The Breakfast Club - Montel Williams Interview

Episode Date: April 29, 2015

Montel Williams stops through to chat about social injustice, marijuana use, his career in the military and then later as a talk show host and much more. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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So join us each Saturday for Civic Cipher on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Real people, real celebrities, real talk. Join the Breakfast Club. Weekday mornings, 6 to 10. real people real celebrities real talk join the breakfast club morning everybody is dj mv angela yee charlamagne the guy we are the breakfast club special guest in the building montel williams montel williams now first of all montel i had to keep explaining to him that you're not montel jordan no six what is he six three yes about 15 years younger than me that was my joint this is how we do i'm just joking but why tell us here what did you do for No, no, no. Six, what is he, six three? Yes. About 15 years younger than me. That was my joint. This is how we do it. No, I'm just joking.

But Montel is here. What did you do for 420, Montel? Let's see. Man, I was in meetings half the day. Flew across the country and had a couple meetings. You've been a big advocate of marijuana. Absolutely. But it's because of your MS, though.

Absolutely. And I've been working on it. You know, literally, a lot of people don't know this, but I was involved in probably in every single state that passed a medical marijuana law since the year 2000. Really? Is that what you did? You went on and stopped?

Testified for, right. I currently am involved in the state of Missouri, who is in the process of passing probably what would be one of the most comprehensive medical marijuana laws in the country. So, I mean, we kind of have to understand. Whatever anybody wants to do, do all you want. I could care less. From my perspective, this is a medication, and it is for a lot of people.

And what we don't understand is that just like, you know, there's one medication that's sold in this country right now today that it's sold in 7-Eleven, sold in drugstores. It's not scheduled. It's the most deadly drug on the planet. It's been around for 100 years. Nicotine? No. We still don't know what makes it work, yet we sell it.

Let children go walk in and buy it, take it home, and if they take too much of it, they'll be dead on your living room floor before you see it. What drug is this? Aspirin. Oh. Yeah, made from willow bark. I can't take aspirin because the caffeine in it makes me jittery. Well, it's not, yeah, but it's made from willow bark. I can't take aspirin because the caffeine in it

makes me jittery. But it's made from willow bark. And back at the turn of the century, they knew that it was an analgesic. They knew a little bit about it. People used to boil the willow bark in their pots. So people ended up dead on their floors. So now you start to turn it into a powder.

But if you take too much aspirin, it'll kill you. We don't know exactly all of the reasons why aspirin worked. We do know some of them, but not all of them. It's the samein, it'll kill you. We don't know exactly all of the reasons why aspirin work. We do know some of them, but not all of them. It's the same thing when it comes to marijuana. Marijuana and the plant itself is a plant-based medicine. We don't know everything that works about it still till today, but we do know that it's efficacious for certain illnesses.

So for me, I don't care if they go recreational all over the country. I'm still going to fight in every state to make sure that we produce a cannabis that for a person who's ill, it won't make us more sick. So do you grow your own or do you actually go into dispensary? I have growers. I have some people who grow for me specifically. I have some people who do this. I have my own compassionate caregivers licensed in a couple different states

that get to do that, and I'm taking care of that. Now you said recreational. what do you think about recreational because you know it's a medicinal you know like you said but there's weed hurt you first of all you know I was I was I'm a child of the 60s and 70s you know so I mean I broke huh yeah way back when I was younger I did but then I went 25 years where stopped I. I was in the military. I didn't smoke at all. And I literally came back to marijuana after I left the military really because

I started feeling some pains in my legs and some things. You know, I just kind of gravitated back. I got tired of taking a lot of the serious medication I was on. Then I got diagnosed with MS. And then, you know, when I got diagnosed I had gone through a bout. So I suffered from some extreme neuropathic pain in my lower extremities,

my feet, my shins, my legs. It just was a mess. So I was on all kinds of prescription medications. That took every opiate there is, and I took them to the point at some times where I felt like I was going to shut down my kidneys. I was seeing my doctor. I couldn't continue to do this.

So I saw a very smart doctor who said, Listen to me. I know people who have MS, and for them, cannabis works to start suppressing that pain. Well, there's a way you have to do it, and I do it, and that suppresses me enough, along with some other things and techniques that I use to now take me off of all the other strange, you know, opiate-based medications and the things that can shut down your kidneys and have more side effects than the law allows.

I just use cannabis. When Dr. Alves was here, he actually used you as an example because he was saying that marijuana does have such great medical benefits. And he was like, you suffer from MS and can't even get up some mornings. Absolutely. Let me tell you, if I don't consume cannabis in the evenings before I go to sleep, it drives my wife crazy because I will kick her out of the bed. My legs have twitches, man. I have these night twitches.

My legs start to twitch. Really? And, you know, I haven't been able to stop going after, chasing my youth, so I'm working out and training. I'm pretty strong, so I lay in a bed. I can kick her out of bed while I'm sleeping. My legs will twitch that hard. Or they will lock up in what I call a spasm.

So, like, if you had a cramp, think about this for a second. You get a cramp, catch a cramp, you walk and boom, you get a cramp. You lay down, sit down, you start scratching out. I can lay in bed and sleep for 45 minutes through a cramp. And my leg is locked out to the point that if I step up real quick, I could snap my knee, I could break my ankle. I've got to get up. So I'm telling you,

the only thing that lets me sleep through the evening is cannabis. Man, you know how many dudes listening to this right now saying, man, I mess with Montel. Yo, Montel's a real dude. I can't sleep without cannabis either. Well, you know what? I mean, if that's where your mind's at,

you've got to use me as an excuse to do what you think you need to do, then, you know, that's on you. I'm just saying that there are people who suffer from cancer, people who suffer from Tourette's. There are multiple illnesses that we now know for a fact. I didn't want to turn this into a cannabis show, but let's go there. Let's talk about a couple things real quick. One, most people listening to this do not know that the United States government owns the patent on THC and CBD.

We fund research on cannabis on a regular basis outside of the United States. The United States of America, let's see, has been distributing marijuana for the last 38 years. Every single month, a canister of marijuana cigarettes go out from the University of Mississippi and has done so for 38 years. Started with 20 patients. It's now down to four because 16 of them have passed away. The other four are going to continue to get this until they die out. Now, I got a question for you. This was started under the first

George Bush, and when the program, when he started it, they were shocked at the number of people who applied to get applications, so they shut it down to these 20 people. But since they had started giving 20 people marijuana, you can't stop now, right? That's right. And you can't stop the research you've

done for 38 years. So, how can we have a government that's supposed to do no harm say that these four people can live in a life that's pain-free and a life where we give them medication, but people like Montel, who served 22 years in the military, you know, boom, I throw you the finger right to your face. No, I'm not going to help you. And it's illegal. And if I catch you, I'm going to put you in jail.

Are we crazy? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we as a society sit back and let this happen. It's just like, you know, I know that you guys were going to talk about this for just a second, but, you know, I'm on this mission. Well, I'm on a mission right now because, dude, I'll tell you, it's like this is a government. And, again, you know, look, I put a uniform on for 22 years. So some people may not think that was a good idea or a bad idea.

It doesn't matter. I did it. We appreciate it. All right. I feel like right now we have, and most of the people who are listening to your show aren't paying attention to the news. We have warships in the Persian Gulf that are waiting for Iranian ships to approach the shoreline so that if in fact we believe there are weapons on board, we are going to either board

or allow an ally to board. Things can go from bad to direct damn nightmare in seconds in this kind of situation. When it goes to a nightmare, okay, let's think about this for a second. We know for a fact that our military is made up 33, 34% of it is minorities, African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic, Cuban. We have an Iranian American who served in our military in Iraq, served with honor, discharged, leaves and goes home to Iran. Not home, goes back to Iran or goes to Iran for the first time. I'm sorry, let me get this straight.

Went to Iran for the first time to go see a grandmother who was sick, who they thought was dying. It was his duty to go back to see him because his father was ill, couldn't go do so. It was his duty to go do it. He applies, gets the application, gets his visa, goes back to Iran, goes to Iran. They tell him, yes, your visa's okay. We get that you served in the military. It's okay.

Come on over here. Hits the ground three days later. He's arrested, charged with treason, sentenced to death for having served in our military in Iraq and fought against them. They flip the paradigm. Pressure is put on. They take away the death penalty. But then they convict him of treason or cooperating with the foreign government. He's an American.

They convict him of cooperating with the foreign government, put him in jail for 10 years. This young man has been tortured. He has been in prison for 1,333 days. I want to remind your listeners, we started everything that happened in the Middle East when the Iranians took our hostages from the embassy and held them for less than what is a year 133 three and a half years he's been in prison and they said he's addicted to drugs and they oh girlfriend he's been tortured he's been beaten he's been locked up they

addicted him to lithium so that they can put him through the withdrawal process to torture him more. And that's Amir after Free Amir came in. Yes, and so I've been on this Free Amir Now campaign. Now, why won't we do anything? It seems like that's something that we send the troops and we go get them. You know, I can't question a lot of what this president does. I don't think that there are a lot of us have the right to even broach a question when you're not informed enough or educated enough on the issue

to understand why he makes the decisions he does. I'm informed on this issue. You sound like the president, by the way. Like when you talk, your voice, I have a similar voice cadence. Oh, wow. Well, in this case with him, he is the commander in chief.

Right. Now, let's separate two for a second so guys like me we wear uniforms there's the president and then there's the commander-in-chief he he has the authority to put those ships on the battlefield in the persian gulf to put the troops on the ground and he has a special duty to ensure that those guys are protected. How many people listening would send their children off to fight knowing that if something goes wrong, we're just going to say, screw you, on your own, figure it out. Get your family to figure it out.

It's a stupid question, but I'm sure the president is aware of this, right? He's aware of it, right? He's aware. And, you know, unfortunately, I think this has been, if I haven't, again, I'm not here to blast the president I'm just going to say that I think there's always been an optics problem with this administration

now you said this president like you don't rock with the president do you like what Barack has done? He clearly didn't vote for President Barack Obama oh well you know what I will also say again because I did wear the uniform I have the right to vote and not say who I voted for but I'll tell you this last time around I did vote for him the first time around I didn't first time around I didn't, again, because I did wear the uniform, I have the right to vote and not say who I voted for. But I'll tell you this, last time around I did vote for him. The first time around I didn't.

Okay. How about that? First time around I didn't. Last time around I did. You think he's doing a good job? I am confused by the optics of the job that he does. And I'm confused by the methods in which he goes about doing them. of the reasons why he gets so much pushback is because he and this administration has a method of communicating that may not be what anybody and all of us want but you know then we can all want

and so what you think he's more of a celebrity as what people oh no oh no no no no no i don't believe this is a celebrity president at all i think it's a really bad moniker to put on him though he may have celebrity friends you know i what I mean? I mean he's a celebrity because he's the first black president. Yeah, you can put him that way. But if you dig down into the cerebral person that this guy is, you have a president who is

I don't want to say if I said the smartest people are going to come back and push back. I'll say he's extremely erudite. This guy knows what he's doing. He's a master of the legal business. He knows the legal aspects of what he's doing. He also knows that he has his own plan, and he hasn't been able to articulate that to everyone else.

I'll give you examples. Where is he on this Baltimore issue? Where is he on a lot of other issues that are happening where you don't see him speak out as quickly as you might like him to? Especially police reform. Police reform and other things. He's not speaking as quickly as we think. Are there things going on behind the scenes that we don't know about?

Of course there are. Is it his responsibility to appease us and give us the answers when we want them? No. But I'm not going to let up until I get an answer. Is that why you said they have an optic issue? Yes, because I think there are certain gatekeepers, there are certain people who keep the picture they want presented one way, and you don't get him until they approve the next picture you're going to get.

Got you. And I would rather get back to seeing the guy who just came out, shut the door, and said, okay, look, this is what's up. And I'm not saying that he has to break it down in some, you know, non-articulate way. I don't want to be at street. I want the president to just talk. No, he don't need to do that because people are going to say that's what I'm asking him to do, come down and break it down.

You know what I mean? You got to watch every word you say. I feel like a politician because I'm trying to make sure that I don't tick people off. We live in a society right now where you can't even express an opinion without feeling as if you better be ready for the shotgun blast coming back from the 12 people who incite 20 people to make your life miserable. But I think it's only like that via social media because it's hard to express yourself over social media because it's only 140 characters. Correct. And sometimes people will see, you might put a train of thoughts, they might see one thought and take it out of context. You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right.

Now you're from Baltimore. From Baltimore. So you talked about what's going on in Baltimore. How do you feel about the police officers and police in Baltimore? Because here it's a little crazy sometimes. They will pull us over for no apparent reason. Wow. This is a big one.

I've been wrestling with this. I'm wrestling with a whole series of things. We'll get a chance to talk about some of the stuff that I'm working on. I'm really working on a lot of different issues that I think are earth-changing, socially-changing issues. But getting down just into Baltimore, I was talking to my father. My father was a lifelong politician in the city. My father

was a commissioner of transportation, a commissioner of public works, the first African-American fire chief of a major city in the country in Baltimore. I was just speaking to him. He's 83 years old. He's paying attention very close to what's going on. But Baltimore, the incident that we're all riled up about today is no different than the incident that took place probably six months ago,

four months ago, three months ago. Which incident? Which incident. And so there's a bigger issue that we've not yet gotten to because we still haven't finished digging the line in the sand. We're still digging the trench so we can put people on each side of it. And we haven't figured out the fact that until we fill in that damn hole, we're never going to solve this problem.

What is the problem? Think about what I just talked about earlier. We're talking about the military. We do not allow soldiers in the military to serve now more than three tours of duty in the battle zone. You've got to do three in a row. You've got to get them out of the battle zone. We try to do that now because we have such a limited and small military

and we're forced to send them back and back and back. But everybody gets it. You can't keep people in a battle zone. Think about police departments across America. Think about institutional departments across America. Think about institutionalized organizations that have been nepotistic, have been closed societies, just for 20, 30 years. And you have guys who've been there working for 20, 30 years, for five, six years, constantly in the battle zone.

I'm not trying to make excuses. Let me get this straight. I'm not making excuses for anybody. I just want to kind of set a little different conversation. So let's just say for a minute that we have a society, in a heightened, on-edge role for 10, 15 years in a row, constantly in the battle zone, in their minds. So when they react the way we see them reacting now after nothing but a battle zone, wouldn't you think that maybe we ought to start thinking about

how we give people guns and how long we allow them to interact these ways that they do? All the police say they're frustrated. They're frustrated with the relationship they're having with the neighborhood. Well, yeah, damn it, because if you've been walking down the street for the last five years yelling at the same guy back and forth, back and forth, you can see how anybody's level is going to be up here. But you got rookies

doing it too. You had the rookie who killed the guy in New York. I think on the Pink House Project. If who he travels with, your first day of work, you come in here and instead of this being like one of the fly cool places to be in every day people, you end up being

Fox News. I see what you're saying. See what I'm saying? It's like the tenor. If your partner's bitter, you'll probably end up being bitter News. I see what you're saying. See what I'm saying? It's like the tenor. If your partner's bitter, you'll probably end up being bitter too. No, within two cups of coffee. Can you not be? Yeah. And okay, so wait.

Smoke weed instead of coffee. So what is the solution for this then? So there's a couple. I mean, it's way up here. Let's go 30,000 feet, 20,000 feet, 10,000 feet. Yeah, we need the president and the Justice Department to issue some edicts. And some of those edicts should start to be in retraining.

And I think we should start forcing police departments. And police officers aren't going to like this, but I'm going to tell you, I think you come off the street. Look, there can be pathways. You can have a pathway for detectives. I get it. We need to have people who are criminologists who have been on the job for years to be able to understand Patterns of crime okay, we got enough of them right now So let's pick who those guys are the new guys that we have out on a bite beat

Let's start saying look. I'm sorry You're gonna get you know a three month on one month off three month on one month off And I'm sorry you're off the street, in the car, on the desk. I don't care. Washing them. Do something other than get in people's faces. Because the more you're in a person's face, that's all you want to do. And let's get something really straight.

In the last two years, this country has also done just, this I think says it all. We looked at domestic violence, right? And we paint the picture of the biggest problem in America with domestic violence is the NFL. We pick a black man and another black man and say, see, prime examples. Domestic violence. America loves celebrity, that's why.

Yeah, but you know what? 60% of the 800,000 domestic violence charges every year are filed against police officers. Let me say that again. Wow. 60%. John, look up the number exactly. I'm going to give you the exact number. Of the 800,000 domestic violence charges filed in America are filed against police officers. But I can see that.

Okay, because again, let's push up that heightened sense. That's right. If I'm going to beat, look, I'm going to beat my wife, don't you think I'm going to smack the crap out of you? You do something wrong on the street. Absolutely. I beat my mother. Oh, let's look at some of the charges against police officers. And wait.

And do not for one second believe. That's John, ladies and gentlemen. That's John, ladies and gentlemen. Two to four times more common in police families. Two to four times more common domestic violence charges in police families than any other group in the country. You're just throwing the violence. Yes,

but it's also because let's put, let's cart egg, apple, all that crap, you know, the egg before the chicken. Okay, what came first? You put the guy on a job all day long, every day he's walking around, got a gun on his side. Got to go shoot this gun every fifth. After dealing with stuff at home.

Yeah, I love guns. I make people mad. I own a lot of them. Sorry, you trained me. Took 22 years. You made me qualify every year. You love guns. You love me.

I love guns. You should drop a rap album. I'm telling you, boy, I should. I should. Now, what about putting the police in the community? And the reason I say that is my dad's a retired cop, but I know when, this was a long time ago, 30, 40 years ago, they gave,

they encouraged police officers to live in the community. They wanted you to live in the community, and they give you different rebates, they give you better loans, because they wanted you in the community. They wanted you knowing the people and where these people were from so you knew how to talk to people, you knew how to be around people. It doesn't seem like they do that anymore. But that's only one piece, because even if you live in a community home,

I still don't want you walking that beat for 18 months in a row. Don't think it's necessary. And all the police departments are going to say, oh, you're crazy, it's going to cost us X, Y, Z. Well, it's costing everybody lives. You're right. And I'm so sorry. See, again, keep thinking about it.

I'm just saying this because I'm a black man. I'm afraid I'm going to be a black man. It's going to be... No. Let's remember, 60%. Mm-hmm. 800,000. That's what?

500 and something thousand? 22 to 41% of all officers. Guys, it's Jonathan Franks, who's my buddy. Who's my ace, who just, when I ask for numbers, say the number. I'm going to give me a John in my life. I need one of those. Jonathan, look that up for me. I'm available for hire.

Lucid communication. Estimates of abuse by law enforcement personnel range from 22 to 41 percent in one study. Not 100 percent agreed upon, but it's a real study. Again, so when you think about that, though, again, so guys, I mean, honestly, and I don't want here in New York, police officers know, dude, I'm telling you, I will stop and buy a police officer lunch, dinner. I'm on their side. And that's why I'm hoping that maybe if we change the conversation a little bit

and stop saying everybody's a racist ass and na-na-na-na, these are people, I don't care, black. And remember, let's also remember when I gave you the number, I'll give you the breakdown racially, but I will tell you that I believe when I did the first search on this, the numbers are identical, black, white, Hispanic. Police officers have issues. Guys, you know you do. So are you saying you don't think it's a race

thing? It is race. Oh no, there's race in it. Yes, sir. No, yeah, but you got to add to put them all together and I can't say which percentage is which. I'm going to do some, I'm going to have some meetings with a couple of prominent psychiatrists that I know in the country in the next

couple of weeks. I'm working with a few of them on some different issues because people don't know. the next couple of weeks. I'm working with a few of them on some different issues. Because people don't know. It's like I just, I'm not just walking around spinning in a circle. I've been involved in the last four years. And I think one of the things that's going to be one of the most groundbreaking initiatives in brain science that this world is seeing. As a matter of fact, we know it now because I'm involved in a study. I'm involved.

I was the founder of a company that's called Helios Medical Technologies that's working on a medical device that's called the PONS device. It's a portable neurostimulator that literally helps the brain find pathways around damage by putting the brain in plastic states. So we're currently, this company is doing one of the most comprehensive traumatic brain injury studies that this country's seen in the brain in plastic states. So we're currently, this company is doing one of the most comprehensive traumatic brain injury studies that this country's seen in the last 10 years at three different centers of excellence right now.

University of Montreal, University of Atlanta, Florida, University of Portland, Oregon. I'm doing traumatic brain injury, and then I'm also doing MS at the University of Montreal. So I'm involved in a project that way. I'm also involved in a biofuel project, which is one of the leading technologies in waste to energy. And I've been involved in this now for four years,

and I'm about to take another company. I just had meetings with the Secretary of Energy's office. I'm taking meetings with different countries around the world because I have a technology that literally can take everything from human waste to used engine grease. To make it into. and turn it into 10 megawatts of power every hour. Can I invest in that? Oh, yeah.

Okay. Come on. We need to talk. You should take a look. I should say to you that Helios went public in Canada. We just got on the OTCQB here in the United States, and it's doing very well. You should be in that one too.

Guys like you intrigue me, man, because it's like you've lived like four different lives. You was in the military. You was a super successful daytime talk show host. Now you're involved in new energy resources and stuff like that. How? What's your thought process? Some people can only do one thing at a time their whole life.

Let's start from the talk show. You got out of the military. Explain that from out of the military to talk show. How does a Marine, a Naval guy go to become a huge daytime talk show host? Alright, here. I'll try to give you the two minute Montel. First off, I'm a product of busing.

So I'm going to go back to my whole life led me to where I am. I swear to you. i got a father again who's 83 my mother's 82 they're alive right now today my mom uh never graduated from college but ended up being a former foreman at westinghouse back then it was called bendex my dad uh worked four jobs man he was a musician he was a carpenter He was a carpenter. He was a firefighter. He also drove a cab for a little bit. With the Jamaican?

Oh, yeah. I got a little Jamaican in me. Shoot. What do you think is going on right now? That's my problem, man. We don't have enough jobs. I'm just trying to get another one, man. I keep telling him, you did this to me. Will you stop it? Very early on, my father just beat it into us.

You know, back in the day it was okay. So he beat it into us. You know, education, education, education. So I followed that path, and I did pretty well. And I did very well when I was in school. You know, I was in all the things that you're supposed to be in. I had enlisted in the Marine Corps first, but then I got picked to go to the Naval Academy. I graduated from the Naval Academy.

I got a degree in engineering. I got a minor in international security affairs. I went on from there to go to the Defense Language Institute. I got a degree in Russian. I got a degree in Russian. I went on to the National Cryptologic School. I got a degree in cryptology. So I'm one of those people, man.

I mean, I like to fill this brain with as much as I can fill it with. Wait, how do you go from G.I. Joe to Oprah? Okay, well, okay. So I'm on active duty. I was stationed at the National Security Agency outside of Baltimore. I was running an office there where before it was against the law, well, it was against the law back then to run troops and have them deployed for more than 100 days at a time. I was running guys because I ran all the Persian, Hebrew, and Farsi linguists in the military out of an office at the National Security Agency. These guys were spending 180 days, 190 days at sea at a time. While they were gone, their families were running amok. So I started a program where I brought all the families

of my guys onto the base, made them live on the base. Then I brought those families together once a week. We would have these seminars. So I started working with the families, with the kids. I mean, we have some of the younger kids we didn't have a problem with, but the ones that were in high school, we have dropouts and all this stuff. So I was working on this project. Another friend of mine, an officer who was in the military, knew about that, asked me to come and speak at a seminar.

It was at the Big A Black Student Union Conference, 1988 in Kansas City, Missouri. I spoke at that conference. One speaking engagement. I got 35 speaking requests. Those 35 turned into 200. By the time I woke up, this was January of 1988, June of 1988, I was on the Today Show. I had spoken to 70,000 kids across the country

in 25 schools I just got out of the military and I started a non-profit organization called Reach the American Dream and I spoke around the country from 1988 to 1991 in high schools all over America and I was walking in the schools, this was back before there was anybody

in a school in this entire country there was only one guy that spoke in a school before me. It was a guy by the name of Toma. So from 88 to 91, think about this. I'm in all these high schools. Everywhere I went, it became a media event. I was on everything from Incredible Sundays to every new show kind of covered me

in every market I was in. So I had an audience from 88 to 91. Here comes 91. I ended up meeting somebody. I literally went to Hollywood, had one meeting without an agent or manager. I got the packaging fee for my show. So I packaged my show, sold my show to myself. January of 91.

Went on the air. For three years, those people, I spoke to, in that three-year period of time, from 88 to 91, I'd spoken to about a a million kids across the country. Mm-hmm. I went on the air all those kids now are 20 21 22 23 they went hey that was that dude that was at my school Yeah, bang next thing in the show just took off Wow really under selling this thing You was on the air for what 17 years 17 years a daytime talk you see shows come and go in well when I was on the air for, what, 17 years? 17 years. A daytime talk. You see shows come and go in a month now. When I was on the air,

107 shows came and went. It started up when I was on the air. And we stayed on. And I stopped the show. It was 87. I went for another year in reruns, 88. Why'd you stop? Well, you know, after 17

years, to tell you honestly, I had 16 addendums to my contract. And number 17 wasn't working out the right way. They wasn't paying you that money. You know, and it was also time. You know what I mean? After that period of time, I literally won the Emmy. I'd been nominated for one each year after that.

I was like, you know, what am I doing? And I wanted to move on. There were other things I wanted to do. Why do you think your show was so successful? I think because one of the things we did from day one is I put this as a moniker on every producer's desk that we had. We didn't belabor what happened.

We tried to figure out why things happened, and we would come up with solutions. That's what every single show that I did had. I would tell you what happened, and we would stay on that for more than a second, and we would dig deep into why it took place. And I was one of the shows, I think, that for that 17-year period of time,

I respected the living rooms we were invited into. I did the same salacious stuff that everybody else did maybe the first year that we were on, but we turned it into, I think, a pretty conflict-driven and not just necessarily conflict, but solution-driven show. I'm reached by people all the time. They'll come up and say to me, you know, they'll come during the mid-20s, early 30s and say, you know, you were the only person my mom would let me watch when I came home from school.

And I think, you know, that was a testament to the value of what our producers put into what we were doing. What do you think about those other shows that were always on air, like you said, because same thing, my mom would always let me watch a certain type of show, like your Maury's or your Jerry Springer's. What do you think about those type of shows? You know, I mean, unfortunately, you know, it's like a smorgasbord, you know what I mean? You walk

into a restaurant, and they got a big old smorgasbord laid out there. You got apples and candy on one end, and all the fruit and all the dessert over there, and you have substantive stuff over here. Well, you know, you take a look at who gravitates to which. And, you know, unfortunately, you can't make a person eat what they're not going to want to eat.

You know, I think as long as you offer people a cross section of some valuable information, they can come up with some decent decisions. You know, I go back and forth almost every couple of months now. I think I'm going to go back and forth. Let me go. I'm going to talk to so-and-so. And then we sit down and we have a conversation. And it's like, you know, I've talked to everyone in the industry.

And most of what's going on right now, I really, you're getting ready to see what's going to happen in the next year and a half. We are going to be the most divisive society we've ever seen over the next year. It's going to be over a billion dollars spent each party to put a person in the White House. And it's all going to be garbage, trash conversations. And I don't want to be a participant in that if I have to. But don't you feel like you need to be, though? Because like you said, you've got to put something out there that counters all of that.

Oh, and what I'm going to do is I probably will do it on my own. Like a podcast? Yeah, we're working on it. There's a couple things I'm about to do. I just have to figure out if I rip to it. I want to go through the whole thing of building the set, the studio, you know. Talk to some brothers like me who

feel like, you know, when it comes to the presidential election, I look for novelty in my president now. Barack was the first president I ever voted for. Sure. Not just because he was a black man, because I believed in the change that he said he was offering. Sure. And now I'm looking at Hillary.

She seems like she has a lot of White House experience, and she seems like the sexy pick. The sexy pick? She does. You won the first female president, and you won a... Oh, whatever. She seems like the sexy pick. That's the popular pick for just people who may not know a lot about politics and who to vote for.

I have, you know, I have my own. For me, the jury is definitely out. There's nobody on the Republican side right now. And, you know, I was a Republican. Let's get this straight. I was a Republican for 14, 15 years of my life when I was in the military. Then I got out.

I switched parties, became a Democrat. Now I'm literally as independent as you could possibly be because I just when I was in the military. Then I got out. I switched parties, became a Democrat, and now I'm literally as independent as you could possibly be because I just don't believe in the money. I mean, this is just going to be about who puts up the most money to get elected. That's who's going to go in office, period. And let's make sure that, you know, I'm sick of, you're going to see nothing but finger pointing

of where the money's coming from. Everybody's taking dirty money. You can't have a fundraiser to be president.. You can't have a fundraiser to be president. You can't just have a fundraiser to be president. Right now, the candidates aren't even going to have to do fundraising themselves, and that's traditional sense. There are individuals who are already building money, huh? You said everybody gets dirty money.

Yeah. Everybody. Foreign money, dirty money. They're all going to get it. So now what do we do? So I'm trying to find a candidate that believes in some of the things that I believe in. So far, I haven't found one. Yeah, I need one.

The candidate that starts talking about police reform on a major level in America is probably going to get my attention. You know, I need police reform. I need immigration reform. I need medical reform. I need police reform. I need immigration reform. I need medical reform. I need, I need a lot. I need, I need, I need, I need to hear what a, what a person is going to do for the least of us, you know, like right this minute, again, there are ships in a line in the Persian Gulf and, you know, one missile, we are in a bad state of hurt. And, you know, I mean, it's a bad state of hurt that, you know, may not be one that we can pull back from very quickly. And there's going to be a lot of people hurt, a lot of people killed.

Now, unfortunately, we live in a society where less than.08% of the society has to put on a uniform to protect the democracy that you're asking for. And I happen to be one of those people that people, most people are not going to like me this year, but I'm a runner. I want a candidate to step up and say, damn it, it is time. This country needs to stop all the divisiveness. Let's come back together and recognize that step outside of here, that green passport that we carry.

Brother, go over to Abu Dhabi right now and see when somebody says, oh, there's a medic right there. You can get the same look that the guy who's got blonde hair and blue eyes is going to get and the guy who's got brown hair is going to get. They don't care about race. They don't care about that at all. So target is on your chest, right? So if that's the case and we have forces that are figuring this out right now very quickly,

I say that more of the society needs to pay a price for defending this democracy. I'm for a draft. I'm for a draft. When I say a draft, I mean it this way. I'm for public service. You graduate from When I say a draft, I mean it this way. I'm for public service. You graduate from a high school that you didn't have to pay to go to.

You have a driver's license you didn't have to pay anything extra for other than the training you get. You're driving on roads that need infrastructure. We haven't even figured out how to educate enough people. Did you know one of the highest paid professions in this city right now is plumbing and electrician? Because we're not educating enough kids to get into the marketplace. So you got guys here. Okay, so let's get back to that in a minute.

But why is it that we aren't making all of us do something in this society? So when I say draft, I mean a national service. Every other country on this planet

requires some form of give back for what you get for free. You don't mean military. Let's take a pick. Let's have national service. If you choose, you don't want to serve in the military, then okay, then you'll be part of the fire crew.

You are going to do something to give back to the society and i'm gonna pay you i don't want to say it for free there there have been several times along the way you go back for the last 40 years every five to ten years there's been a president who has proffered this idea of national service and we as citizens fight that because we just would like to still get something for free. Well, when you're getting it for free, then you want to pay the price to protect it. And that's why you have so many young people in this country who are walking around so disfigured who have gone back multiple times to pay the price to protect us for all of us.

So I want some form of national service. So park service, fire department, police department, I want your butt coming out of high school. Give me something back. I agree with that. You don't think that taking as much taxes as they do with some type of service? Now, I agree with the draft to a certain extent. I think there's a lot of kids out there that are doing nothing, that drop out, that just sit on the street corner.

Those kids? Yeah, but not military, though, because you've got a lot of black kids who feel like, and I don't blame them for feeling that way, why would I go fight for a country that I feel like is oppressing me? Well, you know what? Cool. So I'll tell you what. I'll put together a national service things in every city. How about I need some daycare, man, so that some young black mothers

can go back to school and get a degree to treat mothers and fathers. Let's put together a national service. You pick what you want to do. You don't like the policing going on in the neighborhood? Then for two years, you come out of high school, you go to the academy, the police academy for your community. I like that.

Look, I'm talking about national service. Got you. I mean, and, you know, I get smacked upside the head at every cocktail party I'm at. And believe me, brother, watch this. It's not just young African-American males who say, I don't want to do this because I don't feel like I'm headed to every cocktail party I'm at. And believe me, brother, watch this. It's not just young African-American males who say, I don't want to do this because I don't feel like I'm respected. There's also some very privileged, wealthy African-Americans, whites, Caucasians, Asians who feel,

kidding me, that's what y'all need to do for me. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. I'm sorry. It is time to stop this stupid. That missile that's getting ready to hit Eisenhower or whatever

don't care what your class is. I'm with you. I'm sorry and people don't like that but that's how I roll. Where can they hear more Montel every day? Some people need to hear some of this. Are you running for some type of office at any point? You gotta start coming up here some more man.

Especially now over the next year and a half with the elections and stuff going on. We would love to hear some of this. And are you running for some type of office at any point? Yeah, you got to start coming up here some more, man. Especially now over the next year and a half with the elections and stuff going on. We would love to hear from you more. We got to do that. You know what? Because here's one of the things that I tell you. What I'm really happy about, man, in this experience here, I said a little thing on your podcast about the experience here, and I've been running my mouth a lot,

but what I like is the fact that there are questions coming back or questions just of interest in getting more knowledge. And what I like to do is try to give out what I think is, I applaud an opportunity to debate, to talk. So let's do a forum here. Absolutely. I'll come hang out with you. Yeah, let's do it. I appreciate that.

Especially on, you know, we'll figure out a couple. If I'm in town, I'll come hang out. Let's roll on the politics. I'll be your little sidekick reporter. I'll take my phone around. If I find something going on, I'll go, meh, I'll send it for you. We bring some weed for you every morning. Please do. I got you. Tell me what grade you want.

Let's talk about that because here's something we got to do about this because right now I'm working in Missouri because let's say tomorrow, this is going to sound crazy, and you guys are going to say, Montel, why are you doing this? If tomorrow, if the president decided, I'm going to change the schedule from schedule one to schedule two, and as a matter of fact, I'm going to allow every state in the union to make its own determination whether that wants to be recreational or medical.

You do your thing. I'm still going to come here and ask you to do shows on fighting for ordinances in every state for medical cannabis. Is medical better? Well, there are so many extraction techniques that are used and some of the ways that we process and some of the things that they grow it in, you know, could in certain maladies cause a seizure, could exacerbate symptoms of some illnesses. And so what we need to do is we need to have somebody out here growing not just weed.

We need to have somebody growing marijuana at a medical level. And I got some growers out here who are doing that right now. So I would say to you, it's like the paradigm's got to change at some point in time. We really do. And I would say this to all those people out there who are recreational smokers. Let me ask you a question. Do you still take logs out back, put it in the ground,

pour something on it, light it on fire, and hold your food on a stick and cook it? Or do you go to a night stove? Yeah. Or do you go to a microwave? Did you not jump from the caveman time to this era? So let me just explain something to you. There's so... microwave. Did you not jump from the caveman time to

this era? So let me just explain something to you. There's so, as great as the plant is, the plant is filled with some carcinogenic material. And isn't it time that we process that plant in a way that makes it much more efficacious for us to be able to consume?

It's not so carcinogenic, and it gives you the benefits that you want. I'm going to say that leading the way down a medical path for those who are going to end up becoming recreational users or connoisseurs in that area, this research is going to help the other. So we ought to try to upgrade this. The blunt days are over. In closing, let me translate.

Montessa, y'all out there smoking that bull. Don't smoke that dirt weed anymore. Come on, man. Thank you, sir. See, this is why we've got to do this this political season, okay? Got to. Absolutely. You can translate everything for me.

I got you. All right, bro. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Montel Williams. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning. Thank you. Had enough of this country? Ever dreamt about starting your own?

I planted the flag. This is mine. I own this. It's surprisingly easy. 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete. Or maybe not. No country willingly gives up their territory. Oh my God.

What is that? Bullets. Listen to Escape from Zakistan. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast Post Run High is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions,

but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love. I forgive myself. It's okay. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best, and you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, my undeadly darlings. It's Teresa, your resident ghost host. And do I have a treat for you. Haunting is crawling out from the shadows, and it's going to be devilishly good. We've got chills, thrills, and stories that'll make you wish the lights stayed on. So join me, won't you?

Let's dive into the eerie unknown together. Sleep tight, if you can. Listen to Haunting on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. but in a way that informs and empowers all people. We discuss everything from prejudice to politics to police violence, and we try to give you the tools to create positive change in your home, workplace, and social circle. We're going to learn how to become better allies to each other. So join us each Saturday for Civic Cipher on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.