The Questlove Show - Questlove Supreme Celebrates Black History Month Part 1

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

As QLS celebrates Black History Month, look back at poignant clips from Chris Rock, Ben Vereen, Jenifer Lewis, Solange, and others. Questlove offers some insights on why this podcast makes it a point to create a platform for Black History year 'round—now more than ever. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. 2%. That's the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter. And on my podcast, 2%. I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange, modern world. Put yourself through some hardships and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person.

Listen to 2%. That's TWO percent on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast. For 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it.

With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for both. black people. Listen to look back at it on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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, unfilled 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeart Radio. So welcome back to QLS. This is Questlove. And every year, we do special programming in February for Black History Month.

That's especially important for this year. I don't need to tell you all that as we gear up for some new conversations. The team and I compiled some clips from this show that are worth revisiting. Of course, we are about all types of history here at Questlove Supreme. This is kind of a historical records platform. But, you know, black history is important. One, to know that we have a history, but also to acknowledge that black history is American history. You know, it's not separate.

And as we can plainly see, if your eyes are open, If you are awake, you clearly see how easy it is with a little bit of misinformation, with a lot of unprocessed emotions, and a lot of facts turn upside down, how easy it is to lose history, to lose information. You know, it's a lie one moment, then it's lost history years later. So it's important to always keep these stories alive. and, you know, what I really love about this platform at Questlove Supreme is that, you know, when we have artists come on, most people come to a platform like specifically promote something from, you know, that's currently out like, oh, my new album or my new movie, we rarely do that. Like, when you're a guest on Quest Love Supreme, I'm trying to, first of all, we want your history just so that's on the record. And then, ask you more timeless questions that don't have anything to do with a deadline or like some program that you're on, some movie that you're on.

So that's why history is important. And that's why I think the show, no matter what episode we feature or that's in our canon, it'll be timeless because, you know, once you create something, it becomes history. And history is important. So that's why we are gung-ho on history here at Questlove Supreme. All right, so we're going to begin with a good friend of the show, my personal friend, fellow Aquarian Chris Rock, who spoke about how Saturday Night Live trained him for his career. I just had the good fortune to spend 72 hours in S&L land. It's always one of those, be careful for what you ask for movements. Of course, working at the Tonight Show, going to what I call 30 Rock University,

any chance that I get to roam on the eighth floor and just, I mean, going through the pictures on the walls or one thing, but also like looking at the historical artifacts, just walking in Studio 8H, studying the theater structure, it's just, it's a one of one. And it teaches me everything I know about not only how comedy shows work, but how creativity works, how leadership works to describe the machine that is SNL, just as an outsider. I would take an hour explain that to you. But yeah, I spent time with all the greats with Chris, Rock, Eddie Murphy, Tracy Morgan, celebrating the 50th anniversary weekend of Saturday Night Live. There was a musical concert that we did, and there was also like a kind of sororay that we did with Lauren Michaels to toast him and his history. And then there was, of course, the blowout S&L 50 show in which pretty much every cast member from all 50 years was represented in that studio.

It was like going to an all-star game, like watching people together, watching Eddie Murphy and Kenan Thompson and Wilfer, like in a sketch. together. I mean, that's just, anyway, enjoy this Chris Brock episode, y'all. Like, who recommended you to S&L? Did you audition? I audition a guy named James Dixon, who's John Stewart's agents, and a couple other people. Who's the Higgins at the time? The Higgins at the time was Jim Downey. And who's Higgins? Who's the head writer. Higgins is our sidekick on the tonight.

No, no, no, no, no, no. But Jim Downey and Senator Al Franken. Oh, dang. Keep forgetting. Yeah, I forgot. Al Franken was a senator. I think they were both the headwriters. Conan O'Brien was a writer on the show.

Bob Otenkirk was a writer on the show. Wow. Yeah. Did you ever have any issues with the things that you wrote on that show? I always wonder, like, is it ever too black for SNL? No, I mean. Or too edgy? It was too black. Nothing was ever too black. It was just, it was a situation. First of all, I had an amazing time at SNL. It's the best thing. It's absolutely the best thing that ever happened to me.

Really? Yeah, because it kind of made me legit. You know what I mean? It was like graduating Harvard. What you did for the up-and-coming comedians from Howard and stuff made it even don't work. Yeah, I mean, I was on SNL, man. It's only, you know, come on. Like, SNL, SNL, forget even black. Like, S&L is the X-Men School of Comedy. Right. Okay. Did Eddie give you any kind of preparation on what to expect? No.

The only thing Eddie told me, kept telling me, is like, just make sure you write stuff for update because it's the easiest spot to get on. But what was your question? I was just asking, was it ever too edgy or black to where they were like, Chris, maybe? It was like, it's like this situation. It's just white people in general.

It's like the things they understand. stand about black people tends to be has to have a racial element to it so a lot of stuff I did was more obvious like net X, chilling like that stuff's like obvious black stuff

you know what I mean it wasn't really allowed to do the weird I wasn't allowed to get into my weird side the other you know like so it had to be black yeah so it had to be black right you know what I'm noticing

you know I mean so you know it's not SNL it's just white people in general was that the Arsenio factor kicking in was that the living color factor kicking in? I got hired because of the living color I got hired just like every like whatever that with the girl I keep forgetting her name. Shishira. Shishara I was always from a living color no from SNL

yeah I got hired pretty much under the same circumstances SNL hadn't had a black cast member in nine years and living color was hopping and they went out looking for black cast member and I got the job. But I forgot what I was getting ready to say. No, just white people in general when they're looking for black stuff, they tend to like something either ridiculously black. This is what I'm learning.

It basically goes, it's either Tracy Morgan or Larry Wilmore. You know what I mean? Like, in the middle. Nothing in the middle. Nothing in the middle. Not for nothing. I'm taking... Well, because you explain, but you explain in your whole, in your whole, in your whole

theory of you did a joke about Obama could only hope to be mediocre is again it's like you know it's either the perception that we're animals or we are superhuman. We're not calling any person an animal let's get up. No no no but I've

meant like just whatever the one side of the spectrum where it's the extreme it's triple raw or extreme caricature versus extreme intellect but the thing with being ground zero middle is that that's just regular human.

Yeah, that's what that's, hey, that's why Atlanta's genius. Because it walks that thing. It's like, it's very rounded. I was recently told by a bunch of white women. I take a comedy class. I made one joke. I get really nervous about making black jokes in front of white people. And so when I did finally write one, they were like, oh my God, we love it.

Tell us more about ourselves. Tell us about white women. And I was like, really? But that's, see that. That bothers me too because I feel like that's almost like fetishizing

or, you know, the whole guilt, the guilt factor, kick it in and... I was wondering if it was a setup. I didn't know, but I was like, okay, I got a lot, though.

That's a setup. Damn! I'm sorry, that's a setup. Set up. So, okay, so you're fine with your experience there in the education. I had the best experience

is literally the best thing that ever happened to me. I met the best people, not just, I mean, A, I got exposed around a bunch of comedy. So, you know, I'm a guy from Bedstuy who came through this white system. So I'm still the guy who has to go with my uncle to go get the guns before the bad cousins come. And at the same time, I know Conan O'Brien. Right.

How can you fuck with me? You can't fuck with me. You know what I mean? Like that's a lot of route. That's a lot of education. Which leads, all right. So that leads me to, I mean, the period between your, your, your, your, your, your, you're into and you're at SNL. I wrote something for, I'm sorry, cut you off. I wrote, I think SNL, we edited a spin magazine. I used to have that magazine. And yes, I have that. I wrote an article about the end of the black super comic is coming because TV was getting more segregated. And the black super comic is me.

Okay, let's take me out of it because that sounds, I sound like a cornerback, right? But, you know, there's a reason Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, the greatest black comedians, the greatest comedians in America tend to be black. It's because you had to work these two systems in a world that everybody else has to work one. So you're saying Sam Cook record in Harlem,

which is more blacker than the Sam Sam Cook record at the Copa. Yeah. He had two live records come out the same time. This is the same thing that produced Michael Jackson and like the fact that you had to work two audiences. Right. In a world, everybody else worked one.

It's like, how can they fuck with you? It's impossible. Can't fuck with a guy that could work the Apollo and Carnegie U.S. You can't fuck with that. All right. So that was Chris Rock speaking on having to maintain two audiences in his career, a black audience and a mainstream audience.

I think that if you want international appeal, you have to learn how to code switch. And I think that's for everyone. Of course, with black creatives, and this is what I explore in the slide documentary, I think for us is a little bit deeper. Like, for some people, it's, you know, studying, demographics to grow their audience as a creative exercise.

My parents came from the generation in which you kind of had to adapt to cultural lifestyles that weren't your own just for survival's sake. And I guess even growing up, you know, the way that I took to all types of music, Maybe I inherently or subconsciously knew early that I had to learn the language of every type of music genre in order to survive in the world. For me, music was how I made friends. And if you listen to certain types of music, then that's something that you have in common with people. Because I went to school with various backgrounds and whatnot of different people, I saw the power of knowing other songs.

Like in the ninth grade, I didn't know nothing about Led Zeppelin. Didn't want to learn anything about Led Zeppelin. Like I fell for the, I drank the Kool-Aid. I went to a church that, like, you know, was staunchly against rock music and MTV and the thriller video and all that stuff. And so we were just told, you know, that's the problem with where we are now. Like, you just get told by an authority figure and you take that as law without investigating. getting it so I was led to believe that Led Zeppelin was like a demonic group you know if you're a

music head bustle in your head growl Google that I believe there was a some pastor southern baptist said that Led Zeppelin was trying to lure our kids into Satanism some silly shit and they'd spun backwards the song stairway to heaven and somehow uh he's believes that bustle in your head growl with some sort of demonic demon chant that's the only words they can make from the backwards masking of stairway to heaven uh anyway so the whole point is that um you know i started to get into lead zeppelin well firstly because the beastie boy started sampling them so immediately my curiosity was piqued and soon thereafter like if ban bands were having a jam or whatever and they would call out a song like the lemon song or custer pie or

you know in my time of dying or any of those lead zeppelin classics i immediately knew it so you know it never hurts to widen your vocabulary but it also i think you know you should also be aware of your history and not uphold your history in in a way that it's disparaging to others or traumatic for others. Be proud of your history and learn other people's history too. So it should go without saying that QLS listeners know that already. Anyway, thought I had my two cents. Next is the great late prodigy of Mobb Deep.

And a prodigy is going to speak about his family and their contributions to black culture through dance around New York City. And he shows that the black experience is not a monolith. Like, what eventually brought you to the city, to Queens? When I turned like 11, 12, my mom's moved to Lefrak. She moved to Lefrak City. Her and my pops had split up because my pop said, did some crazy shit. My pops was wild, man.

He had kidnapped me, took me to Detroit. We was living in Detroit for a minute, bawling out of control. He was working in the stock market, doing some crazy shit. When did you live in Detroit? Man, this is like early 80s. When Scarfeet, what year the Scarface came out? 83. Yeah, because my pops took me to the movie.

Why do we? I remember that. What was the family few? 83. My pops took me to the movies in Detroit when, at the premiere, when Scarface first came out. So that's when I was out there in 83. Wow. Well, you were nine.

I was nine, yeah. So the lyric, your pop taught you guys shooting you was seven. That was real. Oh, yeah, my pop, man. He was off the hook, man. That boy is something else. He was something else, man. Was he a musician as well?

Yeah, he was a singer. You know what I mean? Like I said, he had that group, The Chances, Duok Group. They had a couple of dope songs, you know what I mean? But my father's things were computers, like from the early 80s. I remember being like probably five,

six years old, my father was working on Macatars writing programs, you know what I'm saying? Really? He was really, really dope with it. I think it's a school called TCI. I think it's called TCI. My father went there and he actually got so good he became like a professor there. He started teaching.

He was in the commercials and all that, like after a while. He got really nice with it. And, you know, that's what he was into. Computers, heroin, alcohol, karate. My father had a dojo on Jamaica Avenue. You know what I mean? So he used to teach karate. You just said that combo.

Yeah. Computers, heroin, karate. Like, can we back down? Can we back that up? He was off the hook. He was off the hook. Carotty and computer. It's crazy, you know.

All that. It's very crazy, man. My pop's life was wild. It was wild. That was his thing. He loved computers and he loved fighting and just doing wild shit. He was crazy, man. And I know that you have a closeness with your grandmother as well, that she was in the arts.

Yeah, my grandmother was ill. So she was one of the first cotton club dances when they first opened a cotton club way back. And, you know, she was friends with Lena Horn. Lena Horn used to dance there early before she became famous. You know, and that's how my grandmother met my grandfather. Because my grandfather used to play in the band at the cotton club. So that's how they met.

And, you know, my grandmother started a dance school business in the basement of her crib on the guy Brewer. And she started with like five students, you know what I mean? And it just grew and grew over the years until to a point where she started renting the building. And then it grew to a point where she actually bought her own commercial building in Queens. She was like the first black woman to own a commercial space in Queens. So, you know, it was a dance school business. Right.

You know what I mean? She was, that was her thing dancing. So a lot of her students, man, she had some famous students that she raised, that she raised. Like Ben Vareen is one of, she raised Benarine. Like, you know what I mean? Okay. And he used to, you know, be at the house all the time. Like, you know what I mean?

Anytime he had something going on, we used to watch it in the crib. I didn't see roots thousands of times. Like, you know what I mean? That's like everybody get together. Watch Ben. Ben is on, you know, Michael Peters. He was a famous choreographer. That was one of my father's best friends.

Yes. Michael Peters was. That was my grandmother's students. Shut up. He did so much shit. He did beat it. He did dancing on the film. Yeah, he did all the...

So, like, that was, like, event, same thing. Like, with Benvoreen. Matter of fact, Michael Peters is the... In the, the beat... Knife battle. He's the one in all white. All right.

That's the one. He's the one. They got their hands tied up. They were fighting with the night. When I was six, my dad introduced me to him, and I was like, but you can't dance better than Michael Jackson. He walked away with me with so much attitude.

Like, child, well. Like, I remember when I was a little kid, like, we used to fly to Cali. because a lot of her students live in Cali and when I, so we used to fly to Cali and visit them and she used to take care of some business and Michael Peters used to take me in the Universal Studios all the time.

That was my favorite place when I was a little kid. I used to be like, let's go again. Let's go again. I'd been there like a hundred times when I was a kid. That was my favorite shit. Like, you know what I mean? But yeah, so this is my grandma, this is like my grandmother's life.

She, you know, this is her thing in the dance world. And she got a lot of choreographers and she helped out a lot of people with it as far as that in that world. So I grew up a lot around her concerts. She would do these concerts every year at Lincoln Center at the Apollo at Carnegie Hall. You know, every year she would do like a big concert. So you were a backstage kid. Yeah, me and my cousins would be backstage while looking at the girls getting dressed in.

I'm saying. That's different than my backstage. I just watched old, old-ass dudes, you know, smoke reefer in the... Well, yo. He had a better backstage experience. Yeah, especially at my grandma was dance school. Like, hundreds of girls from Queens. Like, that was like, that was, man, I used to love that place when I was a little kid, man.

We had so much fun running around Jamaica Avenue and, you know, just having fun, man, without all the girls. It was crazy, crazy growing up, like, you know what I mean? 2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter, and on my podcast, 2%, I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more, to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry.

We really believe that seed oils were inherently inflammatory. We got it wrong. Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's T-W-O-Persent on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people.

I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jett. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of America.

crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really?

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. 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 and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him.

Hi, Dad. And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen. She says, I have some cookies and milk. This is his badass convict. Right. Just finished five years. I'm going to have cookies and milk at my mom. Yeah.

On the Seno Show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations. about recovery, resilience, and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon Danny Trail, talk about addiction, transformation, and the power of second chances. The entire season two is now available to binge, featuring powerful conversations

with the guests like Tiffany Addish, Johnny Knoxville, and more. I'm an alcoholic, and without this trouble, I'm going to die. Open your free I-Heart radio app. Search the CETO show, And listen now. Welcome back to Questlove Supreme, Good People.

One of the things that's cool about the show is how different episodes can connect the dots. So before the ad break, Prodigy mentioned Ben Vareen, and that was in the spring of 2017 before we lost P. However, in 2024, we at Questlove Supreme spoke to Ben Vareen, and Ben shared accounts of meeting Lankston News and his game-changing work. On the series Roots. Take me through your life as a creative. What was your first step into a profession?

I just graduated from high school for the performing arts. There's a woman there named Vinette Carroll. And she was doing a show called The Prodical Son, off Broadway at the Greenwich News Theater. This I'm talking about a professional show, right? I never knew anything about Broadway or the theater. I had never been on a Broadway. Broadway stage until Bob Fawcett.

But I go to the show, it was in a Greenwich Bues Theater, it was downstairs, a little theater, and that was my first production. And one night I'm coming out of the theater. I was in my first son, I had been born, and I was late getting to the theater. I had to spend time my first wife, and got back to the theater,

and the dance captain had taken my role and gave it to his love him. And I wasn't going to have that. that because it was my role. So I went on stage anyway. So it's those stage where I said they can't do that. I said, no, they can't. So I went on stage. I got dressed. Went on stage and we're fighting during the show on stage. I mean, he's in my place. I'm hitting him. He's hitting me. And people must say they go, wow, this show is so real. I got it. So I come off stage. I'm angry. I'm leaving the theater. I'm going to Glenn's house, you know, to get myself cold off.

and this little guy is sitting outside the door and he says, he says, excuse me, yeah, what do you want? He says, I'm looking for Benjamin Verena. I'm Benjamin, what do you want? He said, you look like you can use the dinner. My name is Langston News. I wrote this. Whoa.

Oh, you can't just, you just drop that. You did. I did. Lake City. Yeah, took me to dinner. You said, you look like, hello. out, everybody did it. So he took me to a little Italian joint in the village, and we sat and talked, and he told

me about himself and told me how he's written to play and invited me up to Harlem for the first time. So that was my first professional job, and the time would buy. And the next time I got a job was, you'll read about in the book. I was on a subway. I jumped in turnstile. I went to New York City. I was standing on the corner.

I went by my school. I was really depressed. I went by performing arts. I looked at school and I going, where am I going? What's going to happen? And I walked down to the newsstand, and I opened up a newspaper backstage. And there's audition for that day for a show called Sweet Charity, going to a place called Las Vegas, starring a woman named Julia Proust, directed by Bob Fosse.

And that was the first time I was on Broadway Sturge at the Palace Theater. I went to an audition. It was like the opening of all that jazz. Yes. And that was one of those kids on the stage, standing there watching this cool guy, walked down the middle of the aisle, smoking a cigarette. He gets up on stage. He does the demonstration for us to do, and the ashes never fall.

I said, this guy. Never. He just smoked to the end, and the ashes just grew and grew on the end. But he did the combinations. Turns and boom, and snaps and snap, boom. And then he stopped and go, you take the, okay, do the steps. We couldn't do this stuff because we're too busy watching the asses. See if they didn't fall.

Okay, so my mother is probably the show's biggest fan, and she will scream on me. You drop so many names that she'll scream on me if I don't go into further detail. My mom's from Pittsburgh. Okay, I'm going to ask about Bob Fawsey, but you mentioned the legendary Martha Graham. You study under it. what was what was it like studying under Martha Graham?

Well, I didn't actually have a class with Martha Graham. I studied with one of her dancers named David Woods. Okay. He was one of the teachers there. It was amazing. You know, for me, getting into them, look, the first day of school, they have you line up, and then they have you change, and you get dressed for your class, you go to your classes.

And my first day in school, I wore my suit that I wore with a sensational twilters to Brooklyn. My mother bought me an attach case. I still don't like my attach case. And then they said, go get dressed. All the guys went and put on their dance clothes. I put on my dance clothes, put my suit back on. Because that's what I was raised. You know, you don't just walk around your underwear.

So I get back out there, my suit on. She said, excuse me, Dr. Jones said, you're taking class today? I said, yes. said, well, where's your dance clothes? I said, under my suit. You can't dance that way. Get in there.

Put on your dance clothes. And that was the beginning of wonderment. Wow. But David Woods, who was really the foundation of my acting as well. Because he would tell us, he'd say, you can't just dance. It's got to tell a story.

So find the story that you want to tell through your movement. And that's why dance is so personal to me. You know, in modern dance, you must tell a story. It isn't about just steps. It's about emotion. It's about the story that you're telling. Although it may not be, the choreographer may not, is telling you his story, but you got to find your story within the movement.

What makes you move this way? What makes you sing this way? What makes you tell your story through drama, through the word this way? You have to create it, at least for me. You have to relate to something within you that connects to that emotion. And that's how we dance. That's how I danced. For a lot of us, at least for my generation, this conversation is really transformational as far as like my mind state.

Because I think every person thinks that their era in the world is the kind of, you know, black and white to color, Wizard of Oz thing. Like everyone thinks like, oh, when I was born, then suddenly modern times began. but, you know, I would assume that until roots came along, that a lot of African-Americans weren't even thinking in terms of their history going back to Africa, unless, you know, they were of the generation that watched Tarzan as a kid in the 50s and 60s. But the Marcus Garby movement, and he was down with that. Right. So what I'm asking you is when you're told to tell your story and, The vocabulary of our African history really wasn't super enforced unless you were part of specialized

movements. In your mind, when you are expressing yourself and reaching inside for your emotions and through dance, what is it that drove you creatively? Like, what are you thinking of when they're telling you tell your story? Well, I'm thinking of my emotional feelings and what I feel in that moment of that. story makes sense all right if I have say for example if I tell a story of my let's see you keep it simple going to performing us what did that make you feel like how did you feel the first day you stepped on that stage when you stepped into

that studio what was it feeling that you were feeling what what's that story that you want to tell right there and then that creates a whole movement yes for us coming up in ours as far as we're talking about ancestry now we're talking about black history. In my school coming up in my era, it was one paragraph. You're a slave and Lincoln freed you. And we know that's not true. And long comes a wonderful man named Alex Haley, who says, I'm going to debauch that because it's not true. And he goes back to Gambia, and he finds his roots. And he writes a wonderful book called Roots. And we all now say, and now the world is going, whoa, wait a me, we're waking up.

There was more to it than this what's in our history books. There's more to my story. You see, it's so interesting. When Roots came out, it was just the book, and I'd heard about it, and like a lot of us did, and I just knew I wanted to be a part of that movie, that TV series. And I went to my agent, and I said to him, listen, there's this book. I think ABC is going to make a movie out of it called Roots, and I'd like to be to try out for it. But he says to me, Ben, you're a song and dance man.

They're looking for actors. He said, so listen, there's this group that's starting out. You've got a big hit called We Are Families, Sister Sledge. He says, they're going to open for you in Chicago. So why don't you go do that? And you have another gig for you guys down in Savannah. So I said, yeah, but Kenny said, Ben, they're looking for actors. So I get on the brain.

I go to Chicago, Sister Sledge. They open to be a wonderful, these little girls. little girls, and we get to Savannah, Georgia. I used to do a character called Bert Williams about my ancestry, about the performer. There was a time in American history where black people who in the theater were not allowed on stage unless we wore blackface. And he went through that. So I told that story.

And coming at the show that afternoon in Savannah, Georgia, there was a guy who came backstage. His name was Stan Margulies. And he said, I want you to read my children. And I said, what's the chicken George? He said, we're doing a show called Roots. He said, well, and I said, I don't care, man, if chicken George's got in the boat going, let me out of here, let me out here, please, please, I'll be there. And that's how I got the bar.

I had no idea how deep it was going to go. And what, I mean, it opened up a whole avenue for me and for all of us to look back and and honor our ancestry, which we must continue to do, to stay forward. Because our ancestry are the reason why we're here today, their struggle, their fight, their determination. To go through slavery, imagine coming across the water, having, being stolen from your family, and you're putting on chains, chains, what's a chain? and you're being put on a boat and you put to an island and you've gone away with a bunch of people

you've never seen their white and you see a bunch of other people your color were not the same languages and we're all chained inside this boat and someone jumping off the side because they refuse to go into they don't know what's going to happen. They don't want to be a part of it. But the bravery of those people

who went through that passage and stood on that slave block and watch their families being torn apart, which I think in my mind destroyed our cultural togetherness. That strength. And to tell their stories to be forgotten? No, no, not on my watch. How long did they give you to prepare that role?

Take us through the process of preparing, executing, and then leaving that character. I never left that character. All right, chicken, George. Well, for me, it was all because, understand, my family, we never sat around and talked about then because we were surviving in the now. My family was the educators or the, you know, they were not of that elk. You know, they were field workers, you know, survivors. And so we never sat around and talked about education, about government, about what's going on. We used day-to-day survival.

So when I got this, I knew there was a deeper story. When I got the opportunity to tell my story, it was like, how do I find my research? So I call my elders. You know, do you, can you tell me about what it was like doing this time, that time? And, you know, and a lot of it came from imagination, once again. what it must have felt like. And Chicken George is so beautiful. You know, the one thing I do is that when I get to a character,

especially someone like Chicken George, I ask permission to enter into that realm of consciousness. And what is what it's been like for you? Educate me, teach me. And he took me on his journey. And I tell you, the respect and the admiration that the cast and the crew had doing that. It was amazing.

It was amazing. Did it feel safe? Did they provide like a, because you know, in 2020, if you guys made this in 2024 or 25, there would be all kind of counseling on set. And, you know, when you broke out of character, there'd be somebody to make sure, are you okay? Like, how did y'all handle that? No, no, not in 2024.

Sorry to jump in now. Please, go, please, Kabar. That will come later. Oh, not in 2024. My bad. Okay. Yeah, yeah, not in 2020. during that time it was self-nurturing.

And that's what I say the cat, the crew, even the crew was aware that we were touching upon something that was, in other words, I hate to use this word, but taboo. You don't talk about this stuff. But the respect and the reverence that the crew had and would like the scenes, like one scene, I never get the scene where Richard Roundtree was dating my mother at times, Leslie Young, who's playing kissing. And there's a scene where she had talked him into taking her to find her father. And they go back and they're late coming back to the plantation. And his Masa at the time was supposed to testize him. And Richard Rountry was supposed to beg for him not to beat him. And I never get this.

Richard said, you want me to grovel to a white man? do you know why I am? Mm-hmm. I don't gobble for no white man. And the director said, Richard, we need this just for the next scene. He said, in order to move, he said, you can do this.

He says, I ain't groveling to no white man. It's like that. And he said, well, just one time. He said, he looked around, he looked at Kizzi and my boy, Leslie, looked at the cast,

He went, the crew, you got one shot. And he gets down and he does that scene where he says, please, boss or my also don't beat me. And we just finished, the director said, cut. Okay, that was a good friend. Everybody go hold. That was a one taker? It was a one taker.

Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. Because it was like, I mean, all of a sudden we had to reflect on the fact that what it must have been like to have the guavble to white people for our survival, they have to beg, you know, when I think about my, oh, don't get me started. I think about what our people went through as slaves, kings, inventors, doctors, leaders, being stripped. We built empires and civilizations. And now we are the bottom of the chain.

they gave us slop and we made it a cuisine. We made it a cuisine. I can't even get to that extent of thought. It makes me think of also the artists who have had to play these roles. And it's funny because as you said, as you said, this was a taboo thing. And now it's not. Now we've had several movies that have followed. And it makes me think about all the black actors who have had to tackle these roles,

like from Chouaitel Ejofor to Jamie Fox to Lapita and Yango. And I'm curious if anybody, ever reached back to you and went, how did you do this? How did you do this? It's an interesting thing because we who were there at the first beginning are waiting to say, this is how we did it. Because what annoys me, I love my brother, LeVar Burden, love him. He felt that maybe I let me take it this way, but he never allowed us to talk to the cast to say, what did you go through? How did you get there at this point? Oh, with the newer roots. Are you talking about the new roots? The newer roots.

So, okay, they did a good job. They did. As far as they could do. But we could have given them another layer that's much deeper because we were there. I was curious about, thank you for answering that question. We cried and wept at terms of what to do, but we knew we had to do it for the art and to tell the truth story. as far as Hollywood will allow us and tell the true story. You understand, roots just

scratched upon the surface so it really went down. But what really went down, you get into those wounds, you go deeper, there were nights. I come home and my wife, Nancy, she'd go, you okay? I say, yeah.

And nights, I was just being tears. And you're about, okay, okay, let me get myself ready. Okay, let's go do the scene. And although I was playing chicken, George was like a dandy, but there was that moment when he finds out his father's white. His mother's gone through. And watching your fellow neighbor brothers being whipped because they didn't want to pick up something.

They didn't want to do something. They said the same wrong thing because they were field niggas, then the house niggas. Of course, it was treated a little better with the field niggins. Telling those stories. And I think most stories have not been told. enough. As long as my Jewish brothers and sisters can tell us about the Holocaust,

we must talk about our Holocaust excuse. I agreed. We know where we are going. Otherwise, they will do it to us again. 2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter. And on my

podcast, 2%. I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more, to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really believe that seed oils were inherently inflammatory. We got it wrong. Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world are the result of stress.

Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side. a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's TWO% on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people.

I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack.

I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really?

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver 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. I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him. I said, hi, dad. And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen. She says, I have some cookies and milk. This is a badass convict. Right.

Just finished five years. I'm going to have cookies and milk at them all. Yeah. On the senior show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience, and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon, Danny Trail, talk about addiction, transformation, and the power of second chances. The entire season two is now available to bench, featuring powerful conversations. with the guests like Tiffany Addish, Johnny Knoxville, and more. I'm an alcoholic.

And without this truth, I'm going to die. Open your free I-Heart radio app. Search the Cito Show. And listen now. So before that last break, we shared a clip from Ben Vareen. Right now we got Jennifer Lewis, who just gave Team Supreme Wisdom on Life from her experience and courage. I guess you can say...

in and out, I've been doing therapy for like 30 years. But, you know, the thing is when the pandemic came, really, you know, again, like I don't feel like, I feel like a person shouldn't have to be at rock bottom to make the change. So that's why I'm really glad the pandemic happened because it wasn't a rock bottom moment. But that was definitely somewhat of a paradigm shift for me and taking mental health seriously and all those things. but you mentioned something. And I noticed that probably the time

that I might be liable to get in an argument, I mean, not a fight, not like pugilism or anything, but there's a moment after I get off stage where I can't describe the feeling. And you said that and I was like, oh, so I'm not, you know, I just thought like, well, Mir, sometimes you're just an asshole after the 30 minutes after Root Show.

It's almost like after a Root show, I purposely look for a place to just sit silent and literally come down. And I can't explain it. And the thing is, it's like right after a show, that's when people were pulling for you. And I'm here, let's talk. And I can't explain. And the thing is, it's like because these people aren't entertainers,

it's hard to really explain to them the process I go through. through, which is kind of why it's almost like that feeling of when you're done a show and that high you feel is such a descriptionless addiction that I can't describe that I figure it out that for at least the last 30 years, I've been doing DJ gigs after the Root Show because I love music and because I love DJ, but basically I need to slowly come down off that high into normalcy. So usually after Root Show, I will DJ for three hours. So that way, I don't have to talk to people. I'm playing music and I come down.

But and sometimes when I'm not DJing, I wonder what that is. And I thought I was the only person going through that. Because again, if you, I feel weird in talking about the mental health space thing and have my occupation because I always feel like people look at me like, oh, here's the world's tiniest violin. If people are in a certain profession, they might not, they might feel unworthy of having problems or whatnot.

Like people might not. At this point, the world knows entertainers have trauma, right? I'm just. Let me interject here. Yes, yes, please, please. Yeah. First of all, we are not normal creatures. Yeah, man.

Right. Right. We are artists. We are different. Are we better or worse than anyone? No. We just are who we are. And we form who.

We form the artistry. It's like Lena Simone said. An artist's duty is to speak to the times. Nina Simone didn't hide her pain. And Nina Simone laid it on the piano. We have to learn what to put that quest. You have to put that somewhere. You have to compartmentalize that.

You expressed it beautifully. It's called a glory train, love. You hear me talking to you? It's a glory train. And nobody can stay on that train too long. You got to come off. You got to get in the grass and you got to surround yourself with nature. and have that gratitude.

It is a gratitude moment. So use it for that. You don't have to go crazy. Most people go and get drunk and party and carry on. Okay, you get a couple of those a month. But then sit the fuck down and talk about those feelings. Write them down so that the next time you feel it, you have something to balance it.

Nobody's coming with the answer. Nobody's coming with a recipe. You got to pay attention to the self. It is the journey within that will get you where you need to be. Because what you will discover is how short life is. Yeah. Listen to me. You want to know how I live.

I live like I got five minutes left. What if? What if you had left? Who would be? what you call. Think about that shit. What if? And I live like that.

I ain't gonna lie to you. Sometimes it's something as, like when my assistant leaves, I want to swim. But the shadows have come over the pool. So it gets a little chill. And I stand there and go, I don't want to get in this pool.

Jenny. get in the fucking pool and relax yourself. You got to talk to yourself. But guess why I got in the pool? Because when I woke up, I wrote it down. You will swim today. That's what living on purpose is about. You can't go willy-nilly through this bitch.

It'll eat you alive. You gotta know that you are in charge. write the shit down. You write your story. Instead of like I said, going willy-nilly, skipping, tiptoeing through the fucking tulips. That's what life is. Look, life is not a rehearsal.

Live this bitch. Can I just say real quick, excuse me. Let me just say this. And I hate to be all corny and go to the book that you have out, walking in your joy. But I just realize, am I saying that right, walking in your joy? Yes, walking in my joy.

It my joy. But it's so interesting because a lot of people write books and they say things. But I like that you have some real practical things like what you just said to a mirror about living in those five minutes. And then you wrote something else that caught me. And you said when you're feeling down, you come up with a song about how much you love yourself or how much people love you. That's right. I'm realizing, although I haven't finished a book, can people like the pen that like you pretty much got little workable jewels in here? Not just like, girl, live your best life.

It's actually like, no. It's actionable advice. Exactly, exactly. But here's the work. The work is, how am I going to live in my best life? Right. And that's what I'm saying. And that's the work.

That's what you write down in the morning. Y'all, request, I don't know if you know, but when I wrote the mother of black Hollywood, I started writing in a journal in the seventh grade. You want to know what? Because I knew I was going to be. going to be a star and I would need my book. That's having great. Continuously. I am 65.

There are 67 journals upstairs. Oh, I'm so jealous. That is, oh, why don't we do this? Why do we start and stop? And I got about six. God damn it. So the details. Oh, she's so right.

That's why the black Hollywood is so good because of the details. I can tell you that I had hot apple pie a la mode with Shirley Ralph on this date. Damn. You see? You see? You see? Yeah.

So nothing is wasted. Live your life. And when I got into therapy the first time, my therapist looked at me when I told I had written all those journals. She said, that's what saved your life, little girl. I believe it. I didn't know I was saving my life. Yeah.

But that journal served in me learning. At an early age, I didn't even know I was doing it, to be in charge of me and leave other people alone. Child, people come and go for a season. Let it go. When they're no longer a reflection of you, you're not going to be comfortable around them. If the toxic shit is going on, the lies and the chaos,

child, get the fuck out of there. There are many rooms to go to. There are many cities. All you got to do is leave the room. Fuck out of there. Shit simple. Don't sit there with all that drama and shit. See, practical things that you can use.

It's so boring. It's boring. I said the greatest sin is somebody to say, oh, I'm bored. Bitch, that I have my money. Okay. So, of course, like in the last two years is the most that I've heard black people speaking on finding joy, finding their mental health and all those things. Because previously, it was a secret.

I would never, like in 2011, I would never share with nobody that, like, there's trauma attached to that too. Right. Because you don't want to share like, oh, people think I'm crazy or whatever. The thing is, is that I know that for black people, their go-to answer was always. ways the church. Especially of an older, you know, I was born in 71.

I know you were born before I was. 57. For a lot of people in, you know, pre-80s people, whatever, like, their thing is always like, I'll find God or I'll talk to my preacher. So this is almost an denominator to hear of your generation, of your experience, really not even diving into the pool of mental therapy, but I mean, you're going to be abyss of it. You're going to the deepest level of it.

So what was it, what was the moment that told you that my mental health has to be addressed in and handled this way as opposed to right away? I do consider that I do consider organized religion as a vice akin to gambling sex. Drugs.

Let me say this to you. Yeah. There's a line in the movie I did, Karina Karina, where the little, the little girl says, these people believe, I'm paraphrasing,

but they said, these people believe in God. And the people that, somebody that said it was Jewish. And the question that was asked by a child was, she said, why do these people sing about this? And the mother said, because it makes them feel good.

And the little girl said, what's wrong with that? Mother said, oh, I guess nothing. Look, if you want to be an organized religion, that's okay. Let people do what they want to do. That's what gets me through life to allow, allow others to be where they are. What you're going to do? Go and make them a Buddhist. Go and make them a Muslim.

You're going to make them. What are you going to do? Once again, once again, pay attention to yourself. Everybody on this planet has one job and one job on self-care. And if you need to cry to Jesus to do that, then you go on and cry to Jesus. But allow other people to cry to whoever the hell they wanna cry to. That's what I don't like about religion.

Everybody think their religion is the best one. So I don't believe in that. Leave people alone. Leave people alone. If they want to work, you let them worship Jesus. Let them work a Buddha or a Muhammad or Allah. Let people do what the fuck they want to do. I know who I am.

I searched every religion in this world. I have been down the road less travel. And when I got to the end, that wasn't up but the big asses. mirror. You cannot run wherever you run. You will meet yourself. There's no running and I told them on the

breakfast club, I got money to run. And you can't even run. You can't run. Don't ask me. Don't ask me for now. I'm like, what's his name? The baby I love. Dave Chappelle, I'm rich, bitch.

But don't ask me for shit. All right. There you go. What do you say to him, to even like to what on Amir's question, like you're leading the pack of your generation in that way. Like he said, like you're, it is kind of special. Do you see in the difference in the generational, how now I'm using words and have vocabulary for things that we didn't have before? When I went, uh-huh, I got you. When I went on the road with the mother black Hollywood, because it was my journey through bipolar disorder,

I was able to feel not only the temperature, but the temperament of the United States. I went all over during the Trump era. People are starting to wake up. I was very pleased. They're starting to get counseling in churches. They are starting to put more counseling in youth centers. Our children are falling apart. And I'm not the only woman in the world that cares.

People are coming together. We are getting better. Everybody wanted to talk about the stigma. Yes, there is a stigma, but we are getting better. You see, my mother didn't have the Oprah Winfrey show. Okay. That's what I'm saying. My mom didn't know none about mental illness, and yet, if someone were to ask me,

I would say, absolutely she was. I do believe that she was depressed. She had me when she was 26 years old, and I was her seventh child. Whoa. And she was scrubbing white people's floors. You think she had time to give me affection? She was exhausted by the time I came along. Listen, Eve Insler, who wrote the vagina monologues,

she went all around the world. She went to Africa with the women that were having the clitorisism. If it's clitoris, I don't know if it's plural. I only have one. Clitoris. All right. Wait a minute. I used to have three, but I just got one now.

Now, listen. Remember what of those first pawn stars that bitch had two? When we just had, listen. Vanessa Don't. God damn. Keep going. That's real. You should have two?

Wait, but that bitch had two literacies. And she was the first. Why do I do that? Real has two. She, Vanessa Del Rio. Something like that. Something like that. It was funny.

But let me get back to the serious shit. Okay, sorry. Focus. Let me get back to the serious shit. Listen. All I can say, I know, did not go into three clitoris,

honey. We got lost in them clitoris. I did too. I need to find somebody to tell me whether clitoris is, is clitoris is. Come on, Jennifer,

if you don't know. Clitari, clitori. The clitori. Clitori. I have no idea. And that is our promo for this general.

I'll come out of the bag with anything. I don't care. Multiple clitoris. We love it. Thank you. Did you look it up? No. No.

When I was in the serengetti, two little baby rhinoceroses thought I had some food. So they came over to me and they just gone like this, just a don'tky don't. And when they saw I didn't have no food, they kind of don't dokey don't away from me. And I start screaming. I never heard of Jenny Craig. Bad ass, anybody got no food for you. I'll cuss out a rhinoceros bitch. You hear me?

And then I had to look up whether it was not rhinocerosy because most of my friends- Oh, yeah, what is it? Wait a minute, because wait a minute, listen, because most of my friends are major intellectuals. I keep smart people around me, honey. You got to. Listen, I can feel like,

enough for everybody. You just tell me what the shit what's going on. But here, but if I, listen, if I'm going to stand in the Serengeti and cuss out two baby rhinoceruses, what do you think I'm going to do with the story of the clitoris? Get the fuck out of it. Let's go.

What's next? Who cusses out a rhinocle. So what you need to know is Jennifer Lewis will go anywhere. Ain't no shame in my game, baby. I'll do anything. make people laugh. 2%. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter, and on my podcast, 2%. I break down the science of mental

toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really really, believe that seed oils were inherently inflammatory. We got it wrong. Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person.

Listen to 2%. That's T-W-O-Persent on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap little kids? Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast.

I'm Sam Jett. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but. Yeah, yeah, literally. But just so y'all know.

I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed, correct. So I'm starting to see there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence.

Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver 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.

I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him. I said, hi, dad. And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen. She says, I have some cookies and milk. This is a badass convict. Right. Just finished five years. I'm going to have cookies and milk at my mom.

Yeah. On the senior show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon Danny Trail, talk about addiction, transformation, and the power of second chances. The entire season two is now available to binge, featuring powerful conversations with the guests like Tiffany Addish, Johnny Knoxville, and more.

I'm an alcoholic, and without this trouble, I'm going to die. Open your free I-Heart radio app. Search the CETO show and listen now. clearly if you're a long time fan of the show, you'll notice that we've had a curious metamorphosis. In the beginning, we were raw talking over each other. Like, there's no rules of podcasting or interviewing when you first jump in the game. And, of course, unlike radio, where you're supposed to go to communication school and learn how to backsell and do stuff in like 15 seconds distinctly. it's really a learning process, self-learning process when you podcast on your home without any communication training.

Then I'll say like after 2020, kind of had a life epiphany. And without really getting too deep into it, let's just say that I became more aware of what I wanted to put out into the world. and I guess in some abstract way, I guess I'm going to Hamilton saying like, not wasting my shot or, you know, Chuck D. says not rhyming for the sake of riddling. Just want to be more mindful of any content that I put out in the world. And, you know, of course, that's not in the kind of conservative 80s

slash, you know, tipper gore way of, You know, this whole idea that positivity or that sort of thing is seen as a bore or negative. I think wisdom and accurate information is important. I think processing of emotions is important. I think creativity is important. I think a lot of guests like coming on to the show because they're not here just to sell you product. You know, we're just so used to promoting the movie, promoting the movie, promoting the movie. artists rarely get a chance to just talk about how they feel

or feel safe to do so. And sometimes we've had episodes in which people have been wide open. One of the episodes which I, you know, even though you've heard me say like, oh, the Jimmy Jam episode or the Babyface episode or one of those drunken Christmas episodes, the Family Stand episode is definitely exemplary of

where there was no filter whatsoever. And, you know, the truth came out. Feelings came out. And then there's some episodes in which people held back. We still, to this day, joke about Faith Newman's very type-lipped experiences in the record industry in the 80s and 90s. Understandable, you know, what happens in life, stays in life in that present moment when it was. but for me, like, wisdom is important.

So that way, even if you listen to an old episode, like you can listen to that Jimmy Jam episode forever because he dropped so much wisdom gyms. So that's why wisdom's important. All right. So we've had some rather difficult conversations on Questloaf Supreme as well.

Back in 2016. Salange recounted how she felt profiled at a craft work concert. There was one entry on your site that really had me curious and I wanted to call you about it

but I forgot to and that was the I guess we can call it the craftwork incident. Yeah. And the thing was I understood I guess what I got from it was that it's really

hard for you to make people understand that you still go through human experiences which because people perceived you as coming from such a

this perceived dynasty of giants that you know it would be time to pull out the violin or whatever like oh you know porcelain you know and it's never validated what I'm saying is that what I got from that entry was the fact that you were frustrated that you really couldn't

figure out a way to express the anger you have when those injustices and those situations happen to you because people don't see you as a human being and just see you as part of this, you know, this dynasty that's supposed to be teflin to emotions. And I can imagine that being frustrated. Can you explain the craftwork situation? Yes. But I will say before I get into that, just to carry on what you said, the thing is, is that Dr. Dre is going through this in front of his home, and Open Winfrey is going through this, you know, in the Hermes store, and these are billionaires. So in that landscape, I think those kind of microaggressions happen to everyone daily.

as a black woman and man in this country. It doesn't matter your class. It doesn't matter how much money you have. What kind of, quote-unquote, empire, dynasty you come from. That's just the lay of the land. Essentially, my husband and my son, who's 12, Jules, and his friend Rashid, we went to see craftwork. And the interesting thing was it was a Friday night.

My son had his friend over. They had never heard of craft work. To be honest, that was the last thing that they wanted to do with their Friday night. So, you know, Alan and I are showing them YouTube videos and trying to make the link with hip hop to get them more interested and showing them visuals and like, no, you guys are going to love this. like, you know, just relating and specifically showing the samples that Jules' uncle sample of craftworks. So. Whoever that is, but go ahead. Took me a minute.

So essentially, that's important to note just for the story itself, that here you have two young black kids. who are not really interested, don't have much, you know, knowledge about this band. We're vested interest in them. Yeah. And we are, you know, trying to navigate them into the show and build interest and whatever. As soon as we walk in, we got our 3D glasses.

Was this at their museum run? No, this was at the Orphium Theater in New Orleans. Oh, is it? A theater? Oh. So, yeah, did I just say that? Yeah. So, yeah, we were basically walking to our seats, and it just so happened, the very song.

Mamma sheet. Yes, exactly. Was on. And so we were super stoked. We had box seats. There was two rows in front of us and one row behind us. And we walked our seats and we're dancing. And these women essentially just started yelling at the top of their lungs,

sit down now, sit down, shut up, you guys have been so disruptive. And I turned around and I, in that moment, had to make a decision, am I going to respond or am I just going to enjoy this song and deal with it later? I actually clocked into myself, you know, you have that moment. And I said, I'm going to dance to this song and then I'm going to sit my ass down because I already know where this is heading. Simultaneously, which I didn't write about, which Alan thought was really important for me to note. And note you, my son is, he was 11 at the time.

and the attendant comes over to him and his friend who are sitting down. They weren't standing up dancing now in an hour and says, put your no electronic cigarettes, put your cigarettes away. Wait, to these children. Yes. Did you? Yes. Yes.

Note you, as soon as we walked in, we saw these two older white men sitting in front smoking the cigarettes. We took note of that We weren't bothered But you know It was just the assumption that if someone was breaking the rule Surely it was the two 11 year old black kids You know

Oh because somebody said but they Smoking out of a vape Yeah vaping So it was just a lot of tension In general And thank God by the grace of God Alan hopped into that immediately And it was like

Ma'am these are children you've got the wrong people, whatever. And then after that, Alan's going to kill me for blanking on the name of the song, Audubon. Yeah, oh, Ottawa, yeah, yeah. That comes on. And on the ride there, Alan had played me the entire 12-minute song.

And it just so happened that that's what they played. So I was like, well, I'm going to just day. dance to this one too, because we just had that moment. And we're at a concert. Yeah, it's a concert, yeah. Right. And we're at an electronic dance music concert. It's not like we're at.

And nobody is engaged in this concert at all. They're sitting there. So there's two parts of this problem. The problem is also that, you know, we probably should have asked for floor seats, but we were under the assumption that people are going to be dancing on that. night long. So you're in the balcony of the theater. Yes.

So we're dancing and then I feel something hit me on the back of my head. But I say surely I am tripping. Must be tripping. Must be tripping, right? So I actually tell Alan, I said, I swear and maybe I'm just losing my motherfucking black ass mind. But I just felt something hit me on the back of my head. And he was like, babe, you might just be tripping.

Like, just lay low. So I actually, you know, shook it off. And then I felt something harder. Oh, no. Hit me on my shoulder and my son, my 11-year-old son, tapped me. He picked up a lime from the ground. Oh, my God.

A half-eaten lime. And he said, Mom, I just watched these women throw this at you. Oh, what in front of, mm. Oh, no. Just like being tested in all kind of ways. I mean, in front of your son. I mean, in front of my son.

Right. At a craft work contract. Right. Right. Right. Thank you. I needed the reference. And I felt so bad because I'm, they, they gave us the tickets.

I've never met them. But, you know, it just, it just sucks that they also had to be associated with this incident. But yeah, you know, in that moment, I basically knew we had probably three choices. One was to react, which probably would have led to someone getting arrested, you know, just spiraling out of control. Or I called the police on them because essentially, you know, they did throw shit at me. Wow. I never even thought of that being a lot.

Yeah, I mean, you know, you're going through all of the moments. No, I was just like, oh, we can't call a belief. We can. Yeah, yeah. We need to think like them sometimes. Yeah, exactly. That's what they do. I literally never even thought of that.

But I knew that even if that happened that somehow it would be a problem to you. It would still be our fault. Or just to just take it and be silenced because I knew that if I spoke to them, that it would escalate and my son was there, it was already traumatic. enough for him to have to experience that, especially in a context where it was a predominantly white space. And he didn't want to be there in the first place. And so now I think the thing that sadden me the most is that here we are as parents trying to expand, you know, his horizon and his experience and make him feel like he belongs wherever he chooses to be.

But that was not the message that we got that night. That's not the reality. What do you think he took from that experience? Did you explain to him what was happening? Oh, yeah. We had several talks. Let's not, let's yield them from. No, no, no. We had several talks.

In fact, you know, we had, it was quite a three days after that. I think that, number one, I think just as a young man and him and Alan, both as the men and the family, also felt silent and powerless just in protecting me in that situation because they are black men and no matter what would have been said or done they would have been the aggressors in the situation so on one end it was about teaching him you know after the last 11 12 years of teaching him about injustices and how to stand up for himself and to not be afraid and to speak up and then having to say, but... Right.

There is an addendum to that. There is. The whole speak your mind thing. Right. So it was very complicated, but I felt the need to write that piece for him. I felt the need to essentially not be silenced in that situation and to let him know that there is an outlet

in a way to use his voice responsibly. because there are so many people who read that piece who I felt had a deeper understanding of the microaggressions that we face as black men and women on a daily basis who were able to empathize, which is something that we have the expectation of people to do on the daily basis

and to treat us with humanity. But it was really interesting. And I felt regretful because I had so much rage in the moment that I started tweeting because I wanted them to see it when they got home that they were put on blast but I wish that I would have just channeled my emotions

and that waited and channeled in that piece and it was a great lesson learned that you know it really is no way to condense that experience in however many letters that you get on 140 characters that's what Tanashi-Colte had to write a book about it Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. It's really no way. Salon's experiences related to something that I shared on the show along with Journey Smallett. And Journey and I shared a story of the time that both she and I got stopped by police. And these were the things that people in the mainstream may not always hear because we never get, again, asked about our daily life experiences. This is all about our product. So we decided to share that story. And we felt it was important to take the space to share our experiences.

Journey, are we going to tell the story? Oh, what story? This is the first time we're going to tell the story? Oh, you know the story. The answer is absolutely yes. You know the story. Tell it. Oh, oh, Johnny said no, huh?

I don't know. Okay, then go ahead, tell it. I'll tell it. I mean, it's, it's, we were, you're talking about the Marina Del Rey one? Yeah. So often what we were doing is, um, we was phone bank, you know, he's talking about an 08, like really when we started heavily together, getting each other. No, no, no, it was Marina Del Rey.

Okay. We were leaving a, someplace where white people were. That's all I remember. Marina Del Rey. It would be both then. Yeah. we were leaving a grassroots organizing meeting for Obama in 2008. And it was during the primaries.

He hadn't even won yet. I think it was super Tuesday. Yes, we were depressed. And we were depressed because he lost California to Hillary. We were so depressed. And so he was driving his mini-coup. Whenever Amir would come to L.A., he would raise the mini-coop. that was after the many cool listen you could you could tell like who's known me like based on the car

I was driving during that period starts with the sion and it just goes from then yeah you remember the sion I forgot the sire we were depressed didn't we go see like there will be blood or something like it was something depressing I mean just something I don't remember I don't remember but we got pulled over oh that's that's that's that's that's I've heard the story that's lightly putting it Yeah. I forgot. Oh, yeah, smoke. We, I mean, pretty much we had, it was almost like that scene, I think, of traffic.

Traffic. Yeah, it was, it was, it was traffic for you. It was more like Boys in the Hood for me. Not traffic. I'm, I'm trying to, I'm trying to think. It was so many stories in traffic. I'm like, fuck. Which one?

It was a crash. It was a crash. But they're both like the same kind of movie. They are. A lot of stories. I always confuse them. Anywho, we get. pulled over and I pull out my camera and I'm like starting to film.

And it's not like it's a phone camera. It's like the. It's a massive like cam quarter. You got to hit the red button like a ghetto boom box like yeah, one of the big motherfuckers. So the cop walks up to the car and Jit and then Journey has the record. With the VHS? Yeah.

Yeah. I thought it was dead. Amir is like, you got Jordan, we put that damn thing away. You ain't Ella Baker right now. Okay. Like to take the time to be Ella Baker. put it away because it's massive. Oh, black man fear.

And so they, they. She was ready to start the revolution in the car. I was ready to televise it. And, you know, they, they ask Amir to get out of the car. Don't tell him why. Then they ask me to get out of the car. Uh-oh. They start patting him down.

They walk him to the back of the car and handcuff him, put him in the back of the car. they pat me down, searched me in ways that I would say was incredibly violating. They knew. They, they, they, yeah, I mean, the difference between now and then is that, of course, with the technology with cell phones, you don't know if you're being recorded or not. But that was definitely, I mean, there was definitely, you know, a moment in time where they were just reckless because they knew that. nobody's ever going to see this or believe this or get away with this even when they were asking questions like yeah what were they saying like what happens so we keep we keep going the the thing is is

that I know it's it's it's like the price it's like it's like being on the prices right and it's like when you're home you know that you know that bottle windex is whatever 699 or whatever like when you're home you know you know all the answers on jeopardy but when you're there and you see the look in their eyes. I was just like, I'm going to die tonight. Like, this is, this is, it's the most helpless, emasculating feelings ever. And, you know, he's talking about,

where's your register? I forgot what question he asked. And I said, well, you know, my, I said, you know, my assistant at the office, in an hour. Oh, God. I mean, like, office. like it's like you can't be too smart or else you're um assassin or that sort of thing and your your mind is just blink because they know you don't know your rights of course you know

knowing what i've seen now like we shouldn't have gotten out the car yeah how do you even put handcuffs on you for what like i don't well they didn't give us any explanation they then handcuffed me and put me in the back with the mirror and we sat there It felt like an eternity sitting in the back of that car together. Like neither one of us knew what to say. We just sat there in silence, you know. Arms in back or in front? In back.

Oh my God. See, that's what you're coming from. And back. Yeah. And then they came back. They had like, you know, looked through everything in his car and my purse and just kind of like handed him back his driver's license and said, okay, you can go. The weirdest shit was they wanted to look in the trunk.

and Journey and I had stopped by borders because Dawn, my manager, had just moved to L.A. and I was like, okay, I'm going to get her, I'm going to get her a deluxe scrabble game. In my mind, I was like, he's going to open this trunk and see all these scrabbles and psychology books in the back. And he's going to say there's no way that this car belongs to these two. Oh. And his thing was that, and I never verified it, I think we did ask, like, why did you pull us over?

Rich was calling me on the phone. Here's the weird shit. Rich was calling me on the phone about Prince's table at the jam session. And me, quote, being a good citizen, I was like, okay, let me pull the car over so I can take this phone call, you know, or I could have just picked up the car, you know, call while I was driving, but I didn't. And we happened to be in front of a mini-coup dealership, I guess. That's, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, he says some shit about, you know, he said, he said, um, something as if the lights, the plates didn't match the rental car, um, uh, uh, uh, contract. And we were like,

but how do you know to pull us over to check to see if the plates match the rental part contract? Like you didn't have the contract when you decided to pull us over to know if they didn't match. And it just was pretty much they let us go without a ticket, without a warning, without anything, because there was nothing that Amir had actually done wrong. It was just he was driving while black in a mini coup with a big row. Right. And we just fell, honestly, when we drove away, it's stupid. Night ruined.

Night ruined. We're just in silence and all the mere. Ameri, you kept apologizing. And I want a Grammy that week. That's a weird thing. Yeah. I don't even consider, like, even to look at that. I think that's when I started just putting my shit in the bathroom.

Like, I honestly, if you. Did you win a Grammy that week? Was it that week? The following Sunday I did. That was 2000. eight, right? Yeah. So did you, Bill. I'm going to say it again. That's nice. Oh, damn. That was too. Okay. You're right, Bill.

I did get pulled over. I did win a Grammy. Thank you. Anyway, so that's specifically me. I still want to talk about it. I was like, I'm not that. I was going to let that just, because I know he know better. He was going to come back. No, no, no. I'm, I'm, I'm, the mini coop. I'm sorry. I'm making a joke. I shouldn't, but I'm so fucked up by all this.

I don't know what to say. I know. This is the one story I rarely share in public because it's just, you know. And then you said, just to process it. But it was that word you kept using. You kept saying, Jern, I just feel so emasculated. Yeah, for you to say that. Also, the two of you in the back of a cop car not speaking to each other is, is the quietest quiet.

I think I've ever heard of quiet. Like, you're. the most talkative people I've met in a long time. I feel like you would have a lot to say in this particular crazy fucked up moment. Right. The fact of you're quiet is even more intense than. We live in such a machismo society where like men don't let other men overpower them in anything and intellect physically or those things. But it's almost like this unspoken thing.

Absolutely. That citizens know that any moment a cop can in your life within the bounds of the the quote unquote law. And for you, Amir has been double. And there's nothing to do about it. And you had journey with you. So as a man,

that's an even double. That's what I was going to say. Yeah. It's deep. It goes back to the slave days of like, you know, the emasculation of the black man of like, okay,

we're going to do this in front of you. And you ain't going to say nothing. In front of this woman. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And guess what, guess what you can't do. You can't stop us,

right? And so that's what we both. could feel as we were driving away. And he kept being like, Jern, I'm so sorry. And I kept being like, what could you have done? There was nothing you could have done.

Like, we made it out alive. That's better than a lot of people in this situation can say. Like, and that's a shitty, that's a shitty reality to have to settle for. It's like, oh, at least we made it out a lot.

But we did, y'all. We made it out alive, you know? That's the shitty thing of driving wild black. And the shitty thing of, you know, While black and Walking by black and black

And female or black and male You know Yeah Yeah Have you had any situation like that Ever or since? Oh God, yeah Do you have more?

Yeah You know, I've shot so much in the South too You know So I've had several experiences I mean, I remember shooting great debaters Was that after or before? I can't remember. I think that was before

But I remember we did the lynching scene. And I was driving a set in the van and over the radio, I heard one of the teamsters say, well, we're having a lynching today, ladies and gentlemen. I mean, like, yeah, I've dealt with some crazy as stuff, you know, as you all have too. Mm-hmm, yeah. But you deal with it and then you acted out. It's different. You, like, reenact it. So it's, to me, it's like, well, that's my, that's my way of channeling the pain, I guess. Yeah, it was trying to place it somewhere. You know, obviously with Lovecraft, there was a lot I had to pull from, okay?

A lot in my life was shitty at that time. When is there talks of season two or a return or? I don't know. That's interesting. Wait, still? Is this not an instant slam dunk in? Oh, she said we will see like, we will see? Like, we will see?

Okay. I mean, as in like, you gotta add the power that be above my pay grade. HBO to get their shit together. That's what I know. I see it. Nothing angers me more when I get

emotionally involved in a series only for it to be yanked away. You can't make your phone calls. You can't make your phone calls of what I am. Yeah, exactly. The good news is that all signs point to very popular. positive response from folks, from critics, from, I mean, the, I was recently told the pilot is like,

it's, you know, set in records for how many people have watched it. So it's, yeah, I'm, I'm sure that I count for, I count for 28 of those views. Journey Wood. I watched the pilot like maybe 11 times because I've made other people. Me too. Yeah. Watch as well. We're, we're looking good shape, y'all. We're in good shape. That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter, and on my podcast, 2%. I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange, modern world. I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more,

to look past the impractical and way too complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. We really believe that seed oils were inherently inflammatory. We got it wrong. Many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world are the result of stress. Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's T-W-O-Persent on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people.

I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jett. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of cross.

crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me,

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I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him. Hi, Dad. And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen. She says, I have some cookies and milk. This is his badass convict. Right. Just finished five years. I'm going to have cookies and milk at my mom.

Yeah. On the Ceno Show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations. about recovery, resilience, and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon Danny Trail, talk about addiction, transformation, and the power of second chances. The entire season two is now available to binge,

featuring powerful conversations with the guests like Tiffany Addish, Johnny Knoxville, and more. I'm an alcoholic. And without this trouble, I'm going to die. Open your free I-Heart radio app. Search the Cito Show. and listen now. All right, so QLS discusses black history

through political and global lenses. Here's Angela Rye speaking about what she learned from Congresswoman Maxine Waters. I hope Angela Rye runs for office one day. I'm going to manifest that for her. Although I wouldn't wish it on anyone because the amount of stress

and gas lighting one has to deal with, but I would like to see that. So Angela Rye, of course, legendary for her work on the Congressional Black Caucus. And even though this was from 2017, it's unfortunately still very relevant. Can you break down what the Black Caucus does? Because there are people who really don't know. Sure.

They're often, they don't know, especially those that say, where's the Congressional White Caucus as if the rest of the 435 members aren't white? I digress. So the Congressional Black Caucus is an entity that was founded in 1971. by then I think it was 12 members that were black in the House of Representatives, and they established the organization so that there could be a space where black people's issues were heard. They're known as the conscience of the Congress, and now they are almost 250 members. And, of course, there are two senators in the United States Senate who also serve as members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

There are three black senators, but one opted not to join. Tim Scott. Thank you. Thank you. Write it down. So can I assume that most of the members of the CBC are Democrat?

Yes. There is one current member of the CBC who's Republican. Her name is Mia Love. She is from Utah. My aunt. That's not your aunt.

Well, her last name was Love, so I just assume that all loves are related. My dad normally says maybe the same plantation. That's what he says to that. Just to be honest, that's what he says. The same plantation. Yeah.

Has she attended meetings or? Yeah. She has been active on some issues. She definitely divergent on others, but she's been active on some issues. I see. So not why, because I appreciate your grassroots involvement and you using the elbow grease and getting down and dirty. But why would you choose this? this particular field, I mean, you went to law school, you could have just been.

Got some other stuff? Yeah. I mean, what truly means you, was it following the family business or, I mean, and your father's footsteps as far as the community, like what most lawyers I know are thinking in terms of, oh, success in my own law firm, being a partner and that sort of thing. So should we know who her father is? his name is Eddie Ryde Jr. He's an activist in Seattle, but it's actually a really interesting story. What I'll tell you is there were two other paths that I thought I would choose before I chose politics. I grew up in a house with a dad who's an activist,

and I thought he was always on the opposite side of elected politics. So I hated it growing up because I couldn't understand why they didn't understand why he was pressing for, you know, or a part of anti-apartheid movements or, you know, getting involved with ensuring that subcontractors and contractors of color had an equal share of the pie. I didn't understand why that was even an issue, right? And so growing up with him, I hated politics because they were never on his side. And it wasn't until I was in my last year, my fall semester of law school, I wanted to

do an internship in Los Angeles and Maxine Waters was someone I respected a lot and so I was like, well, if I can learn from her, you know, maybe this will be good, but I'm going to go so that I could be a trial attorney like Johnny Cochran. I just want to get an offer at the Cochran firm. And before that, I wanted to be a sports entertainment lawyer, but I'll save that story for another day. It's really interesting how that happened or didn't happen. But in my, I did my internship and like fell in love with the bridge between activism and politics. And there's no better bridge for that than Maxine Waters. I started calling her the nation's congresswoman then.

That was in 2004, 2005. And just loved working with her, loved how she made everything work together for us, regardless of if we lived in her district or not. And I did get an offer from the Cochran firm. Like had a mentor, Sean Chapman-Hawley. Shout out to Sean Chapman-Hawley, still a good friend, had an offer with the firm, and then he died. Damn.

And I was like, oh, Lord, maybe this wasn't the path. So at the National Black Lawson's Association. What year did he die? 2005. Okay. At the convention, I was getting ready to introduce Congresswoman Waters who came to our convention. I was like, what am I going to do now? Johnny Cochran died.

And she was like, I told you to go to the hill. So I was like, well, maybe I'll think about that now. And that's really the short version of how that happened. But she's never been wrong, and I'm so happy to see millennials woke about her now. But she's been doing this. The nation's congresswoman Queen Maxine has been doing this. So it's cool to see. You had her back too.

It all makes sense now, too, why you had her back even more when that whole stupid Bill O'Reilly situation. Well, I think I would have had any sisters back going through that. That was stupid. She's on the floor of the United States House of Representatives talking about what patriotism and the era of Trump really means. Like, it's not, you know, pledging blind allegiance to. some concept. It's about standing up for what we know to be truthful and righteous. And for her to be talking about that.

And he's talking about a damn James Brownwig. It sent me to a place. Yeah, it's dismissive. Yeah. To, among other things. A lot of shit, but yeah, dismissive. That was the kind way you're saying. Yes, that was very kind of me.

So do you, I mean, obviously, I know it gets overwhelming. But just watching you in action. And of course, like in the age of social media, a lot of people are familiar with you as far as your clips on the internet, usually going at people. And rightfully so, whenever facts are sprouted out. And that's the thing. Like when I watch you go against two, three, four people at a time. it is I mean it's baffling to me I don't know if it's the equivalent of someone asking well you know how do you can how do you coordinate your kick drum and your hi-hat foot and your left hand and your right hand and talk to be you know how are you not exhausted I didn't say I wasn't exhausted I did not say that um but I mean have I mean as I the the era that we live in now which is of course I guess the alternative facts era and we're which things are said with such a straight face.

I think, you know, in general, a lot of us have been programmed to believe that if any information comes from someone wearing a suit and spoken in the King's English, then why should they lie to me? Like, you know, why would they want to lie to me? And usually, you know, a lot of benefits of doubts are given. and we're seeing straight up false information how I mean to me it's like the equivalent of you playing a tennis match with five people on the other side five yeah yeah I mean how do you I mean just in this era especially when you agreed to do pundant remarks on on shows how do you grasp your information

because you have to know what they stand for and how they come like do you Does someone train you? No, I've never had media training, but I will say that I did get Crossfire training. I don't know if you all remember Crossfire, like the CNN show back in the day, when it was all the old white dudes at the table. Just growing up with my dad, now he doesn't lie,

but we don't always agree on the means to an end goal. So growing up, like just debating him or, you know, talking to my friends or debating race issues, Like I went to a majority white high school, you know, started a black student union. And so you get used to having to explain to people your perspective because it's not the majority view. So whether or not this is, this may be an alternate universe, but it's still not the majority view on the panel. So it's just debating. The problem I have, and I think when people see me get really upset, is when I remember the responsibility that we have to,

to give people factual information. I think the frustration that I have, if nothing else right now, is being able to speak to people in their homes on their TV screens is an awesome privilege. And we have an obligation to give them information they can rely upon. And so I'll normally lose it, especially on, like, black networks. Like on TV one, if I'm on Rolling Show and somebody's lying, I flip out.

Like there's been, you know, jiff or gif, depending on how you say it, jiffable moments just from that like please don't come here and lie to our folks not that folks should be lied to unseeing in either but I just think that there's a different type of responsibility and even with CNN I think it is really hard

because I remember one of the debates during the general election the debate commission decided that the moderator did not have an obligation to fact check the candidates and I lost it I was like what

You mean? Like that's your only responsibility besides asking the questions. Like, of course that you had one job. You got or two. You know, one A and one B. Like, all in one. But you have some, what do you mean? Like, of course you have to make sure that they're being, like, what are you debating then? If facts become a debatable point and not just the perspectives on those facts, that is a new challenge. And so I do, I find it immensely frustrating because I don't understand how someone could be deemed credible at all if they're not relying on. on the same principle of truth. You know, it's just, it's maddening. It really, it really, really is. And so to me, I just think that the energy I take into those spaces is, if you're not going to be told the truth from anyone else, you're going to hear it from me. And if I'm ever, if I ever misspeak on something,

if a stat is wrong, you know, if I said a word wrong, I'll fact check it later on Twitter, but I'm not going to lie to people intentionally deceiving them. Like, that is just wrong. And that's just kind of where I draw the line. now as of this particular taping right now the the health care situation is in the hands of the Senate and I'm seeing a lot of them I guess at one point on Twitter there were at least three or four of them that tweeted out or gave interviews sort of to the tune of you know your

saying that, you know, that 22 million people might lose their insurance or in this several hundred thousand might die if this law goes. And, you know, that was, that was not a good conversation point to sway them the other way. But, I mean, what is for those, because I have a lot of friends who are so overwhelmed with what's going on that now my friends are at the point where they're just so not even past the point of indifference but just so overwhelmed that they don't watch the news at all

and these are the ones who are generally on my side of the fence I don't know I can't sleep at night unless I at least watch an hour or two at least Rachel's show or someone that I know

that's going to give me straight effects but how do you how do we reignite people or a community of people that just feel like it's no use. Yeah, no use. I started, have you guys heard of a handmade, handmade's tale? I haven't watched it yet. Have you watched it?

I haven't watched it, but I know what you're talking about. It's, yeah. I heard it's the future's really sad. If you, yeah, if you think that like a house of cards or, you know, whatever's being depicted now in television. vision as don't, Hamys, tell us like, okay, I check it. I almost feels like this is, that's where it's gonna go to.

Okay, I'll check that. I haven't even watched out. I gave up on House of Cars. Like, I just, because it was, we live in House of Carrier. Right? Yeah, I don't know how they did that. Yeah, I lightweight blame House of Cards, actually. Why?

Because of the Russia part, right? All of it. Oh, you're not even being ironic. No. Does that look ironic to you? I need to find somebody to blame because this makes no sense. Besides old Vlad.

Like, I just. I got to, I don't know. So, something happened. On the hills of what Amir said, and on that note, how do you prioritize the issues that you should be most caring about? Because, yes, health care is the issue right now. But there are numerous issues that, you know, our president right now and his Congress are about to fuck up life with. So how do you do that, Angela? How do you prioritize?

So first, that's y'all's president. That's not my name. That's not my word. So, no. So I think that that's a really, really good question. and what I appreciate about it is I get so frustrated with whether they're elected officials

that are sitting members of Congress right now who will say, well, we don't need to be talking about Russia because what people really want to know about is their health care. What people really want to know about is, you know, where the next job is going to come from the economy. I want to know about all that. That's right.

And so if we're honest, every single day, all of us are responsible for balancing something. Amir, we were talking about your time earlier. Like we're responsible for balancing some things. We are people who can walk and chew gum at the same time and be okay. So it's actually okay for us to try to get to the bottom of what happened with Russia and how they ended up in several polls, you know, precincts, messing with stuff. You know, that's important for us to understand

because over time, if countries, if entities can continue to interrupt and disrupt our democracy, the ways in which we engage in the electoral process, people are going to become disillusioned with that. That is very, very, very dangerous. It's no longer democracy at that point. That's exactly right. That means a select few are picking your leaders. And what happens is this health care bill

to bring this back full circle, which is, you know, very toxic. It is a purge. That's what the fuck it is. It's a tax cut for billionaires. You know, it is a way of, one of the Senate compromises that came about yesterday was,

Okay, well, we'll just, we'll reinstitute the mandatory health care. You have to sign up mandatorily, but what we're going to do is if there's a lapse in your health care, then there's going to be a six-month window for you to get health care again. What happens if something happens to you in those six months? And you can't afford to pay for health care out of pocket. That's not a compromise. And if it's a compromise, who is it on the backs of? And those are folks who normally look like us.

if they're underserved in marginalized communities, black and brown communities, we have to pay attention. And so if there's nothing else that I hope comes out of this treacherous, dangerous, awful time, it is that I hope we realize that these people are working for us. And I use this analogy on a panel the other day. There's not a single one of us who, if we are employing people, just are like, okay, we're going to pay you, you go and do whatever,

and never check in. There's a team call. There's a team meeting. there's an agenda, there's some type of metrics for accountability where they have to check in with us. We pay these people. They owe us answers. They owe us to do the right thing. They think it's town halls. And town halls aren't even enough. They got to show up to those. And people are starting to show up to town halls, but even that's not enough. We need to be checking them on what they're doing. What they're doing impacts us more in some instances than the employees that we have.

All right. Here is Gina Yashir speaking about her family. who emigrated to London, England, from Nigeria and the experiences that they had. And its effect on Gina's upbringing. This is from 2021. Can I ask the question, though? Yes. Even though Gina is born and raised in London,

her mother is not. And so I must think that your mother does not feel the same way about this English food. And on the back of that question, can you also break down, like, how dope and royal of a situation your mother came to and then came to London and it was a flip of the switch.

Oh, yeah. For one, my mom loves a bit of baked beans. Don't even knock it. My mom is full Nigerian. He loves Nigerian food. Like, when we were kids, we ate Nigerian foods in the house. But my mom love mashed potatoes. And my mom loved baked beans.

So it was the dichotomy. But yeah, my mom was from a wealthy, way well-known family. My mom's from a family called the Abbasiki family. And they are practically royalty in Nigeria. And my mom was from a wealthy family. Her dad had a load of wives. She was educated. Her dad traveled all over the world on business and he took her with him.

And she went to private school and she was a school principal in Nigeria before she was 24 years old. So she was very, you know, she did, yeah, she was very, she achieved a lot. And then she came to England and did be poor. Wow. Why did she come to England? Well, long story short, if you read my new book that's coming out, that's out, you'll know that my mother was the daughter of the first. wife. So my grandfather had many wives. As you know, pulling in me was widely practiced in Nigeria. Oh, tell me about that. Oh, yeah, lots of wives. Lots of wives. I'm asking for a friend. Lots of wives. And my daughter, my mom was the daughter of the first wife. But the first wife was

very powerful, as the first wife is, as the first. The other wives were very jealous. And there was, the other wives murdered my grandmother. They point, oh, yeah. Oh, we never get into your career. You got to starting the beginning. This is some Game of Thrones shit. Yeah. Yeah, for real. Game of Thrones shit. So yeah, the other wives did not, my mother, my grandmother was like, listen, the

other wives don't like me. These bitches are trying to kill me. If anything happens to me, get my daughter out of Nigeria. So she ended up dying. She was poisoned. And when she died, she had a mark on her throat. Now, before my grandmother died, she always used to say, when I come back, when I come back, I'm going to, I'm going to speak English, I'm going to be in England, I'm not going to

have all these children because my mum had my grandmother had 11 kids and I don't want all these these children I'm going to do a man's job I'm going to have freedom all of you think when she died from a poison she had a mark on her throat obviously when she died my grandfather sent my mum out of the country because he who's like what I've killed the wife I'm not going to have them kill my daughter too so he sent my mom to England to study and that is where my mom met my dad they met each other they had me and I came out with this mark on my flow so basically I'm a real incarnation of my grandmother. So that that's the story because Nigerians believe heavily in the incarnation. And I came out doing all the things that my grandmother said. I'm about to say,

yeah. You kind of fulfilled her legacy. I fulfilled everything. So when I said my mom was like, comedian, you want to become a clown? I was like, mom, remember, this is what your mother wanted. I am your mother. So that's how I get away with stuff. But yeah, my mom, so that's how my mother ended up in England studying. And she was a teacher. She came to England. she wanted to carry on working as a teacher but England was super racist she couldn't my dad she met my dad my dad was studying for his PhD uh he was and he was also a qualified lawyer they could he couldn't get work as a lawyer in in england so basically they met they got married they had us and then my dad was like forget this i want to go back to Nigeria this is not i ain't driving a bus when i'm a lawyer

i'm a lawyer in Nigeria i'm not staying here to drive a bus let's get the kids let's go and my mom was like no uh i've had my children in england they are British, I want them to stay in England and be afforded all the opportunities that being British entails, I'm staying here with my kids. So basically, my mom and dad went back to Nigeria when I was three and I didn't see him again until I was 37 when I went out there to do a show in Nigeria. So that was it. Wait, you met your father backstage at a show? He came to my show. So at that point, I was pretty well known in England and pretty well known in Nigeria. I'd done a couple of sketches on television in England that had gone viral in Nigeria.

I got flown out to Nigeria to do a show. And obviously, I still carried my father's name. So my father was like, when I was going, my mom was like, oh, your father is going to turn up. You watch. He's going to turn up at the show. Wait, you retains you. And he did.

He turned up at the show with a bunch of brothers and sisters that I'd never met. So it was, it's all in the book. It's all in the book, people. OK. Yes, it is. And also in the book, I remind, I want to tell people, too, you give a good history on the empire of Benin and whatnot.

I was like, oh, what. Wow, I had no idea. Can you briefly let me know about, I just recently found out my lineage to Benin, like maybe a year ago. Benin the country next to Nigeria or Benin, the city in Nigeria, been in this. Because there's two minutes, there's Benin city in Nigeria, which is where my family from. And then there's been in the country, which is next to Nigeria, where they speak French. Yeah. So are you beneath?

But if they say Benin in your, I'm assuming it's been in the country. Okay, I believe that it was the country simply because when there was a civil war happening, the Nigerians had some Benin prisoners that they used as leverage to negotiate. My great-grandfathers was one of those captured and sold in the slavery in America. So I believe it's the country. Yeah, exactly the country then, but then, yes. But yeah, I do open my book with history of Nigeria and the binin within Nigeria, which is now southern Nigeria, and where my family are from and how advanced the society was and how the British came and tried to take it. And they got their asses handed to them by the binan warriors. And then they came back and burnt bin Laden to the ground and stole all those bronzes.

And hence why you've got all these binning bronzes in museums in New York and around the world. because the British came, burnt down Benin, stole all the bronzes, and sold the bronzes to pay for the army that they'd used to burn down Brinning. Ooh, man, the damage that the British have done to the world, man. Oh, the British, like, yeah, exactly when you guys go, oh, Britain is so polite and genteel. No, it isn't. They are straight savages. And also, not for nothing. Nigerians usually act like ain't nobody come and mess with them at all. So this history is not always told in that aspect.

It's like, anybody come try to colonize us. No, we're good. Oh, no. We only got our independence. Nigeria only got their independence in 1960. Right. From England. So 1960, we got our independence.

And even then, the economy was completely messed up after that because white people came out and took everything with them. They'd already raped it of all the resources, all the oil, all the everything. All the resources. Yeah. And then there was a lot of money in oil for a while. but it all collapsed. It all collapsed. The school systems was based on the British school systems.

You know, they took away the element that Nigerians were all about, Africans were all about family and learning trades and passing down stuff within the family. And the British came and went, no, don't forget all that family stuff. Ah, no. Capitalism. It's all about capitalism. You learn, you get these qualifications and then like it. And so they completely changed the way that Nigerians worked. And it's just ruined, in my opinion, ruin the country.

Now you've got a few greedy people. just creaming everything off. They just really, you know. So that's the history. Hey, at least you know yours. You ain't had to go to African ancestry, right? Somebody just said. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. And that's part one of QLS's celebration of Black History Month. Please come back next week for part two. All right, y'all. Peace. Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeartRadio. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

2%. That's the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter. I'm on my podcast, 2%. I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world. Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person. Listen to 2%. That's TWO%

on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast. For 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84's big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year,

unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Listen to look back at it on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver 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, unfiltered conversations with athletes,

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