Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - W. Kamau Bell on Being a Tall Black Man in America

Episode Date: May 4, 2021

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay address the recent plagiarism claims lobbied towards Two Distant Strangers (5:46), then comedian W. Kamau Bell joins the podcast to discuss the America’s identity and his hope for the future (22:29). Plus, Van and Rachel debate how much money Melinda Gates is owed in her upcoming divorce with Bill Gates (54:18), and talk Will Smith being in the “worst shape of his life” (1:11:35) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. Wait, wait, do that again. Do that again. Do that again? You are hot. Is he not? I'm holding the mic. I cannot let that be the first thing that people hear.

I'm holding the mic. I need them to tune in to what my eyes to say. Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? Higher learning is on. It is I, Van Lathan. And it's me, Rachel Lindsay. Van, Van, coming in hot.

Come in, hot. Come in, hot from Hawaii. Talk to us about it. Kaleika and I are staying at the Four Seasons Resort in Lanai. We're doing the optimal well-being package, which is great. But, you know, it's a lot. Why is there a butt? No, no, no, no.

You are in Hawaii. Optimal well-be. Yeah, but it's really not a vacation. It's really not a vacation, no. It's really not. But don't you have the ability to say no if you don't want to do something? What do you think? Do you think that I'm allowed to say, no, what are your thoughts?

You're right. You know, you wake up and you got to do stuff and like they, but it's cool. I'm going to learn, this is the reset for me. I'm going to learn a lot more about my body and then I'm going to carry it through, get back to my fitness goals. You know, they've done all kinds of stuff. I've had to step over bars and lay down and they're telling me about your range of motion and different things.

This is great. It's great. It's great. We did a 90-minute couple's holly where you go to this little shack and they got, you know, like a hot tub and a love shack. Yeah, I love shack, baby. And then you go, we went to a, on a sunset sale last night. I. This sounds amazing.

And we were bumping up and down and we saw dolphins. So it was cool. It was cool. It's still, you know, still vacation is go to the beach. You lay down. You know what I had yesterday? I had a couple of mitis. Oh.

Oh, I had a little bit of a, I had a little mite die. Okay. Mr. Lathen, Mr. Lathen, would you like something to drink? Yeah, yeah. You know what? Bring me a mite. You should have brought a drink to the podcast. You should have, but you set the mood.

No, I got real important things to talk about. Listen, there's two types of people on vacation. I'm assuming you're the other one Some people like to do something Every single day They like to stay moving They like to explore Other people just like to sit and chill

And do nothing I take it to the ladder I like to Just fucking hang out You know what I mean It's like And because my stress level has been up lately

It was very stressful getting out here Like I was stressed out on the plane You know Turbulance I haven't flown in a while And then you have to get on a smaller plane to get to this island, like a six-seater. I can't do that. It's so a bitch had a propeller on it. I'm like, what?

I can't do that. So I got to get back on that hole later on this week. It's just, uh. Y'all can't take a boat? I might ask, man. I feel you on that. Even if the boat is like two hours. It doesn't matter.

It's a 20 minute plane ride. Even if the boat is like two hours, I might still take the, still take the got there. There's got to be another option. Yeah, there has to be up, we'll see. We'll see. If not, I get back on the fucking plane. All right.

How was your weekend, Rach? I worked all weekend. But I went to my first red carpet, live and in person. Worked it, didn't attend. But here's the thing. It was at SoFi Stadium. They had a full-out concert. So-fi.

It was a little weird. It was a little weird. So-fi. You had to be vaccinated. to attend. If you're the press, you had to take like the PCR test, the intense test. But it was kind of cool, filling that energy of being back, live concert, all about getting the vaccine globally out to countries that aren't, you know, getting them as fast as we are

in the United States. Very big deal. So it was called Vax Live. It actually is going to air this weekend. Fax Live. It's called Vax Live. It airs this weekend. And, yeah, it was fun talking to people.

People were happy to be on. the red carpet talking just to be out for a good cause okay why don't why doesn't why doesn't so far use that they should you twist it hissed hide in the ceiling ooh is the ultimate feeling you got me twisted feeling so good then why don't you come down to so fi oh raiders how you get so fine oh rams how you get so fine charge is how you get so five charges how you get so fine. They should do that. They should remix that bitch.

You got me to his kid. Who says it, Baby Bash? That's Baby Bash. I tell you right now. I'm sure Baby Bash has time to do it. That was a diss. And I don't know why you did that. That's a guy representing for Texas and you diss him.

I said he's got time to do it. How do you know he's got time? Why did you take it as a diss? It's definitely a. people have time in quarantine. A lot of people have time in quarantine. Trudy. Do they not?

Do not people have not have more time on their hands? Did Rachel just this? Don't bring Trudy into this. Don't bring Trudy into this. Did Rachel just this baby bash? Yes or no. I'll be the fifth. Get out.

Get out. Trudy, get out. Good. So fine. Okay. All right. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters.

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Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfairadio.com. So there's something that I have to talk about you guys. Coming in hot, over the weekend, really at the end of last week, it was brought to my attention. And thank you, by the way, for everybody bringing it to my attention. Literally dozens and dozens of messages. And some of the messages that come from friends is like they don't want to out and out call you anything.

So they go, hey man, I know you're still riding high from everything. but I just wanted to make sure you saw this from me before anything else. No. Okay. So there's a woman. Her name. Wait, wait, wait, Van, Van, Van, Van. You hadn't seen this until this weekend.

I had seen the first I'd heard about this was not this weekend. The first time I'd heard about this was maybe a couple of weeks ago. Okay. So very recent. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So a couple of weeks ago, I'd say, so I'd say,

I think the first video she made was after she was able to see it on Netflix was like April 9th. And then I can't remember how, but someone brought it up to me and it was like maybe like a couple of days before my birthday earlier that week is the first time I had ever seen it. And I was, I mean, part of me was very unhappy that we didn't have like an all hands on deck for everyone to come along. talk about it. And then after, you know, we won the Oscar, I think that TikTok

is two different TikTok. So after we won the Oscar, she added, she added some more to it. So I don't want to, I looked around for a pronunciation of this, of,

this, the lady's name. Her name is Cynthia Koa. I would basically say. Hopefully that that's right. Or Cynthia Koa or Cynthia Kyle. She created a short back in 2016 and released to YouTube

It's called Groundhouse Day for a Black man. Okay. She then, so it's a very similar device to two-distance strangers, which is, of course, the movie I was a producer on. Black man trying to survive a police interaction over and over and over again. Hers is about four minutes, for what I haven't seen it. Hers is about four minutes. Ours is around 30.

Now, the interesting thing about her claim, Obviously, you guys know what I'm talking about. There's a TikTok video out there where she seems to insinuate that in some way we stole her concept. Okay. And the reason why she thinks that is because in May of last year, she got an email from Now This News, and now this news hit her up and said that they wanted to put her short, which was created in 2016. on to their social media platforms, right? And that was, I guess, in May.

And then when she watched our movie that came out in April, she saw that now this was a contributor producer on the film. So April 9th. So in her mind, she's connecting it. She says she's not assuming anything, but I think the subject is clear, that people that now this had seen her stuff, liked her stuff, posted her stuff.

and then got a bunch of guys together and decided that they were going to make sort of an expanded version of that premise and then in some way they knew about her short and then you know we stole it basically saying that we stole it and a lot of people ran with that and it's interesting to me that

not super not interesting but it was it was very interesting that a lot of black people sort of ran with it as well. So I saw a lot of get your coin, sis, and lawyer up and sue them, sis. And I saw some of that stuff. But actually seeing that made me happy. And it's because black people have been done so dirty in America that there's a thing where we don't want to see anybody get done dirty.

Don't matter. We don't like to see people get bullied and get done dirty. We want things to be fair. And if there are people out there who were thinking that this wasn't fair, they were going to make their presence felt about it. They were going to make their presence known. So here's a situation about it. Number one, I don't have any ill will towards Cynthia at all.

Not zero percent, not one percent. Now, there are some other people involved in our production that probably do, but not me. because I personally think from her looking at that, it's reasonable for her to assume something like that. Sure. When she sees the premises are similar, and she sees that now this was involved in what we had.

Here's the situation. It is a complete misunderstanding. We in no way watch, stole, borrowed anything from that short. The timeline for us doing, and two distant strangers was this. Trayvon had a script in August, you know, that he had written. We were putting money together on the fly.

The first money in on two distant strangers was me and Trayvon. The money to get the production started was a couple hundred grand that me and Trayvon put in, right? So we didn't have it financed when we started it. So we went from script to having a finish. product on it, I would say in about five or six weeks. Okay. Now this came on as a partner.

So in October, we had to, the first time we had to submit for the Academy Awards was October. Okay. I think it's like October 19th. Now this came in as a partner in November. And we didn't sign paperwork to make them an official partner and put them on the movie until December. Now, after we were done with the film, we still weren't finished paying for it.

So there were a bunches of people who came on after. Terrence Jay came on after. We were already done. The movie was already creatively done. Puff came on after we were already done. The movie was already creatively done. This is to pay for stuff and to help us with our campaign and still get stuff out there. After we had done the film, I actually believed, to be honest with you, that while we were shooting the movie, that it was a completely

unique concept. I had never seen anything like it before. I hadn't seen her film or anything. But after we were done I actually realized that there were a couple of people that had done similar things. There was a Twilight Zone episode starring Dams and Idges

about a mother or someone. I haven't seen that one either where it was a police interaction and they keep rewinding the tape to try to get a different outcome. And then there was another movie that had come out around the same time in 2016

that had a black male gay protagonist who was trying, who was caught in a loop trying to survive something with the police. And in 2015, there had been an article written before any of these things had come out that talks about this as far as it relates to Groundhogs Day.

You know, I think our product, our product was very unique in that we were specifically commentating on George Floyd Brianna Taylor and the other things that were happening at that time

and if you watch the movie that's how things played out so by the time now this came in it was finished when I say it was finished I'm not even talking about script finished I'm talking about complete movie finished like totally done

like all the way done um and i like i said i saw what was going on around the time like a week before the Oscars that this was kind of a thing and somebody was saying this and i wanted to address it address her because more than anything personally i don't want her to think that we would steal anything from her because of course we we really didn't like we seriously didn't. And that's kind of the, I mean, I'm not going to be like, hey, guys, it's bad, it's bad, you know me,

but we really didn't do that. And so I think a couple of things went into this. Number one is how quickly we shot the movie. We did. It's not like we had a concept and we kicked it around to a bunch of different people and like whatever, whatever. No, we caught it.

We had a deadline. So we got money fast. We did all of this stuff fast. Until Netflix came in, we weren't finished paying for two-distance. We still owe money. That's why we were adding producers on. We still owe money.

And then from the now this perspective, I don't think that they knew, I don't think the people that we were dealing with at now this had any clue that the social team had gone out and put this up on there. The people that we are connected to, I don't know if they would know every single post that the social team has made or everything.

It's just a complete coincidence that it's, happened. There are a lot of other things that are people saying about whether or not she should have been telling that story in the first place. That's up to an audience to decide. I don't, I think that you have somebody that made a movie or made a short or made a sketch about something that they thought, that they think that we all know is going on. And that's up to other people to decide in terms of that.

But as far as us, I'm not hurt. I'm not angry. I'm not mad. I'm not any of these things. It's a peculiar situation to be it. Because it's just simply not the case. Yeah. I'm glad you.

I'm sorry. Were you done? Yeah. Yeah. The timeline of it, I think, is, it's key for you to express that. Because I think the main thing that people were trying to harp on was the now this connection. But the idea of a groundhogs, groundhogs day idea,

experience that a black man is going through, that's not something that you can't concrete, concrete, oh, you cannot copyright that idea. The creative expression is different. And I think, and I have not watched it from what I'm reading of people comparing her short to what you guys did. It's different. How it's expressed is, it's a totally different idea or a concept, I should say. So that's really what it comes down to, I guess, legally if you're talking about it. Well, legally, legally, I couldn't care less about that because I don't, I don't care about legally. I care about truth. Let me say, I don't care about legally.

I care about truthfully. And here's the reason why I say this, legally it doesn't matter. Had I had I known that her short was out there, would it have changed what we did on two-ditcher strangers? it might have because you know when I first saw it and not only did I know Trayvon didn't know no one had seen it

and so what we did on Treated to Do District Strangers we thought was a completely and maybe we were naive for this unique way to tell that story and it and it still is our story is completely unique in some of the devices that we use it's nothing like what I understand her story to be

the beats of it are have been laid out to me and for me it's been seen that there's a more comedic tone to it you know we have a basically a 30 minute mini feature on all of these things where we're trying to dive deep into these issues and really pull them up

so for me it it wasn't even it's not even so much about whether or not we're exposed legally it's about the fact that this movie was literally at the beginning three black men

when we added Samir for black men telling the story about how we feel to be caught in this loop every single day and we were telling that story for us but we wanted to get it to the widest group of people possible so we shot for the stars and we hit our mark and I am totally unapologetic in the way

the things were done and I am totally unapologetic in the fact that we did what we felt like we need to do creatively we put our own money into it to put the movie out but what i will say is it sucks that somebody else feels the way that they feel you know it does it yeah it that that sucks but none of us nobody that's involved from lawrence to jesse to anyone anybody was praying upon anybody's ideas stealing it and then trying to flip it around. And as far as the now this connection,

now this had zero creative input on the movie. And nothing to do with the movie creatively. They had to do with helping us shape the discussion around the movie after, which they are absolutely amazing at, helping us financially with the film and helping us get the film in front of other people who they have relationships with.

But the creative on the movie, they just didn't have anything. to do with it. Me talking about the legality of it is not to talk about to take away from the truth of it. I think it's important that you tell that. The only reason I bring that up is because people are saying like, oh, you should do this. You should do that. And I think it's important to differentiate between the two.

But I think that the truth speaks towards the legality of it, I guess is what I'm trying to say. I get what you're speaking on. I get what you're speaking on now. Yeah, no, I get it. I understand I get but I just want to more than anything I always want to be like a human being about stuff like this

sure I don't ever want to be like hey we didn't steal your shit fuck you no because if I put myself in that position and I ask myself how would that feel or what would I do from a human perspective I get it I get it it it's just actually and really not the case

yeah like in a real way And I just, I want to have empathy for, for how she might have felt and how things, but no one had heard of or seen or done anything like that. Not, not at all. No, I think it's great for you to say that. And by the way, it might not be like the smartest thing in the world for me to speak on something that could end up being a legal issue, but I don't really care because I care about more than anything what you guys think of me. and what you guys think of my team. I really do care. I don't care what you guys think of me

in terms of your opinions upon me, but I do care about your trust in me. You can hate me. You can think Vann's a big fucking nerd, but he does say what he means, and he is a decent guy. And a decent guy wouldn't do that. A decent guy wouldn't steal somebody's idea,

then take it and blow it up and not give him credit. A decent guy wouldn't do that. Very true. And so, you know, that I care. Even if you don't fucking like me, but I am who I am. So we're going to take a quick break, but when we come back on the other side of the break, we got W. Kamal Bell, who is one of my favorite guys on television. He hosts a show on CNN called United Shades of America, and it is back.

And I don't know if you guys know, there's a lot of stuff going on in the country for him to talk about. So we're going to speak with him when we come back on hard learning. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer, unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner. Or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips.

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we are joined on higher learning by legitimately. I don't think he even knows this because I haven't talked to him yet about it. But one of my favorite people to watch on television. Oh, we're good, yes. Absolutely. Somebody that knows how to do something that is increasingly becoming impossible in American culture, which is to have an uncomfortable conversation with an open heart and a sort of comedic flair

that makes everybody feel like they're included. And the guy I'm talking to is talking about is W. A. Coma. Camar Bell, and he hosts a CNN series since 2016. He's hosted a show called United Shades of America. And he has hosted, he hosted an FX show called Totally. biased with W. Kamal Bell. Now, being that you're a comedian and that you hit on subjects that are both political, social, and sociopolitical, I guess the question for you is, is it getting increasingly harder

to make light of some of the things that are going on in American society? the job that I just said you so artfully do as things get more triggering as they get more tragic do you find yourself having the same zeal for talking about these things in a very specific way that you do or are you getting burnt out on on trying to make people laugh through the pain?

Well first of all I'd like to pick up the flowers you threw my way thank you Van for saying what you said I don't want just to ignore that in these increasingly pressured times I think it is important for all of us and me especially to go, oh, that's good. Somebody cares. So thank you for that. Be clear, I'm a big fan of yours too. So, yeah, I think, you know, this last year or so of America, as we know, has been, has been,

it's, you know, literally, like it's one for the history books. History will talk about what we have gone through the last year, and that last year's not over. We're still going through it. So if I didn't have a TV show, I would still be processing it through comedy because that's just what I do. and I think that's what black folks do as we look for ways to laugh. But yeah, I mean, absolutely. It is a bummer to feel like I'm still talking about

some of the same things that we've been talking about on the show. I said last season at the end of the show, that by the end of every episode, I kind of hope now that we've covered that, we won't have to deal with that ever again. But we end up dealing with it next week on the show. I'm curious with that because with 2020

and all that that brought about and the awareness that people gain. you know, for the first time ever it seemed like. In any way, did you find, did you find it different to film this season because of what had happened this year? I'm curious about that as we, as we're just now starting this new season. Yeah, it was very different. I mean, on a very basic level, there was no other season before where I had to get COVID

tested every morning before we went on set. There was no other seasons before where we had to like, you know, where we were wearing, we were masked up, you know, and if you watch the episodes, there's times where I'm wearing a mask, But for the most part, we're not because everybody got COVID testing. We shot everything outside. We've never shot a season before that was all outside. And as a black man of a certain age with all the comorbidities that they deal us, you know, I was also out there going like, is this show worth dying for?

Like, you know, I've done things with the KKK. They would have killed me. But is it worth dying for like getting COVID to make this show? You know, so I think it was, there was a lot going on on my mind and on the minds of the crew as we're making the show just because things. were more dangerous than that ever been before. And you sort of go, is this, is it, is it this important? And, you know, I'm still answering that, answer that question.

So one of the, the names of your podcast, you know what I'm about to ask you about. I hope I do. The, the name of the podcast is Denzel Washington is the greatest actor of all time, period. That's the name of the podcast. I'm a big believer in just, like, you know, putting it, the name should express exactly what it is. Like, you know, there's no. So having not being initiated to that particular podcast, what the hell is that about?

Well, I mean, so we haven't been doing it in a few years because we, you know, me and my partner, Kevin Avery, have been doing other things. He's a comedian and a writer. But when we started it, it was about the fact that me and him were both big Denzel fans, and we felt like he was always left out of the conversation around who's the greatest actor. And we were getting frustrated about that. We're like, because every time they talked about who the greatest actor was, it'd be De Niro, Pacino, you know, DiCaprio, all those guys whose names are N. Oh, but it was never Denzel Washington.

And we were like, we are going to plan a flag saying that he's the best. And what happened is that we ended up getting all these, like, black folks to come out and talk about how much love there was for Denzel that we all had, but we didn't have any way, there was no reason to express it. And so, you know, we got, I mean, we were just talking about the other day. We just, we got Ryan Coogler on the, day that it leaked, he was directing the Black Panther. Like, he left going, uh-oh, the story just broke.

We had Avedue Verne on, you know, after Selma, but before all the other things that happened. So it was like, we had Spike Lee on and Spike Lee just went through stories of making Malcolm X and how Denzel just like tapped into the zone. And it was this thing that we like, and Denzel's not really big for that stuff. I don't know if you know, but he's not big for being celebrated. So it was great to be able to do that for us, even if he didn't, even if he had no interest to being on the podcast, which we found out very, very, very, very. early on. Do you know why? I was going to ask, did he want to be on the podcast? Got it.

And we're not mad at him. We respect him to do what he wants to do. Do you know I ask that? I ask about that podcast is because there's, I mean, we all know about the big R racism and we know about the very active racism. Then there is like just the passive racism or passive I guess social erasure, right? If that Denzel's, it's, I'm going deep into your podcast here. Great. I've done a while. I'm glad for it.

But what I'm saying is that that's kind of, to me, the way I look at you. So that's a very big issue, actually, that's done in a comedic way. The issue is that people, artists like Denzel Washington, who have all of the accolades as these other guys and have been in all the classics and have done all have the trophies have the they don't get cluded in those conversations and at the end of the day that on a small level is what we're all talking about right we're all talking about well you sit back and you go the big question is well what's the difference then well what's the difference like what like like what's the difference and

having that conversation every time you do a podcast like that you actually have that conversation without actually having that conversation. And it matters to people. So that's why I asked about it, man. I think stuff like that is good. And you're very, very good at sort of filtering through those things. Yeah, and it's a way to sort of have that conversation. Like you said, without going, we're here to dismantle racism in Hollywood, you know.

And it became a way to, we had a bunch of black actors on and black actresses on who, like, Issa Ray was on, like, before, like, before, early days of insecure. So there's all these people who, like, you look up and go, these are the next wave and we got to have a lot of those people on as they were becoming the next wave Rachel oh sorry I thought you had another question I want to go back to united shades of America I want to go back to United Shades of America um we just the first episode just premiered this week can you tell us a little bit about what to expect this season and also I I heard that this season or not this season but this episode was really, really hard for you to film. Can you talk a little bit about why that is? Well, so the first

episode which just premiered was about, you know, we knew when we were putting together the season last summer, like we had to do something on policing because it was after George Floyd and Brana Taylor. And we knew we had to do something about policing. We'd done an episode years ago about policing, but from the perspective of the police and community policing in Camden, New Jersey. And so we knew we needed to do something and hit a sequel, but it had to be different than the other one. And we were trying to figure out, where would we shoot it? And, you know, love. or unluckily, however that goes, I live in Oakland, California, which is over the history of this country has had some interesting run-ins with the police going back to the, you know, famously to the Black Panthers, but then also, you know, not as famously, but also impactful with Oscar Grant being killed by a Bart police officer. And, you know, Oakland was right out there in the streets with everybody, with every other city last summer with, after George Floyd and Brianne Taylor. So, and I also know a bunch of Bay Area, badass Bay Area, activist, organizers, acting. who I could like put in the show, which was exciting for me, but then the challenge becomes,

I've lived in the Bay Area since, you know, over 20 years now, but it's not my, I can't claim it the way a lot of people can claim it, the way the people who are from here can claim it. But so it was like, I want to make sure I do right by the Bay Area and by Oakland specifically, but also, you know, I'm officially a transplant, which I don't, I hope people don't look at me as a transplant out here, but so I don't want to act like I, like I know that I'm talking down to Oakland or that I'm getting Oakland wrong because, you know, Oakland's on the map now. When I moved out here, Oakland wasn't a national city in the same way it is now. Yeah.

So I guess hitting on topics like that, who would you say your show is for? Well, I know my show is on CNN. So I know there is a group of white people over the age of 50, probably over the age of 60, who are just going to be there. Just because they have the TV on, they leave the TV on, they're just there. So I know that they're in the audience. and it's important to know that so that and then I also but I also want to bring in the audience people who support me which is a black audience but it's also a very you know lots of different

races you know all along the gender spectrum it's a lot lots of people that I have like that when I go do shows I see those people so I want to like make sure that they don't show up and be like oh Kamau sold out Kamau's not not keeping it real or he's saying stuff for these people but it's too but I don't find it entertaining so I really am always thinking about in every episode, there's the viewer who doesn't know anything about what I'm talking about. And there's the viewer who knows what I'm talking about, but I want to make sure they stay entertained. And also feel like I'm keeping it real for these people who don't know what I'm talking about. So, you know, it's a, it's a dance.

So I definitely want people who are fans of mine outside of the show to watch to like the show. But I also have a ton of fans who aren't going to watch CNN under any circumstances. So I know that like, that I want them to come along, people who just know me from like the Denzel podcast, you were like, I'm not watching CNN. But if they're at their parents' house and their parents have it on, I want to be like, oh, yeah, that's still him. That's still the guy. In doing your show and traveling around the country, coupled with everything that we've been going through, but just I guess what's come to the forefront over this last year, do you have

hope for the future? And do you see things getting better? You know, I think we're at a very delicate point right now. I think we have to realize that like this thing that we all grew up, even those of us who knew it wasn't true for our experience that America is the greatest country in the world, even those of us who didn't feel like it was treating us the way you'd want the greatest country to treat you, that we sort of accepted that here is where we can at least make the best of our lives out of any country in the world. I think that's over. I think Trump really put a nail in that coffin. I think that a lot of people, a lot of the reasons we were the greatest country is because people in other countries are going, I got to go there. Well, now, thanks to COVID and Trumpism, they either can't. come here because of COVID or they don't want to come here because they're like, I don't know how that's going to work out after Trump's out. And so those people are going to invent those amazing things that would have invented here or start those amazing businesses somewhere else. And then I think the United States becomes like, you know, it's like I can walk you to

the building in New York where Studio 54 used to be, but it ain't the spot no more. And so I think the United States could end up being that spot. Like it used to be over there. You know, I think about like, so like Rome used to be the spot. Rome used to rule the world. It does not rule the world more. So I think we are in that moment where we could end up going down like that. And I don't think it's really, you know, if I was betting, I would bet against us. I would bet against it going better from here on out just because there's a lot of stuff we have to address. But while I'm here, I will do the work to get us on the right side of history and hopefully raise my daughters to be people who then will also do that work. But yeah, that's so I, but it can

go either way right now. It's interesting that you bring up Rome because essentially what happened in Rome. I've talked about this on the podcast before is they forgot what Rome was. Even if you watch that movie Gladiator, that's about them following a general that's never been to Rome. You know what I mean? All the little different generals

who had their own allegiances for people who are, they didn't know what their identity was anymore. So which leads me to my next question, right now if you have to sum up, because you've been everywhere and you've talked to so many different people, what the identity of America is, not from the idealistic perspective,

but what it is actually right now, like what would you say our identity is? It's a country that is that is perfected leaving people behind. Ah, Jesus. Keep going. Didn't that hit you hard? I was like, ooh.

God damn, talk your shit. Man, wild. And be clear, I've never said that before. This is just, you're asking me the question. So I'm trying to figure out what is America's never a question anybody's really asked me before. So thank you for the question. But it is a country that over the course of our lifetimes, but even our parents' lifetimes, has really double and tripled down on the fact that the people with the most should have more

and the people with the least should have less. And then if you put race in that, then it just those fact, then it quadruples and quintuples down. I don't know what six doubles. I don't know what that is. But anyway, you know what I'm saying. I'm always smart to a point. But the idea being that like, that like, you know, we're doing an episode this year about wealth inequality and about, you know, about wealth disparity. And we talk about in the episode, we talk about how people, you know, always call millennials the laziest blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And as someone who's not a millennial, I'm in Generation X.

I'm like, first of all, I remember when they called us that. And second of all, the millennial generation is the first generation that is pretty much guaranteed to do worse than their parents. and in large part because they've been hit by the financial crisis of 2008, 2009, and COVID. And this country, but at the top of this, at the top of the country, you know, billionaires were the one group of people who made money during the pandemic off of the broke people. Right. Right. And so like if you're going to live in a country where you just, where that's okay and that continues to be okay, I mean, you're talking about the end state at that point. It's just not It's just not going to last forever.

Okay. I might be repeating myself with this question, but what you said is just like gut-wrenching, but it's because it's true. And so raising daughters, as you just said, what do you say to them? You know what I mean? Like to, what is it that you can,

to make them feel like that there will be hope, that there will be another day. Like, and maybe I'm asking you to tell me. Maybe I was just trying to be one of your daughters at this point. I'm so serious. Like how do you see, like stay hopeful or see light at the end of the tunnel that things can be better for the next generation, for them? And maybe to tie into that, what is the role that you feel like you have right now to make

that better for them? Well, I mean, I think they're very aware of what their dad does for a living. They're not impressed. So when people meet me in the street and say to them, you know what your dad does? They're like, yeah. So they know that they know the work that I'm engaged in. But they also know if they if you ask, if you ask them what their dad does, they would say a comedian and what does a comedian do?

They generate laughter. So they don't see that as being some sort of like they don't necessarily understand how hard the work is I'm doing or how like deep it is. They go, my dad's a comedian and I also find my dad funny. So that makes sense. So my kids are not walking around, uh, feeling hopeless. Now they are clear about COVID and the dangers of COVID and the fact that they love Disneyland, but.

they ain't going back right now, even though Disneyland is opening up. They know who George Floyd is. They know what Black Lives Matter is. They've been to protest. So to me, it's like, it's no different than teaching your, as a black parent, it would be negligence to not teach my kids about the state of the world and racism. You know, I think it'd be like not in the same way that parents don't go, I don't teach my kid about fire.

That's, they can't handle knowing that fire's hot. That doesn't make any sense. And to me, it's just. It's the same thing. Oh, my God. How brilliantly, brilliantly but simply put, just think about that.

Think about that. Think about, you know, my mother, because my mother used to always say my mother would be in there cooking. My mom would say, and this is like southern upbringing,

my mom would be like, hey, I know you see a chicken that's in the stove, but don't go touch the stove because the stove is hot. Think about if she just never told me that. Yeah, yeah.

And then I go on there, burn my, flesh on the stove. They'd come back and she goes, ah, ha, you shouldn't have done that. Well, it's just weird. And people treat racism that way. They treat racism as if if you don't talk about it, then nobody will go touch the stove. No, if you don't talk about it, fucking everybody's going to touch the stove. Well, I think the way that a lot of white parents do it is their kid goes and

touch the stone, touches the stove, and they come back and go, what happened? And the white parent goes, I don't know, let's not talk about it. It'd be better if we just don't talk about it. And your kid touch the stove again, like, man, I keep touching the stove and it keeps burning, but my mom doesn't know why it's happening. My mom's afraid to talk about it. Right. And then they blame you for making a stove hot. Yeah, exactly.

We could go all the way down with that stove analogy, but we don't stop. I want to let you know something. I am six four. I'm African American. I'm heterosexual. I'm cisgendered. I'm left-leaning. I'm black.

I'm a proud blurred. And I'm a mama's boy. So, man, bro. Wow. We are, like, I don't. I don't have asthma, but I have several elements. And I'm not a dad that I know of yet. Yes.

Do some research back in Louisiana. But, bro, like, so your book that you put out is the awkward thoughts of W. Kamal Bell, tales of a six-foot-four African-American, heterosexual, six-gendered, left-leaning, asthmatic, black, and proud blur, mama's boy, dad, and Stan. up come and stand-up comedian. You're fucking, I got a book coming out next year. I don't have shit to write about. Like, what is this book about?

And what did you mean by titling it such a very direct description of almost all aspects of your personality? Well, first of all, if they can keep making like, you know, superhero movies, I think we can get two black blurred books. Right. I think so. I think it'll be all right. I think we can be.

be all right. I mean, for me, it was just about like I had spent like maybe the first half of my life being told that I didn't fit in and feeling like that was a problem. And then I spent the second half of my life sort of being like, yeah, I don't fit in. And here's all the ways I don't fit in. And also really being clear about there's other part of this, being clear that a lot for a lot of people in America, all they see is a black male. And then all they see is because I'm six four, a big black male. That's all they see. And so this book was an effort to first of all claim the things that I think people. told me that was weird about me and also claim the things that you don't see when you look at me because that's because so much as you know as being a black man in America, that's all a lot of the America sees. Yeah. And the size thing, look, the size thing is such a deal. I don't want to because everyone thinks, oh, it's so great to be tall and you get to walk in the room and be commanding and stuff like that. It's great to be tall if your tallness has a use. Like if you're usefully tall, then that's dope. If you're the point guard for the New Jersey Nets, then it's great to be.

If you're a point guard or if you're like a D-Lyman or something like that. But if you walk into every room, it's just, for my entire life, just being in a white world and taking up that much space in their world was always a very delicate dance that you had to do. Like, people always want to connect with you. Like, hey, where'd you play ball? Hey, where you just shut the fuck up. Yeah.

You didn't play basketball? You were a waste of height. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I think for me it was that the, yeah, like I like being tall. I wouldn't trade it, especially when you figure out all the other things that I have that I feel like people don't think is great at all. So I'll take being tall. But I don't know, I don't know how you are in the world.

But because of how I carry myself, I don't carry myself like I'm six, four. And so people who I'm friends with will see me, will not see me for a few months and see me again and be like, I forgot how tall you are. are. And I'm like, yeah, because I'm kind of doing that on purpose. Like I'm not over you. I'm not standing over everybody everywhere I go because I know that that's not going to work out. That may not work out well for me. Doesn't mean I don't stand up from a stand up when I need to, but I'm not standing over everybody like that all the time. I'm, I'm just listening to it from a female. No, I'm just, no, go ahead. I'm just laughing because from a female perspective,

that's the one like we women like height. So like you're winning, you're winning. You're winning. in that regard. I'm just saying when you walk into a room, women are like, who's that? Well, no, I wouldn't take it. I wouldn't take it over. I don't know how you feel, Van, but I'm not trading with short folks. You can keep that. Like, I'm not. I definitely like it, but there is

something to be said to when, you know, yeah, it's just, it's a thing. Here's the big black guy. Here's, and what has happened over the course of my life, what used to happen was I used to have what I call a teddy bear switch. Like right way, a teddy bear,

It's like a teddy bear switch. You walk in, hey, guys, just to let you know, you don't have to be afraid that it's me, Teddy. It's me, Teddy Ruxman. The gentle giant. Gentle giant. I got, I used to get that all the time, like, or get it all the time. And, you know, for me, I think one of the reasons I'm, my dad's 6-6, so he's even taller than I am.

And 6-6 starts to get into that, like, you better have played in the NBA height. Like, people get mad. We're, we're, we're, 6-4, 6-4 is the last height. Yeah, that's the last stop. That's the last stop to where it could be normal. This is true. Yeah, yeah. Like if you 6-5 or 6-6, people start looking at you like,

did you fucking hurt your ankle or something? You better have a story about your ACL blowing out. Or a coach that didn't like you. Yeah, yeah. I want to ask you, why did you decide to publicly talk about having a snips-snip-vicectomy? What? Like, you made that public. That was a big deal that you wanted to publicly talk about having a vasectomy.

Why was that? I mean, you know, always got to create, you always got to make content, right? You always need more content. I mean, I think that, first of all, I didn't, I want to be clear about this. When my wife first started talking about a vasectomy, I wasn't like, oh, yeah, let's do it and let's film it. And let's get it. I was like, nah, you must be playing. And then she was over the course of several years.

And three daughters later, I was like, oh yeah, we're not playing here. And so I honestly, I am always looking for a way to figure out how to have new conversations and how to also put myself in the middle of those conversations. And it and it just seemed like we had just done an episode of United States of America about reproductive justice in Mississippi talking about like the women's health clinics down there and the where the women get abortions. And it was just like it was the contrast between how easy it was to get a vasectomy and how all

this all the strife and struggle that women are going through to get abortions, especially in places like Mississippi, you know, it was just so jarring that I felt like it, like, if I'm really about this life, I don't know if you ever, like, if I'm really about like these conversations and about this, then I should actually put myself in the middle of it and not just sort of act like, and not act like I'm not a part of this somehow. And so, you know, and I kind of wish it had been more graphic. They didn't want to film it as much as I wanted to, but yeah. Did your wife do the vasectomy? What did you say? did your wife do the vasectomy?

No, it's not quite that level of like... Wait, who? Well, she's a, she's a surgeon, right? No, she's a, she's a PhD, not an MD. She's like a Jill Biden. Oh, oh. She's a Jill Biden. Not a Dr. Kizzy.

She's a Jill Biden. Right. Let me ask your opinion on this, because this might be something we talk about later in this podcast, but an article came out in the New York Times that the experts are saying that we in the United States most likely will not reach herd immunity. I'm interested on your thoughts on the vaccine and the hesitation to take it, especially from the black and brown communities. So first of all, I'm not surprised we're not going to hit herd immunity because I've watched the news over the past year. So I'm not surprised. It doesn't surprise me at all. Every time they

talked about it, I was like, how's that going to happen if there's all these people who don't believe it exists. So, first of all, I'm, I'm vaccinated. Are you too vaccinated? I get my second shot Saturday. All right, all right, cool. I just need to know where I need to start this conversation now. Right. So, you know, so, you know, first of all, earlier, I'm not a, I believe in science. So, and I also believe that you have to do your homework and you have to find some trusted sources. So just because I believe, believe in science doesn't believe, I believe everything a scientist says, but I do believe in the preponderance of evidence and trusted sources and people who have been clear voices. So I find Dr. Fauci to be someone with all the work he did with AIDS research back in the day to be a trusted source.

I also understand that science goes, we have discovered new information that changes the old information. So I'm not bothered by any parts of the early mass debate and the later mass debate. This is science figuring it out on the fly. So I think, first of all, what I've learned from talking to black medical professionals, first of all, that many of them. I think it's like 4% of like doctors are are black. So that's we should be aware of that. So there's not enough of black doctors to go around. Second of all, the thing that we're calling hesitancy is actually exist across all cultures and specifically through white people, but white people don't get focused on as much as black folks do when it comes to not believing

in science. That's right. So when you look at the numbers and when they add the numbers up, white people are either just as hesitant it is black folks around the vaccine or more hesitant. Now the thing that black people combine that with is lack of access to health care. And so then people go, well, I might want to get it, but it's nowhere around me. There's nowhere, there's nowhere I can go to get or there's no where I can get it quickly or nobody's, nobody's helping me access the internet because I may not have access to the internet. So I think a lot of what is called black hesitancy is really just the system putting obstacles in place for black people to get tripped up over. And at the end of at the end of it all

I think black people who are on the black people getting hit by COVID harder than the white community. So we need to be first in line to be vaccinated. And America, the least it could do is make it easy for black folks to get access to vaccines. But that seems sometimes like the most it can do. Yeah. The reason why the 4% number that you just pointed out is is so important is because if there is a deficit in areas like that, then we're overrepresented in other areas, which are. fucking cooks.

And by the way, I'm not pushing anything on anyone, but some of y'all lying about some of this shit that y'all saying. And because we don't have any trust in medical professionals because there's not enough of us there, plus the history in America, it is very easy for someone to fill that gap by saying, hey, it's these towers that's causing this disease. or, you know, if you get the disease,

just pound your body with turmeric and you'll be fine, which might work. I don't know. You know, but what I'm saying is that at a certain point, to your point, we're going to need to up our representation in terms of the medical field and just medical thought because there's just, in science,

certain things that are true and then certain things that aren't true. Yeah. And, you know, those things change. But at the same time, time we know when we know, right? Yeah. When I was a kid, Pluto was a planet.

It's fucking not now. That's so. You know, so. That's a great, yeah. The Pluto thing is a great example of science being like, you know that thing we thought about Pluto? It's different now. It's just because we keep doing the research.

Yeah. But it don't change the fact that Pluto is there. Mm-hmm. You can, you can choose to not believe that Pluto is there. But God damn it, we've seen that motherfucker. Yep. Pluto is there. My brother

Very very happy to have talked with you Been watching you for a very long time Obviously I remember when you did the whole joint Where you talked to the Klansman and stuff like that It's hilarious So tell people when they can catch the show And kind of what's in store for them in the new season Well yeah so the show is every Sunday night

At 10 Eastern 7 Pacific on CNN We usually You know, this season, we did one about policing in Oakland, which you just did. You can see on demand or on wherever you get your TV, wherever you get it. I'm not, I'm not watching you. It's all, yeah, so you can see what's about. And that one's about a large part about defund the police and what it means. We have an episode this weekend coming up about about about black folks in STEM and Afrofuturism,

how there's not enough black folks in STEM fields. We have an episode coming up about, we have an episode coming out about the black trans community in Dallas, Texas. We have an episode. That's my hometown. That's, I heard. Yeah. I heard. That's why I thought to mention it. And we have an episode talking about

wealth inequality, as I said earlier in South Carolina and how maybe we, maybe as a country, we shouldn't have billionaires because they're soaking up all that money. Wow. Can't wait. Out here shaking the tree. Shaking the tree, man. I appreciate the time.

Thank you for joining us today on higher revenue. Transport your senses with Soldesanado's limited edition perfume mist collection at Sephora Sprits on lush notes of rainforest orchid and crisp seabrees with have fresco paraiso. Embrace a floral and fruity scent inspired by Rio's nude beach with chiqui bikini

or capture sun-kissed bliss with gimonade gelada, where zesty Brazilian lemonade accord meets coconut milk and golden brown sugar. Don't miss Sol de Janeiro's limited edition perfume mist collection only at Sephora. Okay, big news. Big news in tech.

Big news in tech life. after 27 years of marriage Rachel Bill and Melinda Gates are getting a divorce Wow it's crazy after a great deal of thought

and work on our relationship we have made the decision to end our marriage over the last 27 years we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy productive lives we continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue

are work together at the foundation, but we no longer can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives. We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life. Whoa!

Whoa! Bill and Melinda Gates, divorced. What the hell? What are your thoughts? Is that how you really feel about it? Yeah, I kind of feel sad about this one. I mean, of course, it's sad.

I mean, any relationship, you know, a marriage ending, you know, it's sad. It's 27 years. It's a long time. Three kids. A lot of people are going to be affected by it. I, you know what my first thought was? What? I thought, wow, they have so much money that a pre-up wouldn't even matter.

Do you understand? Like the lack of, right? I'm assuming they don't have a pre-up. But there's so much money splitting it and having. They're still insanely rich. Why are you assuming that they don't have a pre-up? Because when did Microsoft start? Like 1990-something, 19-1?

Okay, so longer than... Maybe even 89. Why did you just pull the random year 89 out? Because I saw a movie call. I feel like 94. I feel like 94. Can we look this up? No, it's before then.

It's before then. It was definitely around in the 80s. Hold on, let's look this up real quick. Let's see who's right. I'm going to say 1980s. I'm going to say 1989 and you're going to say what year? 94. You're going to say 94.

Oh, goodness. Windows and office started in 1985. Actually, it was founded in 1970. In 1979. Yeah. Oh, I have 72. Okay. Yeah, 75.

April 4th. So we're both wrong. Wow. But I was more right than you were. You were more right than me. I saw that movie, I saw that, I saw that movie Pirates at Silicon Valley and they were rocking it all throughout the 80s. They really, don't come at me. See, look, don't come at me.

Come at Bill Gates. Bill Gates actually stole the point-click interface from Xerox. So they don't like, we didn't do nothing. Bill Gates actually stole that shit from Xerox. That's actually true. Bill Gates stole stuff. Ray Kroc stole stuff. No, they didn't.

So like, don't come at me. We didn't do nothing. Go at Bill Gates. But, but, um, okay, so maybe they do have a pre-nup. Um, I, I don't know why I thought Microsoft started in like nine, mid-90s. All right. Because you think because you're a narcissist and you think that things only start when you become aware of them.

Wow. That's how you are. That's how you are. That's how I am. Okay, anyways. So, so then take that thought out. That's, that was just my first thought. Oh, they probably don't have a pre-up.

They helps. I thought she was like, oh, girl, uh, with, um, Jeff Bezos. and I thought they started the company together at the same time. That's clearly not the case. But yeah, they're separating. That's sad. I mean, do we really know that much about that? We know a lot about Bill.

They're very charitable. We know Melinda. Exactly. We know they're a charitable couple together, but do we know anything about them personally? Not really. No. What we know, though, is that Microsoft has revenue last year of 143.

billion dollars okay one mr bill gates all right who's still still a young man comparatively he's 65 years old the same age as my dad which damn dad you fucked up you could have had shit he's only 65 he's only 65 years old okay so um that i say that to say that that dick still works man it still works billy bill um right now bill gates is worth i don't think he's the richest man in the world currently that is jeff basos but right now his his poor guy his net worth is down right now as of may 1st 2021 this poor bastard is only worth uh 145 billion dollars damn right um and his his he married to melinda gates in 1994 she's 56 that's when they got married um and so that's over 20 years years after Microsoft was started and the Windows was already going.

Billions. By the time. Was he a billionaire in the 90s? Probably not. Probably not in the 90s. Well, I don't know. Like they were married in 1994. He had to be, you know, Windows 95 is really what took it across the, from nine.

Okay. So check it out. Since 1987, he has been included in the Forbes list of world's wealthiest people since 1987. from 95 to 2017 he held the Forbes title from 95 to 2017 he held the title of the four of the richest person in the world every year except for 2010 and 2013 2010 and 13 in October 2017 he was surpassed by Jeff Bezos who hasn't given it back so he was mad rich when they got together so I'm imagining that there's some pre-up of some There's some pre-knap. And I'm sure she's fine. Let me ask you this.

He's worth $145 billion. By the time they met, he was basically one of the world's richest people. So she married him when he was already one of the world's richest people. I'm going to ask you, Rachel Lindsay, out of the $145 billion, right? Because he was around 90-something. no, he was in the 50s or something in the 90s. He got up to, you know, around 150 billion. How much money do you think Melinda Gates deserves?

At least $3 billion. At least $3 billion, you feel like she's. Now, when she married him, when she married him, he was already one of the world's richest people, and the next year he would go on to be the richest man in the world. But you think she deserves. Why? A billion per kid.

At least $3 billion. What the hell? What, like, why was she? I'm telling you, why $3 billion? She was holding down the gates home. While he went out and he did all these things, she was holding it down at home. I'm sure she might have worked. I don't want to just say she was staying at home, but she raised those children.

So that's got to count for something. At least $3 billion. A billion is like a penny to him. So at least even if the kids are out the house and grown, which I'm sure they are, at least $3 billion for all her hard labor holding down the gates home. Okay. So she's ranked as one of the world's most powerful women. She graduated as a valedictorian from Ursuline Academy of Dallas. That's what she's from.

Oh, so she came from money. She went to Ursuline. It's Ursuline. She came from money. money. Ursuline. Ursulin is a big deal? It's a private school.

All girls. It's, yes, it's a lot of money. Okay, so she went to Ursulin Academy. She earned a bachelor's degree in computer science and economics from Duke in 1986. Oh, she helped him build the end. She took it. The reason it went, oh, I'm adding. I'm adding billions to it.

I'm adding. Right. Right. Okay, here's a deal. Here's a deal. Gates's first job was tutoring children in mathematics and computer programming. After graduation, she became a marketing, manager with Microsoft being responsible for the development of various multimedia products.

These included Cinemania, Encarta, publisher, Microsoft Bob, Money, Works, and Work. She worked with on Expedia, which became one of the most powerful travel fucking sites ever in life. She was appointed the general manager of information products, a position which she held into 1996. She left Microsoft that year reportedly to focus on starting a thing. family. So she put her career on hold. Two. For his family. Does she give him the first kids he's ever had? A family. Are those who are children? They got married here on this island where we are right now, Lanai in Hawaii. Uh, no, what the hell are you talking about? Like to me, I think, I think that.

She was, she was successful in her on. She, she gave it all up to have his children. So five. I'll take 25. Start, start when she, when she quit. 1996, so 25, 25 years, 25 billion. But here's the thing, though. And I'm asking this question, seriously. She was getting all of this at his company. And she started dating him in 1987. So how do we know that the things that she was getting,

that she wasn't just getting them? I'm not going to let you do that to me. Because what? Don't make it seem like she was dating the CEO. She dated her way up to those positions. What I'm saying is you can't use that as an argument. and everything that she's got, I tell you, I'll tell you how much money she deserves.

I'll tell you how much money she deserves. She deserves $100 million. Y'all, y'all cancel Van. Immediately. She deserves $100 million. Immediately. Why? First of all.

Not even a billion and the man is worth $145? No, she deserves $100 million. I'll tell you why. $100 million is so much money that she doesn't have to, she is rich in and. Nelly? You know what I mean? She richer, like a hundred million dollars. Who knows who Malinda could have been? Why? If she, why did you say Nelly? Why did I bring up Nelly? But like, but she's rich in Rick Ross. She's rich in a lot of people. Why are we comparing her to these people?

I'm saying, these people? Oh, stop. Whoa. Stop. This is a woman who has a tech, my, okay, stop. Wow. Wow. No, the reason I'm saying that is because you're comparing her to wrap. And like that doesn't like compare it to other people in the tech world. Rachel Owens. Wow. Rachel Owens. That might be the most thing you've ever said to me. Ever.

No, but seriously, a hundred million dollars. A hundred million bucks. No. This woman, who knows what this woman, this woman stopped her career so this man could continue doing his. She gave him everything he wanted. He already had the money. He already had the career, the company.

He was lacking the marriage. He was lacking the children. The home environment and Melinda gave it to him. She at least deserves $3 billion, but I'm going to say $25. I say $100 million. By the way, we should put this, I need this to be a survey. How much money does Melinda deserve? How much money does Melinda Gates deserve?

She met him. Ladies. Ladies. Ladies. Ladies. That's a lot of money. $100 million. $3 billion.

$100 million. $100 million. $100 million. $100 million. dollars and she can still see her kids to ursuline academy or whatever it is 100 million bucks all right experts are saying we are not going to reach herd immunity we talked a little bit about this with with with with comal um so we're not going to reach herd immunity here and the hesitancy to the vaccine is one big deal the virus is going to be here to stay

um we might be able to restore some normal normalcy but as far as tisanship the virus's ass and getting to herd immunity, experts are saying it's not going to happen. Rachel, what are your thoughts? I don't know. It's a little disappointing. If somebody who's gotten their first shot, getting the second shot this weekend,

I think when you see an article come out that says we're not going to reach herd immunity, I think it's going for even the people who are on the fence, it's like, well, then why am I even going to get the shot? Right. If we're not going to reach this, if we're all not doing our part and trying to reach it so we can be better for one another,

so we like just get back to society back to what it was before why why even get the shot that was my immediate thought and if i'm thinking that a person who's been a proponent of the vaccine and getting vaccinated then what about these other people who are on the fence it's so discouraging to hear that it's so discouraging i was talking with somebody this weekend who should not be named who's had covid and because i want to call her out i want to put her out there But not like, no, I just don't. No, no, no, no. Stop.

I didn't know. You got COVID? No, but somebody who had COVID in the past. And it's not, I was like, oh, are you getting the vaccine? And they were like, no. Is it Hannah B? And I said, no. They said no.

And I said, why not? And they were like, because it just came too fast. That was the only justification. It just came. It just, I don't understand how we got it this fast. And I'm like, have you done any research? to understand that. I said, we have a great podcast episode

where we had someone to come on who explained why this has happened and why we're getting it at a faster rate. But I just, I know a lot of people who aren't getting it. So it's not shocking to me, but it's so disappointing. It's so disappointing.

They won't take the vaccine, but then they'll go out and fucking eat the McRib. It's just an interesting time, you know? And that's not that the McRib isn't delicious because it is. But you don't ask questions about the McRib. Just eat that bitch. But the vaccine, you've got to be Sherlock fucking homes and the house and something like that.

I get it. I did all my research. I researched for months and months and months before I took the vaccine. Look, the hesitancy I can understand. I understand people. They don't want to get side effects. They don't want to be in a situation to where they don't feel like themselves or something happens to them.

I get it. I think this also speaks to structures in the United States. both political and social as to why people don't have the trust that they should for things like this. COVID really exposed in eroding America. It really did.

That used to be a time to where if there was a common enemy in America, it made us put our separations and our differences aside for a second to concentrate on that enemy. Yep. And the World War II changed the country, right? Economic, boom.

things happened for us as a people now we could not get on the same page with COVID we couldn't we couldn't because it wasn't about us it was about all the other things it was about money going to the

right people and it was about re investing into certain people's loony conspiracy theories it was about all of those things or which drug company was going to get the big score it's just like we're we're in a weird place. So what I would tell people is do whatever you feel like you need to do to keep yourself safe.

You know, I took the vaccine and that wasn't just for me. That was for the people that live in my building and other people like that. But do whatever you have to keep yourself safe. But I will tell you this, you have to do something to keep yourself safe. So if you're not going to wear a mask and you're not going to get the vaccine and you're not going to, you're going to have to do something. Like when we say we're all in this together, like we're actually all in it together.

You know? Like seriously. So I don't know. I don't know. As we're sitting here talking, the FDA just authorized Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine for children aged 12 to 15 by early next week. They're really trying to get her immunity.

And that's why they're, yeah, they're moving. Early next week. Okay. I'll take a break. Come right back. This episode is brought to you by Two Good and Company Coffee Creamers. How do you take your coffee? Piping Hot, Ice, Strong, Frothy.

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Did you see this picture that Will Smith put up of himself? He said he's in the worst shape of his life. Yeah, I saw it. It looked like a little bit like of a melted Carmel. You know what I mean? Like those were Carmel's. When I saw the headline, I thought it was going to be something terrible. It wasn't terrible.

It wasn't bad. It's a dad. How old is he? 51, 51, I think Will looks great. I think he looks great. Well, he doesn't look great, but I'll tell you this. I've never felt so seen. I'm up here at this place.

Yesterday, I had to do a fitness assessment, all right? And I was telling the people, I don't want to do the fitness assessment. And they were like, why? I'm like, because it doesn't make any sense for me in this body to do the fitness assessment. And they're like, well, we got to know where we're starting. I'm like, I don't want to do the fitness assessment, okay? I don't want to do this stuff. I don't want to do all of it.

I was like, no. And they were like, yeah, you have to do it. So I had to do a vertical leap. I had to do like all of these different stretching drills and all of this stuff. So you went to the combine. Basically. Do you know what my vertical leap was yesterday? 38?

Rachel. Oh, wait, this is a vertical leap. I'm thinking of vertical jump. Sorry. Sorry. No, vertical jump. My vertical. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. What do you think my vertical is right now? 38. 13. What's normal? I don't know. But I know that when I was a good athlete, I had a 31-inch vertical.

And my vertical was 13. Kalika jumped 20. Like you. I'm sorry. I was trying not to laugh until you said Kalika hit 20. Kalika jumped 20. It's like, I'm like, yo, what the fuck? And this, this, this, the woman is going like.

Your attitude was weighing you down. Your attitude, you went into it. It wasn't my attitude. Yes, it was. How many tries? How many tries, Van? It was my ass. 13 was the best of three.

Oh. I hit 12 on the first one. And the woman was like, okay, now you're warmed up. Let's see what the last one. I'm like, like, I'm warm up. give me like five inches. I'm 275 pounds. Like I can't jump right now.

I can't jump right now. Like it's just so bad. It's so, everything is so bad. And I'm glad that we'll put that out there. You know, I'm doing better. I'm like, you know, by the way, when- I'm so glad you're out there. It's crazy is that by the time we did that shoot at,

because we did like a little photo shoot or whatever for Spotify a couple of weeks ago. Like that was the day before my birthday. I had lost mad weight. But those last two weeks of April Between my birthday Between her birthday Between the party for the Oscars And then the dinners that everybody was throwing for all of that

Oh, it was a ham sandwich You feel what I'm saying? Can you excuse yourself, please? You had a lot to celebrate another year Kalika another year Rachel another year You won a freaking Oscar I just give yourself a break for two weeks

and just get back to it. Just give yourself a break. It's okay. Well, I see you, Will. I see you, brother. I'm in the same boat as you are, man. But didn't he say he's happy? Didn't he say he feels good?

Or maybe he does. I don't. I don't. I got to get back on it. I got to get back on it. Okay. You took a two week break. It's okay.

You've lost it before. You can get back. Yeah. We're doing it. We're doing it. We're doing it. Yeah. Chris Brown has said fuck it

And let's let this be the last topic Chris Brown Chris Brown said Fuck it I don't give a fuck what people think about me That's what I looked at this So Chris Brown Is released a joint album

With Torrey Lanes Chris Brown just said I don't give a fuck Yeah but hasn't he always said it That's Chris Brown Okay is it look where are we supposed to do with Chris Brown? Well, apparently nothing because I don't think people are doing anything.

I've met Chris Brown before. He was a nice guy. I played basketball with him and stuff. I know a lot of people who know him. But is it, has everyone just moved on? I mean, it seems prudent to move on. I'm asking, like, I'm asking, like, what is the proper way to view? Because it doesn't seem like it's the same thing.

And the only reason why I say that is because, This move right here seems like a pretty flagrant, like fuck you to everybody. You know what I mean? That he was going to work with him. He wants to work with, do what he wants to do. And it just seems like that's, it's just a fuck. Chris don't give a fuck, you know? Yeah.

And even coming back to this, what's going on with the Tory Lanes and Meg the Stallion situation? My exact same thoughts. listen, when I say that Isn't that always Chris Brown I'm not saying that he didn't give a fuck up After what happened with Rihanna Because I I can't remember everything that he did

I know he was charged unlike Torrey Lanes Chowley's been charged But I think he actually What's the next step? I'm losing my words here Anyways Chris Brown was yeah Chris Brown Like was sentenced

He played guilty to Sinus, thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you He pled guilty He admitted it When I say he doesn't like care, I just mean like just like what people think about him. He does his own thing. I'm not specifically talking about Rihanna. But to do us a collaboration, which I don't think Chris Brown has spoken out about that.

Only Torrey Lanes has said that this was happening. Has Chris Brown confirmed this to be true? I haven't seen it. Okay. So from what we know, just to give some background, Tori Lanes was talking to somebody on something and said that he and Chris Brown have this collaboration coming out. Chris Brown has collaborated with a lot of people.

And I'm not saying Tory Lane's isn't talented, but of all the people that you could collaborate with in light of everything that's going on surrounding Tory Lane's and coupled with your history when it comes to women and domestic violence. I can't believe that you would do this. I don't understand. And I'm waiting to hear from him. I'm waiting for him to respond.

Well, I don't think he's going to respond. I think that Well, he's not announcing it. Yeah, I don't think that it's, I think that him and Torrey Lanes have been friendly. And if anybody, sometimes what happens is when you go through a situation like that and you're Chris Brown and when you wanted your career back

and you wanted to kind of get back to the heights that you were at, one thing that you do is you have like empathy for guys who are in that situation. So even if it came out that, that Tori Lanes had actually done that, I'm inclined to believe that Chris Brown would still still probably worked with him after that, you know, if he was able to get out of jail for it. I mean, I don't, it's not that I don't, that I agree with or disagree with it.

I think a lot of times they look at it as, I mean, Tori Lance has a lot more support than people think that he does. No, I see that. I don't think people, people defended what he did and blamed Megan. And I'm not even talking about famous people. Tori Lane has a lot of support. People are not giving Megan the benefit of the doubt. And it's almost as if people have moved on and are forgetting what Tori did.

And so. Well, people are, I will say this to that. People are going to move on the longer it takes for them to get answers. I just. Because the longer it takes for them to get answers, the more they're going to be like, you know what I mean? At this point, everybody's side is out there. People want answers. They want to know who they have to not fuck with or who they still can't fuck with.

But he's been charged. Right. Okay. So he's been charged, y'all. So now it's going to work its way through the legal system before anything can happen. You got motions. You got evidentiary things that have to happen. Pre-trial procedures before you can even get to if there even would be a trial.

Okay. So the fact that people are expecting something to happen immediately, that's not fair to take away from what actually happens. to Megan or allegedly fine if you want me to use the what I believe to be true but what allegedly happened to Megan all right so you know what we're gonna do bad look and I think you have to start holding people accountable for when they do things like this of course or they'll keep happening they'll probably keep happening either way we have to care yeah said you you have to care you have to care just get people to pass because they're famous and you like their music in the way that they dance

So this is what we're going to do. Although we do that all the time, by the way. I know. We do that all the time. I know. So Vann's very serious questions of the week. I think we're not going to get a more serious question than how much money should Melinda Gates get $100 million. It's how much she should get.

She should get $100 million. That's a lot of money. A hundred million dollars. Got to have a billion. That's $100 million. You get $100 million. But we are, so we're going to get out of here. thought worse. Look, I appreciate everybody

who reached out as like, you know, letting me know and stuff like that. I also appreciate the people that did it just to be messy, you know? But guess what? We coming back with another joint pretty soon. More movies, more content, more

everything, man. Tell you thing caps off, do not stop learning. This Van Lathan coming into you live from Lanai in Hawaii. And are you going to tell people who you are? before we leave, Rachel. Yes, Rachel Lindsay,

Van, enjoy your vacation. It's a beautiful thing. Have another Mai Tai. Keep a smile on your face. Go practice that jump. By the time you leave, you at least should hit 15 by the time you leave. I'm so fat.

All right, bye. Bye.