The Breakfast Club - DONKEY: Juelz Santana Says Kids Don't Really Need To Learn To Read

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyanko Wally. And I'm Hurricane DeVolu. On our new podcast, Health Stuff, we demystify your burning health questions. You'll hear us being completely honest about her own health. My residency colon was like a cry for help, honestly.

And you'll hear candid advice and personal stories from experts who want to make health care more human. I feel like I never felt like I truly belonged in medicine. We want to make health less confusing and maybe even a little fun. Find health stuff on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, Dr. Jesse Mills here. I'm the director of the men's clinic at UCLA, and I want to tell you about my new podcast called The Mail Room. And I'm Jordan, the show's producer.

And like most guys, I haven't been to the doctor in way too long. I'll be asking the questions we probably should be asking, but aren't. Every week, we're breaking down the world of men's health from testosterone and fitness to diet and fertility. We'll talk science without the jargon and get your real answers to the stuff you actually wonder about. So check out the mailroom on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. Podcasters, it's time to get the recognition you deserve. The IHeart Podcast Awards are coming back in 26. Got a mic? Then you've got a shot. Every year, we celebrate the most creative, compelling, and game-changing voices in podcasting. Is that you?

Submit now at IHeart Podcast Awards.com. for a chance to be honored on the biggest stage in the industry. Deadline December 7th. This is your chance. Let's celebrate the power of podcasting and your place in it. Enter now at iHeartPodcastawards.com. What up, y'all? It's your boy, Kevin on stage.

I want to tell you about my new podcast called Not My Best Moment, where I talk to artists, athletes, entertainers, creators, friends, people I admire who have massive success about their massive failures. What do they mess up on? What is their heartbreak? And what did they learn from you? I got judged horribly. The judges were like, you're trash.

I don't know how you got on the show. Check out Not My Best Moment with me kept on stage on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast. On this week's episode of next chapter, I, TDJ, sit down with Denzel Washington, a two-time Academy Award-winning actor and cultural icon. And I don't take any credit for it. I just didn't put me first. I just put God first and he's carried me. Listen to the next chapter podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. New episodes drop weekly.

Shall a man say the gang. Don't get undershay. You are a donkey. It's time for donkey of the day. Donkey of the day does not discriminate. I might not have to say. song of the day, but I got the donkey day. So if you ever feel I need to be a donkey man,

give it with the heat. Yes, a breakfast club, bitch. Who's donkey of the day today? Well, Ed Sharon, don't here today for Monday, December 1st, goes to Jewel Santana. Now, I know in this fast-moving media ecosystem, a story that's a week old, like this

one, can be considered ancient. Okay, but damn it, if you're still eating Thanksgiving leftovers today, then shut it up. All right, your concept of old is off. But the reason I want to do this story is because we spoke about it last week during the latest. And I kept thinking to myself, why didn't I give Jewel Santana donkey of the day for this? I was thinking about that over the holiday break.

And it could be such a teachable moment. Okay, so let's spin the block, all right? Jules was on the No Funny podcast with Kenny K.P. Supreme and D.P., salute to those brothers. And Jewel said that financial literacy holds more importance than reading. Let's go to the No Funny podcast to hit what Jewel's had to say. We got to start teaching our kids, though, just financial wealth and literacy. all that that's early because by the time they get the ninth grade they should be just learning how to start businesses and how to how to how to how to but they don't really need to learn how to know how to read

I say that respectfully I'm not saying that in a way to be literate because you're not supposed to be illiterate but you can what's going to read math you can still obtain the information you don't have to know how to read I believe common sense is better than everything I'm a common sense I'd rather have zero book smarts and common sense be able to read the room be able to read life be able to read people i try to understand people understand i'm saying like nowadays you can listen to a book you could listen you all you don't have to listen to that too they got they got apps you can put it in and then to read it to you are you crazy now i admit i don't speak nigger like i used to but i still speak it very fluently okay and i understand a lot of what joel santana is attempting to say and i want to tell you why i don't agree first of all there shouldn't be an either or

or to this discussion. You should be able to read and you should learn financial literacy. And, you know, if you're going to learn financial literacy, you need to know how to read. Okay, you need to know how to read to really become financially literate. If you rely on the apps and audiobooks,

then you're always going to be dependent on someone else's translation. But if you know how to read, then you have direct access to the information yourself. Then you can read it, okay? And what you can't comprehend, what you don't understand, then you can ask questions. That is the beauty of reading, okay?

But you can't do any of that, all right? You can't comprehend or understand if you don't know how to read first, all right? Kids need to learn how to read, full stop, all right? Adults need to know how to read, full stop. Reading matters so much, man. First of all, reading, scrimpens your brain, okay, when you're flipping pages, the coding sentences, visualizing ideas, it helps to build mental discipline and build your vocabulary, your reasoning skills, even empathy, all right? Reading trained critical thinking, which is

really a lost art nowadays, okay? Books expose you the complexity, okay? Not just in regards the understanding the complexity of financial literacy, but emotional intelligence, okay? Moral judgment, pattern recognition. If you don't understand anything I'm saying right now, then there's another example of why you should read more. Okay, financial literacy is vital. There's no argument there, but there are studies that show financial education. efforts produce better outcomes when coupled with general literacy okay budgeting investing financial resilience all improve when people have a broad literacy foundation also guys i don't know if y'all notice or not but math and financial literacy are not the same thing okay

they overlap but they're not the same thing map is like the toolbox right you got your numbers and your equations and you know operations and your logic you know adding and the subtracting the multiplying dividing math is about how numbers work but financial literacy is about how money works. Okay, it's about how people use money in the real world. So yes, you need math to understand financial literacy, especially in regards to percentages and interest rates and basic calculations. So I understand what y'all was trying to say in that conversation, but I need y'all

to understand how stupid y'all look to a lot of people, okay? Nothing worse than watching a group of black men be happy about not knowing nothing, okay? There's nothing worse than watching a group of black men be happy about not being able to to read. All right. Jewels, you from Harlem. Okay, you know who else was from Harlem? Malcolm X was from Harlem.

And Malcolm X used reading to realize his full potential. I would say reading is the superpower that turned Malcolm Little into Malcolm X. Okay, Malcolm X once told Alex Haley, I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me, something long, dormant, craving to be mentally alive. That was Malcolm X. You know what my daddy used to say?

He used to say, if you want to hide something from a niggas, put it in a book, all right? All right? That right there should make us intellectually curious enough to want to know what the hell they're hiding from us. All right? Pick up a damn book, kids. All right? Everything that Jewel's was saying you should learn can be learned by reading. Books teach history and culture.

And, you know, most importantly, something that's missing from the world, they teach you context. all right the world is out of context because people don't even understand they don't even understand what context is nowadays and you can do audiobooks okay you can do audio books i recommend you do both all right but i'm telling you if you want to work out your brain if you want to you know do some exercise on your brain read okay and it's more important now than ever that we read because according to the national literacy institute not only a 21% of american adults illiterate but also 130 million adults are now unable to read a simple story to their children. You can't even give your kids cat in a hat, okay?

You don't know how to read to your kids, man. That's something money can't buy, okay? Reading to your kids before bedtime, you can't put a dollar amount on that. But the way this world is going, you're going to have kids in first grade reading the daddy before he goes to bed, if the father is even in the house. Okay, listen, I'm all for teaching our people how to hand. handle money. Okay. I'm all for teaching our people how to invest and build businesses. But to think that reading is secondary. It's like saying the foundation don't matter as long as you got

nice windows. Okay. I promise you one of the fastest ways to level up is reading. Okay. That's how you learn. That'll teach you how to think. That'll teach you how to think. That's what literacy teaches you how to do. Read, learn, question, think. So kids, okay, invest in your mind. invest in your mind just like you want to invest in your pockets not because you're trying to get rich but so you can stay sharp and not sound illiterate on somebody's podcast please give you L Santana the biggest he-huh okay just wanted to put that on record mm-hmm yes what it's sad it is it's sad but you just as just aside but you know where the frustration comes from right well it's comes from him being in the industry early making all this money and then losing a lot of it and being damn there broke and saying I wish I knew generational wealth and financial literacy to figure out what to do with that money because him he's probably in a situation was like

I wish I knew what to do with the money more than anything else yeah but it's also with reading yeah it's also with the reader and you're a rapper the more you read the better you get his emcee yeah like you're in the world economy but that comes from I'm sure personal the fact that he had a whole lot and had all this money and money coming in and he didn't know what to do with the finance, what to do with the money, how to invest and he lost it all. And that's where that frustration comes from him saying, I wish

I went to class and did, you know, financial literacy opposed to... But the moral of the story it's not an either or. No, it's not. It's all encompassing. It's all part of education. It's all part of an education that you should try to acquire on this planet while you're here. All of it.

All right. Well, thank you for that donkey today, Shala Mike. Now, can we bring Lauren back in? Can we have a real conversation? 800-58-1-105-1. It's the Jewel's instrumental, y'all. You're crazy. 800-58-105-1.

Now, over the weekend, she went out of the country for her birthday. And during this, I guess, vacation, her babe put on a, I guess it was like a note on the window that said, will you go out with me? So the question is, 800-58-105-1. Is it necessary to ask? the question, will you go out with me? First of all. Do you have to ask whether I'll go out with you?

As an uncle, I was embarrassed. And the reason I was embarrassed. For Larno for him. Because you already out the country. So you already went out the country with the guy. So clearly y'all have established something. Right. So you post a picture and your close friends and on the window it says,

will you be my girlfriend? I thought it was a proposal. I take it out of the country to be my girlfriend. When I seen all the roses and everything, I said, oh, oh, oh. He wanted a sore-loly-ass car. I thought you was getting proposed to But see, I know how to read So when I read it, I was like,

Will you be my girlfriend? Yes, I thought it was really, really cute. Why do you hate it so bad? I thought it was cute. And then that only sets him up for the proposal. What the hell are we going to do for that? If he had to take you to- But shouldn't y'all know, though?

Like, we're not 16 anymore. I went out to country together. So at that point- Did Chris have to ask you, do we go out or do y'all just was like? See? Exactly. Exactly.

We got a wrap. He didn't know for sure. Let's discuss. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning. Donkey today is sponsored by renowned personal injury attorney Michael the Bull Lamenssoff.

Don't be a donkey when you need a fighter on your side. If you're ever injured, go to Michaelabool.com. That's Michaeltoble.com. And when you mess with the bull, you get the horns. Hi, I'm Dr. Priyanko Wally. And I'm Hurricane DeBolu. On our new podcast Health Stuff, we demystify your burning health questions.

You'll hear us being completely honest about her own health. My residency colon was like a cry for help, honestly. And you'll hear candid advice and personal stories from experts who want to make health care more human. I feel like they never felt like I truly belonged in medicine. We want to make health less confusing and maybe even a little fun. Find health stuff on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, Dr. Jesse Mills here. I'm the director of the men's clinic at UCLA, and I want to tell you about my new

podcast called The Mail Room. And I'm Jordan, the show's producer. And like most guys, I haven't been to the doctor in way too long. I'll be asking the questions we probably should be asking, but aren't. Every week, we're breaking down the world of men's health from testosterone and fitness to diets and fertility. We'll talk science without the jargon and get your real answers to the stuff you actually wonder about. So check out the Mailroom on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. Podcasters, it's time to get the recognition you deserve. The IHeart Podcast Awards are coming back in 2026.

Got a mic? Then you've got a shot. Every year we celebrate the most creative, compelling, and game-changing voices in podcasting. Is that you? Submit now at iHeartPodcastawards.com for a chance to be honored on the biggest stage in the industry. Deadline December 7th. This is your chance. Let's celebrate the power of podcasting and your place in it.

Enter now at IHeart Podcast. What up, y'all? It's your boy, Kevin on stage. I want to tell you about my new podcast called Not My Best Moment, where I talk to artists, athletes, entertainers, creators, friends, people I admire who had massive success about their massive failures. What did they mess up on? What is their heartbreak? And what did they learn from me? I got judged horribly. The judges were like, you're trash. I don't know how you got on the show. Check out Not My Best Moment with me, Kevon Stage, on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On this week's episode of Next Chapter, I, TDJ, sit down with Denzel Washington, a two-time Academy Award-winning actor and cultural icon. I don't take any credit for it. I just didn't put me first. I just put God first, and he's carrying me. Listen to the next chapter podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get you. your podcast. New episodes drop weekly.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.