Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast - Jurnee Smollett Clocks In As The Flavor Flav Of The Family

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Actress Jurnee Smollett talks lessons in activism and creativity from her family. Being one of six children, Jurnee recounts how her mother was able to juggle care for all the kids while prioritizing their creative spark. From the Smollett's Swiss-Family-Robinson-style upbringing, to her mother befriending craft services for custom meals, Jurnee paints the picture of her childhood as a young actress to now. And she share's her mother's recipe for 7th Ward Gumbo!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Performing was what, it was just a natural part of our life, a part of our family. My mom didn't want for Mother's Day or her birthday. She didn't want presents. She didn't want flowers. She wanted us to do a concert. And it had to be a full on concert, full on professional, costume changes, you know, songs. I mean, she wanted the whole production. And so that was just.

a part of it. Yeah. Hello, hello, and welcome back to your mama's kitchen. This is the place where we explore how we are shaped as adults by the kitchens that we grew up in as kids. And of course, we're talking about the food and the cooking, but all the other stuff that happens there too, the games, the homework at the table, unpacking the groceries, the music on the radio. I'm Michelle Norris. And our guest today is a very talented actor, Journey Smollett. She's always been a natural on set from the minute she stepped in front of a camera, which was a very early age. She started very young playing roles on sitcoms like On Our Own and Full House. She even won a Critics Choice Award as an 11-year-old for a role that she played in the film, Eve's Bayou.

She was in one of my favorite movies, Roll Bounce. And lately, you have seen her in Lovecraft Country, in True Blood. and right now she is starring in Apple TV's crime drama called Smoke. We're going to learn all about the places where she grew up and how the kitchens influenced who she is today. Journey, thanks so much for being with us. I'm so excited to be here. I really am.

And congratulations on Smoke. Thank you. It's interesting. You had to apparently do a lot. You play an ex-marine. You're tough. You're strong. We see your workout on screen.

So maybe we can also talk a little bit about what you had to do to get ready for that role physically and nutritionally. Yes, absolutely. But let's begin with the kitchen. Tell me where you grew up. Tell me about the house you grew up in. And let's begin with the kitchen. What did it look like? What did it smell like?

What was happening? You have several siblings. Was it a loud and happy space? Very loud, very happy. My mom. So I was born in Queens, New York, and I'm one of six kids. But the earliest kitchen I can remember would have been this kitchen in Elmer's Queens that we had. It was, you know, to me, when you're a kid, everything feels so big.

You know, it was this. But in hindsight, it was actually this really small apartment. We were all kind of crammed in. My mom made everything. She made our kitchen table out of wood, like by hand. Wait, please stop that. She's a carpenter. She actually made the table that you ate it.

I thought she said she made everything like the food, but she actually made the furniture too. She actually made the furniture. We didn't have much money. You know, my dad was a taxi driver. He worked for IBM. He was at a point, I think, prior to me being born. He was a milkman.

I mean, you know, he's a blue collar guy. By the time I was born, they had four kids on number four of six. And her way of, she was a stay-at-home mom, so her way of keeping the budget tight was by making everything from homemade bread to the kitchen table. And so her and my dad would, you know, build out furniture.

Every single bed I slept in growing up was made by my parents or my mom herself. Yeah, they would just go to the lumberyard by the wood, by the screw. I mean, I can make a bed if I needed to because of them. You know, actually... When most of us say I can make a bed, it means I can tuck in the sheets and place the pillows. Yeah, no, I could go to Home Depot or Lowe's and know what materials to buy.

She and I actually built a kitchen table that I had in my house for a very long time. It's now outside in my backyard, but she and I built that together. So I grew up in a home with the philosophy of if you want something done, you do it yourself. And so if you want pizza, you make it. If you want homemade bread, you make it. If you want to become an actor, you study it, you learn it, you teach yourself. She was very keen on us being very self-sufficient. So we started cooking very young.

kind of out of necessity. You know, I think she was tired if I'm keeping it real, you know. So I, some of my earliest memories was, yes, for sure in the kitchen, watching my older siblings cook and being in charge of something. So it started off with me being in charge with the rice and the salad, you know. And then it built and built. and built. And so, yeah, Paul Newman salad dressing and Stevie Wonder go together. You know, like, so there was music in the kitchen. Always music. Anita Baker, Stevie Wonder, Shaka Khan, and

Rufus, and any, all the Jackson's and Whitney Houston, BB and C.C. Wynens, Bonnie Rite, Fleetwood Mac. Yeah. My mom's record collection was quite large, which has influenced me because I now collect vinyl myself. Very loud. The table was always full of debates, political debates, artistic debates, debating old films that we had watched. But eating dinner together was a must. Like that was, everyone came together at the dinner table. My, you know, Big table, because that's eight people. Yes, eventually once my two younger brothers were born, we lived, then we moved to L.A. And yes, you know, even if the apartments we lived in weren't very big, the table was big.

Probably took much of the apartment. It did. Honestly, it did. Like, I remember living in one apartment. It, like, extended past the door. Like, you know, you had to kind of like work your work. way around the table. But the table became very symbolic when I think back. We moved to L.A. And it was the 94 earthquakes here. And that very same table was the table we actually slept under

for actually it felt like a very long time. But I think it might have only been like a week or two. Because of the aftershocks? Because of the aftershocks. And Just, you know, the apartment complex, we had never been in an earthquake. You know, you're from New York. We don't get earthquakes in New York. And so there was no water for a few days, it felt like, you know. And there was an upstairs downstairs. So two bedrooms upstairs and my parents stayed downstairs.

And I think for safety reasons, because when the earthquake happened, my dad came upstairs to grab us. So I think they wanted, for safety reasons for us all to stay downstairs. and they had read somewhere online that if there's an earthquake, get under a table. So at night, we all kind of just huddled under the table in case there was another earthquake. Did your parents try to make that seem like an adventure? It's like building a tent. We're all going to sleep under the table. It was so fun to me.

Yeah, of course. It felt like we were camping out. You know, we had like our flashlights because the electricity. wasn't on for a few days. And so we had like our flashlights and candles. And they completely made it fun. Really. You know, I have to give my mom credit because growing up, I didn't feel, I didn't feel the strain of the ups and downs of our financial situation, you know, because we had each other.

So mom is Janet. Dad is Joel. Yes. Everybody in the family has a. name that starts with Jay. Yes. Assume that happened on purpose. Yes.

Was not an accident. And all of you at a very young age got involved in Hollywood. You all moved into acting. Was that something that happened spontaneously? Or was this where your parents always aspirational? They knew that you all were talented. And were you kind of like the Jackson 5 where they were pushing you in that direction? Or did you drag your parents in that direction?

If you meet my mom, she's not getting dragged anywhere. Let's be clear. Okay. But yeah, yeah, yeah. She was always very artistic. And so growing up, we watched films and old cinema and listen to music. My older siblings were doing it prior to me. And I just kind of fell in line.

They wanted to be like the, the Huxable kids. And so I think my, I think what happened is my mom's friend had kids who were modeling in New York and going on ghost, what was it called? Ghosties or something like that? Like auditions. And people kept telling my mom, you should let your kids do this. You know, you can make some extra money and they're cute. And my siblings wanted to do it because they, again, they wanted to be like the Huxville kids. They saw all these black kids on TV, you know.

They wanted to do that. And they're in New York and they thought, we can do that. And exactly. They're in New York. And so she tried it with them. And they really loved it. It was almost like Little League, you know, which they were in as well, where it was low pressure. It was fun.

They got to go into rooms. and sing or dance or entertain people. And I just was kind of put in it. I was 10 months old, and they were doing a photo shoot for something. And the photographer just was like, can we put the baby in the picture? And they put the baby in the picture.

And the baby stays in the picture. After that point, the baby stays in the picture. And yeah, so, for me, it was just fun initially. It wasn't something that

I don't know. I don't have that typical childhood, child actor story, fortunately. Which is often tragic. Unfortunately, it is, yes. So you felt like you still had your childhood.

It wasn't snatched from you. Because that's what happens with a lot of child actors. They don't get to just be a kid. My mom was very protective of us. She was always on set. And yes, there were moments, I think, as I got older, where it was like, okay, you're the child in an adult environment

and you were exposed to certain things that children shouldn't be exposed to. But I wouldn't say my childhood was snatched from me. Absolutely not. I had a very full life outside of being on set. And I wasn't a child star. I wasn't, it wasn't like I was going, you know, places and couldn't just be and people were always following me. I wasn't that famous, just keeping it real, you know, like people would recognize me once in a while. But I don't think she, she didn't.

center the business in a way that I think sometimes stage parents can do. Yes, I had to take it serious. Yes, it was a business. Yes, I had to study it. But again, I always liken it too Little League because not every kid who plays Little League goes professional, right? But you must take it serious. You want to win and you want to be your best. So you have to study it. You have to study other athletes and other, if you're in baseball, you have to study other baseball players, right? You take private lessons. So it was very much so that for me. But she really filled our time with other things outside of the industry. So I think that helped keep me grounded. At one point, you are actually in a sitcom with all of your siblings.

which is unusual that, you know, the whole crew gets to be part of a project. How did that happen? And did that make a difference? Because you had, you were all there together. And I guess I'll have a third question to that. Did your mom, did that help your mom make sure that you stayed tight as a family unit? Did she make sure that you ate the same time, that you kind of arrived at the same time? That was it easier for you as an actor and for her as a parent? It's, yes, it was. It was so much fun, first of all. The way it came to be is I was, I had a recurring role on Full House and the producers, Miller Boyette, who produced Full House, approached my mom and said, you know, her character's very popular. Like, we'd like to do a spinoff of it. And my mom at that time, I think just, you know, she just was stretched too thin. She had this kid in this movie and this kid on this set doing a TV show and this kid doing a commercial. And so she said no to the spinoff. She said,

I'm not doing any more TV unless they're all in it because I can't keep running myself ragged like this. She wouldn't allow us to be watched by a nanny, you know, so it was her. and my dad. And so they said, oh, there's more. We'll bring them all in. My mom had all of us go in and we performed shut them down by a public enemy. And they gave us a TV show. Okay, that is such an interesting choice for your audition. Shut them down. How did that happen? we were, we were, she was big, she was a big public enemy fan. Um, my mom, you know, she liked to think of herself as radical and, and she was always an activist, you know, her and my dad actually met in Oakland in the 70s working in the movement, you know, working with folks like Angela Davis and,

You know, so that mentality didn't stop with her art. She had certain, she was inclined to have a certain taste, you know. So public enemy in the 90s, that was her style, you know? That was her taste. And so she wanted us to perform for them. Instead of it just being a general meeting, she wanted us to showcase more of our talent. And that was a song she chose. and that was a song we all loved during that time, you know.

So when you were performing as the third youngest, which places you as one of the two middle children, what was your role in the Shut Em Down Ensemble? I was Flav-a-Flave. With the clock. Man, I love Flava Flav. I can't remember. Does he know this?

I don't know. I don't know. I've never met him. I've never met him. You know, I have met Chuck D. And I have told him this story. And he thought it was really cool. Yeah.

So you were the one who was walking back and forth, gesticulating with your clock. And yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Doing the ad-libs. You know, I was the hype man. Yeah, boy, you know, all that kind of stuff. Do you have video of this somewhere?

I think we do. Somewhere. I think we do. And then I saw something. You may have to go under the cave to pull that out. Yeah. But just to be honest, performing was what, it was just a natural part of our life, a part of our family. My mom didn't want for Mother's Day or her birthday.

She didn't want presents. She didn't want flowers. She wanted us to do a concert. And it had to be a full-on concert, full-on professional, costume changes, you know, songs. I mean, she wanted the whole production. And so that was just a part of it. Yeah.

So if she wanted a full-on production, did each of you have to perform your own number for her? or did everybody have, you know, or did you all have to choose, like, a song that you could all perform together? Like, set it down. It varied. It varied year to year.

You know, she would make requests one year, then the other year we could kind of decide, oh, how we were doing it. It varied. Yeah. Your mom, Janet, sounds like a very interesting woman. She builds furniture. She doesn't want flowers or gifts.

She wants performances. She was an activist in Oakland. She ran with the Black Panthers. Yes. Well, you know, I think it's, it's, she ran with, with the whole crew. You know, it was the Communist Party. It was a lot of different folks in Oakland who were, especially during the 70s and post, you know, I think it was right after Angela had been freed.

And so it was about freeing political prison. and doing a lot of work in that realm and bringing down this prison industrial complex system, you know, and so she's always had, again, that's why I say my life was so full outside of this industry. She honestly had us volunteering, you know, all the time or campaigning for political figures

or standing on the corner holding signs, Like, we were that part of those people that you see on a corner holding signs. That was us, you know. So if she was going to a protest, come on, you're coming too. We were absolutely at the protest. We were in the voting booth. I remember pressing the little button when I was probably five years old or six years old for Bill Clinton. You know, I.

And so voting now is very important for me. And I now do that with my son. where I take him in the voting booth and I allow him to participate and I make it fun. And we were at my godparents' house, Sam and Latanya Jackson.

They had this fundraiser and the mayor was there. And Hunter said, Mommy, that's the mayor that we voted for. You know? And he was starshrunk. You know? And so I, I, I,

I really appreciate that my mom made volunteering and participating in our world and being a global citizen, a central part of my upbringing. You know, I was volunteering for organizations at a very young age. And so again, like I said, I think those other elements outside of this industry helped keep me grounded. You know, it sounds like your parents also were trying to surround you with people who could help you in Hollywood, but really more importantly, help you develop a value system. Yes, in life. And you mentioned that Sam and Latania are, Jackson, are your godparents. Was she trying to give you a village, which really is its own kind of wealth? Absolutely. I have to say, you know, she was very intentional about surrounding me with artists and activists. And I am blessed that I have a village, literally, of artists and activists who mentored me and would check my coat tail, you know, if they saw me showing any sort of behavior that could indicate I could one day.

straight, right? And they just kept me so busy. They kept me busy. There was an organization called Artists for New South Africa that Sam and Latanya were board members of Blair Underwood, Alphrey Woodard, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the late Great Arch. You know, it was an organization, CCH Pounder. I think Palletta and Denzel, Washington, were they on the board? I know they were very involved with ANSA as well. But just it was literally an organization that I started volunteering with when I was 12. And they took me to South Africa when I was 19 years old. And honestly, I started like volunteering here in L.A.

I would go into schools with a program through L-A-USD and talk about HIV-AIDS prevention. And I really feel that being involved with work that wasn't about me, but it was about serving. And it was about serving humanity and trying to contribute. It gave me a deeper understanding of my purpose. You know, because she would say all the time, God didn't put you here for you to just go to the beach. And God didn't give you these gifts just for you.

You've got to share these gifts and you've got to use these gifts in order to serve humanity. And she would talk all the time about this Martin Luther King quote that I'm a butcher when I paraphrase it. But essentially he talked about the greatest person in the room is the server. You know, we could all be sitting at dinner, but the greatest person is the waiter who's actually serving us and nurturing us and nourishing us. You know? And so I've always looked at myself as a servant. Even in my art, it is a service that I'm doing. That phrase, bless the food and bless the hands that prepared it is a mindset that you can carry forward in life. Absolutely. Because you were acting, you were on the road, you were on sets. Sometimes they were in Los Angeles. oftentimes they weren't. So for instance, as a young child, when you were filming Eve's Bayou,

which is a classic film. I mean, a near perfect film. Totally holds up. Thank you. You could watch it today and it would feel totally fresh and relevant and prescient in some ways. When you were on set in films like that or on the road, how did your mom try to use the kind of things that you would normally get in a kitchen setting when you didn't actually have a kitchen. That's a great question. You know, a lot of what she did, because she didn't believe in eating out, and I think, one, we couldn't really afford it. So in general, I think when we were on set, she made real good friends with the catering

crew because she would make requests of, can you guys? you know, maybe cook this, but do it dairy-free, or can you make this for Boobie is my nickname. She calls me Boobie. Can you make this for Boobie? What's your nickname? Boobie. Okay. All right.

Is she the only person who's allowed to call you that? Yes. Yes. Can you make this for Boobie with, you know, add some cayenne pepper or, you know, so she would make friends with them. And sometimes get in there and cook some stuff up herself or just, you know, try to get them to make options that were healthier. She's a huge nutrition freak. I mean, when I tell you, growing up, it wasn't just about the kitchen, but it was about the healthy kitchen. You know, the pantry was full of vitamins.

The countertops had juicers and wheatgrass pressers. And when I started breaking out when I was a teenager, she was like, you got to go and drink a green drink. And she'd have me make some spinach and wheatgrass and the stuff was disgusting. But, you know, so she had that mentality even on set of how can we make something, of nothing, you know, and if they're going to make breakfast, you don't need to be eating all the

sugary sweets and the high carb stuff. Let's get you some omelets and some veggies and some fruit and some sourdough. Right. You know, so it's just those little tweaks that she would do that really trained me. So now when I'm on set, you know, and I'm doing a role that requires me to transform physically. I have an understanding of nutrition. I have an understanding of the body. There's something special about cooking in a new space. I stayed at an Airbnb once that had a griddle. I never used the griddle in my home kitchen, but I was inspired to use the griddle, and I felt like I was in a diner. I had my bacon going and my sausage and my eggs. It was great. Here's the thing. Every kitchen tells a story. And when you travel with Airbnb, you get to experience so many new kitchens and so many new stories.

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Find out how much by going to Airbnb.com slash, host. Happy travels. Summer grilling season is here, and I'll be honest. I used to think that Whole Foods was just for special occasions. But last weekend, I grabbed everything for a backyard barbecue there, and I was shocked at how affordable it was. Their 365 by Whole Foods Market brand has all the staples, juicy, no antibiotics ever chicken thighs, sustainable salmon burgers, even organic mustard and chips, all for way less than I expected. And here's my pro tip. When you're shopping there, look for those bright yellow low price signs you see there on the shelves. They're everywhere. And I stocked up on organic grass-fed beef burgers, fresh sides without stressing my budget.

Plus, new sales drop every Wednesday. So I snagged some ripe peaches for dessert. I plan to make a peach gobbler or put a few in a summer salad along with some goat's cheese, whether you're hosting or just bringing it a dish, Whole Foods makes it easy and affordable to grill and then to chill. So shop in store or order online, your summer spread awaits. 365 by Whole Foods Market. Great prices, no compromises. There are so many ways to save on summer grilling favorites at Whole Foods Market. We all know that food waste is bad for the planet, but that doesn't mean we're ready to start a compost pile or we're okay with having a smelly fruit fly condo compost pail on the counter. That's why I am so into the mill food recycler.

The whole idea is to make keeping food out of the trash as easy as dropping it into the trash. I just add my scraps and I mean like almost anything. I mean anything from chicken wing bones to avocado pits to cannulop rines and mill runs automatically while. I sleep, I can keep filling it for weeks, and it never smells. What really surprises me is the peace of mind. I used to feel guilty every time I tossed out wilted spinach or half-eaten leftovers. Now I just drop them into the bin, open the lid, drop them in, and I know that they're going to a better place. You can use the grounds in your garden or feed them to your chickens, but me, I have mill, get them to small farms for me so farmers can grow more food. You just send those grounds off to farms in little boxes that Mill can provide, and they will turn that back into real food for real animals. That's such a good feeling. It's a full circle moment that I didn't know that I needed. You can have your own full circle moment.

Try Mill, risk-free, and get $75 off at Mill.com slash YMK Podcast. That's Mill.com slash YMK Podcast. So you come from a blended family. Mom is African American. Dad is Jewish. How did that show up in the kitchen? Oh, I love that you bring that up. So up until my parents separated when I was 12.

But prior to that, my mom was very, very intentional about celebrating all the holidays together. So it wasn't just Easter. We also had to celebrate Passover. And, you know, Hanukkah, we'd celebrate, just like we celebrate Kwanza and Christmas. So as kids, you know, we loved it. It's just more opportunity to celebrate. And yeah, it was, it, it, it, it's interesting because it wasn't really my dad who was leading it. It was my mom's, my mom was spearheading it and she was very intentional about

embracing his culture and embracing his heritage more than he was. He just kind of was like, okay, you know. But I do appreciate that she did that, you know. Look, again, without a doubt, It's, you go out into the world and I was absolutely raised like, look, Journey, you're a black woman, right? But you have this beautiful, complex heritage that you can own and that you walk in, right? Yeah, so I do, I do have to give her credit because she didn't have to do that, especially because my dad didn't care. Was your mother a creative herself? Very. So would, you know, in a different set of circumstances, might she have been an entertainer, an actor, singer, composer, poet?

I think so. I think so. She was, you know, born in the 50s in the South in Galveston, Texas, raised in New Orleans. And did do, you know, Regional Theater did in high school, you know, did put on plays. And she was, you know, growing up, most of what she talks about is the influence that art had on her. Nancy Wilson, the late great jazz singer. Julie Andrews, the Sound of Music.

I think she looked to all these different women, Diane Carroll, Cicely Tyson, she looked to these artists, Catherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, for comfort, for inspiration, for hope. And so I do think in a different time, in a different era, she might have been. And I think it's partly why she was able to pour into us so much.

You had said, when I was reading up on you, I noted that you said that you and your brother, Jesse, always thought that she was your first and best acting coach. Yes. Well, she was our first acting coach. And it was always about just telling the truth and being as natural as possible. And so she would say, well, how would you do it in real life?

Like, if you're going to put your hands in your pocket, put your hands in your pocket. You're not going to like timidly, you know. And so I think training us to think, okay, how do I do it? How does my body feel in the most natural way saying this? She also would play games with us. I mean, she would play these games to teach us how to, cry on cue. So when you were talking about your mom

preparing you for eating well, living well, eating for the long haul as an actor, I'm thinking about you and the role that you're currently playing in this Apple TV Plus series called Smoke. You play an ex-marine,

a police detective, an all-around badass who was haunted in some way by you have to watch it to figure out. it out because, you know, it reveals that part of the show is revealed quite, quite slowly. But you're also driven. So it's like the Marines never left you. And there is a scene early on

where you're running and you're working out and you're running and you're working out. And it's like you're trying to outrun something. Is that, are we seeing a transform journey Smollett or does that reflect? all the training that you got from your mom and just sort of the way that you live in the world as someone who's generally pretty fit anyway. Well, you are seeing a transformed journey, yeah. I think, so I was very intentional about trying to physically transform for this role.

As you said, she is a former Marine, and that Marine mentality has not left her. And she is running from a lot. And she uses different things in her life to escape. It was awesome to see how your body can transform. You know, I feel stronger than I've ever felt, you know. And you get to these markers like, oh, I can lift my body weight. Then you get to the markers where you're like, you know, she's pushed me so far to the point

where there's certain exercises I can do, which are double my body weight. Oh my goodness, I can lift a piano if I need to. No, I don't know that I could do that. You know, it's funny. Different muscle groups on my body are stronger just, you know, than others. And yeah, so it was a really, really awesome experience to transform. What are you doing in your kitchen? now with your son to create the kind of happy and nourishing space that your parents provided

for you in the kitchen that you grew up in? I love that. Yeah, I think there's a lot of traditions that my mom had that I want to maintain with my son, especially around the holidays. You know, my family, we all still gather. We all still cook together. It's definitely a way of bonding. And so now trying to get him to just come in the kitchen and help and fall in love with that experience. But also teaching him about nutrition and teaching him about, well, that's okay to have once in a while, baby. but we can't eat this every single day because of this.

Look at the ingredient list. And you see those ingredients? Like, I'm not saying you have to stay away from it all the time, but just it can't be an everyday thing. So teaching him how to make good choices, healthy choices, still being a child, still, you know, he, like any kid, he likes his junk food or his popsicles or, but now there's, I'm just trying to be.

trying to help him find that balance. And I think because I work out so much, we work out now together. And he, you know, is playing little league. And so he wants to be strong when he hits that ball, you know, and helping him understand, okay, well, after you work out, this is what you have to eat in order to recover. And teaching him the importance of vitamins and supplements and trying to eat your your medicine, you know. But also just making it fun.

We do bond over Christmas and making our gingerbread houses and baking cookies and, you know, he loves making fresh juice with me in the juicer because he just loves the sound of, you know, and watching the vegetables just getting chopped. And so going to the farmer's market and buying the fresh vegetables. and fruit and then going and, you know, making like a few days worth of juices. It's those sort of traditions that I'm trying to pass down to him that my mom did with me, you know. And I just have a feeling that she would love hearing you say all this. Yeah.

Yeah. Because it meant that all the advice that she gave, even in those chapter long texts that you're getting. that it took, that you absorbed it, that it means something to you, because now you're passing it on to your own son. You know, here we always gift our listeners and our viewers who are following along on YouTube a recipe that means something special to our guests. What is the recipe that you want to share? So my mom, as I said, was raised in New Orleans, Seventh Ward. And a few years ago, my siblings and I collected a lot of the recipes that we had from my mom or growing up and we created a cookbook called The Family Table. And it was really fun to be able to go back and sift through and have to actually write the recipes down.

And so this recipe is the seventh word gumbo. Okay. that my mom would make on special occasions, particularly she would make it for New Year's. There was a tradition when I was a teenager where Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance would throw a New Year's party. Okay.

And every single time we would come, Courtney would open the door and be like, you got the gumbo? Because you would make this family's seventh word gumbo? No, my mom would make it or... Then she began to pass it down to my brother. Jessie would make it. Then Jake now makes it.

You know, so this recipe is in the cookbook, but it is my mom's recipe. Okay, because everybody, gumbo is not really a dish. It's more like a genre because everybody's gumbo is so different. So what distinguishes... your mother's seventh ward gumbo? Oh, that's a good question. I think it's in the rue.

Does she use oil or bacon fat? No, no, no, no. Because she said she likes bacon so much. My family uses bacon fat for the root. She love her some, she love her some bacon, but she also love to hate bacon and talk bad about bacon and be like, you put, you know. So this gumbo is, it's a seafood gumbo.

But it does have, you know, some sausage. Again, that's just my mom where it's like she complex, you know. So I would say her gumbo, I think it's a pretty traditional gumbo. It feels like New Orleans, you know. Oakrow? Yeah, yeah.

You hesitated on the okra. Are you not on Team Oakra? Well, here's the thing. you know, because some people don't like okra in their gumbo. You got to really make sure you get the slime out of the, out of the okra. You know. That's, yes, you do. So I know.

And there are ways to do that. Yes. And this gumbo in this recipe, there's instructions on, on, you know, making sure. But I say that because I know some people that are like, oh, I hate Oprah and my gumbo. You know, so. And that's like you said, it's not. it is, what did you say? It's like a, it's, it's its own.

It's a genre. It is, everybody's gumbo. It's so different. Some people, it's thick. You can put a spoon in it and it practically stands up. No. You know, sometimes it looks like swamp water. Sometimes it's thinner and it's more like a soup.

You said sometimes it looks like swamp water. Well, I mean, I said that with love. I love gumbo. We have our own gumbo tradition in my family. I make gumbo every Christmas. It's a whole thing. Yeah. Here, you know, we do 12 days of gumbo.

in my family. I mean, it's really, it's a whole thing. And I, and I like being open-minded about other people's gumbo because it really is very different. You can't go. It's not like, you know, some French foods where you have to, there's a consistency that you have to achieve, then it has to have a certain color. Gumbo is just very different in and different places. People put filet in at the, you know, some people don't use filet. Some people just put it right at the end. Gumbo, no gumbo. Some people put, you know, crab legs and you reach in the gumbo with your, you know, hands. That is us. Okay.

It's, yeah, it's, there's, there's, there's, snow crab claws and snow crab legs and you better get dirty with it. Yeah. Yeah. And, crack them crab legs, you know. And then just toss them, you know, there's usually a bowl in the middle of the table for all the, yeah, for the shelves. I'm open, I'm open to all of it. If you're having gumbo, you know, calm me up because I'll, I will be there. Okay. I will love to try your mother's seventh award gumbo and she gave us the full recipe.

Yes. Yes. It's, I just sent, I sent it to you all. It's in the, it's in the cookbook as well, but I did send you the actual recipe. We'll promote the cookbook. We'll have it on the website. We'll invite people, you know, to try it to learn. And if you, don't be intimidated. If you've never made gumbo, you know, master the rue and then everything else falls into place. Amen. The thing about gumbo, though, is it always just brought so much comfort to us. And yeah, it's messy and it's all those things, but it's also like a conversation piece. I have loved this conversation. Me too. Thank you for making time for us. Oh, thank you for making time for me. And maybe one day we'll make some gumbo together.

I would love that. I have watched Journey for years on small screens and big screens. And I always felt like I sort of kind of knew her, but I've loved learning more about her journey into Hollywood and her family. And I love getting to know her mother a little bit. It was a great conversation that will live inside me. Now, I want to remember that our inbox is always open. And we want to hear from you.

We want to hear your stories, your memories, your epiphanies, maybe some recipes. You can send us of work. voice recording or a video. And you can make that recording and then send it to us at yMK at higher ground productions.com for a chance for your voice or perhaps your video to be featured in one of our future episodes. And now that Rivian has let me one of their cars complete with a travel kitchen, I'm going to start road testing some of these recipes literally on the road because I can use the Rivian kitchen that just attaches to the back of the tailgate. It's got a cooktop on one

a two-burner induction stove on the other side, and I might actually be able to make the rue at home, but maybe bring that with me and try that seventh word gumbo maybe when I'm on the road. Sounds like fun. So thanks to Rivian for allowing me to cook up that idea. Thanks for being with us. Make sure to come back soon because we're always serving up something delicious.

I hope you have a good week. Stay bountiful.