The Questlove Show - Colin Kaepernick

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

On this episode of The Questlove Show, Questlove sits down with Colin Kaepernick live on stage at Web Summit in Qatar for a focused (but abbreviated) conversation about discipline, courage, and purpose. Kaepernick walks through his morning training routine, reflects on his childhood and early athletic ambitions, and examines the influences that shaped his evolution into activism. He speaks about the ongoing work of Know Your Rights Camp, including its response to recent events, and shares how his Lumi platform is designed to expand student engagement, literacy, and AI fluency. The conversation captures where his journey stands a decade after he stepped fully into public activism.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show.

This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clivert Show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest.

The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands.

I vowed. I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say, you know, trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everyone?

I'm Ego Vodom. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel funny, anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right. It wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Yeah. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast,

or wherever you get your podcast. The Questlove show is a production of IHeart Radio. Hey, people. What's up? This is Questlove. And this is the Questlove show, of course. and our guest today is the one and only Colin Kaepernick. So here's the deal. We taped this conversation earlier this month at Web Summit and Qatar in front of a live audience. This particular episode is shorter than the ones I'm usually known for. It's not the, you know, Padnik mammoth-length quest love conversation. We sort of had a time limit on our hands.

But even within those boundaries, I'll say that I wanted to approach Colin the way that I approach everyone who comes on the Questlove show. We talked a little bit about his childhood, how music played into his childhood, and the role that it plays in his life. And it's also about the work that he's building now with the Know Your Rights Camp and a storytelling platform, Lumi. And Kyle and I had connected before kind of during the heat of the action, unbeknownst to me. He's kind of adjacent in the neighborhood. So I'd see him and Nessa, like kind of around the area. But, you know, it never seemed like the right moment for us to sit down and break bread and really have a proper conversation. So I'm very happy that he made time to do this for us since we were both in Qatar.

during this time period. But, you know, it was great to sit with him in that space. My, you know, the space was like a very large space in front of audience, you know, a couple thousand people. And so, uh, it wasn't as intimate as normal episodes are. But still, you know, the energy was the same. And this is definitely not our last conversation. Like, we just scratched the surface. So what you're going to hear is a snapshot. But it's, you know, it's one worth sharing beyond the large room of people watching. us in guitar. And as we honor Black History Month on the Questlove show this month and every month, Collins is definitely someone that we continue to talk to in the future. He definitely does the

work and he represents conviction, sacrifice, and a commitment to activating change. All right, so I hope you enjoy this, guys. Okay, so welcome to Web Summit. My name is Amir Thompson, otherwise known as Questlove. And shout out to my I-Heart family out here. And I, like to thank our guests for receiving us at Web Summit. I'm here for a very small sampling of what I do on the podcast, and we're deeply honored to have the one and only Colin Kaepernick with us today. How you doing? All right, so if you followed my career, you know that I entered this business 30 years ago as a musician, as a DJ, and in the last five years, I've been doing everything, well not but that but in addition to that so I'm about storytelling and books and movies and

whatnot and so basically our guest today has the same trajectory basically started out athlete became a revolutionary activist and is now a storyteller helping others with the new year rights camp and also with loomie your app so we're going to ask you a few questions in our limited time here. I would like to know. What is your morning routine? What is the first thing you do in the first 20 minutes of your day? First thing, waking up, always shower. That has to be to wake up. Okay. And the part for me, because I wake up to train early in the morning, so wake up at 4.30, by 5 o'clock, I'm training. So that shower, hot shower to be able to get everything moving, I'm ready to go. And then that last 30 minutes, I'm into my workout routine.

So hit the ground running as soon as the day starts and then take everything else from there. So without fail, training is always the first thing in your morning no matter what. If you don't do it, are you thrown out a whack or? Oh, I feel so off if I don't do it. Almost like my body reaction is like, oh, we don't have to do anything today then. Got it. So got to start the day with a workout. Okay, this is kind of a frothy question about your childhood.

What television show would best describe what your childhood was like? Ooh. I would say Colin in black and white is the best one that we made it created. But beyond that, maybe the Power Rangers. Okay. You know, we're always looking at how we could be superheroes, how we could save things, how we could be better. So we like to be in the heroes of the story. Okay.

So even then you were sort of manifesting or seeing what your future was going to be even in your childhood. What secret talent of yours do you have that we don't know about? That's a great question. I think most of my talent has been primarily through sports. So I was going to be drafted by Major League Baseball coming out of high school. Okay. So baseball is an area that had a lot of talent in. Unfortunately, I did not get any music talent.

So I'm going to leave that up to you. So you can hold us down there. I'll hold us down on the sports side. Okay. Okay. This year, 26, of course, marks the 10-year anniversary of like your life pivot into activism. Of course, you famously standing up for justice for those without a voice. I always wanted to know.

So for me, music is such an integral part of my life. But during that time period 10 years ago, what was the soundtrack? Was there a song that got you through that period, especially when you were in the thick of it? So, interestingly enough, during that time period, I actually had a soundtrack. A wife, Nessa, she obviously works Hot 97. so she's been in the music industry for a long time. Right. She knew a lot of my favorite songs, a lot of my favorite speeches.

So she put together a playlist for me that was my favorite songs and favorite speeches. That was like revolutionary music cut up. And that was my pregame playlist for that entire season. Really? So that was everything from Pock Changes and Holler if you hear me. Gotcha. To Malcolm's speeches. and Ali, all of those intercut.

Is there one song in particular that makes you always feel unstoppable when you put it on? So this falls a little bit outside of kind of the revolutionary music vibe. DMX party up. Yes, okay. It's pure adrenaline. All adrenaline. You can put that off for any workout, any pregame. It works in any occasion.

His voice, his energy. Like, you could run through a wall. I got you. I always wanted to know when you do an act of courage, it comes from somewhere. Where does the source of your courage come from? Are you big on meditation? Is it something that you ponder on an hour before? Like, where's the source of your courage come from?

I think a few different places. One, knowing that you have people around you that love you, is one piece of that. The other is doing the right thing. There is a morality, an integrity, a sense of obligation to do the right thing. And oftentimes that if we don't have the knowledge and insight, then it's hard to say, oh, is this the right thing? But once you have that knowledge, then it's an area that kind of forces you to action.

And for me, that was a huge piece. And the third piece I think about is something that the first courageous act I took was not a major one. It's trying out for a team knowing you might get cut. It's trying to lead a team knowing they may not follow you. And all of these acts over time, you get more and more confident in your ability to take these actions that may seem daunting. Like, probably the first time you ever cut a track was like, oh, man, like, what can come out of this? Well, I tend not to think about it, and I just do it. But I think later in my career, I became, there was a period where I started to overthink.

And when you start overthinking, I think that's where pure artistry leaves. Because, you know, you're supposed to do things spontaneous, not, you know, sort of ponder on it. I mean, it's good to plan and it's good to rehearse, but not to the point where it handicaps you. Exactly. So all that's saying, like, just the practice of doing things that may be uncomfortable

gets you to a way that you can build courage over time through those actions. Oh, yeah. Now, if I'm scared or fear, like even this morning, like going to the sand dunes to, for the first time, going down these mountains, I normally would have not done that, but sometimes you just got to lean into your fear. I always wanted to know, was there a figure during the time period that offered you support or encouraged you that you weren't expecting,

like during this early time period in your activism? So a few people that come to mind, the first one that I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to meet was Malcolm X. Like, reading the autobiography of Malcolm X was life-changing. And life-changing in the sense that a lot of that history, a lot of his life story, was information that was misrepresented to me growing up as well. Right. He was not looked at as a hero. He was not looked at as someone who was advancing society and communities.

So for me, actually, reading the autobiography was life-changing. Ali was another huge influence there, looking at his ability to stay steadfast in moments where the U.S. and the world, well, I should say more specifically, the U.S. attacking him, stripping him of opportunities and titles and things from that nature. And then third one that actually got to spend time with was Mr. B or Harry Belafonte. Yes. Being in New York, we used to go over there on Sundays. Yeah.

And it was like Sundays with Mr. Mr. B, and I loved talking to him to his last day. He was sharp, sharp. And I would ask him, so like, what would you do in this situation? What are your thoughts here? And what was most interesting to me? He would never give me an answer, but he would tell me a story about an experience he had that was related. Yeah. And it was one of those moments that I, I would walk out of there sometimes, and I would be frustrated because I was like, I just want the answer. I need help. I'm trying to figure this out. I need to take action now. But he's forcing you to see it yourself. He's forcing me to walk that path myself as opposed to saying, well, here's the path I walked. Walk it as well.

And I have great appreciation for it because it forced me to grow in ways that otherwise wouldn't have. Got you. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football,

or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard,

but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind. the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where

you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network. On TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by. Rule one, never mess with a country girl. You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes.

And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of the girlfriends... Oh my God, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought, how could this happen to me? The cops didn't seem to care.

So they take matters into their own hands. I said, oh, hell no. I vowed I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, who, who, who, who. My dad gave me the best advice ever.

I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come, look for up-and-coming talent.

He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. Mm-hmm. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall

and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft, and we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East-West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galko, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar, this is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, for wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. What is the best advice you ever received? The best advice I actually think about comes from a poster I had hanging on my wall growing up.

Okay. I was going to ask you if you had a childhood poster in your bedroom, what was it? What was this poster? I can give you two pieces here. So first, this was a very non-branded poster, two unidentified teams on it. Yeah. But it hung next to my bed and it said the power to win must come from within. And what it made me think about consistently was when I was on the field, when I was in the classroom, when I was doing anything in life, it has to come from you.

no one else is going to go out and do it for you got you now people can help along the way and they can support but ultimately the success you want the the goal you're trying to accomplish any of those things it has to come from within you and if it doesn't come from there then you're really just kind of floating along hoping for things to happen as opposed to taking action and having that power in that situation okay so So we live in America, and 2026 is already a lot, even though it's the first month of it. Because of your work and you establishing the know your rights camp, how does that play now that it's more urgent than ever with what is happening back home? Yeah.

It changes some of the work that we do. but a lot of the work we've been doing because this is a much more heightened and advanced version of it. Right. But a lot of the issues that we're seeing have been present. So a lot of that work is how can we accelerate it? Right. So, for example, we recently did a camp in L.A. Camp in L.A. was immigration focused because of the environment of ice coming in,

trying to raid schools, trying to raid businesses. How do we offer support and protection and guidance for communities that are being attacked in real time? So that's some of the work. The other part is, and this was actually insight coming out of the camp in L.A. Yeah. We have an autopsy initiative where we do free second autopsies for people who have had loved ones that have been killed by police or while they're detained. Right. And one of the students, we're talking high school students, middle school high school students,

raised his hand as we were talking about the work we were doing on the autopsy initiative and was like, does that apply to ICE detention centers as well? Which the immediate thought that comes to mind is this child knows someone who was killed in the ICE detention center and it's trying to figure out how do we get justice for them. How do we find out what actually happened? Right. So a lot of the work we're doing is how do we accelerate partnerships, how do we accelerate resources,

how do we shift some of what we're doing to fit community needs, and how we do that as quickly as possible, because it is extremely urgent. I thank you for activating and lease planting and your community activism. I have two minutes left. I do want to talk about Loomi. So, of course, especially in the entertainment world,

older people are really slow to embrace AI. You know, there's always conspiracy theories and whatnot. However, Loomi is counter to that. Could you speak on that? And what does Loomie offer like a younger generation? Like, what's your goal with it? Our goal there is we're trying to address the education crisis. First, being student engagement, second being literacy, and then third being

building AI skills. So we have future ready students. And part of the reason this is so important for us is when we think about AI, when we think about the future, we have seen the impact the digital divide has had on our communities. Yes. This is generational impact that we still feel to this day. AI is also a technology that is going to be generationally gap closing or gap widening. Right. And we want to make sure that our communities are at the forefront of this, meaning our students, our teachers, our districts have to be at the forefront. So we do a lot of work with our students.

We do a lot of work training teachers. We do a lot of work training districts to make sure that they have the tools and the skill sets needed to be able to engage with the tools in a way that can help them advance as effective as possible. Got you. Okay, so my last question to you is, you know, I am a person who I will say in my kind of 35-year history as a professional, I've always been a reluctant pivoter in terms of starting at one place and then somehow morphing into what the universe wants you to be. For someone listening that is at a place in their life in which they're at a crossroads,

at a fork in a road, could you sort of give them advice on how you adjusted to pivoting, starting off with dreams of athleticism and ending up being a much-needed activist? First of all, is it a burden on you for us to place this on your shoulders? I mean, does it sometimes feel like a burden, or do you now experience? in your heart that this is your life calling? I don't look at it as a burden. I look at it as a responsibility. Gotcha.

And I think collectively that's something that we should be looking at. I mean, we are seeing the implications of that not taking that approach come to fruition in real time. So I take the responsibility serious. I also know if that can help save a life, if it can help us advance as a society, if it helps make someone better off, those are all phenomenal accomplishments. And to your question around pivoting and being able to be in different spaces,

anyone who is going through that, the key thing that I would say is jump. And that goes back to the earlier conversation around courage. Like, I look at it from that lens that it's going to be uncomfortable. It's going to be scary. and for me prior to this, I had never built an AI company before. Yes. But I had done a lot of work in media.

I had done a lot of work in education. I had been investing in the tech space. I sat on the board of Medium with Evan Biz, who co-founders of Twitter. So I got to learn from brilliant minds along the way that ultimately led to this path. But when my career was taken away in 2016, I could have stopped and been like, man, they took everything. Like, what do I do now? Gotcha.

Instead, it's, well, let me go find a way to be successful. And I actually fully don't know what that looks like in this moment, but I'm going to keep putting one foot in front of another until I find that exact clarity as far as what I'm going to do, how I'm going to do it, and then make sure that I go be great at that. there it is Colin Kaepernick ladies and gentlemen my name is Questlove it's the Questlove show thank you our family at our eye heart and enjoy yourself thank you appreciate it thank you all right good people I wasn't lying to you definitely said it was it was way shorter

look it wasn't my choice the length of the interview nor was it Collins so the deal is basically I flew way over 12 hours to be in Doha for Web Summit for the conversation, and also DJ said that I did. I was slightly jet lag, but I was fully present. But I definitely wanted to share some additional context. So when you do a summit like that, number one, you're given a list of possible guests.

And this particular year, there were several people I wanted to speak to, but I felt like Colin represented the moment. you know, kind of what Colin was pointing towards in terms of, well, basically, like, where we are now, almost felt like Colin was somewhat of a Paul Revere figure warning us about the future. And of course, now, you know, the idea of speaking out using your voice, using your platform for the, climate that we're in right now is needed now more than ever. And so pretty much, you know, when I found out, especially with his developing with the know your rights camp, it was more urgent than ever. And I'm glad we had the conversation. So, you know, shout out to Colin. And also

shout out to Nessa as well. She's the architect behind the inspirational music and speech playlist that Colin spoke about and, you know, gratitude also to tone. to allow and if you want to know more about collins work at cappernick seven dot com capernick seven dot com also get the loomie app the loomie app which is basically i mean it's designed to help students foster skills and creativity through safe ai storytelling that's available now yeah so you know also I'm not normally this guy. I'd never said these. Well, sometimes I do, but here we are in 26, but follow and subscribe to the Quest Love show wherever you stream your podcast and, you know, catch these full conversations on YouTube. We have a hell of an archive. If you're a long-time

fan of the show, please tell people about the show. I appreciate it. Leave a rating, leave comments. I read the comments. Yes, I'm still recovering after the quasi beat down I took for the open mic eagle app. But, you know, again, I told y'all that was a really, really hard day for me. And, you know, sometimes, you know, a guy needs a friend to talk to. So it's like that sometimes. Anyway, people, stay safe, stay informed. Yeah, I know it sounds like a cliche, but stay woke.

Stay aware. That's what staying woke means. just means stay aware. Be careful of the information that you receive. Make sure don't just run off of headline clickbait. You know, and I'm a victim of it too. Sometimes I'll rush to repose something, not knowing like, ooh, what's happening? If you live in a state that has early voting, I recommend it now, whatever preparations

you need to do for yourself. And also, please make sure your family members, older family members. I'm making sure that my mother, my sister, all my family members are prepared. for anything that happens down the pike. Anyway, I would like to think that if your Questlove show listener, you know these things already, all right? Take care of each other.

Thank you all, and I will catch you next week. Thank you very much. Questlove show is hosted by me, Amir Questlove Thompson. The executive producers are Sean G., Brian Calhoun, and me. Produced by Brittany Benjamin and Jake Payne. Produced for IHeart by Noel Brown. Edited by Alex Connful. IHart video support by Mark Canton.

Logos, graphics, and animation by Nick Aloi. Additional support by Lance Coleman. Special thanks to Kathy Braun. Special thanks to Sugar Steve Mandeau. Please subscribe, read, review, and share on the Questlove show wherever you stream your podcast. Make sure you follow us on social. That's at QLS.

Check out hundreds and hundreds of QLS episodes, including the Questlove Supreme Shows in our podcast archives. Questlove shows the production of IHeart Radio. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits,

my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all the, up that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest, the director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar, this is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands. I vowed, I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves. We always say that, trust your girlfriends.

Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Everyone, I'm Ego Wode. Next guest, it's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit.

If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Yeah. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.