Speaker 1: Welcome to Checking In with Michelle Williams, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and The Black Effect. Hey everybody, I'm on the
Speaker 1: couch this week. If you want to know why, keep
Speaker 1: listening and you'll find out on Checking In with Michelle Williams. Hello,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the first episode of twenty twenty six. We
Speaker 1: made it, We are here. Thank y'all for still rocking
Speaker 1: with me in the new year. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome
Speaker 1: to new beginnings, new days, chances to do things you
Speaker 1: didn't do in the prior year. And I say this
Speaker 1: hoping that when you hear me, you know, having said that,
Speaker 1: that you don't have any shame or regret. Just know
Speaker 1: that while you're still breathing, you've got time to get
Speaker 1: things done. Maybe this year we're going to be more intentional.
Speaker 1: This year, we are probably going to procrastinate less and
Speaker 1: we are going to get things done. I'm so excited
Speaker 1: about that. I'm so excited about that. Matter of fact,
Speaker 1: it's making me, you know, I got it's making me
Speaker 1: write things down. As I've been talking to you guys,
Speaker 1: it has made me like pull out my notepad and
Speaker 1: write other thoughts down that come to that come to me,
Speaker 1: And so if you hear something, I'm like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: just had a thought, but yeah, I'm just hoping that
Speaker 1: you know, we are more intentional, more intentional about our
Speaker 1: mental health. What do I mean by that? Again, everyone
Speaker 1: has everyone has mental health. Everyone does not have mental illness.
Speaker 1: Just like we all have cardiovascular health, we also have
Speaker 1: mind health, brain health. So let's do what we can
Speaker 1: to stay healthy in those areas. I'm really, really, really
Speaker 1: really excited about the new year, and I hope you
Speaker 1: are excited about your new year too. Maybe you feel
Speaker 1: like your plans aren't as extravagant as someone else's plans,
Speaker 1: but just know, if you have plans and they work
Speaker 1: for you, that's all that matters. Do not compare your
Speaker 1: plans to someone else. Do not compare your plans to
Speaker 1: someone else's, because then, before you know what, you'll be
Speaker 1: trying to be in someone else's shoes that might be
Speaker 1: a little bit too big for you. Or while you're
Speaker 1: trying to do someone else's plans, you realize, oh, these
Speaker 1: aren't my Either way you'll figure out it ain't my size,
Speaker 1: or you know what, this ain't my lane. So stick
Speaker 1: to your plan, stick to your plans. Also, I didn't
Speaker 1: mean to even go this way, but you know, talk
Speaker 1: your plans out with a trusted person, a mentor a
Speaker 1: trusted friend who's maybe accomplished some things. Make sure that
Speaker 1: is that it is with someone you trust, and of
Speaker 1: course someone who ain't gonna steal your plans and try
Speaker 1: to go and do them themselves. Okay, stick to your plans,
Speaker 1: get counsel about your plans. Okay. So this year already,
Speaker 1: by the way, I don't know if I said it already,
Speaker 1: but this episode is brought to you from my sofa. Yep,
Speaker 1: I am on the sofa because I have been under
Speaker 1: the weather, over the weather, in between weather. Two illnesses.
Speaker 1: One was self induced, the other definitely was in the
Speaker 1: wind somewhere. The week of Christmas, I had some type
Speaker 1: of maybe sinus infection or could have been strep throat
Speaker 1: child It could have been symptoms of whatever this superflui
Speaker 1: is that's running rampant in New York City. So the
Speaker 1: week of Christmas, I was on a Z pack and
Speaker 1: pregno zone. I think I might have talked about it
Speaker 1: a little bit, and so I pushed through that holiday schedule.
Speaker 1: I was so proud of me you know, because we
Speaker 1: did a kind of a marathon during one of those
Speaker 1: holiday weeks where it was a two show Friday to
Speaker 1: show Saturday, two show Sunday. Brutal, you know, but it
Speaker 1: was cool because you know, we were off Christmas Eve
Speaker 1: and Christmas Day, right. Shout out to the producers for
Speaker 1: making sure that people could be you know, with their
Speaker 1: families or however folks wanted to spend the New Year,
Speaker 1: spend Christmas after Christmas, you know we're off on was well,
Speaker 1: we were off Monday, had a show, two shows on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: I believe off New Year's Eve. I had a belie
Speaker 1: last with Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper. Crazy thing is
Speaker 1: about Anderson Cooper. Anderson knows practically no pop culture at all.
Speaker 1: He is going to be that journalist that is about
Speaker 1: world affairs. Okay, so when we were asking him questions
Speaker 1: about everything regarding theater, no clue. Just bless his heart.
Speaker 1: But they were super kind. Andy Cohen of course, a
Speaker 1: ball of joy. I love how they compliment each other,
Speaker 1: you know, how one is hot and one is cold
Speaker 1: versus like, Okay, they balance Anderson is cold as it
Speaker 1: relates to everything pop culture and all the things that. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Andy knows everything all the tea, he knows every body.
Speaker 1: So that was really, really, really amazing. And yes, I
Speaker 1: had my little German shepherd coat on. You know, I
Speaker 1: had to tell a few folks it was faux fer
Speaker 1: oh Jesus, because yeah, well we'll just we'll just stop there.
Speaker 1: Few people were in my inbox and one one person
Speaker 1: even told me to stop wearing things that look so
Speaker 1: real to not look wear. Don't even wear faul fur
Speaker 1: that looks as real as mine did, because they were like,
Speaker 1: people want to dress like you and be like you. Yo,
Speaker 1: it is faull get off. My line sucks, just just
Speaker 1: getting on my nerves already. People gone, people, People are people,
Speaker 1: can you know? And it just showed. I was like,
Speaker 1: I just really felt sorry for that person. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: you are miserable going into the new year trying to
Speaker 1: polllice and tell somebody how they should dress or what
Speaker 1: they should wear. Oh, we're gonna get into that. Oh
Speaker 1: we're gonna get into that. Because my good sister Carrie Bryant,
Speaker 1: her dress has been to the topic of a I'm
Speaker 1: gonna just say, well, I just saw us say today
Speaker 1: picked it up or was it people. I was gonna
Speaker 1: say it was only the topic of a certain demographic,
Speaker 1: but once mainstream news begins to pick stuff up, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go ahead on and say it. It's more than
Speaker 1: black people talking about it. Okay, you feel me? Okay?
Speaker 1: So doing that New Year's Eve was great. We had
Speaker 1: to show New Year's Day. If you are new here,
Speaker 1: if you're talking thinking about what I'm talking about. Not
Speaker 1: only do I host this amazing podcast where I get
Speaker 1: to sit and share with you, I also I am
Speaker 1: in a Broadway musical called Death Becomes Her. So if
Speaker 1: you're new here and you're trying to figure out what
Speaker 1: am I talking about, that's what I That's what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. So we had a show New Year's Day. Great.
Speaker 1: We had two shows Friday, January second and somewhere I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you. I'm gonna tell you what happened. I
Speaker 1: ordered nuggets from a very beloved place. Really it was
Speaker 1: for the fries, but because of like you know, minimum
Speaker 1: delivery order, I want to head and ordered a nugget meal.
Speaker 1: So you get nuggets, the fries, and a drink, yes
Speaker 1: d R A n K. I only ate the fries.
Speaker 1: That was Friday, January second, we had two shows. I
Speaker 1: hadn't really eaten. My appetite was already weird because I
Speaker 1: was coming off of all this intense medication from days prior.
Speaker 1: My appetite was really weird. January second, again, we normally
Speaker 1: do not have two shows on a Friday, but we
Speaker 1: had two shows Friday. I said, gosh, I gotta eat something.
Speaker 1: I don't want to like pass out on stage or
Speaker 1: just just be all weak and everything. So I said,
Speaker 1: let me let me grab some fries. So the nuggets
Speaker 1: were not touched. I said, let me be a good steward.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take these nugget and it's home after the
Speaker 1: evening show, now, mind you. I ordered this food around
Speaker 1: twelve noon ish for two o'clock matine. The second show
Speaker 1: was done around nine thirty. I'm hungry. On my way
Speaker 1: back home from the theater, I decide to eat the
Speaker 1: nuggets on the way home. Y'all, this is the crazy part.
Speaker 1: I tucked the nuggets away in the microwave so they
Speaker 1: wouldn't be stinking up my room, my dressing room. First
Speaker 1: of all, I guess I should have put them in
Speaker 1: the refrigerator. I put them in the microwave. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I thought. I said, well, maybe I'll nibble on them,
Speaker 1: you know, throughout the matine or whatever. No, y'all, them
Speaker 1: nuggets was nine almost ten hours old. I was tearing
Speaker 1: them nuggets up when I got when I was on
Speaker 1: my way home. Yeah, Friday, January second, my life changed.
Speaker 1: And the wee hours of the morning January third, I
Speaker 1: think I had food poisoning. Now. Doctors nurses told me, hey,
Speaker 1: the stomach flu is also going around. You know, it's
Speaker 1: all kinds of fluvariants running around. I said, y'all, I
Speaker 1: respect your opinion. And I said, I don't know, guys,
Speaker 1: the timing of my sickness, I don't know. It's it's
Speaker 1: gotta be from when I ate these ten hour old nuggets. Y'all,
Speaker 1: don't do don't don't do that. Don't do that. Don't
Speaker 1: be like me. I will never eat nuggets. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a long time. Oh, it's gonna be a long time.
Speaker 1: People shamed me too. One person was like, man, I
Speaker 1: ain't ate nuggets in twenty years. Will good for you?
Speaker 1: Shamed me, y'all. I was so sick Saturday into Sunday.
Speaker 1: No energy. I'm still on the Men, which is why
Speaker 1: I am recording this week's episode from the sofa this so,
Speaker 1: this episode is late because of lack of energy and
Speaker 1: just recovering. I could not be in my shows and
Speaker 1: death becomes her because of this illness. And they are
Speaker 1: very gracious to me, and I went to the doctor
Speaker 1: of Saturday. I'm very kind, very gracious, gave me what
Speaker 1: I needed to get well. I'm doing all the ivy
Speaker 1: fluids and getting hydrated. I'm drinking all the electrolyte drinks
Speaker 1: that you can imagine. I'm on the Brat diet, although
Speaker 1: today I'm gonna try a baked potato. I need some fat, y'all.
Speaker 1: I need I've lost some weight. I don't need to
Speaker 1: miss a meal. God bless you all that can. I
Speaker 1: don't need to miss a meal. I literally I should No,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't. I should not miss a meal, as the
Speaker 1: old folks say. So. I also was unable to do
Speaker 1: the Sherry Shepherd show with your schedule for Monday yesterday,
Speaker 1: which is unlike me to like have a publicly announced
Speaker 1: you know, it was announced that I was gonna be
Speaker 1: on her show, y'all. I couldn't no, and ner g
Speaker 1: just down. Just it took me out, baby, This food
Speaker 1: poisoning took me through there, you hear me. It took
Speaker 1: me the from the north southeast west. It took me
Speaker 1: twelve gates to the east, twelve gates to the west,
Speaker 1: twenty four gates to the city. Hollelu baby, I was.
Speaker 1: I am grateful to have some strength. I said, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm not gonna miss this week's episode. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna talk to my people and see how y'all are
Speaker 1: doing for the New year. Prayerfully, you are off to
Speaker 1: you know, a good start. H Not only are you
Speaker 1: off to a good start that you're not feeling, you know,
Speaker 1: in a rush. Unless there are some assignments and projects
Speaker 1: and plans that you have that are time sensitive, then
Speaker 1: you have to be on pace. I absolutely get it.
Speaker 1: I'm not telling anyone to procrastinate, and I'm not telling
Speaker 1: anyone to be lazy. But I have stopped. This is
Speaker 1: me personally. I have stopped coming out of the New
Speaker 1: Year's swinging. It's just and it's worked for me. It's
Speaker 1: worked for me. You know, gaining momentum as the month
Speaker 1: goes is absolutely incredible, absolutely incredible. So I am on
Speaker 1: the end, it has taken even new strength that I
Speaker 1: feel like I was building. I feel like it's been zapped.
Speaker 1: But I'm okay. I'm okay. Also, yesterday was the last
Speaker 1: day for Recording Academy Academy members to vote. I know
Speaker 1: a lot of you all have asked how could you
Speaker 1: vote for the Grammys, But you have to be a
Speaker 1: Recording Academy member. You can always go online to figure
Speaker 1: out how you can be part of the Recording Academy.
Speaker 1: All right, So thank you to everyone who asks, who
Speaker 1: was ready to vote, and who were just so kind
Speaker 1: as y'all have just been so kind about this season
Speaker 1: and I'm just really, really really appreciate appreciative of that.
Speaker 1: So I just again thankful for y'all's kindness and support.
Speaker 1: It's been It's been kind of literally win beneath my wings.
Speaker 1: It's been a steady current for me. It's kind of
Speaker 1: like just you know, getting me through the days, and
Speaker 1: just you know, I need your love, I need your prayers,
Speaker 1: I need your constant support, and y'all have been consistently there,
Speaker 1: So I thank you for that. I want to dive
Speaker 1: in just a little bit. A lot of people have
Speaker 1: been given their public commentary I can give public. I'm
Speaker 1: going to give commentary based on what I've observed of
Speaker 1: this woman and who she has been towards me. All Right.
Speaker 1: I do not think a woman deserves like I don't
Speaker 1: think anybody deserves just like we think we are so entitled,
Speaker 1: even when I just told you earlier about how somebody
Speaker 1: told me, even when they knew my faul my cult
Speaker 1: was faull fur, instead of apologizing, saying, man, my bad,
Speaker 1: it looks so real. I'm an advocate for animals. My bad,
Speaker 1: I thought it was real. They instead of apologizing, they said, well,
Speaker 1: stop wearing stuff that looks real. You're telling me to
Speaker 1: stop wearing something. So you're ultimately you're like feeling like
Speaker 1: feeling like you have authority over me to tell me
Speaker 1: what to stop wearing. You did not birth me. You
Speaker 1: you you see what I'm saying. I'm trying to figure
Speaker 1: out when I can. The last time I looked on
Speaker 1: my birth certificate, your name was not there. Okay, let's
Speaker 1: start there. But doctor Carrie Bryant has been a hot
Speaker 1: topic now probably is going on two weeks, close to
Speaker 1: two weeks about a dress that she has worn. Now me,
Speaker 1: I can say I loved the dress. When you are
Speaker 1: exposed to all kinds of designs and red carpet dresses
Speaker 1: and designers from all over the world, I thought the
Speaker 1: dress was amazing. She looked amazing, and to me that
Speaker 1: all that needed to be said. And if you didn't
Speaker 1: feel that way, I wish we can go into the
Speaker 1: era where everything don't need to be put in the
Speaker 1: comment section. Now. I know people are like, yeah, but
Speaker 1: when you're a public figure, this is what comes with
Speaker 1: being a public figure. I'm just trying to figure out
Speaker 1: it why and this is why the saying is true.
Speaker 1: Don't expect you from somebody else. Like I sit and
Speaker 1: read some of this stuff and I'm like, how do
Speaker 1: people even fix their fingers to write this stuff? But
Speaker 1: before you fix your finger to write something, why is
Speaker 1: it even a thought? I also saw on her stylistle,
Speaker 1: I follow the lady who styles doctor Bryant, Carrie Bryant,
Speaker 1: and Carrie is all ways dressed. She's gonna wear something
Speaker 1: flowy today and something that is I would say, everything
Speaker 1: she wears is flattering to her figure and she has
Speaker 1: by d I say that respectfully, So she can wear
Speaker 1: something flowy or she can wear something that might show. Okay, No,
Speaker 1: she snatched as well. And I just since I've known
Speaker 1: of her, she is always dressed. You can just scroll
Speaker 1: her social media pages, you can google in images of her,
Speaker 1: and she is always dressed, her hair, makeup, y'all. I
Speaker 1: spoke at her women's banquet a few months ago in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: She has come to see me and death becomes her.
Speaker 1: Her and doctor Jamal Bryant, y'all. She is like a
Speaker 1: Barbie doll in real life, like filter free in real life,
Speaker 1: like just beautiful. But not only does she dress well,
Speaker 1: but she's an educated woman, you know, doctorate degree, well spoken,
Speaker 1: truly confident, knows who she is and doesn't take any mess.
Speaker 1: She has been quite classy. She has been a as
Speaker 1: far as everything that's been spewed her way publicly, I
Speaker 1: have not seen her audibly utter a word. Her husband
Speaker 1: definitely showed that he's got her back. But then you
Speaker 1: have other people making very distasteful comments about a woman,
Speaker 1: these comments coming from other men, right, I hope this
Speaker 1: is a lesson hopefully, as I can imagine. I hope
Speaker 1: doctor Carrie Brian is not reading this stuff because it
Speaker 1: can be hurtful. But the woman I know her to be.
Speaker 1: She's gonna sore, she's gonna rise, and she's probably not
Speaker 1: gonna be phased by this. But let's not act like
Speaker 1: it's not irritating. Let's not act like it's hurtful to
Speaker 1: for those who know her and love her to read
Speaker 1: this stuff being said. And let's just be careful period.
Speaker 1: I think in this new year and the years ahead,
Speaker 1: about what we say about anybody, because it is someone's daughter,
Speaker 1: it is someone's sister, right what we say about men,
Speaker 1: it is someone's son, someone's brother, someone's cousin, someone's nephew,
Speaker 1: someone's uncle, someone's goddaddy, somebody's mother, somebody's father. Now rightfully,
Speaker 1: so there are some people who do need a good,
Speaker 1: you know, opinionated column. But I do think we should
Speaker 1: have manners. I do think know watching what we say
Speaker 1: and how we say, and some stuff should just be
Speaker 1: for the group chat. Maybe some stuff should just holp again,
Speaker 1: some stuff should just if it, unfortunately, is a thought
Speaker 1: that you have about somebody, just keep it in the
Speaker 1: in your brain, just keep it up there, and then y'all,
Speaker 1: I promise, when I have had a thought about something,
Speaker 1: I have sat and gotten down to the bottom of
Speaker 1: that thought, why do I think this way? Am I
Speaker 1: entitled to this? I'm not saying people say we are
Speaker 1: entitled to our opinions, But then at what point, it's like,
Speaker 1: why do you care? So you gotta you gotta really
Speaker 1: kind of dive deep into why I have to. I
Speaker 1: have to dive deep about why I care so much
Speaker 1: about something, So even about the thoughts that I have
Speaker 1: about this, I care about something because some of the
Speaker 1: comments are just we are policing even someone's salvation based
Speaker 1: off of something they wore. Salvation and holiness is not
Speaker 1: about your attire. Salvation is not about something that you do.
Speaker 1: What was given to us through the Act of Salvation
Speaker 1: was allready done for those including me who believe it
Speaker 1: was already done. There's nothing more that I can do
Speaker 1: to earn my rightful place as it relates to my
Speaker 1: standing with God. So I just don't know, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, I think people should stick with their personal
Speaker 1: convictions and leave it at that. Maybe you saw the
Speaker 1: dress and maybe you like, I can't. I couldn't wear that,
Speaker 1: and that's fine, Just stay there, that's your personal conviction. Well,
Speaker 1: she's a pastor's wife, she should know better. She should
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. You know, I
Speaker 1: saw some good commentary about even how the evolution of
Speaker 1: women in certain offices and women of certain titles, how
Speaker 1: fashion has evolved. So I'm just going to leave this
Speaker 1: right here. I thought doctor Bryant looked amazing and looked beautiful.
Speaker 1: And to anybody who's listening to me right now, if
Speaker 1: you have, if someone has talked about you, made a
Speaker 1: snide comment or a joke about what you're wearing, or
Speaker 1: what color your hair is or how long your nails,
Speaker 1: are you always wearing loud color shoes, keep doing it.
Speaker 1: Wear what you want to wear. Be you do, you
Speaker 1: have a blast. Again. I know my limits, and there
Speaker 1: are times I have pushed my limit and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I should have been wearing this a long time ago,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And so, you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: we have put limitations on ourselves, and so when we
Speaker 1: see somebody else doing it, you got something to say versus, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe try it. You might look cute, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? And so yeah, I'm adding some more short
Speaker 1: skirts to my closet. Okay, so yeah, let's kind of
Speaker 1: you know, stop policing and telling people what to do
Speaker 1: or what to where. You know. Again, I strive every
Speaker 1: week on this podcast to to to share things from
Speaker 1: a personal experience. And and I don't necessarily say, hey,
Speaker 1: what works for me is gonna work for you, But
Speaker 1: I tell you what works for me, so you can know, Wow,
Speaker 1: that's an option, right, So I'll just I'll just leave
Speaker 1: it there. And I'm excited about the weeks to come
Speaker 1: about people that I have slated and scheduled for this
Speaker 1: year's episodes of checking in. You all have been absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you so much, and let's continue having a
Speaker 1: great new year. Now, y'all tell me when we stop
Speaker 1: saying happy New Year? Okay, and and yet it's not
Speaker 1: with an as mischee, well it's happy new Years. No
Speaker 1: it's not. It's happy new Year. Twenty twenty six is
Speaker 1: a singular year, so singular is no S, no apostrophe s.
Speaker 1: It's just happy new year, all right. All right, love
Speaker 1: y'all so much. Take care of yourselves, and y'all continue
Speaker 1: to pray for me, literally, pray that my strength continues
Speaker 1: to rise and continue that I get better and feel
Speaker 1: stronger and stronger and stronger. I'm signing off of this sofa.
Speaker 1: Checking In with Michelle Williams is a production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: and The Black Effect. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.