WEBVTT - Why “Native Land Pod”? | MiniPod 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:03.240 Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio and partnership 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:04.560 with Recent Choice Media. 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:06.400 Welcome home you guys. 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:09.680 So for this mini pod, we actually talk about a 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:11.800 question you guys ask all the time, and that is 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:14.960 why do you guys call yourselves? Native Land Pod? We 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.120 actually get into that on our very first show, So 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:20.240 take a listen and we talk about why we started 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:22.479 this podcast in the first place. So I hope you 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:24.960 enjoyed this episode, and don't forget we have a New 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.319 Year's Eve episode dropping this Thursday, so be sure to 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.680 tune into that. We'll see you in twenty twenty five. 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:35.800 Hey, able to Chris Flow this video submission for y'all. 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:39.040 Question for y'all, I'll keep it short. Where did you 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:40.880 get the name Native Land Podcast? 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:47.400 What does it mean to be native to you? We 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:52.000 could have chosen from any number of names, numbers, themes 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:56.560 out there. Tell me in your own opinion why native 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:59.680 Land as the as a theme and the topic and 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:00.680 the show. 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:02.240 Well, I thank y'all know I don't like to do 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:06.160 anything shallow, so for me, this has a really deep meaning. 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:10.679 When I thought of Native Land, I thought about James 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.960 Weldon Johnson and the Black National anthem. And the fact 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:16.760 that I will never stand for another national anthem, but 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.160 in that black national anthem, and the last stands in 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:21.280 the third verse, it says true to our God, true 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:24.160 to our native land. When I think about you all 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:26.800 as my friends, my brother, my sister. 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:28.480 Truth tellers, I deeply respect. 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:31.600 True to our native land means we can pay homage 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:35.280 to the ancestors who were kidnapped from our native land, 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:38.319 and we're brought here to build something that we still 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.560 have yet to truly benefit from, and we still stand 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:44.600 on Native land paying homage to the indigenous folks who 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:48.960 built this place, who welcome people in, who didn't necessarily 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:53.200 treat them with kindness. That's an understatement, but that's what 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:56.360 I think of. There's a double entendre there, and to me, 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:59.040 it makes me think of that James Baldwin moment when 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:02.960 he talks about what we're all patriotism is. Because we 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:06.320 are patriots, we have every right to question every single 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:08.040 aspect of our native land. 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.079 It's interesting Angela says that because when she first told 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:14.040 me the title to get my opinion about it, I 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:18.400 took a different perspective in that we are creating a 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:21.000 native land because no matter how they make us feel. 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.280 This is our home, and I know my entire career 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:26.800 I have felt homeless, like the news media has always 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:31.720 made me feel grossly unwelcome or displaced, you know, in 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:36.080 a space that if I were ever speaking a truth 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:39.040 or speaking to the rising majority of this country, it 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:43.399 was taken as controversial or as something subpar. And even 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:45.919 what we consider biased or unbiased is all based on 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:50.079 what's rooted in white and male. And so this podcast 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:52.840 is a native land for people to come. You have 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:54.960 a home here, no matter what you look like, no 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:58.080 matter where you come from. Here we create space for 0:02:58.160 --> 0:02:59.440 you and everybody's welcome. 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.440 Love that. You know, all of us have had our 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:07.079 work experience on major platforms, you know, names that will 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:12.240 be recognized around around the globe, and even in those spaces, 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:17.200 while we were invited to offer our opinions and perspectives 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:23.360 and analysis, always felt in many ways curated. Even still, 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:25.400 it was curated by the wrap it up, It was 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:29.600 curated by the fifteen seconds. It was curated by you know, 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:32.760 you're the progressive on the panel, and so bring that perspective, 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.760 even if the topic may have been more nuanced than 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:40.600 one of a political ideology a perspective, and so you 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:46.200 know the title, the theme, the titling of the show. 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:50.640 Native Land, to me is less about a physical edifice 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:54.720 and more like translating these airwaves, translating the way in 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:57.920 which we're communicating to our audience and then back to 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.200 us as a space that doesn't have to be validated, 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:05.440 that doesn't need anybody sign off that it is ours. 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:10.120 It's our quest, you know, our desire to move toward 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:16.080 the more perfect how we define it. I'm excited by 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.719 the the idea of native Land by one yes, paying 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:21.479 homage if we were to think about it in the 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:25.479 physical to uh, to the lands that we set on, 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:30.640 that were rob that we're taken, that were brutally stolen, 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:37.479 but also a reclamation of this space as ours, not 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:41.080 belonging to anyone else, not being curated by anyone else 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:46.359 other than ourselves, true to our beliefs, our ideals, and 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:50.760 frankly welcoming to people who are just like us out there, 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:55.479 you know, scavenging through, just trying to make it, have opinions, 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:59.000 not experts at everything, but offering up what they believe 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:01.120 and guess what if it's it's their lived experience and 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:04.440 their truth it deserves some platform for airing, and I 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:06.120 look forward to us being able to do that on 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:06.720 this platform. 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:12.799 Well, yeah, welcome home. What you said made me think 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:17.840 about the current existing landscape of news media, and I'm 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:22.120 curious to hear from my co host here in your opinion, Andrew, 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.800 who is the mainstream media made for? 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:29.520 Uh? Well, I mean, if we if we were to 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:34.920 just assess, you know, the mainstream media by its approach 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:42.039 to most things, complicated issues to the simple, I think 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:45.719 it's theater and large part, I think it plays a 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:50.960 lot of times to consumerism. I think the bottom line 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:57.240 matters there more than anyone ever says. And and by 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:01.040 and large, I think it plays to fright a majority. 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.039 It causes a lot of angst. I mean, when I'm 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:07.880 at family, it's funny. We were all together for Thanksgiving 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:11.320 my family, and almost to a person, people are like, 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:13.839 I don't even want to turn on the news anymore. 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:16.760 I know there's nothing good there. And I just found 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:21.320 it interesting having been part of that community before, of 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:25.440 communicating to people over airwaves, it just struck me that 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:28.640 to a person, people found their peace and their solace, 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:34.520 their joy, and their happiness away from hearing from mainstream news. 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:36.800 So what kind of news could you be if you 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:44.080 repel otherwise decent, caring, you know, thoughtful people, and that 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:47.640 their escape defying peace in their lives or joy in 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.039 their lives is to not pay attention to the news. 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.440 That's a sad state of affairs when we think about it. 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:57.680 But if that's the experience of every person to a person, 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:01.200 you gotta believe that it's not accidental that the news 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:10.240 is being communicated to us in that way. 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:14.440 And they're definitely not accidental. I can say that I'm 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:16.320 one of them, Like I cannot watch. 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:19.880 The news regularly. Cable news programming is just too much. 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:22.280 I got some of my friends shout out the joy. 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.960 You know, who will watch the point We still watch. 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:27.880 But I am I can't watch a lot of it. 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:30.760 It is repulsive. It is frustrating when I think about 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:34.320 many of the segments that we were on, you know, 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:37.840 like we're set up for Mortal Kombat and it's exhausting, 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:40.280 and so then you're supposed to go home and be 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.600 your partner's piece and be and it's just really hard. 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:46.520 So what I think about who the news is made for. 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:50.480 I think about, you know, folks who have a hard 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:54.480 time developing their own opinion and are easily taken advantage of, 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:59.120 easily manipulated. It's almost like the same folks who watch 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.480 QVC commercial, right, you know what I mean, Like they 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.000 can package it in any way and sell it to you, 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.680 you know, tell you, tell you it's raining, and they're 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:10.760 pissing on you, like it really is. It's just too 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:14.000 much and it's exhausting to watch. Like I get the 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:17.120 same feeling watching the news tip that I did when 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:21.800 I used to like consume love and hip hop or basketball, 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:24.200 wives and no shade to some of all my friends. 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:27.960 But I watched one day, I did like a marathon chaw. 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:28.280 I got it. 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:30.720 I said, well, I feel dirty. Wow, it's the same 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:32.800 way I feel watching any cable news. 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:37.120 Doesn't matter for it's progressive, midstream or or a conservative, 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:37.960 it really doesn't matter. 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:39.120 It's the wind up machine. 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:41.560 Yeah, well, mat, I think you feel that way because 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:44.520 it is a new, a different version of reality TV. 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:47.880 Except it is not our reality. So I think the news. 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:49.679 I'll just go one step further and say the news 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.720 is made for the comfort of white people. That is 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:54.880 who is centered, that is the audience they want to 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:57.520 curate your average cable news viewers between sixty two and 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:02.800 sixty five, and white and male. And so when programmers 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:05.920 look at what the content for that day, that is 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.960 who they're talking to, which is baffling to me because 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:12.160 you are speaking to a shrinking demographic and completely ignoring 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.240 a growing demographic. We are the rising majority of this country, 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:17.520 and yet when we show up on air to speak 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.840 an honest truth in ways how we communicate, it is 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:25.079 not accepted. It's considered controversial until the white boy says 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.120 it's okay to do so. If we speak in our vernacular, 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:30.440 when we use the way that we talk, it is 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:32.520 not okay until the white boy does it, and then 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:35.840 it's fun. We can't quote quote rap lyrics, but they can't. 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:37.120 We can't talk. 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:39.800 About what happens in our life. I'm talking to the truth. 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:41.559 We say we go to be the truth. On this podcast, 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:46.480 I'm speaking truth. We cannot talk about make references. You know, 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:50.080 if I say something that is something that we all understand, right, 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:53.160 a colloquial reference that is specific to our community, it's 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:55.080 not okay, And I would always have to say, well. 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:56.880 If you don't get it, it ain't for you, right. 0:09:56.960 --> 0:09:59.079 The same way, I don't always get your country music 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:01.600 reference or your role and tide reference. That ain't for me. 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.000 I should get to talk to the rise and majority 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.000 of this country and make them feel seen. And so 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:10.080 obviously I have a personal testimony sure that I for 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.600 sure know it doesn't matter what the cable news executive 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:17.600 looks like. The position they are there to uphold is 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:18.960 that is the comfort of life. 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:22.920 Yeah, it's it's the matrix, right, just insert whomever. Yes, 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:26.640 but the system is programmed to operate a particular way 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:30.240 and produce a particular result. And this is why I 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:32.400 think we have to be really careful when we start 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:36.199 lifting up and edifying sort of these individuals as first 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:39.719 and the like. And I get the symbolic reference, and 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:45.080 it does make me symbolically, you know, proud to have 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:47.920 someone exhibited that my daughter or my son or I 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:50.440 myself might be able to see. But then we have 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.720 to go layers deep to understand, like, Okay, are you 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:56.480 a disruptor? In what way are you changing this thing 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:00.199 so that we're we're not character. 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:05.000 The problem is systemic, for sure, and that is a difference, 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:07.199 right fitting a black face that is going to carry 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:11.920 the voices of white folks doesn't do anything for the community. 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:14.920 Or continue to marginalize, you know, communities that have previously 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:19.360 been violated, have been put in boxes, have been reduced 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:22.960 to nothingness. If if your existence here is only to 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:27.000 perpetuate that, not to disrupt it, not to break it 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:31.680 so it can forever be broken, but to rather, you know, 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.560 continue to expand the bottom line and make you know, 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.960 those nice cus you know, because she suits happy, then 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:41.760 you're not a service. You're useless, You're not a service. 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:43.559 But you know where we are going to be a 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.160 services right here. And that's one of the reasons why 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.480 why I'm excited about this podcast. I want to know 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:53.280 tip from you first, why are you excited about this podcast? 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:55.440 I'm excited about this podcast because I get to do 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:57.679 this with my friends who I've known a long time. 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:00.600 People think we met in media. We did not known 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:02.480 each other long before we were doing it in front 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:05.360 of a camera exactly. So it's really nice to show 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:07.400 up here and one be in a space where we 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:12.120 feel welcomed. Two, I'm excited about this because our words 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:15.800 and our truth will not be policed. I was exhausted 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.840 with having my words policed or having the fight even 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:20.800 to talk, you know, to talk about issues that were 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:23.440 significant to so to millions of people across this country, 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:26.560 and having to defend and define my humanity every week. 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:28.640 It's so relaxing to show up in a place where 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:30.679 I don't have to do either of those things. We 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:33.320 can skip past all that and just get to conversations 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:36.400 of substance, but also to keep it abuck, conversations of 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:38.560 some foolishness too. You know, we have a good time 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:41.640 with each other. So yeah, I'm most excited about that. 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:44.000 And all of that could exist, like in one place. 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:46.720 I hate this idea that if the world out there 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:48.959 is serious, that the only thing you can bring back 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:50.080 to the world is serious. 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:52.840 Right, we'll find joy. 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:56.360 And it's not a reduction to the fact that there 0:12:56.360 --> 0:13:00.640 are real, serious, consequential things going on. But my goodness, 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:04.760 we come from generations of folks who had to find 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:09.080 joy in the smallest of places because the world wasn't 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.600 offering it to them. There. Every day was torture us, 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:16.600 it was labor, it was work. There were no days off. 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.760 Even your faith was curated to you, right, it was 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:24.800 brought to you by sponsored by massa in them, right, 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:29.280 And so folks had define moments where you could appreciate 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:32.520 being alive and around the people you know, who you love, 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:35.920 the fact that you are whole folks, You're not just 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:39.120 an employee of somebody. If I'm bringing it to current day, 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:44.200 were nobody's employee, were nobody's employer, or exclusively, we're mothers, 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:48.600 we're fathers, we're brothers, siblings, where niece's nephews, so on 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:52.079 and so forth, and that's okay. And in each of 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.280 those places we bring a different side, a different side 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:59.080 of ourselves are allowed to live and breathe. And I'm 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:02.679 hopeful that I'm excited that we don't have to check 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:05.720 any part of who we are at the door, uh 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:08.720 before we walk in and take these mics, that we 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:11.800 can show up fully, that I don't have to apologize 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:15.080 for any part of myself and in and in and 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:18.000 in life, if we really are in pursuit of, you know, 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.320 true liberation, that's exactly how it ought to go. We 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:23.880 shouldn't have to look over our shoulder and apologize and 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:28.680 make excuse for lament or feel the weight of imposter 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:32.880 syndrome when you're when you're home. And so we're creating 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:36.680 a different kind of home and hopefully moving people closer 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:41.560 toward this, you know, this way of thinking, rather than 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.320 this very myopic way in which the world right now 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:46.160 requires us to exist. 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:52.120 I'm excited because you all agreed to do this. I'm 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:56.480 excited because I know from walking with y'all down the 0:14:56.560 --> 0:15:00.240 street how much your voices mean to our peace people 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.240 and to a lot of folks who don't look like 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:07.600 us but just felt resonance with you because of your authenticity. 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:09.440 So I'm very grateful. 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:12.560 I think my excitement is to couple with gratitude because 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.200 I know that there is a space for this in 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:17.440 the hearts and minds of so many, including my own, 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.880 and I look forward to ever refreshing, authentic political conversation 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:24.200 where we can chop it up legitimately, not because we're 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:26.080 trying to go viral, but because we really are trying 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:28.600 to solve some of the toughest problems. And y'all have 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:30.560 always been that way, So thank you for being problem 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.240 solvers and being willing to do it on the record 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.400 on air as a native land. 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:43.480 Native Land Pod is a production of iHeart Radio in 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:46.800 partnership with Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts from my 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:50.680 Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:52.120 you listen to your favorite shows.