Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio and partnership
Speaker 1: with Recent Choice Media.
Speaker 2: Welcome home you guys.
Speaker 1: So for this mini pod, we actually talk about a
Speaker 1: question you guys ask all the time, and that is
Speaker 1: why do you guys call yourselves? Native Land Pod? We
Speaker 1: actually get into that on our very first show, So
Speaker 1: take a listen and we talk about why we started
Speaker 1: this podcast in the first place. So I hope you
Speaker 1: enjoyed this episode, and don't forget we have a New
Speaker 1: Year's Eve episode dropping this Thursday, so be sure to
Speaker 1: tune into that. We'll see you in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: Hey, able to Chris Flow this video submission for y'all.
Speaker 1: Question for y'all, I'll keep it short. Where did you
Speaker 1: get the name Native Land Podcast?
Speaker 4: What does it mean to be native to you? We
Speaker 4: could have chosen from any number of names, numbers, themes
Speaker 4: out there. Tell me in your own opinion why native
Speaker 4: Land as the as a theme and the topic and
Speaker 4: the 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 we're all patriotism is. Because we
Speaker 3: are patriots, we have every right to question every single
Speaker 3: aspect of our native land.
Speaker 1: It's interesting Angela 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 in 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 grossly 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: Love that. You know, all of us have had our
Speaker 4: work experience on major platforms, you know, names that will
Speaker 4: be recognized around around the globe, and even in those spaces,
Speaker 4: while we were invited to offer our opinions and perspectives
Speaker 4: and analysis, always felt in many ways curated. Even still,
Speaker 4: it was curated by the wrap it up, It was
Speaker 4: curated by the fifteen seconds. It was curated by you know,
Speaker 4: you're the progressive on the panel, and so bring that perspective,
Speaker 4: even if the topic may have been more nuanced than
Speaker 4: one of a political ideology a perspective, and so you
Speaker 4: know the title, the theme, the titling of the show.
Speaker 4: Native Land, to me is less about a physical edifice
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 taken, that 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 it's their lived experience and
Speaker 4: their truth it deserves some platform for airing, and I
Speaker 4: look forward to us being able to do that on
Speaker 4: this platform.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, welcome home. What you said made me think
Speaker 1: about the current existing landscape of news media, and I'm
Speaker 1: curious to hear from my co host here in your opinion, Andrew,
Speaker 1: who is the mainstream media made for?
Speaker 4: Uh? Well, I mean, if we if we were to
Speaker 4: just assess, you know, the mainstream media by its approach
Speaker 4: to most things, complicated issues to the simple, I think
Speaker 4: it's theater and large part, I think it plays a
Speaker 4: lot of times to consumerism. I think the bottom line
Speaker 4: matters there more than anyone ever says. And and by
Speaker 4: and large, I think it plays to fright a majority.
Speaker 4: It causes a lot of angst. I mean, when I'm
Speaker 4: at family, it's funny. We were all together for Thanksgiving
Speaker 4: my family, and almost to a person, people are like,
Speaker 4: I don't even want to turn on the news anymore.
Speaker 4: I know there's nothing good there. And I just found
Speaker 4: it interesting having been part of that community before, of
Speaker 4: communicating to people over airwaves, it just struck me that
Speaker 4: to a person, people found their peace and their solace,
Speaker 4: their joy, and their happiness away from hearing from mainstream news.
Speaker 4: So what kind of news could you be if you
Speaker 4: repel otherwise decent, caring, you know, thoughtful people, and that
Speaker 4: their escape defying peace in their lives or joy in
Speaker 4: their lives is to not pay attention to the news.
Speaker 4: That's a sad state of affairs when we think about it.
Speaker 4: But if that's the experience of every person to a person,
Speaker 4: you gotta believe that it's not accidental that the news
Speaker 4: is being communicated to us in that way.
Speaker 3: And they're definitely not accidental. I can say that I'm
Speaker 3: one of them, Like I cannot watch.
Speaker 2: The news regularly. Cable news programming is just too much.
Speaker 3: I got some of my friends shout out the joy.
Speaker 4: You know, who will watch the point We still watch.
Speaker 3: But I am I can't watch a lot of it.
Speaker 3: It is repulsive. It is frustrating when I think about
Speaker 3: many of the segments that we were on, you know,
Speaker 3: like we're set up for Mortal Kombat and it's exhausting,
Speaker 3: and so then you're supposed to go home and be
Speaker 3: your partner's piece and be and it's just really hard.
Speaker 3: So what I think about who the news is made for.
Speaker 3: I think about, you know, folks who have a hard
Speaker 3: time developing their own opinion and are easily taken advantage of,
Speaker 3: easily manipulated. It's almost like the same folks who watch
Speaker 3: QVC commercial, right, you know what I mean, Like they
Speaker 3: can package it in any way and sell it to you,
Speaker 3: you know, tell you, tell you it's raining, and they're
Speaker 3: pissing on you, like it really is. It's just too
Speaker 3: much and it's exhausting to watch. Like I get the
Speaker 3: same feeling watching the news tip that I did when
Speaker 3: I used to like consume love and hip hop or basketball,
Speaker 3: wives and no shade to some of all my friends.
Speaker 2: But I watched one day, I did like a marathon chaw.
Speaker 4: I got it.
Speaker 2: I said, well, I feel dirty. Wow, it's the same
Speaker 2: way I feel watching any cable news.
Speaker 3: Doesn't matter for it's progressive, midstream or or a conservative,
Speaker 3: it really doesn't matter.
Speaker 4: It's the wind up machine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, mat, I think you feel that way because
Speaker 1: it is a new, a different version of reality TV.
Speaker 1: Except it is not our reality. So I think the news.
Speaker 1: I'll just go one step further and say the news
Speaker 1: is made for the comfort of white people. That is
Speaker 1: who is centered, that is the audience they want to
Speaker 1: curate your average cable news viewers between sixty two and
Speaker 1: sixty five, and white and male. And so when programmers
Speaker 1: look at what the content for that day, that is
Speaker 1: who they're talking to, which is baffling to me because
Speaker 1: you are speaking to a shrinking demographic and completely ignoring
Speaker 1: a growing demographic. We are the rising majority of this country,
Speaker 1: and yet when we show up on air to speak
Speaker 1: an honest truth in ways how we communicate, it is
Speaker 1: not accepted. It's considered controversial until the white boy says
Speaker 1: it's okay to do so. If we speak in our vernacular,
Speaker 1: when we use the way that we talk, it is
Speaker 1: not okay until the white boy does it, and then
Speaker 1: it's fun. We can't quote quote rap lyrics, but they can't.
Speaker 2: We can't talk.
Speaker 1: About what happens in our life. I'm talking to the truth.
Speaker 1: We say we go to be the truth. On this podcast,
Speaker 1: I'm speaking truth. We cannot talk about make references. You know,
Speaker 1: if I say something that is something that we all understand, right,
Speaker 1: a colloquial reference that is specific to our community, it's
Speaker 1: not okay, And I would always have to say, well.
Speaker 2: If you don't get it, it ain't for you, right.
Speaker 1: The same way, I don't always get your country music
Speaker 1: reference or your role and tide reference. That ain't for me.
Speaker 1: I should get to talk to the rise and majority
Speaker 1: of this country and make them feel seen. And so
Speaker 1: obviously I have a personal testimony sure that I for
Speaker 1: sure know it doesn't matter what the cable news executive
Speaker 1: looks like. The position they are there to uphold is
Speaker 1: that is 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 the like. And I get the symbolic reference, and
Speaker 4: it does make me symbolically, you know, proud to have
Speaker 4: someone exhibited that my daughter or my son or I
Speaker 4: myself might be able to see. But then we have
Speaker 4: to go layers deep to understand, like, Okay, are you
Speaker 4: a disruptor? In what way are you changing this thing
Speaker 4: so that we're we're not character.
Speaker 1: The problem is systemic, for sure, and that is a difference,
Speaker 1: right fitting a black face that is going to carry
Speaker 1: the voices of 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 cus you know, because she suits happy, then
Speaker 4: you're not a service. You're useless, You're not a service.
Speaker 3: But you know where we are going to be a
Speaker 3: services right here. And that's one of the reasons why
Speaker 3: why I'm excited about this podcast. I want to know
Speaker 3: tip from you first, why are you excited 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 1: People think we met in media. We did not known
Speaker 1: each other long before we were doing it in front
Speaker 1: of a camera exactly. So it's really nice to show
Speaker 1: up here and one be in a space where we
Speaker 1: feel welcomed. Two, I'm excited about this because our words
Speaker 1: and our truth will not be policed. I was exhausted
Speaker 1: with having my words policed or having the fight even
Speaker 1: to talk, you know, to talk about issues that were
Speaker 1: significant to so to millions of people across this country,
Speaker 1: and having to defend and define my humanity every week.
Speaker 1: It's so relaxing to show up in a place where
Speaker 1: I don't have to do either of those things. We
Speaker 1: can skip past all that and just get to conversations
Speaker 1: of substance, but also to keep it abuck, conversations of
Speaker 1: some foolishness too. You know, we have a good time
Speaker 1: with each other. So yeah, I'm most excited about that.
Speaker 4: And all of that could exist, like in one place.
Speaker 4: I hate this idea that if the world out there
Speaker 4: is serious, that the only thing you can bring back
Speaker 4: to the world is serious.
Speaker 1: Right, we'll find joy.
Speaker 4: And it's not a reduction to the fact that there
Speaker 4: are real, serious, consequential things going on. But my goodness,
Speaker 4: we come from generations of folks who had to find
Speaker 4: joy in the smallest of places because the world wasn't
Speaker 4: offering it to them. There. Every day was torture us,
Speaker 4: it was labor, it was work. There were no days off.
Speaker 4: Even your faith was curated to you, right, it was
Speaker 4: brought to you by sponsored by massa in them, right,
Speaker 4: And so folks had define moments where you could appreciate
Speaker 4: being alive and around the people you know, who you love,
Speaker 4: the fact that you are whole folks, You're not just
Speaker 4: an employee of somebody. If I'm bringing it to current day,
Speaker 4: were nobody's employee, were nobody's employer, or exclusively, we're mothers,
Speaker 4: we're fathers, we're brothers, siblings, where niece's nephews, so on
Speaker 4: and so forth, and that's okay. And in each of
Speaker 4: those places we bring a different side, a different side
Speaker 4: of ourselves are allowed to live and breathe. And I'm
Speaker 4: hopeful that I'm excited that we don't have to check
Speaker 4: any part of who we are at the door, uh
Speaker 4: before we walk in and take these mics, that we
Speaker 4: can show up fully, that I don't have to apologize
Speaker 4: for any part of myself and in and in and
Speaker 4: in life, if we really are in pursuit of, you know,
Speaker 4: true liberation, that's exactly how it ought to go. We
Speaker 4: shouldn't have to look over our shoulder and apologize and
Speaker 4: make excuse for lament or feel the weight of imposter
Speaker 4: syndrome when you're when you're home. And so we're creating
Speaker 4: a different kind of home and hopefully moving people closer
Speaker 4: toward this, you know, this way of thinking, rather than
Speaker 4: this very myopic way in which the world right now
Speaker 4: 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 peace people
Speaker 3: and to a lot of folks who don't look like
Speaker 3: us but just felt resonance with you because of your authenticity.
Speaker 2: So I'm very grateful.
Speaker 3: I think my excitement is to couple with gratitude because
Speaker 3: I know that there is a space for this in
Speaker 3: the hearts and minds of so many, including my own,
Speaker 3: and I look forward to ever refreshing, authentic political conversation
Speaker 3: where we can chop it up legitimately, not because we're
Speaker 3: trying to go viral, but because we really are trying
Speaker 3: to solve some of the toughest problems. And y'all have
Speaker 3: always been that way, So thank you for being problem
Speaker 3: solvers and being willing to do it on the record
Speaker 3: on air as a native land.
Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is a production of iHeart Radio in
Speaker 1: partnership with Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.