Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - The Legendary Billy Porter, and Discussing a Hyperpartisan Supreme Court

Episode Date: October 25, 2022

Van and Rachel react to the Supreme Court becoming more partisan (18:46). Then, the award-winning and iconic Billy Porter joins the show to discuss support for LGBTQ media (40:35), and the intracommunity divide between straight and gay Black men (54:30). Plus, the McRib is back for the last time (1:28:29). Hosts: Van Lathan Jr. and Rachel Lindsay Guest: Billy Porter Producer: Donnie Beacham Jr. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. Jesus Christ, this is a bad angle for me. Higher learning is on. Is I, Van Lathan, Jr.? Sorry, and it's me, Rachel Lynn Lindsay. I was reading something. You just popped right in. I wasn't ready.

You're reading stuff from Texas's weekend. No going to say again. Van, is that how we're going to start off the podcast? I'm just asking. I, listen, the odds were against us, right? Okay steak was, okay. State was ranked higher. It was their homecoming. It was on their home field. We were leading for a time, which is why I thought.

Which is why I thought, oh, we got this in the bag. I stepped away for a second. Saw the comeback. We couldn't hold on to the lead. It was, it was tough. We looked good. Okay, State was a bet. They played a better game. What can I say? What can I say? Did you see what happened in Baton Rouge? Jal lost? No. Who'd you play? Played the number 17 in the country. to number 17 in the country.

Ole Miss. Are they? Yeah, number 17 in the country. Not anymore. Y'all aren't ranked. Yes, we are. Now? Yeah.

What? 18. Y'all jumped up to 18 with that win? We beat them 45 to 20. Wow. Jane Daniels. Harold Perkins. B.J.J. O. Jolari.

K. Sean Boutet. Brian Thomas, Jr., J. War. Mackay Wingo. Jack Bernard Converse. Call out the whole team. You know what I'm saying? We're playing ball.

We're playing ball. Armadi Goodwin is playing ball. Josh Taylor is playing ball. We're playing ball. In Baton Rouge, we're playing ball. LSU, we're playing ball. Paulian's got him playing ball. Davis, the old line coach.

He's got to play ball. We're about the two true freshmen starting on the offensive line. We got Emery Jones Jr. And Will Campbell, they're playing ball. You're done? We're playing ball. I can't. All right, Van.

Y'all won. Good. It was an upset. Did I mention Sage Ryan? I lost track of the names. That mentioned Greg Penn? Man. Did I mention Mike or Baskerville?

What's wrong with you? Did I mention? What's wrong? Yes. Yes. You named them all. I mentioned Tremont Sharks? Yes, yes.

Yes, yes, yes. You name them all. I just want to make sure that I don't leave anybody out. Okay. I mentioned we put Noah Kane on kickoff return and we stopped dropping the kickoff return. I hope you keep up this momentum with the team. I hope the team doesn't let you down. We got Alabama.

We got a buy and then we got Alabama. I guess what I'm saying right now, we want Bama. Where's the game? We want the game. The game is in Baton Rouge. Why don't you go? The game is in BR. Beton.

The game is in Baton. Hold on for a second. I got to say right. I got, hold on, just give me a second. I'll get warmed up. And Baton Rouge. That's what they came in. It's a Baton Rouge.

Okay, we got, we got studs coming in. We got guys coming in next year. We got Jordan Allen coming. He's a freshman, a little pup on the team right now. Landon Ibiata. Stop. Stop. We got Manning.

Oh, you guys got Manning coming in. That is true. Even though I like our quarterback right now. Oh, he's good. And Texas played good. It's tough. Like, Texas is doing great. Like, here's the thing.

That's a tough game. On the road, like against, like you said, against a number 11 team in the country, Oklahoma State's good. Texas is nearly won. Quinn yours will play maybe a slightly cleaner game. You guys would have won. But you guys are a good team. No, I know.

It was a tough loss. It was a tough loss. Cowboys won, though, so, you know. Who did they play? Detroit. We got to talk about that. It's all right. Do you play the Lions?

Oh, Detroit. Yeah. Dax back. Oh, Dat Press guy came back? Mm-hmm. They didn't overdo it, which was great.

What did he do? He was like 19 for 25. Okay, so he played out. A little over 200 yards. Yeah. Pretty accurate. They ran the ball a lot. Mm-hmm.

It's good. The Cowboys have Dre Jenkins, right? Who? Dre Jenkins. He plays wide receiver for the Cowboys, right? Does he?

Oh, I'm sorry. He plays for LSU. I was like, what? As does Malik neighbors. Donnie, I forgot. Are you really a Lions fan? Yuck. Yes.

Donnie, I agree with you. I never won anything. It sucks. Honestly, sucks. No, it does. But I feel like at some point, at some point in my lifetime,

we are going to win, and it's going to feel so good. So I'm just holding out for that moment. Wow. Who's going to be the quarterback that takes you guys to the promise land? Who, Jesus? You're going to have to,

Cup, Jesus is going to have to call it. The second coming. He's probably in middle school right now. He's a child, whoever it is. I feel like the Pistons, they'll win a championship before the Lions do. They fuck around and get good. But why does, I always wonder, what can keep a franchise sucking for like 30 years? If you ask people in Michigan, they'll say the owners.

Yeah. They'll say they need to sell the team. The Fords. It's bad management. They say the same thing about us with Jerry. Well, I mean, so Jerry won before. Jerry won before. How long has it been since we haven't even gotten close, not an NFC championship?

We haven't even been close. Don't make me relive. They'll make me talk about the team like this. You know. It's been like 27 years. What? Since we made it to the Super Bowl. Because you guys, I mean, you guys were good when you had Garrett Nussmeier.

He plays for LSU. Man, I'm not doing this anymore. Garrett Nussmire plays for LSU. Cane Walker Howard Fruseman Donnie Make him stop How's Bozeman

Oh Bozeman's doing better Oh yeah, how's Bozeman? Bozeman finally got neutered It was not a great situation Why? Number one We Okay

So Our dentist's name is Jack Bish Okay That's not true Jack Bess plays for a issue Okay Van Okay, okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't like seeing the dog anything other than super happy, lively, upbeat. He's, and like, Bozeman was, it feels like when he came out of the vet's office, he wouldn't get in the car. He was just so disoriented. He was like, what the hell? Why am I so tired? Like, where are my balls?

That's not what he was thinking. And then it's like, what? Who am I? to take, I feel like Van Lathen Animal Agent he betrayed Bowman. Who am I to take Bozeman's boss? Who am I to make that decision for him? Well, why did y'all decide to make that decision? Because they say it's better for his health.

Well, then there you go. That's not still, that's not. You made the right decision. That's not my decision to make. I'm going to be honest with you. I don't think it was right. It's not my decision to make. Boseman was born. You are his parent. There are other decisions that you

make for, you make for Bozeman too, that are in his best interest. I know, but I'm like, if I have real kids one day, not real kids, but if I have human, if I have human kids one day, I can't take their balls. Okay, because that's not something that we do. That's not better for their health. How do we know? I don't, you have to, at some point, you just got to trust. Are there studies about whether or not, I bet you society would be better, well, never mind, because they're just going to get mad and say that.

Like, I get my ass kick for almost everything to that. say, I'm just, they're just going to say, oh, Vince, look, all I'm saying is this, I don't want, I don't want, I don't want to take the dude's balls, man. Well, he's doing better, though. He's doing better. He's starting to play a game. Great. He's got the cone of shame on.

We took a nap earlier today, you know. Great. I don't want to take the man's balls. They're gone now. Does you have to move past it? You got to move past the balls. They're gone. We got a fantastic interview coming up.

We really do. Yeah. He gave us a lot of time, too. A lot of time. I appreciate that. Billy Porter. We got Billy Porter coming on the podcast. A legend.

Yeah. A super duper legend. Talks about a lot of stuff. You got very passionate. Billy Porter is very passionate. He's always passionate, which I did think is just part of the reason why he's so successful. Talented, but also passionate. Do you have to go somewhere after this, or you're just coming from extra?

I'm coming from extra, and then I'm going to go meet a couple of friends for dinner and drinks. What kind of dinner are you guys going to have? where you guys going? Holloway house. What the fuck is that? It's like a Soho house. It's the new one. Jesus Christ.

See what I'm saying? No. No. No. What is wrong with you? No. Mess all this up. Why do you state, no.

I wasn't, I've never been before. It's my first time. It's my first time. Why do you keep going to, knock that shit down? Where did I go? Why do you keep going to these different L.A. Swanky places, man? I go where I'm invited.

Somebody invited me, a group of people. You know them. Who? Justin. Oh, okay. Justin's cool. Justin's from Louisiana. I know.

So what? But when I call him, he's not shouting out the whole roster for the LSU Tigers. Justin, I saw Justin hanging out with Charles Turner one time. No, you did not stop. Don't make it. I know. He's somebody on the team. I know.

And you wonder why a couple of podcasts ago, you were like, Why don't people believe me? This is why you're a dentist. You put my friend with whoever else. Other person we're going out with is Nichelle. Nichelle, I don't know who that is. Michelle Turner. Oh, yeah, Nichelle's great.

So I have to say something. I spoke to Jomey from the Midnight Boys. And one of the people know, the story I told about Jomey meeting Michelle Yoh. Oh, he got mad at him. Wasn't true. That was a joke. Oh, Donnie, did you know that was a joke? Yeah.

No, I didn't. You got to stop. You got to stop. Did Jomey get upset? Jome, he didn't get upset, but you wanted me to set the record straight. Jomey did meet Michelle Yoh, as we all met her at Lawrence's house. But no, Jomey did not react in that way when he met Michelle Yow. I don't know if I can continue the podcast in this way.

Well, look. We have a lot of guests. You got to say I'm just kidding after. That is probably. I probably should say I'm just kidding. We got a lot of guests. coming up in the future of this podcast. Yeah.

Like, and I think we got Mason Taylor coming up. No, we don't. Stop. Stop. We don't have Mason Taylor. That I know because of Jason. Yeah, that's Jason's son and Joy's nephew. All right.

Damien Ramos could come. He's the kicker. Okay, that's enough. Now I'm addicted to it. Now I can't stop doing it. This is what happens. I get stuck on something and I can't stop doing it. Why don't you go to the game?

I'm going to A nigga, this shit is in Louisiana So? I got a lot of shit to do, man. Hip-hop homicides are getting ready to come out. You're about to go on a media tour. Yeah, hip-hop homicides comes out next week. Next week.

Wow, we should be talking about this more. Hip-up homicides comes out next week on Wee TV and streaming on All Black. What night? Thursday, Thursday, November 3rd, hip-hop homicides comes out. Please watch hip-hop homicide. And it's going to be great.

So I don't be having time to top of jazz. I'm not, hey, not everybody like you, nigga. You be going all around. Rachel, where are you at this weekend? I got to go to Zimbabwe. Please. And get a bag and come back. Rachel, where are you going?

I got a wedding. I can't see it. You're going to go to Shons. It was Scottsdale. Okay, I go to Scottsdale, Arizona, then Vegas, then Seattle. And then I got to go do a teacher's meeting in New York. And then I got to come back. Rachel traveled so much.

But she did the podcast from the fucking airport. Don't tell me. I got shit. I got to do stuff. And so I don't have time to go to that LSU game. Have you gone to a Texas game this year? No, I don't have time. See?

I can't get there. The last LSU game I went to, we was with you. That's true because it was here. They played here. Man, I would love to go. I've never been inside an LSU stadium. I have been to the tailgate. Yeah.

Because I'm Ritchell J. That guy from Zachary. Yeah. But I've never been inside. inside the actual stadium. Yes, for a game. I want to go. I want to go to all big college stadiums.

It would be great to like see a lot of them. Right. Because I've only really seen the ones in the SEC. I've been to Gainesville. I've been to Bryant-Denny Stadium that's in Alabama. Jordan Hare Stadium. That is in, that's Auburn. Georgia, been to all of these places.

Been to Knoxville once. been to all the Mississippi schools. Oh, wow. I've been to those. You've been a lot. Oh, yeah, we used to travel. We used to get in the, what are you saying? And make it on down there.

You know what I'm saying? CLSU, baby. Go CLSU. I can't wait, bro. I can't wait until we're back, back. Right now we're having a good season. Last season sucks so bad. We're not going to be able to shut them up around here.

But you know what? If Texas was like that. Texas is back. Texas was down. No, but I mean, I mean, like, if we had beaten Alabama and, you know, we were headed to another national championship. What else? What are you going to order for dinner tonight? What?

I don't know. I've never been there. I don't know. Let's look at the menu. No, let's not look at the menu. We're doing way too much around here. No. Hold on for a second.

We got to look at the menu because what we should do is we should let the thought warriors choose what you're going to eat. No, you know how picky I am. Let's see, Holloway House Social Club. Ooh. Oh, wait, this is the Soho House. I said it's a Soho House. It's not the one in West Hollywood. It's a different one.

They got multiple. So, wait, why would they open another Soho House in West Hollywood? I'll let you know when I get there. Maybe the other one's too crowded. Maybe it's too sceny. I don't know. They got bedrooms in the Holloway House? They have bedrooms in the Soho House.

Wait, what? Not the, I don't think the West Hollywood one, but downtown. Oh, yeah. Downtown is the whole fucking, wait a minute, man. When did this come out? Like a couple of months ago. Holloway House food menu. Okay, here we go.

I'm sorry, Thought Warriors. Wait, it's not, no, it's not, there's nothing. Yes. This is good. Okay, so this is the, they got matzo ball, they got roasted tomato soup. They got chicken liver toast. Okay. Meatballs, mac and cheese, baked goat's cheese, halibate, crudo, whatever.

Let's go to the... Okay, these are a large place because you're going to have dinner, right? You're going to be hungry. I am. They got corn ravioli. They got Mary's Farm, flat iron chicken.

They got organic salmon. Alaskan halibut. Halibut. Steak frets. Did we lose you? No. What's wrong? I already know what you're going to get.

Oh, my gosh. Don't tell me. Not with caramelized. apples. Oh, they got a pork chop. You're right. I got a pork chop. I'm already salivating. All right, let's get the fuck out of here. Rachel's going to eat another big slab of pork. Jesus Christ, I can't. I've never been so excited.

Get the hell out of here. All right. You guys, we got Billy Porter coming up in a little bit. Rachel's going to the Holloway house tonight. Fucking Drake will probably be there. Drake turns 36 this year. This is a birthday or something coming up. What? Leslie Jordan. Oh, very sad. We have to talk about that. I was really, I just saw him last month.

Really? Have you ever met him? No, I haven't. There is, social media doesn't do him justice. So there were a couple of people I feel like in COVID that I really got into that always made me smile when I would watch him on social media. Danny Pellegrino, I started listening to his podcast about Housewives, Stevie Mackey, Taco Tuesdays. I don't know if you've ever seen him. All these artists come together on a Tuesday

and sing these rendition of songs. I mean, insanely talented. I finally got to go to my first one this past week. And Leslie Jordan. Who I knew who he was. You know, he's been in multiple things. Very popular character. But you really got to know him through his storytelling

and everything he was doing on social media. And even when I was going through something, I would always just scroll through his social media just to laugh, just to listen to him. meet him in person, full of so much joy, so fun, so nice. He made you feel like he knew you forever. And you might have only been in his presence for like five minutes. I saw him last at the Jennifer Hudson Show. We were on the show together. He went out before me. And we were like all captivated backstage just watching him tell stories or listening to him tell stories about his life

and how he grew up. And he was speaking about recently losing his mother and then his sister. So when I heard that news today, I just, oh my, like, I just, I just got like such a pit in my stomach hearing that. I just, you know, family, friends, everyone who knew him, just sending you all a lot of love.

Yeah, yeah, it just seemed like a really vibrant sort of wellspring of life and good energy. So, I mean, we definitely need more of those and not less. So rest and peace. to Leslie Jordan. All right, we will be back on the other side of this with the big deal of the day.

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Ask your doctor about Trimfaya. Tap this ad to learn more about Trimfaya, including important safety and safety. information. All right, Clarence Thomas freezes order for Lindsay Graham to testify before Georgia grand jury investigating the 2020 election. Judge Clarence Thomas on Monday agreed to temporarily freeze a lower court order requiring the testimony of Republican Senator to Lindsay Graham in front of an Atlanta area special grand jury.

He was looking into the bogus claims to fuck with the election in 2020. Thomas acted alone because he has jurisdiction of the. lowest court of the lower court, excuse me, that issued the order. The move is an administrative stay that was most likely issued Monday to give the Supreme Court justices more time to consider the dispute. The court has asked for a response from the Georgia investigators by Thursday. Fannie Willis, who is the Fulton County District Attorney, that's the name that you guys might have been hearing recently. It's a Democrat. She is spearheading a special grand jury investigation into Donald Trump aligned efforts to manipulate the results of that election.

She's indicated that she would like to question Lindsay Graham on specific calls that he made to election officials in Georgia after the election. Rachel, you heard this news. And what the fuck do you think about it? Big deal, little deal, medium deal. What do you think? What, big deal, little, deal, what are you talking about? I'm asking you what kind of deal you think this is.

Clarence Thomas's name being attached to, even though it's Lindsay Graham's possible involvement with the election and voting and all of that, just anything with Clarence Thomas that's tied to this, that's tied to anything with the Trump administration always just is triggering to me because I feel like, even though we know that our Supreme Court justices are, they're supposed to. to be bipartisan. We know they're not by who votes them. I'm not votes them, but who appoints them into office. But when I see clearance Thomas tied to anything and he's well within his right to stay this as he did, it just seems so wrong to me because of his wife being involved so much with January 6th and it seems like the preparation for all of that to take place. She had her hands in it even after it, she seemed to be involved in some sort of way, at least making certain phone calls to people within Trump's administration. So when I see him tied to this, it just does, it seems dirty. It seems like he has his, and like I said, he's well within his right to do this. He's not wrong, but something about it just seems so wrong. That was my first reaction when I saw it. But I mean, what are you going to do? He's given at this point, Clarence Thomas has given the prosecutors in Georgia. till Thursday to respond to this to this order of his I foresee it moving forward I think that

Lindsay Graham is going to have to testify the way that that whatever whatever the exact clause what's the name of the clause that he's the Constitution speech or debate clause that he's trying to hide behind it seems like certain actions that he did don't protect him certain things that he said aren't covered by that clause. So it sounds like, which a court already ruled on, it sounds like he eventually will have to probably end up testifying. So I don't know. I guess we'll see what happens there. I think, you know, this is, in a grand scheme of things probably not going to do much to, to, like you said, stop what's eventually going to happen, which is Lindsay Graham testifying. And that's learning a little bit more. I think the reaction to the action to the

action itself speaks more to people's opinion of the court right now. There was a time in America where the Supreme Court was looked at as a body that made tough but constitutionally accurate decisions. What time? Before this time. Before this time. Yeah. There was a time when, you know, the Supreme Court, you know, made,

what I consider to be the right decision on Roe. There was a time when the Supreme Court took on all kinds of cases that were tough, but there was a sort of, there was a cleanness about the court. Not that they always made decisions that people agree with or that I agree with, but there was a cleanness about the court. There was a grace and a perception of the court that by the time it got to them, that what you would get was the,

the actual instrument of justice, you know, that you would get something that was akin to, it was the purest part of America, like the Supreme Court itself. It was something to where it was about the arguments based upon the rights that you're supposed to have as an American citizen. I think it started at a certain point, right? Like Brown versus Board of Education. Because let's not forget the Supreme Court before was saying that, you know. Yeah, but I'm not talking about it.

that because I wasn't like around. But you weren't around in the 50s either. I know. But what I'm telling you is that what I'm telling you is the Supreme Court that I came to know. I'm not even talking about. Okay. Okay. I just want to clarify that the Supreme Court has not always been doing.

Supreme Court has always been fucked and have always made bad decisions. But there was a point where in my life at least, I'll speak for myself. In my life at least when I came of age, well, I thought, hey, my time something gets to Supreme Court, what you're going to get is some semblance of fairness and some, at least the appearance that the decision being made is in the best interest of American freedom and American justice. That is completely gone. So now, whatever happens with the court, there'll always be an air of skepticism. They'll always be, and look, I'm not saying that as a black man, I thought that we ever got a fair shake in the American judicial system. I'm not saying that

I'm saying is that now this court is so forfeit and so tainted. And the reputation of it is just so destroyed that I just, I question everything. I don't trust them. I don't like them. I think Clarence Thomas is top 10 worst people ever to have power in the history of American politics. I think, and I'm curious to what you think, I think it's always going to be this way. I think it's ruined. I think it's going to be hard to separate politics from the court from here on out.

I don't know how you get back to the place that you felt, and me too, that the Supreme Court was when we were coming up. I don't think you can separate the two anymore. First of all, they sit on the court forever. Yeah. So it's not changing anytime soon, you know, unless something terrible happens. So I don't think that we had this much discussion about the court. because I think that it was probably less, I mean, in our lives, I don't think that they were, what they did was as important to our, when I would hear about Supreme Court cases, I would hear about people that were able to argue something all the way to Supreme Court and beat the case on the basis of a freedoms guarantee to get into Constitution. You hear about Larry Flint.

You know, there were some cases like Roe, which then established something that was sweeping the course. across millions and millions of millions of people. But more so, it was almost an intimate thing where you had this group of people whose job it was to make sure that certain tenets of American existence stayed the way that they are. And they weren't weapons. They weren't weapons of mass destruction, at least not the way I looked at them. And now, it seems that they're just another arm, another symptom of what's going wrong in the country. And as far as our ability to kind of restore the integrity of the court, I think that's a larger question about whether or not Americans will ever be able to trust each other again.

Each other or those in power? Well, each other first. Because remember, if I trust, if I trust you, right? If I trust that for you, we're living in a community together and we're both going to understand. that in order to live in this community, there are going to be some things, some ways, some deals that we're going to make

where we're both going to lose slightly. Or in the grand scheme of things, even if it's not one issue or two issues that we both lose on, there's going to be another loss is on your side and enough losses on my side. So we're going to get to a place that we can have this thing called compromise.

And compromise keeps peace. Compromise keeps civilization going forward. compromise, you know, keeps us rolling on. But if the compromises are being made around what I can do in my body, like my right to live,

my right to move, my right to vote, things are fundamental. Sure. Fundamental pieces of American existence, then if I have to compromise on those things, then I can't. Yeah. And so the question is,

how do we move the country to a point to where we can agree to disagree again. And the Supreme Court's a big part of that because they're now not acting in the will of the law. They're acting on behalf

of the will of the people. Absolutely. Which is why there's this separation of powers which... Their people, shall say. You know, you've got executive with the president, you've got the legislative with Congress, and you know that that's political. You know that's partisan. The judicial stood alone by

itself where like you said it's the law of the land they make these decisions they were just held in such high esteem now they've become they've muddied the waters that's why i said with clarence thomas doing this day it just seems so dirty it seems dirty very dirty like it might be for all i know it could be business as usual but i just don't trust the court it's it's it's it is business it is they're allowed to do you know they all each one has certain um jurisdictions across the country each supreme court justice and this is under his jurisdiction but it seems that the subject matter of what the order is related to. This is what makes it seem so dirty.

But back to the branches, judicial is the one you looked at and you said, but they're not, even if they were, they did not give the appearance. It did not seem like they were affected by the decisions from the executive or the legislative branch. They stood alone because their job was to follow the law as it was written. And now that's not what's being done when you look at what's how. happening with Roe, and then you look at the things that Clarence Thomas is trying to push forward that is going to take away the rights of even more people, more people, I mean.

And to be honest with you, you know, the Supreme Court in the effort to hold up or reaffirm one of the central tenets of American existence, which is the right to vote and the right to have your votes counted and to facilitate a peaceful transfer of power, it shouldn't be one body in American life is more interested in making sure that things have been done by the book

of the Constitution when it comes to elections to the Supreme Court. I'm supposed to uphold that. Not be a part of poking holes in it. So it just reminded me how much everything sucks right now. You know, how much everything fucking blows.

So, you guys Normally we hold the interviews for a while, but we're going to give you a big one right here. Motherfucking Billy Porter. Yeah. Talk to Billy about some of everything, including his new memoir.

It came out last year, but it's available in paperback right now. A brand new film that he has on Amazon. Billy also gets very, very passionate about how he feels like, or his opinions on hip hop. And what hip hop is meant to his existence, the last couple of generations.

You will not want to miss this. Billy Porter on the other side of this break. Did you know about one and three people with plaques psoriasis may also develop psoriotic arthritis, which causes joint pain, stiffness, and swelling? Does this sound like you? Listen to what it sounds like to be a million miles away. Trimfaya, gusalcumab, taken by injection,

is a prescription medicine for adults with moderate to severe plaques psoriasis, who may benefit from taking injections or pills or phototherapy, and for adults with active psoriotic arthritis. Serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections and liver problems may occur. Before a treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or if you need a vaccine. Imagine being a million miles away. Explore what's possible.

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You guys, we have a unique opportunity here on Higher Learning the podcast because we have a unique individual, a cultural treasure, an icon. Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winning actor, singer, writer, and director trying to take all the jobs. So nobody else has one. We got Billy Porter. We got Billy Porter. joining us today on higher learning. What an amazing, amazing guest. Billy, the first thing that jumps out of me,

I want to ask you is, any Grammy and Tony? Two Tonys, by the way. Two Tonys. Get them right, Billy. Multiple Tony's. Just saying. Two Tonys.

How important is the EGOT situation for Billy Porter? A lot of people tell me the Tony is the toughest part to win. you're so decorated, do you want the Oscar to finish out the whole EGOT experience? The short answer to that question is yes. And I am an artist first. My work is the most important.

I would be doing this whether I had awards or not. Now, the truth of the matter is, For me as a black queer man in this world, the decorations, as you call it, the awards actually mean something for me. Things do change for me with those. They have changed with those titles and those awards. The Oscar would help immensely for me to kick down doors, even more doors that are still closed for me. white boys don't need it. The straight boys don't need it.

It happens for them anyway. But for me, when those awards are a part of the conversation, there is a change and there has been a change. And you know, I am

taken quite seriously now because of them. So, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a, It's a tricky place, right? It's a tricky space to be, but I always give that same answer. Billy, you talk about other doors, doors that are closed that you want to walk through. What else do you want to do?

Like, what do you see? You do so much, and I'm sure you're working on so much right now. But what's a door that's been closed for you that you want to walk through? You know, first of all, I'm trying to be the head bitch in charge. You're well on your way. I'm close. You know, the thing for me is I just directed my first feature film last summer, was released this July on Amazon Prime.

It's called Anything's Possible. And it follows, you know, it's a rom-com, romantic comedy coming of age story that follows a black trans girl in high school. she gets a Muslim boyfriend. It's a celebration of life. And our heroine just happens to be black and trans. I want to be at the forefront of telling the stories of my people and my community, the voices that have been silenced for a really long time.

And while there has been a lot of change and a lot of progress, there's still a lot of lip service when it comes to the green lighting of certain projects. I just started certain types of projects. I just started my production company. It's called Incognito. Love it. Okay. Love it. Shoot on that.

And. And, you know, I just started so this is not a complaint. But trying to get that thing greenlit, trying to get those things greenlit, trying to get my projects greenlit. You know, post COVID, the business has been constricting. You know, I use Netflix as like very parallel to the tech. bubble. You know, Netflix and was the first

streaming service to plant their flag in the space. And the way they did it was throwing bags of money and everything and everybody. It seemed as if they had pockets so deep that they would that it would never end. Right. And everybody followed behind that. And now it's collapsing in on itself.

just like the tech bubble that imploded or exploded or whatever you want to call it. And so it's really hard right now to get really brilliant projects greenlit. Those are the doors that I'm trying to break down. Whether I'm writing and directing it, whether I'm creating it, whether I'm just producing it, whatever it is, you know, I'm coming up against walls with it. Now, you know, that never has deterred me and we will be fine

but specifically in this moment, it's that. It's also for me, you know, I'm working on my new music. I'm signed to Republic Records in conjunction with Ireland in the UK. top record label in the business is we're public right now. I have a pop album, Ray. I'm 53 years old. And the question, not for me, it's not a question,

but the jury is still out as to whether or not one can enter the pop music space in their 50s. I'm doing it. the work is there it's the most extraordinary experience I've had you know as in terms of my music you know I've been in the music business for a very long time

a lot of people don't know this but my first R&B album on A&M Records came out in 1997 I actually saw the video was going around on Twitter the one for the song from First Wives Club It was some real Gerald, some real arm B there. Yeah.

Billy's a different Billy Porter. Yeah. And they kicked my black faggot ass out. And I can say it now. I can say it out loud and talk about it because it is the truth. And when it comes out of my mouth, it doesn't, it's not received as if I'm a hater. Sure.

Because I am successful. Yes. I did it anyway. Yeah. I went the back way. I joke and say, I came in the back way. And so now it's about, you know,

I spent the first 20 years of my career trying to be taken seriously as an artist, particularly as an actor. You know, and now all this, all this has evolved and happened. And, you know,

I read posts that say, oh, I didn't know PreyTel could sing. You know, and it's like, the singing voice is the actual gift from on high. That is the thing that gave me the courage to expand my art in all of these other places. Yeah. So now I have to like circle back and go, no, y'all, daddy is the thing.

Nothing. You know, like it's, you know, it's an interesting place. So I don't, you know, it's not a, you're talking, we're talking in terms of doors. Right, right. You know, so now I'm kicking, I'm trying to kick that pop music door down so I could play stadiums like Gagai and Beyonce. What up. Because that's who I am. Let me ask you this.

Recently a movie came out, bros. Yes. That, um, that Billy Aigner did. And yeah, um, I saw the movie. Good movie. Yes. Good movie. Great movie.

Fun movie. Good movie. Fun. Um, didn't do the numbers that some people thought. thought that the movie would do. Billy Aitner said that, and I'm going to paraphrase what Billy said, he said that he felt like the movie didn't get the support from straight audiences that it needed to be a successful rom-com.

Two questions for you. Number one, do you think that straight people should support LGBTQ plus projects like bros more? and number two, do you think the criticism that straight people wouldn't go see a movie like that whether or not that's the reason why they didn't see it or not? Do you think that's fair? Do you think Billy was right in what he said? Because a lot of people were mad.

A lot of people were like, well, it's not straight people's fault that the movie didn't do well. It's the movie's fault or the movie was made for a niche audience or whatever. What's your answer to some of those questions and some of those concerns. There's a lot to unpack here. Okay, let's unpack it.

For me, first and foremost, ask me the first question again so I can answer that quickly. Do you think that, Billy, do you think that straight people should make more of an effort to support LGBTQ plus art because it is LGBTQ plus art? No. Here's the thing. The focus is wrong. And I'll say this until the day I die. That movie was made for us. And instead of marketing it to us, we're still made to believe that we're not valid.

And our stories aren't valid unless straight people co-sign on them. That's a problem. Look at Tyler Perry. Look at the Tyler Perry business model now. We actually have a business model. I think about Tony Morrison when she says, I'm not writing for the white gays. I'm writing for my people.

So my issue is market to the people that it's for first and let the rest of them find it. It's not fair to the work. because unfortunately, LGBTQ plus art is still niche. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, though. Because of the internet and because of social media, niche markets have been able to find each other and connect with each other.

And they are huge audiences in and of themselves. So I feel like if it had been marketed in the proper way to us, it would have had better numbers to start with. That's the first part of it. The second part of it is it's unfair for the studio in this moment while we're still in the middle of COVID. and the only things that are working at the box office in theaters are superhero movies and action movies. Those are the only things that are working in traditional theater. Theaters now.

It's not fair to hold this film to that same standard. It should have been released in theaters and online. at the same time. We're not there yet. Everybody wants to rush getting back to normal. We're not there yet. The third

component is the gay people don't support our own. Let me say that once again. We have to support our own. Whether we We think it's bad or not. Right?

It's like black people supported Talapery. And I love him, but that's low-hanging fruit. That's low-hanging fruit comedy. And for a long time, that was the only thing that we were allowed to have. And black people went in droves, including me. So there's a lot, there's a lot to unpack there. It's like how many people, how many gay boys, how many queens did I speak to who had not been? And weren't even thinking about going.

What fuck is that? I'm sorry. You can't. You can talk like that here. What the fuck is that? You know what I mean? It's like we can't, we. This is an all hands on deck effort.

And let me just say this. Bros is a game changer. Bros. For you, Van, is a good movie. Yeah. For us, we have never seen anything like it. Interesting.

It's real. It's true. It's honest. It tells all of our secrets. Inside of a genre that is very popular inside of the, you know, I mean, they even talk about it in the movie. You know, he even has a moment in the movie where he talks about the hangover.

It's like the hangover. It's in that genre. I don't know what you call it, but, you know, crude comedy or whatever. Ronty comedy. It's like, you know, bridesmaid. It's like that. And at the same time, the heart of it, the depths that it goes, the subject matter. it's brilliant for us.

And there's never been anything like it before. Mm-hmm. For us in terms of the crossover marketability. It is just like the hangover with characters who happen to be gay. It is that great. Mm-hmm. So, you know, that's why I'm. trying to be a mogul because I've seen it happen so often.

It's like you're marketing to the wrong people. It's like market to the right people and then let it reverberate. It's like in our politics, you know, reaching across the aisle to people who just spit in your face. After a certain point, it's like, well, just do it yourselves. Right? The Democrats just need we need to come together. and doing ourselves without that. Yeah.

Because it's a new world. It's like, I don't know. That's just my opinion. I'm glad you mentioned politics because that's where I was going to go with you. I was listening to you on MSNBC. You were talking with Ari. He's got his Maverick series. It's great.

It was great. And something that you said that was interesting to me because we have midterms coming up. We talk about it all the time. We talk about voting and black people specifically. and we talk about people being disenchanted with everything. You spoke about, and I'm paraphrasing here, so please correct me when I'm wrong,

but struggling to encourage people in LGBTQ plus the community to motivate them to want to vote. You said people that they're disenchanted with it, could you talk a little bit about that? And why is that? Because, well, no, I'll let you say that, and then maybe I'll do follow up. For me, as an observer, the issue is it's cyclical.

Everything is cyclical. The circle of life is cyclical. We have been in a progressive place for about 40, 50 years now, right? Yes, it's slow. Yes, you know, the Ark of Justice, you know, all of that stuff. But if we're being honest with ourselves, we've benefited. This generation has benefited from all of the work that was done before us and while we've been here until now. It has allowed for our electorate to become entitled.

None of what's going on right now is new. and yet every time I turn on the news, it's presented as if it is. None of it is new. Yeah, they're trying to take our voting rights away. That's not new. Yeah, voting workers are in danger. Yeah, people already died

and laid their lives down for this the first time. Why should we be surprised about it? it. Right? And so we got, like I said on Ari, we got, you know, the voting rights act. We got civil rights act. We got Roe v. Wade. We got marriage equality. We got blah, blah, blah, blah, all this stuff. We got the black president. And we sat on our asses for eight years and eight bonbons. Oh, it could never happen. Oh, it could never happen. Well, Frederick Douglass said over 200 years ago, eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. We stopped being vigilant collectively. As a collective, we stopped being vigilant because we thought we won something.

And now it's time to fight again. And everyone is fatigued. Yeah. Vigiless is exhausting. So what? Are we going to have a democracy or not? That's the whole point. People talk about, oh, we're going to be in a civil war.

or it's, you know, Trump is trying to have a civil war. We're already in it. It's a cyber civil war. It's called chaos. That's the war. It's in our minds. It's chaos every single moment of every day for everybody. That is exactly the point.

Because now we're apathetic. Now we question all of the institutions. which we should, right? Because why wasn't that shit codified? Yeah. I don't understand why it wasn't codified since 1973. Roe versus Wade wasn't codified. I didn't even know that was a thing.

Right. Hard to do. Like, what does that mean it's not codified? Right. You know, the voting rights act. What does that mean? When they voted on it, you know, like a decade or so ago, I said to myself, what are you voting on?

You're voting to re-up. my right to vote? Why isn't that a law? I don't understand what's going on, right? And so now all of our institutions are exposed. What are we going to do about it? What do you mean there's nothing in place to deal with the Trump of it all? What do you mean?

You can't prosecute a sitting president. So then there are people who are above the law. Yeah. There are. Like I said on Ari, I was like, if I get subpoenaed and I refuse the subpoena, they throw my black ass under the jail. Why are these people not in jail? Mm-hmm. Period.

I'm sick of talking about it. why are they not in jail? The law is bullshit. The law is not about the truth. The law is about who can tell the better story. Period. Billy, I came to know you first

from obviously the Fantastic Show Pose. But then once I saw Pose and I saw you in Pose, I started realizing that I recognized you and seen you around in all kinds of things from all over the Post. Hey, that guy wasn't here. You know what I mean? Like, like, started to see you around. And then you start to pop up on red carpets.

Yes. And Billy Porter on the red carpet carpet becomes something that's not just a cultural staple. It becomes almost a revolutionary act. Thank you for saying that. Yes. It becomes, it becomes something to make America. confront what it is

that they're seeing. Yes. Black queer man in his glory on a red carpet at an event fucking deal with it. Because I'm there

because of my talent. Because of your talent. Like, yeah, fucking deal with it. He's here. Deal with it. I remember seeing I remember

I just remember seeing so much talk about what Billy Porter was wearing. And sometimes it would be amongst black men. And it's one of the first times I started to realize that there is a divide that exists between straight black men and black gay men. I have a friend, a guy who I consider to be a friend.

His name is George Johnson. He wrote a fantastic book called All Blois. Yeah, I know, George. Blue, yeah. And the book is being banned everywhere. It's like there's something specific. Good. Be scared. Something fantastic.

The book is fantastic. There's something specifically maddening to America about black male queerness. This is not for me to leave out our sisters. But black male queerness seems to be particularly triggering to America, even amongst our own community. Mostly amongst our own community. As a black man, as a straight black man, how do you feel like, what do you feel like needs to be done to strengthen the bond or to like talk out some of the issues that we might have between our brothers in the LGBT community? Like, what does Billy Porter think about a guy like Lilboosie who so many black men seem to be? championing some of the things that he says

in regards to gay rights or gay people, a little Nazex or whatever. It seems like there's a deep divide. And I'm not quite sure how we get to the other side of it. Well, the first thing we talk about, I think, is the alignment. How are we aligned? How are we the same? The black community is still fighting for our basic human rights.

And then we turn around very often and oppress another group of people on the outside. None of us are free till we're all free. You don't have to like me. I'm not looking for your approval. I'm not looking for your understanding. I don't need that. I validate myself.

But what I demand is respect for my humanity. Like I respect yours. And I don't understand why that conversation is so hard. You know, and it's like the same Bible that the black church uses and a lot of churches use against the queer community is the same Bible that the white folks used to say that we were three-fifths. of human beings. We're all human first. And that is the conversation. That's where we start.

When George Floyd happened, Black Lives Matter happened. And then I turn on my Instagram, excuse me, and there's a gang of black men beating up a trans girl at the 7-Eleven. No. The answer to that is no and fuck you.

and I mean it. You want your rights, then y'all need to start acting right for everybody else. We are all human on this planet. And I got online and I said it. And I said it. And I called the black community out for that.

And I got a lot of shit for it. I don't care. You called the black community out for what specifically? For calling them out on that intersection. It's like, what are y'all doing? we're black first. Right. I'm a black man before I'm a queer man.

Do you think that they were beating that black queer lady because they were black men, though? I don't, I don't care why. Right. I don't care. The reason, I don't care about the reason. Okay. The visual is you're a black man marching for black rights and you're beating a black trans girl in a store. Right.

Because you don't get it. No, it's not okay on any level. No. You know, and so to be held accountable, we can do all this march and we can do all this talk and we can do all this organizing. They kicked by and rusted out. Not many people even know who he was.

They almost never let him in. I mean, they, he, he taught Martin Luther King, Jr. What nonviolence was and he was a queen, honey, and out. and they kicked him out of the movement. He organized that march on Washington for jobs and freedom. He did that. And they kicked the faggot out, period. Enough is enough.

And this idea, and it's not just black people, this idea that masculinity is the only thing that is, viable in our culture is bullshit and it's not just America look at those people over there with the, you know, like, where was it?

The man didn't want to have an interview with old girl because she wouldn't wear the thing. You know, it's about male power. It's about power. It's toxic. You know, and now it's getting called out. And when it gets called out, there's always a pushback. You know, it's like too bad to me as far as I'm concerned.

Too bad. You know, I sat for decades with nothing. No work, no nothing, because I wasn't masculine enough. I wasn't masculine enough. I couldn't get arrested for work. When I came out of drama school, if you didn't play a thug or a drug dealer or a drug addict, you didn't have no work

under the age of 40. You didn't, and I didn't. I was a faggot and I was to be silenced and put out. It's my turn now to speak. And I am grateful and so, humbled that I lived long enough to see this day because that part is real. And what I want to say to the world from a positive angle is the change has already happened. The change has already happened.

That's why the pushback is so severe, right? We have to sit in the fullness and the glory of that. Look at me. I was not possible. till like five and a half minutes ago, I was not possible doing what I'm doing in the world right now. I wasn't. Word.

You know what I mean? Like, it was not possible. When these things happened, like when you see the baby or Lil Bousi or other black man getting trouble for saying things, would you ever want to talk to them? Would you ever want to talk to Bousie or talk to the baby? First of all, I don't know who they are.

All right. Let me say that. And here's the reason. Right, right. Because I talk about it in my book. Yeah. Hip hop came along. My childhood was very traumatizing.

I was bullied. I was beaten. I was put out of the church. I was all of those things. And hip hop started to emerge. And the first narrative was, the first narrative was fuck the police. The second narrative on the list was kill the faggots. I missed hip hop.

Because I had to extract myself from that energy so I could save myself. I don't know nothing about it. I don't know who these people are. You know, I let the hip-hop singers in, Mary J. Blige, you know, the nice rappers, you know, the puffies and the things like that. Yep, I got all of that. But I missed a lot of that culture. I'm not proud of it. And it was for my own survival.

That makes sense. So I don't know none of these people. It's okay, Billy. I don't know about your boozy. I don't know who the fuck that is. Just like he don't know who I am. He made out, right? But when people come for me and talk about me,

me shoving my gayness down their throats and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, turn the page. Yeah. Turn it off like I did. Damn. You talked about. For decades. For decades.

I turn those motherfuckers off. And you say you do it to protect your peace, which I love, because that's a question I wanted to do. I mean, I want to get into your book. You mentioned your book, Unprotected. I want to know why you titled it that, what you want people to learn about you that they didn't already know.

But I also want to get into the mental health aspect of it because I know that's heavy and that's a lot for you. And you talk about separating yourself from the stuff that was attacking you. but what else do you do to protect your peace as well? Well, I will say first and foremost that my art is my healer and my savior. Art heals. Yeah.

Period. You know, that's the simplest and most concise answer for me because I found art early. you know, around 11 years old, and I talk about it and doing my first musical in middle school and, you know, turning on the Tony Awards by accident and seeing Jennifer Holiday, you know, and Dreamgirls sing, and I'm telling you, and being shook and understanding so early, oh, that's my way out. And that's how I keep my sanity. And still to this day, it's that.

Yeah. When I feel like I can't take it anymore, I come right to the computer. Well, almost every day. I did a book called The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. It's about excavating the real truth inside yourself as an artist and everybody's an artist, blah, blah, blah. But she has this thing called Morning Pages. And in 2000, I started them. And I tell you, it is...

every, almost every day, I sit down in its stream of consciousness thought that just comes out. That's my meditation. Ideas come from there. Questions get answered in that space. And it really does help to clear my mind so that I can move. forward with some sort of peace and presence and loving, kindness, and compassion. That's really, I feel really lucky to have that. And I've also been in therapy for over 25 years.

You know, it's not possible for a lot of people. It's very expensive. I feel blessed to have been able to afford it, but I also did have a therapist who let me not pay her for like 12 years. Oh, that's amazing. And then I hit and I gave her a big fact check. There you go. You know, so I've been really, the universe has really taken care of me in ways that speak to the why I'm here. you know, there is a calling on my life.

There's a purpose. Dare I say a ministry. There's a reason I'm here. And that is the reason I've been able to survive. I came out in 1985. We went straight to the front lines to fight for our lives during the AIDS crisis. And I had to listen to my own people on, you know, on a, a loop

tell me every day that AIDS was God's punishment. I am HIV positive. It took me 14 years to tell my mother that.

When I tell you, I am free and I am grounded in the truth that has set me free and I'm ready to be the witness in the vessel that I was put on this earth to be, period.

That might be the single greatest conclusion to an interview that we've ever had, Billy. That's Billy Porter. We really, really appreciate you joining us on higher learning. Plug, plug, plug, plug, plug the things you want people to support by, look at the art of plug, plug, plug, plug, plug away, Billy. Well, my book Unprotected comes out in paperback tomorrow, and I'm trying to get it on the New York Times bestseller list because it came out last year at this time and there were no book tours to go on.

And I caught COVID and I was stuck in England. So now I'm out and I'm doing some promoting of that. The last text in my book is a song that I wrote with the late great. Andrea Martin, who wrote songs like, Show Me Love and Hold On to Your Love. She passed away recently, and it's a song called Stranger Things. And it speaks to where we all are right now. And what I hope that it can, and it's the last text in my book.

And I'm releasing it as a surprise single within the next couple of weeks, with the hopes that people will be inspired and motivated to release their fears, and go to the polls and remember that, like, it doesn't matter what they're trying to do to block us. This is the only tool that we have in this moment to make sure that humanity survives. And so the song is called Stranger Things, and the intention behind it is don't be afraid. Don't be terrified. Remember that stranger things have already happened to all of us and our ancestors.

It's already happened. We're going to be fine, but we have to activate. You know, those are the two things, the two top things for me. Be on the lookout for my pop music that's coming. Yes. Anything's possible, which is my first film that I directed. dropped on Amazon Prime on July 22nd, 86% fresh on rotten tomatoes.

Oh, nice. But, you know, that's a good thing that I hear. I am, you know, there's a lot happening. And I just feel really blessed. And, you know, join me on my social media. It's the Billy Porter, T-H-E-E-Billy Porter. I'm all about love and spreading that. So if you have some bullshit to say, stay off my page.

All right. That was Billy Porter. Thank you for joining us today on Highland. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's good to see you. All right, brother. And thank you.

No problem. Appreciate you. Take care. Take care, Billy. 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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Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Selling your car should feel like one less thing on your list, not one more. With Carvana, It is. Just go to Carvana.com and to your license plate or Vin and get a real offer down to the penny. No back and forth, no surprises, just an experience you can trust.

Like your offer? Accept it. Schedule pickup. And we'll come to you with a check in hand. Your car, your timeline, your terms. Visit Carvana.com to sell your car today. Pick up fees may apply. Rachel, what do you think about Billy? Oh, I love talking to Billy. You like it? At any time. But I loved him in this space. because I've, you know, I've had him through extra, which is different.

But to have him in this space where Billy's always going to be Billy, but where we can be more asking questions about specifically about the black community and how he feels like the question with hip hop about how the black community has responded to his very being. Very, very interesting conversation. What I also find, you said you watch Pose. I love Pose. Pose is good.

And we didn't get all into this with Billy because, you know, if we could, I would have to him for two hours plus. Yeah. But the fact that, you know, he shares that he came out in 2007 that he was HIV positive. And that's when he took him 14 years. Or he found out in 2007. I guess he just announced it. Found out of 2007.

So he told, he told his family and the world that he's HIV positive. And then you watch Pose. And his character is mirroring what's really happening to him in real life, how he had to tell his family and friends. And he's talked about it before about the gift of being able in the form of art to tell a story

that took him forever to be able to tell. So I don't know. He's just, he's such a fascinating, a person and continuing to knocking down doors. I'm going to learn how to do that dance like they'd be doing on post. You know when they fall? When they fall to the ground

and they put their leg down like they're doing a hurdle. Like at the balls. Yeah, but no, I'm talking about like one specific dance. Coming to the stage. Come on, get up, get up. No, I can't do it right now.

I don't have the flexibility. But there's one dance where they do. They fall down and they fall down and their leg goes out like that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to bust that bitch one day. Yeah, it's called, it has a name. I think it's called the Death Drop.

Nah, I'm not doing that thing. But then, but wait. I can't fuck with the Death Drop. I said it to someone and they said you can't call it that anymore. Why? Because. I didn't have.

It was in an interview. Why can't you call it the death drop? Death drop dance, yeah. They said don't call it that anymore, but I didn't ask what you're supposed to call it. It says death drop is the type of dance dramatically falls back to end the dance. Rupal, stop letting people say death drop on drag race. It's out.com. This is from years ago.

A shablam and a death drop. It's called a shablam. Yeah. So that's why I was like, I know that's what it is, but you're not supposed to call it that. So what is it, a shablam? It's a shablam. Not no approach. It's a shablam.

It's called a dip. It's basically just a dip. No, period. It's called a dip. A dip, a shablam or a death drop. It's called a dip. Some people are not sure. I'm going to hit that bitch one day.

Everybody's going to be so, I'm watch, watch. As soon as I get my, my quads right, like flexible. Because if I hit it right now, my spine, well like nah yeah if you're gonna do it I want you to be able to get back up peak white mess climate activists arrested after throwing mashed potatoes

on 110 million dollar money painting two protesters were arrested after hurling the most liquidy and gross looking mashed potatoes who wrote that on a clawed monae pony inside the museum Berberni and Potsdam

Germany uh here's the audio now we can't hear shit they're talking in a different language. Donnie, can ask you a question? Donnie.

Donnie, just real quick. Yes. How many motherfuckers that listen to the pod you think speak German? So you know what?

This is for the people who are watching on Spotify. I'm going to be playing it along with the video and there's subtitles. So you can read it. Well, then what are we supposed to do

with it? Donnie, you should have just said we could just throw to it. You know what's going to watch it beforehand. It's a problem when I get upset,

Donnie. Yeah, Donnie, you got to do shit in the correct way. And you're not really doing that. You know what I'm saying right now? I'm cutting all this out. Keep it in. Did you see the mashed potatoes on the painting?

Did you know they were mashed potatoes? No. What did you think it was? I thought it was like, shit. Yellow paint is what I thought. Really? What do you think about stuff like this? They're protesting for climate change.

Okay. I don't get it. You don't. It says it wasn't that damaged. The painting wasn't. After an immediate conservation investigation, grain sacks is a $110 million painting. The German activist, climate activist group,

the last generation, took responsibility for the incident. If it takes painting with mashed potatoes or tomato soup thrown at it, if it takes a painting with mashed potatoes or tomato soup thrown at it, to make society remember that the fossil fuel, fuels, of course, it's killing us all, then we'll give it to you. What do you think of this? Nothing. I'm not trying to be rude.

Right. But I would love for someone to explain to me how you doing this gesture is going to make me want to stand up for climate change. Damn. And this just goes for anybody. Rachel is a bootleg. No, no, no. No, this goes for anybody. This goes when people throw like the paint on furs and stuff.

I mean, like, it's not making me say, you know what? I'm not going to, I don't want to eat meat anymore. What would make you say that? That's the question. What would make you, what would make you pay attention to the climate, which I think that you do? But what would make you say that? Is there, so you say that this won't make you, what would make you? When I see exactly what climate change is doing to our, to the earth.

That kind of like real life stuff of, You doing this is affecting the earth in this way. That to me, there's a cause and an effect. That, why are you looking at me like that? If that stands out more to me than you doing, you know, like, I don't know, running naked with the message painted on your body. The effect lasts for five seconds. So I guess my thing is, I understand what you're saying.

But I guess my thing is the examples of climate change are kind of everywhere, you know. And I get it. And I think that sometimes in living our human lives, we go, hey, it's a little warmer. Or we go, wow, that hurricane was really bad. Absolutely. And because as animals and creatures living on this planet, we adapt to survive and we get used to different things, then it might be that we can get complacent about these issues. And sometimes activists like this take things that we. hold valuable and they go, that's not really valuable.

What's actually valuable is fucking chlorophyll or the sun or fucking the ocean or whatever. And so they have to sometimes shock us. I don't think I'm, I think I understand. But like are you immediately going to look up climate change and when you see that? Are we just going to talk about this story? I get you destroying something that people have placed value in when they're, I get all of that. But at the end of the day, what are we doing after that? Well, they're doing a lot.

It's what they do all the time. They do, but they're trying to get our attention for people who aren't in the fight all the time. I think what they're attempting to do, though, is just make you talk about it and make you know who they are and maybe that they're talk about it. Now, I didn't know the name of this group. Now I'm looking at the German climate activist group, the last generation. I have an idea of who they are, and maybe we have a little conversation about climate. It's awareness, man. This awareness, man.

Oakland police revealed to have discussed using armed robots. The potential use of robots outfitted with the firing power of a shotgun, fuck, was discussed at a recent meeting involving Oakland police and local community members. The discussion came roughly two hours into a meeting last month with a civilian oversight group with Lieutenant Omar Daza Quares of the Oklahoma home of the Oakland Police Department, reportedly to have initially detailed how police might, I'm sorry, how police might keep safety in mind when dealing with a percussion activated non-electric disruptor. The device is attached to a robot and designed to use standard commercial blank shotgun shells. Although special modified loads have been mentioned previously when they have discussed this. So a robot with the shotgun in Oakland.

The Oakland Police Department has responded to this. OPD is not adding armed remote vehicles to the department. OPD did take part in an ad hoc committee discussion with the Oakland Police Commission and community members to explore all possible uses for the vehicle. However, after further discussions with the chief and executive team, the department decided no longer wanted to explore that particular option. Rachel, what do you think about the use of killer robots? Because that's exactly what they are. Control by the police.

I don't like robots, period. You don't like them? The other day, I was making a right-hand turn, and I let the pedestrians walk through, and I turn and I almost hit a robot that was carrying food. Postmate's robot? I don't like it. I don't trust it. Yeah.

Now, it did sense my car and stopped, and I didn't understand. up hitting it. But what if it had humans make mistakes, right? Robots are going to make mistakes. The fact that we would even, I saw this, this was wild to me. The fact that we would even equip a robot who is the robot controlling itself, is somebody controlling the robot? If we can't even get police officers charged and convicted when they gun down people, who's

going to hold a robot accountable? Who's going to be responsible? How do you even monitor this? How do you know that somebody's not going to take the shotgun and use it on somebody else? How do you know the robots are? I just, we have to defend ourselves against so many different things. Now we would have to possibly do it against robots. The fact that this was even a discussion is disgusting to me.

So the company that makes these robots, it's called Dixiecom. Dixie what? Dixiecom. And then the robots are called the NK5,000. No, they're not. No, no, you're not. No, you're not. What? Dixiecom makes these robots.

They're called the nigger killer 5,000s. Dixiecom is Dixie Tech. It's a subsidiary of Dixie Tech. And so you know what I think about when I think about this? This is why we have the question about police budgets. Right. We're talking about everything except what we need to talk about, right? We're not asking.

It's useful that there was conversation with an oversight committee in terms of this. But this is not what we need to talk about. We'll need to be talking about high-tech nigger-killing robots. What we need to talk about is what Philip McHarris was talking about on our podcast last time, how we imagine and reimagine public safety and take the funds that would be used to make robocop. okay and actually divert them and push them in an area that can have long lasting effects on the communities that the police are dealing with and interacting with right if you're going to spend all this money on a potential robot from dixiecom you know what I mean can you imagine can you imagine the NK 5000 look at him look at it right there there's a special technology inside these motherfuckers these motherfuckers these motherfuckers are tough.

Listen, there's special technology inside of them. Any shade that goes past beige open fucking fire. Fucking shoot your pecker off. Shoot,

you're not going to be able to survive NK 5,000. We're taking over. Anyway, so yeah, so this is what we're talking about. We see police, you know,

police, obviously, they need some high-tech stuff. If there's a bomb to be diffused, stuff like that. But when we're looking at public safety. These are the questions that we ask when we talk about policing. We should be talking about robots.

We should be talking about robust initiatives to help communities actually attack the problems that they deal with on a day-to-day basis. And people who are qualified and equipped to come in the event of something going wrong, to de-escalate these situations,

to protect and safeguard life. It has nothing to do when fucking putting a shotgun on a robot. Do you know how fucking stupid that sounds like shotgun on a robot to fucking make sure it's just dumb it's more dumb shit you're talking about people that need to be trained properly well who's going to train the robots the same people who are already messing up it's just such a recipe it's it's terrifying i just was on the agenda man this was on the agenda i don't care about an oversee committee looking at this why was this on the agenda why did we even explore this as an option the only option should be to trash this i want to know i want to

talk to the person whose idea this was. So it's apparently Daza Quiros. Dazakiros. Kudos. Dazakiros. And cloning to Dazakiros, they still

are looking into official language that would enable emergency use killer robots. I just, we talk about the lack of faith that we have in the Supreme Court. My,

the cops, man, right now if I would put the cops would only have toothpicks as their weapons they would only have emotions at this point

I just can't trust them and these robots this is gonna be a bad stuff this is gonna be some fucking call of duty shit yeah it's weird it's weird

all right before we got out of here I gotta talk to you about the McRib because it's back I don't think you should do this you ever eat the McRib never I don't like that name

Donnie simply the name Mick Rib sounds absolutely disgusting to me A Mick Rib rib. I haven't. No. It doesn't have bones. It doesn't have bones.

Yeah. Like I just, there is something not right. It's right up there with the liquid yellow mashed potatoes. There's something not right about a McRib. And honestly, I don't think you should be talking about this after the post that you posted today. What post that I posted that? Oh, I was talking about the post with me. It was great. Oh. The way you talk to yourself, the pep talk, I don't think the McRib language goes, I don't think you should go down this row. Okay, so here's the thing about the McRip. Here's the thing about the McRit.

This is the thing about the McRib. It's good. That's it. I haven't had a McRib in years. But let me tell you something. And I won't eat a McRibb. Good. I won't have a McRibb.

I haven't had a McRibb in years. Let me tell you something. McDonald's, I don't really eat McDonald's that much, okay? ever, basically. We ate it that night we came home from the Oscar party. But here's the thing.

Different McDonald's foods have different wavelengths. Like remember the Arch Deluxe? You remember that? No, I don't eat it McDonald's. Donnie, do you remember the Archdelegs? I like the chicken nuggets and the fries. That's it.

Don't I'm Googling it. What is the Arch Deluxe? The Arch Deluxe. It was a burger, right? That McDonald's had. Sometimes you're going to move for Arch Deluxe. Sometimes you're going to move for Big Mac.

Sometimes you move for a double quarter pound of cheese. And sometimes you're in the mood to sit down with the McRib with the rib sauce and the fries right next to it and a really strong sprite. Because when you're going to get the McRib, you want light ice in the Sprite because you want the Sprite to have the bite. Because that bite from that sprite is, it offends you. It's offensive bite for the Sprite at McDonald's. And there was a moment in my life. It could be said that I had a really, really, really. really strong relationship with the McRibb.

McDonald's is saying that this might be the last time that they ever have the McRib. My question to you, very serious question of the week. And you'd never eat at McDonald's before. I've had chicken nuggets or fries. But I can count on one hand how many times I've been to McDonald's in my life. Wait, you've never had a Big Mac? No.

Never in my life. To all beef patty special sauce lettuce cheese. Wait, you've never in your life had a Big Mac before? Never in my life. Swear on copper. Donnie, what are your thoughts on something like that, bro? You see what I'm saying? That's wild.

I'm sure I'm not alone. I've never eaten at Burger King. You've never in your life eaten at Burger King. I might have had some of fries. You never had a Big Mac or Whopper. You never had Big Mac or a Whopper. And my parents used to stop there all the time. I used to love Burger King.

What did you, so what did you eat? Pork chopped sandwiches, nigga? What the fuck? I had chicken nuggets at Wendy's. Okay. Have you ever had a fast food burger, period? I had in and out and it solidified why I don't eat fast food burgers. And our burgers are good.

So you never ate at five guys before? No. You never eat at Wendy. You never had burger from Wendy. Do you like hamburgers? Nuggets. So I read that book, Fast Food, what was it called? Fast food nation, yeah.

Fast food nation. So you ask about things that you're like, what would impact you? What would change your mind? When I read that, it made me not really, I have eaten hamburgers, but if I look down into a burger, it absolutely disgust me because I think about that book. So you can't, so you don't like hamburgers, so that's why you haven't had it. But I, but I, but I do. I have, I've eaten them since, but if I have to, I avoid them.

So this is Van's very serious question of the week. what is one fast food item that they don't have any more that you wish they would bring back? Jesus fucking Christ, what's going on? I mean, all the fast food that I eat that's still available. Donnie, are you going to try to make a podcast? Donnie, do you have one? Because I feel like you're with me. Give me one.

No, I have to think on it. I haven't eaten fast food in a while. I've been trying to be healthier. I haven't eaten in a while either, but I still have an answer. Yeah. It's the McRib for you? It's not the McRib. McDonald's had something five, six years ago, maybe longer.

Maybe 10. It's 2012, so maybe it's like 2014. McDonald's came out with their own wings. Ew. They were called Mighty Wings. Even worse. Donnie, did you ever have Mighty Wings? I didn't.

I remember that and I thought I don't want wings for McDonald's. You, like the name alone. You fucking missed out. If it's anything like the Boney Wings were bomb. Mighty wings were, really, I couldn't believe that mighty wings were as good as what they were. The mighty wings were hidden.

They were hidden. Just call them wings. They were mighty wings, man. Just call them wings. Mighty wings from me, Diles. Look, you can't tell me. Mighty wings. Oh, God.

That don't look good. That looks because it's mighty wings. It looks incomplete. Rachel, Matt, Rachel, you ain't never eat a hamburger, nigga. I have. You can't tell me by no goddamn mighty wings? Oh, chicken? I know.

And that is incomplete. So there's nothing from any fast food place. Like, do you eat from Popeyes? There's nothing that... Yes, they still have my chicken at Popeyes. There's nothing that you've ever gotten at any fast food place that they don't make anymore. No, because I'm not a regular fast food eater. Donnie, nothing.

There's nothing that you can think of. Is there a fast food restaurant that they don't have anymore? Checkers. Checkers. They still have checkers. Checkers. Checkers are around. Not in Texas.

There's this place in Baton Rouge called Fast Track that I love. Fast Track drive-through is all you do. I used to love that place. Is that your song or the actual? That was the jingle that they had. Fast track, drive-through. It's all you do. There was a guy at Fast Track.

and he was the best fast track worker. His name was West Weeks. He plays a linebacker for LSU. We gotta go. Take thing he comes off, but do not stop learning. I am Van Lincoln Jr. And I'm Rachel and Lindsay. Bye, guys.