Speaker 1: Native Lampod is a production of iHeartRadio and partnership with
Speaker 1: Recent Choice Media.
Speaker 2: Hey everybody, it's Angela Rai.
Speaker 3: Of course, I joined my co hosts Tiffany Cross and
Speaker 3: Andrew Gillim every single Thursday for Native Lampod, where we
Speaker 3: welcome you home. One of our favorite things in Native
Speaker 3: Lampod is the number of listener and viewer questions we
Speaker 3: get every week. One thing that's come up quite a
Speaker 3: bit every single week in our social media comments and
Speaker 3: in some questions is why the name Native Lampod. It's
Speaker 3: something that's been deeply inspiring to all of us, and
Speaker 3: in fact, during our promo clips, we spend a lot
Speaker 3: of time talking about what native Lampod means to us.
Speaker 3: So this week we had a question come in from
Speaker 3: Chris who asked us about Native Lampod, and we're taking
Speaker 3: this opportunity to make sure we do a deep dive
Speaker 3: with you all. We can't wait to hear your response.
Speaker 3: We'd love to know what the native Lampod means to
Speaker 3: all of you.
Speaker 2: Welcome home.
Speaker 3: Able to Chris Flow this video submission for y'all.
Speaker 4: Question for y'all, I'll keep it short. Where did you
Speaker 4: get the name Native Land Podcast. What does it mean
Speaker 4: to be native to you? We could have chosen from
Speaker 4: any number of names, numbers themes out there. Tell me
Speaker 4: in your own opinion why Native Land as a theme
Speaker 4: and the topic and the title of this show.
Speaker 3: Well, I thank y'all know I don't like to do
Speaker 3: anything shallow, So for me, this has a really deep meaning.
Speaker 3: When I thought of Native Land, I thought about James
Speaker 3: Weldon Johnson and the Black National Anthem and the fact
Speaker 3: that I will never stand for another national anthem. But
Speaker 3: in that Black National Anthem, and the last stands in
Speaker 3: the third verse, it says true to our God, true
Speaker 3: to our Native Land. When I think about you all
Speaker 3: as my friends, my brother, my sister.
Speaker 2: Truth tellers, I deeply respect.
Speaker 3: True to our Native Land means we can pay homage
Speaker 3: to the ancestors who were kidnapped from our native land,
Speaker 3: and we're brought here to build something that we still
Speaker 3: have yet to truly benefit from, and we still stand
Speaker 3: on Native Land paying homage to the indigenous folks who
Speaker 3: built this place, who welcome people in, who didn't necessarily
Speaker 3: treat them with kindness. That's an understatement, but that's what
Speaker 3: I think of. There's a double entendre there, and to me,
Speaker 3: it makes me think of that James Baldwin moment when
Speaker 3: he talks about what real patriotism is. Because we are patriots,
Speaker 3: we have every right to question every single aspect of
Speaker 3: our native land.
Speaker 1: It's interesting Antelas says that because when she first told
Speaker 1: me the title to get my opinion about it, I
Speaker 1: took a different perspective and that we are creating a
Speaker 1: native land because no matter how they make us feel,
Speaker 1: this is our home. And I know my entire career
Speaker 1: I have felt homeless, like the news media has always
Speaker 1: made me feel mostly unwelcome or displaced, you know, in
Speaker 1: a space that if I were ever speaking a truth
Speaker 1: or speaking to the rising majority of this country, it
Speaker 1: was taken as controversial or as something subpar. And even
Speaker 1: what we consider biased or unbiased is all based on
Speaker 1: what's rooted in white and male. And so this podcast
Speaker 1: is a native land for people to come. You have
Speaker 1: a home here, no matter what you look like, no
Speaker 1: matter where you come from. Here we create space for
Speaker 1: you and everybody's welcome.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I love that. I You know, all of us
Speaker 4: have had our work experience on major platforms, you know
Speaker 4: names that will be recognized around around the globe. And
Speaker 4: even in those spaces, while we were invited to offer
Speaker 4: our opinions and perspectives and analysis, always felt in many
Speaker 4: ways curated. Even still it was curated by the wrap
Speaker 4: it up. It was curated by the fifteen seconds. It
Speaker 4: was rated by you know, you're the progressive on the panel,
Speaker 4: and so bring that perspective, even if the topic may
Speaker 4: have been more nuanced than one of a political ideology
Speaker 4: or perspective, and so you know, the the the the title,
Speaker 4: the theme, the the titling of the show. Native Land
Speaker 4: UH to me is less about a physical edifice UH
Speaker 4: and more like translating these airwaves, translating the way in
Speaker 4: which we're communicating to our audience and then back to
Speaker 4: us as a space that doesn't have to be validated,
Speaker 4: that doesn't need anybody sign off that it is ours.
Speaker 4: It's our quest, you know, our desire to move toward
Speaker 4: the more perfect, how we define it. I'm excited by
Speaker 4: the the idea of native land by one yes, paying
Speaker 4: homage if we were to think about it in the
Speaker 4: physical to uh, to the lands that we set on
Speaker 4: that were rob that we're taking, the were brutally stolen,
Speaker 4: but also a reclamation of this space as ours, not
Speaker 4: belonging to anyone else, not being curated by anyone else
Speaker 4: other than ourselves, true to our beliefs, our ideals, and
Speaker 4: frankly welcoming to people who are just like us out there,
Speaker 4: you know, scavenging through, just trying to make it, have opinions,
Speaker 4: not experts at everything, but offering up what they believe
Speaker 4: and guess what if it's their lived experience and their truth,
Speaker 4: it deserves some platform for airing, and I look forward
Speaker 4: to us being able to do that on this platform.
Speaker 1: Well home, yeah, welcome home. What you said made me
Speaker 1: think about the current existing landscape of news media and
Speaker 1: some I'm curious to hear from my co host here
Speaker 1: in your opinion, Andrew, who is the mainstream media made for?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, if we if we were to just assess,
Speaker 4: you know, the mainstream media by its approach to most things,
Speaker 4: complicated issues to the simple, I think it's theater and
Speaker 4: large part, I think it plays a lot of times
Speaker 4: to consumerism. I think the bottom line matters there more
Speaker 4: than anyone ever says, and and by and large I
Speaker 4: think it plays to frighten a majority. It causes a
Speaker 4: lot of angst. I mean when I'm at family, it's funny.
Speaker 4: We were all together for Thanksgiving, my family, and almost
Speaker 4: to a person, people are like, I don't even want
Speaker 4: to turn on the news anymore. I know there's nothing
Speaker 4: good there. And I just found it interesting having been
Speaker 4: part of that community before, of of of communicating to
Speaker 4: people over airwaves, it just struck me that to a person,
Speaker 4: people found their peace and their solace, their joy, and
Speaker 4: their happiness away from hearing from mainstream news. So what
Speaker 4: kind of news could you be if you repel otherwise decent, caring,
Speaker 4: you know, thoughtful people, and that their escape defying peace
Speaker 4: in their lives or joy in their lives, is to
Speaker 4: not pay attention to the news. That's a sad state
Speaker 4: of affairs when we think about it. But if that's
Speaker 4: the experience of every person, to a person, you gotta
Speaker 4: believe that it's not accidental that the news is being
Speaker 4: communicated to us in that way.
Speaker 2: It's definitely not accidental.
Speaker 3: I can say that I'm one of them, like, I
Speaker 3: cannot watch the news regularly. Cable news programming is just
Speaker 3: too much. I got some of my friends shout out
Speaker 3: the joy, you know, who will watch it. We still
Speaker 3: watch a joy, but I am I can't watch a
Speaker 3: lot of it.
Speaker 2: It is repulsive.
Speaker 3: It is frustrating when I think about many of the
Speaker 3: segments that we were on, you know, like we're set
Speaker 3: up for more combat and it's exhausting, and so then
Speaker 3: you're supposed to go home and be your partner's piece
Speaker 3: and be and it's just really hard. So when I
Speaker 3: think about who the news is made for, I think about,
Speaker 3: you know, folks who have a hard time developing their
Speaker 3: own opinion and are easily taking advantage of, easily manipulated.
Speaker 3: It's almost like the same folks who watch QBC commercials, right,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, Like they can package it
Speaker 3: in any way and sell it to you, you know,
Speaker 3: tell you, tell you it's raining, and they're pissing on you,
Speaker 3: like it really is. It's just too much and it's
Speaker 3: exhausting to watch. Like I get the same feeling watching
Speaker 3: the news tip that I did what I used to
Speaker 3: like consume love and hip hop or basketball, wives and
Speaker 3: no shade to some of all of my friends.
Speaker 2: But I watched one day, I did like a marathon
Speaker 2: chaw I got it. I said, Oh, I feel.
Speaker 3: Dirty Wow, it's the same way I feel watching any
Speaker 3: cable news did not matter for it's progressive, midstream or conservative.
Speaker 2: It really doesn't matter.
Speaker 4: It's the wind up machine.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, I think you feel that way because it is
Speaker 1: a different version of reality TV, except it is not
Speaker 1: our reality. So I think the news just go one
Speaker 1: step further and say the news is made for the
Speaker 1: comfort of white people. That is who is centered. That
Speaker 1: is the audience they want to curate. Your average cable
Speaker 1: news viewers between sixty two and sixty five and white
Speaker 1: and male. And so when programmers look at what the
Speaker 1: content for that day, that is who they're talking to,
Speaker 1: which is baffling to me because you are speaking to
Speaker 1: a shrinking demographic and completely ignoring a growing demographic. We
Speaker 1: are the rising majority of this country, and yet when
Speaker 1: we show up on air to speak an honest truth
Speaker 1: in ways how we communicate, it is not accepted. It's
Speaker 1: considered controversial until the white boy says it's okay to
Speaker 1: do so if we speak in our vernacular, when we
Speaker 1: use the way that we talk, it is not okay,
Speaker 1: And so the white boy does it, and then it's fun.
Speaker 1: We can't quote quote rap lyrics, but they can. We
Speaker 1: can't talk about what happens in our life. I'm talking
Speaker 1: to the truth. We say we going to be the
Speaker 1: truth on this podcast, I'm speaking truth. We cannot talk
Speaker 1: about make references. You know, if I say something that
Speaker 1: is something that we all understand, right, a colloquial reference
Speaker 1: that is specific to our community, it's not okay. And
Speaker 1: I would always have to say, well, if you don't
Speaker 1: get it, it ain't for you. That's right, the same
Speaker 1: way I don't always get your country music reference or
Speaker 1: your roll and Tide reference. That ain't for me. I
Speaker 1: should get to talk to the rise and majority of
Speaker 1: this country and make them feel seen. And so obviously
Speaker 1: I have a personal testimony sure that I for sure
Speaker 1: know it doesn't matter what the cable news executive looks like.
Speaker 1: The position they are there to uphold is that is
Speaker 1: the comfort of life?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's the matrix, right, just insert whomever. Yes,
Speaker 4: But the system is programmed to operate a particular way
Speaker 4: and produce a particular result. And this is why I
Speaker 4: think we have to be really careful when we start
Speaker 4: lifting up and edifying sort of these individuals as first
Speaker 4: and and and the like. And I get the symbolic
Speaker 4: reference and I and it does make me symbolically, you know,
Speaker 4: proud to have someone exhibited that my daughter or my
Speaker 4: son or I myself might be able to see. But
Speaker 4: then we have to go layers deep to understand, like, Okay,
Speaker 4: are you a disruptor? In what way are you changing
Speaker 4: this thing so that we're we're not caricatures.
Speaker 1: The problem for sure, and that is the difference, right
Speaker 1: getting a black face that is going to carry the
Speaker 1: voice as a white folks doesn't do anything for the community.
Speaker 4: Or continue to marginalize, you know, communities that have previously
Speaker 4: been violated, have been put in boxes, have been reduced
Speaker 4: to nothingness. If if your existence here is only to
Speaker 4: perpetuate that, not to disrupt it, not to break it
Speaker 4: so it can forever be broken, but to rather, you know,
Speaker 4: continue to expand the bottom line and make you know,
Speaker 4: those nice you know, because she's suits happy. Then you're
Speaker 4: not of service, You're useless, You're not a service.
Speaker 2: But you know where we are going to be as
Speaker 2: services right here. And that's one of.
Speaker 3: The reasons why I'm excited about this podcast. I want
Speaker 3: to know Tiff from you first, why are you excited
Speaker 3: about this podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm excited about this podcast because I get to do
Speaker 1: this with my friends, who I've known a long time.
Speaker 2: People think we met in media. We did not, let me.
Speaker 1: All have known each other long before we were all
Speaker 1: in front of a camera exactly. So it's really nice
Speaker 1: to show up here and one be in a space
Speaker 1: where we feel welcomed. Two I'm excited about this because
Speaker 1: our words and our truth will not be policed. I
Speaker 1: was exhausted with having my words policed, or having the
Speaker 1: fight even to talk, you know, to talk about issues
Speaker 1: that were significant to so to millions of people across
Speaker 1: this country, and having to defend and define my humanity
Speaker 1: every week. It's so relaxing to show up in a
Speaker 1: place where I don't have to do either of those things.
Speaker 1: We can skip past all that and just get to
Speaker 1: conversations of substance. But also to keep it a buck.
Speaker 1: Conversation sends us some foolishness too, you know. We have
Speaker 1: a good time with each other. So yeah, I'm most
Speaker 1: excited about that, and.
Speaker 4: All of that could exist like in one place. I
Speaker 4: hate this idea that if the world out there is serious,
Speaker 4: that the only thing you can bring back to the
Speaker 4: world is serious, right, And it's not a reduction to
Speaker 4: the fact that there are real, serious, consequential things going on.
Speaker 4: But by goodness, we come from generations of folks who
Speaker 4: had to find joy in the smallest of places because
Speaker 4: the world wasn't offering it to them. There every day
Speaker 4: was torture us, it was labor, it was work. There
Speaker 4: were no days off. Even your faith was curated to you, right,
Speaker 4: it was brought to you by sponsored by massa in
Speaker 4: them right, And so folks had define moments where you
Speaker 4: could appreciate being alive and around the people you know,
Speaker 4: who you love, the fact that you are whole folks.
Speaker 4: You're not just a employee of somebody. If I'm bringing
Speaker 4: it to current day, we're nobody's employee, we're nobody's employer.
Speaker 4: Or exclusively, we're mothers, we're fathers, we're brothers, siblings, where
Speaker 4: niece's nephews, so on and so forth, and that's okay.
Speaker 4: And in each of those places we bring a different side,
Speaker 4: a different side of ourselves are allowed to live and breathe.
Speaker 4: And I'm hopeful that I'm excited that we don't have
Speaker 4: to check any part of who we are at the door,
Speaker 4: uh before we walk in and take these mics, that
Speaker 4: we can show up fully that I don't have to
Speaker 4: apologize for any part of myself and in and in
Speaker 4: and in life. If we really are in pursuit of,
Speaker 4: you know, true liberation, that's exactly how it ought to go.
Speaker 4: We shouldn't have to look over our shoulder and apologize
Speaker 4: and make excuse for lament or feel the the the
Speaker 4: weight of imposter syndrome when you're when you're home. And
Speaker 4: so we're creating a different kind of home and hopefully
Speaker 4: moving people closer toward this, you know, this way of thinking,
Speaker 4: rather than this very myopic way in which the world
Speaker 4: right now requires us to exist.
Speaker 3: I'm excited because you all agreed to do this. I'm
Speaker 3: excited because I know from walking with y'all down the
Speaker 3: street how much your voices mean to our people and
Speaker 3: to a lot of folks who don't look like us
Speaker 3: but just felt resonance with you because of your authenticity.
Speaker 2: So I'm very grateful.
Speaker 3: I think my excitement is coupled with gratitude because I
Speaker 3: know that there is a space for this in the
Speaker 3: hearts and minds of so many, including my own, and
Speaker 3: I look forward to everyfreshing, authentic political conversation where we
Speaker 3: can chop it up legitimately, not because we're trying to
Speaker 3: go viral, but because we really are trying to solve
Speaker 3: some of the toughest problems, and y'all have always been
Speaker 3: that way, So thank you for being problem solvers and
Speaker 3: being willing to do it on the record on air.
Speaker 4: As a Native Land I S Get It s Get
Speaker 4: It family.
Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with reisent Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.