Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to Okay f Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording live from the Brooklyn Bunker.
Speaker 1: Once again, Friends, it has been an extraordinarily devastating week
Speaker 1: in America. We have witnessed historic storms, and I wish
Speaker 1: to God that we would stop using the word historic
Speaker 1: when they seem to become more consistent than ever and
Speaker 1: more of the norm. We have witnessed a gutting of
Speaker 1: voting rights acts, a gutting of Roe v. Wade at
Speaker 1: the hands of white male politicians in Texas. We have
Speaker 1: witnessed what happens when we lose sight of what is
Speaker 1: truly important in our country, which are the courts. For
Speaker 1: far too long, I think that we have been kidding ourselves.
Speaker 1: That we have lulled ourselves into a place of complacency
Speaker 1: where we believe that elections alone will save us. That
Speaker 1: we believe that the people that we elect to represent
Speaker 1: our voices are doing so because they share the same
Speaker 1: values in morals and beliefs that we do. We believe that,
Speaker 1: for too long, that those people had the best interests
Speaker 1: of the country in mind, and that they would come
Speaker 1: together and work as a unit, work in collaboration across
Speaker 1: party lines in order to better the country. A couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, Nancy Pelosi found herself saying that the
Speaker 1: country needs a strong Republican party, right, they need a
Speaker 1: strong two party system. I wonder how she feels today.
Speaker 1: Millions of women in Texas no longer have access to
Speaker 1: an abortion. Millions of women in Texas, namely low income
Speaker 1: black and brown women, who cannot afford to pay doctors
Speaker 1: off in private institutions in order to get the abortions
Speaker 1: that they need, will now begin to perish at alarming
Speaker 1: rates because they're no longer going to be able to
Speaker 1: have the autonomy to decide when and where and how
Speaker 1: they begin a family. If you are raped, if you
Speaker 1: are a victim of incest, you will not have a
Speaker 1: reprieve from this jury of white male politicians who have
Speaker 1: decided that they own you, and they own your body,
Speaker 1: and they own your future as well as your present.
Speaker 1: If you believe that because you live in a blue state,
Speaker 1: for the moment, that you are safe. I had a
Speaker 1: friend tell me, thank god, we're in New York, and
Speaker 1: I said, we're only as safe as who is sitting
Speaker 1: in the White House is and I mean that because
Speaker 1: the Trump presidency gave us a very clear glimpse into
Speaker 1: what happens when you have a partisan, racist, misogynistic, egomaniac
Speaker 1: sociopath that is at the house home of this country.
Speaker 1: Remember that Trump was using the federal government and weaponizing
Speaker 1: it to punish blue states as we were trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how to deal with COVID. You remember that
Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell called COVID a blue state issue because at
Speaker 1: the time it was ravaging New York City, La San
Speaker 1: Francisco and hadn't yet reached Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama in the
Speaker 1: ways that it has reached them now. So what the
Speaker 1: new law in Texas shows us, and what the five
Speaker 1: four decision by the Supreme Court shows us, is that
Speaker 1: no one is safe from white Evangelical Christians and their
Speaker 1: crusade of cruelty. It doesn't matter because their rage and
Speaker 1: their vindictiveness and their viciousness doesn't stop at blue state borders.
Speaker 1: It is far reaching and everlasting. White Evangelical Christians have
Speaker 1: been on a mission since the Civil Rights Act of
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four. Since Roe v. Wade nineteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: they have been on a mission to return the United
Speaker 1: States to its fundamentalist religious founding. Remember that the pilgrims
Speaker 1: that fled the king in England came here because they
Speaker 1: were fundamentalists, They were religious zealots, and they wanted the
Speaker 1: freedom to be able to practice their religion how they
Speaker 1: wanted to. And so the basis of our religious freedom
Speaker 1: doctrines that we see in policies all across the country
Speaker 1: initially began as the freedom to be able to practice
Speaker 1: how you wanted to, and has morphed into the belief
Speaker 1: that Christianity, and a particular type of Christianity, one that
Speaker 1: white right wing zealots practice, is the only and the
Speaker 1: dominant religion whose values should be the determinant for how
Speaker 1: we exercise our rights in this country. And so because
Speaker 1: they don't believe in abortion, we no longer will have
Speaker 1: access to one. Because they don't want black and brown
Speaker 1: people to vote, because they believe that they are second
Speaker 1: class citizens, we will no longer have access to the ballot.
Speaker 1: Coming up next, folks, is my conversation with Camillie Bell Hill,
Speaker 1: who is the creative behind plant Blurred on Instagram, which
Speaker 1: has a wonderful following, as well as the co founder
Speaker 1: and the voice behind the Plant Key Key podcast and
Speaker 1: Black People with Plants. And now you may be saying
Speaker 1: to yourself, Danielle, this seems just so out of whack.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you, I feel so fucking out of
Speaker 1: whack today. This week has truly truly knocked me on
Speaker 1: my ass, and I need to both get out the
Speaker 1: anger that I have, the frustration that I have, and
Speaker 1: also the recognition that this is heading into Labor Day weekend,
Speaker 1: which is supposed to be a time when we honor
Speaker 1: our workers, honor ourselves. And I really want folks to
Speaker 1: take this time to take this long weekend, if you
Speaker 1: are privileged enough to have it off to ground, to rest,
Speaker 1: to recharge, to refocus, to think about the ways in
Speaker 1: which every single day you are going to fight to
Speaker 1: rest so that we can figure out how in the
Speaker 1: days and weeks ahead that we are going to resist together. Folks.
Speaker 1: I am very excited I did to welcome to Woke
Speaker 1: f Daily for the first time, hopefully not the last time.
Speaker 1: Is a Camilli Bell Hill, who is the creative behind
Speaker 1: at Plant Blurred, which I love, I love, I love
Speaker 1: the name, founder of Black People with Plants and the
Speaker 1: co host of the Plant Kiki podcast Camilli in your
Speaker 1: Bio on Instagram. In the you Know in Your Bio
Speaker 1: it says that you made a move from traded lawyer
Speaker 1: hat for plants and that sounds so appealing to me,
Speaker 1: particularly as half of the country is under water, the
Speaker 1: other half is on fire, and our rights are being
Speaker 1: taken away each and every moment of the day. Talk
Speaker 1: to me about that journey that you took and why.
Speaker 1: What was your tipping point into saying I'm hanging up
Speaker 1: this hat and I'm picking up another one that is
Speaker 1: seemingly completely from ye It's an about face, right, It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, the first hat, the lawyer hat. Law school
Speaker 1: was all about you know, doing the right thing, doing
Speaker 1: what I was being told to do. This was this
Speaker 1: was safe, This was going to guarantee, you know, a
Speaker 1: successful life and kind of just like feeding into that
Speaker 1: hole um myth of what successment and what it would
Speaker 1: look like and also being raised it. It has something
Speaker 1: to do I think also with generationally. My mom is
Speaker 1: the child of Jim Crow, so they got the you
Speaker 1: know where they were able to go to school and
Speaker 1: achieve those successes and get the professional degrees they wanted.
Speaker 1: Their children to do that same thing and continue on
Speaker 1: the past. And because our opportunities had been so limited
Speaker 1: in this country, I think that the generations that raised
Speaker 1: people in my age group, they didn't just they didn't
Speaker 1: really have like this imagination to see that there was
Speaker 1: something else that, you know, we could do, that there
Speaker 1: were other paths that we could follow that would be
Speaker 1: creative and feel more like it was both passionate and purposeful.
Speaker 1: Who cares whether or not it is monetarily successful, you know, capitalism.
Speaker 1: I just you know, I did that. I went to
Speaker 1: law school and I don't have any regrets. I have
Speaker 1: the degree. Who knows about I doubt that I'll ever
Speaker 1: use it again, but I got it right. And after
Speaker 1: I had my first daughter, I kind of just fell
Speaker 1: into being a stay at home parent. Not by plan.
Speaker 1: It just ended up where I was, and it just
Speaker 1: made me really like reevaluate things like It's like, I
Speaker 1: don't want to do something and spend my very precious time,
Speaker 1: which is you know, you can't get that back doing
Speaker 1: something that I'm miserable in. You know that I that
Speaker 1: brought me no joy, that was completely unfulfilling, and so
Speaker 1: I just dabbled. I dabbled until I figured it out
Speaker 1: and I landed in interior design. I love it. It's
Speaker 1: always been something that I felt, you know, it felt
Speaker 1: like it was a hobby, didn't feel like something that
Speaker 1: I could do professionally, until one day I was like,
Speaker 1: well why not? Though you know, people are always asking
Speaker 1: me to help and come in and redesign and make
Speaker 1: their face beautiful. Why why can't it be something professional?
Speaker 1: So I landed in this whole plant world when I
Speaker 1: just started thinking about things like in a bigger way,
Speaker 1: you know, like just beyond like that little box that
Speaker 1: we're told that we have to fit in and the
Speaker 1: things that we have to do. So one day I
Speaker 1: bought a fiddle leaf big for a client. And that's
Speaker 1: just like flipped the switch. It's always the fiddle ly
Speaker 1: fig which is not in which is not in my
Speaker 1: home right now, because I it is the It is
Speaker 1: the plant I want the most and the one that
Speaker 1: I am most terrible, the one that you're most terrified of,
Speaker 1: right because you get the one that I am most
Speaker 1: m And you know, I think that what's interesting to
Speaker 1: me as I talk to folks like yourself who are
Speaker 1: in their second, third fourth iterations of their careers, of
Speaker 1: their lives black people, black women in particular, is you
Speaker 1: know when you talk about your family, your your mother
Speaker 1: being a child of Jim Crow, and I think about,
Speaker 1: you know, living at a time where I kind of
Speaker 1: feel like we're moving towards right now where you don't
Speaker 1: have the space and ability to reinvent yourself right right
Speaker 1: that that you're just you would be lucky to get
Speaker 1: to a status quo let alone, trying to let alone,
Speaker 1: trying to reverse it, let alone, trying to bucket. And
Speaker 1: so what you know, what pushback did you receive when
Speaker 1: you decided to make this transition when you decided, like
Speaker 1: you know, because for me, it's it's almost thinking of
Speaker 1: there is so much anger, hate, nastiness in the world
Speaker 1: that I am so drawn to beauty and slowness and
Speaker 1: real genuine connectivity and expressions of love and of spirit.
Speaker 1: And I wonder for you, like when you were was
Speaker 1: it a conscious like I want to move towards beauty.
Speaker 1: I want to move towards something that is that puts
Speaker 1: smiles on people's faces, that is of peace, and one
Speaker 1: that isn't of like just churning through. Well, absolutely, it
Speaker 1: was like a quest for beauty and kind of like
Speaker 1: creating this sanctuary in your home. That's kind of where
Speaker 1: it all started. Like with the design, it was just
Speaker 1: like creating this beautiful space that you want to be
Speaker 1: in and that makes you feel comforted and really just
Speaker 1: like sparking joy, right, And part of um to me,
Speaker 1: design is literally bringing life into the room. And when
Speaker 1: you have these things and they're growing from your care,
Speaker 1: I don't know, it just makes me. It makes me
Speaker 1: feel like I have a superpower, right because these are
Speaker 1: tropical plants that I mean, like the fiddlely fig that
Speaker 1: it's literally a tree that grows to you know, heights
Speaker 1: of like sixty feet and it's usually and full sun
Speaker 1: with high amidity. But here I am making this plant
Speaker 1: grow in my dry, cold house in New York. You
Speaker 1: know who has a grow lamp. So it just feels like,
Speaker 1: you know, it just feels powerful and peaceful, and it
Speaker 1: really cuts out some of all the chatter and noise
Speaker 1: in the background because you really have to pay attention
Speaker 1: to the plants and it helps you. I find that
Speaker 1: it just really helps you kind of like ground yourself
Speaker 1: and what they bring is just so much more than
Speaker 1: just like a design element. It's it's just it sounds corny,
Speaker 1: but they're real like life lessons to learn from these plants.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody truly grows at their own pace. No
Speaker 1: matter how much you can, you know, try to manipulate
Speaker 1: or control, they're going to do what they do. So
Speaker 1: it also teaches you that there's only but so much
Speaker 1: control that you can have. Period you can do your
Speaker 1: best and hope for the best. But there's also a
Speaker 1: part of the lesson is like learning to also let go.
Speaker 1: So there's just like layers to these plans. There's just
Speaker 1: a lot of layers. That is it for Today's Woke
Speaker 1: App Daily podcast. To hear more from today's show, including
Speaker 1: my full interview with Camillie bell Hill of Plant Blurred.
Speaker 1: Support me on Patreon at patreon dot com. Slash Woke
Speaker 1: a app Power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.