Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Michael B. Jordan Is the Sexiest Man Alive and Michael Jordan Drafts LaMelo Ball

Episode Date: November 20, 2020

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay discuss Michael B. Jordan being the fifth Black man named People’s Sexiest Man Alive (6:00), the Verzuz battle between Jeezy and Gucci Mane (19:00), the Ball family’s success in the NBA draft (25:00), and the third wave of COVID-19 (35:00), before answering some mailbag questions (1:01:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. It's higher learning. What is up? It is I, Van Lathen. And it's me, Rachel Lindsay. Rachel. Van, how are you? I'm well.

Good, good, good, good, good. I'm doing well. I'm doing well, feeling good. I want to just take the time until all the thought warriors that reached out that I love and appreciate you guys. I even talk to you, so some of you on the phone

because I'm, yeah. What? What? I talked to something on the phone. You give out your phone number like that? I gave out my phone number. I don't want to mess up the names. There were two specific thought warriors.

One of them who works in an electrophysiology office down there in Austin, Texas. And her name is Jen, I think. And we talked. She talked to me a little bit about kind of some of the stuff that I was going through. like actually she hit me up and told me she worked in it. Jen Shore is her name. Shout out to Jen Shore. And we just talked and just, you know, people reach out.

We're all a big family, the Thought Warrior family. Wow, this is why they love you more than me. Why? You must have two phones. Why? Why is that? Because you give out your phone number. You're more accessible.

I love the Thought Warriors, but I don't know if I could give out my cell phone. Can I ask you a question? What's the big deal about it? Because I don't want people reaching out to me at all times of the day. Well, they're not going to do that. You don't know that. You don't know them.

Well, I've done it and they haven't done that. They're not going to just, you think this, they're just going to hit me up and you're like, here's the other thing. It's like when I respond to people on DMs, I like to respond to what you said, but I can't keep the conversation going. And so, like, then I would feel rude.

So it's better for me to not even just respond and go there because then I'm rude. Then I become rude. Right. Now, I get it. Listen, I understand. I love that you do it. I mean, that I think it's beautiful.

Oh, it doesn't sound like you love that I do. No, one of us has to, and I love that. I love that you're doing that. It sounds like you're just like your dad right now. A judge. That's what sounds like. I'm like, I'm sorry to talk about my daddy like that. Sounds like you're a judge.

No, I actually think it's a great thing. I think it's great that you're doing it. Can I ask you a question? What's all that shit on your microphone cover? What is all of that? Fuzz. Do you know, I never even. noticed it. Our mics look totally

different. Look at that. Your mic looks like it's got like it's salt and pepper. Like it's George Clooney like 10 years ago. You know why? Because I have to throw my mic in my bag because I carry it around with me because I do the podcast

from multiple places. You don't have to call me out like that. I'm not. Look, it's a lot of people that's going to look at that and think. Talk about judging. Talk about judging. He's judging who now. I asked the question. Mm-hmm. See how easily you can throw around that word?

I asked a question. And by the way, judging is in your DNA. No, no, no, no. Your dad, your dad by nature. No, you're using it as a verb. My dad is a judge. It is a noun. You ever think your dad got, like, pleasure from, like,

sending a motherfucker to prison? You ever think that your dad was laughing? Like, he got the gavel up there. You can ask him that question soon enough. I will. I will. Like, your dad got to gavel. up there and this a nigger, he did some crime.

He had like, y'all, I'm about to get this nigga these years. What? Absolutely not. This cat don't even know. Hey, Judge, before you even judge, I just want to tell people that, you know, I really, I'm really sorry.

I didn't mean to. Four hundred years, nigga. I want to hear that shit? This is why we couldn't do it. He could not be judges. Oh my God. Meanwhile, he's probably keeping it real. You see, I like about your pops.

It's because he's probably keeping it real with all the low-level drug offenders, though. He's probably keeping it super real with them. They probably come in. Like, you know, they get caught with like 30 pounds of weed. And he probably like, for real, bro. You're just trying to get your family out, bro. Hit you up. Hey, man.

Hey, man. Time served, dog. Go ahead home. Time serve, bro. You out. You know. I think a lot of people. People see it have a sigh of relief when they see that there's a black judge that is in the core room.

He's the only one. He's the only one. He's the only black federal judge in that district. In that district. He was the first and he's still the only one. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Wow. Federal judge. Yeah. A great mentor. And then I said, you know what I'm going to do with my law degree? Go on the bachelor. How come your dad didn't go to the Supreme Court? How come they didn't put him on the Supreme Court?

Well, that's a great question. Clinton nominated him. So, you know, you got to put in your years. You usually go, unlike Amy Coney Barrett, you usually go to the U.S. Court of Appeals first, which is down there in New Orleans for the area he's in. And then from there, you usually get appointed, or you can get appointed to the Supreme Court.

So, you know, after Clinton, it was years of Bush. Bush. Then Obama. And then Obama just was like, Pff. Women. Obama put women on. I'm not mad at it. I love that. All right. So, real quick, actually, you know what? Real quick,

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Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfair Radio.com. All right. Big news. Big news this week. We have a new sexiest man alive. And it's two years in a row, two years in a row.

Two years in a row. El Chocolatee. Sexiest Man Alive, Michael B. Jordan. Do you concur with this? Do you think that Michael B. Jordan is the sexiest man alive? Absolutely. If I had a Hall Pass list, and I'm not going to say that I do, I would put Michael B. Jordan on it.

See, here's the thing about that. You said, if I had a Hall Pass list, and I'm not going to say that, I would put Michael B. hall pass list, which implies that you don't. Then you said, but I'm not saying that I do, which then brings up that it could be a possibility that you do. Doesn't everybody kind of have like a list? Like if there was a, if I could, if I had permission, this might be the person. Right. So if you have permission, would you do it? Is the question? Oh, I don't know. So if Ryan, I don't know if I would. This is a great question. I don't know. So if Brian was like, let's say Brian gives you the permission.

Brian goes, how do you say hall pass in Spanish? You're asking the wrong person. And Brian says, you got a hall pass with Michael Bejoin, the sexiest man alive, pecks and abs, abs and pecks,

biceps and triceps dips. If you had a hall pass with him, would you take the hallpats? I'm so logical. I think in my mind, I would say, why are you offering me that? Are you getting one as well?

Am I supposed to permit you to do that as well? Because I couldn't get past that. You couldn't get past that. Why all of a sudden are you giving me permission to do this? What's happening with this? So you wouldn't take the hall pass? I don't know if I could. I joke around about it.

Would you? So, probably so. So if, no, who knows the possibility? Right, I don't know. If Brian, if, okay, so if you gave Brian a hall pass, do you know who he would choose? Do you know who that would be? I feel like we've had this discussion before. Yeah, I remember, I think I remember,

some names. I think it was I think. I don't want to say the wrong name. Do you have a list? I mean, everybody has a list, but like the guys' list is all the same boring people. It's all the same regular people. I feel like your list would be a little spicy. I don't think it would be just like straight forward. You got the same names on the list that everybody else, like Roseanne Barr, you know, you know what I

mean, like, you know, Joy. What list are we talking about again? No, no, but no, but seriously, seriously, it's interesting. Like, first of all, congratulations to Michael B. Jordan. Yes. And being the sexiest man alive because that is a very, very, very, very exclusive group to be on. Not a lot of guys. I will say this, though.

It is a double-edged sword, aka blessing and a curse to be sexiest man alive. What's the curse? The curse is that if you are the sexiest man alive Yeah. Then that is a snapshot of ultimate sexy of your life that will never die. Why is that a problem? Because they're going to compare it to future versions of you. So right now, Nick Noltee, if you look at Nick Nolte and shout out, he was.

See your reaction? Now, do you see your reaction? Now, your reaction, there's no reason to look. I know what I'm talking about. about. No, I'm not doubting you. I need to see it. There's absolutely zero reason to look. I need to see what was captured in time, like you said. Nick Nolte was the sexiest man alive. And your reaction completely validated my point. Now, Nick Nolty, okay, Nick Nolty, for the rest of his, no matter, you know, nigga

get busted. He's a little busted. Now, look, he's the sexiest man alive. He was. What is the criteria? How, what is, how I need to understand, because I, I wouldn't have voted for that. You wouldn't have voted for Nick? You wouldn't voted for Nick Nolte? No, I didn't think that was that flattering of a picture. Is there do we know what the criteria is? Who's who votes? I mean,

I mean, the answer to whose votes is white people's choice. No, I don't think it's, I don't think it's a vote that they take. Like, I didn't see it on the ballot. I don't think it's a vote that they take. I think some people get together and it partly has to do with like your fame

and your and your and who you Ben and all of that stuff like that and your career trajectory. So it was probably the right time for Mike. But so there's a lot of things like that. So that go into the sexiest man alive, sexiest man alive type of situation. But I'm saying it is a lot. I'm trying to look at a list. It is a lot of, okay, for example, let's look at some sexiest men alive, right?

Let's look at some of it. Let's do it. Let's start in 85, Mel Gibson. that's one they might want back. I'm saying. I'm saying not because male whatever, but just that's one you probably might want back. A couple of these guys,

you guys aren't going to know who they are. Mark Harmon, who is a great-looking guy. Harry Hamlin, Clash of the Titan. Shout on Harry Hamlin. Right. And then you keep going. A lot of these guys held up.

But, you know, some of them. What I'm saying? You know, a lot of these guys held up. But then there's some off-color choices. I'd like for you to name. Adam Levine. I mean, I'm not saying he's not, you know, great-looking,

but he's just kind of, I think what people saw him as sexiest man alive, it was kind of like, really? Interesting. Obviously, last year, a lot of people, John Legend, was very controversial. I think it's a good choice. But, you know, who's asking me? me, but you look at a couple of these dudes, you look at your Nick Nolte's, and, you know,

your Mel Gibson's, and you wonder, and some of these other guys, you know what I mean? There, it's like a, it's a thing that now you have to keep defending. It's a never-ending title. I actually don't agree with you. I think it ends with, it's like Miss USA, Miss America. It ends when you pass the torch, right? You pass the crowd, and now there's somebody else that has the title. The moment that your time ends, the next year, and someone else is crowned, it's over for you. You don't have to keep it up anymore. You got one year. Blake Shelton, sexiest man alive.

I can see how people put that. Okay. He sings. He plays an instrument. He's got that rugged cowboy look. He's funny on the voice. I can see how people pick that. Okay.

So of all of the sexiest men, alive that they've done. This is how many, how many of them, so we're going from February 1985 to November 2020. I want you give me a guess. How many of these guys do you think are black? Six. You think six.

Okay, let's count them. So let's see here. The first black sexiest man alive ever was Denzel. of course. And then Denzel was in 96. We don't go to Wakanda again

until... Don't say Idris. No, 2016. So it was 10 years. And they did not go back 2016. And it was the rock. Really?

He was? Okay, I didn't even know he was. The Rock was that in 2016. Idris Elba was in 2018. So five. So, right. Actually, we got it three years in a row. Idris Elba, John, Legend, Michael B. Jordan.

So five. I was close. Yeah, five. So one, two, three. No, it's four. It's... No, Michael B. Jordan, John Legend, Idris, the Rock, and Denzel. Five.

Oh, that's true. You're right. Yeah, so five. Five out of... What is that? I'm surprised like Will Smith didn't get it. They hate no mom. Yeah.

They say, Will, you ain't sexy. The big ass ears. They say, Will, we're not fucking with you. Wow. They hate no will. And by the way, there's another thing about the sexiest man alive thing. So you got Mark Harmon, you got Harry Hamlin, you got John F. Kennedy Jr. Okay.

Rest in peace. A lot of those guys, after a while, this thing becomes a little bit more. about star power than it does about actually. Because now, so after those guys, because Mark Harmon, you wouldn't say it was an A-list star. Harry Hamlin, you wouldn't say it was an A-list star.

He was then. No, back then, he was like the man. LA law? He was the man. And now I was like, and now it was like Brad Pitt, Dizzell, Washington, George Clooney, Harrison Ford, Richard Gehr won again.

By the way, rather than put some more brothers on the wall, they recycled niggas a couple of times. Richard Gear won in 99 and he won in 93. All right, they brought him back. Johnny Deppton won a couple of times. Brad Pitt didn't won a couple of times. George Clooney didn't want a couple of times. Johnny Depp didn't want a couple of times.

So you mean to tell me after all of those like Michael Ely couldn't get a look, Taye Diggs couldn't get a look? So you got to have... Wait, wait, that whole list, this whole list This list is racist I'll tell you why This whole list

And you mean to tell me Lenny fucking Kravitz Oh my God You're right Lenny Kravitz Justice for Lennie Kravitz You're right Hey man

Guess what Justice for Lennie This whole list They ain't never put Lennie on the list I could have sworn Lenny was on it But you're right You're right

They never did To be on the list, you have to have crossover appeal. Lenny absolutely has it. I'm shocked Jay. I honestly thought this year they were going to give it to Jason Momoa. Jason Momoa. That's who I thought they were giving him to. He hasn't gotten it.

They gave it to Matt Damon. I mean, see, that's star power. Matt Damon is, you know, whatever. They gave it to Hugh Jackman, Bradley Cooper than one. Channing Tatum, shout out Channing Tatum. All those make sense. They make sense, but I'm saying, no Lenny Kravitz, David Beckham. No, Lenny Kravitz.

What about the Latin X community? Has anybody been on it? Let's see from our Latin X brothers and sisters. We love you guys. Do do do, do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do not that I can see. You never know if somebody is really of Latinx sort of a, uh, uh, uh, dissent and then they changed their name or something like that. That used to happen back in the day sometimes.

But no, I can't see, I don't see anybody of the Latinx community on there. That's pretty ridiculous because there's a lot, a lot of people that. Antonio Bandaris? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? El Ricky Martine? Oof. You know?

I'm just saying, I'm just saying, that's all I'm saying. Look, People magazine. Get it together. We're happy. We're happy. Shout out to Michael B. Jordan. Well deserved. Well deserved for Michael B. Jordan. And also, it's just a very good indicator of where his career is right now. It's really an impressive time for young black actors. And, you know, Mike is right there in that whole pack and like a super duper star. You know what I mean? Yeah. I read that he had, he had just seen if there are any, just seeing if there were any Latinx people that were. It's just shocking to me.

You're checking my work? Well, no. It's just shocking to me that nobody from the community has been picked. I'm looking, sorry. I'm not doubting you. I'm just shocked. Right. Okay.

Wow. That's interesting. That's interesting, man. Interesting. You can go check my work like that. Now, big day for hip hop today. we'll know kind of who we want tomorrow tonight is versus battle between GZ and Gucci.

For you guys who might be a little culturally challenged who don't know, talking about young Gizi and Gucci-Main. What? This is something we never thought would happen. I'm going to make a parallel here for the people out there that might not know back in the day

how something like this would happen. Okay. Now GZ is, Gucci had a long running beef. 15 years. 15 year beef. A beef

that some people think ended up in a couple of people going bye bye. Yeah. It was a real, real beef. And for them to put things aside to get together for a versus battle where they are going to be going back and forth musically, some songs

that address some of the things that happened, were you shocked when you heard that they were going to get in the same room? Yes. But it was twofold. I was shocked. I was like, what? Especially because it was supposed to be T.I. in the battle, right?

It was going to be Jeezy and T.I. backed out. I'm not sure why, maybe for the purpose of this happening and for the greater good. On one hand, I was like, oh, with all the violence that's happening right now that we've seen as of late in the hip-hop community, it's really great and shows the power of Swiss and Timbalin that they're able to, like, bring this together and show that people can, you know, get along for the greater good. I thought that it was a big positive for the community. But on the other end, I was like, really?

Because wasn't Jeezey just on the Breakfast Club saying that this wasn't going to happen? That Gucci was like, I'm not doing a face-to-face battle. Maybe it still won't be face-to-face. Maybe they'll do it separately. I don't know. It seems like they're going to be in the same room. I love to see it. I'm happy for it.

I'm glad that 15 years. And this isn't something that happened 15 years ago, y'all. and they just haven't spoken. This has been off and on. Things have happened throughout the years where they have acknowledged each other and said that things like this would never happen. They would never talk.

They would never get along. They would never work together again. So I don't know what they did to make it happen, but I love to see it. Let me tell you something. First of all, I just got a text message from somebody. and I could put somebody on blast right now, but I'm not going to do it.

Why, you do it to me every podcast. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen with this particular situation. But I can tell you guys right now, I can tell you guys right now with something. You see, if you're out there fucking around, new rule for all of my friends. Oh.

If you out there fucking around and then you hit me up and you get COVID, I'm going to light your ass up on this podcast. One of your friends got COVID? I'm fucking sick of it. call this nigger. Where you at, bro? Oh, I'm on Bourbon Street.

Next time I hear from, Hey, hey, relax. I say a million hell marriage for you. Love you to death. But miss me with all of that. I heard you. I'm like, fam, you don't think you need to go home is getting hot out in these streets again.

I know more people that got COVID in this wave than the last wave. It's not even close. Really? Not even close. close friends COVID y'all please relax

but don't hit me up don't do don't play them games with me I give you guys an example of what it's like for GZ and and and Wop to be in the same room together give it to us

for you guys who might understand imagine if you saw a picture right now and it was a Christmas picture right it was a family hanging out they're all in Christmas right they're all wearing sweaters and their kids are playing together

and everybody's there hanging out and chilling and then there are two people that are hugged up looking at the screen saying Merry Christmas to all of you and those two people

are Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston. Think... You're addressing a certain audience. A certain audience. I know who I'm talking about. Think about how you would be like, oh, fucking shit.

Oh shit. Can you? It would go crazy. It would go crazy. And then for, and for shits and giggle, Brad in the background like, you know what I'm saying?

But it's like, but think about that. That's really, it's actually more than this. But that's the thing of Gucci-Main and, and Gizi being in the same room together doing a versus battle.

Just like that. That type of beef. It's pretty much impossible. it's pretty much impossible. It's pretty much impossible, although I do say that I think that in the next five years

that Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt will get back together. Oh, well, you heard it here first. I don't. Right. I think they're just good friends. Mm-hmm. Because enough time has passed, but no.

Yeah, they get back together. For what? Okay. All right. That's the inside scoop. TMZ. Shit happens. TMZ.

Get that out of here. Did you happen to watch the NBA draft last night. I was actually podcasting during the start of the draft, but I had it on. Like I saw bits and pieces. Yeah.

Did you watch the whole thing? Like you sat down and you just watched. No, it's funny. I don't think so. There was a complete rollerversal. Kalika was watching the draft. I was watching The Bachelor.

I love Kalika. I watched the first couple of picks. That's so fun. She was watching the draft. I'm like, who just went? She'd screaming out. And I was in there like, oh, my God. The Wolverine, what is this nigga thinking?

But see, can I just pause and say that that's couple goals, as the kids would say? The fact that not because she's not interested in it, but the fact that she's letting you do your thing, you know, you're watching so you can give this batch recap later on this podcast. And then she's communicating with you what's happening in the draft. I love that. That's true. It's a beautiful thing. So a couple of things about the draft that struck me was, number one, I felt sorry for the kids at the draft.

I did. Because they didn't get their moment? Yeah, man. Like, I know that, you know, we've done this. But I felt sorry for the kids to draft, man. Even more so than the NFL draft that they didn't get to walk across and shake hands with the commissioner and all of that. You didn't feel that way? these people just you saw there was a lot of emotion in the draft the fact that you've worked so hard to get to this place to hear your name called by the commissioner of the NBA surrounded by your family some people first rounders guaranteed contracts I think they'll be all right I think they'll be all right without the pomp and circumstance of sitting at a table and walking across the stage and getting the picture taken

with the hat on. I think they'll be fine. It's not like cameras weren't in their face. They still were able to conduct interviews and talk virtually to people in studio. I just think the bigger thing is getting your name called. In the contract. Getting drafted, period.

Millions. Like, bam, in a matter of seconds, you're a millionaire. Yeah, it's true. It's true. So, you know, I enjoy watching it. I had a couple of guys that I know that got drafted. Shout out to Cole Anthony. Yeah, shout to Cole Anthony.

Yeah. Shout out to Lameh, yeah. fellow ball. Shout out to Tyrese Halliburton, who ended up going to Sacramento. Very, very, very smart young brother. Very smart young brother, Reese. Happy to see him get his chance to go and play. Met him at the Nike Summit couple of years ago.

Great kid. Now, I will say this. Something else I know is about the draft. Say this one time. Everybody got to get off LeVar Ball Dick forever. LaVar Ball. Because of what he's been able to do. I don't give a fuck.

Like people, when Mavar Ball came out, people, we don't hate Lovar Ball. We don't like the way Lovar Ball does this. Lavaar Ball just had two of his sons. Two of his sons get drafted in the top five of the NBA draft. Whatever Lovar Ball was doing, guys, it worked. Agreed. Sitting there with that big ass grin on his face. with his gigantic children next to him.

You know, Lamello looks prime to be a pretty decent NBA player. Lonzo is a decent NBA player. He had a dream and a design. And whatever you say about him, whatever you say about him, he got to where he was going. So especially, man, look,

I'm not going to dis none of y'all kids. But a lot of y'all talking shit about Levar Ball and the way he raises his sons while simultaneously Western Union in your kids' money so that they can survive. I'm just saying. So he's like the Joe Jackson of basketball. And guess what?

I never forget this Joe Jackson quote. This is one of the best quotes of all time, by the way. I'll never forget this Joe Jackson quote. Oh, yes, Joe Jackson. One day Michael Jackson had to wrote in a book or said something to like recipes Michael Jackson. He had wrote in a book or said something about how when he was a kid, Joe Jackson used to beat him until he regurgitated. And they asked Joe Jackson about it.

And Joe Jackson said, if that's so, he gurgitated all the way to the bank. If that's what he said. He regurgitated all the way to the bank, y'all. That is a heartless, heartless cold men. Wait, wait, let me ask you this man. Why are you over there? Let me let you gather yourself for a second. Let me let you gather yourself.

That shit is so funny. He said he gurgitated. He didn't say regurgitate, by the way. He said he gurgitated all the way to the bank. Wait a minute. Oh, my God. Let me ask you this question. Oh, shit.

In that sense, right? Oh, my God. Because LeVar is the Joe Jackson of basketball. Sure. Do the means justify the ends? Man, hell no. Like, nah, man. Of course they don't.

Of course. No, no, man. You could put all kinds of trauma and scarring on people. Obviously, we saw, you know, how Michael's life and just a lot of dysfunction that went on. I can't say these things about the Ball Brothers. Like, I can't say these things about the Ball Brothers. They seem pretty well adjusted. It's some issues that we see come out.

You know, if you watch the show every once in a while and you kind of see how things go. But, of course, the ends don't justify to me, man. If you've never seen the Jackson 5 American Dream movie, just watch the first part so you can get a, just a tip of the iceberg of what Vans talking about. Oh, my God. You can see a reenaction of Joe Jackson. Joe, man, I'll tell you something.

I could quote every lyric in that movie. Yeah, like that Joe Jackson encouraged to take it off. Like that is so heartless. I believe every word Michael says after that. Jacko's dad says he whipped Michael. He said, I never beat. He regurged his own. What a psycho?

What a psycho? A psycho, exactly. He said, right here, I was just looking up. Throat Joe Jackson is so nervous. This is one thing I didn't need a fact-checked you on. I know how Joe Jackson is. He said, The Role told Joe Jackson

and his son was so nervous when he saw his father that he regurgitates. And Joe responds by saying he recurrented his taste all the way to the face. Y'all. Oh, fuck. What not to do as a parent. I don't care if it does get you a whole Jackson five.

That is the most... Oh, man. I mean, that man is a monster. That man is a monster. Look, I'm not about to... to, you know, I think Joe, is Joe passed away? Didn't Joe pass away?

Joe's dead. Joe's dead. Joe's dead. Joe died. Wow. Wow, man. Woo. I got to be honest with you. I think Joe died after Michael.

Yeah, he did. Yeah, he out, yeah, he out, um, he, he, he out, he out lived. Yeah, he passed away in 2018. Wow. Wow. Catherine is still kicking. Yeah, Catherine. She devoid.

She divorced him later in life, but she hung in there a real long time. Yeah, Catherine, Catherine is still kicking 90 years old. Joe Jackson. Really? Yeah, she's 90. She was born in, she was born Katie B. Screws in Clayton, Alabama. Actually, wait, she never divorced him. I thought, okay, maybe they were separated.

Yeah, they, it looks like, they, yeah, it looks like they were, you know, things were until they died, things were okay. I wonder what Joe's Will looked like. I don't know. He's such a heartless man. Good God.

That's wow. I'm a look. I'm not, I'm just saying I'm not, I try to stay out of people's family business. If I ain't been in the middle of it, obviously we know, but I'm just saying the gurgitate

all the way to the banking. The gurgitate. Is a fucking kill. A killer bar. That's a killer bar. My God. I never forgot that. I remember when I saw that, there was no DVR, but I ran it back in my head. I'm like, yo, did he just say that he doesn't really care that his son was so sick that he threw up when he saw him. He was like, he gurgitated all the way to the bank.

And he also didn't deny it. He's like, yeah, he did. Yeah. But look, though, here's the thing. But once again, it's a question. that you ask yourself, a situation like LeVar Ball or a situation like Joe Jackson, they are generationally wealthy,

and is it worth it what those guys did if they were jerks or assholes or whatever? I'll wait until the TV movie comes out on the Ball family. Ooh, who, who, who, yes, okay. So, now a COVID update. So, hold on, Before we get into COVID a little bit, we talked a little bit about COVID. Let's jump off into a break a little bit.

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Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit trimfireradio.com. Okay, so look, here's the thing about COVID. A couple of things. Number one, we are at really just ridiculously crazy levels with the state of the pandemic right now. Right. It's, it's, it's, do you feel the fear of COVID again? because it had dissipated for a while as we got back to some semblance of normalcy.

But now it seems like, you know, things are right back to DefCon 1. Yes. I feel the fear in the sense that I feel it for like my family, like who are older, for those who have pre-existing conditions. I feel it in that sense. Not necessarily for myself, especially because of what I do. I get tested every other day. Mm-hmm. But it's scary, especially, you know, we had Slim on the podcast and he gave an update about what's going on in Texas.

My grandmother's in Texas. My aunts and uncles are in Texas. My cousins. Houston at that. So it scares me for them. And this may sound a little selfish, but I feel like people will relate to me on this. I haven't seen my family in a year come Christmas. Not my sister, not my nephews, not my parents, my.

grandmother, longer than that for my grandmother, I want to go home for Christmas. I don't know if I can. Do you know what I mean? I just, what if I get tested and then two days later, though, but I caught it on a plane. You know what I mean? I'm, I selfishly so want to see my family so bad, but because cases are going up, I'm scared of putting other people in jeopardy. So it's just, those are the things I think of more than ever. It makes me really, really sad and emotional thinking that I might not another holiday or an important event may go by, and I'm not going to get to see my family. And I am taking that into consideration,

but then you have other people out here while in doing whatever they want to do, and it's causing these numbers to go up. I mean, right before we hopped on this podcast, it was just issued that California is going under a stay-at-home order is being issued for California. Yeah, I mean, the stay-at-home order, so it looks like we're going right back to, going to Walmart and buying groceries for two months

and trying to thug it out in the whole nine. But the COVID news of recent is a mixed bag because there seems to be an end to the pandemic in sight. And the end looks like it's going to come via vaccine. You have the Pfizer vaccine that is showing incredible results. And then I think there's, Madonna has a vaccine that shows 90 plus percent efficacy.

So the real tragedy of it is this. So if we had a cohesive society to where we were willing to listen to the science and willing to not do the things that would get everybody sick, we could really, really, really alleviate some of the pain and human loss that we're going to see between now and the time that everyone can take a vaccine. If taking a vaccine is something that you're comfortable doing, right? Right. You know, for some of these, because of, quite frankly, to be honest with you, because of Operation Warp Speed, I think one of the vaccines already has, one of the vaccines already has 22.5.

million doses ready to go. And those doses could be given before the end of the year. Wow. If the FDA is quick on the emergency authorization. So, permitted that those people don't grow arm out of the middle of their head, you're looking at first quarter, maybe mid-summer, to where you can have a large percentage of the nation's population having been vaccinated. Now, in a world where people did what they were supposed to do with the masks and the distancing and the not gathering, it could be a lot more painless than it is right now. But I just don't have any faith that people have the necessary self-control to not go out and kill other people with a virus that they might be carrying. Yeah, I mean, I know a lot of people who don't believe in wearing masks. I just, you're right.

We've, we have now been dealing with this. We had the national, pretty much the national shutdown since March. And we still have people upset over the fact that they have to wear a mask. And here we are in November, eight months later. Why is it going to change? I think the struggle is going to be, let's just say that they are, the FDA does approve this vaccination. And it's the one where there's these 22.5 million. vaccines available. The problem is going to get people to take it. Because even myself, as big as I am

about like wearing your mask and washing your hands and being safe and all of that, I'm scared. I don't want to be one of the 22.5 million people taking the first vaccination. I just don't. That, that terrifies me. So I think it's going to be convincing people that it's okay for them to actually do that. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, I get what you say. If you don't trust the government and you think that this is a hoax or you think that wearing a mask is stupid and that's just government control, then what are you going to think about a vaccination? You're not going to take it.

So here's what I think about that. And I'd have to know more about the science. And that's why I think next week I would like to have a virologist or an epidemiologist on the old higher learning to explain to us the way the vaccine works and to demystify some of the situations around the vaccine for anyone who is skeptical of taking it. I think that's a very worthwhile conversation to have. Yeah.

Here's the thing about me. If I take the vaccine and the vaccine works, then I don't really give a fuck who else decides not to take. I would like for everyone to take it. But if people want to, I can tell you one thing, everything comes with consequences, right? Everything comes with consequences. You see, if I'm in a school and all of it and I have my kids in the school and everybody's vaccinated from measles and your kid isn't vaccinated for measles. That's cool. You're an American. You have the right. But I also probably don't want your kids mixing around with mine too much if there's a chance even that they could get

measles from somebody that's not vaccinated for it, even if they are. It's just a weird thing. And I think those are the cultural battles that are going to be fought. You have the freedom to not tell anybody that you have an STD. You have the freedom for it. But what you don't have the freedom to do is to have unprotected sex with someone without telling them. You actually don't have the freedom to do that. And so I think we're going to come into an interesting time, both culturally and constitutionally, about vaccines. We're all, it's interesting.

Like, we all rely on science every single day. Like, I, like, some people that are telling me about a vaccine, they can't tell me how a plane flies. Yeah. Like, if they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, They can't. You get on the plane because you have to travel. Right.

You know what I mean? And that's not to say these two things are the same, even though you can make an argument that they're the same when they're dealing with your personal health. I'm just wondering at what point are we going to all come to terms with the fact that this moment that we're in, this moment of soul crushing isolation and social dysfunction and poverty and economic distress. It has to end. And what are we going to be willing to do to make sure that it ends, you know? Yeah, no.

I mean, I couldn't agree with you more. It'll be interesting to see what happens, especially during this, because now we're in the third wave of it, during this crucial time between Thanksgiving where people, even though they're saying United Airlines and Southwest Airlines are saying people are canceling their flights. So it does seem like there are a number of people who are taking this very seriously. It'll be interesting to see what happens after Thanksgiving,

when there are all these family gatherings and we see people together inside, in close quarters, traveling to one another and the effects after that because then we'll see what happens coming into Christmas. I mean, it's a wait and see thing.

All I can say is people, please, like you see what's happening, 250,000 plus deaths. I mean, cases are, I don't want to say the wrong number, but the number of cases that are being reported a day. It's just, it's ridiculous

that this is happening. seeing a wave and numbers that they haven't seen since March. If even that, we're setting records since we first heard about the pandemic. Yeah. Yeah. And so two companies... And we have an administration, sorry, we have an administration who's not right now who's at a standstill. There's so many people who need relief. I know we're talking about the health aspect of it. We're not even talking about the economic effects of it, the financial effects of it. People need relief and the government hasn't issued relief since spring with $1,200 checks. I mean, people are really, really suffering, right?

now. Yeah. If you want people to stay home, pay them to stay home. Listen, the reality, it's interesting, like, oh, so just so people know, the two companies are Pfizer and Moderna. They are the ones who have estimated that they'll have 45 million doses, but enough to vaccinate 22 million Americans by January. So, you know, that would probably be people in the elderly population who can tolerate the

vaccine. And, of course, frontline health care workers who you don't want getting sick, you know, as as they're caring for people. I guess, you know, it's just, it's, it's, it's hard. It's hard. People talk about what they want the government to pay for, what they want the government to not pay for. I understand what people say that.

You hear that argument all the time. They go, well, hey, I don't want my government tax dollars paying for somebody to not have to go to work, blah, blah, blah. Well, you know what? I don't want my government tax dollars to buy predatory. Dron's. Like, I don't, I have, I don't get a list of who gets killed by the predator drone. I don't get a list of predator drone targets.

Mm-hmm. I don't get, I don't, I don't get breakdowns of rail gun technology that we might be buying or developing. I don't get a list of, uh, vertical takeoff jets and stuff like that that they're spending money on or fuel air bombs or any of the other expensive toys that the Department of Defense or whoever, like whoever takes the money for. But we, we pay those taxes because we believe that they are doing things that are in the interest of the American people.

Yeah. Like partly having a strong military, now I don't, well, I'm not down for droning motherfuckers, but partly having a strong military protects the freedom to a degree of the American people if you have responsible leadership. I don't think that there's anything that protects. protects the freedom and prosperity of the American people more than feeding them when they are starving. So I don't understand the hesitance of the relief.

I can't, even as a humanitarian issue, I just don't understand why the government slow walks that. It's just weird. It's all of it. I mean, because people have politicized public health. We've talked about this before. That's all it is. Like, it's just, it's crazy to think of that, but people are questioning things.

Government, CDC has lost its credibility in all of this. It's, it's insane what people are, are questioning or, or just like, it's changing the definition of certain things when this is, this is necessary to protect the American people. It's wild. But I feel you. Yeah, it's crazy. All right. Now, it's time. Woo.

You guys ready, thought warriors? It's time. It's time for the batch recap. Okay? Before we get into the recap of this week's Bachelet, we're going to take a quick break. And then we're going to come right back, get right into it. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business.

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love in one hand. Think green goddess chicken, garlic aoli, crumbled bacon, corn salsa, 40 grams of protein made to keep up with whatever comes next. New sweetgreen wraps hit different. Order now at order.com. All right. I watched. I watched The Bachelor. Not only did I watch, I watched it last night, so it's fresh in my mind. It just happened. Okay. All right. A couple of things. Number one, you were right. The show is considerably less interesting to me. now the Chippendale are gone. Okay, what makes it so not interesting to you? Because I just want to say this is the traditional format

where you see a one-on-one date, a group day, there's some drama between the men that's apart from Tasia, but then someone usually brings it to Tasia or the lead, whoever it may be. And this is the format. You were spoiled with Clarendale. You didn't know what was going to happen. each episode. That's not normal.

They've had the same format for 18 years. The thing is that the thing that really turned me off about last night's episode is that this group of guys is the biggest bunch of punk-ass niggas I've ever seen before in my life.

It's a bunch of whiny, complaining, a bunch of weird ass, a bunch of weirdos chasing. This guy is a weirdo. Yeah. He's a weirdo. He went Wolverine and then pulled out fake claws. He did that shit on TV, my dog.

Yeah. My nigga, on TV, he went, they called me the Wolverine. And he was serious when he said it. And what's even worse, Van, is that a producer told him to do that. Like, hands down. And he did it. That's what's even worse. It's not like he thought of that, which is still bad.

Someone was probably like, oh, you should do this. And he was like, okay, I'll do it. Right. That's how he talks. And then I'm watching him. him against Ed, right, the guy that's carrying the baby around? Carlos. Carlos is his name?

That's not it? Ed, but the baby's name was Carlos. He did a hangover reference. Right, right, exactly. Yeah, babies in the coffee bean, whatever. So I'm watching him and they're having this conversation and it just puts me in a weird place of wanting to smack this man's mouth as he's sitting there talking. And then that's the same.

And then on top of that, he bitched out later on in the wrestling shit. When he bitched out in the wrestling shit, they should have kicked him off the show. I'm seriously. They should have been kicked off the show. So he did not have a shoulder issue is what you're saying. Ed did not have a shoulder issue.

Look at his shoulders. His shoulders are fucking huge, bro. Like, look at that man's shoulders. You can tell he lifts. He lifts a lot. Yeah, he got scared. He got scared. Yeah.

He pung. out in front of, I should use the term punked out, he punked out in front of everyone and Chris just gave him out. I'm like, yo, no, man. The damage was done. For me, it was open.

Well, no, Chris was like, fine, this is your funeral. The damage is done. The fact that you just punked out, everybody knows what's up at this point. It's embarrassing. Yeah, it's definitely embarrassing. I feel like all the black guys, except for the little biracial dude or taking a back seat. It was like, they're just, I mean,

Tasia is essentially like driving Miss Daisy, putting the black dudes in the back seat. Like, this is like, I'm telling you, this is like Bachelorette 195. You know what I mean? It's like,

the brothers is really taking a, they really taking it on the chin in this show. So, the biracial one you're talking about is Ivan. Ivan. I feel like Riley's getting some attention. EZ's get, some attention.

Maybe a little bit. Not really that much. Not really that much. It was about mustache boy who cut his mustache off, which, by the way, is the best thing he Taita ever did for anyone.

Because he actually did look kind of like a suave-ass guy after he cut the mustache off. But before, he looked fucking terrible. It was like deliverance or something like that. He looked really bad.

But overall, I think, you know, the episode was annoying to me because it just didn't seem as if to me that there's enough between her and the guys. It seems like everything, Claire's thing was, it was so many guys that seemed like they were head over heels for Claire.

And there were so many guys that seemed like they were having connections with Claire. Really? To me, it seemed like these guys really were into Claire. You know, Fat Lyman and some of the other guys, It seems like they built real connections. Blake Jason Dell, that was it. But like they at least liked her. In this situation, it really seems like Tasha is kind of just a placeholder.

And these dudes are just kind of doing the most between each other. And then they try to play my man. They try to play Bennett. They were asking Bennett. With the competition? Yeah, they're asking Bennett. And that's why I love what Bennett did, man. Shout out Bennett, bro.

They ask, they're asking Bennett questions. I felt forbidden. I tell you why. Some time ago I'm hanging out with my little nephew. And I see him over there. He's struggling. He's struggling.

And I say, yo, man, what's wrong? What's going on? He's like, I can't figure this out. And it's long division. Right? And I go, oh, I'll help you. And then guess what I realized? You couldn't help.

I don't know how to do long division anymore. So you ask me right now how to do long division and I can't do it. Really? No, I can't. I don't remember. Rachel, I don't remember how to do that stuff?

Yeah, I remember how to do long division. Rachel, what seven times six? 42. Little known facts. Rachel was in the math Olympics. Oh, wow. In school. No.

No. So if your nephew needs help, you know, just send him to all big rage. No, I was definitely not in the math Olympics of any kind. No, no, no, not at all. So, so, you know, them trying to make fun of Blake, excuse me, not Bennett, because he couldn't get some of the answers right was bullshit. But guess how he flipped it? He flipped it on him when he got in the road, got in the bed,

and fed her to what, the bignets? It was so good. And all of them standing over there looking like a bunch of Hayden Holes, I loved it. And another thing about the show is Beyond Bennett, I can't find anyone to kind of relate to. Like, I can't, I can't, there's nobody that I, I hate them. I don't like the guys. So you understand what I said, it's very hard to find somebody on this show because usually the type of type of guy that you're into, at least for me,

was not coming on this show. And that's, and like, you pretty much dogged all the men except for Bennett. I do disagree, though, that the men are, the men are in Titatia. I like Easy. I like Easy. Easy, too.

Easy, easy to cool people. Easy to easy. Shout out to Easy. He's from Texas. We had them on the other podcast, but I, um, I kind of like Riley, too. I kind of like Riley.

The men are incitatia. I mean, their reaction. When they first saw her, or maybe you just think it's a physical thing. Tasha's bad as hell. You don't feel like the men are connecting with Tasia. Not really. Got you. Not really.

I feel like it's a lot of capping going on. You're not here for Tasia. You use. And the whole thing with Chasing and him saying, using the same word, smoke show. That's just, that's just, you said it so seriously. Smoke show. As if that's a thing. Like, so you, so if I say one, if I say one girl is fine as hell,

and I come back and I say another girl is fine as hell. Like, that means that I don't think that they both find as hell. That's stupid as hell. They were making fun of chasing because there's nothing, there's no depth there. I mean, Bennett was basically like, when he made fun of him for using a noun instead of an adjective, I thought that was funny. Bennett the man.

I love Bennett. Look, it's time, the show, it's time for a bounce back episode. And it's time for people to stop capping and acting weird. talking about like they shoulders hurt and they Wolverine and first of all, don't disrespect Wolverine like that. I'll confine you, dog. Don't leave Wolverine out of this.

Like, don't bring Wolverine into this. Wolverine would not be doing that. You know, in all of the comics, there's only one woman that Wolverine ever pined after. Do you know who it is? The Phoenix. Well, that's actually right. I know.

I've watched X-Men. I am fucking. shocked. How many points did I just give? I got to be honest with you. Like, I am I am fucking shocked

that you just pulled that out. Without hesitation, by the way. I am shocked that you know that. I am, that's made my whole day. I'm delighted right now. I love the, I mean, I obviously didn't read the comics, but the movies, I'm like obsessed with.

I binged watch them. I couldn't stop watching. I was into every single character. I'm fascinated by it. I wonder what I wanted to be an X-Men. I wanted to know what my superpower would be. Yeah, I'm into that. Oh, you didn't want to be a X-Men.

You wanted to be Storm. Because that's really your only choice. It's your only choice. Because she's black? Yeah, who are you going to be? Who's going to go as? I'm just talking about the powers. If I could choose a power, not like, actually.

Yeah. I wouldn't want Storm's power. You wouldn't want Storm's power. Storm is one of the most powerful X-Men. Storm is literally, you're making fun of fucking storm now? Every time. You look like storm.

I just hate how she starts off. I would rather her take her a hand and create the storm. When she does rolls her eyes in the back of her head and loses control, I just, I don't know. Well, in the book, in the book, I'll tell you why they did that. In the book, her eyes are white. all the time. Oh, okay.

I like that. In the movie, when she's activating her powers, like her eyes go white. But most of the time you see her in the book, like her eyes are white. Well, she's, first of all, she's a, she's nearly an omega-level mutant. She's like super duper strong. Storm is super strong. She's a category four. She's a four.

I don't think she's quite an omega-level mutant. I don't think she is. No, she's a four. I think she's a four. No, I don't, but, no, I guess. but like Omega level is like Iceman and like Phoenix. The Phoenix. Franklin Richards.

Like what we've talked about and, you know, a couple other guys like that. But I don't think she's- I'm talking to you about this stuff. Stop. Anyway, but anyway, but anyway, and you said Phoenix. And the actual answer is Gene Gray,

but Gene Gray is the Phoenix. So it's the same thing. Yeah. So to have him pining after Wolverine don't do that. Wolverine did that for one woman. And Wolverine would never act like this, by the way. And even with that one-one, woman, Wolverine was a G with his shit.

He was. He was. He looked at Scott. He was like, yo, your chick want me, dog. And she did want him. Come on, Chase. So you, you're turning a bit on The Bachelor right now. I need, I need another, I need a better episode next time.

I need to take it. What do you need to see? I need to see, you know, a little bit more. I need to feel it. This is supposed to be a love story. And it, you know, it's supposed to be a love story. And it's kind of like, I don't know. It's like dancing with the stars a little bit.

Like, you know, I need to feel it. Come on now. Come on, Tasha. The man don't get better. The man don't get better in the next episode. We'll see. We'll see. All right.

It is mailback time. Let's hit it. New voice on Melbaugh back today. Jackson, second degree Saffon, is going to do mailback. So Jackson, whenever you're in. Okay. First question from Josh Connor. Two-part question.

Do you have a favorite gif or slash a meme of yourself? And is it acceptable to use gifts or memes of yourself in casual text conversation? First question is, yes, I do. Second question is... You have memes of yourself? Yeah. Oh. I was on television every day for nine years.

Give me right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they're definitely gifts and memes of me. And with the whole Kanye thing too. So yes, I have a favorite. And no, it is not appropriate to use them.

You're the biggest fucking douchebag in the world if you do that. Do you have gifts and memes of yourself? Wait, wait. What's your favorite one of yourself? What are you doing? One where I'm holding my notepad at TMZ. And Harvey had just said something. And I looked at them and went and then look back down at the notepad.

It's just a good gift. Do people send you gifts of yourself? Yes. Yeah. So my favorite one of me, yes, I have them of me. My favorite one of me is I'm, it's just me, but I'm talking to The Bachelor who season I was on. And I was like, I love sports, but I don't play games. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, tum, time line when you, line, when you try to disrespect DSR, Dirty South Riders, shout out Dallas, Texas.

Oh, Jesus. Last week. Or this week, we had Slim on. Yeah, that's a line. I took that line from him. But yeah, that's my favorite. I do not use my own gifts. I barely use gifts or memes, but I don't use my own.

But people do send me them, send them to me. Okay. Okay. People send them to you, you don't use them. All right. Now, next question, Jackson. From Nikki San Pedro. What do Van and Rachel want for Christmas?

Man, mine's easy. I already hinted to it on the podcast. I want to see my family. I want to see my parents. I want to see my nephews. I want to see my sister, my brother-in-law. I want to get down to Houston. I want to see my grandmother.

Like, family's important to me. And like with my new work schedule, I never have time. You know? And so it's just important to me that I'm like a year. It's crazy for me to think I haven't seen my people in a year. So for me, it's just family. I just want to be able to get to my family in a safe, way?

A burner doodle. A what? A burner doodle. I'm a buy for myself for for Christmas. Half Burmese Mountain Dog. Bernie's Burmese Mountain Dog. I don't know what you were saying.

Half a Poodle. Gigantic lovable pal to help me de-stress. I'm going to take him around. He's going to be my very best. friend. Oh my gosh. He's going to be, he's going to, I'm going to hang out with him and we're going to go.

And I need a goddamn dog because, God damn it, times are tough. I actually, before you do that, I'm going to bring you copper. No, I don't want copper. No. No. I'm going to bring you copper. I don't want copper. It will change your mind.

Done. I will bring you copper. Copper mean. No, he's not. Copper bark at me on a podcast. What do you think you're going to do when he sees? me on, you will love him because somebody will knock at your door

and he will protect you. I'm about to get him registered. I keep saying this, I'm going to get him registered to be a dog at the hospital because he's like a really great dog for that. I'm going to give you copper, but also love that you're going to get a dog.

Burn a doodle. Big, they're like, Bernardoodle. They're like 130 pounds. Oh, oh. They're huge. Huge. See, I should be afraid of your dog.

Huge, but they're super nice. There's a burn of it. Shout out to my neighbors, Matthew and J.C. They got a... Oh my gosh. I know. I know. I know.

I know. I know. That's my guy. Oh, my gosh. Copp. Would you have a name picked out? Bozeman. Because Chadwick?

Our man. Our brother. Bozeman. It's really... Bozeman the burner doodle. Bozeman the burner dole. So I'm going to give you some practice with copper. But I keep saying no.

No. Let me talk to it. Let me talk to it. No, let me talk to it. Because I swear to God, he will coparize you and there'll be no turning back. From Bobby Hayden, are you guys surprised by the diversity of the podcast's audience? Yeah. No. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, especially initially. People were hitting me up and they were going, hi. You know, I'm Brittany. And I think you're aces, man. and I'd be like, oh, I appreciate it. And then it turns out that they were, and I have, I'm going to say something right now. Rachel's fan base is very, very, very, very, very loyal.

And it's been really, really dope getting to know y'all. But I definitely was surprised. People were hitting me up going, hey, man, you're cool. And I absolutely love higher learning and stuff like that. And then on the other side, I got my G's hitting me up like, dog. I'm not going to lie, man. I'm kind of fucking with this Bachelorette shit. What you told you did.

I'm not surprised because I know that Van and I have different audiences, but what I am surprised is bachelor people usually only like Bachelor content. So I really got to shout out all the batchies that have come over to higher learning because it's not about the Bachelor. So to me, that shows that, like, you're loyal and you like the content that we're putting out. I think majority of them have turned on me at this point and are more loyal to you, Van, but that's okay.

They're loyal to higher learning. I love it. I love that Bachelor Nation has come to this podcast because that is a rarity. So shout out to Bachelor Nation for that. Do you know who we are? Who are we? We are the new Regis and Kelly. I definitely wasn't expecting you to say that.

We are. How are you Regis? Oh, I'm not Regis. I'm more like Michael. Oh, you're straight hand. But then you can't really be Kelly because she was getting at that nigger at that point. Do you remember how she was treating him towards the end? Straight hand?

Because she knew he was out. Ooh. Spicy spicy. A little blonde pumpkin spice. She was giving that man that work. Remember the time they were on the show? She goes, yeah, the story about divorce. I've never been through a divorce.

Nigger, you got divorced. What else you tell the people? I'm like, God damn, Kelly. Kelly hates The Bachelor, by the way. Why? She's just like, it makes women look. dumb, helpless, weak. We come on the show because it's an ABC show.

She was very nice to me. But she called me smart bachelorette. But she hates the show. She talks, she dogs it. Tell Kelly, Kelly, cool, but relax, Kelly. Relax, Kelly, just calm down. Calm down. All right.

Last one from Kyle Foshe. That's Foshae. I can already tell you probably where Kyle is from that don't listen don't disrespect these French-Casian names

I can tell you right now that's Foshae from Kyle Fosha Yeah do Van and Rachel collect anything Rachael Rach?

No interesting Do you I have over 4,000 comment books well that makes sense I actually think that's really cool What do you have one that's what's

They're back in Louisiana Okay but do you have one that's worth a lot of money And if so how much? I have a couple that are worth a lot of money I have the first appearance of an ex-man named Bishop Which is really not worth that much money I thought it was going to be worth a lot of money So I bought it for a lot of money

But they never really went up in value I have Well for a long time me and a couple of friends of mine had an X-Men number one. And we bought it together and stuff like that. But then, you know, the whole economy crashed

and people needed some money, so that comic book was sold. But, yeah, I have a lot of them. I have a lot of valuable Spider-Man's from the late 80s and early 90s. But like five figures, six figures? I don't know.

I have to check. I'd have to check. It's all about appearances with characters and first appearances of characters and then a little-known characters who pop it in out of stories. And if they're not around a lot, those comics get valuable. Why are they worth so much? Are they like paintings? I've never understood that.

Well, what do you mean? Like, why are these comic books worth so much money? Because they're iconic pieces of Americana. And then they become rare. It's like a baseball car, right? I never really understood the baseball card thing either. So if you have an action comments number one, that is the first appearance of who? The main character?

Superman is his name. Okay. All right. All right. I really don't know anything. So if you have an action comics number one, that's the main, that's the first appearance of Superman. If you have a detective comments number one, that is the first appearance of Batman, right?

And so obviously those characters are, like not even comic book characters. They're part of people's families. You know what I mean? And so because of that, if you have one of those, and it also goes by sort of the condition that the comic book is in,

if you have one of those, there's just not a lot of them left, and it's the first time the world ever saw Superman. It's the first time Superman was ever brought to the world.

It's the same way that if you had the original Apple computer that Wozniak and Jobs created, that that's going to be worth a shit ton of money because of the brand that it created is in terms of Apple and also because of the cultural significance of it, right? It's going to be worth a lot of money. Like, you know, like a painting, like a Picasso. That's what I said. That's what I was like, is it like a painting? You're absolutely right.

All right. I mean, it makes sense. No, I don't. Let me look at how much. let me look at the value right now of an action comics number one. I'm looking at a list right now of the 20 most expensive comic books in the world.

And by the way, our X-Men number one was in decent condition. It wasn't worth as much as you would think it was. It's interesting. This one is, this one is, this one is worth $500,000 and that's not nearly what the book we have

that was worth. Let's see. So Detective Comics number 27, that is the first appearance of the Joker is one point something million dollars. Spider-Man's first appearance is $1.1 million according to this list. Action Comics number one,

right here is $1.5 million. and then the most expensive one, I guess, oh, no, it's an action comics, number one, a different version of it in a better condition is $3.2 million. Right, right, yeah. Although this list, these prices seem

a little bit exorbitant here, so I don't know. I get it. I get why you're collecting. Yeah. So, but that book, when we bought that book, we put together and bought that book. And that was like a couple of people that all wanted to jointly share the book because nobody can afford it. So yeah, that's what I, that's what I collect.

I collect the comic books. I haven't collected them in a long time and lost a lot of my comic books and a lot of the value of my comic books, even the ones that we still have were destroyed by the hurricane. Trina? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they were in my room and then a tree came into the room and the blah, blah, blah, blah, fucked up my comic books. But whatever.

Let's not bring up shit that's going to stress me out. All right. Uh, unexpected Outline of the week. Wait, I thought you wanted to talk about DJ Luke Nasting. Ooh, ooh, I do. You are so right. You, ooh, Ragey. DJ Luke Nasty.

Go ahead, go ahead. Okay, so you brought this to my attention. So this is DJ, DJ Luke Nasty, and he made a song. What's the name of the song again? Who's going to tell me the name of the song? I can't remember the name of the song. Rain? The name of the song.

song is rain. And the song is a twerk, bounce that booty, shake that ass type of song, DJ Luke Nasty. And he took a sample from Kirk Franklin and the family, which is a gospel group. And he put it in there. And now people are going to be dragging that vagina on the floor and strip clubs all over America to the sounds of Kurt Franklin and the family. New segment for higher learning.

Segment is this. Is this appropriate, Rachel? Absolutely not. I mean, okay, I need Kirk Franklin to come out and say if he permitted DJ Luke Nasty to use this sample. I don't know why he would use it if he didn't have permission. But at the moment to date, Kirk Franklin has been silent. on this. This is what I also need people to understand. You don't, if you didn't grow up in a black

church or you didn't listen to gospel music, you might not be familiar with the song. So the cover of, the cover art of this single has a woman with her booty cheeks out. That's all you see. That's what talking about. She is holding an umbrella and money is raining on her, running down. I'm pretty sure that when Kirk Franklin and the family were singing this song. song, melodies from heaven. Those melodies were not referring to this. That's not what was...

How do you know? That's not what was raining down on him. It wasn't a hundredth. It wasn't dollar bills. Do you remember how the song goes? Because I feel like everybody remembers being in church when the beat dropped. Melodies from heaven.

The tenors came in. And then the sopranos. Do you want to do it? And then the alto... No, you go ahead and do it. Oh, no, I can't do it by my song. Somebody's got to do the tenor, somebody's got to be the soprano,

somebody's going to be the alto. This is what I'm telling you about. This is what I'm saying, seriously. I don't really know how to feel about this because I'll be honest with you. I don't know how I feel about Kurt Franklin and the family in the first place. Because?

Because it's something D.L. Hugley said way back of the day. What did you say? D.L. Hulhugley was on stage and he was doing this comedy. And he was like, man, I don't know about Kurt Franklin. He was like, Kurt Franklin going to mess around to curse one of these days.

I don't know if that's gospel. And then he said something, he said, he said, man, God don't need no remix. He heard you the first time. And I always laugh at that. Because, you know, you, like, because there was a time, there was a time when in Louisiana, in the 2000s, where you could hear stomp when you was in the club. The club. For sure.

I think you. But the, but my life my round. And we'd be in that bitch. Like, yeah, GP, are you with me? Oh, yeah. Oh, like in the club. Like, in the club. So it was like.

That's how they used to get you out the club, too. Like, everybody would be singing stomp on the way. It would be Saturday night, early Sunday morning. You stomped your way out the club and into church the next day. That's pretty much what happened. So I guess my thing is, that in a way, I feel like this is kind of a natural progression. No, it's not okay.

It is not okay. The message from melodies from heaven had nothing to do with money raining down on you, making it rain on you while you were popping that thing on a pole on stage at a strip club. And here's my thing. Did you hear the song? Did you hear the same? I did hear the song. Was it popping?

I liked it. It was. I can't lie. You can't lie. But I just feel like it's almost like, I don't want to say sacrilegious, but it's just, Kirk Franklin and the family, I'm sure, have a message that they were trying to get out there to the masses, and this was not it. So it's disrespectful for me, to me, to use this song and the words, not even the beat, it's the words,

you know, for this, for this making it rain on you. I mean, fan, there are a million songs. with rain in them that he could have used. I've compiled a list. Would you like to hear? Oh, Rach, I love this. I have compiled a list of songs with rain in it that I think he could switch out instead of melodies from heaven.

Okay, here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Let me find this. I can't stand the rain missing. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Can you stand the rain? New edition. Okay. That could have hit. Purple rain.

Prince. Okay. I wish it would rain, the temptations. Blame it on the rain. Millie Vanilly. Kind of want to stay away from them, but I get it. Candy rain, soul for real. That's the one that I think hits the most.

That song goes hard. Like, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Come on. That's the one. Do, do, do, do. Boy, I just even thinking of that song, I think about ninth grade, man, music is so crazy. Crazy.

I used to love that song, man. But okay. See how it took you back to a memory? No, I stopped there. I stopped as for soul for real. I mean, everything else is like that that's like the soulful music, whether it's Motown, R&B, hip hop. That's the list right there.

Any of those would have been better than melodies from heaven. Because all he sampled was the rain on. me part. Yeah. That's so for real with a hit. That's so for real with a hit. But look, he got what he wanted, though. DJ Lou Nasty. I want to talk to DJ Luke Nasty here on Higher Learning. Let's ask him, let's ask him to come on. Let's ask him to come on and see if he think, I want to hear the explanation for taking the church to the booty club. I'm telling you, I want to hear, I want to see what he's saying. Has Kirk sampled hip hop for church? I can't remember.

I'm sure he must have. But I know that he samples, you know, he's not he's a sample, but he does like hip-hop dance, like hurt, you know, he'll be up there,

he'll be milly-rocking and he'll be doing all of that stuff. And, you know, those songs don't come. But that's fine. I mean, I guess. But like, if you, like,

some of those songs that the dances come from aren't the best songs. Right, but it's just the dance, right? Like, you're taking the lyrics of melodies from heaven. Mm-hmm.

And you turn it into a strange. Club song. And you know this is going to be played. And if you're not familiar with Kirk Franklin and the family, because this is early 90s when this song came out. You might not know. You don't even know. Yeah. Rain

Down. Right. Let's get it. Look, let me tell you. By the way, I just checked the value of these X-Men number ones. Stop. I thought that we got swindled. But I had to remember the grade on our book. and because we sold that book for like 15 grand. And I had to remember the grade on the book.

Because I'm like, yo, these niggas got 725,000. I was about to make some calls. I still know who I sold the book to. But, you know, the grade on our book. It wasn't in good condition. It was in okay condition. You know, it was an okay condition. But we had an X-Men number one.

You put together. Okay. DJ Luke nasty. Can't wait until you come on here. Nasty, nasty, nasty-ass-ass-loom. Do you have an unexpected ally of the week? I do. Hold on.

I got a. I thought I had it on here. Hold on. Okay. His name, my ally of the week. His name is he is the Secretary of State for Georgia. A Republican. A Republican, yes.

Name being, I just lost it. He has a last name that I cannot pronounce. But Brad Raffensberger. And that might not be how you. you pronounce it. But basically, long story short, I'm giving him the ally, the unexpected ally of the week for doing his job, right? Doing his job. That's it. Properly making sure, making sure the election is properly handled, legally handled, counting every vote, and not basically succumbing to the pressure that other Republicans are placing on him, which he's so, rightfully so called out like Lindsey Graham,

he might have named some others, but said that they were trying to pressure him to throw out votes. And he is a Republican, and he is calling out other Republicans because he is trying to do his job, which the last Secretary of State for Georgia did not do, which we know, who is now the governor of Georgia.

So shout out to him, not just for doing his job, but for calling out those who are corrupt and are trying to make him follow suit. It wasn't him specifically, but my understanding of the ally of the week was the same thing. It was a gaggle of like a whole globule of people.

I've been watching different election officials that might not be Democrats on different news sources all over the country. And it's been refreshing to see, and I'll tell you why. I'm not going to relegate the differences between Democrats and Republicans right now, but it's refreshing to see because there are some people that care about the processes that make America what it is. Or more to the point, make America what we're trying to make it. And to see these people, election officials in Arizona, election officials in Georgia, election officials in Michigan all over the place, actually do something that a lot of the rest of their party won't do, which is stand up and put the country before loyalty and placating President Trump has been something that, you know, a weird time gives you just a little bit of hope that maybe there's some sort of way that we can be a better nation at some point. So it wasn't someone specific, but I'm glad you pulled out of the name. But all of those people that are committed to doing their jobs, I saw somebody that like, I saw a Twitter thread. And a Twitter thread was from a gentleman in Georgia who was a local election official.

And he was showing all the people that had worked so, so hard in order to make sure that this election was fair. And this election was accessible to everyone. And it takes a lot of work. Democracy takes a lot of work. So I echo your sentiments and I think that that's been good to see over the last week and who knows how long we're going to do this. Listen, if you guys are wondering why we haven't drowned you

with transition talk, it's because it's a radioactive sort of soul-draining conversation to have. Here's the reality. The election is over. It's been called. And the president is refusing to look out there and see the

reality of it. The minutiae of this and going through detail by detail to us, the stops and starts of this transition, I guess that, you know, the fact that transition is not starting, every time people are doing this and acting like this, to me, it leans credence and credibility and gives attention to the president and the way that he's acting. At the point that something happens, that we really have to be abreast of what's going on, we will be sure to have these conversations. Sure. But as long as all the legal challenges

are being thrown out of court and states continue to certify or begin to certify, we are going to do what the rest of America should do, which is move on from the Trump era. Right. And that's all that we have to say about that.

We will see you guys next week. Yep. I am Van Latham. I am Rachel Lindsay. Take your thing caps off. You cannot stop learning. We will see you guys after this. When the protest started this summer,

I decided not to join. The main reason was that I didn't want to be let down again. I've been here before. I've marched, I've yelled, and not much changed. But when I did finally go out there, I found some people and stories that got me thinking about this movement in a much different way. And I want to show you.

My new podcast, Resistance, is out now. Follow and listen on Spotify. It's Blacklaws, baby.