Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - The Jarring Trump-Biden Debate, Black Nepotism, and Jamaal Bowman’s Loss

Episode Date: June 29, 2024

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay start the show off with their reactions to the Biden-Trump debate, including the surprises, the lies, and troubles facing the upcoming election (02:02). Then, they talk about why the Lakers drafted Bronny James and instances of Black nepotism (49:52). Last, they bring back Mailbag Time and answer some of your questions (1:11:50). Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producer: Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? Our learning is on. It's I, Van Laketon, Jr. And it's me, Rachel and Lindsay. No pleasure, truth. I know you're serious when you have a pin in your hand. Like, we're getting down to business.

When the pen is in your hand, I knew it. There's no, like, notes to people who watch this on video. When the pen is in Van's hand, we're getting down to business. There's room for nothing. else. Astute observation, Rachel. A couple of things. Remember to like, subscribe, and share

on YouTube. Over on YouTube and hang out with us over there. Watch a little higher learning. Rachel, you are in the city of of a brotherly hate. I'm in New York. I'm in a we work office.

First time I was in a leework space. It's cute. Never been there before. I saw some sort of documentary that they I know. They've downsized. I know they've downsized. It's a cute space, pretty crowded.

But, you know, it's functioning. I'm able to do the podcast. Here we are. So, let's go. We are coming to you guys on what is a Friday morning for me. And what is a, I guess, Friday afternoon for Rach. Yeah. Because you are in New York.

Because we could not do the podcast and not be able to talk about said debate. So this podcast is coming up a little bit later, especially this one. So let's get right into it. Now, because we're starting right now, there will be a commercial break of some sort in between this. We might take a second. But we want to get right to it because we got a lot of stuff to talk about today, not just a debate. We have to start off with the debate. The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the finals with Fandul predicts.

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Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Trimfaya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more, or visit trimfireradio.com. Rachel, I'm assuming you saw. I know that you watched. I watched. What's going on in your mind right now? Okay.

To set the stage a little bit, I was having dinner. I'm in New York with my sister, my mom, celebrating my sister's birthday during the actual debate. So my phone was blowing up from people telling me their opinions of the debate.

And of course, the reaction that I was getting, as most people know that I'm for Biden, was talking about Biden's performance and how bad it was and how difficult it was to watch. And they hadn't seen anything like this from Biden ever. So that is the mindset that I'm coming in. Oh my gosh, what am I about to watch? So I'll say it wasn't as bad as I had prepared myself for because I was just like really like, okay, this is going to. to be the worst. So I think if I had watched it in real time, I probably would have had more of a dramatic reaction, but I was like, this is going to be the worst thing I've ever seen. It wasn't. I will say this. It was bad. I've never seen Biden like this before. And I'm just going to

talk about like the presentation of it, you know, the way he sounded, the way from the moment he walked on stage, the stiffness, the gaping mouth. He just, he just, he sounded. He just, he's came across very feeble, and we've heard the rumors. We saw it, lived out for the first time in a way that we never had before, and it was alarming. I think that if you were reading what Biden was saying as opposed to watching him, you would have felt a little different. Not saying that he didn't stumble over his words and sometimes got lost to the points that he was making. It definitely could have hammered down on points, especially refuting the lies that were coming from Trump, but it was a bad performance.

It was bad. And I think the video that we saw after of him, seeming like the Biden that we've seen, the Biden of debates passed or ghost past, however you were to say it, I think that made it worse, to be honest with you. Why is that? The people who...

Why is that? Because it looked like he's comfortable when he's not under pressure, when he's not being on live television, when he doesn't have all, when he isn't over, because he's clearly overprepared, but when he doesn't have all these things

going through his brain, he has to, like, decipher of how he's going to navigate it and refute it. He, because debate, you have to listen. You have to, like, fact check in your head.

You have to be able to articulate it. There's a lot of different things that are happening in the middle of it when you're debating, anybody who's been on a debate team. The fact that he was way more comfortable when things were casual, when he was chilling at the Waffle House

in a more comfortable setting, I think that made it worse. I wasn't one of those people who said, oh, look, there goes to Biden we know. That is what I became concerned. Also, when you have to stand up in league, this is a little bit more of alarming. When you're under pressure,

this is the man who set the rules for this debate. This is the man who called for this debate. Having a cold that his team came out and said he had shouldn't have really mattered. He didn't seem like he had a cold in the Waffle House. That is where I said, that's the first time I said, okay, we might need to like pay attention or talk about the obvious, even though it's uncomfortable. Are you to the point now where you would want to see President Biden step aside? No.

I'm not one of the people caught up in the hysteria. I think that's important for me to say. He had a bad night. he lost a debate even though he lost it to a liar because what he was his presentation outweighed anything

as we're talking about it now that Trump did we expect Trump to lie that was expected we did not expect what we saw from Biden I'm not going to I think we live in a time where people just are quick to change their minds and jump on what is popular

and I'm actually shocked what I'm getting from the media what we got right after the debate and even into this morning. I am really shocked how quickly people are turning on Joe Biden. Did they know something we didn't know? Was this the last straw? Because I'm sorry, one bad performance for me is not going to make me all of a sudden say. How many days do we have left until the convention?

Should we be positioning somebody else? Should Biden step aside? I'm not there yet. I didn't like what I saw and can say that. I can say if he does it again, we are absolutely in trouble. But what we can't do as a party, not that I'm a tip of a crap, but I'm supporting Biden. What we can't do is this. This does not help the cause in any kind of way that we're so quickly to turn on him after one time.

It's weird. All right. So a couple of things. On the Waffle House point, being that he seemed. more with it in the Waffle House. Maybe that makes you more concerned for him in terms of his ability to outdole Donald Trump on a public stage.

But wouldn't that make you, wouldn't that reassure you that in situations where he has to make decisions or talk to people that aren't on this stage, which is what the presidency is essentially about, the presidency isn't about talking in big rooms. The presidency is actually, talking about, it's about talking in small rooms. It's about meeting with advisors. It's about meeting

with foreign dignitaries. It's about making rules and negotiations and places where there aren't actually a million cameras, where there aren't actually everybody, a bunch of people waiting and watching what you're going to say. Campaigning certainly is about being in front of the cameras and being under the lights and all of that. But I would say the job. The job, of the presidency. There's a significant messaging portion where you have to talk to people. I concede that.

But the job of the presidency, which is what he's doing or what he has done for the last X amount of years, that's about talking to people in more intimate settings and being able to get your agenda through. What would you say to that?

What I would say is, there was no audience. There were two moderators and there were cameras. Okay? He couldn't talk in a succinct way about policies. That is, I'm not expecting him to say,

if Trump says, oh, you know, I've created this many black jobs or whatever. I'm not expecting him to say, actually, that's not true. It's this number. I'm not expecting that specificity in his refuting what Trump is saying. But what I am expecting is for you to say,

no, this isn't true. And let me tell you exactly what I have done in this way. He wasn't clear. on his messaging. He wasn't clear in refuting in Trump's lies. And you have people who are mad at Jake and Dana and saying

that they should have been refuting Trump's lies, but I don't necessarily agree with that. That should have been Biden. I don't care how much time he had if he had a minute only to do it. He should have done it. And so I would push back on what you're saying in the sense that I need the leader of this country

to be able to tell me what he is doing for. this country, whether it's against somebody that he is debating or it's somebody, it's geopolitics. Like, how are you going to represent me when it comes to negotiating and talking about what you've done or what you can do? How are you going to stand in front of Congress? Do you know what I mean? Like, that to me was the alarming part. I understand.

I'm just saying, I'm just saying that like in terms of his ability to do the job, what the debate would have. And let me just start off by saying this. The debate was a disaster. It was obvious minutes into the debate that it was going to be a bad night for Joe Biden. And I'll say something else. I am not appreciative of the people who are gas lighting. There are a lot of people out there who mean well

and who want to rally around Joe Biden right now, right? And that's what they're supposed to do. They're supposed to rally around Joe Biden. They're supposed to talk about the quality of, that the president has that they admire, they're supposed to talk about his record, they're supposed to talk about how the Democrats and the left to a different degree are supposed to be united right now.

But don't gas light us. What people saw on Thursday night was jarring. And it was jarring not because of a bad performance. It was jarring because of the optics of the performance. Right. You can lose, right? You can lose.

It matters how you lose. And a lot of times in society, well, one are you lost? No. The way that you lose matters. There's a way to lose that says, hey, this was a close and contested contest. Whatever we're talking about, if we're talking about sports, if we're talking about a debate,

whatever, if we're talking about a cooking contest. There's a way to lose that demonstrates that the other person was better than you, that you were off, whatever. But there's also a way to lose that makes people believe that you shouldn't have had any business there in the first place. That's like the way Bishop Sycamore loss, right? That's like the way certain boxers lose when they're tomato cans and they're in there against somebody that the promoter is trying to build up. A loss that makes you go, hmm, why are you here in the first place? it doesn't seem like, it seems like malpractice putting you out there. That's how it started for Joe Biden.

Now, I will say this, if I'm being honest. Donald Trump has lost a step two. He certainly has. And the more that you watch the debate, the fact that Donald Trump wasn't able to intelligently engage on any of the questions or criticisms that were coming from either President Biden or from the moderators,

that he kept looping it back to immigration. And he stayed on that. The entire debate tells me that there's not a lot swimming around there in his head. Other than that, it was one note. So as things went on, the gap between Biden's disastrous performance and Trump's performance, it closed. Trump just didn't seem like, to be honest with you, that he

was up to the job that night. But that just kind of for a lot of people doubled down on the fact that a competent Biden wiped the floor with him. And getting back to the gaslight, and I'll say this, look, all the Democratic operatives out there, the ones that I know and the ones that I don't know. Okay?

Before you guys take the opportunity to admonish people for being appalled by the performance of the president, take into consideration how scared everybody is. People are super afraid of a Trump presidency. And part of the reason why they're so afraid of that Trump presidency is because of the messaging that's come from the Democrats from the left. And I'm not saying that that messaging is false. I'm saying that what we're being told is that the future of the country, the future of democracy, the future of our freedom,

our voting rights, bodily autonomy. All of these things are on the line. This is the most important election, not the most important election to have in a country where we can all hold hands in kumbaya, but this election will decide whether or not we're going to be able to vote in certain places. This election will decide whether or not our women will be able to, women we share our community with our women, whether or not they'll be able to have autonomy over their bodies, whether or not we'll be able to have a country that's not governed by the top 0.00.1% oligarchs in America in perpetuity, the deficit, solvency of social security, all of these things, right? this is going to decide this.

And when we're doing it, choosing our fighter before the game, like if this is like Tekken or street fighter, it seems like they've landed on the weakest guy. And they've said, all of this stuff is on the line. This is a fight to the death. And the guy that they chose can't hold his sword. Now, whether or not you still got to get behind him, whether or not you still have to support him, whether or not you still have to show up for him, it's a different situation. We understand the realities of things, right? But don't expect people not to be afraid.

You made them afraid. You made them afraid. They have reason to be afraid. They see what Donald Trump is talking about. They see what the Project 2025 document outlets. They see what the country is moving towards. They see the destruction of the establishment clause. They see the suppression of people's rights.

They see a far right continuously getting more and more wacky to the point that they want to suspend the Constitution. Their words are being thrown around like fascism, nationalism, all of those things. They see America devolving and they want somebody that they feel like can fight. and they did not see that on the stage on Thursday night, and they have every right to be concerned. So this is where I get confused for those people who are like that.

I bet why they're like that. Again, we said multiple times on this podcast, and you're not thrilled at the choices that we have. But if you, if this is the messaging that you're getting from the Democrats, and you are this scared about what is looming of, over you if Trump steps into office, that alone, that fear alone would push me to say, I may not like the other side of it, but I definitely am too scared to experience what that is. I just don't understand how.

Who are you talking about? When you say this, who are you talking about? The people that you say are so scared about what can happen in the Trump presidency, but are scared by what they saw last night in the debate. Like you said they want a leader who can stand up to that, a leader who can fight against that. That's what you were saying. And I'm saying, okay, we didn't get that representation last night. But the fear, I don't understand how your fear of what could happen if he steps into office does not outweigh anything that you saw last night.

If you're really that scared, if you really believe the messaging that is coming from the Democrats in regards to Project 2025 or a dictatorship or an alliance with someone we've considered an enemy. with the way that Trump praises certain other leaders in countries. If you are that scared and you believe it, then seeing a feeble Joe Biden should not alarm you more than that, is my opinion. And on the other side I would say to that is, I also don't understand because I think what

I haven't really seen talked about a lot, but I know this is an issue. There are people that were so bothered with what they saw last night, particularly in Joe Biden because they were expecting a certain performance, that they don't even want to vote at all anymore. And again, I would say to those people, the fear of what could be should outweigh an older Joe Biden.

He's not running the whole thing by himself. Do you believe in his administration? Do you believe in some of the things that he's done in the four years he's been in office? That to me, it does not, one does not, that does not outweigh. we ever said. So this is my deal. I don't think that the people are afraid that are afraid.

I don't think that they're afraid of a Joe Biden presidency. I don't think that's what they're afraid of. I think they're afraid that he can't win. So the people that are saying, hey, they're not more afraid of a Joe Biden presidency than they are of a Donald Trump presidency. They're afraid that the guy that is carrying the banner

for them, is supposed to represent at least treading water until we can make some sort of change in America. They're afraid that the people that aren't as afraid of them, the people that are in the middle and looking for somebody to vote that might decide the election. Now, I tend to think that that's overblown. I tend to think that the election won't be decided by these magical independence that voted for Obama, than Trump and Biden, I don't think that that's what's going to decide the election.

I think the turnout will ultimately decide the election. I think those people are afraid that the guy that they put on the stage Thursday night is not capable of winning. So they're definitely more afraid of Trump, right? They're definitely more afraid of what the MAGA right

represents, but they don't think that the gladiator that's been chosen trial by combat, which is essentially what this is, they're afraid that their champion won't be able to to get the job done.

Let me explain to child by combat real quick, just real quick. Because this is what it is. So you ever watch Game of Thrones? Whole thing. You watch the whole thing. Okay, so remember Tyrion Lannison, Tyrion Lannister, remember?

Yeah. They accused him of killing Joffrey Barathor. Right. And so he realized he couldn't get a fair trial, even though he was father and other people that were trying him. So he goes, I demand trial by combat. They have the trial by combat.

He gets to choose a champion. That's essentially what we're doing here. We're having trial by combat. And the champion that's been chosen is Joe Biden. Now think about this. Think about if your freedom is on the line. Because if your champion loses, they're going to put you to death,

they're going to torture you before they do it, and they're going to then display your body out there in front of all of Westeros. You're choosing your champion. So you're going to choose, I think he chose the Sand Spider, who ended up losing to the mountain, got his fucking head exploded the whole nine.

Before he chose Braun one time, when he had to do trial by combat, those are two fantastic fighters. A lot of people are looking at this, crowd by combat and they're seeing the fighter that's been chosen for them. And it's scary to them. Okay. Okay.

So if this is our champion, what I'm not going to do is not champion in him. And this is what I think is problematic in what I'm saying. I think you have to call a spade a spade. Shout out to the Joe Lof of Spades Party coming to a home near you. space party. He had a bad night. He did a bad job. You have to pull those things out and not act like it didn't happen. That's problematic. But what we can't do is automatically turn on our champion to use your reference. That in no way helps us defeat the mountain or whoever it is. It doesn't help. And that's what I find just so wild and what is happening.

so quickly. We can say he had a bad night, but let's not quit and give up on him. People have bad nights. I'm concerned, but not to the point where I'm about to say, throw in the towel and say, who's next? I think there's too much ground to cover. You might have great candidates who would do a better job, but we're too far in with Biden. So it's like, how do we rally and how do we come back. Biden has already said he wants to do the second debate. It's in September. I wish it was closer. I wish it was

closer. But we have the convention in between them. He said he wants to do it again. He wants the second debate. I think Trump's going to do it. I don't see him backing out, especially because he's a narcissist. Be a fool to blackout. Be a fool to back out, back out, don't Trump.

It'd be a fool. So it's like, then let's rally around him, figure out what happened. and not make it happen again. I'm sorry, that's just where we are at this point. Hate it or love it. It's where we are.

We've chosen our champion so we can't. So like what does it look like? We didn't choose them. But we didn't choose them. We didn't choose them. Okay. Well, we'll choose them next. We choose them next month.

What I'm saying is we didn't choose them. There was no open challenge to him. There was no primary challenge to him. A lot of people had concerns about Biden's age, his virility and his ability to No, they were. The Democrats and Joe Biden did not listen. They chose. And they're telling us to live with it.

And what I'm saying is that's not fair. Look, here's the thing. There's no part of what happened on Thursday night that makes me reconsider who I'm going to vote for. I would vote for Biden's head in a jar before I would like vote for Donald Trump. However, does it make, does it, is it concerning that Trump, we have Trump, Trump live 30 times?

some of the lies in here. We have a list of them here. Say them. Say some of the big ones. Terrible lies. All right. Some of the big ones that Trump said that Democratic-led states allow baits to be

executed after birth. It's a terrible lie. That is definitely not true. That Iran did not fund terror groups during his presidency. Not true. But the U.S. provided more aid to Ukraine than Europe has. Not true.

That Biden has, for years, referred to black people as super-present. That's not true. There was a narrative around what a super predator was during the time that the crime bill was passed. But there was actually someone else who had said the term super predator. And Biden didn't specifically refer to black people as super predators, although I will say the crime bill itself disproportionately affected black males. And on top of that, I think it's fair for someone to say, that the image of the super predator

that was propagated by the people who passed the crime bill that image was probably of a young black male when they were talking about someone who was incorrigible and who had to be jailed rather than rehabilitated in society.

But if we want to talk about the crime bill, we're going to have to talk about the entire trough of bad ideas that were in it and some of the people who supported it who looked just like me and you. Everybody owes an explanation and an apology.

Biden, the Clintons, and the CBC as well. That Biden is playing to quadruple people's taxes. That Nancy Pelosi turned down 10,000 national guard troops for the USA Capitol on January 6th, 2021. That Americans don't pay the cost of his tariffs on other countries. That's a big lie that Europe accepts no American cars, that he is the president who got the Veterans Choice Program

through Congress that actually was Obama. That fraud marred the results of the 2020 election. That's a really deeply destructive lie. and that assertions and made assertions that the U.S. currently has its biggest budget deficit and its biggest trade deficit with China. Those are both records that actually occurred under Trump. There are some truths that are true about Donald Trump's administration.

He did lose more jobs than he came in with a feat that was only that hadn't happened since Herbert Hoover. In the four years that he was there, he did run the budget up more than any other president. Now there are other presidents that run the deficit up. but those presidents had eight years to do it. Trump was able to in a four-year period run the deficit up more than anyone else.

There are a lot of things that Donald Trump straight lied about. He lied about the fact that he didn't fuck Stormy Daniels. It's a lie. We know that he did, right? Part of what was going on there, people had a lot of problems with the moderation that came from CNN in terms of fact-checking his lies.

Joe Biden was not up to the task of checking their lies in real time? Do you have a problem with the way CNN moderated the debate? Listen, no, I don't in the spirit of debating, right? It's not really up to them.

That's the job of the two people on stage. But when you have that many lies in 90 minutes, I do wish, and they're that outrageous, because Joe Biden wasn't doing it, it just let these lies live as if they were the reality. And most

people aren't going to go read an article that's fact checking the debate. They're going to take it as truth. Like, why with this person who wants to be the leader of the country lied to me? That's what they're going to look at it. So because I'm inside Trump, I wish I would have seen that from the moderators. But the way that a debate actually works, that's not their job. Their job is to move it and keep it going. It's not their job to say, hey, you're lying, hey, you're lying. Or actually, that's not really true. We wanted to see it because Biden wasn't doing it. Yeah. Biden came off with a couple of falsehoods during the debate as well. He used false numbers while describing two of his key Medicare policies. Falsely claimed that no U.S. troops have been

killed on his watch repeated his usual misleading figure about billionaires' tax rates, basically claim that Trump wants to eliminate Social Security. But also he said that the unemployment rate was 15% when he took office. I think it was around 6%. And accurately said that the Border Patrol Union had endorsed him, which they came out on Twitter and debunked right away, before clarifying that he was talking about agent support for the border bill that he had back. So he did track clean that went up a little bit.

Exaggerated Trump's 2020 comments about the possibility of treating COVID-19 by injecting disinfection, disinfected. I don't know if that was that much of an exaggeration. I mean, Trump talked about that. And with the pulpit of the president, the presidency, it makes a lot of people think that it's viable. He also talked about hitting it with an extreme light. I think you have to consider how strong the messaging coming from the presidency is when you say that he exaggerated that, I think bringing it up on Trump's part. gave a certain amount of validity to it that made stupid people injecting themselves with bleach. You know, the most patriotic thing that Joe Biden could do right now

is to step aside. The reality is this, though, almost everyone that I, that I talked to about this, people in the know, people close to the administration, that's pie in the sky. It's a political quagmire. Who do you go to? There are a couple of people out there. There are a couple of people out there. Obviously, you heard strong words from Gavin Newsom, who is a shiny quarter to a lot of people when they want to talk about who will replace Joe Biden. There's Gretchen Whitmer. There's Westmore. There's Shapiro from Pennsylvania. There are no dream candidates out there. They're just people that we think would be better in situations, particularly situations like this. But no one really mentions Kamala Harris during these conversations about who should take

over. And remember, you'd have to jump her. You'd have to particularly think about the situation with Gavin Newsom, Gavin Newsom, who I think is an impressive politician, if not a flawed one. You got to come in and step him aside and put another white male in his 50s over Kamala Harris. The optics are terrible. And they would be. really deflating to a large part of the party, particularly the part of the party that's most loyal to the Democrats, which is black women. Who knows how they would respond to put in a white man at the top of the ticket when you've had a black VP for the last three and a half years, one who a lot of people feel like has been marginalized in hamstrung with what she's been able to say and how visible she's been able to be during the time she's been in Washington in the first place. So there are no easy answers here. As much as people are panicking here, there are no easy answers.

I agree. And that's part of the, there are a couple of things to what you just said. I agree with you. There are no easy answers. And that's part of the reason I have such a problem. When people are like, Biden's got to step aside. Okay, well, then who's next? What's the resolution?

Don't tell me, complain about a problem if you don't have a solution. And a good one at that. We're talking about the presidency here. this is an emergency. You can't just throw that out there and then not have some kind of plan of action of what is next. You don't even have one of these people that's been listed stepping up to say, I'm ready to do the job. If or Biden should step aside, all these people are being loyal, which of course makes sense. This is politics. Here's my question. Who's Joe Biden? Was it the Joe Biden we saw last night? Or is it the Joe Biden we've seen before? If he's closer to what? we saw last night that I'm willing to entertain the conversation of what's what is a replacement option. Did he just, is this a one-off or is this who he is? That is the question we don't know the answer to, which is why I cannot jump into this hysteria and act like we need to move on from him. I don't know which one he is. That might be the bigger problem. What I will say about Kamala? I do not think

the media does a good job of talking about Kamala Harris. She was on Anderson Cooper. She was strong. She was good. But I don't know if it's because she did run for president, the presidency, and her campaign, it like peaked really early and then it fell really flat. And there was all this drama surrounding the way that she was running in, people talking that were, you know, behind the scenes with her campaign about the way she was running things. And people felt like she was good, but she wasn't fit for the presidency. That started to be the fodder around her. I think that still lingers in people's minds,

and that's why she doesn't get brought up. But I also don't think the media does a good job of following her and highlighting what she does. You could say that's also the administration, not putting her in the forefront. She does a lot. She does a lot. But it's not their job to highlight what she does, though.

It's not the media's job to highlight what she does. The media does pick and choose what they decide to talk about. Yeah, but it's not the media's job to make Kamala Harris look good. I'm not saying it's to look good, but you can at least talk about what she's doing. And I don't think that that gets done a lot. She's not sitting on her house, not doing anything.

I think it's the job of the administration. Okay, but who carries that to the viewers? It's people are not logging on to the website of the president, VP, whatever, and are looking at what they're doing. It's the media who translate that. I'm not putting it all in the media. I'm just saying. I think, for example, we're talking about, we're talking about the debate.

We're talking about what Gavin Newsom said. We're talking about this person. Commonwealth was on Anderson Cooper and did a fantastic job talking about the debate. We haven't really highlighted. We're not really talking about it. She was solid. She was good. She looked like, hey, she looked like I could step in.

I could step in if something happens to him. That's what she looked like last night. Can I be honest with you? Like, so the thing with me with Kamala, especially last night was I had a lot of trepidation about her coming on Anderson Cooper she did do well she did do that and she did what she has to do

which was go out there and make sense of everything for the president but for them to hide her as much as they've been hiding her for them to do that and then to go to her

her when it was time for her to carry the president's water after a disastrous night in Georgia. It kind of made me, even in that situation, she was playing defense. Like she was playing defense. Yeah, she was strong. She was going back at Anderson Cooper, but she didn't have, in my opinion, the moral or intellectual high ground. She wasn't put in a good spot. he was talking about

like Newsom or any of these people and these are the people that I was talking about earlier when I was saying like don't gaslight us people that I even consider to be friends that are talking in this way and they're saying don't gaslight us I mean we watch the debate so if we're going to have a conversation about it

let's have a conversation about it that to me accesses the moment in an emotionally and intellectually honest way. Right? And, you know, this is politics.

It's a team sport. So that was going to be impossible for some people to do. But for her to have to do it right then, right after the debate, when I personally don't think that they've poured into her the way that they should have,

actually felt bad for it. I felt bad for that she had to come out there and after being sort of overlooked in the time that she's been overlooked do the work of the White House, do the work that they couldn't do on the stage in front of the entire country. I felt bad for it. Well, she held her own. She did it. I thought it just thought about this as you were saying this. Do you think that

we don't see her as much because she does maybe overshine him in moments when he should be the one stating out? So, if I'm fair about this as well, say. I think part of this with her and with us talking about the fact that we don't see her more, part of it is that we expected to see her more. Yeah. I'm actually not sure if we've seen Kamala Harris any more or any less than we've seen any other vice president besides Dick Cheney who was very, very visible, right? who was very, very visible. Right. So I'm not sure if we've seen her any more or any less

than we've seen any other vice president. I think the historic nature of her nomination and her position and the fact that it was black Americans, in my opinion, specifically black women,

who won the election from Joe Biden in 2020, I think part of of our disappointment with the visibility of Kamala Harris is that we expected to see her more. I don't know if I can go back and go, okay, we didn't see

we saw Dan Quill more than this. We saw George H.W. Bush more than this. We saw Al Gore more than this. We saw Joe Biden more than this. We saw Mike Pence more than this. I'm actually not sure about that. I think there was expectation there that she would be a bigger political figure now than she is. That there was a part of this that would be a baton handing. and that certainly hasn't been the case.

No, you'd bring up a really good point. I think there was a lot of hype surrounding Kamala Harris due to her historic nature of her being the VP. And we wanted it. And I think, too, how Biden came in with the support of the black vote, but specifically the things he was going to do and with a black woman by his side,

we really thought, I think, not just that we would see her more, but that we would see more from her doing stuff for us. So I do think our expectations were probably a little too high, but all that to say, I need people to chill out. I think people to chill out. Biden is going to be the nominee.

We need to rally behind him, and I don't want to hear it again. I don't. I just don't. That's what I'll say. I would literally vote for Joe Biden's head, in a jar of formaldehyde before I will vote for Donald Trump.

I would. However, I'm a person, I'm a human being. A lot of the fear about a second Donald Trump administration where he's going to be

full of retribution and revenge and he's going to be armed with a Republican House. I mean, think about down ballot how running a weak president might affect things. They talked about this a little bit on some of the after shows last night. What could happen in November in terms of the House and the Senate?

Think about an all-powerful steroid it up Donald Trump full of bloodlust and revenge, waging a four-year war against American institutions and on behalf of some of the wackiest people in America. That's something that they've sufficiently been able to sell as a legitimate fear. What they haven't been able to do, in my opinion, is give people the figure that would make them feel okay about going into battle against that. And that's on them. And as much as we want to talk about it, as much as we want to say, hey, that's on them. That's their thing. And they got to wear that. I'll give you that. I'll give you some of that. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Cream. The day doesn't ask for permission.

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There were a lot of different reactions to his loss up there. He lost to George Latimer, New York 16th Disher we had had, booming on. George Lettlement Sport spent $25 million, according to ad tracking from ad impact, more than any other house primary in history. Nearly 15 million of that spending came from the United Democracy Project, a super PAC linked to APEC, a powerful pro-Israel lot. There were some other people who lost, who won.

Lauren Bulbert won over there in Colorado. Some reactions there. We're not going to spend too much time about this. What was your thoughts about the loss of Jamal? What did you talk about him to lose? I'm disappointed. I really enjoyed him coming on our show, even though we're not particularly impacted

because we're not in this district, but it's upsetting to see. I think we kind of talked about this with him, about the, is there a trend of looking at this race and seeing who was behind Latimer? Who was spending money and how much money in regards to fronting him for him to be, to win, and he did.

Is this something we're going to see in other races, particularly progressive or progressives? Like people are starting to talk about Cory Bush. Cory Bush is saying the same, these same packs are coming after her and are going to be challenging her and uplifting the person that she's going to be running it against. Are Democrats more into the moderate Democrats? Was Bowman too focused on national issues more than he was on the district? I think that was something that was being told to some of his constituents. and they looked at that. I even saw somebody say that he had a huge part of the Jewish vote in 2020

because they were standing with Black People for Black Lives Matter and then they were disappointed in his stance in regards to Israel. I look at this and I look at it as telling of maybe what's to come with Democratic Party, less progressives, more moderates. Hmm. The party has always tried to suppress those progressive voices, if you ask me. They just don't... It looked like we were trending, you know, the squad.

It looked like possibly things were not turning, but slowly moving. Now, I'll be honest with you. There are a couple of reasons. Number one, I think, if I'm being completely honest, I think the most progressive parts of the Democrats might have overestimates might have overestimated how fast things were changing. They might have jumped the gun a tick and the death rattle that

the corporate Democrat wing of the party was going to go through before they took them over. And so I think that the moment realized for the progressives to have a significant part of the party might have been there might have been a little miscalculation and remember

the Democrats did everything they could to squash Bernie Sanders they the squad and you know all the members of the squad

have been in my opinion marginalized by the centrist and moderate voices in the party because they don't believe that

some of the policies that progressives had can win in a country that is a lot more centrist

and moderate than I guess people believe it to be, even though when you look at the polling generally of a lot of the progressive policies, there are a lot of Americans who agree with them. The point is where those Americans at, are there enough of them in places that, you know, states that you need to affect House leadership and to affect, you know, leadership in the Senate? how does progressive policy play out in state and local legislatures everywhere, right? Because the Republicans, the right, they invest heavily into taking over state houses, heavily into taking over state houses. And the only way to do that is to be in lockstep with the thoughts and needs and desires of people who are like right around the corner from you. You know what I mean? and this brand of Republican of populism,

it just lends itself to being really super conservative. And being a progressive is always about a vision for the future and imagining society in a way that works for everyone and might work for people who you don't really have very much in common with. And they might have kind of, to be honest with you, they might have kind of, you know, just overestimated how fast people were willing to, to embrace that. Because besides Bowman, who wasn't the strongest candidate going into this race, you know, he wasn't. He wasn't the strongest candidate, not just because of the money that APEC is going to spend, and that's not going to stop.

AAC, in my opinion, is representative of foreign government, and they are going to try to buy elections. I mean, that's, there's nothing. That's, that's just lobbying groups buy elections. APEC is a lobby, and they're going to try to buy elections. That's what they're going to try to do. The amount of money that they have is, is pretty infinite, and they want the pro-Israel lobby to exist in American politics. And that's going to be a bipartisan effort.

They're going to fund Democrats against other Democrats. They're going to refund, they're going to fund Republicans. against other Republicans and all of these other issues aren't going to matter. It doesn't matter whether or not you believe that the elections are rigged or not, whether or not you believe in voting rights, whether or not you believe in that. It's a one-issue lobby, and they are going to come for anyone who does not completely, completely agree with Zionism in its practice, both over there and, like, as a worldwide political movement.

So that's going to be that. The question is, how strong of a candidate are you going into that? And I don't think Jamal Bowman was quite as strong this year as he was in 2020. And that's just being fair to the entire thing. But, you know, I see a lot of other people in the squad moving to the middle a little bit. I see people who still have some of their ideals intact, but realize that if they want a future in politics, that they might have to go out hand and shake some hands if they bend the knee. little bit, a little bit. This is why, you know,

your belief should be in policy and not people. All right, moving on. Jamal has a bright future. I believe him to be a good man. And I think there'll probably be lessons learned from this, too. There's Vladimir Guy I don't know that much about him, but I do know that he's probably a right winger. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business, fast, reliable, Internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business.

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You don't need Wednesday. weather tech floor liners in the summer, unless you hit the beach or go camping, then you'd want a cargo liner or road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Oh, oh, brawny James. Rachel. Ronnie. What? 55 to the Lakers, 55th pick.

Bronny James, son of LeBron James. He's going to play alongside his father. Bronny James reacted to being drafted by the Lakers with a post on Instagram saying he was beyond blessed. Yes, he is. Lacey knows. Beyond blessed. Yeah, he's beyond blessed. Rachel, what do you think about the drafting of Brony James?

I kind of changed my mind a bit. Okay. After listening to some people talk. but I do and when I say that I mean in the sense of I was like this isn't right

it's not fair he took somebody's five but after listening to some people talk who are much more educated on the subject than me I understand it right

I'm not it's also a lot of people in second round don't make the team they go to the G league they may go overseas you don't really like it's

it's for optics and history. I feel like more than anything. But as I watched all the talk about, will he be drafted? Will he go to the Lakers? And then I watched people say that Rich Paul was allegedly calling other owners and saying, do not draft him

unless it's Phoenix or the Lakers because he's going to go to Australia. It just, I feel so sorry for Browning. He is blessed. You know, he, and he clearly, has a family that loves him and wants to see him succeed and really is doing everything in their power to make that happen for him, which LeBron broke down doors for that to happen, right? I'm not saying that I've even, I've even benefited from nepotism. So, yes, I have fans smiles. My dad was a lawyer than a judge. My first job that I got out of law school when law firms weren't hiring. I didn't go to Harvard. I didn't going to the top schools. I was in top of my class. I was smart, but I didn't have like necessarily the numbers. My dad called in and got me a job with people he used to work with. And then from then on,

I was able to prove myself. But, but I remember my dad saying, I'm going to butcher this, but I remember him saying something along the lines of like, that is what they do for each other. So why would I not do that for you? You know, part of the reason that my dad is still in his 70s is a federal judge when you could take senior status is because he wants to make sure that black people are given the opportunity to clerk and have the other opportunities that white clerks are. They're just not given the same, especially when there's no representation. So I understand what LeBron James is doing, which is why I've changed my stance. But I still feel sorry for LeBron. I mean, for brawny. I really do. He just has such, I'm not saying he's not strong enough to do it, but he is such an uphill battle.

it's everybody's going to be talking about this draft and what LeBron and Rich Paul did and the Lakers did. And, you know, they're going to be talking about his stats. And if this was somebody else, it wouldn't have happened. And I just want him to be able to play a game that he loves. I know he's going to work hard. He's going to get mentored under the best of the best. But I just am like, gosh, I just want him to be able to play and not have to. you know, navigate all of this as well.

And I just feel so bad for him at the same time. Like, yes, he just got drafted. He's going to the Lakers and he's LeBron James' son, namesake. But I still feel bad for him. He's a kid. Yeah. All right.

So talking about the nepotism part of this, did you hear what Jay Williams had to say about this? Let me hear again. Yeah, Ash, could you play that real quick, Jay Williams from over there on ESPN? First off, I think nepotism has a different definition. because I've been in a lot of rooms where I've seen it to people who aren't

worthy of the opportunity. And if you're not worthy of the opportunity, then I'm going to get angry about the opportunity you will afford it, but I understand how the game is played. 99.9% of the time, none of those people look like us, Perk. And I think when I saw a lot of this chatter online from people that look like us,

I'm like, hold on, don't we need more instances of black nepotism, especially when that person has the disposition and a demeanor of somebody that's worthy of being put in that position. So when I look at Brani, I watch games. I've seen games where he showed up the games

two and a half hours early. That's right. Where he stayed after the games working out. Yeah. Where I've talked to him and he said the right things. After the late, the games, he's on a basketball course shooting. Even the way he's handled the McDonald's All-American game. Even the way LeBron has handled his career.

why is that not worthy of the opportunity of being drafted in the second round, which, by the way, none of these fans could tell me any other player that was drafted with the 50th pick in the second round of any other year in the draft. Okay, so here's the deal. All right, so here's a reality about this conversation. There are two things that I feel like are cluttering this conversation. One is dick riding. That's obviously going on.

Okay. So one is dick riding and the other one is capitalism. All right. So the dick riding comes from the fact. And that's the only word I can use it. The dick riding comes from this fact. We love LeBron James. And the way that LeBron James is loved has been earned. I'll go ahead and and ride a little dick myself right now. LeBron James is a superb example of, you know, an athletic career. Not a good one. A superb example, right? If you ask me who's a greater player out of LeBron and Michael Jordan, I would say Michael Jordan. If you ask me who I'd rather be, the answer would be Kobe. No, the answer would be, um, the answer would be LeBron James. When you look at LeBron James, you see a singular American success story and somebody who then took that started a school has given back, hasn't been apolitical, hasn't been someone who's gone along to get along, who's used his platform, not all the times and things I agree with,

but to affect change and has been such an amazing father, husband, and role model, it's fantastic. So when you see this, you go, oh my God, it's LeBron. I don't want to say anything wrong about this guy and his beautiful family. and everything that he's accomplished. This is wrong. And there are reasons that are deeper than just sports as to why this is wrong.

Jay asked a question right there. I think the question was, should we want black nepotism, basically? Like, shouldn't we want nepotism for black people in this situation? No. Not really. I mean, no. This is what I did.

I went down for the last 10 years and looked at the 55th pick of the draft. 10 years. 7 out of 10 of them are black. 7 out of 10 of those guys are black, 70%, which is about the percentage of black players in the NBA. 7 out of 10 of them. Now, not a lot of these guys are making contributions on an NBA team, but understand what getting drafted does.

Getting drafted makes it easier. for you to contribute to an NBA team. It makes it easier because it ties you to the team. You're a part of the team's organization. If you're a friend Van Fleet or somebody like that, being connected to the team

makes your road there easier. All right? So for a guy to get that opportunity and be in that spot, it does mean a lot. It doesn't mean that you're going to have a long NBA career. It doesn't mean that you're going to have an NBA career at all. But the fact that you were drafted into the NBA

makes it easier for you to go overseas. It makes it easier for you to procure an agent. It makes you easier for you to do all of those things. So he got somebody's spot when there's no way to argue that he deserved it. That's not to say that LeBron James Jr. That brawny is not an NBA prospect. he is and he would have been but he's not right now

he hasn't earned that right now he just hasn't something else I think about when I think about this LeBron James Jr. had no he can't control the fact that he is going to be the recipient of nepotism for his entire life

he will be he will be the recipient of nepotism yes we have to think about things in the way that we think them in the way that we look at as black people, as a community and a culture, do we want things to be equal and fair? Do we want equality?

Or do we want access to the same domination and inequality that white people have access to? Do we want to be free or do we want to be white? Because saying that white people have been able to do this so that we should be able to do it it's different than saying, hey, we want things to be on an equal playing field.

We want power, success, and equality for our community. Do we want to be able to do something that's wrong just because white people can do it? And it's wrong. That's the question I always ask. And let me tell you,

just real quick, real quick, and I'll tell you why I ask this. We talked about wealth inequality within between black people and white people

on the podcast not too long ago do you know what's even more striking than those numbers what intra-community

wealth inequality according to the Pew Research study rich black people are 19 times wealthier than middle-class

black people and they are 1,300 times 1,300 times richer than poor black people. Rich black people are 1,382 times richer than poor black people.

What's a rich black person is considered to be? I mean, are there numbers attached to it? Like, what's rich? There are. Like, you're in the 1%, your wealth is above $500,000,

all of that stuff. But, like, when you're talking, talking about that. Those those are numbers that like, you know, when you talk about who's wealthy, what your net worth is, right? So when I'm looking at this, I'm saying, okay, like the black nepotism that you want, it actually chokes the mobility of people that we say that we're fighting for and trying to represent every single day. It actually stops their mobility. If LeBron James is going to hand his company to his kid, cool. We see people do that.

If LeBron James is going to build a business for his kid, cool. That's soft nepotism. But to leverage his power as an NBA star to take a spot from somebody else, that's like directly affecting someone's access. It's not the same. So I understand what you're saying. And some of the reasons is that I had an issue with it at the beginning. You know, I think what's happening is, from what I watch, people are minimizing what the 50-fid spot means.

And I think that to your point, hearing your name, which we heard Rich Paul say, I think he said it on the PIPA podcast. It was important for LeBroni said he wanted to hear his name. And they gave that to him. I don't know say they bought it, but they made the opportunity happen for him to hear his name where somebody else didn't. Yet you're right, he's not qualified to be the 50-fifth pick. We know that. But I will say to your point about nepotism and do we want to be white or do we want to be equal, the pushback that I'll give to that is there's something in between there. When we don't have representation, there are a lot of times where we are qualified and we won't even be looked at. So to the point of what I said about like my dad, he's not taking a Bronny James and giving him a position. of a clerkship that, because he doesn't have qualifications, he's giving the opportunity

for somebody who would be overlooked as a black, brown, whatever person that is qualified to be there. That isn't necessarily getting those spots, right? People get me into white, but do you understand what I'm saying? I don't know, you're looking at me. I don't know.

I do. So that's not being white to me or it's, we're not in the room. So they're picking people who look like them or, you know, maybe they have a connection to. They might be qualified, but they're still like, oh, they went to my alma mater. Oh, oh, I know their parents. Oh, they work with me.

So if you're, if a person like my dad is in a position to feel qualified minority and bring them up when they might otherwise not be chosen, that to me is equality. That's not being white. They deserve to be there, right? You know what I'm saying? So I feel like there's space in between. I don't think it's either. it's one or the other, there's something in between

that I do think minorities are deserving of. That doesn't always have. So this is what I would say. If it is, I like to hire black people and have black people around me, right? I like to have that sort of cultural. I like to hire black people. This is what I would say though. There's a difference between giving somebody who's qualified a shot

and given somebody who's not qualified or hasn't earned it. Putting them in position. Right. So what I'm saying is, When we're talking about nepotism and the corrosive part of nepotism, that's essentially what we're talking about. For example, George W. Bush, ridiculous nepotism, right? George W. Bush had never really succeeded at anything in his life.

He didn't, like, seriously. He had never really succeeded at anything in his life. He had failed and failed and failed and failed being investigated by different people that failed and failed and failed and go, you know, I'll try politics. I'll run on my family name. And he became the president. Right. Barack Obama,

singularly the most qualified guy ever to become the president and they treated him like he was the enemy. Right? So when I'm talking about like taking a spot from somebody who earned it and by the way, somebody who needs it, that's the part of it

to where I look at some of the stuff that people are saying and I'm like, well, no, I don't want to, look, if you have a company and you're going to say, hey, I'm going to raise my kid to take my company over. Just let you know, you're going to be working for him. Fine. Cool. Whatever. But if we're all trying to be scientists and your kid is a booger eater and then you get him a job somewhere else

where somebody who actually should have the opportunity to where it really matters for them, to where it really matters for them, I don't think that there's, any value in doing that, particularly if the person whose job that you're going to be taking is probably going to be black. Like big DJ Burns, right? Big, big, big DJ Burns from, uh, from NC State. You know, you all saw him, he lost 45 pounds for the draft. Didn't get drafted?

Didn't get drafted. Lost 45 pounds from the draft. Now I'm not saying Bronny took his spot, but I'm saying here's a guy that took his team deep into the tournament, right? It's a project, six, not, but lost 50 pounds to get to the draft. Somebody who needs to change his family's life,

and they drafted LeBron James' kid to the Lakers. I mean, yeah, we should say for people who don't really pay attention to getting drafts in the second round does not guarantee you spot on the team and there's no guarantee contract. I just want to say that because you said, just because if that had been his spot, let's just speak out with that.

He doesn't mean to change. No, no, but we have to say this. But what I'm saying is the opportunity to change it. LeBron James Jr. is now in the Lakers organization. And by the way, DJ Burns did get signed. Yeah, like he did get signed. I think he got signed yesterday or something like that. But it ties you to the team.

It makes you a part of the team. You're right. This is why I feel so sorry for LeBron. I mean, for Brony. These are the conversations that are always going to follow him. he is not people are going to do him no favor should he

make the roster and be a part of the team even if he makes G league and he plays for the South Bay Lakers he's he's got such an uphill battle he this will always be if he works as hard

as he does and he becomes one of the best players in the NBA people will always talk about him people will always say he didn't deserve this people will always say his his dad bought this for him. And that's what makes it sad. Like, Jay Will talks about his integrity.

Nobody's going to take that away from Brody. He might work hard. He might be shooting in the gym later and earlier than everybody else. He might have a positive attitude, encourages his teammates, easy to work with. That doesn't necessarily mean it translates to numbers and how he is on the court. But all of that goes out the window when we start having these conversations about why he got to be the 55th pick. I just feel so

And he didn't ask for that Right Of course he's not going to say no to it He's not going to say no But it's sad to me It's sad And what are they going to do for Bryce What are they going to do for Bryce?

I mean look I'm going to be honest with you As a basketball player LeBronny has a lot of promise He actually does I saw him working out a couple of days ago He has a lot of promise I personally think that

With a couple more years in college she average like five points a game last year. It just wasn't. He came out as a one and dad. Had to have a medical issue. Right. It's awesome that the kids, he's actually overcome a lot.

And I literally wish him nothing but the best. And I'm going to be honest with you, man. I think there's a chance that he becomes a pretty decent pro. Because I think that it probably would have happened, right? And the younger boy is a little bit bigger. He can really shoot it. There's a lot of things going on and all of that stuff. So he might actually be a decent prospect by the time he comes out of Sierra Canyon, too.

You know, like I said, it's not unheard of. Yonnis has his brother playing on the team over there in Milwaukee. He's arguably the worst player in the NBA, maybe the worst player, one of the worst players in the history of the league. So it's facts. But like, he gives us some entertainment. I'm just saying, you know, LeBron James lived a certain type of life. where he needed the NBA to change his life. He had the talent to make him a can't miss.

There are other people that need to work their way into the league and they need those same types of things. And a lot of times they'd be young black men and there's a young black man that was deserving that did make the McDonald's All-American Team because LeBron James Jr. was on it. All of these accolades and all of these things, it's that type of nepotism.

I don't want that to exist. I don't want that. I don't. Who would you rather be? I got you a job. The kid who didn't get it. I feel so sorry for this kid. I do.

I wish him all the best. I hope he really just impresses all the naysayers. But I'll tell you what, everybody going to be watching that first G-League game. Not G-League. I actually. Everybody's going to be watching. Are we going? I hope I'll go to some of the league.

Look, I hope he does great. Good kid. Good kid and very talented. But I just think he hadn't earned a spot in the NBA yet. He hasn't. And he hasn't been given one yet. Yeah. Sorry.

We got Melbax today. We got Mel back. We got Mel back. We're out of here. Mailback. Mailback time. Time to read your letters. And then we'll reply to them.

Oh, it's mailback time. write us with your queries and we'll chime in from Albag the first question is from Queen B-12 what movie do you watch

when you need to cheer up and what movie do you watch we need a good cry oh this is a van question when I need to cheer up it's a good question I got it when I need to cheer up

you think about when I need a cheer up I love the double-wurst prada. So I don't know if it cheered me up, but I just love that movie. And it just makes me happy and I'm entertained and it distracts me from whatever else is going on. When I need a cry, it's legends of the fall.

Oh, wow. It's Lesions of the Fall. It's good. When I need to cheer up, it might be it's going to sound stupid but you ever watch You've got mail

Is that your So it's a rom-coms Rom-coms do it for you It's a delightful little movie It's a delightful little movie When I need to cry I don't know I'd have to think about that

I don't really There's a lot of movies that get to me Oh when I need to cry It's Shawshack redemption It's a good one It's good one Always gets to me Yeah

Okay, this one's from Lions R12. How would your 16-year-old selves react if they could see your lives and careers right now? Oh, man. I'll be happy. You know, I would definitely

be happy, like, you know, living out in Los Angeles and doing the whole nine hours. I would be, I think I'd be pretty proud of myself. I think professionally 16-year-old Rachel would be thrilled, a little confused because she thought she would just be practicing law, but she would be thrilled.

I think personally, when I think of who I was at 16, I was very, you know, walking the straight and narrow. I thought I would get married young, have all these kids. So she'd be a little surprised that, you know, she's 39, divorce, no kids. and she out here. But she would be saying, but I would, she would also, she would also say,

39, Rachel would tell her that you're the happiest that she probably ever fit. Nice. Okay. This one's from Wild Nishats, I think. Who gets stopped more in public

for a photograph than or Rachel? Oh, man. I don't know if that's true. We've never, like, been together when that's happened. I've never been around, right? Like, have we been out in public where there's a big crowd? I don't know. I don't think so.

I don't think, I mean, I get, I mean, I'll get stopped for photos all the time. But, like, it, but it. See, there you go. I would say that. I mean, I know that you do, though. Like, everyone. I think band does. I think they can stop more.

I don't know. That might be bullshit. All right. Dark Blue X2. They ask, which American city's black population has the biggest

influence on black American culture overall? Which American cities population black population has the bigger? Probably Atlanta. Yeah, it's definitely Atlanta.

Probably Atlanta. Probably Atlanta. Atlanta, I would have to say Atlanta. Just because so much music, art and culture come out of Atlanta.

Houston up there too, though. That's because a bunch of Atlanta folks were moving to Houston. I was just saying Houston, the Houston folks are complaining. They don't like it. It's not the same city. They don't like it. It's not the same city. I'll say when I was there for a week, and I was like,

hmm, it's different. Let me ask you a question. Grass being on the walls of a place. Now that I don't have any grass on my walls. grass being on the walls of a place is that an Atlanta thing you know what I'm talking about

like you go to a place I see that out here I got grass on the walls I see that everywhere yeah I see that everywhere I don't like grass on the walls man I do not like it I didn't it's not real

I know but it's just why would there be grass on the walls because like the green back is pretty like it's usually it's first off not real. It's not grass. But then there's usually like a sign, you know, that's like rosé all day or, you know, it's like everything's a photlock these days. So it's usually grass plus something else. Now you've got to be saying grass. Greenery plus something else. It's very random. You definitely don't just see that in Atlanta. I see that when people brunch. See it at brunch places, trendy places. Because they want to see a picture in front of it. I see a lot of Atlanta, these different twerk inspired brunches. with grass on the walls, and I don't want grass on the walls. Okay.

It's a lot of places. Grass on the walls makes me think about soil on the walls that makes me think about bugs in the soil. It's not real. That makes me think about eating under bucks. Do you understand what I'm saying, though? Yes. Like, it's, it's grass on the walls makes me feel like I'm eating. You know, I don't really like to eat outdoors.

Did you know this about me? I could see that. I did not know that about you, but I can understand. You don't want to, like, have to constantly be shooing things away or something fall on you. Like, you've got to work to eat. I get that. Even when I'm at a cookout, I like to take the food back inside of wherever's house it is and eat in there. Have you had a traumatic experience?

Maranguin, Louisiana, where we would go out home and we would eat at Ain't Do's Place, or, you know, we be out there. And it's just a lot of wildlife. When you're out there, you're trying to eat. And when you got your food and your plate, the wildlife, they check on you. They check to see what's up. And when I'm telling you wildlife, I'm talking about real wildlife in Maryland. I'm talking about the real, we're talking about the chapar lair raining. We talk about real wildlife.

Like you look over and you see a fucking animal, like a real animal. And the animal sees you eating your plate and the animal just checks in with you. Like, you know, I'm coming to get that. you know, I'm coming to get that. And you're a kid. So you don't know what these animals that you're looking at are. You might see a fucking boar. They got bears.

You know what I'm saying? And people are just out there eating like they don't fucking care. Oh, it's a snake. Pick the snake up, throw a snake. Like it's like they've been out there. But for me, I was just like, yo, man, who wants to fucking eat? It's fucking zoobily zoo. Everyone around.

And I just never, after that fucking, hold on. Something else, by the way, you know what's underrated, when you're eating outside in the country. Big ass fucking birds. Gigantic fucking birds that see everybody eating a big, and you'll look up. And the people that live out there, they never care, you'll look up.

What is that? We call that a dragon hawk. Yeah, some years ago, one of them came and picked your cousin up, took my way. We couldn't find them for five days, found him by the bayou. Yeah, go ahead and get you some of them on hot legs, though. Like all of that.

So I don't like to eat outdoors. and I've actually had a bird swoop down and take the link out of my hot dog and keep moving. See, that's part of my trauma with birds. You think I'm weird about this. Can you imagine how traumatic that is as a child? I love hot dogs. Got this hot dog in your hand. It's warm.

I don't get juicy. Just, ugh, just cannot wait to take a bite out of it. And then out of nowhere, this huge bird's swimming. whoops down, clean with it too. Took the link, left the buns, kept it moving. Yeah. I've experienced it. It's traumatic.

I'm really, I like a view. Yeah, I don't like it. Last question. Okay, this one's from sad particular, 2097. Big Rache locking up, Caitlin Clark got me thinking, what's an irrational confidence moment

that backfires spectacularly? Okay. don't be using me for the question i never said i was irrational an irrational moment that that backfires i was in an MLB the MLB all-star game baseball MLB that I said that had no business being out there uh they had a girl on each two there was that right after the Bachelorette they had me playing shortstop i've never played baseball or softball in my life. But for some reason, I committed to it.

Jason Taylor hits the ball, high up in the air. It's coming right to me. I'm like, I got this. I shoe people away, right? I'm shooing them. I got this, I got this, I got this. I look up and all of a sudden I lose it in the lights.

It hits me smack dab in my chest live on national TV. I never came back into the game. It was embarrassing. It was irrational. I never should have been out there. Shortstop, very difficult position to play. I shouldn't, like, I don't know who I thought I was. And, yeah, back back.

So I did. I did make it to come over to me and help me, but keep going. Ooh, Joy's brother. He's married now. You like a little beige. You like a beige wonder. You like a you like a tweaky looking nigga.

You want the cream filling. Okay, all right. All right, okay, let's move on. Yes. Like Joy, Joy and Jason, they are, first of all, beautiful family. They are like twinkie colored. It's a whole twinkie family.

Have you seen them? Keep going. They're beautiful people. Beautiful Twinkie people is what they are. Twinkies. So some years ago, when I started boxing,

Phil, shout out to Phil Polino over at Palina boxing. He said, hey, man, there's a softball. There's a guy who wants some sparring. He needs a Southpah to spar. And look, when you tell me that you need some sparring,

I'm thinking this other niggas that got regular jobs. You know what I'm saying? I think there's like, you know, somebody that's on extra or, I don't know, they work at Sony. These are the people that I was sparring, especially because I don't have been boxing last six months.

He got hands, though. He can fight. But this one was not that. This guy was going to fight Luis Ortiz in the Staples Center that weekend. His name was Roz Bond something. There's a big Romanian.

The guy was like 6 foot 8, 270, and he had, you know, he had been fighting for a long time. This was not this current version of me. This was me when I was around 2.30, 2.35, and I was a new boxer. And I got there, and when I was looking around, I told this story before, I was looking around, I was like, hey, you know, this looks like a pro gym. I see, I see niggas in here doing neck exercises. You know, they, they're doing, it's like, this was like a pro gym. We have pros at our gym too, but I was new as a boxer.

The guy came out and I saw him and I was like, fuck it. Wow. I know what I can do. I was like, fuck it. I was like, fuck it. I'm a, I'm a fight. I'm a fight ass whipping. By the fourth round, I couldn't even see nothing.

All I could do is, I could just, I'm serious. I could just heal, I can hear Phil's voice. All I could, I could just, I literally, Van, You're standing in front of them too much. Move, man, move, move, move, move. And when we finished, the guy's name is Rosvonne Cajano. It doesn't have the best record in the world.

He's 17 and 7. But, like, he fucked me up. And he, it was back. I was getting this story. How do you do against him today? I beat the shit out of me again. The fucking guy, what are you talking about? I know, but you give us you a more boxing experience now.

I know. I will be able to probably, I will be able to probably last longer and do a little bit more. But look, as an amateur, he represented Romania. He won a gold medal in the Super Heavyweight Division. You know, he was the first Romanian ever to fight for a world heavyweight title. I'm like, fuck it. Six, eight should have been your clue. Yeah, he's, uh, he's sitting, yeah, six eight, six foot eight.

And he put the jab on me in the right hand and fucked me up. Anyway, all right. Um, we got to go. Rach, how are you feeling about Democrats right now? You feel it all right? I don't know. Time will tell. Right now, I'm a little disappointed in how we're responding to this debate, but we'll see.

We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. Stay the course, everybody, and remember, don't gaslight your voters. Keep it all the way real. Let's see what happens. Take your thing, catch off, but do not stop learning on. Van Lathen, Jr. I'm Rachel and Lindsay.

Hi, guys.