this situation now, there are people that are saying abolish ICE.
And then there are other people that are saying that's a little bit too far.
There's currency in that.
There's currency in saying we're not as far to the left or we're not as radical as what they are.
So the America and the party and the power structures,
we're the safe hands,
the reasonable people that you can have conversations with.
And I'm telling you right now, ICE isn't reasonable.
It's not a reasonable thing.
Like we're not living in a reasonable administration.
We need less reasonability from you guys.
We need y'all to get as mad as what we are.
And by the way, there's nothing that is going to stop or insulate you
from criticism in this situation, in this moment.
I don't give a fuck who you are.
I don't give a fuck how black you are.
I don't give a fuck how southern you are.
I don't give a fuck if you from Baton Rouge,
you went to McKinley High.
Your last name is Butler, Stuart, Lathen, Ellis, or Watson.
All of my family.
I don't give a fuck how familiar I am with you.
You move wrong.
We call in ball.
and strikes over and cooom me out.
Like the whole nine, do what you got to do.
You move wrong.
I am going to say don't like it.
I don't know why people are calling you a coon.
No, no, no, no.
It's just like, you know, there's only one person that was like,
Van is what white leftist now.
I just, I guess my question to like a Chuck Schumer is of the bullet point list that you had,
which one of those things would have prevented the deaths of?
anybody who's died at the hands of ice.
That's my question.
It wouldn't have been a mask.
It wouldn't have been the camera.
These are people who aren't, one, who shouldn't even be there, right?
That's not their role.
Two, they're not even trained in the positions that they're supposed to be in.
And three, there is a level of hate that exist within some of these people.
I'm not going to say everybody, but a lot of them, from the top down to the bottom.
And so I just, and it's so obvious to me.
If you joined ICE after the Trump administration?
You joined and hate.
But my point is, is that this is so obvious.
I understand you don't want a portion of the government shut down, but like, this is not enough.
And again, when you have a Trump who this week is playing and flirting with the idea of using the same group for voter suppression to intimidate because he feels the midterms are out of his control, he's seeing.
What happened in Texas.
He's seeing what is happening in other places.
He's using his power in ways that are not right.
Authoritarianism.
We say it every episode on this podcast.
Why, it's just not a sense of urgency for you.
I just don't get it.
Once again, I think that there is currency for them.
Obviously.
And to be the stopgap against the radical left extremists.
that want housing for people.
The radical left extremists
that want health care for people,
the radical left extremists
that want to see the dignity of the global South,
that believe in a world order
that doesn't involve
taking countries by force whenever you want.
The radical left
that believes in a woman's ability to choose
the radical leftists.
that believe in a living wage,
the radical leftists
that believe in the power of the worker,
the radicals.
They're blue-haired,
hippie, radical pinko communists
who don't think that people should have to starve
in the richest country in the history world.
So those people, in order for them
to make sure that those people don't take over,
they have to say,
you know what, we can work with ICE.
And look,
It'll probably work.
What will work?
Everything that they do.
It will likely work.
It will likely work because, and this is, this is not a kick the Democrats and the nuts segment.
It will likely work because we just can't get there.
We're going to have the same conversations over and over and over again.
It doesn't matter who sacrifices their body and their one life that they get in resistance
to the thing that's clear.
clearly wrong.
It doesn't matter how aggressive they are about their version of the world.
Our version of it is just saying, hey, we're the normal ones.
When none of this shit is normal, none of this is normal.
And it hasn't been normal for a very long time.
And in closing, I will say this.
The people that you should be most skeptical of are the ones that try to,
to convince you that there's a way to make it normal.
The ones that try to convince you that there's a way that this could all be done politely.
I'm just being for real.
It just sounds funny to even hear you say that this could all be done politely.
Do you want to talk about James Telerico and Jasmine Crockett?
I think it's a bigger conversation because we would like to have a guest on with it.
I mean, we'll talk about it when we have the guests.
We'll know what you think.
You're from Texas.
You think Tala Rico's a racist?
No.
We've had this conversation before.
I think that it makes your argument ineffective when you're quick to throw those things out or you lead with that first.
So for those who haven't maybe been following along and correct me where I get this wrong because we're just doing this off top of our heads.
But James Tilariko apparently had a conversation with a content creator.
It was a black woman.
And I don't know if he said off the record or not, whatever.
but he allegedly said that he thought he was going to be running against a black mediocre man
instead of a formidable intelligent black woman.
So the mediocre black man he was referring to was Colin Allred,
who we know dropped out of the race and made room for Jasmine Crockett to run.
And so he made this comment, this content creator doesn't have it on tape or video,
but she comes on, she says it, and then her account, that video is taken down, like pretty quickly after.
And so the speculation is that somebody from Tala Rico's team had it taken down because he was the subject of that video and quickly thereafter it was removed.
This went viral.
I saw on threads.
I'm not sure if it went everywhere, but it went viral where a lot of black content creators, black
you know, political analysts said, had a lot to say about the fact that, you know, this is showing
James Talarico's true colors. This is what he says behind closed doors. At first, he didn't
put out a statement, kind of like lived in the, on social media for a few days. Then he put out a
statement where he didn't deny making it. He just said he thought he was making a comment.
He thought he was complimenting, I guess, Jasmine Crockett. And so this is what he said. He said,
this is a mischaracterization of a private conversation. In my praise of Congresswoman Crockett,
I described Congressman all Red's method of campaigning as mediocre, but his life and service
are not. I would never attack him on the basis of race. I understand how my critique of the
congressman's campaign could be interpreted given this country's painful legacy of racism,
and I care deeply about the impact my words have on others. So he's basically saying he said it,
but I guess there was a different intent behind it, but no matter the intent,
it came across a certain way about Colin Allred.
People still aren't accepting this.
And Colin Allred came out and said, you know, don't come for me unless that's in for you.
I'm, I was, he was kind of staying neutral, but he's fully put his support now behind Jasmine
Crockett.
I don't think, you ask me what I think about this.
I think that I can understand the side of people who are like, listen, he should have
never said this.
Like, a white man should not be speaking.
about a black man like this.
I'll agree, right?
Like, I don't, it's kind of like,
we can say that maybe, but you can't say that.
Like, why are you calling him a mediocre?
It just comes across wrong.
What do you mean mediocre?
Why are you saying this about him?
You know, like, we make jokes about, you know,
maybe him being married to a white woman or whatever like that.
But, like, I, it's like...
I didn't make jokes.
They made them jokes in Houston.
Hearing, hearing James Tolariko say,
call him mediocre, he should not have said that, I believe personally that that was wrong.
Now, what he said about Jasmine Crockett, he was complimenting her. And I guess viewed her as more of a
challenge in the race than he did. He minimized Colin Allred. But I don't take that as some people
are as, you know, I didn't see them calling him a racist, but basically saying like this is
defining who James Tallerico is.
This is what he says in private.
This is what he says off mic.
This is the real James Talarico.
And the version that you're getting of him, you know, in front of the media or the
persona that they're trying to create around him is not the real him.
I can't say that from this one comment that I particularly subscribe to that either.
Interesting.
So, number one, a couple things.
for James
Hallorico and his team
for James Hollerico and his team
for Graham Plattner as his team
the thing
is less important to me
than what happens after it
I keep trying to tell you guys this
we are living in a community
made up of different people
with different sensitivities
different sensibilities
there are going to be times
where we run afoul of each other
that's the way that it goes
happened last week or earlier this week with fat labia
I wasn't trying to
you know
I was trying to be
I Tala Rico did
I was trying to be
your intention was to show that women
not use to show that women are strong as well
that was your intention or not even strong but that
you know Cajonais is big Cajonis I wanted to
and then look it went wrong right
you learn from it but you have to
conversation. You have the conversation. The thing that bothers me more than anything is the
press release culture that we live in. And the culture that says that you can talk to white people
about how you've run a file of black people. So that means that if you're Grand Platner,
you can go and do a bunch of different shows where there's no one that looks like fucking
Bernard that's asking you questions about a fucking Nazi tattoo that you might have or anti-black
things that you might said. That to me is just saying that black people's voices in this
coalition don't matter. Okay. So what I would suggest that the Tala Rico team do is find
somebody black to go had this conversation with. And not just a conversation about this,
but a conversation about how we miss these types of things. Have it openly and honestly.
If you don't do that, don't give a fuck if it's here, it's somewhere else. We have as
James to come on.
All right.
If you don't do that,
I'm going to be like,
why don't want to talk to us?
Yeah.
Like, why don't want to talk to us
when there's something to talk about?
Because you shouldn't be scared
to have these conversations.
They might be uncomfortable.
I think, you know,
it's why we come in to Keith
for coming in person
and having the conversation.
By the end of it,
he literally admitted
I didn't see it that way.
And I think that's exactly
what happened to James Tilarico.
He said it.
He thought he was saying something different
and he needs to sit.
down with black people and understand why there are people who are feeling the way that they do.
Now, it probably won't win over those people. I think a lot of people that I've seen talk about it.
And even some of my friends in Texas have already made up their mind when it comes to this.
And there's some other stuff that has come out about, you know, maybe his team or whoever he's
working with kind of doing a smear campaign on Jasmine Crockett that has people also think in a certain way.
They're like, well, and I actually pose the question to those friends.
I said, well, what if, you know, he hires a team to work on his behalf, he might not know necessarily what's going on.
And they said, well, he should know.
And so there are people that with all of this combined have made up their mind.
Maybe they were before for James with everything that they're hearing coming out.
They've turned a blind eye to it.
I think he needs to come and understand why people are feeling that way and not ignore it and run away from it.
And I think that as we talk with Keith, that does everybody like a service to sit and come and have these conversations that may be uncomfortable.
Right.
If this is truly coalition building, because politics is one thing, I couldn't care less about the politics of this.
I don't care.
I don't care about the politics.
Politics is a dirty game.
It's a dirty business.
Everyone gets dirty.
It's the way that it goes.
If he's running a smear campaign against Jasmine Crockett
or trying to highlight her unfavorables
or trying to do all of this,
that's the way that goes.
Right.
It would have been fantastic if this race didn't have to get like this
so that the main thing could stay the main thing,
but it's politics.
It's the way it goes.
But part of this primary and part of this process
is for us to learn these things about these candidates,
for us to learn as much as we can about them
so we don't put on jerseys and get fetterment, right?
So I don't have a problem with none of that
in terms of how brutal the campaign gets.
If she's respected as a black lady,
it's great.
If there's no Chinquas, no ghettos, no this,
no low IQs, no none of that stuff,
none of those dog whistles that dehumanized black women
that we know are there to dehumanize black women.
If the politics stays above board in terms of,
I don't care if it's aggressive.
That doesn't bother me.
The part of this that I'm always trying to investigate
is not who I can win with,
is who I can build with.
Because winning elections is only one part
of changing the reality for people
in all of these different places.
We have to crystallize and define these ideas.
We have to strengthen these coalitions.
There have to be serious people at the table
to have serious conversations about what expectations are.
And if you are not willing to talk about something
when you fucked up, you're not serious about it.
Now, I put that to the side.
Nothing that will say really bothers me.
If I'm being honest, nothing.
Like, he was pandering, trying to pander.
He fucked up and he said some shit he shouldn't say it.
By the way, I'm completely agnostic on this race.
I'm completely agnostic on this race.
The one thing that I hope more is that we learn way more about both candidates throughout this process.
I want to know as much as I can about Jazz and Crockett, as much as I can about James Tolariko,
because I think that both people have futures in the national political conversation.
but I am telling people once again right now.
And I want to make sure I was just having a conversation about this because it is difficult right now the space that we're in in a lot of ways.
Because there are fundamental operating policies and practices that we've always gone by.
We want to see the ascension of black people and black voices everywhere.
But I personally, in any political conversation moving forward,
culture, community, familiarness, sameness will not be used as a weapon to get me or anyone
who I respect
not to criticize people
that are running for political office.
I'm sorry.
I'm too deep into the game
with this shit to be on that.
I'm going to look at you
and assume like I do
with most black people that I meet.
When I give a black man a head nod,
he give me back the head nod.
I'm assuming that we're looking for safety
between one another.
That's what that means.
Hey, what's up, bro?
Like, you know, we're at the grove.
It's not a lot of us here.
How you doing?
straight, you good? How security treating you? Yeah, well, if we have to burn this
motherfucker down, we probably won't, but we will be mad together. All right. But sometimes
you give the head nod and you don't get it back. Right? And sometimes you give it and you
don't give it back. Sometimes culture isn't enough. Yeah. Yeah. And so to me, like, or it's not
respect or there's no sameness in it. To me, if I see, and I do see a lot of this, I see a lot of people,
a lot of people that are using the same playbook
to kind of extinguish some of these really relevant
necessary conversations
and it's not going to work with me
and whatever I am I'm fucking that
I'm gonna sit here and we're gonna have a conversation
about Keem Jeffries
and the fact that his first name is Hakim
is not gonna make me stop having that conversation
y'all can fucking get mad if y'all want to get mad
take my name off all the lists
is shit to get done.
And the shit that needs to get done
is shit that hasn't been
gotten done.
So let's have the conversation for real.
If James Salarico is a fucking racist
and he was with the proud boys
and he got fucking
American history ex pass,
get him the fuck out of here.
Like, cool,
no problem with it.
But if we're going to do the same thing
over and over and over whenever we get in a race
that we have to talk about serious,
issues and well we have to investigate the metal of people and whether or not they really mean
what they say and they are who they are like we have to investigate him as a Bible thumping
uh joe rogan of the left we have to look at jasmine crock in terms of her ability to get
her agenda done and who she is and we have to be able to do it without people wagging their
fingers at us and saying if you ask these questions you wrong yeah or if you don't agree with
me on this, you're wrong. I want to say for the record, I know you, it doesn't matter to you.
I don't, I don't ever want to hear a white man call a black man mediocre. I'm just never going to be
okay with that. But, this incident would not be enough for me to be like, I'm out on you.
I need to hear, I need, I, I would be weighing more than this for me. Let me be clear.
Let me be clear.
When he said mediocre black man, like, if I was in front of him, I'd be like, what was the black about?
Like, y'all know me.
Like, y'all know me.
Like, why you got to be black?
Like, I, like, but understand this, though, I flash out when it's time to flash out.
It's like, I flash when it's, the thing that would make me, that would get me more upset, the thing that would upset me more is if I tried to have the conversation with him.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right after that, and then he didn't want to do it.
I would be like, oh, well, you think you're better than me.
You're not even here for the conversation.
Well, it's interesting you say that because some people were like, because remember,
it was a couple of days before you put out a statement.
So some people were like, if he has to address this.
If he doesn't address this, then it's an issue.
Then he addresses it.
And he pretty much says, I said it, you know?
And then explains, you know, not necessarily the why, tries to explain it and says how he was
wrong and what he should have done.
And then people are still like, okay, well, then that wasn't enough.
So it's just, I don't think that's enough.
No, I was just about to say, I was.
would love for him to have a conversation with somebody. I prefer it to be us, but with someone
black, black media talking heads to just get to the deeper issue of the why this is offensive,
why how this is a problem within the black community for black people and how we can move
together forward with it. Keith, Keith is going back and forth. Keith is who's Adam Cochran?
I've been seeing him a lot too. You know him?
Adam Cochran.
It seems like it's Keith and Adam Cochran.
They against Roland Martin now.
It looks like they're going back and forth.
Okay.
We'll have Roland on pretty soon.
Rolling coming on in the podcast.
He said, I think he's supposed to be coming to L.A. soon.
We'll have to have him on.
Like, Roland is a good to me, a bellwether, very accomplished, very important guy, black
independent media.
I'll be interested to see, because I saw him talking to Jamie Harrison, be interesting to see
where when we have rolling on
like where he lands on a lot of this stuff
as we kind of
isn't he for jasmine? I think isn't he for jasmine? I think isn't he
for jasmine? I'm pretty sure he's four jasmine but I don't think
that there's I think that there
with someone who is as politically knowledgeable
as Roland is I think it'll be interesting to get the
reasons why he's for her because he's a
constituent of hers. He lives there
he might have
I'm sure he does have
more direct political
reasons like
policy-based or
actionable reasons that he is
supporting Jasmine Crockett
that will be interesting for people to hear
because I feel like when people talk about
Jasmine Crockett a lot of times
they're not talking about anything that's based
in policy outside of her opinions
on
you know Israel or other things like that
if we're to get into the weeds and try to have an understanding,
and this is probably true for James Salarico as well.
We're talking about so much surrounding both of these candidates.
We are talking about identity and culture and authenticity.
All of these things matter in a political race.
I'm not saying they don't.
When are we going to get to the brass tax of what these people stand for
and have accomplished from a policy perspective?
So you will know who will help improve the fucking power grid in Texas.
Who has the political will to do it?
Who has the connections to do it?
Who is the person that is going to vote for there to be a fucking AI data center in your community?
And who is the person that won't do that?
Who is the person that will fight to raise your minimum wage?
And who is the person that won't?
Who is the person that will arm a genocide?
And who is the person that won't?
Wasting fucking time, he's getting them a goddamn fucking nerves.
But I think that when we have rolling on,
I think we can talk about a great many things,
but also we can get to the bottom of not only how we should be thinking,
but, you know, who Congresswoman Crockett is from one of her constituents.
I get it.
I'm to the left of rolling, way to the left.
But there's still, I think, supposed to be a coalition of us all.
I don't know if that's true anymore.
It's supposed to be.
Supposed to be.
Supposed to be.
Why don't you get on, hey, man.
Why don't you get on this new shit?
Why don't you get on this, you know what I'm saying?
This new shit.
Why are you winking at me?
What's new shit?
Why don't you get some of this new shit?
Why don't you get some of this, you know, pinko communist, Mao is bullshit.
Come on, man.
Come on here.
Come on, man.
What do you think I am?
Man, I, I, I, you, you on the road.
You on the road.
Comrade Rachel.
I'm not there.
Comrade Rach, you're almost there.
Obviously, I'm joking, guys, but I just, I do think that now is the time for us not to just look at the other side, but how and who we want to win with.
We can't do things the way we've been doing.
I 100% agree with that.
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What is this?
Donnie?
Like, well, is soup kit?
The comeback.
I know you.
We got soupy in the show.
What the fuck?
Are you thrilled?
Wow.
Are you thrilled?
Whoa.
Tell us what's going on, Donnie.
Yeah.
All right.
Former Bachelor host, Chris Harrison, is making the TV comeback.
He posted a casting call on his Instagram with the caption said,
It's time to help people find love again.
Now casting.
Now the casting call.
has caused some controversy.
Let me read a little bit of what it said.
It says a prominent streaming service is casting single men and women,
one and up who want a traditional marriage.
Okay.
A traditional marriage-minded partnership built on commitment and shared values.
We're looking for singles who believe in clear roles,
long-term commitment,
and building a life together and who are dating with real intention.
What the fuck is this?
your yes is as good as mine
but I knew you'd be happy that he'd be out the kitchen
allegedly it's tied to a big streaming service
we don't really know they don't they haven't said
we don't know that's in the casting call
I know what it is what it is this is Fox Nation
for sure well this is Fox Nation for sure
well people of course this popped up and people immediately
are like or I'm tagged and stuff right because it's like
all the last time he's on TV this controversy
Your former employer was like,
TMC was like, oh, do you have a comment?
Do you want to talk about this?
Did you give him a comment?
The comment is, listen to the podcast.
Okay.
Because people are like, well, what do you think?
What do you think about it?
I'm happy for him.
I'm happy for him.
You're happy for the soup master?
I am happy.
I'm happy.
You know why?
Because if Toys R Us is the place
where a kid can be a kid,
then this is the show
where Chris Harrison can be a kid.
Chris Harrison.
Oh, you're not happy for that name.
Now, we don't know much about this show other than what Donnie just said, right?
Shows traditional love.
Okay.
Right?
Clear roles.
Is that what you said, Donnie?
We believe in clear roles.
So a lot of people, I mean, that's open to interpretation, but a lot of people are coupling
the traditional love part and the clear roles part and saying, hmm, this seems to be coded maybe
for something else.
Now, in the casting questionnaire, apparently, for this show, the show asks the would-be contestants what their ideal marriage would look like, including a traditional conservative example.
That's not the quote, but this is.
A provider husband and a stay-at-home wife, the wife managing the home finances child care, faith-based leadership in the home.
So this is why people think it feels a little coded.
And I guess the questionnaire then asked the contestants what they believe modern dating gets wrong and what a traditional marriage quote means to them.
Right?
So like if there's an assumption, I think we can gather.
I mean, you already said Fox Nation.
It's like we can gather that this is more of a conservative type dating show.
And there's, you know, people are split.
Like some people like, again, are saying, oh, this seems like, you know, like a MAGA, you know, coded type traditional value.
of what a woman maybe used to be or they wanted women to be back in the day.
People are saying that this feels like the patriarchy, all of that.
And there's other people who are very excited, right?
Like me.
I'm happy, you know, that he's doing a show again.
It's about love and the type of love he seems to want to showcase.
But for all the people who are excited and are like, you know, this is amazing.
You know, he's coming back to TV and he's bringing traditional.
love back like The Bachelor used to be, right?
Like The Bachelor used to be traditional love.
It was traditional love when he was there and he lost his way.
You guys had to stop lying to yourselves.
There was nothing traditional, traditional in the sense that we think this show is about the way The Bachelor was.
Oh, you don't say.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, it's why there was a fictional show called Unreal that was created by one of the producers
of The Bachelor because they say those first like eight, ten seasons were the Wild Wild West.
what was going on there.
Second, finding love on reality TV,
nothing traditional about that.
So all of you, like, I mean,
for all of you people are like,
oh, this is a chance for nothing traditional
about finding your love on reality television.
And Chris Harrison,
when he did The Bachelor for, what, almost 20 years?
He was in the trenches with them, right?
He wasn't above any of it.
He was complicit,
which is why he had leverage on the show
and he was able to use that leverage to get an eight-figure payout.
The show back then was about business.
It was about money.
It was about the bottom dollar.
And everybody about that show and who was a part of putting it on
was about doing what they needed to do to make the show a success,
to make it a successful business,
to generate a lot of money and a lot of tension surrounding the show.
I will say, you know, when people are like Chris Harrison is so traditional,
and I'm telling you how he wasn't above all of that.
He was a part of a system.
The only thing traditional about that show before
was that it kept with a certain pattern
and that was about white people finding love
until I came on the show
and quote unquote mess things up.
Who said that?
Well, The Bachelor clan, as you name them.
I changed things.
I start talking about things that they don't want to talk about.
I messed up the show
in a way because I said, well, why, you know, love can look all kinds of ways, right?
But for 15 years, that show had showed you, you have to look like this and kind of be a part of
this type of culture to be able to find love.
That's what makes you desirable.
That's what the bachelor teach taught until I came about of it.
And even, I don't know if we talked about this, but even Chris Harrison, right, so this goes along
with the traditional love thing.
In an interview, he was asked before about like why there hadn't been a diverse lead.
and this was prior to me even joining the show.
This was, he said, television is a business.
And he goes on to say, what happens when our show was off in six months and you're not watching it anymore?
Advertisers have to buy this show.
Advertisers have to buy the next season of the show.
I need millions of people to watch this show.
So I need to put on people that others want to watch.
That was his response into why there hasn't been any diversity.
in regards to the leads.
And then I came on the show, right?
Mm-hmm.
And then a couple of years later...
How did the show do ratings-wise when you came on?
The show goes down in ratings every year.
Okay.
Less people are just, like, watching it on TV.
Was he lying about what he said?
Do you feel like what he said was unfair?
Um, well, I think it's unfair that you weren't even giving people a chance for it to work.
Right.
Because I had higher ratings than my white counterpart part after me.
You know what I mean?
So it's like, you...
You weren't even giving a chance for love to look different.
You just assume because this is what I have been.
That America doesn't want to see it.
He said people don't want to watch that.
I want to put on a show that people want to watch.
And that show does not include diverse leads.
He literally said that.
Then I come on the show and there was Matt James after me.
And then that's the season where it all went down for him.
Right.
So a couple of years later, a couple of years of diversity.
And then what does he say to me on the show?
He basically defends a contestant for being in a photo, an antebellum photo, says what's wrong with it and actually says to me, who the hell are you? Who the hell is Rachel Lindsay? Like, why are you having a conversation about this? Why aren't you showing her grace? Why is this even an issue? To what so many people were shocked and then what happened happened. And that was the end of it. Listen, Chris Harrison has told you before what traditional love is.
He said it in an interview before I was on the show.
He talked to me about it after, about like where his values, ideals, all of that stand.
So for him to be a part of this show, this is why I say, I'm happy for him.
That is Chris Harrison.
There is a through line with who he is and what he's about.
And I'm glad he found his way back to create the show that he wants and the version that he wants, which is traditional love.
So good for him.
I'm happy.
Well said.
Soupy.
It's been a while, man.
It's good.
This reminds me the old days.
The good old days.
The good old days.
I think he'd say the same thing.
Of having a soup kitchen conversation
where we used to talk about him all the time
back in the days.
It's funny that we say that
he got sent to the soup kitchen
when he is rich as fuck.
Eight figure deal.
Eight figure deal.
Soupy, get your bread.
This is what I will say.
Um, it may be controversial.
I don't know that he was wrong about what he was saying at the time that he was asked about the diversity thing.
And let me tell you why.
He might not be wrong as a business thing.
It doesn't mean that maybe it was right.
It certainly wasn't right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it's, but I, when we first would talk about that, I'd be like, God damn, the Cajone is on him.
Or?
You have a new term?
You guys know.
GONADs works.
Everybody has gonads.
That's what they said.
Gonads is a unifying term.
The gonads on him.
The gonads on him to do that.
After knowing the audience a little bit more,
seeing the way you've been treated,
seeing the way you sometimes spar with people who are in your comments
that might have come to know you from the bachelor,
I think he knew his audience.
No, no, he did.
And I think that he,
I think that they cultivated that audience.
Yeah, we've talked about it.
I think to me,
the Bachelor got to a point
where they knew
that they couldn't put somebody black on the show
or they didn't think that they could
because of what they had leaned into
and how they had positioned the show years prior.
And by the time they actually got some diversity
on the show.
It ended up becoming a four alarm fire because what they had cultivated was running up against criticism of the show just from people who weren't even like fans of it that much.
You know, I never even gave a fuck about The Bachelor, but then I heard they've never had a black or male or woman being.
And then I was like, wait, why?
I was like, for real?
I was like, y'all have fucking, uh, uh, uh, what?
What's his name?
Jesse Palmer on there.
I know Jesse Palmer from being like a...
Football player.
SEC football player is in Florida.
I was like, you know,
I can't put Charlie Ward on that bitch?
You know what I mean?
It's like...
You know what I'm saying?
So, I'm pretty sure Charlie Ward is married.
But America will watch...
America will watch like...
You'd be to me, America wouldn't watch
prior to the dogs of.
America wouldn't watch Michael Vick on The Bachelor.
I think they would watch it.
I think it would be interested.
Vic on there.
You know, or somebody that played for LSU.
Put Rohan Davy on the badge.
Herb Tyler, right?
I was like,
but why does it even have to be like a black person like that?
And that was also my issue too.
It was,
I was told in my casting,
well, we don't get people like you that come on the show.
Well, once again, this goes back to what I'm saying.
This goes back to the fact that when he was describing,
the reason why he couldn't do that,
what he was really describing was a figure four,
that they had put themselves in from their version of the show that they had been making
and how they had come to it.
And then by the time they start having you on, having Matt James on, and then we get to
the antebellum shit.
Now we run it up against George Floyd.
People care.
The shit's on Disney or whatever.
Now they're in a bus saw.
Nobody knows how to kind of get out of it.
Now he's talking to you.
he's not used to having these conversations.
He fucks with the wrong one.
He finds out,
now we're on Fox Nation.
Here's the deal.
It's like,
I'm just being for real.
In no way,
by the way,
what I'm saying is,
this goes back to everything
that like I'm talking about.
This goes back to like,
you live in the house that you built.
And so he probably wasn't,
what he was saying was probably not true,
but they did it.
And then when they tried to undo it,
they weren't prepared.
to deal with the diversity of thought,
the extra added eyes.
Because I look at the shit
when I was watching Matt James season
and maybe I was wrong.
Remember the thing when they had his dad on there?
And I was like, God damn.
Like in front of these people, you know what?
I was super critical.
I was like, but look, at the same time,
they had done shit like that on the Bachelor before
and we had covered on TMZ.
Remember when Air Rogers brought up?
They had the empty chair at the table.
Oh man, the good old days of TMZ.
We dined out on that one and they went to it.
And it was the empty chair there.
We had so much fun with the empty chair.
That was ridiculous.
We had, we used to have fun, man.
But like, but so just, you know, all of this stuff.
So I don't know.
Do you wish, okay, because you did do the thing where you said you're happy for him
and then you spent about five minutes kicking his back end.
That was fun.
I just went down memory lane.
Would you, how about this?
Soupy soups.
Everybody has a soup kitchen, particularly in this business,
you make a lot of soup kitchens.
Like people that you use to work with,
people that you had.
It's very hard for people.
I understand you guys are listening.
All your friends are the greatest people in the world.
You hang out together and you guys are all in recycled clothes
and all that stuff like that.
But have you spoken to him?
No.
What's the last time you spoke to him?
20, it happened.
in 2021, before he was fired?
What was your relationship
just to go back down to memory lane with
him before that? Was it cordial?
I think we played the game of
being cordial to each other.
It was never real to you though. I know
he didn't like me. Oh.
Have we ever discussed this?
I don't know. But I know
he did not. And
my understanding, because of that?
My understanding is that I didn't
respond to him in the way that, I guess,
contestants before for me. Like,
before did. You know, like, we were cool, right? Like, I've always said he gave me great advice about
not doing dancing with the stars if I wanted, like, a media personality career because I would be
tied. And I've always given credit to that. But that was, like, still when I was on the show, like,
we were talking about it. I was still filming. But I just, I don't think I gave him the attention or, you know,
as the host, like other contestants have done. Like, they really wanted to get cool with him.
get to know him and, you know, there were times when we were filming, they would bring him
into talk and I would be like, I don't want to talk to him. Just flat out, I'd be like, I don't
want to talk to him. What am I going to talk to him about? Like, what is he going to say to me?
He doesn't understand me, like, or what my issue is. Apparently, that's not how people responded.
So I think that there was just kind of a, hmm. And then I was kind of viewed as a troublemaker
because when I was done with the show,
I would call the show out about certain things.
And it was, why are you saying that?
Why are you saying that?
Yeah, we actually, I never told you this,
but we almost did a story at TMZ about you and Chris Harrison.
What time?
I think it was, because we had people that were telling us stuff
while you were on the show
and then maybe like right after.
And it was that,
We didn't get along.
Apparently you had told him to talk to the hand.
I did.
Because the face.
I didn't say that.
You had told him what you had said to him.
Because it's not 2000, whatever.
You had told him what we got, the story that we got was he had said something to you.
He said, good morning, Ms. Lindsay.
And you said, talk to the hand because the face ain't having it.
I'm so glad you didn't run that.
And I'm going to tell you what happened.
I was look, nigga, I just made that up.
See?
I just, we never had that story.
See?
But there was something with a hand, which is why I thought that you said that, I thought that was true.
It definitely wasn't a talk to the hand.
Genius.
You told him to talk to the hand.
That's why you don't like you.
We get to the bottom of this.
No, I didn't say talk to the hand.
You pulled the black girl talk to the hand on.
No, no, no.
I didn't say talk to the hand.
But what happened was they brought him in to talk to me.
And I was pissed because this is when you didn't, oh, you did watch some of the show.
I did.
They brought a girlfriend.
That was that.
I loved that.
There was a girlfriend of one of the guys who came on the show.
Okay.
And they bombarded me at the date.
They pulled me to the side and they're like,
hey, one of the guys had a girlfriend.
She's going to come talk to you.
And I was livid because I was just like,
all I could think about is my job and the perception.
And I'm like, you're trying to set you up to be the angry black lady.
Yeah, I was just like, what is this?
So she comes and she talks to me.
They don't tell me who the guy is.
She comes to talks to me.
Then she tells me who it is.
And I'm pissed.
So I know if I go in the back.
by myself, they can't follow you.
If there's two people, then they can come in.
So I'm like, I don't want to do any, I don't want to talk to any of y'all.
Producer comes in, talks to me.
They're like, Chris Harrison wants to talk to you.
I was like, I don't want to talk to him.
And so when I came out, I was like, I don't want to talk to you like that.
I was like, I don't want to talk.
And I just like walk past.
And apparently that was like a disrespectful thing.
I don't.
Stop.
Stop. I said I didn't want to talk.
Right.
I said I didn't want to talk.
So I just think there was always this.
you know, she's got an attitude.
I'll never forget.
I don't know if I said this.
When, so everybody liked me until the live show,
when they made me watch it on camera for the first time.
What did they make you watch?
They made me watch the finale.
Okay.
On stage live in front of a live audience.
And normally they give you the episodes before because they wanted my reaction.
And I forgot that my number two guy told me if you don't choose me,
you're going to live a mediocre life.
Jesus.
Mediocre life.
And I forgot that.
So I'm watching that.
And after they come out of the showing it and they come to us and he's sitting next to me, the number two guy, he says this thing, whatever, he apologizes.
And I say, well, just so you know, I'm not living a mediocre life.
I'm living my best life.
And they go to commercial.
During commercial, Chris names over to me and he's like, you know, relax.
Like, it's not.
And I'm like, what the fuck did I do?
He's the one who said the mean thing.
I just said, just so you know you got a wrong,
this is actually how I'm living.
And it was like, and the producers ran over to me
and they were just like, calm down.
Like don't, you know, like you don't say anything like that.
And I was kind of like, what's the big deal?
When I got off stage and it was over,
I saw that everybody was like, she's a bitch.
She's arrogant.
She's angry.
This is the real her.
This is live.
But they were all telling me, including him,
you need to calm down.
Now, they were saying that because,
they felt like you went too far or they were like the audience is reading this wrong.
It was life.
They knew that I was going to be looked at like she has an attitude.
They knew the perception, the dynamic of me telling a white man,
no, just so you know, I'm living my best life.
And he was so adored by the audience.
Like they were obsessed with him.
And so they knew, they knew their audience.
They knew how it was going to look.
He knew the audience.
But he's like, you need to calm down.
I was like, for what?
You're out of here.
Talk to the hand.
Talk to the hand.
Talk to the hand.
What you're saying?
I was like, I did not say that.
But I definitely went like this.
I know.
See, you told it, but you did that to him.
Look, here's a deal.
I'm going to tell you how this show is going to start.
Would you guys like a prediction?
Go for it.
Brian is going on in the show.
Do you know I thought about that?
I thought I wouldn't be shocked,
especially after me talking.
about this right here, right now.
I wouldn't be shocked because they were like,
let's use him on the show.
Brian going on this show.
It's going to be.
For traditional love.
I got it wrong the first time.
Maga show.
You used to hide the fact that he was Maga,
but we could talk about it now.
He's not Maga.
I'm not going to do that.
He's not Maga.
If I'm going to give him anything,
I'm definitely not going to be accused of defamation.
He's not Maga.
I'm definitely not going to accuse that.
Allegedly.
Allegedly.
Allegedly.
He's not Maggiated.
and I'm not getting accused of that.
Alleged.
He is not Maca.
He is allegedly.
Don't do that.
Alleged.
Alleged.
Alleged.
Alleged.
Alleged.
Alleged.
Alleged.
That's Van's saying that on his own.
Alleged.
Alleged.
Bernard, what's my first name?
Donnie, what's my name?
Van Lathan Jr.
No, my name is alleged,
yeah, that's all you.
My name is alleged.
Because I do not know that to be true.
Al Edge it.
Then my names.
If I knew that, I would say it.
Yeah.
Because then it wouldn't be defamation.
Right.
I do not know that.
I don't know anything about him being mad.
I'm not doing that.
That's not true.
I do not know him to be that.
What's the name of this podcast, y'all?
Keep going.
Allegedly higher learning.
This is allegedly higher learning.
Put that low of terms right now.
I don't even sure the name of this bitch.
All I know is what people say is named.
Allegedly is what I'm saying.
I'm not doing that.
About to fucking have me in court,
I have to have leave married.
But keep on with the show.
We're going to come in this bitch,
Ben Crunk going to be in this motherfucker.
Like, I'm, I'm,
he's about to have me.
Shout out of least shout out of bed.
But,
but like it,
but,
you know,
this could be a situation where this is,
makes a lot of sense.
It's a synergy between
Soup Kitchen and Brian.
They could do this show together
and that bitch will go crazy.
I'm going to be honest with you
if they did that.
That bitch will go crazy.
That,
that will go crazy if they had them on here.
I think that this will,
could be like there is an audience for this.
I think people will absolutely watch it.
I don't think this show won't be successful.
Now, adding Brian to the equation does not make it more successful.
Ain't nobody run into the TV to see him on television.
They might if they know the backstory as far as that's concerned.
But people will, will want to see, I don't know, oh, no, that's a dating app.
I don't know of a conservative dating show on television.
So there's a,
there's a market for it.
Yeah,
it got to be something.
And he's the,
he is the person to leave it.
Right.
All right.
Before we get out of here,
we have two different instances of race.
Somebody give me a coin.
Anybody got a coin?
Real quick.
This is very quick.
Give me a coin.
We're going to flip a coin.
Who has coins?
To get racials.
Y'all have no coins?
Is there a car
Is there a coin flip app
That one of y'all would have
Okay
Yeah
Flip the coin
Heads or tails
All right
Ready
Yes
Flip the coin
We got tails
Tails
Damn
So Donnie
Ted McMillan
All right
NFL Y receiver
Tick McMillan was on
You know
It's press week
Super Bowl's coming up
Everybody's doing media
stuff
He was on a stream
Planning Madden
and had this exchange.
Nicker, nigga, pig.
Pick. Pick to the Baja.
Pick to the Baja.
So Ted is Samoan.
He's Polynesian.
Is he not?
Ted is,
he's, he's,
Polynesian.
He's Polynesian.
He used it in where I was going to play
the Deonté Wilder video.
We got heads of Deontes saying that
it was racist that Tyson Fury
beat the shit out of him three different times.
But,
but Ted,
Oh shit.
Bitcoin is down to 65,000.
Oh, fuck.
What's, God damn, they're going nuts on y'all.
Okay, it's tough.
What do you think?
Ted, I'm sorry, it just popped up.
Ted said the N-word.
Everybody likes him.
He's a very nice guy.
He is a Samoan.
There are some people that are saying
that there's a Samoan exception when the N-word is going.
I saw that in the comments.
They were trying to say, like, oh, they're allowed
or, oh, like, as long as he,
then use the hard R.
It was fine.
I saw people sit in the comments.
Look,
this is redundant.
I'm tired of even having this conversation.
I am too.
We said it before.
We said it again.
If you're not black,
there are no exceptions.
You don't get to say it.
You don't know the gravity.
Why do you want to say it?
Why is it so necessary for you to say that word?
All the words in the English language that you can use,
you just have to say that one,
almost because it's forbidden.
I don't know if you think it makes you cool.
I don't know.
I don't understand why it's wrong.
It's wrong.
It's wrong.
You shouldn't use it.
You shouldn't want to use it, period.
And he doesn't get a pass.
Nobody gets a pass.
Okay.
So, I got to say this.
So Ted is, has a couple of things going on.
I want to hear some time.
I don't like it.
You know, the reason why he's saying it is because he's probably hearing it.
15,000 times a day and he thinks that he's part of the day.
And somebody's probably said it's okay for him.
All right.
So Tent is just with Jordan Brand.
All right.
Signed at May 2025.
He's the sole NFL rookie in his class to join the brand.
He's also represented by Clutch.
Hmm.
Interesting.
Hmm.
I wonder if our coworkers will address it.
Oh.
Nigger, nigger, nigger.
Nigger, nigger.
not allegedly he said it
Yonah was she was
is he black? No
you're not black
No he's not black so just look
Here's the thing but he is with a black company
Clutch
What's that gonna say
What's gonna happen guys
Will it be game over
Let's go
What?
Whoa
We can't have the
We can't do the nigger shit
So somebody pull him to the side.
Somebody pull it to the side.
I want it got to be.
You want an apology?
Yeah.
I want an apology.
Ted got to say sorry, man.
Ted got caught with his hand in the niggas.
No, and didn't, wasn't even faze.
In that video, you could see the girl.
Ted got to say.
It's like, oh my God, did he just say that?
She's trying to whisper to the friend.
Like, did he just say that?
He was on a roll.
He just kept going.
They cut it off.
He probably would have kept going.
Donnie, do we know?
Has he apologized?
guys?
I haven't seen anything, but let me check.
We can't do it like this, Ted.
All right.
Ted McMillan,
uh,
apology.
How did he play this year?
If he had 10 touchdowns,
maybe he could say it.
No,
I'm just joking.
Um, it is,
uh,
he didn't.
He didn't.
Not, not yet.
No,
he's not,
he's not,
he's not there yet.
So look,
Ted,
Ted got to say sorry.
And it shouldn't take this long.
Okay.
Like,
it shouldn't take this long.
Okay.
You gotta say sorry, Tet.
All right.
You gotta say sorry.
You can't do this.
If I see Ted this weekend
as I'm going to...
Yeah, you're gonna say nothing.
I'm going to say something.
Don't say that.
Don't do this.
I'm gonna say something.
Because then what?
Because what?
I'm gonna say, what's on my nigga?
You're gonna say, what's up?
Swear to God.
See, Ted, what's up, my nigga?
If I swear to you, because there's a clutch party.
I swear to you.
You're going to the clutch party?
Yes, I swear to you, if I see him, I'm saying this.
You're going to go up to me?
You're going to say, what's up, my nigga?
What if he looks back at you and was like,
shit, my nigga, I'm chilling.
Now you're in the situation.
Now, like, so you gotta be ready for what happens
if he comes back of you and niggas you back.
Now you're in the situation.
Now is you and Tett, now, you know what's going to happen?
Let's say Trey's his voice.
Then I got to fucking call Nick.
And then we got to come up there.
And then the whole thing, it's blah, blah, blah, blah.
There's me, Nick.
Like, who else we're going to get?
Nick are going to get a bunch of fucking bloods.
And now we got to come to San Francisco.
All that ain't going to happen.
Now it's higher learning.
He probably won't even be there, but probably won't even have the higher learning the movie.
Yeah, now it's higher learning the movie.
Now me and Nick, Nick, Nick is dope boy because Nick looking for a reason.
Who are you?
I'm, I'm a bus, no, I'm a big nigger with the, uh, remember that had the big ass nigger that had the, he didn't even get a, actually, no, I am Buster Rhym's.
We fight.
I can't be tired.
No, you're not tired.
She don't make it.
No, you, um, you.
Regina, Regina.
Regina.
You're Regina.
You Regina.
You're Regina.
And then, you know, we're not going to, we know, we know the Remus that.
We got to remus.
We got to say sorry, Ted.
Okay, nobody really gives a fuck because nobody really cares about you yet.
But you got to say sorry.
Ted got to say sorry.
Clutch normally be on top of this.
Who's the agent?
Let's make sure he's actually with Clutch.
You said that.
Well, if it's not, you need to take all that out.
Ted McMillan.
Clutch. Let's see. Let's make sure he's actually
Where did you even get that from? I saw it online.
It was in the, it was in the AI
overview. Yeah, Clutch.
He's with Clutch. God damn. It's tough.
That's tough. All right now.
We got to go.
Tett, do the right thing.
Shout out to all my Polynesians.
I fuck with y'all. Y'all know what we've been getting down,
but y'all, we ain't like that. All right, we out of here.
Super Bowl, your pick before we go.
Seahawks.
Taking the Seahawks.
Seahawks have to win.
Seahawks don't win.
I'm the number one Seahawks hater ever.
I can't deal with this.
That's your pick too.
I've set that on every podcast.
Seahawks got to win.
Please get it done.
Bad bunnies.
Do it for Matt Houselbeck.
Half-time performance.
Gonna be, prediction, going to be one of the best.
Do it for Sean Alexander, man.
Going to be a top three halftime performance show.
Do it for Steve Largent.
You know what I'm saying?
Do it for all these, do it for the people that didn't get there.
What was the name of the guy, the tight end that they had?
And he was dating the lady and he was talking a bunch of shit.
Then he went into the Super Bowl.
He kind of fucked it off.
What was the tight end that they had?
When they lost the Super Bowl, they definitely should have won when the refs cheated the Seahawks out of the Super Bowl.
What lady was he talking to?
He had, there was a tight end that Derek,
uh, y'all don't remember the Seahawks tight end.
What was his name?
the fucking guy
he caught the ball
kicked the pylon
Seahawks tight in
Super Bowl
real quick
I want to disname
before we go
Seahawks
Derek Henry
No hell not
I have no
Super Bowl
Seahawks tight in
Super Bowl
Hold on for a second
Let me see
It's Jeremy Stevens
Jeremy Stevens is the
nigga I'm talking about
Remember him?
No
Do it for Jeremy Stevens
man
Put it all for Jeremy Stevens
We gotta go
Take the Kass off
do not stop learning. This is allegedly higher learning.
Alleged. Everything is alleged.
And I'm Rachel Lynn Lansing.
Hey, guys.
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