Mayim Bialik's Breakdown - Jaleel White: Did I do That? A Case Study of a Young Star

Episode Date: March 30, 2021

Mayim opens up about her days on Blossom, how she started in the industry, and the huge pressures and expectations she faced. Jaleel discusses the path which led him to fame as a teenager and talks about what it was like to have so much power at a young age. Both experienced a sense of being owned by the industry and the public and share how they were trained to be deferential to adults. While they both experienced unique opportunities, including stories of 90's NBA all star games with Michael Jordan, and stories with Karl Malone and Penny Hardaway, the conversation turns to one about Jaleel’s identity as a young black man in a predominantly white industry and the impact this had on his mental health and his outlook on his career.  BialikBreakdown.com YouTube.com/mayimbialik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I was on from 1989 to 98. Not that it's a competition. Yours is longer than mine, but that's okay. I got a few extra dollars, but the show probably should have stopped in 96. Guess people felt like they owned you. You were told every day you should be lucky to have a job and you were made to wait until half the season until producers said, guess what?

We got picked up. We were conditioned in our generation to be deferential to adults. Wear your glasses and how come you're not cute like you are on TV or whatever. It was just as soon, well, this person is an adult, and so you continue to be deferential to them. I'm Myambialic, and welcome to My Breakdown. This is the place where we break down all of the things that make us break down. It's Myambiolic's breakdown. She's going to break it down for you.

Because, you know, she knows a thing or two. And now she's going to break down. So break it down. Today we're going to be breaking down a human. Does that sound weird? Sounds weird. I didn't say we're breaking a human. We're going to break down a human.

We're here to build people up. Not break them. Well, we're going to break down the process by which this one particular human exists. He is a person who's lived in the public eye, really his whole life, since he was a cognizant being, since he was three. He's lived in a business full of a tremendous amount of pressure and expectations and ups and ups and I would say. Who's that person? What's his catchphrase, Jonathan? I feel uncomfortable appropriating that catchphrase. Don't say it like his character. Just say it. What was his catchphrase? Did I do that? Yeah, it's not catchy when a Canadian says it.

But Jaliel White, his catchphrase was, did I do that? He was on Family Matters and has a very interesting life and a very interesting career, which we're going to talk about. But first, let's check in with the Bernie Topin to My Elton John. Jonathan Cohen. Say hello. Hello, everybody. Jonathan is my co-creator, as you know, my co-pilot. Also the housekeeper. Well, not the housekeeper, but let's do some housekeeping. The first thing we're going to do is encourage people to subscribe.

And Maim doesn't like Encourage. She says she likes it when I say subscribe. Thank you. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening. And if you're listening to the podcast, try going over to Mime's YouTube channel. Don't try. He can't help it. He cannot help but be done.

deferential. I don't like to demand people do anything. We're really fun if you watch us on YouTube. We're pretty fun when you watch us on YouTube. We wear matching outfits. I like to undersell and over-deliver. Wow. How's that working for you, Jal? Before I bring on Jalil, I would like to introduce briefly, briefly, the concept of a case study. So a case study, which is kind of the breakdown that we're doing today, a case study is the term we use in research or in an experiment when we explore like the ins and outs of a person or a subject, because sometimes it's an animal. Like, let's do a case study of this dope monkey. In this case study, I'm going to have a frank and honest conversation with Jaliel White about

his experience coming of age as a young, famous person in what at that time was a mostly white industry and still is in many respects and how it impacted and shifted his mental health and his, really, his sense of identity. Do not think, please, that this is like a self-congratulatory episode where I talked to Jalil about how amazing he is. And he's like, no, Ma'am, you're amazing. And I'm like, no, Jalilil, you're amazing. It's not that. I can't guarantee that we may not like each other and want to say, like, thank you, you're amazing. But it won't be an entire episode like that. 30 minutes maximum. Yeah, only 30 minutes of us telling each other how amazing we are. But I do want to explain a little bit

about my relationship with Jaliel. We were child actors at the same time. He started acting very young. I think I'm a year older than him. I started acting when I was 11. It was 1986. So we're roughly the same age. I was on Blossom from 89 to 94. I was 14 to 19. And he was on Family Matters in the time that he was 12, gosh, all the way till college. And interestingly, we both went to UCLA after we finished our runs on our successful television programs. That is interesting. Did you ever say hi to him on campus? I did see him on campus once or twice. I was a South Campus person because I was a science major, but I minored in Hebrew and Jewish Studies, which was North Campus. At UCLA, the campus is literally divided, Humanities North and

Science South. So I saw him in North Campus. Did you do the celebrity head nod? I did the celebrity head nod. This does relate, though. I was always afraid that I was bugging him. You know, I was afraid, like, what if people see us talking? And then they'll be like, oh, she's just a celebrity person. It was a very, very strange set of thoughts about his identity and mine. And I worried a lot about what other people. I still worry is what you're thinking about what other people think of me. You're worrying right now, actually. As she looks over at me, she's worrying about what am I thinking?

Constant stream of worry. But Jalilil and I did cross paths actually a bit when we were teenagers. Back then there was no social media, none. There wasn't. Just the head nod. That was the head nod. No. But when we were teenagers, there was no social media.

We didn't have cell phones. We had beepers. But nobody, we weren't like communicating by pager. But what would happen is there were these charity events or publicity events where they would group together celebrity teens so that we could do, you know, like mini press junkets where like we would all be interviewed by Teen Beat or we would all be interviewed by this or they would take group pictures of all of us. We would do charity events, spent a lot of time with a lot of really interesting celebrities.

and some who were no longer with us. You know, Jaliel and I were part of the Corey Hame, Corey Feldman, Jonathan Brandis, like, all of us. You know, we were all teens at the same time, you know, give or take. So Jalilil was always nice to me. I do remember that. I have a list of people who weren't always nice to me. We'll get to that in another episode.

Jalil was always nice to me, but he was much cooler than I was, which was not hard to do because I was not very cool. But... Not as cool as you are now. I don't think I'm cool now. either. He always seemed to have an ease about him socially, and I did not. I often really hung out with my parents at things. I didn't really have an active social life at that time. Being on television for me was a very isolating experience. But one of my favorite places that I would get to see Jalil

was at NBA All-Star Games. So back then, celebrities were invited to the NBA All-Star Games. I went to, I think, for, I think, consecutive years, I must have been like 18, 19, something like that, 17, 18, 19, something like that. And we would do what was called the after-school special. So the All-Star game was always on a Sunday. I think the three-point competition was always on a Friday night, the old-timers game, which my father always wanted to, we couldn't miss the old-timers game because those were the players that he used to watch.

That would happen on a Saturday with what was called the After-School Special. And Jaliel and I would go to these. I actually didn't even realize what a huge basketball fan he was. I was a huge basketball fan, but it sounds like he was like, well, he was, you know, he was someone who actually like, play, like, I play. I shot around with my dad, but like... He was hanging out with Penny Hardaway. He was hanging with Penny.

But so it would be like us. Me and Jalil and like, you know, boys to men and like Mario Lopez is always there. Who is the jump, jump, the Mac Dad will make you... Chris Cross. Chris Cross were there. Like, Salt and Peppa. Like, it was awesome. And I was interviewed sitting next to Michael Jordan.

Literally one of the highlights, I'm just going to say, of my life as a public person, was that I... We were literally like... seated in the stands, like for, we had consecutive interviews for the after-school special. And it was just like, hey, what's up? You know, it was insane. But, you know, Scotty Pippett, Carl Malone, like people recognized me from going to these things year after year. Kevin Johnson, one of the nicest people that I'm in. Should you tell your Carl Malone story? Because it's my, I'm going to tell my Carl Malone story right now. So I'm in the elevator in, I think it was Minneapolis. Maybe Charlotte. I don't remember. One of those years.

and Carl Malone, like, walks into the elevator. And you would just be in elevators with, like, oh, a young player called Shaquille O'Neal, who had, like, just started. And, like, it was crazy. You'd all just, there was no security. You'd just be in the lobby, like, hanging out. So I'm in the elevator.

Carl Malone is in there with his wife, who was pregnant at the time. And it's, like, kind of quiet, because we're all just, like, going up in the elevator. My dad was with me, you know, very quiet. And right when we get, to the floor where he's about to get off. I said, your wife's gonna deliver soon too.

He was... He's the mailman. He's the mailman. Anyway, it was a big deal for me to make a joke. He laughed. He laughed. Anyway, that was where Jalil and I would see each other and, you know, have time together. I found being a public person

very challenging. It's like a little bit like first world celebrity problems, but this is something that Jalelel and I will talk about. You're still a person, even if you're famous. Like, you still want to be loved. You still want to be included. You still want to be as a teenager.

You want to fit in and nothing about me fit in. My nose didn't fit in. My chin didn't fit in. Like, my body didn't fit. I barely fit on my own body. Like, I barely fit. So getting to see basketball, getting to have that experience with my dad, who was a huge basketball fan and us getting to do that together,

it was so awesome. I felt a lot of pressure, you know, trying to be good in those years and trying to really distinguish myself from my character. And I think that's something that I really am excited for Jalil to talk about because he was the catchphrase. You know, he was the catchphrase of this show that essentially he really made a different level of popular. We both were raised working in an adult industry.

And we didn't get sick days. We didn't get grumpy days. We didn't get hungry days. There was, you know, a tremendous amount of pressure to make adult decisions, to be included in an adult world. and that impacts you. It really does. And that's so excited to kind of break, to break down Jaliel White. He's an actor. He's also a producer. He's a writer and he became a household name as Steve Erkel on Family Matters. This is really lovely. He is the recipient of two NAACP Image Awards and also a young artist award.

He graduated from UCLA, Go Bruins, with a degree in film and television. He studied film and television at my alma mater. He also is the voice of Sonic the head. Hedgehog in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. That's so awesome. He has a great voice. He's also been on a bunch of other shows.

He did a dancing with the stars, I think. I should have given him a hard time about that. But really, really a pleasure to welcome my friend Jaliel White. Break it down. My Ambialik's breakdown is brought to you by Policy Genius. Jonathan, April means a lot of things. It means getting fooled, getting rained, on and getting your taxes done.

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Hey. Hey. I got to be on your podcast. Yes. We had such a good time talking that I said, I would really like to talk to you more. My podcast, obviously, is a mental health podcast. But what I've decided to do is we're doing our first case study episode, You Are It. It is a case study of Jaliel White, meaning I'm not going to, I'm not to, I'm not

diagnosing you with anything, but I really just want to talk to you about you. My mental health. Well, I want to talk to you. Talk about sandbagged. I want to. No, no. I really just want to kind of talk about, well, you'll see, but I want to talk about some of the shared experience we have of being young people who are in the public eye and the excitement of that and the intensity of that. So, but let's just start with, tell us a little bit about, like, where you grew up, like, what were you like as a kid? What'd your parents do? Like, who was Jalil before Jaliel was Jalilil the actor?

Oh, wow. Well, Jalil L the actor has been in existence since I was three years old. You know, my sad card says 1979, you know, that's that right? Go ahead and age myself there. But I never got into acting. My parents never put me into acting for any other reason than to make money to go to college. You know, back then. the climate was racially just very different. And you were a different human being to just be Joe Jackson and say, I'm going, my sons are stars. Nobody, nobody did that. That was revolutionary thinking. Simply being a token in a commercial and, you know, collecting residuals or anything like that was super cool, man. And, you know, it was stacking cheese for a four-year degree.

And then I was always a precocious kid. I was undersized. with a giant mouth. And, no, no, I had a really big mouth. I remember in a sixth grade, I couldn't go to school on the last day of school. And my mom was like, why? Why can't you go to school? And it's because I'm going to have to fight.

And she's like, well, what do you mean? Is this some kid picking on you or whatever? And it's like, no, I've just, I've said a lot of things this year to a lot of people. And the threats have come in. And it's more than one person. I'm pretty sure it's about three or four people that, and I could get junk.

So since it's a jumping situation, I don't really think I should go to school in the last day of school. And she was really pissed about this. She was like, no, you're going to go to school. And I said, Mom, seriously. Like, this is a big issue. So I remember the sadness that I felt not being able to go to school in the last day of school because I had so many warrants out. And they made good on these warrants in public school systems back in Pasadena back then that it kind of toned me down and keeping my mouth shut a little bit and not talking a little less shit. But other than that, I was an athlete.

I was always funny. And I always had jokes. And acting kicked into high gear when I was 12. And you grew up in Pasadena. That is like Southern California. I grew up in Pasadena, but I went to school in Dena. And that's there's a difference. When you go to school and the ghetto schools is a different experience.

What did your parents do? My dad's a dentist. and my mom is a homemaker, and she was my manager. So you mentioned being the token, and, you know, I started acting in 1986. I was 11 years old. And, you know, at that time, there was one look, really, for children on television, especially in commercials, and it was called All-American. And the All-American kid was blonde-haired, blue-eyed, usually freckles, teeny-tiny features.

what we in my family called wasps. And I therefore did not get commercial work. I did not have success. So talk a little bit about that kind of notion of, you know, we grew up at a time when, although I am white and I have white privilege, people did not look like me on television. I did not see children who had a smattering

of Eastern European features. No. You know, so talk a little bit about what that was like, like the notion of being a token. Like, talk about it. I mean, yeah, basically the television ideal for youth back then was something between Chad Allen and Kirk Cameron. And, you know, we all lived with knowing that.

And you didn't think anything of it back then. You didn't think anything of being considered second tier or third tier. You just didn't think of it that way. It's unfortunate that the business was like that. But then there was also a side of the life back then that was a lot less social media. And it was a pecking order that unfortunately made sense. But yes, the All-American thing was upon us. And we all lived with it.

I could remember seeing Leo and Toby and all those guys on auditions. As a matter of fact, I think the biggest distinguishing factor between myself and other all-American kid actors, and I actually had this conversation with Matt Shackman already, who is now a Game of Thrones director

and an amazing TV director, but he also was on a show called Just the Ten of Us when I was a kid. And Matt would have like, two, three, and four auditions in a day. I'm like, what? In a day? Like, you were learning lines for four different projects in a day, like in a day. Like, you got an audition at one.

You got another one at 2.30. You got another one at four. You got another one at five. Like a person with a job, job, job. And it was like, for a black kid to get four auditions in a month was like huge. Like, oh, man, we are really getting after it this month. So it just kind of goes to show you, you know, you're only going to be as good as your at-bats. So even if you are talented,

you know, if you're getting, on average, no exaggeration, 10 to 12 auditions in a week, you're getting, as a white kid, you know, 40 auditions in a month. You know, that pales into comparison to a black kid back in the 80s who might have gotten maybe three or four auditions in the entire month, and that was a busy month. So what TV did you grow up watching? Did you resonate with shows that, you know, that had black families?

Did you resonate with shows that everybody was watching because that's what was mostly on television? What was your kind of perception of, also, you know, of black families on television? See, I was very much a middle-class black kid, though. Only child, you know, dad is a doctor. And so I really identify with the Cosby show. It's a complete tragedy that that show can no longer be celebrated. It's just the truth. You can't even mention the man's name anymore.

It just gets you tossed out of rooms. But the impact that that show had was huge. It was absolutely huge because before the Cosby show, you were just conditioned as a black kid to watch white shows. You were. It was who's the boss. It was growing pains. So I didn't watch television to see myself.

This whole notion of watching TV to see yourself now is a very modern idea. My dad grew up watching, you know, Andy Griffith and, you know, watching white kids on TV. And I was the end of that generation that was going to grow up watching white kids on TV. So I looked for comedy. I think one of my favorite child actors

is someone who's not still in the business, but I will always love him for his childhood chops. And that was Bryce Beckham, who played Wesley on Mr. Belvedere. I know Bryce well, yeah. I just, I just, I loved Bryce's timing. I just loved his. I could just watch any episode of anything with Bryce. And, yeah, I think two of my favorite actors were him and the kid who starred in A Christmas

Story. I think I've watched a Christmas story literally 200 times. Just their dry comic timing, it's just something that appealed to me. I wasn't thinking about race or anything. I was just looking at timing. Well, and I think, and we've talked about this a little bit before because there were shows, you know, that had black people on them. And, you know, my parents are from the Bronx.

Like, my parents taught in Harlem. My parents taught in the Bronx. And the shows that I liked as a kid were the Jeffersons. I watched Red Fox. I don't know why. Hey, I watched Red Fox. And then what's happening was my favorite show. 227 spoke to me because it looked like the neighborhoods that my parents were from.

And it's so, and like we've talked about this. It's so funny because it's not necessarily that, you know, we're looking to kind of see ourselves. right? But we're looking to try and understand the world that we live in, you know? No, you were mentioning shows that I freaking loved. I love those shows, too. Don't get me wrong. Like, if you want me to name all my black shows, I got it. You got what's happening. You got... What's happening now? What's happening now? What's happening now? What's happening, it's all different shows. It's two different shows. What's happening was all about D and Raj and just, and D blackmailing everybody. And that's all it was about. 2-27 is a show that I grew up loving.

and it deserves more respect. Jackie Harry was one of the funniest ladies in all of television. Sandra. Oh, my God. Everybody loves Sandra. And Regina, I mean, also, like, I grew up seeing Regina King,

who is, you know, now an unbelievable celebrated, well, well, desert. Like, what a career she's had. But I wanted to be her best friend as a child. That's who I wanted. I am proud of you. Yeah. I wanted Regina King.

The first time I met Regina King when she was on Big Bang Theory, I said to her, there's no way that I'm not going to freak out right now because I've wanted to be your best friend since I'm like eight years old. Regina King led a say no to drugs rally launched by Nancy Reagan at the Rose Bowl when I was in the fourth grade. Yes. And that's where they got all the schools and the buses to come out

and you chant and they gave you t-shirts, say no to drugs. Just say no. We didn't know. was that easy until Nancy Reagan told us. Just say no. Exactly. And I'll never forget being in awe of Regina King because she was the host down there on the field. Yeah. So tell me what happened between three and 12 because you started acting at three and I don't mean, I don't need every single detail. But obviously, you know, what people knew you for as a teenager,

like what people knew me for as a teenager was Blossom and you were known for your character on family matters. So just like kind of walk us through like how that. And, Remind me the years that you were on. I was on 89 to 94. You were on Family Matters, which years? I was on from 89 to 98. Okay, got it. Not that it's a competition.

Yours is longer than mine, but that's okay. Hey, listen, look, look, I got a few extra dollars, but the show probably should have stopped in 96. She probably should stop. That's just the way that goes. You know, again, I worked consistently. from three to 12. I always did commercials and I always did guest spots. I was on the Jeffersons. I'm jealous of you because you were on Webster and I auditioned for Webster and they would tell me I was

I literally booked Webster like two or three times but I was too tall. So I was like why do you keep bringing him in to read if you're only going to tell him at the end he was great but he's still too tall. I was like well he's going to get bigger each time he comes in. So I worked consistently but I was an athlete at heart. At heart all I cared about was playing basketball and I was really getting sick and tired of the business getting in a way of me going to practices. And I also got braces on my teeth. You were black, you were undersized, and you couldn't play a thug. You were useless. You had no type. You had no character. You were a waste of an audition. You're just another name on the signing sheet. But that was really my existence until Family Matters kicked in

at age 12. And then at age 12, it was only supposed to be a guest spot for one episode. And it just, it turned into this thing. Literally, after one episode, I went to school the very next week, and I was called out of school that Monday. Like, come back now. And they wrote me into the very next episode, and they started writing me into the teasers.

They changed all the teasers for the next four episodes until they were able to generate an episode where my character was the focal point. And I remember that episode, that episode was called The Big Fix. So I came in on Family Matters on episode 12 of a 21 episode order in 19. 1989 and never left, 215 episodes later.

Wow, wow. So before we get into a little bit more of kind of what that popularity was like, did you feel any kind of impact on, you know, kind of like your mental state? Like, do you remember what it was like to go through the process of, for example, rejection? Or, you know, I mean, I remember for me what it felt like being an actor was was being rejected six ways to Sunday. And being told, you're too short, your nose is too big, you're not cute enough, your voices. weird, you know, like you don't have breasts yet and that's not okay. You know, like it felt like that's, and I started at 11, you know, and I didn't even have that much time for that, but

meaning to experience that, because then I was on blossom and then it's a different level of anxiety. But what was it like kind of for you? What was your concept of like, did you feel like there was any impact on your self-worth? Like, I'm not good enough or I'm not appreciated, or did it feel like people don't want me because I'm this, that, or the other? I had a dual existence when I started Family Matters in my head. I was becoming increasingly confident on the stage and almost behaving like an adult and seeing acting moves like an adult. And that's why I always like to try to shine a light on kids that are seeing it as well, if not faster, than an adult, as far as timing is concerned. Raven Simone's one of my

favorite examples of that. Any scene she ever did with Bill Cosby, she would. was right there with him. Like, what do you want to do, buddy? I got it for you. But off the set, I was a scrawny, insecure, 14, 15-year-old boy. Not sure if I was going to grow very much. I remember asking my dad about growth hormones when I was in when I was about 14, 15 years old because I just wasn't growing fast enough in my mind.

And back then, there was no Google. So he was like, you know, go do some research on it and write me a report. That was his way of blowing me off. And so I did go get Britannica and World Book. Those are encyclopedias for those of you too young to know. And I gave him my report and he read it. And he was like, this is very interesting. You're not getting it.

You're not getting it. After you did that research, you submitted it to your dad. Were you like convinced this was the path forward? Or like, what did you come away with? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I was completely fooled. I thought this was a formality.

He just wanted me to do the work. We would go in for the procedure where they would give me the injection and I would then grow to NBA size. Six-six and get drafted. I love you describing that as a kind of a dual personality. I literally have never thought of it that way, but what you described was exactly my experience.

That I was working in, I was working adult hours. I was working in an adult, world. I was being asked to make decisions that impacted hundreds of people. I was being asked to make decisions that caused hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars of decisions further down the line. But what it felt like when I, and I literally have never thought about this, Jalil, when I left that set, I just became my parents kid again. And I just became the person who had to deal with, like, taken out the trash. My penmanship was crap. Like, I couldn't do that right. I didn't understand why I existed. I didn't have any friends, really, that I connected with anymore because I was living

an adult life and they were going to the mall. And it's not like I thought I was too good for them, but our lives no longer intersected. And because I was strange, just because I was a strange kid, I didn't even feel like there was a place for me. And the only place that there was a place for me is when I could make you happy and make you money. Like, that's what my identity felt like. Yeah, no, listen, I'm right there with you. The only kind of friend I knew how to to make at that age was somebody who played basketball better than me. But that was my criteria for making friends back then. I remember during the show, our dishwasher breaking down at my mom's house.

And she voluntarily did not fix it because she was like, you're our dishwasher for this mom. And I'm like, what? And it was like, I was going through that stage as a kid where anytime you want to get something to drink or eat, you just grab another dish from the cover and then you just, you use it once and then sticking in the sink as if it's just you just, you know, you use it once and if it's just going to move itself into the dishwasher. Are you listening, Jonathan?

I have a kid like that. So, well, there's an easy way to break a kid of that habit, and that's just make them wash everybody's dishes in the house by hand for an entire month. And so nobody would have imagined that playing Steve Urkel and being all famous and whatnot, that at home, this is what I was enduring. My son might email you some complaints after he... Actually, I have some complaints about the way you handle it. dishes, so I'll also talk to you about that later. So your popularity on the show obviously increased.

I remember I didn't really like, Family Matters wasn't a show that I went to really until you became more of a part of it. And I think that was a lot of people's experience because you brought a really, really, really previously unseen kind of character for that kind of show. So your popularity increased. And, you know, there was a lot of intensity around that because it's a very competitive industry in general. Your show was in a very competitive genre. You had a very coveted, you know, airtime. It was a very, very successful show. And your popularity introduced a whole new level, you know, to it. So what was that like? Did you feel like, oh my gosh, I made this show so amazing? Did you feel like, gosh, this is uncomfortable? Did you get kind of blowback? Like,

what was that like for you? Man, how do I, how'd I describe it? I mean, first of all, I was one of those people. that blew off Family Matters also. I mean, again, if a black show comes in the air, as a black family, we're going to at least look at it. And I distinctly remember one evening turning Family Matters off so that we could watch Mike Tyson fight on HBO.

I think one of my favorite quotes about fame back then is back then you were the last one to know you were famous. And when I say that, I'm saying, like, now you have these devices to let you know that you're getting all this engagement. But back then, it was a slower process. It was fan mail arriving by the envelope and then eventually by the box and then eventually

by the boxes. And then it's going all over the place. It's going to the studio. It's going to the network. It's just and then they got to try to centralize it and then before you know it's going to Jack Tampkin's company. And you know, I have to sit down for a certain number of hours a week and just sign and sign and sign and I would do and I would do that.

And I think the first time I even really understood I was famous is I. I was asked to do Regis and Kathy Lee. And I was flown in New York, which was always a huge deal to be flown to New York. And when I got to my room, when I'm 13 years old, when I got to my room, the phone rang in the hotel room. We had just checked in. We come upstairs and the phone rang. And my dad picked up the phone. And he's talking.

And he's like, uh-huh, uh-huh. And my mom's almost looking at him like, who are you talking to on the hotel phone? And we didn't have cell phones back there. This was the phone in the hotel room. room, it rang as soon as we walked in, and now my father was engrossed in a conversation. And then my father, after about, you know, six minutes of just being extremely gracious, he turns to me and says, well, son, the call's actually for you. My mom's like, what the mic?

And it was a fan. It was just a straight fan. And the guy just was very charismatic on the phone and was just gushing over me to my father. And so my father just talked to him. And then when they were done talking, the guy obviously asked a request to speak to me. And my mom's like, what the F is wrong with you? You just put our son on the phone with some strange man. They found out where we're staying.

Times were different. Times were different. No caller ID. Yeah, there ain't no caller ID back then, oh boy, ain't no caller. So, you know, those were the ways in which you started to slowly discover you're famous. The next way is people asking you for your autograph. And I actually miss autograph because nobody asks for autographs anymore these days. It's all about the selfie.

And then the second thing was people wanting a picture from you. And people would go to great lengths to get a picture from you. They would be like, I have a disposable camera in my car. Will you wait here? And you would find yourself actually waiting for somebody to go to their car and come back with their camera. Oh, I've walked into bathrooms. I've been in people's hotel rooms. Like, it's so crazy.

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Superpower. Not only did Superpower reduce their price to just $199, but for a limited time, our listeners get an additional $20 off with the code break. head to superpower.com, use the code break at checkout for $20 off your membership. And after you sign up, they'll ask how you heard about them. Make sure to mention my and Bialock's Breakdown to help support the show. Jaliel and I are from a different time when, and this kind of leads into my next question, we were raised to be owned by our industry.

And we were raised to be owned by our industry in the way that people are not owned. You know, people own their own empire now. We didn't come from that. And I was not raised middle class. So when I got on an airplane, like, it was like you took me from another planet and put me on a fancy airplane. And I walked into a hotel and I was like, Mom, there's lights on the phone. What is this? So we were owned by an industry that then served you up a life that you couldn't even imagine.

And in a second it could be taken away from you. And a second it could be gone. As quick as they love you, they could also hate you. and we were owned by the public. And people would say, especially to me as a woman, why aren't you smiling? Why won't you smile for me? Where are your cute hats?

Why don't you look cute like you do on television? Like, that was expected of me to especially. Oh my gosh. And that happens to women not only if you're on television, but the expectation by the public was that they owned us. And I will tell you that although, whoa, was the catchphrase of Blossom, you were the catchphrase of your show. And I can't even imagine the number of times people asked you to say, did I do that?

Of course. And it was, I think the issue there is two prong. Yes, people felt like they owned you. You definitely as an actor didn't feel like that you were at the helm of some growing empire. You didn't even think that way. You were told every day you should be lucky to have a job and you were made to wait until half the season until producers said, guess what? We got picked up. You know, they play that game on us also

to make sure we didn't ask for too, too, too much money. But there was also, I think it was an age thing, though, where we were conditioned in our generation to be deferential to adults, no matter how the adult behaved. The adult could behave boreshly to tell you, you know, wear your glasses and how come you're not cute like you are on TV or whatever.

And it was just as soon, well, this person is an adult. And so you continue to be deferential to them. I remember this moment, and I was actually a napi selling our show in syndication. And I was at a restaurant, very swank restaurant in New Orleans called Commander's Palace. And I remember for some reason, everybody got up from the table to go to the bathroom and left me there at the table alone. I didn't have to go to the bathroom. The second they did that, it was like I had adults at every other table. now beckoning me like some dog, like, come over here.

And I'm like, I'm me. And I remember in that moment, I tried to hold my ground too. Like, no, I'm right here. You know, nice to meet you. And they got indignant. You're like, hey, I said, come here. Like, come here. And it was like more than one adult and more than one table.

It was like, they saw that all the adults had left me. They wanted my attention. They wanted what they owned me. They wanted a piece of me. And their attitude was come over here. over here to our table. Okay. And I remember that.

No, I just, I remember that cat and mouse. And it's, it sucks because it's, it's also something that I think it affected me with girls. You know, well, should I approach a girl

or should a girl come over to me because I'm famous? You know, it made, it made it weird because the real Jalil wanted to just always walk up to a girl. But if I had to walk up to a girl, it pretty much meant she wasn't interested in me at all.

And, and now I had given up my power to simply, say hello to her and cross the room. You know, so it was like, it really messed me up back then the whole importance versus staying in a kid's place. Back then, there was a lot of, you're a kid and you're going to be kept in your place. But at the same time, I was an important celebrity.

And important celebrities court attention. They don't, you know, I remember Penny Hardaway, it's one of my favorite things that he's ever shared with me. We would go out to parties and stuff. Penny didn't drink and I didn't drink. And so it didn't matter if you were famous. That's not how we socialized. And Penny was, he's six, seven, though.

So Pete would just stand up in a corner. And me, I would just be actively walking around the whole room trying to make sure that there wasn't a single cute girl in this room that I haven't seen. And then, you know, Penny finally would just tell me, he was like, why don't you sit your ass down somewhere? And I'm like, Penny, I'm not like you, dog. I'm not six, seven.

And people are going to notice me. And he was like, Jay, let me tell you how this game is played. Anytime me and you walk into a room, everybody knows we're there. If you got across the entire room to say hello to a girl, she ain't checking for you. She's over there for a reason

because she don't like you. I had no choice but to apply that logic to my dating strategy and again, you can just see the war going on in my head trying to be humble, but at the same time, trying to be, you know,

trying to make sure that I'm respected. You were talking about something that literally like it caused a brewing. like I felt a physical brewing in my person when you talked about knowing your place. And I absolutely, I have been beckoned by grown men, grown women, balzy kids younger than me.

And the notion that someone else has a right to say, like, I want this and it's your job to provide it, is very, very uncomfortable. And it's uncomfortable for me as a woman because of just the way society is structured and, you know, it's the patriarchy. But I have to ask, because this is what is brewing in me, you and I have talked about, you growing up in essentially a white industry.

I mean, the industry was, was and still is, in many regards, a white industry. And there's been so much attention recently, rightfully so, finally, about black identity being misrepresented, being poorly represented, or really not represented. at all in the media. And what I felt an agitation about was how uncomfortable it is for populations and for people who have not been appreciated or represented appropriately or even given the respect for the acknowledgement of systemic racism in this country to be put in a position where then they are told, you do this for me, I own you. And I will consistently treat you like a child, even when you're an adult because I still own you.

And look, Spike Lee has talked about this for years with the NBA. This is a very interesting notion to me. And I guess I wonder, and, you know, this is one of our last questions. So, like, I guess I wonder, like, what is that like for you now to also see a world where black lives do matter and things are being done? So that black lives matter in all aspects of our culture, in all aspects of our industry. Ooh, that's a, man, that's such a layered question. It's a good one, but it's such a layered question.

Within the black community, there are also layers of, there are degrees of blackness. And so I was always really thought not to be black enough, which is an interesting thing to live. You know, I remember meeting Spike Lee as a young man. he will never truly understand what he meant to me at that age. I would go to his films with my parents, and any time there was the inevitable gratuitous tit shot, my parents would make me put my head down. And whether if it was Mobetter Blues,

if it was jungle fever, if it did matter, you didn't waste money on a babysitter for that back in 1980, whatever. You took your kid and you forced your kid's head down when that stuff popped up. And I remember meeting him at his 40 Acres in the Mule store on Melrose and so excited to meet him. And I unfortunately got the sense that he was not nearly as impressed with me as I was with him, even though there were tons of people around us who were equally impressed with me. And there was even an opportunity that came up for me to be in one of his films,

get on the bus. And I was in college at the time. And I was asked to invest in the film, but the notion of me being in the film was rejected. Because of these kind of personal experiences, even as we talk about race, black people, we got some issues. We got to work out ourselves too.

And I'm not going to give us a pass for that. I remember having heated debates with Penny Hardaway because he loved good times. And I defended the Cosby Show at the time. And he would always say, that Cosby shit ain't real. That Cosby shit ain't real. And I'm like, my dad's a doctor.

Why is it not real? And he's just like, it's just not real. So there's always been this issue within the black community as well. So as we're being oppressed, there's also an issue within the black community a bit of a crabs in the barrel, a bit of the fairer skin, you know, individual, getting ahead faster than the darker skin individual. You even find that amongst Cubans and all sorts of other races, to be quite honest. It's really, I'm telling you, that the fairness of skin is

almost a human condition that we've used to differentiate who's better for years, who has better hair, all those types of things. And even when I was a kid, I was accused by my own grandmother, to my mom of why do you let him talk white? He talks so white. I had a natural enunciation, and my mom was obviously seeking to, you know, she worked with me. I could read at a young age.

That was equated with being white. Why are you trying to be white? So, you know, every, I only share all of this to say, every journey is unique, even though we do have these systemic problems. We also have to acknowledge the uniqueness of each person's journey.

For me, getting stopped by the cops in Los Angeles is a different experience than getting stopped by the cops, let's say, in the deep south. And the guy doesn't recognize me. There's such incredibly different experiences that they don't even belong in the same book, autobiography. I'm able to process it. I would love to think that when I leave this planet,

people are judging each other a little bit more on character. And that's not just a line from a Martin Luther King speech. I really do. Because we have enough data on each other now that I was literally, I just watched that program, the social dilemma on Netflix. And it's scary because that silly app actually can tell me more about myself than I know about myself.

And I'm not even allowed to access the data they have. They've mined on me. That's crazy, right? It's a huge conversation. Yeah, that's what I said. It's a layered thing. I'm so happy to see the progress that has come for African Americans in the business

that's come for all races in the business for a Korean movie to win Best Picture right up until it was announced, I was like, no way, this best foreign picture, it's no way it's getting best picture because I'm just conditioned to think there's nowhere in the world they're letting all them Korean folks on the stage.

It ain't happening, though. They're not going to do that. They're not going to do that in Kodak in Hollywood. They're not going to do, oh, shit. They're all on the stage. Look at them. All the Koreas, they're on the stage. I do want to know, just before we let you go, what is your, like, what do you do for your sanity,

your mental well-being now? Are you a religious person? Like, do you do anything like meditate? Is basketball still, like, is that church for you? Like, what keeps you sane right now? I mean, you have a career that is still thriving. Like, what keeps you sane right now? You know, it's funny, I just finished working with Adam Sandler on a Netflix movie.

And I'm not even sure if I was there to act, we played so much basketball. He plays a lot of basketball. He plays a lot of basketball. I have a good Adam Sandler story, basketball story. I would love to hear it. You want to share it? I do want to share it. Go ahead, J.C.

So I was in Toronto. I spent, that's where I grew up, and I was in the JCC at 9 o'clock at night. That's the Jewish Community Center, for those of you not dialed in. On a weekday night. And Jim's totally empty. Working on my jumper, feeling really good. All of a sudden, a kid, teenager walks in, goes down the back steps. I hear the alarm go off for a couple seconds, which means the back alley door has opened.

And two seconds later, in walks Adam Sandler and a friend and asks if we want to play twos. And that guy's got a wicked jump shot. I'm like, he. He was up there filming a movie. I didn't hit another shot the rest of the night. Felt my knees go out from under me. And, yeah, got, got beaten really badly. He is a very disciplined basketball player.

I mean, he plays every day. I didn't even bring the right shoes the first day. So I'm like, I had this giant freaking blister that was just literally bleeding. I took my shoe off and he was like, is that blood? And I lied to him. I was like, no, it's not. It's not blood at all. It's not bled at all. It's not bled.

But I'm like, who's going to tell Adam Sandler, like, you know, three points out from game point. Like, I think I'm going to lose my left foot if we keep playing. I'm going to lose left foot. You know, and, but anyway, I love to stay active, bottom line. I love going to various gyms, whether it's for rumble boxing training or soul cycle or I love group. I think that's the biggest thing that I've lost in COVID is it really shot my life in half. I'm not going to lie, it's personally been a devastating year for me. I'm sustained and I'm fine, but it's personally been a devastating year for me.

I lost a lot of people that I loved just to changing values and ideals. And it was more than one person in my life. And, you know, you had to watch him walk away. people just really, their survival instincts kicked in differently. And I mean real survival instincts. Like, this is what I need to do for me to survive. And I don't think I need to know you anymore. And I'll be a little more specific when I say, like,

you know, my normal life is going to group training classes and going to the gym like that where there's other people around. That was all cut out. Going to the movies with my daughter on a Friday night, That was cut out. I love amusement parks. I would have absolutely done not scary farm and all of those type of things for Halloween

taken away from me. I would concerts. I have very good friends where we regularly go to concert. You hear music. You have a late night out. You have pancakes and whatever in the wee hours, whatever. All of that. Gone, gone.

The Lakers won. I would have absolutely been in Staples Center and somebody's sweet tickets, this, that, and the other, gone. Dodgers, the Dodgers are locked in heated day now. I would be headed towards the World Series. Absolutely. With my loved ones, with my daughter, cheering them on right now.

All of that, gone, gone, gone. I had a job lined up in Vegas that was going to be off the freaking charts. Six figures. Me and you talk money, Maya. So, you know, it's all good. You talk money on my podcast. I'm going to talk money on yours. Good money, good, good money.

Quick cash. Gone. All of it. Gone. And it was just like, yo, it was like, I just felt peppered. I just felt battered. I was normal this year. I was vulnerable.

I wasn't a freaking celebrity. I was just a guy that was trying to keep my kid focused on freaking Zoom school and not have her be so bored that, you know, in the house. You know, she's now a kick-ass Monopoly player. I put my daughter up against any other 11-year-old in the city against Monopoly. We played so much. But COVID cut my life in half. And if I ever get my full life back, there's going to be a.

gratitude oozing out of me that's going to be palpable. Well, and I think, and this is a great place for me to thank you for coming on, for talking to me so courageously. But I think what's important is that a lot of people might hear me talk or you talk and say, what's this person complaining about? They got so much money and they're famous. They got all the, oh, that's like your first world celebrity problem. But the point of this podcast and what you absolutely just honed in on is that everybody's experience is different. Everyone's experience is different. But the human emotions that we feel when the things that bring us comfort

are taken away from us. It doesn't matter if what's taken away from you is a box at the Staples Center or if it's a job because the fact is the human brain does not know the difference between Jaliel White and me and Jonathan

Cohen and anyone listening. The human brain knows loss and it knows grief and it knows coping and it knows survival. So we're all finding new ways to do it. Like, I didn't know that I couldn't see my friends that I take Taekwondo with. That was the one place in my life that people treat me like a person and not a celebrity because I'm only judged by my belt. I'm judged by what I do and how focused I am. I'm the person who makes everybody

laugh in Taekwondo class. But when you take that away from me, I don't have the thing that reminds me that I deserve to be appreciated for who I am. And the fact that I can order out dinner or the fact that I have a nice car, it doesn't matter to my brain. So thank you so much for reminding us that it's okay not to be ashamed of the things that we miss, even if they are greater, bigger, more expensive. The human capacity for loss and grief is something that unfortunately, and fortunately we all share. And thank you for being vulnerable and reminding us that gratitude is still on the other side of it. I'm so grateful for you. Thank you, Jalil. I've been, I sound like a broken record.

I've used the word gratitude so many times this year. And it still hasn't stopped me from losing things though. You know, I remember distinctly one night having s'mores with my daughter. And we bought a new fire pit and everything because that became something regular that we would do, you know, where it's like we roasted our marshmallows. It just, it was something to do that it felt like a group activity and you play music and roast your marshmallows and, all right, you get two, two s'mores. Can I have a third?

okay, now you're pushing it. And that was a whole evening. And I remember asking her, during quarantine, that was a whole evening. You know, that and listening to D-Nice. And it was like, I asked my daughter, I was like, what do you miss most? And I could really feel the pain in her heart. She was like, I miss my friends. I just miss seeing my friends at school.

And she was like, I just want to stand in line at Salt and Straw, which is her favorite ice cream place in the city. And she's like, I want to stand in line. And she said that too. she's like, I want to stand in line. Because if I'm standing in that long line on Friday, that means life is normal again. And it's like, it broke me to hear her want that and not be able to give it to her.

It broke me. So please understand, man, like we are all equal this year. You know, well, maybe there's one person hovering above all of us, the rock, you know, with 200 million followers, he's just hovering above all of us. But screw that, man. I mean, I hung out with Dei Chappelle and a whole bunch of people. of amazing comedians this summer and Sarah Silverman.

I must have missed that text. Make sure you include me on that group text. Oh, girl, you don't check your DM, sucker. I didn't DM do a million times. You don't check your DMs. That's totally true. I'm going to start now if it means Dave Chappelle. Come on.

So, look, let's get this straight. Because on my podcast, you came on talking about all the black people that didn't invite you to no cool-ass party, all right? Let's get this out here, all right? I'm looking right now. In order to get some invites, All right? You need to respond to people's messages.

Okay, I have social anxiety. I'll deal with it later. All right. Shit. Thank you, Jalil. Have a good day. Sending love to you and your family. And I'll see you at Salt and Straw, hopefully, soon.

Absolutely. I adore you. Anytime you want to check. Thank you, Jalil. You take care. That was breaking down, Jaliel White. That was a great interview. You watched Family Matters, correct?

As a young Canadian. I grew up and my family wouldn't watch it, but I would go to my cousin's house, and they would all gather around the two boys and their parents. And I remember I love that they would all watch it as a family. And so we would watch like two hours of must-see TV or whatever. It was, wasn't that TGI Friday? Did they have Fridays in Canada?

We did. Friday night, after dinner. A little Shabbas experience. Yeah, must-c TV was NBC. That was not. That was not. No, it was TGI Friday. I didn't watch a tremendous amount.

I did like Jalilil on that show, but because I was living in a sitcom, like that was my day job and had been for many, many years. I didn't love watching sitcom and all those rhythms, but I forgot there was so many characters on that show, but he was a very, very specific, specific character and super broad comedian, which is not easy to do. But what was it like kind of seeing him as an adult and he's a grown up, you know? We know him as a teenager, but he's a full-on adult now. Well, I guess I am too. You are an adult. What struck me is I remember seeing a picture of him for the very first time out of character. And the glasses and the outfit that he would always have was so distinctive.

And so trying to think about differentiating the man and the character and knowing a little bit about your experience and what you shared in the interview about differentiating between yourself and who you are versus the character you play. it's a lot to... Yeah, I mean, when he talked about that notion of dual identity, I had never thought about it that way. You know, I always felt this disconnect. And I remember actually, interesting,

and we should probably reference, or link to this on biolicbreakdown.com, I remember when I saw Lady Gaga's documentary, which I believe is called 5'22 because I think she's 5 foot 2. And I remember there was a scene where they're like filming something and if I get this slightly wrong,

please forgive me. I hope that the intention will be correct. They're like filming something, and our house is so busy and like all these people, blah, blah, blah. And then everybody goes home. Everyone goes home. And she said, like, when everyone leaves,

like, I'm still the one left here. And it doesn't matter that she's Lady Gaga because she's that person, like having a human experience. And like that never occurred to me because as a teenager, you just like, you try and find like the path of least resistance, you know?

You find the path of least resistance for what's confusing, for what's painful, and for some of us, that's like digging deeper, like getting more into French existential philosophy and being like other people also hate existing. And for other people, it's like it's drugs and it's alcohol or it's sex or, you know, being mean to their parents, whatever it is, that notion of dual, like this dual identity, just fascinating to hear it from him. I think a lot of people can relate to that. Yeah.

Whether it's who you have to be at work, who you have to be with your kids or with your spouse or with your friends. or with your friends and how do all of those pieces fit together? I think a lot of people can relate. I mean, I think, first of all, I really appreciate you saying that. But in addition, that's something that women have more traditionally acknowledged and felt because, you know, especially historically, we often leave careers or we don't get a career because of the ability of our body, right, to do what it does and give life and sustain life. And for most of human history, women did not have that.

option. We were constantly juggling. So now we have this, you know, this era of our existence as women where we can work, but also if we still want to make a baby, we still, like, have that hat to wear. And we talk about this also in the Jewish tradition. It comes up around Purim time in the spring. What masks do we wear? Like, what masks do we all wear? The story of Purim is about a woman who has to wear different masks. She pretends not to be Jewish. And then she reveals that she's Jewish and all these things. But the notion being, like, what do we have to do to just, like, get through the hour, the job, the meeting, the dinner, whatever, the existence? And I think it's really beautiful that we now live in a time when men are allowed to acknowledge that. And also where the notion of

gender is no longer binding, meaning it's not just women or people who are feminine who can have these feelings and this kind of conflict, but that, you know, strong, brave, men can also say, it's hard for me too, especially dads who are more involved now than they ever have been, while it may not be the same kind of pull for men to be able and allowed to say, gosh, when I go to work, it's hard too to leave my kid. And Northern European countries have acknowledged this by instituting, you know, paternity leave because they're acknowledging that like, for men and for women, for people, it is hard to be different things. The world didn't used to be this complicated. You know, if you were a dude, you hunted, and then you brought something

back. And if you were a lady, you made babies and baskets. And as my ex-babies of baskets. As my ex-husband, who has terrible vision and is legally blind without prophylactic eyeballs, he said, I would have been a berry picker, you know, like, because he's like, there's no hunting going on. I have no idea what's out there. But he said, I would have been with the ladies, like, you know, making little baskets with them as they nursed their toddlers. He would have helped to drag the meat back. He could. He was a strong man.

That's right. That's a shout out to my ex-husband who would have been a good dragger of carcasses. This conversation just became terrible. It's time for. Ask Miami Anything. Ask my am anything. Ask my am anything. Yeah.

So we have a question today from Shep. Shep. Shep. In Los Angeles. That must be short for Shabtai. That's what I was. thinking? Yes. Shep in Los Angeles. What's he asking? I have heard anxiety is just a manifestation of not processing your own fears, sadness, or anger. What can I do to process these feelings and reduce

my anxiety? So that's the question. I mean, that's an enormous question. I immediately think, is the first part true? Is anxiety just a manifestation of not processing our own fears, sadness, or anger? So from a neuroscience perspective, anxiety is, You know, we define it by a category of symptoms. So it's a little bit hard for me to say, like, yes, that's what anxiety is. What's anxiety producing for one person is not anxiety producing for another person. That being said, anxiety is very often caused by fear. Fear of the future would be the most common way that we think of anxiety being caused by fear.

That's why Eckhart totally wrote the present of the... Correct. He was not the first one to think about that. There were many Buddhist philosophers also and Talmudic scholars before him. But yes, shout out to Eckhart Tolle. Sadness, for some people, sadness can lead to anxiety. For many people, sadness can lead to depression. But yes, there is kind of an agitated form of depression, which also will also look a lot like anxiety.

Because sometimes when you get right before you cry, you can be anxious. Correct. Well, some people cry from it. Correct. And then the third thing. he asked about. So fear, sadness, and anger. Anger can produce anxiety, but I mean, everything's a lot more complicated than anything. But yes, anxiety is best treated by processing all of those kinds of previously, and I know people are going to be like unresolved issues, unresolved issues. And by unresolved issues,

what we mean in the neuropsych world is that when fears you have, you have, you, have when experiences you've had that are sad or that literally depress your mood or when things happen that you are angry about and you cannot appropriately express that anger because you're a child because you're unable because you don't have the vocabulary. Those things will produce a series of chemicals in your body, in your brain, that produce the best way that we can accommodate, which looks like anxiety. Evolutionarily speaking, anxiety is a very helpful experience because it makes you vigilant, it makes you ready to act, and it makes you ready to respond. So think of yourself as an animal in nature. Anxiety is actually, it could be preventative.

However, in our society, in the current state that we live in, when anxiety is left unchecked and unprocessed and we add a tremendous amount of other input, anxiety can do a lot of damage and it will do damage to your body eventually. It's not just a feeling. It will be a great example of mind-body syndrome. It can hurt your intestinal system, your gastrointestinal system. It can break down your immune system, which makes you more susceptible to getting sick. What was the second part of Shep's question? Second part was, how do I process these feelings and reduce my anxiety? I feel like reducing our anxiety is a full-time job these days. Well, so reducing anxiety, there's a lot of

kind of classic things that people do. Exercise is great. It does dispel energy. Meditation, learning how to breathe. Free meditation apps exist. They will. work, learning to sit still. If you think I'm the kind of person who can't sit still, that means you need to learn to sit still. And I remember my father, bless his memory, in the years leading up to his death, he kept being told, we need to do something to lower your blood pressure. Will you please learn to meditate? And he couldn't, wouldn't, you know, and I remember, you know, wishing that he had gotten to it because absolutely, learning to breathe, learning to listen to anything but what's inside your head is a fantastic way

to teach yourself to self-regulate that anxiety. And always, always, always, therapy, always. Sorry, always. All right, subscribe to my YouTube channel so you can watch us. Subscribe to the podcast. Go to biolicbreakdown.com. Submit a question. Ask me anything about mental health, wellness, relationships, like anything that involves your thinking, it's the beauty of neuroscience. We are the science of everything. At least we think so. Physicists also think that, but we think that wrong. I really want to thank Jaliel, again, for being part of this case study. And his podcast is called Ever After After, Like Happily Ever After, where he talks to people who try and live, Happily Ever After. Ever After with Jal White. Ever After with Jal White. So we will put that on our website. Thank you,

Jonathan for your Adam Sandler's story is really what I wanted to thank you for. He has a very good jump shot. That was really I learned a lot about myself today, really, through listening to Jalil, so it felt like celebrity therapy. That's the next podcast that you can start. Oh, for Pete's sake. All right, from my breakdown

to the one that I hope you never have, we're going to see you next time. It's my and Bialics breakdown. She's going to break it down for you. She's got a neuroscience PhD or two. One, fiction. And now she's going to break down. to break down

She's gonna