Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Donald Trump’s Indictment and Ally Love of Peloton and ‘Dance 100’

Episode Date: March 31, 2023

HED: Donald Trump’s Indictment and Ally Love of Peloton and ‘Dance 100’ DEK: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay react to the news of Donald Trump’s indictment in a hush-money case (26:31), before welcoming host of Netflix’s ‘Dance 100,’ Ally Love, to discuss Peloton and a ranking of legendary dancers (43:12). Then reporter Jim Trotter calls out the NFL’s lack of representation (1:06:18). Hosts: Van Lathan Jr. and Rachel Lindsay Guest: Ally Love Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is that? Hard learning is on. Okay? It's I, Van Lately Jr. And it's me, Rachel Lynn Lindsay. Rachel, what you're doing this weekend? Working.

I got to work all weekend. I'm working at the Paley Fest. Is that how you say it? Or is it the Pally Fest? Paley. Okay. Maybe I should start there. I got to work to Paley Fest.

on Friday, Mandelorian. Come on, I'm inching my way closer to the midnight boys. The midnight boys. And it's the second time I've had to cover Mandalorian. And then I have Graze Anatomy

and James Corden on Sunday. Saturday I might go out to Malibu. Are you moderating at the Paley Fest? Or are you like... I wish. I'll be on the carpet interviewing talent. Paley Fest.

Paley Fest. Something I saw Monday after our podcast. I saw air. Oh, you saw air as a movie. And when I tell you, I don't know if I've seen a movie like that in a long time. It was so good. And even like we know it's about the story behind him getting the shoe line.

I still didn't expect to be moved that way. The performances are really powerful. I thought it was a really good, movie. It was just done really well. Like both Brian and I were like, did I have chill? I was like, oh my God, I got chills in some parts. And all of it, this isn't a spoiler, is doing it without there be, you ever seeing Michael Jordan's face.

And so you think, yeah, yeah, you would think, oh, but it was really good. I didn't want to see his face. Do you hear his voice? Donnie, when it's time for you to jump in, Donnie, I mean, very few times has Donnie just interjected. I thought they have breaking news. Donnie, Donnie, don't know what it was. You know what it is, man.

What, what is it? Who directed in stars in this movie? Ben Affleck. Ben Affleck. Oh, there's another Ben Affleck situation for Donnie. That's what it is. Is involved. Donnie just can't control himself.

You just did it again, Ben Affleck. Yeah, it's subconscious. My bad. But what was your question? my bad, bro. I was fucking with you. Do you hear his voice at all? Or is it just, like, how do they do it?

Very quickly. And it's like a powerful time when you do. Only once. You're Michael George's voice. Yeah. I don't know if it was him or not. It sounds just like him. But it was, it's good.

You'll like it. I'll see the movie, you know. I'll go see air. Everything I've heard has been good. I'll check it out. I'll see it. That's where I'm at. That's all you get.

That's all you get for me. I'll see the movie. I'll see it. It's nostalgic. I think that's why it's moving people so much. Because of Nike? Well, the 80s. They pay homage to the 80s.

You see a lot of stuff. And then, yes, Jordan, and when that's all integrated into it, it's, yeah, it just makes you feel like a kid. You know what? You know what's interesting about these movies as I get older and I become more surly? You know, I'm down. on everything. I'm down on everything. You're going to be a crumagine for sure when you

really get older. I'm down on everything. Super down on all things. I look at the movie now and I'm definitely I definitely want to see the movie, you know? But I look at it as this like I look at it

as this weird sort of I don't know, man. It's like essentially the movie, the movie is very inspirational, I'm sure. But it's essentially about how guys made a lot of money.

You know? And I watched air. Not really. Really? Okay. It's about... Yes, it is. But there's such a meaningful part to it that I guess I didn't even...

I knew it, but I didn't know it like that until I saw it. Yes and no. I got this little hater on my shoulder, right? And this hater on my shoulder says just don't fall for the same things that you used to fall forward.

What other movie did that to you? Well, there are a bunch of movies. And it's not just about capitalism. It's about the police. It's pro-military stuff. And so I look at the movie and I'm like, yeah, it's probably

Sonny McArro, it's great. And Michael Jordan is great. but it's, you know, about how some people made a bunch of money and it's about the greatest player ever. And I'm not, I make money. I'm not a, you know, but I just, I went down a rabbit hole when I was looking at air of looking at how big Nike got what that really meant. You know, what that meant to kids somewhere working for a nickel or shoe and all of that, you know. And so I don't know. I'm not throwing water on it, but I look at things differently now.

I'm just, you know what? I'm off everything. I'll never believe again. I want you to watch it and then tell me, because you'll know what I'm talking about when I say it. I'm only in to make-believe shit. And even that shit sometimes. Like, you know what I mean?

Like, you know, you watch Black Panther and the CIA guy was on Black Panther's team. What does that mean? I mean, you ripped up Black Panther, so. No, I'm just saying. It's not even just about Black Panther. It's about the Avengers kind of work for the government. The cap doesn't work for the government.

They're like, oh, is it okay to work for the government? I'm looking, I'm in my, I'm in a weird time because I'm not eating. And so I'm, I'm irritable. I'm hungry and I'm picking shit apart, you know? Are you on Vivance still? Yeah, I'm on Vibance. We actually, we actually up to the Vibans. Oh, okay.

I'm glad your biggest fears have been conquered because I know what you were scared of. Can I ask you a question? And I know y'all are going to say I'm playing myself when I say this. What is it? Does my forehead look bigger than normal today? The answer to that question is always yes.

I'm looking at my head and I'm like, why does it look even larger today? I mean, it's always. It looks the same. Donnie? I mean, I would say that the middle part is maybe not, you know, it's a little Star Trek deep space nine but like it's not it it it looks the same

really Donnie what do you think about Rachel's forehead? No, I'm with you. It's the same. That's Rachel's forehead. That's Rachel's forehead. That's Rachel's forehead. Let me see if I can get a little bit of a different angle. No, Rachel, stop being forehead conscious. You know, we got out of this. Hey, I just got to be real. You know, I wasn't going to tell people.

Don't! No. Donnie, make them. Why? You're over sharing. You're over sharing. You're over sharing. You're right. You talk me out of it. There's something that's going on. And Rachel doesn't want me to share it. But I could share it something in my life. Rachel doesn't want me to share it. Maybe I shouldn't share it. Donnie, you think I should share it? I feel like it's better safe than sorry. Keep it to yourself. Keep it to myself. I won't overshare. I won't overshare. I won't overshare at all. This is your personal journey. You don't need people interjecting, telling you what you should and shouldn't be doing. Very true. Very true. So I'll go see air and then I'll sit back.

And I'll be like, um, um, it's Trayvon Martin. It's Trayvon, rest of peace, Trayvon Martin. It's Trayvon Free's birthday today. My partner. Oh, happy birthday, Trayvon. Happy birthday to Trayvon free, a brilliant writer. but a better friend. Okay. Everybody

you will go over to his house later. Everybody will eat barbecue. I will eat nothing. The sign of food disgust me. So there you have it. Look, Rachel, do you think that we should do a small post-mort

on the Jonathan Majors conversation that we had last week? Last podcast. Well, my immediate answer is no, because I never wanted to talk about in the first place, but you're also making me curious as to what you want to talk about. Like, I want to make, I want to talk about the response that people. I want to make something devastatingly clear as it relates to at least myself.

And this is the clarity that I want people to have and understand. I can't help to be who I am. I'm not as, I'm not as good as some of you. I'm a regular person. And I'm just, no, when I say this, I mean this sincerely. I'm a guy, a dude who's trying to be everything that he needs to be. and when I know someone and I see them in an issue, with an issue going on, yeah, there's a part of me that's apt or there's a part of me that

reflexively, like, makes a little space. That doesn't mean that in any way I do not respect. the seriousness of the situation. I just couldn't come on here and lie to everybody and act like this was something that I was looking down the middle of all. I couldn't act like that.

You know, I couldn't be that. And you know what the other thing is? It's something that I recognized. And this is probably the more troubling part. Is that I have been making space in a very specific way my entire

life. And sometimes, it all gets confused and jumbled up, you know? We just we just put my Uncle David to rest a couple of weeks ago. And the men that I knew, you know, they were just insanely flawed. They were just super duper flawed. And it's not like their flaws were excused. they were excused by many. It's more like they were observed.

And so for me, sometimes I have to remember how victims feel. I have to remember systems. I have to remember the other side of it because that's not the side that I was on. The side that I was on, even from the women in my life,

was, well, when he comes to, comes home, don't talk about the things that he did, don't bring that up. Or that's just what married people go through or any of those things. Because before there was Twitter and the internet, people had to like move on with their lives. And they didn't always do it in ways that respected the people that they hurt. They just like put things in closets. You know what I mean. And I don't want to be somebody that puts women, that puts victims, that puts legitimate stories in closets. I don't want to be that.

I sincerely don't. You know, so it's tough. It is tough, which we stated at the top of it. I mean, I didn't want to talk about it. I understand the relevancy of it and why we had to talk about it. I know, I did. At work, I had to do something. And I was, like, adamant about it. Like, I don't want to.

I don't want to. And because of the reasons that you laid out. But I think, you know, I got a lot of messages about our conversation, which I expected, right? Like, and I don't get messages normally. They don't message you. You do. They don't message you. They know not to fuck with you.

But I think, you know, maybe I don't. don't always do a good job of saying that I'm biased, but I felt like I kind of said that I was a little bit, but whatever. And I just think it's human nature, though, when you are closer to a situation or you know a person that you put your emotion into it. You put, well, you know something about them that maybe the other people don't know. And like you humanize the situation more than you would. Like it's subjective rather than looking at it in an objective way.

And that's a fault. And I think that we all do that as humans. But yeah, I feel everything you're saying. I don't want to talk about anyone. Okay. Well, we will eventually speak more on it. But what we will do is we'll wait to the totality of the information is out. And we'll discuss it in a real way.

And we'll also remember this going forward on the podcast here. Higher learning is the name of this podcast. And I have learned as much from doing this podcast and getting the feedback from people and being here with you and, you know, kind of with Donnie. And with Ashley, I've learned as much as I've disseminated. And I continue to learn. And I continue to grow. And I continue to understand that, you know, you can't always be right and popular.

You can't always be on the right side of things and friendly. And there are sacrifices that have to be made. And when you have to make those sacrifices, you have to be willing to stand up and do them. But, you know, it's just there's still stuff in me that I work through. And. Absolutely. You know what I mean?

And I still don't want it to be true. that doesn't matter. That doesn't mean that it's not. I just don't want it to be. We'll talk about it later on. And we'll also talk about this kind of thing on the summit of the sexes, which we'll get into.

Summit of the Sexes is coming. Some of the Sexes is coming. I know. My sorority sister brought up like a really good point. I was like, oh, save it for the summit. I got to find the message. There's something disparaging about black men. Yes.

Oh, because that's what Delta's do? I can't wait to be surrounded by other women. Let me tell you all something about the summit of the sexes. Yeah, I have no idea the people that are hitting me up saying that now I'm not going to do all-celebrity Summit of the Sexes because that's whacked me. No, I don't want to do that. But y'all have no idea to people that are like, they want to talk about different things. What I think we should do is we should break down to some of the sexes into like

a couple of different categories that we're going to discuss. Yeah, I like that. Yeah. Yeah, like, yes. Very, very, I like that. No, the conversation that we were having was, let me find it.

It was based off of, obviously, in light of the topic that we were talking about, but just like how we talked on about, hold on, I want to skip this right. If you clean that part of Donnie. Well, it might have been in my DMs, not my text messages. Basically, she was talking about black actors and how they don't bring their women when they're of a, of when they're not black on the carpet and how they hide them and how it is black.

But they show black love on screen. But then they don't mirror that in real life and they hide them. And like you can name the list of them that never bring them to the carpet because they get a lot of back. flash for it. Like, except for Omari. Remember, he did it. And he was, like, fighting against it. Like, he was like, this is who I'm with.

I'm not hiding it. But she was basically saying, black women are the ones who make you, I'm going to get this right, black women are the ones who increase your status because they're the ones supporting you. They're the ones who are rooting for you. They're the ones who are making you super popular. But then you don't show us that same love in real life. I said, the summit.

The summit. the summit. Yeah. We're saving for the summit. Because niggas gonna have a field day with that one. Okay?

Like a field day. You gotta think about some of these shows though. It is like black women who get on social media and are like, oh, he's so, he's this,

he's that, he's this. Oh, I love this. I love their love. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And like,

they play into that. But then she's saying that in real life, though, that's not what they're doing. Well, here's the thing. And they hide them.

And they hide them. So here's the thing. My counter to that would be, to your friend would be that they're showing difference to black women when they don't put those women in their face. So really, the only...

But is it to hide their pop... Is it deference or is it to hide to keep their people not... I'll use J for an example. The way people hopped on J when they found out that he was not with... because they were so in love with that relationship on insecure. We never saw her again.

It's not his job to be Lawrence from insecure for everybody. I agree. Hold on, hold on. Hold on. Vanilla Village isn't for me. But if other people want to buy houses there, that's on them. And look, they. You know what I'm saying?

Nigger, you got a mansion. Okay. You got a mansion. Stop. You got a mansion. And the whole. world saw you buy it. You did one of those joints where you bought a house of Vanilla Village

and you was on Instagram like with the, we're sold. We got a home. With the big king. With the big kid. Everybody saw you buy. So look, my thing is, look, I understand. I get it. I get it. I get the point and I understand it.

But I would think that they would get props for not showing up to the red carpet with them ladies. because that's, I mean, that's them not ending the goddamn fantasy that they all do from Love Jones. It hurts their image. It hurts their image. So it's not different.

It's not considerate. It's like, well, we don't want that backlash. It's the hiding, I think, that's the issue. So wait, hold on for a second. See, this is the thing. This is a no-win situation. I am reiterating. I am reiterating what was the discussion.

I know, but let's stay here. hear for five seconds, five seconds, because this is a truly no-win situation. Okay, so listen. I want you to think about this. Okay. So, first of all, once again, it,

dudes fucking white girls, it's their thing. Whatever. Some people do it. It's their thing. I don't, it's funny. Yes.

It's funny. It's funny. I'm going to be a sister. It's always funny. It's always funny. You know, you just got white people in your family. That's just nuts to me.

It's like, I told you, you know, being at the NBA draft, see somebody get drafted. They go up there, their mom is white. And then you see a whole bunch of white people clapping in the crowd. Yeah, this is funny. It's a funny thing. I thought he was a nigga. Anyway. But I'll say this.

So the only way to win then is to not date the white girl. Because if you date the white girl, right? And you then bring her. her to the thing, you get your ass tore. And everybody's going to be like, oh, my God, I thought he was so great. You get your ass to her. If you date the white girl and you don't bring her to the premiere, now you're hiding her.

You're hiding her. The only reason why you're hiding her is so you don't piss black women off, but you can't not piss them off. The only way you can, and as a man, sometimes it feels like this, the only way that you can win is to do what they say. Okay, no. But what she did say is your popularity, your fame,

is capitalizing on black love. So just go cross over and act and not in those spaces. Don't have a show that's totally dead. Just go and see if they support you like the black women. This is hilarious. So this is how my group chats are.

This is why the summit's going to be so good. So it's going to be late. So in that situation, they come to you and they go, hey, we have this great movie. You're going to be starring opposite Issa Ray. And you go, nope, can't do it. I did a white girl in real life. Get me a role with Cameron Diaz.

I'm sure it's not that black and white, but that was the point. I'm telling you it doesn't make any sense. I'm telling you, you can only be Black. Okay. Last thing I'll say. Do you feel like,

interesting question for you? And Donnie and Ashley, you guys feel free to jump in. Do you guys feel like that dating somebody outside of your race? Straight up. I'm going to ask straight up.

No bullshit. Donnie, Ashley, everybody jump in. Do you feel like dating or marrying somebody outside your race makes you any less down? Donnie? No. I can't say I believe that.

Because it honestly is not that black and white, like Rachel just said, a pun intended. It's like each case is its own case. Each person is his own person. Each relationship is his own relationship. So there are plenty of relationships where that is the case, but I'm not going to make that blanket statement and say that everyone is like that. No. Ashley?

I agree. Donnie, 100%. Like, it just doesn't seem that, you know, easy for you suddenly dating someone outside your race and then suddenly you're a different person. I don't really see how that works like that. Ban? I agree with Donnie and Ashley. I don't think it makes you any less down.

It's hysterical. I think it's funny. People being with white people. It's fine. It's people being with white girls. But what I'm saying is it's funny, but I don't think it makes you any less down. So what I'm saying is if we all agree that that's the case,

and I'm pretty sure that you agree, Rachel, If we all agree that that's the case, then how does your friend's argument have any left to stand on? Are you supposed to not? If you're down, right, if you're the same amount down that somebody who's dating a black woman is, right? Are you not supposed to portray that when you're on camera because you want to make sure that you're not being phony? How do you do it? I think the hiding is the bigger issue. Okay, I see.

It's the hiding of it because you're aware and it seems intentional. That's why, like, I get props to what Omari's doing. Like, this is me. This is who I am. And it's because then people speculate and they wonder, are they single? Are they with someone? Like, I have a chance. Oh, like, they're searching for, you know, and it's like, no, they're, they erase them off

their social media. It's just a lot of effort to what seems like, even if they're not. not. It seems like you're pretending to be something that you're not for the sake of keeping a certain image. That's how it comes across when you go through that much effort. The summit. That was a preview of the summit. But you're not going to hear my voice that much in the summit. The summit is going to be moderated by Rachel Lindsay and Van Latham. We're going to bring all of the things. I want anyone out there that has a problem that says Van Lathen, myself hates black,

bring it. Bring all of that stuff to the summit. All right. We got Allie Love on the show today. She is the CEO of Love Squad. She's a Peloton instructor and an Indyto's global ambassador. She's also the host of a new Netflix series called Dance 100, premiered on the 17th of March.

It's like choreographers going head to head in the high-stakes stand. dance about. I'm not talk to dance about or talk to Allie Love about different dances and stuff like that we can do. It's going to be later on in the show. On the other side of this break, though, the big deal of the day, which is Donald Trump has been indicted in New York.

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Ask your doctor about Tramfaya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfair Radio.com. Big deal of the day. Donald Trump has been indicted. Of course, this is over the 2016 hush money payment alleged. Two stormy damage. Now, we know that the payment was made. I guess the allegation is that it came directly.

from Donald Trump or that it came from Michael Cohen who then asked for reimbursement from Donald Trump. Yeah, whatever. Donald Trump has been indicted in New York over a hush money payment made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels, proud of Baton Rouge, Louisiana during the 2016 election.

Fox News has audio, Donnie, give it to me now. Here, we have just gotten word. Former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a grand jury in New York. Trump was under investigation by the DA's office for his alleged hush money payment to adult film star stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign.

That's all you got, Donnie. I mean, it just happened. To our listeners, this is happening in real time. That's the whole audio. This is the audio of Fox reporting. And the thing that makes this one a different is you can hear them gasping in shock. Oh, I thought that was banned. No, run it again because I heard nothing.

I was blowing my nose over there. Donnie, I want to hear it again. Here we have just gotten word. Former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a grand jury in New York. Trump was under investigation by the DA's office. Okay, you vindicated because I was about to say that's, that was nothing clear, but it matters now. All right, the charges laid out in the indictment remain unclear. The indictment, which is under seal, follows an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg.

Of course, centers under $130,000. payment Michael Cohen allegedly made to, well not allegedly made. So whatever. He made to Stormy Daniels before the election. Trump's company labeled Cohen's reimbursement as payment of a legal expense. He said legal services did not disclose them in campaign expense reports. Rachel, it's happened. Now what you?

I want to go back to the gas. Why are people shocked? I guess I thought it was coming. I mean, Donald Trump himself told us last Tuesday that he was going to be, well, he said arrested, but indicted, then arrested. So I guess to me, it was only a matter of time before this happened.

I probably would have gasped if it was something else. I'm just surprised, and I'm looking, because we're finding this out in real time. This broke while we were on the podcast. And there seems to be a lot of discourse about how shocked, and from the other side, people are in regards to this. Are you shocked? No, but I think that they didn't think it would actually happen.

I think a lot of people didn't think it would actually happen. I guess that just shows the delusion that we're under. Maybe I'm under delusion. I just thought it was a sure thing. I mean, it is the state of New York. It's not like he's being indicted in like, I don't know, Kentucky. What does that mean? I don't understand.

Well, I mean, it's like more. a liberal state, I guess. Oh, so you're saying that people who are making up the grand jury. I'm just saying the people who are making up the grand jury. I think that Fox is in an interesting place with covering this. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Obviously, they're going to be pundits on Fox who provide just fucking teflon sort of

protection to Donald Trump. But Trump also has been lobbying missiles at Fox. So a weakened Donald Trump gives Rupert Murdoch What he really wants in his soul Which is the ability to move on from Trump and Trumpism Okay So it'll be interesting in the way that they cover it Especially now that we know

The Dominion is kicking their ass in court So Do you have this is the first big Trump-related story Post-Dimion lawsuit Do you see a more Timpered Fox News? You see the coverage of Fox News changing at all? Hasn't really happened.

No. You don't think so. Well, because I think what they will cover is, I mean, the usual suspects have already taken to social media to tweet about it. You know, Jim Jordan said it was outrageous. You know, Ted Cruz is saying that this is the Democrat Party's hatred for Donald Trump. I see that type of coverage on Fox.

You know, they're going to bring these people on to talk about how terrible this is. how I just saw one person say it's not an indictment on a crime that Trump committed. It's an indictment of this failed nation or this government. That's the kind of rhetoric I see Fox spewing out, especially on the nighttime shows. You know, I guess the last time that we talked about this, did we talk it all about Bill Clinton? We were talking all about that? Not that I remember.

So it was interesting being a grown adult, basically, during the time that Bill Clinton. was in trouble as far as the Monica Lewinsky situation was, because you remember Bill Clinton, was perjury, perjury situation. A lot of them. A lot of them. I was, for my time. I was watching Fern Gully.

Oh, I don't remember what happened with Bill Clinton. Fern Gully. I was watching Fern Gulley. Who is Elyon Gonzalez? I never heard of him. Do you know who Elyne Gonzalez is? I do know who that is. Okay, just making sure.

I'm just making sure you know who it is. I know who all the players are, I was an adult age, so I was an into it. Anyway. You know, the interesting thing about it was when people say that this is politically motivated, I mean, we talked about it before, of course it is. It's definitely politically motivated.

They have a political rival lined up, and they're going to shoot his fucking wings off. But who cares? They didn't care when they were all president and Clint's ass. They don't care. Who cares? Who gives a shit? Who gives a shit?

Did he break the law? Yes or no? If he broke the law, throw him in fucking jail, just like my little cousin. You know, is it politically motivated? Is it something that they want to get Trump for something? Yeah, for sure.

Did Trump actually do something? Probably. So I don't understand the big deal. Yeah. Everybody, this is a, it's not a witch hunt. It's only a witch hunt if the person isn't actually a witch. I hope people understand that.

I'm serious. When they say a witch hunt, like the Salem witch hunts, they were burning people who weren't actually witches. The Salem witch hunt is much like the situation that you were talking about with your friend before.

Okay. Oh. It was the same thing. So let me tell you. So, black women are a witch hunt. It's what I just heard. I didn't say nothing about black women.

Black women are. I said, your home girl. What's her name? Cynthia? Cynthia. I said Cynthia. Your home girl Cynthia. Her name's not Cynthia,

but we can call her that. Yeah. You know, they would put you up on the goddamn pyre to burn you. And if you were a witch, then you wouldn't burn. And if you weren't, let me just get this right.

So black women want to, burn black men. No. Let me make my point about the witch hunt thing. Okay. The Salem witch trials. You had to confess

that you were a witch. If you said you were a witch, they burned you. If you got up there and you were a witch, you wouldn't burn. Donnie, how am I fucking this up? I know this.

They would burn you with the stake. Damed if you do. Damned if you didn't. Wait, wait. I have to get it out right because this is, wait, hold on. Stop calling for Johnny. I don't know if we should keep this.

I don't know if we should keep this or we should be this. Keep it. This is the way they would do the witch hunts. Okay? I'll try it again. You were suspected of being a witch. They would burn you. And if you burned, it proved you weren't a witch.

If you didn't burn, it proved that you were a witch. The problem is that everybody burned. Ha ha! There you go. I got it out. Let me tell you how this relates to Trump. Okay. Like, here's the thing.

The term witch hunt and hunting a witch, right? It means doing something that's unfair or unfounded for the sake of this hysteria. That's not what this is. No, it's not. He actually did shit. So it's not a witch hunt. Is it a petty hunt? Probably.

Maybe. But fuck it. Put the cuffs on them. I don't give a fuck. How am I supposed to? I don't give them. Put the cuffs on them. If he did it, fuck him.

I don't get, whatever. Donnie, let's have a segment called When the Viveance wears off. Because that is what happened. Rachel, so it's here now. Do you expect any violence? In fact, serious, do you expect any violence? Do you expect any sort of, yeah?

I think there will be protest. I think there will be, they'll be small. I mean, they're expecting Trump to make some type of statement or a video message in response to this announcement. He hasn't done that as we do this podcast right now, as we are doing this podcast now. I think it depends on what Trump says, how much he riles people up,

which we expect him to do that. Also, how much of a spectacle it will be if they arrest him the way that he wants to be. You know, he wants, I don't know if he said it or if it's just people around him saying, he wants to be arrested with the cameras, he wants the handcuffs, he wants the whole, like, pomp and circumstance of it all,

as if it's a game to him. I would have a better answer after his message. But there will definitely be people who were protesting it. Do I expect January 6th? No. So the reason why I brought up Clinton was because I remember,

as I was old enough to remember, during that time, it was a good time in America. Or as much as it could be. The economy was bustling. If you remember, the Clinton Gore campaign left with a, excuse me,

the Clinton Gore administration left with a budget surplus. Things were good economically. Bill Clinton's, approval raising was up in the 60s, okay? Bill Clinton was, you know, he was acquitted by the Senate, but his approval rating was up in the 60s, you know, it was up in the 60s. People were like really, and I remember Republicans,

you know, Bill Livingston, all of those guys, Newt Gingrich, the newt of politics, all of these guys were saying, we don't give a fuck what Americans think about the Bill Clinton situation. That's not how we do things in this country. I remember one guy specifically said that with there's not a such thing in this country

where everybody votes individually on what happens in Washington. Like we don't say, are we going to prosecute Bill Clinton or impeach Bill Clinton? Do you vote yes or no? That's not how that goes. It's like we get voted and then we decide. So we decide what it is that we do.

I just remember, you know, it's different. It was very politically motivated. They wanted to take a chunk out of his ass because he was a very popular president at that particular time. And so that's what he was. happen and they were all about it because they were saying, I just remember, they were going, hey, you know what?

The only thing that matters is whether or not Clinton lie. It doesn't matter how much Americans love him. It doesn't matter how the economy is doing. It doesn't matter what it'll do to anything. What matters is how much Clinton lie. Whether or not he lied or not, that's what matters. So in this situation, look, are there all kinds of other political things that probably go on with this case?

Probably so, you know? Yeah, yeah. We, I mean, yes, it's politically motivated. We'll see. we'll keep updating. Well, I don't know if we'll update, but we'll talk about it as things come out. Good.

Good. Good. I was just going to say, do you think this brings down Trump stock? Or do you think it helps them? And do you think this benefits to Santa's in any way? Here's the deal. I don't think anything benefits or hurts him.

Yeah. I really, I really don't believe in that. think that there was a voter in 2016 that was that there was enough sort of um when people talk about the Trump voter that won him the election in 2016. I do think that there was a suburban white voter who was willing to put Trump's antics and his rhetoric aside because they thought that there might be some sort of economic change or that it would benefit them in some way. Okay. and they voted for Trump.

I think now, in order to sort of be a Trump supporter now or to be someone who wants to be in the cult of Donald Trump, now you pretty much have to be a diehard. And that diehard number is a lot more people than we think that it is. But I don't know if anybody is being swayed by the fact that they arrested him. I don't think that's going to make somebody that had a problem

with the way Trump hands. handled COVID or had a problem with hate crimes spiking or had a problem with Chinese tariffs that ended up affecting industry in the rest. I don't think anybody who had a problem with that is going to say, okay, well, I went for Biden the last time. I'm going back for Trump now because they indicted him. Not that it would mean people go to Biden, but does it mean that DeSantis becomes the frontrunner?

It's more, I guess, my question. Is that it's, I guess I'm talking within the party. What does this do? Do people take their support away and back? somebody else, which would be DeSantis. The way I look at that is the mechanism of the primary itself is the thing that's going to help Donald Trump the most. There are numerous people that are running for president right now from the GOP ticket

that are essentially running for vice president. That they don't really have a chance to win. But it's the type of person that might get kind of absorbed into somebody else's ticket. And, you know, there's some usual suspects there. the issue is the more people that are in the race, the more Donald Trump's diehards, the more that percentage is emboldened. The more like if you have five,

10 people in the race, he's always going to have the people that he's going to have. So that percentage just becomes stronger as the more people stay in. So I don't know if DeSantis or anybody else will be able to overcome that if Trump stays you know, super duper popular. He can still run

by being since he's been indicted so he can still run. That's not going to change anything. The last thing I'll say about the whole thing is this, is that, you know, also with, you know, what's going on over

on that side, as far as the presidency is concerned, like, the rest of these people, the rest of these, they refuse to distance themselves because they know that he holds a revolver to their head. He could run third party

and fuck them out of the White House. So we'll see what happens. But none of this really actually matters. The only thing that actually matters is whether or not justice is served in this case. All the political stuff is just speculations. It's people sort of... It's totally speculation.

Talking through their trauma, what it would mean, and how they're going to use it. I don't think it matters very much at all. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required.

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All right, guys. Special guests in the building, CEO of Love Squad, Adidas Global Ambassador. Ooh, Adidas, controversial brain. Hosting the new Netflix series,

Dance 100, it premiered a couple of weeks ago. Choreographers battling. You know what I mean? Allie Love joins us today on higher learning. Ali, how you doing? I'm doing well. Thank you so much, Van.

Thank you so much, Rachel. I love the intro. It's like controversy already. Look at that. Yeah. Controversial. I mean, welcome to the show, Allie.

But, you know, Adidas, hot water. Ali, I would like for you to comment right now on Adidas parting ways with Ivy Park and Beyonce. And I'm just joking. So look, your new show, Dance 100, choreographers going up against each other. Tell us a little bit about it. Yeah, it's unlike any other show. And that back in the day, most of the shows that we see, even if it's like a baking show you have experts that come and they taste your food or you have celebrity guest judges saying

whether you are good at your craft or not in the case for dance 100 we give the power back to the people where the dancers the 100 dancers that are actually working with the choreographer performing with the choreographer ultimately judges the eight choreographers what's on the line 100,000 so one choreographer we got to make sure not only are they great in the rehearsal room as human beings as leaders but also that they can create world-class choreography that these dancers find is worth $100,000. And so I feel like it's pretty special in the terms of giving, like I said, the power back to the people. Allowing the dancers' voices, you probably saw Super Bowl, halftime Rihanna show. You probably don't know any of those dancers because they had that

white thing over their face. They looked great. They moved very well. The show was epic. But you could not pinpoint that dancer walking down the street or sitting next to you in a movie theater. For Dance 100, we allow our dance, not even allow, like the right goes to the dancers where they get to actually give the choreographers feedback. You get to know their names. You get to hear what they have to say. And again, I think that's pretty special. Are there like any plot twists? I feel like with any reality show, it's not just straightforward. This is how it happens. There's always like something that the competitors have no idea that's happening before they sign up. There is definitely a plot twist. I have to say, as the host of the show,

my job is to narrate the entire thing. I also have like someone in my ear letting me know what's going on behind states because what would end up happening. We had script brief on Wednesday. During this time, the choreographers with their dancers would have. about three days to choreograph the piece, set the piece, and then bring them into rehearsal to video the actual performance. And then the choreographer has to step offstage because they're dancing and then work with the director to get all the camera angles that they want. So there are many layers to this. And as the narrator, I don't always have insight or purview into everything that's happening in the rehearsals or offstage. So there were some shocking moments for myself in real time

that you see actually on the show when it comes to some of the feedback the dancers had. it was, you know, I would say for most of it, it was spot on. It was their authentic opinion. Some folks may call it a little shady or tough, but it was feedback. It was feedback from an expert to the way they voted. They voted in real time in terms of dancing with one of them. And then I would interview, how was it to like, you know, let's say, Van, how was it to dance with Van and where Dan was amazing?

Oh my gosh. And then all of a sudden, when voting time comes, Van's like, just kidding, that person is now voting for someone else. Ah. What's your background with dance? You love dance? You love to watch people dance around or whatever? I don't love to watch.

I don't love to watch people dancing around. I love dancing. No, I enjoy the craft. I grew up dancing. I got hit by car when I was nine years old. My way back into the world was through dance the following year after recovery. My mom put me in like a cultural center and they had dance and I fell in love. I started coming to New York in high school every summer during my summer years of high school to dance with Dance Day of Harlem.

I went to and graduated from Fordham University and the Alvin Ailey program. I got a bachelor's in fine arts there. Dance introduced me to New York. It brought me to New York. I started modeling. I danced with Beyonce. I danced with Pit Bull.

I got to dance with a lot of artists and gig while I was here. And then eventually became a host and start doing all the many things that I do from Peloton instructor, host of a Netflix show and CEO and founder of Love Squad. Let them know. Let them know. Mr. 305. Something that you said, you talked about the accident that you had when you were nine years old.

And I read that they told you that you would never walk again. And then here you are dancing, Peloton. I'm a palatoner. Yay. Van? No. Okay. No.

No. I don't do it. I love your classes. They're super inspirational. And I feel like how did you turn that in? Because I can't even imagine, you know, being nine years old and being told, oh, I'm never. going to walk again and still being able to will yourself at nine years old to dance and then compete in the way that you have and to have all this success. A lot of times people see the finished

product but not the journey through it. Can you talk and like I know you talk about this on your Peloton rides and stuff, but can you talk about a little bit of how you got there and, you know, what encouraged you and, you know, how you overcame that? Yeah. So the accident actually happened every Saturday probably to this day. To this day my family gets together. Our mom is one of 10 kids. So we have a lot of cousins, a lot of cousins. And it was a typical Saturday where we are in my aunt's backyard. They're playing cards, playing dominoes, cooking.

Somebody probably went fishing. So we probably like gutting and scaling fish. And then the little kids here, that magical sound of the ice cream truck. So I went to the ice cream, came back to the house. My older cousin was like, can you get me an ice cream? She gave me her dollar, which, man, ice cream was cheap back in the day. Went back, got her ice cream, you know, little nine-year-old alley. The truck is right across the street from my aunt's house.

So you look both ways across the street. And it was the timing of it all where the car was parked behind the ice cream truck. As soon as I walked out, the car came full speed coming from behind the ice cream truck, hit me. I flew up in the air, landed on the car, broke my left beamer, shadowed my teeth. I scarred up my entire body. He was in the hospital for seven days. And it was getting, the issue was mostly older folks break their hips. So the turnaround time for folks to get hip surgery when you're an adult is pretty quick because they have the tools for it, but not for a kid.

So it took about four to five days for them to actually make the equipment, ship it to the U.S. And then for me to go in surgery. So I was in traction. I was losing a lot of blood. And it was that kind of trauma of being such a small being, the trauma on that small body that was more of like, your daughter is probably going to have issues like walking. Like she's going to have arthritis by middle school. Like in two years, she's going to have arthritis.

She's going to know like she can predict the weather. It was like how they, you know, made a joke of like your daughter will be able to predict the weather. And don't get your hopes up. She probably won't be, you know, we have. have field day in Miami. She probably won't be participating in field day. She probably have a little issues walking. Sometimes it'll be a little challenging. And so it was a lot of curiosity on what my body could do at a young age. And I went home and they moved like the hospital bed into our living room and all that stuff. And I just remember not being able to go to school.

And I would look through this window. We had like a four-year window or four-year, whatever it's called, like window that looks out on the street. And it would be kids out on the street like playing with each other. You know, I see my neighbors and they're just laughing and I'm just crying. I'm like, I want to go outside, but I can't. And what ended up happening was finally the summer after going through physical therapy and getting cleared when I was introduced to the community center, I started to play, you know, I got to play with kids, which is the number one priority for kids at that ages. Can I have candy as soon as I wake up and can I play? Like I just, those are my priorities. So it was one of those things where went into the community center and it was truly a dance teacher that I had at

the time. At the end of the summer, we did a little play. I know I wasn't good at all. But, you know, she was like, she told my mom at the end of the little play that we did and that I danced in. She's like, your daughter loves dance and she has a talent. You should, you should explore that. And that's what my mom did. My mom is a very keen woman in that when I say, even at nine, at seven, at 15, like when I say I want to do something, she is definitely one, she's like, ROD, let's do it. Let's figure it out together. And that's exactly what we did. We figured it out together. I got into dance class. She had to buy those expensive costumes every summer that, like, I don't know how she could afford.

And it was truly like the way I could communicate. To be honest, I didn't understand, and I think most kids, don't always understand how we're feeling. I was dealing with trauma. I had no clue that I was dealing with trauma. I was dealing with depression. I had no clue that I was dealing with depression. I just was like, I feel bad. You know, I feel sad, you know? And those are powerful words, but at that time, it was just the product of the fact I probably couldn't go outside and play. And so it was through dance and the fact that my mom worked so hard to afford me the opportunity of an expensive art to be there. Like she was front row. Her and my dad was front row in those moments.

And I think when you say like what was the overcomments for me in a sense, it was because I did have parents. Well, they weren't dance mom and dance dad. They were much more of like, if you say it, you do it, we support it. If you don't want to do it, we stop paying our money because it's too expensive. And so that was for me, it was like there was a, there was a discipline around dance. There was a discipline in my house to say if anyone could do it. If anyone in your class is getting an A, that means you can. It's possible.

If anyone can do the step or remember the choreography, that mean you can. And it's possible. If no one's getting an A, we won't judge you that harshly. Like, you know what I mean? It was like, it was one of those things. Yeah. So you talk about this when you're on the Peloton? I do.

I don't always talk about it on all the classes. You know, I don't, I just started talking about it recently. in the last like two and a half years because for many years I was like I don't want anyone to pity me. I get it. When you walk in a room, people, they are first met with your stereotypes. They take into account, wow, she's really tall. She has big hair. My hair is, you know, when my hair's out, I have a huge afro. So I'm understanding what I'm giving off right away. And I don't always lend with like, well, you should like also pity me. And like, you should also know that I've come from tough upbringing in a sense. So I don't always leave with that story.

I lead with like the hard work. I want my resume to be my receipts. respect, you know? And then what I recognized about two and a half years ago is that it didn't have to be mutually exclusive. My resume garners me respect and definitely experience. But also my story and like it is my history is the richness of who I am. And it opens that aperture that we can't always do on social media or in a 30 minute Peloton class. So I started to kind of share bits and pieces to know like I've been there. I've been in really, really dark places, not just that one time, but throughout life. And it's important that we uncover that together. Yeah, that pit bull tour was probably pretty dark. Oh, my gosh. Pit bull, man. Mr. 305. I know he's a disciplinary. Which Beyonce tour?

So I didn't do Beyonce tour, but I danced with her like on BMAs, like the Halo video. So I've always done things. Yeah, with me. She's lovely. I mean, obviously everyone knows that. She's great. This is another reason why I don't do the Peloton.

I can't be crying on the bike. You know, like she's going to tell that story. I'm going to be trying to go. go over the hill and then I'm going to get emotional. No. It's like, man, I tried the bike one time.

Look, I tried the bike, guys. I tried the bike. I was on the bike. And the whole time, I can't keep up with the people in the class. You know,

the whole time I'm on the bike, the guy's like, we're climbing up a hill in Long Beach. Come on. We're almost there. We're almost there. I'm like, shut the fuck up and let me try to ride this bike.

Like, I can't ride the bike. Like these people, there's a white girl next to me. 115 pounds murdering the bike. You know what I mean? I just the cycle stuff is for me. I'm too big.

I have a question for you though based upon dance. I assume you like dancers and to watch people dance. We talked about it. So look, I'm going to give you five dancers and I want you to rank them from five to one. Wow. That's rough. Yeah, it's tough.

Okay. Am I going to know who they are? Yes. Okay. All right. Sounds good. I'm going to do very famous. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. So by the way, I'm just saying these are the names that I came up with. So I am supplying Allie with these names. So any criticism comes to me not to Allen. Okay.

These are the dancers. Sierra Usher, Chris Brown, Michael Jackson, and Janet Jackson. Rate them from five. Okay, I'm writing them down and I want first I want to say caveat to I don't want to let's not skip over your Peloton like kind of

like run on just now. One, Peloton is absolutely incredible. And I will tell you right now, whether it's your workout, whether it's a food, you should give something a second try. You shouldn't judge something on the first try. Ultimately, you should give it three tries to know if you like it. Because really, you don't know what you like until you actually get into the meat of it, right? You can't judge a restaurant.

Because you can't drag your restaurant. You don't know how many times I went to the bike. You didn't do Peloton. I didn't do Peloton. You said I went once. Different. I did the, I did. When I said once, I meant I was in a bike class.

So you're going to judge every restaurant on Checkers. Jackers is good. Nothing wrong with it. But you're going to judge like, well, this, I ain't going to that one. because it's going to be like checkers. You can't do that? Look at that. And can I just say,

I never liked to spin until I did Peloton. I got my bike right at the start of COVID, like the pandemic. And I would run with the group. We had a hashtag. We named our team. I didn't go in the class with other people.

I never did it live. We would just run together and pick a class. You can tailor your music to it. You can tailor, like, you can do your minutes. They're not playing us. Rachel, what are you doing? I love it. Actually, you know what it is.

You did this, man. You did this because you're over here talking about, oh, I would never do it. You got to try it. Trust me. And then you can come from an informed point of view. So you know what? It's not for me. Because I get it.

Not everything is for everybody. And I'm not here to say like, oh, I drink the Kule. And you have to do it. I didn't like cycling either before I got the job there. I'm not going to lie. Cycling was at the bottom. I agree with you. I ain't trying to go in those cycle class and hear anybody talk about Long Beach.

I love it, but I ain't trying to hear about it too. So anyways, I digress. let's get back to your five folks. These are the five. These are the five. Sierra. Five dancers. Sierra Usher.

Chris Brown, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson. Rank those from five to one. Who's the best? This is rude. And so number, well, gosh, all of this can be controversial and rude. I'm just going to have a point of view. As an expert, I'm going to start with Michael Jackson because he's number one, right? Okay.

I'm going to put him at, and this is why it was because he was able to coin and create a style that caught on and continues to catch on and it continues to be synonymous with who he is. And the ability to do that is like it is incredible and not a lot of people can do that, right? Dance like Michael, which Chris Brown and Usher of Sierra and Janet all stem from. I will say that. So number two, I'm going to give to Janet because she's the OG. I mean the smoothness, hunt like she just, she's giving me every vibe. and then all of a sudden, after like that smooth, kind of,

she's attacking every single beat. Like she, she's, I mean, and she's Janet Jackson. Jackson is right. Jackson is nasty. Okay, now from here it gets a little tough.

CC's my girl. Like, Cici is my girl. I have to say, I'm going to put Sierra at number three. Here's why. Usher can get mad. I've danced with Usher.

We did a Peloton dance cardio class where Usher comes out and we did all his moves from his videos. It's on demand. But I'm going to put Cece first because she gives me that rawness. She gives me a little bit of like, again, the old school Michael Jackson, this, so but she gives me that rawness. Honey's twerking, she's pop-locking and dropping it like it's hot.

And the stamina is on point. Then I'm going to put Usher. I'm going to put Usher there because Usher is similar to Michael Jackson. Like Cece has like taken the style and embodied it and she has her own like she's getting low. The knees are good like making the stallion no matter what age you're at. Whereas like Usher, he's synonym. with that Michael, and he keeps that legacy

and that suavness and that smoothness going. And then I'll give you Chris Breezy. He made crump in a thing and it's still a thing for him, which is great. But he doesn't have the power to keep crumping alive as big as when you see the moonwalk. You're like still trying to do it. You know what I mean?

Yeah. That was one of the greatest answers. I took notes too. I was like, wait, let me not mess this up. It was so good. I'm going to think, I'll be real with you. Ali, people are going to think that we prepped you with that question before. No, I'm actually salty that you didn't prep me with that question.

Why would you be salty? Look, you nailed it. First of all, let me tell you what a good interview this was for you, Alie, in many ways. Okay, first of all, seriously, first of all, number one, I'm watching the show. I'm watching the show because of you. I'm watching the show because I want to see more of your story. I got to be real with you. little girl in Miami

looking out the window at the kids playing. God damn. You know what I mean? See, that was tough stuff, okay? I still remember that, y'all. It's tough. Number two, you sold Peloton.

Y'all did a Peloton commercial in the interview. Rachel played along. Okay, sold Peloton. And then number three, you just nailed that question. Nobody can be mad about that. I'd have a different order.

Nobody can't be mad at it. I'd have a different order. What my order would be? My order is Michael. Uh-huh. Then Chris. Chris. I knew it.

I knew you. Janet. Uh-huh. Then Usher than Sierra. That's my way. By the way, my order has nothing to do. My order is just me watching. Like, obviously, yours is more informed.

Rachel, what's your order? Yeah, what's yours? Michael, Janet, Usher, Chris, Sierra. Mm. I again, but you know what's interesting is there is no wrong answer. If anyone is talking about any of us in the top five, like so who are you going to put on the court right now? Because you get five spots on that court.

The fact that I'm on the court means I'm not coming off the bench. And I feel like that to me, nothing wrong. I mean, six person of the year, six men of the year, six men of the year is great, but like top five. But also, Cece, she does show up for me. So that's why I pay a lot of attention to her career, because she does take Peloton a lot. She'd be owning, again, keeping that endurance going.

She's a fantastic dancing. Like, she's a phenomenal dancer. She's an amazing. We were all trying to be like Sierra College. I was trying to dance like her. Me too. Me too. I will put on those booty shorts and get low,

and then my mom will come out, and she's like, girl, if you don't get yourself some clothes on. Before you leave, I want you to tell us about a little bit about Love Squad. Yeah. So Love Squad started when I was in college, and basically it was out of frustration and lack of resources. I moved to New York. I'm in school.

I'm trying to figure out what do I want to do next because I realize in the middle of university that dancers don't make a lot of money because I'm working with some companies. I'm gigging. I'm learning about the craft itself. I realize like it's going to be really challenging unless I get 35 roommates to live in New York City and make it.

And so what I decided to do was instead of getting frustrated only about it, I decided to create a company. I called it. My real last name is Love. I call it Love Squad. I made a rinky-dink website. And I just started talking about the things that I was dealing with in a sense that I learned about. How to handle no.

I went on a lot of castings and auditions as a dancer. You'd come in and line up right away and you get a no only being 15 minutes there. Or you'll be there all eight hours and you'll get down to the last three people, like three girls in a row, and they'll take the other two and they'll just say thank you to you. So I started writing about that. Like, how do you deal with no? How do you stay flexible? How do you stop pressing snooze?

How do you figure out things that you don't even know where to start to figure out. it out. And Adidas ended up, interesting enough, found my content, my little, like, it was a really messy website. I didn't know what I was doing. They found it it was like, you're talking about women empowerment and we want to make sure we're leveraging that platform so that you can continue to explore that. And during those conversations, I realized like, oh, you know, I do have some, I want to do this in real time. So I decided to do a Love Squad event in New York City. I asked for the space for free. And I got free food. I asked everything for free. I was over here bargaining. like, give me something for free.

I invited everyone on my Instagram, and at the time it was like 5,000 followers, obviously not everyone in New York. And so I had about 50 people that could fit in the room. I opened up the Event Bright for the 50 slots. It was free because, again, I was coming from lack of resources. I had partnered with a girlfriend of mine who had a fantastic brand and career, and she was doing it.

And she said, I'll give you my time for free. Within open up the Event Bright in 15 seconds, it sold out. It was free, but it sold out with 75%. person wait list. And I was like, whoa, people, this might be a thing. I brought everyone out. And we did the event. It went really well. And at the very end, this is how I know I should keep going, a while I continue to keep going. No one wanted to leave. They were networking, exchanging numbers, talking about how to build a reputation, how to build your brand at a young age, how to pivot. And so for me, that was a starting point of investing in my career,

but ultimately investing in my community and continuing to cultivate that space where we can come together. So we have a love squat dinner at the end of April. We've partnered. with a restaurant group in New York where we're doing kind of like a private tasting and we're going to bring 35 folks together every two months in a cadence to talk about those things, to network, to unlock information because it's so expensive.

So making sure that folks have access to each other, especially women, especially people of color, especially non-binary folks, queer folks. So you have that access and we're in those rooms, making moves that ultimately allows us to sustain our lives and our careers. Amazing. Love squad.

The show is, is dance 100. I'll probably be on there. Watch it. I'm telling you, just watch the first episode. This is all I want you to do. I'll dance,

maybe fucking me. Like what, you know what I'm saying? Like you're trying to, you, you, like you keep trying to, yeah,

you try to play me. You know what I'm saying? Like, like I can't do my thing. Watch this. Ali, look. Oh, snap. Ali's got to go.

Oh, I'm saying. But you can't connect to the other arm, can you? No, you can't connect? For some reason I could do this one. This one just goes like that. All right.

You got to go. Allie Love, Dance 100 is the show. Continue to support this very inspirational and talented sister. CEO of Love Squad, Piloton, instructor, Adidas, Global Ambassador. Lots of stuff going on. Thank you for joining us today on Hireland. Thank you both. I appreciate it.

No problem. Bye-bye. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business, Fast, Reliable Internet. means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum business. They keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support.

Millions of business owners already trust Spectrum business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows Winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech. floor liners in the summer, unless you hit the beach or go camping, then you'd want a cargo

liner or road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. All right. Jim Trotter is a reporter who was part of the NFLB media's recent cuts. Also, Rachel Bonnetta was also cut. He went on brother from another mother with Michael Holly and Michael Smith on Tuesday and explained Zablanon that in his mind,

he was let go from NFL media, at least in part because he questioned NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about diversity issues in the league's newsroom. let's listen to him question Roger Goodell. And then let's listen to what he had to say on the podcast with my brother, Michael Smith. Hey, Roger, Jim Trotter, NFL Media. You and other league officials have said that the league's commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion extend beyond the sidelines and beyond the front offices and is applied to all aspects of the company. I've worked in NFL media for five years during those.

five years, we have never had a black person in senior management in our newsroom. That's a problem because we cover a league who, according to league data, the player population is 60 to 70% black, which means that there is no one who looks like these players at the table when decisions are being made about how they are covered. More concerning is that for a year plus now, we have never had a full-time black employee on the news desk, which again is a problem because we cover a league whose player population is 60 to 70% black according to league data. I asked you about these things last year, and what you told me is that the league had fallen short and you were going to review all of your policies and practices to try and improve this.

And yet a year later, nothing has changed. You know, James Baldwin once said that I can't believe what you say because I see what you do. And so I would ask you as an employee, when are we in the newsroom going to have a black person in senior management, and when will we have a full-time black employee on the news desk? Well, Jim, I am not in charge of the newsroom. So I think the – can I answer your question? As you point out, it's the same question you asked last year. And we did go back, and we have reviewed everything we've been doing across the leak,

and we are looking at everything from vendors that we're working with to partners that we're working with, to ownership where we've seen significant changes in diversity just this year. And I'm not specific, do not know specifically about the media business. We'll check in again with our people, but I am comfortable that we made significantly progress

across the league. Okay? Now, this is Jim from Brother from another month. Brother from another. This is Jim from brother from another. They made a decision that they didn't

want to renew my contract. I will have a lot to say about it at the appropriate time, which is not now, but the thing that I will say now is that journalism matters and holding people who are in power accountable matters. And that's part of our job, regardless of if it's our own employer or someone else. And which is really all I tried to do here, Michael, is one of the things the NFL, fellow always said internally is hold us accountable, hold us accountable as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

And so for the last couple of years, that's what I've been trying to do, pointing out that in our newsroom, where we cover a player population that is roughly 60 to 70% black according to league data, there is no black person and senior manager in our newsroom who has a seat at the table when we are deciding how we are going to cover these players and who is going to cover them. Secondarily, we do not have a full-time

black person on the news desk at NFL media. And I keep saying we, because officially I'm not terminated until Friday, but to me, those are issues because one, I think it's unfair to the players. They should have someone who shares either the same or similar life experiences and cultural experiences at the table when we talk about how we are going to cover them. And the fact that we don't, to me, it's an issue. So I have raised that repeatedly over the last two years, including at the last two Super Bowls with the commissioner.

And there are some who didn't like it. And I do believe it played a role in me, my contract not being renewed. And I will talk about that more later. Okay. So, by the way, Jim Trotter appears on the latest episode, Blackball podcast on the ringer's NFL feed. I have a question for you, Rachel.

what do you think about Jim's take on this? His take on why he was like, oh? Yeah, yeah. I mean, Jim obviously has firsthand knowledge because he worked there for five years. He probably knows more. Not probably, he does know more than what he's saying

because he even said he can only say certain things because I'm sure there's certain boundaries within his contract that he can't speak out on certain things. Or maybe he's consulting with the attorney. Who knows? But I think he's entitled to, not entitled, but this is what I'll say. You worked in a newsroom. I worked in a newsroom.

How many times was your voice extremely necessary in that newsroom when it came to covering somebody who looked like us? A lot. And how often did you probably think, man, if I wasn't here, I wonder what this would look like? a lot because it actually happened, like when I was on vacation and different stuff. Yeah, a lot. Right. There's so many times where I've had to change a script, had to educate on why you can't say things this way, had to say, hey, maybe we shouldn't cover it like this. We shouldn't ask this question. This is how it looks. And it shows how important our voices are when you're covering people who look like us because we get it. And there's an understanding that we have in one each other because

this is us. Like we're speaking towards, we come from this culture. We are this. And so what Jim's saying in this is so necessary and it's so important. And I hate the way that Roger Goodell seemed, you can tell he's frustrated. And if you watch it, you can really see it. He is frustrated that he's being asked his question again. He seemed like he was dismissive of Jim when he was talking. And he gave him a blanket statement about we are trying to increase. diversity all over the league, and it seems like the NFL might be focusing on one area, but they're not focused on NFL media. And the fact that he's talking about not being representation in the media room, and then he

gets fired, highlights that point even more. So I'm only can speculate as to why the reason that Jim was a let go by NFL network, but I'll say it doesn't look good. And the things that he's saying make a lot of sense. Right. So, you know, Jim had had a long career with them. Jim wouldn't know. Five years within a five years. Yeah, that's long.

Jim would know better than I would or you would, how things were going there. But let me take something. And it's time for a soapbox. They probably fucked over Jim and it doesn't matter. It doesn't. The league has showed us that they're racist and niggas don't care. just to be real niggas don't care

the league is fucking Jim the league fuck Eric reed the league fuck cap the league is fucking Lamar Jackson nobody gives a shit

like nobody cares like Jim was right there doing exactly what we want people to do is what we tell people that they should do what we say that they should do he was right there doing it and the NFL

isn't going to address it. They don't have to address it. They don't have to address it. There was a chance to make the NFL, I sound like a broken record. There was a chance to make the NFL

reconcile its culture a big, shiny chance with a Super Bowl quarterback to make the league reconcile its culture and what we said was the game is on. Don't talk to me about that. The game is on.

I'm telling you like this. This is what I'll say. I'm off the NFL. I'm off. I will ask for a mad and exception. Okay? I will play the game because it helps me with my anxiety.

I will play the video game. Between what's happening right now with Lamar Jackson, which we haven't really even talked about it. We'll get into it right now. They are so aggressively colluding against Lamar Jackson. They're so clear that the owners are a cartel, right?

That are aggressively colluding against him. They colluded against Cap. The fact that the league documented proof that they questioned the mental aptitude of its black players the treatment of Eric B. Enemy. All of these things together, there's a race problem in the NFL.

There's a gigantic race problem in the NFL. It's glaring, right? We haven't talked, Brian Flores, like there's a race problem in the league. It's a current lawsuit going on right now. They just came out with a report, right? They hired a company, came out with a report to address issues in the NFL, to do all this research to determine what's going on.

I guess it was a diversity thing. And the whole report is criticizing them. The whole report, statistics, graphics, everything, basically telling the NFL they're racist, literally saying, this guy was hired for this team and you replaced them with a white person. This guy was hired, you replaced them with the white person. It's glaring, and that only focuses. on the coaching. Not all the other issues, which is something that Jim Trotter was trying to bring

to the table, but the NFL has responded, Van. And I'm not directly, but this is an indirect way, and this is typical of how the NFL does things. So a couple of days after they let go of Jim Trotter and two other people from NFL network was not just Jim, and the other people weren't black. I'll say that before anybody says anything. The NFL put out a statement. They put out a press release to applaud themselves for taking another step at the owner's meeting. The owner's meeting, they made a step to increase diversity throughout the league. They'll continue to, sorry, diversity throughout the league. Each team is now required to have a person in charge of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Currently, only 15 clubs have this on their team, but now all of them will have it. And they put that out as a response to show Van that they are making progress. They can't be racist because they have DEI offices now in each club. Hey, I'm not, I'm never going to shit on a little DEI, but let me tell you, let me real with you. Jim Trotter in this conversation with Roger Goodell, his question of Roger Cadell. he told Roger Goodell what you need. Exactly. He told him.

Twice. He told Roger Goodell what you need. He told him. There's not fucking calculus. You need people, decision makers, and upper level senior management positions all over the league.

And that reflects the workforce of the league. I'm telling you is nothing will change until that happens. And by the way, nothing will change because the NFL doesn't care about changing it or I'd say doesn't want to change it because black Americans and other people don't drive the viewership of the NFL. This is all mad. What I'm saying is this.

And I'm going to move on to Lamar Jackson situation. Lamar Jackson and the Ravens Canada on a contract. Lamar said a number. I can get into the numbers. The Ravens won't meet the number. That's fine. They want to franchise tag him in perpetuity. That's cool.

Okay. What's happened here is that Deshawn Watson, the signing of a sexual predator, jacked up the asking price for quarterbacks to an absurd number. Big number. Lamar Jackson is a more accomplished quarterback than Deshaun Watson. There's no doubt about that. No matter what you think about Deshawn Watson at his peak and whether or not he's a pocket pass

or win you a Super Bowl or whatever, whatever difference in the style of game. Lamar Jackson League is going to be peak. Mm-hmm. Okay. So he expected to get that type of money. Maybe he wouldn't get the money. Maybe the Baltimore Ravens don't want to pay him that money.

Fine. But what's happening now for people who are following this is all these other teams are leaking to insiders that they're not looking to see. sign Lamar Jackson. There's collusion between the owners of all of these other teams, teams that some of them need a quarterback. And they're coming out and saying, we're not interested.

We're not interested. We're not interested. They are essentially making him into a one buyer player. And that's the Ravens. They're saying take the number because you have nothing else. And they're putting this out. There's some other factors that play here. Lamar doesn't have an agent.

You know what I mean? It doesn't have an agent. Lamar is asked, go ahead. Go ahead. No, go ahead. Just jump in. I was going to say Lamar is asking for a fully guaranteed contract, which we have not seen that outside of, for that amount of money outside of Deshawn Watson. Deshaun Watson got 230 million guarantee of a $250 million contract, I'm saying.

And a lot of these other guys have got huge. So Lamar is asking for something. if they're not going to give it to them, fine. But the fact that they're colluding, that they're in. I agree. I, I, no, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm agree. It's, it's absolutely collusion.

I'm just saying, I'm, I'm playing devil's advocate a little bit here, right? There are also people saying that, like, listen, the amount of money that he's, actually, I'm not even going to do that. Because the fact that Deshaun Watson got that as a sexual predator is insane. And you just, and you just shouted out all the things that Lamar Jackson, Jackson has done or that he is a better player. I mean, he unanimously got MVP. What year was that?

What year was that? God damn, it's a couple years ago. I don't know. First season. No, no, no, I meant his season. I'm trying to figure out which season. His first season, he unanimously got MVP honors. He has been a top rusher, like, had a top scoring offense, had a best record in the NFL

in the regular season. Like, this man is extremely accomplished. Obviously, it's collusion. The only thing. that I would say that you could even possibly play devil's advocate to it was either the fully guaranteed contract, but we've seen that with Deshaun Watson. So that's out the window. We know you can do it. And you will do it for someone who doesn't even have a great reputation who also had to sit out for several games. And the other thing is, the only way I can play devil's

advocate is that the Ravens are working it out and they will eventually come to term. and sign him for a significant amount and fully guaranteed or fully guarantee and a lesser amount. And so maybe you could say, because even Jim, Jim, is it Jim? Oh, I'm about to mess up the Harvows, which is it John or Jim? John. Even John said that he thinks that he's going to come back. He'll remain the quarterback of the team. And he said that in an owner's meeting.

So it could be that he does stay and get what he wants. Maybe he does. Maybe he does. Maybe that happens. But the damage is already done. So in my opinion, the Lamar Jackson situation, the damage is already done. The damage here was whether or not these teams get together to manipulate and control markets and players' destinations and their livelihoods in ways that they say that they don't. Now, if we're being honest with ourselves, we probably do that they were doing that.

But at the same time, though, at this point, Rachel, And I'm just going to be honest with you. At this point, look, I have enough things already where I compromise myself. And I do. I do. I really do. I'm all in on LSU football and Brian Kelly. And it's not like that's pure.

That stuff is pure. I'm from a racist state. I grew up in a racist city. There's enough racism that I have to deal with, right? both overt and very subtle to where I don't have to do it all day long Sunday, Thursday, and Monday. And I just can't, I'm not going to do it anymore.

Okay? It's been building up. I watched a Lamarthe. We haven't even really talked about it. I'm like, this is too fucking much. I'm not going to deal with it. I'm not trying to be a martyr. I'm just sharing with the people.

We won't share my other secret. That's fine. But this right here, it's just too much bullshit happening. This guy right here, this shows you they don't even give a fuck. They're playing in your face. This man asked him the same question two years and said, I asked you, yes. I asked you last year. And he said, no, we're working on it.

We're forming a committee. We're hiring it. Fix it. No, if he said is diversity across, key words, diversity across the league, meaning I'm not specifically going to address your issue. And the other statement that they put out somewhere else is touting their numbers about hiring people of color. That's not what Jim said.

He said people that look like 60 to 70% of the people that play in this league. That's black. They're talking in code. You're right. I'm not where you are, but I understand the sentiment. I'm a hypocrite.

I'm still a hypocrite right now. It's fine. It's fine. I'm not judging. Judge, I'm not on Reddit. Judge. All right. Rachel, we got to go pretty soon, but I've got a couple of topics.

Yeah, we got to go because I got to get to something. And nobody, no. Well, we were supposed to start early, okay? We got like 40 minutes later. Okay, so Rachel's choice. One more topic than mailback. Reparations?

No jumper. That sounds like a long topic. Should we hold one of these? Maybe we could. I say reparations because I could get into a whole other thing. Maybe we bring somebody on to talk about that too. So you say, so what do you want to do? Hold preparations.

I'm not sorry. Reparations for Black California residents can reach $800 billion. The No Jumper podcast is mainstreaming neo-Nazis and hate figures to its millions of audience. We're going to eventually have to cover that. We have arrest over spying. We have Shug Knight.

Oh, real quick, Larson Pipman. Actually, no. We're not doing that. That's stupid. Let's talk about this real quick. Immortality to be attainable by 2030 as a Google scientist. Future is really. Ray Kurzweil has predicted that humans will achieve immortality in just seven years.

He's a 75-year-old computer scientist and former Google engineer. He won the National Medal of Technology in 1999 and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2002. He said, 20209 is a consistent date when I have predicted that AI will pass a valid Turing test. Turing test is referring to experiments that challenge computers to think like us, therefore achieve a human level of intelligence. I have set the date 20, 2045 for singularity,

which is when we will multiply our effective intelligence by a billion-fold by merging with the artificial intelligence that we have created. Rachel, immortality, your thoughts. Listen, I've sent this in because I felt like it would peak your interest for some reason. This is terrifying to me. every week, twice a week, we get on this podcast and talk about how fucked up things are in the world.

I don't need to live forever. You know, like, it's dying scary at times to me, absolutely, but I don't know if I would want to live forever and constantly, you know what I mean? Have to, you know, life might be good at one point. You might be struggling in another, seeing people who don't accept this immortality to go. It's playing God too much.

I don't even think it can be achieved, but even the thought that people are trying to achieve that is disgusting to me. Just let it go. You know how many problems would come with the world? If we, you ever seen that movie? What happened to Monday? No.

Well, no, what? It's actually really good. You should watch it. But basically, it's about population control. It just gets to the point where there's, there are too many people. If we have, if we're able to be immortal,

imagine how we will destroy ourselves in this world. And I just, oh, I can't even, I can't even, the rapture would come. Well, I don't think that you have to worry about it because you won't be one of the people that will be able to afford to live forever. It'll be Bernard Arnaud and Donald Trump and all these people. Is it that expensive? They'll probably be pretty expensive. They've got to make it that expensive.

They've got to become some kind of singularity sideboard. Everybody else to be around the same. people. Roger Goodell. We talk about Roger Goddell. He'll be running the NFL until the year 3,000 where all the players are light-skinned, look like Patrick Mahomes. Anyway, it's scary.

It's scary to think that AI is moving that fast, but all you guys are using Chat-G-T, you're putting your whole lives in the chat GPT. But Chat-GPT waits you up in the morning and says, I want to be you. Then you're going to fucking freak out. It won't happen to me. Survivorless.

Can goods, whatever. All right, mailback. Mailback time. Time to read your letters and then we'll reply to them. Oh, it's mailback time. Write us with your queries and we'll chime in. All right. First mailback question comes from the key next door that asks,

what is your go-to restaurant back home? In Louisiana? Yes. Tony's seafood on Plank Road or the Chimes. It's either Tonys or the Chimes. Shout out to Boilin Rue, which is a spot down there. It's black spot because both of these spots ain't black spots. But it's either Boilin Roo, shout out to Boilin Rue, which is a new spot.

It's very good. Go eat there. But it's either Tony's Seafood on Plank Road or the chimes. I like the chimes. He ain't talking about the chimes ain't that good. I like the chimes. That's where I go. What kind of restaurant is the chimes?

It's a, this is, it's all seafood stuff. Or Del Pits chicken shack 199 to get you a special Del Pits chicken shack. My man Chris Toom's trying to get me to buy the Del Pits, never mind. Go ahead, Rachel.

Mine would be Papados and black, yeah, I love Poppados and Black IP. Black IP, Black IP. Those are two places you can go in multiple places, but that's fine. No, Blacktopies are like shut down almost everywhere. And it's not about whether it's a chain or by itself.

It was not the question. It's when you go home. Can I get Papadoes in California? No. Now, nowhere even close. Every time I go home, that's what I want. So stop. It doesn't have to be a one-off.

I'm sorry, it ain't the chimes or Belleroo or whatever you said. Belmaru. Is it Bella-Noche? Where can we go? If we can't go to Bella Noce, which is in bad. All right. Okay, let's go. All right.

Next one. Caregiver asked, if you were a teacher, what grade and subject would you teach? What would be your favorite lesson? I have taught all of them. You have? I was a substitute teacher. Damn. Start raining.

I was a substitute teacher. I started out in high school, but I looked too close to the kids. I got in trouble for dress code. and the kids tried to hit on me. I moved to middle school as a substitute teacher. Those were the worst kids that I ever had. Then I found my sweet spot. I was a long-term substitute teacher

the entire year for K-through-fourth physical education. So that's my speaking for experience. That was the sweet spot for me. But if I really was going to choose, I'd probably teach math, high school math, maybe like algebra or something. Or maybe history. Let me tell you something.

I would never want to be a teacher ever. because I love children. I just hate your children. I don't want to be around them. Okay? I don't. It's the kids start acting up. I just couldn't do it.

I think it's one of the greatest jobs. If I had to teach a class, I don't know, man. I can't think of anything I would want to teach. I'll be honest with you. I don't like teaching like that. You know, I'm so passionate about it. Like I always say that at the end of the day,

when I was a lawyer, When I retire, I'll probably go back and teach. I almost didn't go to law school because I wanted to be a teacher. Wow. That's how much my kids moved me. I wrote my whole essay about my kids. I'm not right in the bottom. Rachel loves the kids.

Yeah, she does. Right, moving on. All right. Next one, Joy Lynn Cooper asked, name one of the many things that let you know your partner is right for you. Oh, because he lets me do whatever the fuck I want to do. That's good. I'm just kidding.

No, it's because I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Serious answer. Prior to Brian, I always felt like people tried to dim my light. And I would have family members and friends say that to me. And I am, Brian is so supportive that, like, and just proud. And we do that for each other, that that's how I know. And I never had that before.

That's a serious answer. I think it's that I don't get to do whatever I want, that I am controlled and given guardrails. And some would say, you know, curated in a specific way. Yeah, I think structure and those things where I can be all over the place. And sometimes somebody just gently dragged me back

into the same world that I need to live in. I think that's kind of the thing. All right. Unexpected Ally of the week. You got one? Do you have one? I'd have to dig. There were some things that I looked up, but now.

Wait, here's one. The Biden administration is offering relief to incarcerated student borrowers. Great. Sure. Do you feel like the Biden administration can be an unexpected the ally of the week.

They're white. An expected ally. So, unexpected ally of the week is just white. I don't know. I just, listen, at least I came prepared with one.

Can I be honest with you guys? No more unexpected ally of the week. No, stop. We gotta have, we'll workshop it. I don't like you come into this decision. When the vibe hands,

when the vibe is off. I will, how about this? I will never do it again. I think it's played, tried it, it doesn't work. It's like, I feel like also,

we can't always find one. I actually really search. I think unexpected ally of the week is like, it's like 10% of some white man's nigger shit anyway. Stop. Okay. We're unhinged right now. I say, let the same way people submit mailbag,

why don't you submit an unexpected ally of the week? And we'll try to, we'll try to just do it. Let's big up a white person every week. For what? You know what I mean? Okay, he is really on one. From starting with the conspiracy theories, that's like you started off the podcast.

Couldn't see the good in air tearing it down, full circle moment for Vand. Let's go. Big Rachel's got to go. I got to go be an ally. But do not stop learning. I am militant van X. And I'm Rachel Lynn Lindsay.

Let's stop. You actually look insane. He might be go to sleep. Crash. I'm ready.