It Could Happen Here - Thi'sl, The Nispey Hussle of St. Louis, On What It Really Takes to Make Our Hoods Better feat. Prop

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

Thi'sl is a child of the Lou, who ran the streets, was in the foster care and justice systems. Now he runs an incredible mentoring program. He talks about how to really REALLY reduce crime, you have to be a trusted voice.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story. Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life. This is Wisecrack, available now.

Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On a cold January day in 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in the woods of Knoxville, Tennessee. Since her conviction, Krista has been sitting on death row. How does someone prove that they deserve to live? We are starting the recording now. Please state your first and last name. Krista Pike. Listen to Unrestorable Season 2,

Proof of Life, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Lauren came in. From standout speeches to the shows and stars making all of the history,

my podcast, the latest with Lauren the Rosa, has your full Emmys breakdown. The wins, the surprises, the cultural impact, and what it really means for us. I'm a moment. homeguard that knows a little bit about everything and everybody.

Listen to the latest with Lauren the Rosa from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app. You can get it at Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to your podcast. Just like great shoes, great books take you places. Through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robay, and this is. bookmarked by Reese's Book Club, the new podcast from Hello Sunshine and IHeart Podcasts,

where we dive into the stories that shape us on the page and off. Each week I'm joined by authors, celebs, book talk stars, and more for conversations that will make you laugh, cry, and add way too many books to your TBR pile. Listen to bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Books is the official audio book and ebook home for Reese's book club. Visit apple.co forward slash Reese Apple Books to find out more. Callsor Media.

What up? It can happen here. It's your favorite cousin prop. Y'all already know what it is. I'm about to black this mug up because y'all don't be blacking it up enough. Anyway, all over our country, there's this sort of narrative around,

crime, which is verifiably false, but we also understand that a lot of times the feeling of crime and safety is a lot of times a vibe. Like, it's kind of how it feels. You could tell me the crime rates is down across America, but in my city, if I still feel like, you know what I'm saying, not safe or safe, you know, your perception of that. Anyway, point I'm trying to make is there are truly verifiable

data-driven ways to actually create safety and reduce harm in a city. And a lot of that is around trust and services. So what I decided to do, y'all, is to bring y'all who I lovingly called the nifty hustle of St. Louis. Ladies and gentlemen,

can I introduce you to the homeboy Thistle? With the red shirt on. Look, man, you already flamed up. I wasn't going to bring up the flame of it all. With the wrist. Hey, I'm like, gotta throw the red shirt off a prop. Oh, man.

Happy to be here, though. Yeah. Man, we're happy to have you, bro. That was the one, that's funny, because that's the one asterisk next of your name with me, is all that red you beware. Hey, man. It'd be like this as I was little.

Yeah, I know. You got to be who you are. I would not respect you were you to not be flying your wolf. You know what I'm saying? So I appreciate you. I'm retired. I'm retired. I'm tired.

He said, look, look, that's what I love to here. We're going to get into it. So we're going to get into it. So this. is, like I said, the Nipsey House of St. Louis, when we first met, I had no idea people out there really actually said, thar. Yes. I thought that was a joke. I thought y'all was doing too much, and then I met this, and he was like, oh, it's over there right, thar. I was like, wait, y'all really say that. No joke at all. That's really y'all slag. That's really how we talk. We really

talk. And the crazy thing is, I slow down talking. You know what I'm saying? Sometimes it'll be like here and there. But if I didn't get to go away and be like, girl, I heard, darn, darn, darn, her. Yo, yo, yo, yeah, call, switch. All right, perfect. So, first of all, let's tell them what you do now. So kind of give me a brief introduction, who you are, what you're doing, and then we'll go to the origin story.

So, like he said, my name, Dizzle, Travis Tyler, that's what my mom named me, from St. Louis, Missouri. I am, man, I'd be trying to figure out what am I sometimes. Like, for real, even when I was doing music, I never felt like I was a rapper. Yeah. I felt like I was an artist. Yeah.

You know, and I still feel like I'm an artist in the sense of the word now because I create things. Yeah. From inspiration, you know, alchemy. I create from the mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm not what you would consider an activist. I'm not a politician.

Mm-hmm. But, like, I'm always in the middle of something that's happening. Yeah. And that's how I've always been. And I have a passion for the youth of urban community, especially black youth. I have a passion for black men, especially black men that are either trying to escape the reality of street life or black men that are being re-entered into society from prison. I have a passion for the rebuilding of the black community.

So my whole life, that's pretty much been my thing. No matter what space I've landed in has always been. my thing when it comes to community and so that's it man like I'm wearing the shirt is actually Flight 100 from my mentor program I mentor in the city youth

ages 10 to 17 not just setting up some of the mentor them but creating the rights of passage like creating a pathway intentional pathway like I think a lot of time with inner city youth well I didn't go say in a city youth especially with fatherless

young men Whether wherever they're in the world, whether it's the suburban neighborhood or the inner city or rural or third world country, with fatherless young men, they tend to lack some of us a passage way of, oh, this is who you can become. This is what you need to do to become it because there's no one to really guide them. So with our mentor program, that's my goal. not just the mentor young men and send them home and try to keep them out of trouble but help them identify who they are

and who they were born to be and helped them get to that place. Yeah. And you still got that group home joint, right? Yeah, so the group home, it's funny we're going to interview now. I just stepped down from her Friday. Okay.

But it was a good thing. It wasn't a negative. So I ran it for like a year and a half, helped rebuild the program, brought it up to the modern age, staffed it, created new things for the boys. Learned a lot myself in the process. And now I'm going for a throttle into shaping out my Flight 100 program.

Yeah. Because the end goal, like one of my end goals is to build a school. Yeah. Flight 100 Academy. All boys. Keep the same boys from kindergarten to 12th grade. Wow. That's my mission.

Yeah. What I truly enjoyed about what you're doing is, at least with the group and the mentoring thing is the trust factor in the sense that, you know, when you get involved, especially in the juvenile system, like, they tell you that your record sealed. They say that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? But, like, in practice, it's not the thing. So, like, I think oftentimes, if there's a step between getting into juvie or into central, you know what I'm saying? If there's an in-between step, if somebody could come in the middle of that

and say, look, let a little homie. stay with us. You know what I'm saying? Or, you know, let's say you caught a case and then every once in a while, like obviously both of us can say this from like personal experience. Every once in a while, you might score a judge on a good day. You know, you score a judge on a good day and they say, I'll tell you what, I heard of this program over on the other side of town. You could either do this. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Or you could go to Camp Rocky. You know, out here, that's what it was. Like, you can go to Rocky or you can go to this program. And like, 10 out of 10, I'm going to be like, let's go to this program.

But sometimes that program be just as bad, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. But if it's ran by somebody who has been through the system, who understands it and knows that like, here are the traps, here's are the ways for which I know I was taking advantage of, I was abused, and this is what we're not going to do here. You know what I'm saying? The goal is for you to never come back to this. You make a valid point.

One of the reasons I believe God allowed me to go back into the space with the group home was, bro, honestly, you will be surprised how, I'm trying to word this in a good way, but I don't think it is one. Can you say it however you won't? You would be surprised how messed up the foster care system is. Yeah, yeah. A lot of these kids get pulled out of their homes. So the group home that I was at, mostly all of our boys, they came from. from environments where they have been taken from their parents.

Yeah. And so I was one of the transitions to live a group home. So my objective, my daily task was to teach a group of young men how to transition into manhood, how to go out on their own, pay their bills, live on their own, all of this. You'll be surprised, though, these kids get pulled from their homes and their parents. Yeah. And they're saying to them, oh, we're going to send you somewhere better. Better.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the places that they send them to do more harm to them than their home. Yep. Like they're sending them with people that are worse than their parents. Yeah. And one, they don't have a voice to advocate for them. So here I am right now. It's crazy a few months back.

I was like, I'm going to talk about this every chance I get, which is crazy. They don't have nobody to advocate for them because I'm sure there are people that have been through the foster care system. But for some reason, people see that stigma. There are probably celebrities that have been through foster care. But they see it as a stigma. Yeah. Like, oh, they don't want to talk about that point. Oh, my prayer it gave me up.

I don't know who my prayer it is. I was in, you know, whatever the case is. They don't have nobody to advocate. Yeah. These kids, a lot of these kids are treated so poorly. Yeah. In these places that the law should step in. People tend to not understand why they act the way they act.

Yeah. But you got to think, ultimately, you are walking into a child's home and you're kidnapping them. That's what you're doing, really. Yeah, so if I come to your house at 8, 9 o'clock at night, when I was 14, me, my cousins, my brother, a bunch of my siblings were taken from my mom and my aunt, right? I watched it from across the street because I was over my friend's house. Holy swooped up, social workers swooped up. It's nighttime. You go into somebody's house.

You take their child. They don't know where you're taking their child to. Yeah. But child doesn't know where they're going. Mm-hmm. And then they get to the residential or the group home, and they act in a fool. And you got a bunch of unqualified, untrained staff members there. They don't know how to deal with them neither.

That's just looking for a job. Yeah. And when they get there, they talk about why they're acting like this. Come on, fan. If somebody just came to your house and took you from your parent, you would be acting the same way. And if you worked, you saw it. Like, let's just be real. Yeah.

Yeah, you just saw them. You're going to sit there and talk all night. These kids, they're acting out because. they've been abducted, basically, in their mind. And even, Pat, way beyond their point, I know most people have seen, if you had in the movie, DoSit, where they talk about the Shacklin family

and how they basically made dophines out of the whole West Virginia with oxycodone. You know, oxycodone, how do you want to pronounce it? And they show in the movie how these doctors were getting these kickbacks for introducing the drugs to the patients in West Virginia.

Who better to practice with drugs than children. We ain't got no parents. That nobody cares about. Yeah. Bro, they take these kids and they put them into the system three, four, five years old. And they start doping them from day one. Man. Five dose dope over and over and over.

Switch them out. Put them on something else. Let me see how this don't work. Switch them out, put them on something else. By the time they got them. to me at 18 years old, they're like, bro, fry. Yeah. Fried.

And then you got, you got case workers. They don't care about the kids. They don't call. They don't come see them. They don't pick them up. They don't do none of these things. And the kids sitting there feeling like they don't got nobody in nowhere. So my main space that I function in right now, especially for them, is to be an advocate.

Yeah. Every chance that I get, I'm going to talk about it. So people can put eyes on it. But also, that's one of the reasons that I'm building the things that I'm building. So that we can have a space. where it's like, no, you don't have to go to. Because there are a lot of people I heard that have the good ideas. They have, there are some good programs.

Yeah. Like, there are good programs, program that I was at. It's been around 468 years. It's a decent program. So there are good programs that are out here, but the whole system as a whole, it needs to overall. So when I had an opportunity to peep behind the veil, I was like, you know, I, you know me, I go and get to talking.

Yeah. I think, obviously, you're talking to talk, but, like, one of the things that, you know, in the humanitarian space that I, like, I serve in, they have a saying that says, peace works at the speed of trust, you know? So, like, even with all these good programs in different places, it's like, if these kids don't trust you. Yeah. My name is Ed. Everyone say, hello, Ed. Hello, Ed. I'm from a very rural background myself. My dad is a farmer and my mom is a cousin. So, like, it's not like...

What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear. The 22nd of July 2015, a 23-year-old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house.

So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a tape recorder statement. The person being interviewed is Krista Gail Pike. This is in regards to the death of Colleen. Slimmer.

She just started going off on me, and I hit her. I just hit her and hit her and hit her and hit her. On a cold January day in 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemer in the woods of Knoxville, Tennessee. Since her conviction, Krista has been sitting on death row. The state has asked for an execution date for Krista. We let people languish in prison for decades,

raising questions about who we consider fundamentally unrestorable. How does someone prove that they deserve to live? We are starting the recording now. Please state your first and last name. Krista Pike. Listen to Unrestorable Season 2, Proof of Life, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The OGs of Uncensored Motherhood are back and battle.

better than ever. I'm Erica. And I'm Mila. And we're the host of the Good Mom's Bad Choices podcast, brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday. Historically, men talk too much. And women have quietly listened. And all that stops here.

If you like witty women, then this is your tribes. With guests like Corinne Steffens. I'd never seen so many women protect predatory men. And then me too happened. And then everybody else wanted to get pissed off because the white said it was okay. Problem. My oldest daughter, her first day in ninth grade, and I called to ask how I was going. I was like, oh, dad, all they were doing was talking about your thing in class.

I ruined my baby's first day of high school. And slumflower. What turns me on is when a man sends me money. Like, I feel the moisture between my legs when the man sends me money. I'm like, oh, my God, it's go time. You actually sent it? Listen to the Good Mom's Bad Choices podcast every Wednesday on the Black Effect Podcast Network. The IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you go to find your podcast.

Hi, it's Jemisbeg, host of the Psychology of Your 20s. Remember when you used to have Science Week at school? Well, if you loved that, how would you feel about a full psychology month? This September, the Psychology of Your 20s, we're breaking down the interesting ways psychology applies to real life, like how our pets actually change our brain chemistry, the psychology of office politics, whether happiness is even a real emotion. favorite episode, why do we all secretly crave external validation? It's so interesting to me that we are so quick to believe others' judgments of us and not our own. I found a study that said,

not being liked actually creates similar levels of pain as physical pain. Like, no wonder we care so much. So the secret is, if you want to be okay with not being liked, you have to know why your brain craves it in the first place. Learn more about the psychology of external validation, everyday life, and, of course, your 20s, this September. Listen to the psychology of your 20s on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get, your podcasts. You brought up being removed from your family's house when you was real young. I'd love to talk a little bit about the origin story

because obviously you wasn't always talking like this. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I don't know. And I think that that, like, legitimacy, you know, or that realness that I'm sure, no matter how doped up or how painful them kids are, like they can look behind your eyes

and say, okay, but he knows. Yeah. Yeah, so give me a little bit of that. Get a little bit of the retired whooping, all that. Oh, it's funny, I got this video on my page that I posted. I started off saying, ain't nobody coming to save you.

Yeah. And at the end of it, I go through this story about being in the group home and all that. And I say, have y'all ever seen the Marvel movie? where they like, this is your origin story? I'm like, that's my origin story. Yeah.

So for me, that part of the group home was significant in my life. Real, real significant. So before I went to the group home, I was already outside. Yeah. Like, there are a lot of things that I've experienced in this world that when I look back, I just be like, man, that's crazy. Bro, when I was 14 years old, me and my girlfriend were living together. Crazy, yeah.

Bro, no, I slept in the bed. Yeah, 14. Every night With my girlfriend At 14 Like we basically lived again Me and her in the room Her mom in the next room

And so I was Because of my mom's issues Like I've been At this point I've been my soul provider You know Minus a short period of time Her and her

Where it's like I went to live with my daddy And he sent me back Or with my grandma For a short period time My grandfather All those were short periods of time time. But since I was like 12, I've been taking care of myself. So I was outside early.

Yeah. Like hustling, making money so I can provide for myself. Yeah. 14, like I said, I was living with my girlfriend. We were sleeping in the same bed. When I went to the group home, my mom, the caseworker, and the police came and got me from her house. Mm-hmm. And put me in the car, drove me two hours out of St. Louis to a ranch little house out in the woods. Yeah. town full of white people like I was a hood kid like when they got me true story

I had on Dickie overalls like the zip up the brown boy yeah and some boots like where they had a baby yeah the St. Louis like like y'all don't know like the influence of like West Coast culture yeah yeah yeah it was very big out there so he was like yo I'm zipped up with the beanie

and the dickies it's like you would think you was in South Central yeah yeah so I had on a beanie the zip up dicky boy like yeah So they took me out to the woods, and man, I got there. And when I got there, it was the first time in my life. I think I felt that level of desperation and hopelessness.

Because I was supposed to stay there until I was 18 or 21. That was with their words, based off my behavior. I'm 14. So I'm in my head, like, I'm from a beer six years. Like, yeah. So I'm meeting all these kids. They're like, I've been here since I was this age. And I've been in the system since I was this.

And they moved me here. and they, so I'm hearing all these different stories from different people, and I'm just like, dang, it's crazy, you know? Yeah. And then one day, it was right after Christmas. I'm sitting there at high in sight. I got a different perspective of it. Now I was this kid.

I never forget him his name was Roger. When I first met him, the very first day that I came, he sat down beside me. He said, man, if my granddaddy was her, he wouldn't want me talking to you. And I was like, why? He said, because he didn't like black people. So I turned right to him and said, why did you feel the need to tell me that? Right, why you tell me that, yeah. Like, I was like, you could have kept that to yourself.

He's like, I don't got nothing against black people. I'm just saying my grandfather don't like black people, so I'm like, whatever, okay, cool. Yeah. It's like right after Christmas, Christmas Day, I was sitting in a group home, nobody called. Like, I'm watching all the other kids, they're getting gifts, they're opening their presents. Yeah. Depending on their programs, some of them, they get to go home. Like, so I'm sitting there ain't nobody called me on, got no gifts, I don't got nothing.

And I'm just sitting in the church. like, just pissed all the day, basically. Yeah. And one of my workers came in later that day. I seen her, she was talking to the lady. The other lady that was about to get off. It was behind me. And I heard her talking.

She said, he just sitting there all day? She was like, yeah. And she was like, did anybody call them or anything? She was like, no. She was like nobody. So I'm, and it's crazy now that I've been back in that space more than once. Yeah. I've experienced that with kids.

Yeah. CNN. And I know what to do. like, oh, I got you, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I'm sitting there at that point. She's like, no, he just sitting there all day. And so she went, came out.

She's like, oh, what you doing? This lady played a significant role in my life. I wish I could remember her name, bro. Yeah. Like, so she was like, what are you doing? I'm like, nothing. She was like, you want to go to the store? I'm like, to do what?

She's like, her, I got something for you. So the state gave each kid a $100 wall for a gift card. Wow. So she's like, you got a gift card The Walmart for $100, boy, I had never been to Walmart before. I ain't know what Walmart was. So I'm like, all right, man, let's go. We go to Walmart. I'm walking around.

He ain't never been to Walmart. I had never been to Walmart, but walking around. I'm looking around the store. I got this hunting. Oh, guess what I buy? No lie. True story. White T-shirted and some dickies. Yes, yes, yes.

White t-shirted some dickies out of Walmart in the country. I love it. So I grab these Dickies, White T, go back to the group home. I'm still mad because ain't nobody called me. Nobody came to see me. You know, none of that. And so the next few days, man, me and dude,

we always ended up in the living room at the same time. And I'm mad. Yeah. So 14, you got to think when I was 14, bro, I was like probably 6, 6 foot, 6 1. Yeah. Like 180, 200 pounds when I was 14. Yeah. And so while I'm there, they have some little weights.

I had started lifting weights and everything. Oh, man. So I'm programming. I'm a big old kid. Yeah. So don't get to talk of crazy to me. We sit in the living room. He's like, man, what you doing, boy?

So my conversation goes back to the first time. Like, he's racist. Yeah, yeah. Now I know. Yeah, now I know. I'm like, what you mean? Boy, he's like, you heard me, boy. I'm like, boy as in kid or boy as in racist.

Yeah. He's like, boy, you heard me. Now we're fighting. I said, hey, bro, I'm going to tell you this one more time. Don't call me a boy again. Yeah. He said, what you going to do, boy? Let that fool up.

Yup. I'm talking about how he's on the floor. MLA style. Locked in, bang. Hey, night, night, yep. Lock in on it. You have it. So by the time they come in, I got them by the back of the neck.

Yeah. And I'm rubbing his face across the carpet. Yeah. I'm like, what you call me again? He's steady saying, though. He's like, boy, you're already boy. So now high sight, though, when I looked back, I had to think and say,

yeah, damn, me and he was sitting there the same time. Mm-hmm. I thought back and said, oh, he ain't had no visitors on Christian Smith. Yeah. Oh, he's mad like me. He just as hurt as you. He was hurt. He didn't even know how to process.

You're the craziest storyteller ever. Like, because I'm like, they can get to the point. And I see it right there. Now I know, like, he ain't know all the process. So I roughs him up, whatever. So when the people come in and they see me, you know, they, like, grab me up, because I'm six foot. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's on you. Black kid from the city. Yeah. You know everybody record and story that come in there, so they know, like, he's a gang member, he did, see that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm aggressive. They snatched me up, throw me in the role.

They put me in this room called an isolation room. This room was like an 8 by 10. All the walls were metal. Yeah. The door was like this thick wood with a little bit of one doing the thing on it. No way out unless they let you out. Being carpet on the floor, bro, when they shut that door, I just lost it. Yeah. My brain said, you're going to die in hurt.

Ain't no way out. Yeah. And I got to kick in the door. I got the yelling. And I'm talking about, bro, I just was whaling in that. But they just, they paid me no mind. They didn't even come to the door. It don't make no difference until you calm down.

They're like, he can't get out. And so this girl that I knew there, he came and sat down by the bottom of the door and talked under the thing, and she was like, hey, you got to calm down. She's like, come down her. So I lay down on the floor. I'm breathing through the crack. Like, I'm breathing under the door. She's like, you got to calm down.

Like, they never going to let you out of her. They scurred. She's like, I'm out of her. Like, you got to. So I'm just laying out, regulating. And I go to sleep. Wow. And I wake up in the middle of the night.

I knock on the door, they let me out to use the bath on the dude. Like, it was a big white dude used to be overnight. He was like, if I let you out, or you're going to get the trip. And I said, no, man, I just got to use. the bathroom. I already didn't use it every once. I'm like, I just want to go to the toilet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's like, all right, come on. He let me out. I went back in. He locked the door. When I went back in there, bro, I said to myself, this was my, one of my origins. I said to myself, I said, when they let me out of her, 14 years old, I said,

I'm going to be different. Yeah. I'm being in control. I'm going to show the world who I am. Yeah. When they let me out, I play the game after that every sense. And so I went to another group home. I stayed there. I'm supposed to be there for a while. And I got to that group home and I asked the people, I said, how do the program work? As soon as I got there. They said, well, if you do this and then you go to level this and you go to this level, I said, how long

do it take? They said, probably like 90 days. I said, I'm going to do it in 60. I love it. They said, okay. And show enough. 60 days later, bro. Less than 60, I was done. Yeah. They called my mama. My case had been dropped because my mom was doing what she's supposed to do. And they're like, you can

go home. Yeah. So now I go home two days before I'm turning 15. I get back home though my mom was on the same mission. And I've been outside ever since. Beautiful, man. And one thing after another just shape me into who I am. The hero.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say that that authenticity of like even having the wherewithal to know that like, you know, at the end of the day, little homie was scared, right? Yeah. He was hurt too. Like he was just hurting.

So when you have that sort of. of like level of empathy and you know when you were outside like the reasons for which you were outside you know what I'm saying and having those connections it's so clear to me how that fuels the direction you're in and it proves to me the cornerstone premise of my whole movement here which is like yo if you understand a hood you understand politics yeah you walked in there and said what's the game what's the play okay what's the game how does this work yeah this okay now I know how to work it here's a way to make it better I know how it I know how I felt in it.

So if somebody else has to be in there, this is the way it needs to be done because I know I would have succeeded had this, this, and this happen. Let me, let me push you forward to now and then to more like sort of the bigger like national conversation now. So like the national conversation,

all of us, we live through, you know, in the time that you were there and the time was going on at L.A. too, like just this hyper policing where, you know, for us, probably the same for y'all the cops were just another gang to us you know what i'm saying like y'all just as violent as bad and as dangerous as everybody else in these streets like you ain't make no difference to us yeah and sure yeah like in the same way that you know if you were having

a rodent infestation at your house i mean sure you could bomb the house right and yes the rodents are gone yeah you're saying but you've killed everything yeah you know what i'm saying but then get to say, like, you know, as a metaphor, it's like, oh, look, we were tough on crime. We ended crime. You know what I'm saying? Well, it's like, well, yeah, but that's because you locked us all up. Like, it didn't, this didn't really help us. But, you know, we're seeing sort of across the country, despite all of these efforts and

proof that, like, the streets are different. And it's not because of any invading forts. It's because of people like you, people like J.B. And OKC letter are, like, truly from the city. who really care and move at the speed of trust. Like I said, moving at the speed of trust and are saying, look, it's one kid at a time. It's one program at a time.

It's one advocate at a time that, like, says incremental, slow, door knock, build trust, one kid. You know what I'm saying? That's like, it's not a movie. Yeah. It ain't sexy. Yeah. It ain't sexy, bro.

You got to be outside, you know. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to breeze through when you caught one to the leg. Yeah. But, like, even in the process of doing the good you were doing, there was a moment where, like, I knew of, like, you're, like, you were in neighborhoods, like, you know, doing backpack drives and back to school things, you know what I'm saying? But these are, like, in, these are in active areas. Like, you know, everybody can't just walk in to this park and be like, I'm going to do a fundraiser. It's like, like, no, we robbing all of you.

You know what I'm saying? So, like, after years of doing this, you know, one little Y-in, didn't know who he was dealing with, you know what I'm saying? Caught you slip in, you know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You had to rebuild. And I've seen even health journey from that moment sort of change to bring you into the position you're in sort of now, which is like, obviously it's somebody we can deeply admire. My name is Ed. Everyone say hello, Ed. From a very rural background myself, my dad is a farmer and my mom is a cousin, so like, it's not like...

What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear. Well, 22nd of July 2015, a 23-year-old man, had killed his family. And then he came to my house. So what do you get when a true crime producer

walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a tape recorder stage. person being interviewed

is Krista Gail Pike, which is in regards to the death of Colleen Slimmer. She started going off on me and I hit her. I just hit her and hit her and hit her and hit her. On a cold January

day in 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in the woods of Knoxville, Tennessee. Since her conviction, Krista has been sitting on death row. The state has asked for an execution date for Krista. We let people languish in prison for decades, raising questions about who we consider

fundamentally unrestorable. How does someone prove that they deserve to live? We are starting the recording now. Please state your first and last name. Krista Pike. Listen to Unrestorable Season 2, Proof of Life, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The OGs of uncensored motherhood are back and badder than ever. I'm Erica. And I'm Mila. And we're the host

of the Good Mom's Bad Choices podcast, brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday. Historically, men talk too much. And women have quietly listened. And all that stops here. If you like witty women, then this is your tribes. With guests like Corinne Steffens. I'd never seen so many

women protect predatory men. And then me too happen. And then everybody else want to get pissed off because the white said it was okay. Problem. My oldest daughter, her first day in ninth grade, and I called to ask how I was going. She was like, oh, dad, all they were doing was talking about your thing in class. I ruined my baby's first day of high school.

And slumflower. What turns me on is when a man sends me money. Like, I feel the moisture between my legs when a man sends me money. I'm like, oh, my God, it's go time. You actually sent it? Listen to the Good Mom's Bad Choices podcast every Wednesday on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you go to find your podcast.

Hi, it's Gemma Steg, host of the Psychology of your 20s. Remember when you used to have Science Week at school? Well, if you loved that, how would you feel about a full psychology month? This September, the Psychology of Your 20s, we're breaking down the interesting ways psychology applies to real life, like how our pets actually change our brain chemistry, the psychology of office politics, whether happiness is even a real emotion and my favorite episode, why do we all secretly crave external validation?

It's so interesting to me that we are so quick to believe others' judgments of us and not our own. I found a study that said, Not Being Liked actually creates similar levels of pain as physical pain. Like, no wonder we care so much. So the secret is, if you want to be okay with not being liked, you have to know why your brain craves it in the first place. Learn more about the psychology of external validation, everyday life, and of course, your 20s.

This September, listen to The Psychology of Your 20s on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get, your podcasts. Can you talk a little bit about, obviously, without getting personal, without sharing anybody's like personal information, but some of the sort of like things that you've seen with some of the young homies who've been able to, maybe. maybe, like, calm some stuff down. You know what I'm saying? Like, maybe actually, like, this working. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. So, I think, um, you nailed it as a whole.

It takes a person that people trust to bring a level of calm. So even when I got shot, when I got shot, bro, I ain't had dudes in my inbox. Where he at? Yeah. That'd be outside. Ready to slide, huh? Ready to, they're ready to slide. Yeah.

Yeah, that's like, hey. Who got you? You know him? Let's go. Yeah. And I'm like, no, I'm cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and so sometimes when things like that happen, people take things into their own hands.

Yeah. That you don't know nothing about. Yeah. And so after that, they were like, do you want to do this news interview? I was still broke up. I couldn't get out to bed. Yeah.

I'm like, yeah, you know. But my reasoning for doing a news interview was so people could hurt my heart. Yeah. And you have a dizzle in every neighborhood around America. Yeah. So here's the thing about police.

Police are reactive. Yeah. By the time, police are aware of things, a crime has happened. Yeah. The murder has already taken place. Yeah. The shooting has already happened.

The robbery has already happened. The person that's stopping the crime is Ms. Kathy. Yeah. That live on the block. Yes. They say, hey, come on. Yeah. Where are you going?

I can tell you, straight. Uh-huh. We had this lady in our neighborhood. The name was Miss A. Ms. Alexander. How many times as a kid, I would be walking past her house on my way to do something stupid?

Yeah. And she'll say, come her. Yep. And you go sit down on the porch and talk for like 15 minutes. Respect. You have to respect her. Yeah. And you're done.

Or the dude that used to be in the street, it's a dude her in St. Louis. I don't really know him, like personally, personally. but his name he goes by the name Yo Banger You know what I'm saying? Yeah X street dude

Everybody love him You're what I mean? Yeah Yeah Bro be outside Like Politicking Yeah

Running programs You know Doing stuff like that So those are the people That cause change In every community Let me tell you a place While we're on this subject

Where I think we feel it Especially with organizations organizations that typically come into our neighborhood, they come for agenda. Yeah. And politics. And what they don't understand is what you're saying. If you understand the hood, you understand politics.

Yeah. So when they pull up on us in the hood and they got this big organization with all this money and they're like, this is what we want to do. No, this, you're telling me that because you were trying to build an army of people to fight for your cause. Yeah. And what they do is they come into our spaces

and they don't empower those people right there. Yeah. I've said this to people a hundred times. If you really, really, really want to see impact and see change, you need to go to the community and see the people that are already leading it. There you go. The people that you're talking about.

Yeah. The reason I'm able to go in the park in that neighborhood is because I'm a leader over there. At one point, I was one of the leaders actively. Yeah. So people that know me, they respect me. They understand my journey and my transition. and that report is what get the work done. Police are reactive, bro.

By the side of the police come, somebody dead. It's already done, yeah. Yeah, it's people like me on the phone. When bro, I call like, man, bro, I'm about to snap. It's like, no, bro, where are you at? Yeah, yeah, you know, what we're doing. And so I think those people need to be in power more. See.

For any organization that's listening or possibly here it is, we don't need you to come to our community and build a hub. Yeah. We don't need you to put an office there, and I'm just going to be candid. and bring a whole lot of white people and gentrify a program. We don't need that. What is needed is if you have resources, you have money, you have things,

you can bring structure, you can bring system, but bring it to empower the person that's already in that space. It's going to take you 30 years to get the kind of respect that person, get over there already. And you know why they can be fully involved? Because they still got to work. They still got to do things. You still, yes, you still, yes, man.

So if you want to really empower the community, take that 40, 50, 60, 70,000, 100,000 that you're about to run on this smear campaign against whoever else you don't like. Yeah. And take some of that money, take about 75K of that, and give it to somebody like yo bang. Yo bang, a, Miss A. Yeah, for us it was Alex Carrasco.

Yeah, give it to people like that. Yup, because we lived in the Mexican hood. You know, he had his three puntos. Like, we already knew. he was like what he was. Give it to people like that. You give it to him, you know what I'm saying? He'd look, that man took me camping for the first time with Alex Carrascoe.

You know what I'm saying? And believe it or not, believe it or not, part of the reason that you turned out the way you did is because of siege that people like him planning. Yep. No, facts. It was the difference between you and the other dudes on the block that didn't go. That's exactly. Like exposure, bro, is key. Mm-hmm.

What you're exposed to right now, one of my missions I'm working on. over the next couple years where I'm going to take a group of kids from the hood to Africa. They have to see it, bro. That's one of my missions. They have to, yes. Yeah, I'm going to take a bunch of kids from the hood to Africa. Like, so they can get over there and see what it really looked like.

Yeah. But also just taking them other places. They could also go to, like, Denver. Like, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I'm saying, yeah. Yeah. I took a group of kids to KAA a few years back, like inner city kids. Yeah.

And they were blown away. Yeah. Like you said, going camping, you get to see. water and boats. When I used to teach, I taught in the city called Pomona. It's in the Inland Empire. It's kids from L.A. I've never seen the beach. Yeah.

You've never seen the ocean, and you're from Los Angeles. You know what I'm saying? So, like, yeah, that exposure changes everything. Have you set up some sort of, like, fundraising things so we can see if we could get our listeners to maybe, like, fund this Africa trip? So if you go to my page,

just Flight100Foundation.org? Flight 100Foundation.org. Okay. Yeah, it's a donation tag. It'll go to the Give butter page. Okay, we will link to that. Yes.

See, that's all I needed. Yeah. Listen, bro, I want to thank you for your time, man. Some of y'all know, like, I've known this man for a long time. We've ran into many of cities and many of shows. Always appreciated you, too. Yes, sir, man. I think there was a little bit of like, we've been sitting in green rooms that both of us

know good and well that we just, why are we here? Like, we have no reason to be in this room. Yeah. But we are. We are. It just has very much, very much a, very much of like a real, recognized real with somebody like this, man.

And like you said, bro, like, there's thisles in every city, man. And I appreciate the fact that, like, and that's part of what makes you what you are is that, like, it's the things that happen that when there's no cameras on. Yeah. That for us that we're mostly proud of. Yeah. It's not the stuff that, like, everybody sees. It's what's happened.

Like you said, it's when. it's the phone calls you have to have you know the meetings you have to set up you know what I'm saying and like the like those things are the things that really keep a city safe I want to say this before we go

we talked about something before you start recording okay yeah yeah yeah and I want to point it out because I think it's important too we were talking about how resources prevent violence so everybody know

where there's no hope there's violence that it's desperate, right? Yes. So right now in St. Louis, we have been informed that the senator, who's a Republican senator, he's linked up with DJT. Okay, okay. And they are, they're building the FBI baser and they're bringing in more FBI agents to divert violence, right?

Yeah. one again law enforcement is a reaction to crime yeah they don't prevent it yeah here's a reality that everybody that has a brain to think should be aware of them i don't care how many fbi you bring how many police you hire there are not enough law enforcement to govern the earth yes yes period it's too many yeah there's not there's too many of us yeah yeah you can't govern the earth Like, that's a no-go, right? Yeah. Most cases, when I see people make these arguments about this, I'm a person I like to use facts.

I get straight to the facts. Like, we get the points. So in St. Louis, right, from 2020 to 2024, the murder rate in St. Louis has dropped by 113. Come on, fan. Yeah. 113, bro. That's a lot of lives. So in 2020, the number of homicides at St. Louis was 263.

The number in 2024 were 150. See. There are certain things that I'm not going to say they are the exclusive reason, but there are certain things that I know have contributed to that, and it's not law enforcement because our police force is short right now. They don't do too much of nothing. Yeah. There are a few things I know they have contributed to that.

the main thing is resources and compassion. But they are fueled through a certain few things that I want to shout out. One of them is an organization called FCC. Freedom Center, St. Louis. My homie, Mike Milder.

Okay. The other one is Action, St. Louis. The other one is Mission, St. Louis. The other one is We Power, St. Louis. We Power, STL. They fund early childhood development. Word.

Like, crucially important for our community. Wow. You got FCC, Action St. Louis, Mrs. St. Louis, Black Men Deal, We Power, STL, just to name a few. People like Yo Bangor, these are the people that have been actively in the community for the past four years, the past mayor to Sharma Jones. She probably got a lot of things wrong in people eyes, but she was the last. directing certain things and empowering people in a certain way

these organizations have thrived over the past four years and as a result you see the number of homicides in the city decrease. So why do we need to bring more FBI agents? What is that for? Show. Shouldn't we be throwing more money

into these organizations? If they are out heard deterrent crime, they got FCC has data. Yeah. They have data of reconciliation. I'm talking about my boy, Mike Milton, he's stepping into roles with one case in particular. A young man was driving in the court with another young man.

He was drunk. The young man died. He reconciled him with the mother. The mother in return went to the judge and was like, he don't need to go to jail. He needs to go to treatment. Wow. Like, why is he going to prison?

Wow. Damn, man. And then when they get, when they get released, of justice, yeah. Restorative justice. When they get released from prison, they go to FCC and they spend time with them and they learn restorative justice. They take accountability. Wow. Wow. So if we go, if we need anything in St. Louis, in D.C., in Chicago, if we need anything in these cities, what we need or people to be realistic about what's happening, and if you want to do something send some of that funds you're going to use to hire more law enforcement

into these places where you know people are already doing things because let me tell you something else it's 2026 almost it's 2025 ain't nobody scared to the police like they used to be this ain't 1962 bro don't nobody see the police and be like

oh my gosh you're going to police these dogs are grown men just like another grown man ain't nobody scared of police no more that ain't a thing bleed like the rest of us that's not a thing yeah you bleed like the rest of us. Yeah, my little square up with the police, bro.

They're dangerous. Right now. Straight square up. That's what I'm trying to say, bro. Look, we can talk about this, man, because that's the way we are with these ice agents. It's like, you think I'm scared of you, bro? You think I'm scared of you, homie? Yeah. Anyway, thank you, Thist. Thank you for it for, like, bringing it back to the data and shone in the light on like people actually doing the work. You can follow you on

Instagram. It's I am Thizzle, right? It's T-H-I-S-L. This, yeah. T-H-I-S-L. Flight 100Foundation.org Mm-hmm. Is the website. Social media,

you can find all this stuff there. You'll find all that. All right. It can happen here. Cool Zone Media. We appreciate y'all. Appreciate you, Brock. Yes, sir.

It could happen here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com. Or check us out on the I-Hurt. radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for it could happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.

I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story. Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life. This is Wisecrack. Available now.

Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On a cold January day in 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemer in the woods of Knoxville, Tennessee. Since her conviction, Krista has been sitting on death row. How does someone prove that they deserve to live? We are starting the recording now. Please state your first and last. last name. Krista Pike. Listen to Unrestorable Season 2, Proof of Life, on the

IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Lauren came in high. From standout speeches to the shows and stars making all of the history, my podcast, the latest with Lauren the Rosa, has your full Emmy's breakdown. The wins, the surprises, the cultural

impact, and what it really means for us. I'm the homegirl that knows a little bit about everything and everybody. Listen to the latest with Lauren the Rosa from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeartRadio app. You can get it at Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to your podcast. Just like great shoes, great books take you places. Through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of, like butterflies.

I'm Danielle Robeye, and this is bookmarked by Reese's Book Club, the new podcast from Hello Sunshine and IHeart Podcasts, where we dive into the stories that shape us, on the page, and off. Each week, I'm joined by authors, celebs, book talk stars, and more for conversations that will make you laugh, cry, and add way too many books to your TVR pile. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Books is the official audio book and ebook home for Reese's Book Club.

Visit apple.co forward slash Reese Apple Books to find out more. This is an I-Heart podcast.