Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Killer Mike's Meeting With Brian Kemp and Skip Bayless's Inhumane Take on Dak Prescott

Episode Date: September 11, 2020

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay discuss Killer Mike’s choice to meet with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp despite Kemp’s efforts to suppress Black voters. Then they break down the dangers of Skip Bayless saying he has “no sympathy” for Dak Prescott’s anxiety, before answering some mailbag questions and sharing their Unexpected Allies of the Week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, welcome to higher learning thought warriors. It is I, Van Lathen. It's I, Rachel Lindsay. I see that you've come around on the, it is I. Can I do mine over again? It's me. It's me, Rachel Lindsay. No, it is I, Rachel Lindsay.

I see it. I see that you're down with it now. Rachel, how are you? I saw you, we were in a little pre-show. You took a big swig of wine. Are you having a tight day? And I would like for it to be known that I haven't had a glass of wine in a while on the podcast. Yeah, it's been a time.

I mean, since I've been in L.A., I've been nonstop trying to get used to a new city, new jobs, and it's just been a day. It's been a week. How's that going, getting used to it? How's it going since the ash has literally blotted out the sun? I guess I haven't. I've been inside, like, working, working, working nonstop, that I haven't seen it. I was talking to someone today that said it smells like. smoke outside.

I haven't even. Terrible. By the way, I parked outside on the street. Ash all over the car. Oh my God, I saw that. I didn't realize that's what that was. Yes, ash all over the car. You can't literally the, we could really use some rain because the forecast in LA,

the skies are completely clear. What you see outside is not an overcast. Oh, my God. That's smoke. Like the, you know, there's not cloud in the sky right now. What you see outside right now is. that's from the fires. I had no idea.

Maybe the winds will come through because we're supposed to have some real big Santa Ana. I saw that. Maybe the winds will come through and maybe swirl some of it away, but it's a really interesting, it's like living on a different planet almost.

It's like the Martian or something like that. It's crazy. Well, now you open my eyes to a whole new thing. I thought it was just an overcast day. I thought my car was dirty. Right. I really didn't know this.

Wow. No, no, no. You need to know. Don't jog outside. Go inside. Do you have, at your building, Do you have a place you can work out? Yeah, but it's closed.

Oh, it's closed. Ours is open. Oh, well. Ours is closed. But I normally walk copper, but I didn't say. Took him to daycare. So that's why I haven't been outside. The playoffs are here.

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Well, yeah, look, we got to start the podcast on a down note. All right. We got to start the podcast on a down note. Why? Why do you have to do that? More people are getting at Rachel Lindsay in Vanley-Den's. People are hitting me up. But why don't they come to you.

They don't come to me. I'll tell you why. Let me tell you all something. If you want to, if you want, if you got something to say, slide in my DMs. Come talk to me. Stop tattling the van. I'm about it. You want to, you want to DM me?

Go ahead. Let me know what you got to say. This guy's name is Adam Friedgood. Okay. Adam Freed Good. So it's a dude. All right. It's a dude.

All right. I'm read the whole thing. Adam Freegood has a bone. to pick with Rachel Lindsay. What's new? Yo, what up, Van? Huge fan. I listen to pretty much every episode of higher learning

and way down in the hole the day they come out. Today, I watch two different pieces of content with you and your good friend, Big Rach. While I'm also a huge fan of hers, I need to get some clarification on the major hypocrisy I saw from her today. was hoping you could ask her on the pod Friday.

I want to preface this. Okay. He's going to preface it with I tried to reach out to Rachel directly. But her DMs aren't open to the public like yours are. That's not true. That's what he said. I think he's talking about Twitter. This is Twitter.

Oh, yeah, maybe they aren't. You don't even know. You don't even know. I don't know. I don't know. Oh, he says, or maybe I just fucked up within that kid. which in that case, my bad. I'm definitely not trying to call her out to you around her, though.

That's what he says. But he says, okay, are you ready for his beef? Are you ready for Adam Free Goods Beef? Come on. Come on. Okay. This is Adam Free Goods Beef. Okay.

So I listened to How I Learn today, and I think her disdain for Selena Powell and her No Jumper podcast was pretty obvious. She clearly believes these women are or were exploiting the men they were talking about by revealing their personal sexual encounters on the podcast. Later today, though, I happen to come across her show, ghosted, and decided to watch for the first time. On this show, heard her co-host, cyberstalk someone by digging through their social media pages

and reaching out to their friends to get in touch with them when they purposefully didn't want the person to speak to the person Rachel was trying to help. They pretty much stalked him until the agreement. to come on national television and reveal his most personal sexual secret. Just like Odell Beckham, their story was revealed to the world without their consent. If I'm being completely honest, I think what Rachel did is not just similar to Celia Napao's podcast, was actually way worse. On the podcast, it was just telling someone, it was just someone telling their own personal story unsolicited by anyone.

No one forced her to reveal that about herself and over. B.J. Rachel actively forced you god damn tyrant this person to believe to reveal his sexual secret to the world even though he clearly didn't want to tell anyone. I don't think that what this person did to the woman Rachel was trying to help was right at all. He was a huge asshole, but he didn't do anything illegal and didn't deserve to be exploited on national television for MTV's game. I would love to hear what Rachel feels the differences are between the two. Again, huge fan and we'll always keep listening

And here's my response And that a compliment sandwich If I ever heard one That's a big compliment sandwich Check this out Adam Okay, hold on No, you gotta hear my response This is my response

Oh, okay This is my response to the tweet Ooh Yo Oh shit Oh hell yeah Oh fuck yeah La la la la la la la

I'm giddy You're a genius you smart. You the best. Don't disrespect, Rachel. That's like that's the whole thing. Okay. This is going to be real simple. Real simple, Rachel. Adam. Adam Friedgood.

Adam Freed Good. Adam Freed Good. Excuse me. Let me get your whole name right. I honestly don't know which episode of ghosts that you're talking about, but I don't know. I might be spoiling something for you. Everybody who's on the show agrees to be on the show. Boom! Which I knew.

By the way, Adam. If you're on the show, you've had to sign of release. You got to sign a release. And I mean, we might, we, we honestly as host may not know if the ghost or whoever is going to show up, that is true. But if they pop up their face on screen, their voice, any part of their likeness, they have signed an agreement saying that we can film them or record them. Damn. Sorry, Adam. They agree.

There's no exploitation there. But you are right in reading how I feel about Selena. That is correct. Adam, I'm not going to lie, bro. Shout out to Adam Free Good, man. Shout out to Adam. Adam, you kind of just, you kind of got fucked over a little bit.

I mean, just like, I'd be like, Adam in real life, that was dope. By the way, Adam nice guy. Me and Adam went back and forth. Adam had something. You know, Adam had something. He thought he had you, Rach. He thought he had you, but I got to be honest.

Adam kind of a figure four leg lock of logic right there, brother. I don't know what to say. I know Rick flare up in here. Listen, listen. I appreciate, you know, like him calling me out, especially because hypocrisy. That's like a big word, a hypocrite. I'm like, what the hell did I do? But I hate to burst your bubble on that.

Oh, boy, was not exploited. He agreed to be out there. He agreed to tell his business. We simply just asked a question. Ah! Put it to bed. Listen, if you guys have any beefs about me, send them to Rachel. Yeah, please send them to me.

Also, you can catch Ghosted Love Gone Missing on MTV. Wednesdays 9 p.m. Eastern. I love it. What's the logo for Ghosthood again? What's the logo? That's a good question. You don't know the logo is? It's like, it used to be like a dot dot.

Like somebody was a. Oh, that's good. That's good. Like you're waiting on somebody to write. Like they're tight. but it never pops up? I have an idea. I have an idea. What about Casper?

What about Casper as the mascot? Sometimes the ghost isn't friendly. Casper was a friendly ghost. Damn. Was he friendly? Do you know that like, did you see the, it was in the theme song?

But did you see that, did you see that? Because look, here's the thing about a friendly ghost, right? A friendly ghost, right? It really, it doesn't make any sense. That's like, that's an oxymoron.

Like a friendly ghost. No, it's not. A ghost is a, a ghost is a, tortured soul that can't move on to like the next plane. Have you seen the movie Ghost? Yeah.

But he was not. Like, yeah, I guess he was tortured. I was going to say he was friendly. But you're right. He was tortured. And by the way, I can make, I can make, by the way, I can make a compelling argument that Patrick Swayze's character and ghost

is the true villain of the movie. I've always thought this. Oh my gosh. Have you all done that? Have you done some rewatchables yet? I haven't done it yet, but if you look at it, what he really did, the entire movie, was harass a black woman into doing his bidding, put her life in danger. That is true.

Put her life in danger. She wasn't doing nothing. And then didn't even give her the money. Think about all the bullshit that he put her through. This is true. Think about all the bullshit that he put her through. Like, remember the point where he was, like, when they, took all the money that they had embezzled.

And she's sitting there. You think she's going to get, like, broke off for having her life. She got crazy-ass, Tim Daly coming after her, sending henchmen after her, the whole nine. You don't even break her off with no cheese. She gets nothing. The only thing she got was tortured by him to further his white privilege agenda of getting his woman back. By the way, toxic masculinity. You're going to hold on to your woman. even when you're dead,

you're gonna hold on to her. Even when you're dead, you're that possessive? I say, I say Sam Wheat is a villain in that movie. Matt, you remember his full name in the movie. Sam Wheat. Do you believe in ghosts?

Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah. Like, I feel like that's, yeah, yeah. It was like, you're from Louisiana. There we go. Casper, I think I saw in a Casper movie, Casper's like some kids who drowned or something like that. What's funny?

Oh, my God. That's terrible. Are you? I think that's true. I'm pretty sure that's true. We have to fact check that. But somebody look at that, but I'm pretty sure in Casper the movie,

they show how Casper died. That just made it like a very sad in a creepy way. Like in the cartoon version, he wasn't that way. He's dead. No, but in the cartoon version, he's really cute. He looks like a little Pillsbury dough boy, but with the sheet. He's dead.

Okay. So it doesn't matter. He's a kid. He's a dead kid ghost. But that's like that came up. in the cartoon. He was like an imaginary friend in the cartoon. But I got to think about the real version.

Dead child. Are you back-checked that? Back-checked that. I'm pretty sure that they show how Casper died in the movie. And why the hell was he friendly? I feel sorry for him. I don't know, man. I don't know.

Anyway. What's the first topic? All right. One of my homies just went viral. This is the homie, Killer Mike. Killer Mike, if you guys don't know who Killer Mike is, Killer Mike is, to me, one of the best rappers in the world. I say Killamike is one of the five best rappers in the world right now.

No bullshit. Shout to Run the Jewel. Shout out to LP and Killer Mike. Every single Run the Jewel's project hits absolutely hard. And he's been that way. He's been ill since the beginning. Killer Mike is also an incredibly sharp, engaging, introspective, and learned political mind, political thinker.

He acted as, I was. I wouldn't say a surrogate, but he acted as sort of a, he was part of the Bernie Sanders campaign. Maybe he was a surrogate. I'm not sure what his official role was, but he was very outspoken in his support for Bernie Sanders, not just in this election, but in the last election before this as well. And he's courted political controversy before. He very famously went on to the NRA's platform and had a conversation with Koli on the War, NRA guy who I had on my podcast. Shout out to Colleon the war. Fucked the NRA. Colion no longer

works for them. But our conversation was about black gun ownership, which is something that Kilamike is very into. I remember that conversation, having it on the NRA's platform was very controversial. He made controversial news today because he went to meet with Georgia Governor Brian Kipp. Killer Mike is from Atlanta. He is a small business owner in Atlanta. He is a political operative, motivator, sort of a thinker there in Atlanta, and he went and talked to Governor Kemp.

Now, don't know specifically what was discussed. I did see something about small businesses. I have I'm pretty sure that if Mike went up there to talk, something was on the agenda about ways to help the

community and ways to help small black business owners in the community and that's probably why Mike went up to speak to the governor. I haven't spoken to Mike yet. There are things that people do not like about this. Yeah. Okay. We had Stacey Abrams on last week.

Stacey Abrams contends that Brian Kemp there in Georgia, both when he was running and now is engaged in wholesale voter suppression, trying to suppress specifically the black vote in Georgia and black voter turnout in Georgia to make. make sure that he holds on to his governorship and also that President Trump can win Georgia, which is a very important state

in this election. So right away when the pictures of Mike are going to see Governor Kemp came out, people were upset, it trended it on Twitter. Do you, Rachel, have a problem with Killer Mike visiting the governor there in Georgia? No, I don't.

Because of all the things that you just started out talking about when you discussed, when you introduced this topic, right? Killer Mike has a long history of being supportive of the black community and trying to fight for us. So you have to assume, even if you weren't privy to the details of that conversation, that he did neglect that just because he went to talk to somebody that we don't support or we don't agree with. And I think it's very, it's an ignorant thought that there has to be this idea that meeting with someone is the equivalent to supporting them. The fact that we're already going to label Killer Mike with that,

just because he went to go sit down and talk to Governor Kemp, is not fair. He did tweet that some of the issues that he was talking about is that blacks in Georgia have more than 2% of state contracts while making up 35% of the state. He also talked about black men and black boys getting free trade school versus building more gels for them. So these are some of the issues. Yeah. So these are some of the issues.

that he went to talk about. And I just think we just live in a society where people are so so willing to jump and harp on things because it's trending or because everybody's doing it rather than really logically thinking about it and sifting through the facts. There's no way that killer Mike forgot who he was. I'm just going to assume when he went and took that meeting. You might not like Governor Kemp. We believe when we've talked about it here on the podcast that he cheated his way.

to win that race. But that doesn't mean that he holds that office, so you still have to continue to fight for our rights, even though that is having a discussion with someone that you don't support or that you don't believe in. And I think that that's what Killer Mike was doing. And I'm just shocked that he's getting so much backlash for having a meeting to fight for us.

People are calling him a sellout for that reason. So what is he supposed to do? Okay, none of us like the fact that Governor Kemp is there. We know that he has refused to have. a mask mandate for the coronavirus, when the coronavirus is disproportionately affecting black and brown communities. It's hindering us. We know that.

We know that he, voter suppression is an issue in the state of Georgia. And the federal government has refused to get involved and has left it up to the states. And he's not doing anything about it. Recently this year, there was an issue with voter suppression in the state of Georgia. Maybe that's what Killer Mike was going to talk about as well. But the fact that we're just supposed to sit on Twitter and tweet about it and be mad, when killer Mike is going into his office and actually taking action and doing something about it is ludicrous to me. I cannot believe that people are harping on him for this when he's done nothing but stand up and support our community.

Yeah. So look, any calls or any notions that Mike is a sellout, a coon, whatever, dumb. That's not a thing. That's just not a thing. Okay. I talk to Mike. often what Mike's belief is is that, you know, he says something. And what he says is that he says, black people cannot continue to fight over who has the better master. Right. So what he means by that, and we tried to have him here, but he obviously has a very busy schedule.

So it was fuck you to hire learning. So appreciate that, Mike. But what he basically means is that his belief is that he's a policy-oriented guy. He believes that people on the left don't really give a fuck. People on the right don't really give a fuck. And when we argue these things, we argue over who has the better masters. And I understand that. I get that.

I understand that he's not wrong about black people's need to be, to answer to themselves politically and culturally. And own their businesses, protect themselves. He's a big proponent of gun rights. He's a two-way guy. He's a son of a police officer. So there are a lot of things that Mike Little. looks at in different ways than a lot of the people who are, you know, probably cursing his name today. I will say one thing, though, while who Mike is is in no way in question to me, I do

question the tactic is what I would have loved to discuss with him. Because here's the thing with me. So there is no doubt about the fact that Brian Kemp is hurting black people, right? Right. Okay. So Brian Kipp is hurting black people. He's suppressing black votes. He stole a gubernatorial election by doing it in 2018, and he's going to attempt to do it now. Right?

He's hurting black people. Okay. So the question then becomes, what do you have to do or how do you negotiate talking to hauling with sitting down with someone who you know is hurting black people? Okay. Now the question, the answer to that is, man, who isn't hurting black people? And that's what I, you know, are the Democrats not hurting black people, or the Republicans not hurting black people, or who isn't hurting black people? What I would say to that is this, is that if I was to go to the White House or to the governor's mansion or to any of those things, I would be wary that Brian Kemp and the governor's office there were using the photo op. as a weapon

to drive home the fact that, look, we like black people. Here's Killer Mike. Okay? So here's Killer Mike. We like black people. You see me meeting with Killer Mike. I invited the great big voice

into my governor. Have no problem talking to him. Here's Killer Mike. We love black people, which to some people might make things, oh, that Governor Kemp is all right, right? So that Governor Kemp is okay. So they now have a more open heart to Governor Kemp.

All right. Whereas Kilimanika go in there and talk to Governor Kemp and walk out of there with nothing. Now, I'm not saying that he will. I don't know if there was anything signed or anything done or even anything promised. We don't know yet. That will be a sort of, that will come out

as we get more information. But if that wasn't the case, if you don't get anything out of it, then the only thing that you do is empower someone who's hurting black people. So, and this is the same thing with a visit to President Trump or anything. If you're going to, Deonté Wilder went to the White House, heavyweight champion of the world. Yes.

When Deonté Wilder went to the White House, it was to sign for President Trump to sign a pardon for Jack Johnson. One of the black heavyweight Jack Johnson, who was bogusly accused, bogusly convicted on some shit a long time ago. he went there for the president to actually wipe away a historical ill that had happened. So I'm no problem with Deonté Wilder going there to do that. Deonti Wilder going there to ask the president to pardon Jack Johnson a little bit different to me. And the reason is because you don't know if he's going to do it. And if you go there and you and you sit for the picture, the picture becomes a weapon and maybe you don't get what you want.

So if Killer Mike was there in the governor, once again, Lee Merritt went to the White House when they actually, when the president gave a bullshit executive order about policing. That's what he was there for. Lee Merritt can't not go to the White House when the president actually makes an overture based upon something he's been trying to get done. So I guess that's what I, those are the only questions I would have. And that's why I wish we could have had Killer Mike here. And hopefully maybe we can get him on another episode. Because those were questions that I had. But at the same time, it's like, okay, well, let me ask you this question too.

Did Killer Mike post that he went to go visit Brian Kemp? Because I saw Brian Kemp's post. Did Killer Mike tweet it? Or did it only come from the governor's office? Because that's the only one I saw. I'll look right now. Oh, no, he did post it on Instagram. So in the caption, Mike is really talking about sort of what one of his homies had to say about

the meeting and how much it meant to him. And Mike says he looks forward to helping Georgia increase. It's 2% government, government state part contract participation, participation to 10 to 15%. I guess this has to do with sort of community initiatives and things that are going on in Georgia. He says he hopes that this is the first of many real and frank conversations. And he thanked the governor and his staff. Okay. So this is his post.

All right. I will agree. I think that everything that you said, that was the question I had. I only saw what was coming from the governor's office on Twitter. I did not know if Killer Mike as well had posted about his visit, because then I would have had a different take if he did not post it. But I do understand what you're saying about the picture op because that was one of the questions I had about being used as a prop if we had Killer Mike on the show. But at the same time, I'm, I guess I'm conflicted because. you know, like you still have to go in and have these discussions, even if you don't know what the outcome is going to be at the end of the day. You can't be mad from a distance. You can't do nothing and talk. You have to go into these offices. You have to go into have these meetings, at least to try to get something done, even if you don't know at the end of the day that he's going to help you or not. So from Killer Mike's perspective, I understand that. Now, would I have posed for a picture?

Probably not. because it does seem like the office of Governor Kemp is circulating that and using that to show that this is somebody that's regarded a certain way in the black community. And I was able to, he came to visit me and we were able to have a discussion trying to say like you're saying, yeah, well, he's, he not supports me, but he's at least willing to have a decent conversation with me as if he backs him in a way. You know what I mean? Like a prop. I get that. I get that. but I still believe that those conversations have to be had.

Because here's my question to you. What do you do then? There are other ways. Like obviously, Governor Kemp does not need to be the governor of the state of Georgia. And that's only going to happen if people actively speak out against him and then go to the polls and vote against him. That's obviously one way to fight him.

But other than that, he is currently the governor of the state. And you're fighting for certain things to happen in your state that benefits your community. So how else do you get it done? when this person's the governor of your state. So that's what I get, I get what Killer Mike was doing. I might not oppose for the picture, though. Yeah, I get it too.

But here's the thing, though, do you think that in terms of initiatives to help small black businesses and things like that, that there are legislatures in Georgia there that are working towards those things? Sure. Why isn't Governor Kemp talking to them?

Or more to the point, let me put this way. More to the point, let me put it this way. Why is it Governor Kemp posting people? pictures talking to them. Listen, I'm not going to even argue with you on the... I get it. I do think they used it. So I used him to that.

Well, so my purpose is, so my point is this. There are my people, they're in Georgia, whose job it is to talk to the governor about issues like this. Killam Mike is, don't get me wrong. Killing Mike's job is not just to be a rapper, rap. Mike is on it all. Yeah. Mike is, you trust a Mike.

but when Mike walks into there, or not just him, when anybody walks into there, right? When Jim Brown goes to the White House, when Kanye West goes to the White House, when any of these things happen, right, Steve Harvey goes to there. The question is, all the things that they went and talked to Donald Trump about,

Kanye actually was able to have some success, I guess, or Kim was, I guess, or Van Jones was with the First Step Act. But when Steve Harvey and all of those guys went there to talk about all the things they wanted to do economically and all that stuff like that, Did Trump do any of that? I mean, I'm asking.

Let him tell it, yeah. He's done more for black folks than any other president. He's talking about unemployment, right? Right, that's it. It's the only staff that are there. Are there any specific initiatives that were enacted to invest in the small black businesses or anything like that? Did any of that stuff happen?

Has it happened? So then what happens is what you end up doing is you end up normalizing somebody like. I don't agree with that. If we're talking about you go to the governor's office, right? First of all, let's talk about. what the allegations of Brian Kemp are against Brian Kemp. They're saying that Brian Kemp is actively taking the vote away from black people in Georgia. That's not a small allegation.

That is reducing their citizenship. That's depowering black people. That's a tremendous amount of harm. So to me, if you're going to go and talk. to somebody like this. This is not just for Mike, this is for anybody. If you're going to go and talk to somebody like that, then you have to, you have to be getting what you need from them. You have to be offsetting that harm in some sort of way. Like for right now, I would be honest with you. I wouldn't take a picture with Joe Biden. I wouldn't. Joe Biden has done a lot of harm to the African-American

community. Now, whereas I believe in Kamala Harris and I believe in the choice and I believe in all of these things right now, I can't put my foot on the gas and act like I'm an all-gun hope about that. I think there's a way to do it. And this is what I, and this is so like I'm not disagreeing with you on this because I feel like I, and I'm not against him going and having a conversation. What I wish he would have done is specifically talked about like, because one of the questions I had for him is, did you expect this backlash? Did you, did you expect? I'm sure he did. Okay. And then I was.

He's ready for it. Mike, Mike can't know. But my follow, but my follow up question is, if you anticipated this type of backlash, you know what, what black people feel against Governor Kemp and why. You should have said something about if you had discussions about voter suppression, because he didn't mention that in a social media post. Like, I want to know that. There's no way that I would go talk to Governor Kemp and not mention that as well. If I'm being representative of the black community and a citizen of the state of Georgia,

I would want to talk about what the allegations are against you, which, I mean, I'm using the word allegations to be nice. But I would want to talk about how I feel like you have been detrimental to my community and you still are doing things that are detrimental. He needed to say that. Killer Mike needed to say that if he had those conversations. Do you know what I mean? That's what I would have wanted from him. And I know we weren't privy to every single thing he talked about. But if he did not talk to him about that, then it was a missed opportunity. So here's the thing. One of Mike's biggest goals are, is these also challenges conventional thinking on something.

The conventional thinking is we can't work with these people. We can't do this. We can't do that. And the Democrats are on our side and the Republicans aren't. He challenges the conventional. thinking on that. He challenges the conventional thinking on how black people should build communities, how all people in America should build communities, build businesses, protect themselves, and all of that. So he's going to challenge you. He's going to challenge you by reading things you haven't read,

by being in rooms you're not in, by doing all of those things. And I get that. Like, everything that people are saying about him online is untrue as far as Mike is this and Mike is that and Mike. He knew exactly what he did. He knew what was going on, whatever. The only thing that I question, and you have a healthy debate over it, is the tactic. Is it, like, is, is the tactic itself. And the tactic itself, as it relates to not a governor who's a Republican and you disagree, that you disagree on policy with, to someone who is actively harming black people.

And if the argument, the kind of argument to that is the Democrats are actually, actively harming black people as well, we can have that discussion too. But then we have to discuss, you know, what it is that we're doing, what is we're willing to accept, where it is that we're willing to go, and how it is we want to get to the finish line. But no problem with talking to people who you disagree with,

talking to people who you bitterly disagree with, and coming to a compromise. No problem with that, or trying to work on behalf of your community. No problem with that. that. But if you're going to have somebody who over the next generation, over the next couple of years, is going to try to have a stranglehold on Georgia politics and then maybe even national politics by suppressing black votes and now allowing, not allowing black Americans to have the sort of representation that they want, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's quite a hurdle to jump for me.

That's why I say I wish he would have taught one of obviously we could have had him here, but I wish that when he announced that he met with him, if he anticipated this backlash, that was going to be the biggest thing that people were going to say. He should have addressed it when he announced that he sat down and had this meeting. Because it is a big issue. It is. Good brother. Not only good, but one of the most important black men that we have right now.

Whether you agree with them or disagree with them, one of the most important because we need somebody who just always in any place, he's a self-made millionaire, right? So he answers to no one. He's his own boss. You need somebody somewhere that at every single place they're in

isn't afraid to not just step on toes. Mike ain't afraid to break them, bitches. But yeah. So, no, look, it's one thing. of these things you choose your own adventure. There are people who are engagers. There are people who are resistors. The engages engage.

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doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Dak Prescott. Dak Prescott. Cowboys quarterback. Your quarterback. He's your quarterback. You're a Dallas fan.

Yeah. You're a Cowboys fan. You like the Cowboys. Of course. I'm from Dallas. I'm born and raised. Right. So you're born and raised in Dallas. You did with, like, so there's been a long time

that you guys won a Super Bowl. Okay, New Orleans. I don't know if you know. Saints. Well, y'all keep almost getting there, but not quite there. You know, which one would you rather have? You get, you get teased. You're almost there, but you don't quite get there. Can answer a question?

What's up? Which team has a more recent Super Bowl champion? The Saints or the Cowboys? That's fine. That's fine. It's the Saints, clearly. But we're also America's team. And I'm not going to change being a fan

just because it's been 20, 25 plus years. You know what I'm saying? Like, you ain't America's team. You got to hear with that America's team. Bullshit. Stop. All right. Okay.

Look, Doc Prescott came out and talked about something that I feel like a lot of Americans have been going through. That Prescott, outstanding quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, talked about the fact that he suffered from both anxiety and depression due to this current time, this era, this moment that we're in. Also, to add to everything else that was going on, crazy in this world, Doc Prescott lost his brother. Lost his brother during this entire time.

He said that he wanted to come out and talk about his anxiety and his depression because he wanted to be forthright about what it was that he was going through so that anybody else that was going through the same thing could talk about it too. I have been on record. I'm not going to play my little violin for you guys again about some of the things that I went through during this same time. So my heart goes out to Dak Prescott. This is the only time that I can ever remember rooting for a cowboy.

I'm rooting for the mental health and the safety of Dak Prescott. Now, as soon as that Prescott came out with this, Skip Bayless, Good old Skip Bayliss, the walking meat sack coward of a goddamn farce that is on undisputed came back with this. I'm going to ask our audience to go ahead and condemn me if you choose as cold-blooded and insensitive on this issue. I have a deep compassion for clinical depression. But when it comes to the quarterback of an NFL team, you know this better than I do, it's the ultimate leadership position in sports.

You are commanding an entire franchise. But when you're commanding a lot of young men and some older men, they all look, and they're all looking to you to be their CEO, excuse me, and they're all looking to you to be their CEO to be in charge of the football team. Because of all that,

I don't have sympathy for him going public with, with I got depressed. I suffered depression early on in COVID to the point to where I couldn't even go work out. Look, he's the quarterback of America's team. Skip Bayless, by the way, from Dallas as well, or from Oklahoma, I think.

He's actually from Oklahoma, so stop. Right, but he spent a lot of time in Dallas. He's a Dallas Cowboys fan, which is why I think that's, I mean, it's the most asinine take ever. And he knew it. which is why he prefaced it the way that he did. Now, I understand being on TV five days a week, doing a show where you're on hours a day,

and there is pressure to have a hot take. Not this take. This ain't it. This was absolutely ridiculous. And it was shocking. I mean, I know Skip Bayless is known to speak out the side of his neck and to say crazy things. But the fact that he, it's almost, I thought we were past this. I thought we were past where we were putting people into a certain box,

where we were stereotyping them or making them fit into a certain definition or an archaic definition of what masculinity is or what a leader is. It takes extreme vulnerability to sit there in an interview and express that you have because you're looked at, like a lot of quarterbacks who looked at, especially a black quarterbacks, looked at as a hero to a lot of younger people. And there is a stereotype to fit a certain, to be a certain way. And DAC took the opportunity after being silent for months because his brother passed away in April to sit there and open up about his own struggles. That takes strength. That takes vulnerability. And that takes leadership. And the fact that Skip Bayless is going to diminish that because he doesn't quite understand what it is to go through depression and how that can debilitate someone and affect them is the most ridiculous thing that I'm.

I have ever heard him say. And I couldn't believe that he did it. He knew what he was about to say was extremely detrimental, extremely hurtful to a huge group of people. And the fact that we've talked about it on this show, you've been very open about your own journey with this. The fact that we're in the middle of a pandemic and so many people have been affected by it in various ways, but mental health is something that hasn't been talked about as much that is at an all-time high, especially due to the pandemic, that he would make such a ridiculous comment. I couldn't believe it.

Couldn't believe it. And I hope this doesn't affect DAC or anybody else. I hope anybody else can see through how ridiculous this is and you don't take this to be truthful in any way. You mentioned a word in there. You said a word. The word is hero. Hero, right?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Let me ask you a question. What is? the most important thing Superman ever said. I don't know anything. Do you know why? Do you know why?

Because Superman's never said anything important. All right? So here's a deal. Oh. Superman's never said anything important. Because Superman is suffering from heroes disease. See, heroes don't say things. Heroes do things, right?

Let's say that Superman, I made this analogy on a different podcast. Let's say Superman goes and saves a bunch of people from a volcano, right? And after he saves all the people from the volcano, he lands. And when he lands, he says, hey, I've saved all these people from the volcano. Okay? But just let you guys know, probably shouldn't have to save these people from the volcano. It's your fault. Number one, you guys are doing a lot of fracking around here, fucking with shit.

The volcano is going, making the volcano go crazy. Right. Number two, probably shouldn't even been here in first place because this, is an indigenous land. This is indigenous land and you guys probably shouldn't even be here. The lava should be able to flow everywhere. People have been respecting this spot for a long time.

You guys built condominiums here. Now I got to fly over here. Save a bunch of people. Don't do this anymore. Move everything. Whatever. You know what starts happening from the crowd? Fuck you, Superman.

We didn't ask you for what you thought. Blah, blah, blah. Superman, what are you talking about? You're so big. strong, why do we have to listen to what's going on in your brain and what's happening with you? Come over here. Save the people from the fucking volcano. All right? That's your job. Big, strong Superman. Save people from the volcano. When people have worshipped you the way that they worshiped that Prescott from one part of who you are, they dehumanize you in every other

way. You're not known for being a person who has a brother who died. you're known for being on a fucking football field for somebody's entertainment. Let's do that again, people. Football is for fun, okay? It's entertainment, all right? It's for fun, okay? He lost his brother, all right?

He's talking about being depressed because people around him are dying. Society is caving in on itself. And this fucking douchebag is talking about what it means to be the leader of a fucking football team. Here's a deal. I want these athletes to know something. I'm not going to mince words when I'm talking about it. Brothers, these white folks don't give a fuck about you.

They don't care whether or not your brother, they don't care whether or not you wake up depressed. They don't care whether or not you can't sleep. They don't care whether or not you can't eat. They make their money

talking fucking shit about you and what they want is for you to perform so they can make more money talking more shit about you. What's the Skip Bayless said wasn't offensive? It wasn't inappropriate.

It was subhuman. He's slime. Does anybody know what it feels like not to be able to close your eyes and go to sleep? Does anybody know what it feels like to feel like you're going to die every second of the day? Do you understand what it means to be in a place where the air is heavy? Where you can't breathe. Well, you're looking around going, yo, did it even make sense for me to be born if this is what life is? Does anyone know what that is? And if you felt that and you understood that,

How on God's green earth could you then turn around and talk about what it means to lead a fucking football team? It's for fun. Doesn't mean we don't love it. Doesn't mean it isn't cool to watch. Doesn't mean it isn't a lifestyle for some people. Doesn't mean it is in some people's life work. It's for fun. Yeah.

It's entertainment. He was depressed. He lost a family member. If you can't take your foot off, your skeleton ridiculously wrinkled foot off, the fucking hyperbole gas for one second to let somebody else be vulnerable. If you can't access someone else's humanity enough to allow them to feel in public and feel full, when that Prescott is saying that, do you know what that is? Can I tell you got something?

I'll be honest about something. When I share about depression or when Dak Prescott shares, when anybody shares, do you know what you share to let people know not only did I make it through this, which is telling somebody else, hey, I went through this and I can come back and do a podcast. I went through this. I can come back and throw a touchdown. I went through this. I can come back and just live so you can do it too.

Do you know what else you like to hear in those moments? you like to hear hey, Dak, don't die. Hey, Van, don't die. That's what you like to hear. And the reason why you like to hear that is because you might be in that position again. And when Dak Prescott is in that position again,

God forbid if he is, but if he is in that position again, think of how fucking sick and evil it would be for him to be considering whether or not he's the CEO of the Dallas Cowboys. When he's sitting in a place thinking about how he's going to make it to the next day, think about how crazy it would be for him to think that even though I am hurting and full of pain, I can't show it because I have to play football. What he should be thinking about is there are people who love me,

there are people who need me. I want to survive for them and for myself. Right. What he does so that Skip Bayliss can watch a football game or so that the Cowboys can be a winning team shouldn't be a component because it shouldn't be enough to keep him alive. They take these brothers, they take these sisters, they take these athletes,

and they reduce them to box scores, to stat lines, and to Nike commercials. commercials. And any time one of them says, hey, I'm a person too. Shut up, nigger. Shut up, bitch. Hit the ball. Throw the ball. Run. You got football games to go win. This is why you're alive. I guarantee you, Dak Prescott's not alive just play football. He's alive to be Dak Prescott. And being, playing football is a part of being Dak Prescott. Couldn't be more offended. Couldn't be more offended. Couldn't be

angrier with this anger live it about it everybody got to make shows man I've been on TV I didn't say shit I didn't say shit to get it popping I get it be a person dog skip skip bro be a person man seriously be a person like try let me ask you this also extremely powerful what you just said

And it, like, truly resonated. And I really hope people take what you just said, like pass it on, let people know because you really dissected everything that Skip said in that statement and really took it to another level. And I'm, as I'm sitting here listening to you and I'm feeling every single thing that you're saying, I'm wondering, because I didn't watch it live, I saw it go viral. What was Shannon Sharp's response? I didn't see it. I was too. I got to take it off. You know why?

You know, I watched a clip in order to do this. You know, I have to step away from it. Why? I have to step away from it because what just happened and how upset I just got. Yeah. That's destabilizing. And then that can put me back there. Right.

Well, I just, and I understand that. And I, we had to do this topic because, like, I honestly, honestly, Van, when I saw it, I thought about you because you have been so open about what you go through. And I just thought about someone who is, with this for someone to just dismiss it in such a disgusting way, how does that feel? I honestly didn't even want to respond to this. I wanted to say, how does that make you feel? So once again, thank you for putting yourself out there and being open and honest with that because I know there are other people who are just as angry as you're expressing. And that's

why I'm asking like, for Shannon, I don't even know how you sat there and you're a football player. You know it. You've been subjected to this mentality that you're speaking. about, you ban were speaking about, how did he sit there and let this white man say this to him, knowing that he's been through some of these same things? Maybe he hasn't experienced depression, but he knows what it is to be a black athlete. He was in the league for years. I don't know how he didn't just get up and walk away from the table. I don't know.

I don't know if they went to commercial break. I don't know if that was the end of the show. I don't know. But I don't know how you sat there and looked that man in the eye after he made that ludicrous comment. It is to me, like, we have to understand, or maybe we don't. I have to understand. But almost all the trauma that any oppressed people, any group of people has ever felt, has come from their dehumanization.

Okay. Dak Prescott's a human being. He's a dude. He's a bro. He's a man. He's a guy. He's a homo sapient. All right.

I know it doesn't seem like it, guys. I know it seems like you run fast or ball fast, get hit by 330-pound guy, get right back up. I know that seems superhuman. And I know it seems like he, you know, things bounce off him. He's impervious to things. He can do things you can't imagine doing it. I guarantee you he's a person.

And it's not just him. It's your neighbor that you only know because they're dogs, this barking loud. There's a person in there. The dude that lives down the block that you only ever see because he's revving the engine of his car, it's human being. The lady that you see, like, on Instagram, putting all of her pictures up, going all over the world, doing all of that stuff like that,

seems like it's a person. It's a person. Everybody's just people. So we can choose to, some people up and reduce. people to what we think it is they do and who we think it is they are. Or when someone is in pain, we can step back, drop that, drop, drop everything, every preconceived notion that we have a bottom for a second and allow themselves a safe space, a safe bed to land on, feathery bed to land on, and let them express their pain and tell them that for

at least one second, we're willing to accept their vulnerability and maybe even feel their pain with them. So they feel like they're a part of something so that they're not alone somewhere, figuring not how to deal with something. The reason why this is so offensive to me is because, like, Dak Prescott didn't share this and didn't ask if it was okay with Skip Bayless. He shared it for people who might be going through this. and Skip Bayliss

cast himself in the role of villain by doing what he did. Yeah. It's too far. Guys, they're lines, their limits. Look, you hate LeBron James, that's fine. You hate Luca Donchitz. That's fine.

Every time someone of these guys does something, you want to get on them and jump on them. You want to talk shit to one of the most stand-up fucking guys in the entire league that we have, Damian Lillard. You want to shit on Damien Lillard. literally one of the best guys in all of sports. Fine.

Do your thing. Skip Bayless went too fucking far. Yeah. He went too far. To me, I think he's putting his life in danger. I think when you, I think when Skip Bayless says stuff like that, and those things start to echo and you start to hear,

is that soft? Is that ready for it? Is that this? I don't want to hear about your depression. When you give, you put that man's life in danger. Yeah. So couldn't be more discussed. We'll never watch Undisputed again.

every time I see like Skip Baylitz's face. Look, I like all the bullshit. I love the funny shit. I love it. I love the crazy shit, man. I love the, like, all the shit that people got to do. I've done the shit. We've all done it, right?

Not all of us, but I've, like, not this, though. This is too much. Yeah, agree. So, you know, I won't be on undisputed anytime soon. Not that I would have been before. Didn't watch it anyway. Yeah. Go fuck yourself, Skibati.

Okay. No, I'm sorry for the anger, everyone. I'm mad. Should I eat a cracker? Hold on. Wow. They don't want me. Look, I got saltine crackers.

Look at this. Well, you could just do what I'm doing. What are you going? Dr. Dr. You're drinking a wine? Yeah, just, just pour yourself of wine. Is that wine or is that a white claw? It's not a white claw.

I've never had white claw, but I hear, I like see all my social media influencer friends using it. I hear it's good. You like it? White claw. is the only thing that white people have done right in a long time. You know what I mean? It's true. Because everything, every other thing that we could point to recently

that white people have really been a part of, like the things that we thought were dope. It all comes back and fucks us up, right? We thought Tesos were dope. Elon Musk's fucking crazy. We thought Facebook was dope. The only time they're dope is during our unexpected ally of the week. Yeah, they're dope then.

Right? For a week. But until the white clawed people, I don't even know who they are, but I'm assuming that they're white because they put alcohol in Celsius. Watch them have some type of problematic past, though. Watch them be linked to something. Support Trump.

White or white, like white claw. Skip Bayless owns a piece of it. Watch. Skip Bayless. You know, white claw was my god of it. But for right now, for right now, white claw. I'm going to get so.

I'm going to drink it on the show. Next time we do it, I'm going to drink it on the show. Yeah, we're angling hard, hard for that ad. right now. All right. Looking at the looking at my roly or my Fitbit, it's about that time for Melbaug. Woo!

It's mailbag time, guys. All right. So, Jordan, the brilliant, whenever you are ready. First I have a quick fact check for you guys. Casper died of pneumonia, which I think is not what you say. That's even fucking sadder. By the way, by the way, why do we?

That's even sadder, by the way. Was he a child, though? But Jordan, was he a child. He was a child. No, I'm excuse me, I'm talking to Jordan. I'm talking to Jordan. She's bad checking us right now. Think about that shit.

A dead kid of pneumonia. Dead kid of pneumonia. That's tragic. Like, who came up with that story? That did not happen in the cartoon. It did not happen. But you know what? In the cartoon, we weren't even thinking about the fact there was a dead kid playing with other kids.

What's sadder than that? He was lonely. He was lonely. Yeah. But I don't think I knew Casper was a child. I didn't think I didn't give him an age. He was just a ghost. I was a child.

I was a kid. Come on now. I wasn't that deep, man. It wasn't that deep. But do you realize how much more creeper it would have been if Casper was a grown-ass man that came back from the dead to be with kids? Okay. Do you age all that? Do you age all cartoons?

How old are the care bears? How old are the Smurfs? They were little babies. The Camerbair's, you don't know. No, you don't know. The Smurts were grown, though. Hey, the Smurts will grow. Only pop a smir.

Nope, no, no. The Smurts were in their 20s. How old were the little things in Fraggle Rock? We don't know. They were grown, too. They were aged ourselves, though, with these cartoons. The smirts were grown, though. I know that the Smurts were grown, because I know.

You know. It was some funny shit going on with the Smurz, man. We all know that. It was some funny shit going to the smirks kept, but it's still. They kept being more smirts. But there's only one lady. Only one lady.

That's all I'm saying. So the smirts were grown. It's like it's some smirsch. So we got questions about the smurts, man. We got questions about the smurfs is all I'm going to say. All right. Casper, that's some weird shit. Jordan, Melbaugh, what's up?

Do either of you anticipate any prominent NFL players? pulling a Jonathan Isaac and declaring they won't show support for Black Lives Matter during the national anthem. I mean, I think so. I mean, I think it's, yeah, you mean, I assume we're being prominent black players.

Yeah, yeah, they're going to be some. I mean, they're definitely going to be some that are going to do it. And by the way, that's their right. You know, that's their right. Like, we, they, no one should ever feel unfairly compelled to be a part of something.

It doesn't matter what it is. If it doesn't speak to you, it doesn't speak to you. I can have my opinions on that, but that's their right. But I'm sure somebody will do it. See, I don't know if I think that someone's going to be as outspoken as he was. I mean, he was questioned, whatever, I get it. But I think you'll have more of a response like a DAC who said it's up to people,

each player should be able to do what it is that they want to do and express, you know, their support or not how they want to do it. I think that's more of what we'll see rather than maybe an outright person, say, I'm not doing it. Right. No, I get that. Yeah, yeah. You know, we talked earlier about people being human,

and humans have a lot of, you know, different dimensions to them. And I don't necessarily think that an athlete that doesn't choose a specific way of making themselves useful, that there's anything necessarily wrong with it. If you don't want to kneel, I just wonder, my question is, what are you doing? if you're telling me that you're a black American in this time that black people are being killed and you're not prepared to do anything, now you got the side eye.

You feel what I'm saying? You got the side of all eyes. But then you just said people, if it doesn't speak to you, it doesn't speak to you. So there might be people who be black lives matter does not speak to them. I had a very, very interesting conversation with someone recently who I'm not going to name who is black, who I don't think it speaks to them

like it does to most black people. Who is it? Put them on blast. Hmm? Put them on blast. Nope. Like Monique said. But my point is, is they're out there. There are black people that Black Lives Matter

does not speak to them. No, Rachel, like Monique said, either name names or leave it on the playground. We want to know who these people are, okay? We want to know who they are. I'm pretty sure there have been times when you have not named things. Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you. My point is, Yeah, definitely. No, but your point is well said. Your points will say. I don't want to... But it don't mean I'm not going to be side-eyeing them.

I'm side-eye, all of them. But you're right. For some people, doesn't speak to them the same way. They don't see color. They don't see color. Even if they are colorful. They don't see color, but they always stop it, red lights. It's weird to me.

Right. They don't see color. But when the light turns red, they can stop. When it turns green, they go. But niggas getting shot by the cops all of a sudden, oh, I'm colorblind. Jordan, next question. Quick question from Caitlin Elliott. What suggestions do you have for a teacher wanting to really dive into black history with middle schoolers?

I mean. That's a good question. Where do you start? Well, just do it first of all. You know what I'd say? You know what I'd say? Teach the 1619 project. Oh, that's great.

That's perfect. Because it's all laid out for you. The curriculum's already there. So that's easy for you to do. And it starts at the beginning of how black people enter at this. That's perfect. That's perfect. Right.

Teach the 1619 project. And also, that's good for two reasons. Because number one, you get to teach the kids to 1619 project. And then number two, you'll become a social media celebrity when they fire you for teaching the 1619 project. But I would say, seriously, there's a lot of different people and a lot of super amazing Black Americans, black people, black people all over the world that you could, you know, you could start this off with. But if you start off with the 1619 project, you have a comprehensive view of history, the history of Black Americans and how it intertwines with American history.

There's really no better piece of, no better piece of journalism on the subject. So I'd say, teach you that. Next question. From Chris Floyd, how do you deal with friends that constantly complain about issues facing the black community or slam prominent black figures for not doing more for the black community, but they themselves never take action. Do you call them out on the hypocrisy or try to encourage them to do more?

You do both. You do both. You got to, like, if you're not going to do anything about it, you can't just sit there and complain, right? Like, we can't stay in a place where all we're doing is ragging on people because they're not doing a good enough job.

You have got like when you yourself can get out and do your own thing, you can use your platform. You don't have to have a big platform to do something, to be involved. There are so many ways that you can get involved rather than using your social media platform or criticizing those who you don't feel like are using it properly. So first, call them out on their hypocrisy because that's exactly what they are a hypocrite. But then encourage them to do something, but also try to do something with them. So this person, Chris Floyd writing, I don't know if you're doing your own thing, but lead by example. but then also encourage them, maybe encourage them to get out

and do things with you. That's great advice. Also, I say this all the time and I hate to keep going back to the well, but sometimes fuck them. I remember when I worked at TMZ, right? You know, I like to learn new things, right? So when I worked at TMZ,

you know, I will come there sometimes I will bring my bad because I would be leaving and going straight to boxing, right? And I will box. Or, you know, I will play basketball, I do all that, stuff like that. And it was all that. always people in there that, you know, would have some shit to say.

It was very weird. Like, people would always have some little shit to say about you. Wait, in TMZ or boxing? No, at TMZ. Boxing, like, when you step in the ring, everybody's got respect. TNZ would be like, ah, you can't box. You can't fight. Yeah, but you can't do this.

Van thinks it's a boxer, blah, blah, blah. You know what I started saying to them? I started saying, hey, you know what? Lay some up, getting the ring. I'll, like, I'll, like, seriously. You know what? Fine, fuck it. I can't buy.

Like, you talk shit to me. Like, come. do something. Lacey of a ring, let's go. Let's go for a little while. Let's see. And if I can't box, you'll expose me. And if you're just a shit talker and a contrarian and a negative person, then you'll be exposed.

Now, here's the thing. Do you think anybody ever boxed me or play basketball with me or did any of those things? No, they didn't. You know what? Because they don't want to do. Like, the hardest thing for somebody who ain't doing shit to see is somebody else who's doing shit. Projection.

Like, you can't do nothing? Nah, actually, you can't do anything. And also, if you think that somebody else isn't doing it enough, feel the space. Feel the space. Right. Feel the space. If I start talking about your boxing skills,

you're going to tell me to lace up and get in the ring? Let's go. All right. I'm in L.A. now. Let's go. No, I can't do that. You don't know what these private school hands can do. You know what's going to happen?

This is what's going to happen. I'm going to be all ready to box you. And then all of a sudden, Brian going to walk out in slow mo. And I'm going to be like, shit. Now I got to fight Roberto Duran. You know what I'm saying? Stop. I was ready for some easy work.

But shit, now, whoa. Now he's going to be that you say that he's going to be pointing at me with his glove. Like, you called out the love of my life. I'm ready to do battle. Don't do not do a bride impersonation. Please. What else, George? The last question.

Okay. What pop culture are you guys taking in? Has your intake changed since quarantine started? Movies, TV shows, podcasts, etc. Mine has just because I have your face. I'm like, I don't know why you make this face. Mine has because I started a new job with extras. So there are certain topics and stories that we cover that I probably wouldn't be.

Your face, everybody watch this. Make sure you all watch our podcast on Spotify. Well, I don't know why you're making that face, but some of the stories I cover I probably wouldn't normally or it shows I have to watch because I'm interviewing someone, which I still find fascinating because it's something new to me. So I cover, the things I cover on extra is different to me. Yeah, like Bill and Ted's excellent adventure.

Like exactly. Like, Bill and Ted's excellent. Exactly. I have been watching, so my watching habits have kind of gotten back to regular, which means anything that's about a cult, I'll watch it. If it's about a cult, I watch. So I've been watching The Vow on HBO about the nexium sex cult, which is very interesting because, like, it's so,

the interesting part about the sex cult or any sex cult like that is about how they groom the people, right? Because it's like they, it's interesting how the law, roof of weirdness can get pushed up to you just all the way in the land of weirdness, right? Do they show how the people fall into the cult? They do. That's interesting to me. Because, like, what happens in this nexium cult is that, like, it starts off as sort of a

kind of a self-help, but more like a world help thing. Like, we're going to be a place that's full of compassion. Hit that white claw, Rach. We're like, we're going to be a place that's full of compassion that understands people. And what you're going to do is you're going to teach people all of these things. then you're going to have to wear a sash, which is weird, right? It's weird to walk around with a sash on all the time. Right, unless you're missing USA.

But it's just a little weird, right? And you get stripes on the sash, right? Then all of a sudden you're going to volleyball things in the middle of the night where everybody's playing volleyball. All things are peculiar, but just a little peculiar, right? Then, you know, this guy kissed everybody on the mouth, weird, but just a little weird. Nah, that's weird. And the weird just gets turned up to all of a sudden. These ladies are like in this, this one lady,

this is the top part of it where like you have to take a vow and give collateral. You have to give them secrets about yourself. Sounds like Scientology. It's kind of that way. Then all of a sudden, before you know it, you're naked in front of this room. That's a huge jump.

No, I'm serious. It is, but that's what it happens. These women were getting branded. And one of the best ones is what like cues? Yeah, like Q's. They were getting branded. And one of the best ones is one of the guys, his wife, was got to be a part of the vow, like DOS,

the highest level of nexium or whatever, right? Like that, like that, right? And they branded her. And after a while, she told him what was going on. And you can hear him, the calls recorded. He's talking to this lady. And he's like, yo, did you brand my fucking wife? and I'm like, think of how wild that question is.

Think about the question in the background. Because they weren't allowed to tell the men. Oh, no. They're not allowed to understand how we get here. Because what they, because they show, it's all on tape, Rachel. They show the ladies saying, I'm watching it. I'm watching it. It's all on tape.

They show the lady saying, hey, just so let you know, some of the men aren't going to get this. They're not going to understand this. They're going to run into white knighted. But this is a higher level commitment. a higher level of consciousness, a higher level of this, and this is what you have to do for. And this lady goes, before I know it,

I'm blindfolded, I wake up, everybody in the room is naked, and they've got like a soldering iron out. No. And they're branding people. No. And so, yeah, so I've been watching that. I've been watching a HBO show called Raised by Wool's, which is HBO Max, just a fucking freaky-ass show about the future and all that.

And something I've started to watch, that it's currently the best thing that we've watched here at our apartment called Club Relax. It is Cobra Kai. No, I'm not watching that. Brian tried to get me to watch that. Cobra Kai is amazing.

Are you ready for this? Oh, excuse me. By way, not just Cobra Kai. It's a tie for amazing. Cobra Kai and Lovecraft Country. Lovecraft Country. Can we talk about that for a second? I can't get in the,

no. I've tried to, oh, so I keep hearing about Lovecraft Country. So I'm like, okay, I'm going to try to watch it. Mm-hmm. I couldn't get past the first episode. Do I need a, Do I need to give it another one?

Does it get better in the second one? I didn't. I didn't understand what I was watching. Then I started Googling it. I'm like, is it a scary mood? Is it scary? Is it a mystery? It's like a world.

You have to buy into the fact that the world has magic and magic and creatures and shit. Okay. See, that's where, because I'm like, what is this map? Why is there a demon? What, you know, like I wanted to watch it, I guess, for the historical context of it. And then I realized, okay, that's not what this is really about. Why don't you try to do something called paying attention to the show? You're right.

Because they explain. Okay. No, you're right. You're right. You know how they call you three screens, man? I'm like, I'm like, I can't just sit and watch. I like background. I like to be doing other things.

So this is a, this is a show where I have to be dedicated. Okay. I pay attention because you're going to look up and you're going to be like, you're going to, they're going to go from Chicago, right, to rural wherever. That's what happened. That's what happened. They were in that restaurant. Yeah.

Why are they running from fucking monsters and white people and stuff like that? Okay. So. Okay, I'll give it a go. I knew you were going to say that, by the way. What? I pay attention. No, I knew you were going to name that one.

Great, great show. But yeah, so basically I'm watching stuff again and trying to stay away from all the bad news and stuff like that. So getting the loss in some of the world is pretty cool. All right, that is it for mailback. Jordan, thank you. Thanks, Jordan. Thank you more than anything for talking about Casper

and really how fucked up that shit is. It's fucked up shit. Also for fact-checking him because he was wrong. Whatever. He died as a kid, which is all fucked up. Do you have an unexpected ally? This one was tough for me. I really didn't.

And then I was like, man, I didn't have one last week. I got to come better this week. I would have given it to Robert Woodward, but I have an issue that he sat on this for like six, seven months. Oh, do we need to go? We completely glossed over it. We talked about the world. We talked about other.

I can't give it to him because I have a huge issue with that. While we got to keep waiting for books to come out for people to speak up, it just doesn't make any sense to me. I mean, it does financial sense. But I have a huge issue with that. So I couldn't give it to him. I think I'm going to give it to the Kardashians because their show is over. And I don't hate on them.

I don't have like a huge issue. But 20 seasons is a long. time. It's enough. And it's the end of an error. And I think it's a good thing. And I had no idea this was happening. So they are my unexpected allies in the week for putting a pin in it, for closing a chapter. So I'm sure there'll be reruns on reruns on reruns because I feel like it's the only thing that comes on E.

But I am, I'm happy that it's over. You're happy that it's over. So you're happy it's done. It's finished. And the Kardashians have made their first. appearance on unexpected ally of the week. Well, I got

I got to be honest with you, I don't really have an unexpected out of the week this week. It's okay. I didn't have one last week. I looked around. I looked far and wide. And this week, I couldn't find one. But I do want to say that I kind of

have one. Okay. Okay. It'll cop out, but at the same time, I kind of have one. I think that a lot of our thought words were unexpected allies. I'll tell you how. Oh, you just suck up. That's a good say, man.

That's a good save. Daddy. Father, daddy. Damn. Been doing this a long time, my old father. I think a lot of our thought words are. But seriously, though, because I am actually always floored by the amount that people are still. willing to learn. I am a 40-year-old man, jaded in a lot of my ways in terms of my beliefs about

race and society. And I didn't realize that there were this many people who were still seeking a greater understanding and who wanted to be on the right side of history as it relates to black American social, economic, and I guess political justice. I did not know that. I did not know that you guys were out there because I don't focus on you. you guys, I focus on, you know, uplifting my people, but it's good to see that you guys are out there. I will say this, though, actions. We need action. A lot of times, Jady guys like me, we got to look and see somebody in the foxhole next to us.

That's how we believe that these allies are true allies and not just allies for one week. Now, Rachel, what are you getting into this weekend? Oh, my little sister's coming in town, which I said on the last podcast. A little sister. So I'm just getting ready for her. Also, shout out to Adam. Got to film another episode of Ghosted this weekend. Make sure.

Got to exploit some more people. I just knew Adam was going to be in the mailbag as well. But, you know, shout out to him. I'm just, I'm working this weekend. I'm working. Oh, in addition to Thought Warriors, it's so great when I meet them out. Because I'm like, wow, you know, you guys are listening. Like you said, you're learning.

You're engaged. I want to give a shout out to the young brother that I met right before I left Miami, who was working for the College Football Playoff Foundation. He was from New Orleans. So he told me to give you a shout-out van. And he's very encouraging. But, you know, Southern Louisiana. Yeah, right.

Stop. But he's from New Orleans. I know you're not from there. And he wasn't saying you from there. But anyways, shout out to him because he was very encouraging and, you know, was giving us a lot of support to keep doing what we're doing. Yo, we love you guys. Wait, what are you doing this weekend?

Stop. What am I doing this weekend? Yeah, what are you doing? I'm just chilling, man. Chilling might hit the road with the fellas. You know what I'm saying? Just like, but just chilling. It's a, it's a, it's still trying to get the apartment.

together, so that's still coming together. I feel you. Just chilling. You look like you got all your shit done. I've been, yeah, but I'm still waiting on more boxes to come. None of my personal stuff has made it here. I'm living out of a suitcase.

Just furniture's shut up. Yeah. Look, that's it. You guys, fucks a good bailess. That's it for higher learning. You guys can take your thinking caps off. Have a great weekend.

Have a safe weekend. If you are in. Los Angeles, Southern California period. Careful outside. You're running or doing anything. That air is nasty. So be careful out there. Oh, by the way, before we get out of here,

we just want to take the time to acknowledge that this podcast is coming out tomorrow on September 11th, September 11th, which was, oh, my God, one of the, single most frightening days in the history of my life. And also, one of these Saturdays in the history of our nation, I would just like to say to people who I know,

because I know people who lost people during 9-11, the people who I don't know, we will take time tomorrow and just remember what it was like, what it was like for the people that were in those buildings, what was like for the people on those planes, and what was like for the servicemen and women, who then on the backs of that had to go, out and do their duty.

So, didn't want to leave without saying, hey, we realize, we take what we, we remember. And despite whatever ramifications were

around it politically, socially, whatever, we will never forget the people who lost it lives on that. Absolutely.