Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to woke F Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody recording pre recording from my
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Silarium. Folks, it is woke Wednesday, but more importantly,
Speaker 1: it is my birthday, and I just want to start
Speaker 1: off today's show by saying just how much gratitude I
Speaker 1: have for each and every single one of you that
Speaker 1: have been supporting woke F for quite some time on
Speaker 1: Patreon and those of you who have been riding with
Speaker 1: me since serious days. It's been quite an amazing journey,
Speaker 1: and I find that these days, on my birthday, I
Speaker 1: actually just want to give gratitude to all of the
Speaker 1: people around me. My family, my friends, you all, woke
Speaker 1: a F nation. Um. You know, the past couple of years,
Speaker 1: I think for all of us have been so incredibly trying.
Speaker 1: We've been tested in a lot of different ways. And
Speaker 1: for me, you know, the journey I have shared with
Speaker 1: you all has been a long one to get to
Speaker 1: a place where right now I can say I've learned
Speaker 1: several things that I would like to kind of share
Speaker 1: this morning before we get into our normal Woke Wednesday
Speaker 1: conversation with our favorite in house doctor Doctor Jonathan Metzel.
Speaker 1: But I've been I've learned a couple of things over
Speaker 1: the past few years, and one of it, one of
Speaker 1: them is this that I want to center my life
Speaker 1: and my work around feeling right, and around feelings of joy,
Speaker 1: feelings of passion, feelings of gratitude, feelings of peace. And
Speaker 1: I say that knowing you know that you all listen
Speaker 1: to me every single day, rage against the machine. But
Speaker 1: the thing that I have really understood about what it
Speaker 1: means to be angry. And there's a book that I'm
Speaker 1: actually reading right now, and I'm hoping that we will
Speaker 1: have the author on which talks about how important anger
Speaker 1: is and that it is important to embody anger. That
Speaker 1: anger is purposeful, right. Anger is a motivator. Anger springs
Speaker 1: us into action. But when we hold that anger right,
Speaker 1: it begins to eat us from the inside out. It
Speaker 1: is toxic, right, That's why it is important to express
Speaker 1: it and get it out. But understand more importantly, what
Speaker 1: is it that is causing the anger? Right for adults,
Speaker 1: unlike children, when children get into their tantrums, when they
Speaker 1: get angry, they do that physically right, or yell or
Speaker 1: scream because they don't really have the articulation or or
Speaker 1: have the ability to truly interrogate their emotions. And it's
Speaker 1: a term that I've been using a lot lately, interrogate
Speaker 1: your feelings. I've been saying this to friends, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to say to all of you, and what do
Speaker 1: I mean by interrogate your feelings? I mean get to
Speaker 1: the why. Right. It's okay to feel sad, It's okay
Speaker 1: to feel lonely, it's okay to feel enraged, it's okay
Speaker 1: to feel exhausted. Right. I think that we live in
Speaker 1: a culture where we're really not allowed to express our feelings,
Speaker 1: and particularly if you come from a marginalized community. We
Speaker 1: all know the tropes about angry black women. You know
Speaker 1: the aggressive black man. We all know the hot Latino.
Speaker 1: All of the stereotypes and tropes that are thrown at
Speaker 1: us that have us, in a lot of ways dismiss
Speaker 1: our emotions. And what happens when we do that is
Speaker 1: that they bottle up, much like traffic on a highway
Speaker 1: with no exits insight. Right, there's no free flowing. And
Speaker 1: I'm coming to understand that life really is about how
Speaker 1: we move in alignment and how we move in flow
Speaker 1: with our feelings and allow them to happen. And I say,
Speaker 1: interrogate your feelings, because get to your why. There are
Speaker 1: some days when I find myself completely depleted, and I
Speaker 1: don't just say, oh well I'm depleted, let me go
Speaker 1: take a nap or let me go zone out. But
Speaker 1: what is causing that depletion? Right? Because if I can
Speaker 1: get to if I can begin to mind those emotions,
Speaker 1: that I can get to a place where I can understand.
Speaker 1: Did I do something to disrupt my schedule? Right? Did
Speaker 1: I get enough sleep? Did I drink enough of water?
Speaker 1: Did I fall out of my regular routine and begin
Speaker 1: doing so now I'm exhausted? Right? Did I have an
Speaker 1: outlet for myself this day? Did I speak to my friends?
Speaker 1: Did I speak to my family? You know? How? Was
Speaker 1: I engaging? And a lot of times I find that
Speaker 1: on the days where I feel really depleted and really exhausted,
Speaker 1: I haven't worked out right? And for me, initially, when
Speaker 1: I started really aggressively working out, it was always surrounded
Speaker 1: by weight loss. Every time that I would get on
Speaker 1: these workout you know binges and things, it was always
Speaker 1: about I need to get to this particular number on
Speaker 1: the scale. I need to get to this particular number
Speaker 1: that's hanging in my closet. But nowadays I actually in
Speaker 1: the pandemic has been really helpful in this fact that
Speaker 1: I look at my workouts as a way to stress relief. Right,
Speaker 1: I am filled with a lot of rage. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of shit to be angry about. If you are
Speaker 1: paying attention, then you were angry. But it's what else
Speaker 1: am I doing with that? The show, right, the podcast,
Speaker 1: as well as Wednesdays and you democracy Ish and these
Speaker 1: places in this form of my work have been outlets
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways, but they've also been depleting.
Speaker 1: So I look for ways in which to understand the
Speaker 1: beginning of why I'm having these feelings and then understand
Speaker 1: what does it mean to alleviate them. So for me,
Speaker 1: walking doing high intensity training really makes me feel good, right,
Speaker 1: It gives me energy, and particularly when I say that
Speaker 1: I'm exhausted. But then I managed to put my yoga
Speaker 1: mat down on the floor right behind me and get
Speaker 1: into a workout. By the time that I'm finished, I
Speaker 1: do really feel better. My mother wasn't lying to me
Speaker 1: all of this time when she would say go do yoga,
Speaker 1: go meditate, go work out and I would say, no,
Speaker 1: I just want to lay on the couch and marinate
Speaker 1: in my misery. That I realized that that is an
Speaker 1: outlet for me. So I say, feel your feelings right,
Speaker 1: allow yourself to go through your emotions. You know, observe
Speaker 1: your emotions, which is what meditation teaches you, To not
Speaker 1: pull yourself out out of your emotions, but to observe
Speaker 1: them the way that you do clouds in the sky,
Speaker 1: the way that you do wind blowing through trees, the
Speaker 1: way that you observe you know the people around you.
Speaker 1: You don't attach yourself to them, but you recognize that
Speaker 1: it's happening right. And it's the same thing I feel
Speaker 1: with our emotions and with anger and with rage. And
Speaker 1: for me, what I am learning and practicing. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that I have found the answers, but what I
Speaker 1: am learning and what is working for me is that
Speaker 1: I say what I have to say right, whether it's
Speaker 1: to an individual or to an entire audience, and then
Speaker 1: I let it go. And it doesn't mean that I
Speaker 1: don't care. It just means that I reconcile with myself
Speaker 1: that I've done what I can, I've put the energy
Speaker 1: out there, I've shared the message that I've wanted to share,
Speaker 1: and then I move on. And I have found that
Speaker 1: over the almost two years now of this practice, that
Speaker 1: I no longer carry the same type of pain that
Speaker 1: I was holding for really a long time, to the
Speaker 1: point where my family started to say, maybe you shouldn't
Speaker 1: do this show anymore, because you being forced or forcing
Speaker 1: yourself to be in the know of everything bad that
Speaker 1: is happening is changing you. It's changing your personality, it's
Speaker 1: changing your demeanor. And they were right, because I hadn't
Speaker 1: figured out what my outlet was, how I was planning
Speaker 1: to actually move right, to move this energy around my
Speaker 1: body and out of my body right. And I'm a
Speaker 1: person who has wanted to dedicate their life and their
Speaker 1: work to public service, whether it was working on the hill,
Speaker 1: working for nonprofit organizations, working for different movement and social
Speaker 1: justice organizations, or women's rights or organizations are LGBTQ. I've
Speaker 1: always wanted my work to be on purpose, right, And
Speaker 1: with that comes a lot of emotional exhaustion, because you're
Speaker 1: both working to push justice forward for a community that
Speaker 1: you're actually being oppressed in, right, And so there's a
Speaker 1: lot that's there there's a lot that is there to mind.
Speaker 1: And what I offer to all of you today is
Speaker 1: my gift, my birthday gift to all of you, is
Speaker 1: to begin to interrogate your feelings, begin to understand where
Speaker 1: you have formed attachments right and are those attachments fruitful
Speaker 1: for you? Or is there more consciousness and awareness that
Speaker 1: you need to bring to varied situations, feelings and emotions
Speaker 1: and expressions as a way to begin to release right,
Speaker 1: Release the negative energy, release the toxicity. And a lot
Speaker 1: of the convers stations that are upcoming in this week
Speaker 1: and in the coming days are with people who do
Speaker 1: extraordinary work, whether they are historians, doctors, journalists, activists, artists.
Speaker 1: But I'm asking them, I'm asking a lot of people
Speaker 1: the same question, which is, how do you stay in joy?
Speaker 1: How do you find your joy right? What does that
Speaker 1: look like for you on a daily basis, Because frankly,
Speaker 1: folks in the society that we live in, they tell
Speaker 1: you to suspend joy for forty hours a week, then
Speaker 1: you go ahead and grab onto what you can for
Speaker 1: that good day and a half of the weekend before
Speaker 1: you start all over again. They tell you to hold
Speaker 1: onto your joy for fifty for fifty weeks right out
Speaker 1: of the year, and then you get two weeks of
Speaker 1: vacation to then what live If we are not living
Speaker 1: every day, if we're not choosing how we want to live,
Speaker 1: if we're not orienting ourselves around the types of feelings
Speaker 1: that we want. We've had a couple of really great
Speaker 1: conversations with folks, you know, about work and our relationship
Speaker 1: to work and do we go after work that is
Speaker 1: about our quote unquote passion or do we orient our
Speaker 1: work around how we want to feel at the end
Speaker 1: of the day. You know, maybe if we were to
Speaker 1: start thinking in that way, how do I want to
Speaker 1: feel when I enter into this space when I leave
Speaker 1: this space? Right, then maybe we realize that we don't
Speaker 1: need as much as we think, because look, everything is
Speaker 1: a capitalistic driver. Right Like you're sitting around, you're watching TV.
Speaker 1: Even if you're fucking watching Netflix and the ship goes
Speaker 1: on pause, they're still advertising to you because do you
Speaker 1: know what these companies have realized is that your TVs
Speaker 1: are personalized billboards that are in your home. A couple
Speaker 1: of months ago, I was chilling on my couch hanging
Speaker 1: out with a friend and we were doing what everybody
Speaker 1: does on Netflix, just going through all the categories, trying
Speaker 1: to find something to watch. Eventually, you know, listening to music,
Speaker 1: hanging out and forgot about the TV. Then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, my smart TV started advertising all of the shows,
Speaker 1: all of the series, and the movies that were on Netflix.
Speaker 1: So even when we weren't actively going through the lists,
Speaker 1: the TV was still advertising to us, making us think
Speaker 1: that we wanted something that we actually had decided we
Speaker 1: didn't want. But I needed to hit off twice in
Speaker 1: order to get my personalized billboard to go off. And
Speaker 1: so we don't realize how often we are inundated with
Speaker 1: messages that are telling us that we need more or
Speaker 1: should want more then we actually have or really truly need.
Speaker 1: I've been thinking about happiness a lot these days because
Speaker 1: I find myself after a really ending, a really long relationship,
Speaker 1: going through divorce, unpacking a lot of negativity and toxicity,
Speaker 1: and really understanding what is it that I want my
Speaker 1: life to be about? What do I want to do?
Speaker 1: What do I want to offer? Again interrogating those feelings,
Speaker 1: I started to realize that all of the things that
Speaker 1: I thought that I wanted, that I thought meant success
Speaker 1: in one place or another, didn't conjure actually the type
Speaker 1: of feeling that I wanted, Right, I want to feel light,
Speaker 1: I want to feel at ease, I want to feel
Speaker 1: at peace. And you may say to yourself, denial, how
Speaker 1: do you do that when the world is falling apart
Speaker 1: around you? And I say, how do you not do
Speaker 1: that when the world is falling apart around you? Because
Speaker 1: you see what I keep saying, and what I want
Speaker 1: to offer is that if we are not grounding ourselves,
Speaker 1: rooting ourselves like trees in things that are actually within
Speaker 1: our control, then what are we doing? We are just
Speaker 1: reacting to the whims of these other people. Now I
Speaker 1: have the ability in my small corner of the world
Speaker 1: what we all do, because that's what social media was
Speaker 1: intended to do, was to democratize how we communicate. Right,
Speaker 1: So we all have the ability to have nuance to
Speaker 1: use our platforms, but then recognize that we can use
Speaker 1: our platforms to do other things other than spend day
Speaker 1: in and day out talking about talking about our white supremacists,
Speaker 1: domestic terrorists, political party that's trying to destroy the country.
Speaker 1: Though that is true, that is absolutely true, But do
Speaker 1: you know what else is true. The leaves are changing
Speaker 1: colors if you live on the East Coast, like there's
Speaker 1: a Christmas to the air. Now it's cozy sweater season.
Speaker 1: The holidays are approaching, hoping to share with like friends
Speaker 1: and family or family. Right, life is about choosing, That's
Speaker 1: what I believe, like actual freedom is. That's why I
Speaker 1: fight for social justice, so that people have choices, right,
Speaker 1: they have the same choices that everybody else has. Right,
Speaker 1: That's what I fight for. But what I recognize is
Speaker 1: that happiness is a choice, but it isn't a passive choice.
Speaker 1: You have to actually work to be happy. You have
Speaker 1: to think about what you're grateful for each and every day.
Speaker 1: You have to honor that. You have to put yourself
Speaker 1: in places and spaces with people who help you vibrate
Speaker 1: higher and be better. And so I offer this as
Speaker 1: my gift to all of you on my birthday today,
Speaker 1: because we all deserve joy. We all deserve sunshine and
Speaker 1: laughter and happiness and dance and music, you know. And
Speaker 1: I want us not to suspend or wait for particular
Speaker 1: moments to really live. I want us to be living
Speaker 1: every single day because you don't know when it's going
Speaker 1: to be over. You don't know how it's going to end.
Speaker 1: And so if that is true, then how are we
Speaker 1: really living each day? How are we expressing our joy,
Speaker 1: our gratitude, our peace, and what are we offering into
Speaker 1: the world. I do believe that small groups of people
Speaker 1: can change the world. As Margaret Mead said, it's indeed
Speaker 1: the only thing that ever has. And I do believe
Speaker 1: that self care is an act of revolution. That is
Speaker 1: what ARDR. Lord said. I also believe that joy, unrelenting, beautiful,
Speaker 1: just connected joy is how we fight against the hatred
Speaker 1: and the disgust and the oppression that we see. They
Speaker 1: are not going to steal my joy from me, right
Speaker 1: because even during slavery, there was dancing, there was music,
Speaker 1: there was love, there was marriage, there was hope. They
Speaker 1: refused right in their own way, to be ruined. And
Speaker 1: when I say ruined, I mean to have every aspect
Speaker 1: of you destroyed. We have autonomy and we have choices
Speaker 1: on how we engage with each other, how we engage
Speaker 1: with the news. Right. I don't say to turn it off,
Speaker 1: because we need an engage citizenury, but you can choose
Speaker 1: how and when you do. I'm happy that all of
Speaker 1: you haven't been engaging with me and in community with
Speaker 1: each other, talking in the comment section, connecting with each
Speaker 1: other on walk Wednesdays on the IG Live. It brings
Speaker 1: me such extraordinary joy, and I can't thank you all
Speaker 1: enough for making it worthwhile for me to wake up
Speaker 1: in the morning, for making it worthwhile for me to
Speaker 1: turn on the TV and to want to figure out
Speaker 1: what's going on so that I can share it with
Speaker 1: all of you. I get to do what I love.
Speaker 1: Some days I don't like it, but I always love it,
Speaker 1: and it is because of all of you. And so
Speaker 1: today I just want to say thank you. I appreciate
Speaker 1: you and find ways to live in your joy, whatever
Speaker 1: that is, find it and do it each and every day.
Speaker 1: Coming up next, dear friends, is my conversation with our
Speaker 1: in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel, where we will discuss
Speaker 1: the latest with COVID nineteen. What Jonathan's thoughts are about
Speaker 1: the vaccines that are now approved for people as young
Speaker 1: as five. For children as young as five years old,
Speaker 1: I'll talk about my own experience getting the booster shot
Speaker 1: over the weekend. I can report that I had no
Speaker 1: symptoms other than dead arm. You know, I couldn't really
Speaker 1: lift it for about a day, but that was it.
Speaker 1: We'll get into that and so much more so coming
Speaker 1: up next doctor Jonathan Metzo. Folks, As you know, I'm
Speaker 1: always excited when I have the opportunity to chat with
Speaker 1: our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzo to discuss, you know,
Speaker 1: a myriad of things that are playing our world that
Speaker 1: are Lady, we talk about doom. Sometimes we text about,
Speaker 1: you know, nice things, but on a regular basis, I
Speaker 1: think that we talk probably more about doom. But I
Speaker 1: wanted to start off today with sharing a little bit.
Speaker 1: We will talk about COVID as we've been doing. Do
Speaker 1: you realize, Jonathan, that you and I have been talking
Speaker 1: about COVID for almost two years? It will be it
Speaker 1: will be two years when the calendar year changes. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, I had a full head of hair when
Speaker 1: we started talking. It's crazy. Yeah, this thing, it's just
Speaker 1: our life. I guess it's our life. I mean, it
Speaker 1: really is. It really is our life. And it's you
Speaker 1: know what I find these days is, you know, we're
Speaker 1: never gonna not talk about COVID. I feel I feel like, um,
Speaker 1: we're never gonna not hear about it in you know,
Speaker 1: in the news. We are going to be in a
Speaker 1: constant state of watching numbers go up go down. I
Speaker 1: think that well, first off, I will let folks know this. Um.
Speaker 1: Over the weekend, I was finally able to receive my
Speaker 1: booster shot. I had dead arm for you know, about
Speaker 1: the day, about twenty four hours and that was it.
Speaker 1: I had no side effects. But I didn't have any
Speaker 1: side effects in the first you know, in the first
Speaker 1: iteration of the vaccine. Thankfully, um, no fever, no chills, like,
Speaker 1: no nothing. And the same thing bode true for the
Speaker 1: booster shot. I had Maderna as my VACS as my vaccine,
Speaker 1: and I had fisers as the booster shot. Jonathan, what
Speaker 1: have you been hearing and thinking with regard to the boosters?
Speaker 1: And you know, it looks as if only seventeen percent
Speaker 1: of Americans, if am I wrong, that have received a
Speaker 1: booster shot at this point. Well, I went in a hospital.
Speaker 1: So I got my booster a couple of months ago,
Speaker 1: and I was bummed out right. I got Maderna for
Speaker 1: my first shot, and then I got Maderna as the
Speaker 1: booster and I didn't feel anything like you know, I
Speaker 1: had a little store arm for a little bit. But
Speaker 1: I'm like, did you guys, give me like the group
Speaker 1: on booster or like a sugar pill or something like that.
Speaker 1: Because I didn't have any side effects at all, and
Speaker 1: that was most people. Most people I know did not
Speaker 1: did not have any any side effects. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like if people were like freaked out by
Speaker 1: the first two shots, because people people really had some
Speaker 1: side effects from the second shot very often. But I
Speaker 1: think in general, the set effects of the booster, because
Speaker 1: your system is kind of you to this thing. By
Speaker 1: now we're a lot less and so that that was
Speaker 1: kind of part of what I was, part of what
Speaker 1: I was experiencing. But I do think that in general,
Speaker 1: you know, in general, more people getting boosters, I think,
Speaker 1: in general is a good thing in the context of
Speaker 1: what we what we've been talking about, you know what
Speaker 1: I have to say too, So I would I went
Speaker 1: into a local CBS um out on Long Island and
Speaker 1: was able to make an appointment about probably two days
Speaker 1: before I arrived. They had, you know, a slew of
Speaker 1: appointments available because I hadn't been able to get a
Speaker 1: booster in Brooklyn. There were there have been no appointments
Speaker 1: and it's a it's appointment only. So I went out
Speaker 1: to Long Island. I was able to get it there.
Speaker 1: And Jonathan, you know, I'm sitting and I'm waiting the
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes right after you get this shot to make
Speaker 1: sure you're okay. When for me, when I get shots
Speaker 1: or you know of anything, Um, I get woozy, like immediately, uh.
Speaker 1: And then and then it dissipates. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's more my anxiety or like what, you know, what
Speaker 1: the shot is that I'm getting, but it happens without fail.
Speaker 1: But I was sitting there and I'm thinking to myself, God,
Speaker 1: I can't stand Americans. They are so selfish and so
Speaker 1: self absorbed. And I say that because it was literally
Speaker 1: no sweat off my back to go and get this appointment.
Speaker 1: It was free, right, And all I could think of,
Speaker 1: Jonathan as I'm sitting there are the millions of people
Speaker 1: that are still around the world that are still clamoring
Speaker 1: to try and get their first shot of a vaccine.
Speaker 1: The fact that their governments haven't had you know, easy rollouts,
Speaker 1: the fact that it's money that is coming out of
Speaker 1: their pockets. Even though country the more the wealthier, high
Speaker 1: high income countries said that they would provide help and
Speaker 1: economic boost you know, to those two places and pay
Speaker 1: for vaccines. But we know that that's been lagging. And
Speaker 1: I think to myself, my god, Americans have it so
Speaker 1: goddamn easy, and yet we look to make everything so hard. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, it's weird because again, like you know, as
Speaker 1: we you know, we've got like now quite a lot
Speaker 1: of data on these vaccines, right and it's it's just um,
Speaker 1: you know there, it's just so clear, first of all,
Speaker 1: what's happening, Like there are countries in Europe for example,
Speaker 1: that have very low vaccination rates that have high COVID rates,
Speaker 1: and there are countries that have relatively high vaccination rates
Speaker 1: that have low COVID rates, and so the vaccines are
Speaker 1: super effective. And as you say, you know, it's crazy,
Speaker 1: but like in Africa, like less than ten percent of
Speaker 1: the people have even have access to a vaccine, notably less.
Speaker 1: And so in a way, Number one, just as a country,
Speaker 1: we have a lot of privilege right now of access
Speaker 1: to this particular technology, and the fact that we're fighting
Speaker 1: about it and politicizing it, I totally agree with you,
Speaker 1: is incredibly appalling. But I don't know, it's hard because
Speaker 1: that also that argument is not going to work, right,
Speaker 1: It's our goal to get as many people vaccinated as
Speaker 1: as as possible. We want many people to get vaccinated,
Speaker 1: and that argument will work as well as like, you know,
Speaker 1: the argument of like their poor starving children in Ethiopia,
Speaker 1: so eat your dinner when you're a kid, and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. Like, people don't respond to that kind of logic.
Speaker 1: And so I think this is just kind of the
Speaker 1: state of where things are in general. In general right now,
Speaker 1: America is doing pretty well, I mean boosters aside, our
Speaker 1: rates of delta are going down. It feels it seems
Speaker 1: like places that have had the most vaccines are doing
Speaker 1: the best. Um, but there are It's not like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, work. There's some good things happening and some
Speaker 1: scary things happening. The good things I'll start with first,
Speaker 1: see something. I prefer you start with the bad things
Speaker 1: so that we can end on the good things. All right,
Speaker 1: I'll start with the bad thing. Then tell us what's
Speaker 1: terrible so we can end on something good, you know,
Speaker 1: the bad thing. Put this at the w JO put
Speaker 1: out a warning this morning which I totally agree with.
Speaker 1: I've been thinking this for a while, which is that
Speaker 1: there are plenty of places in Europe that have good
Speaker 1: adherents and good vaccination rates that are seeing virus resurgences.
Speaker 1: And so there's a lesson in that for the United
Speaker 1: States right now, which is like, even though our rates
Speaker 1: are falling right now, we tend to follow Europe by
Speaker 1: a month or two pretty often, and Europe is getting
Speaker 1: hammered certain parts of Europe right now, and so this
Speaker 1: idea of like the whole thing being over and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, we should just look as we did in
Speaker 1: the very beginning of the pandemic to Europe and recognize
Speaker 1: that's probably what our fate is going to be. We're
Speaker 1: probably going to see some kind of other rise, and
Speaker 1: so right now is a very important time to get
Speaker 1: people vaccinated as much as possible. So partially I think
Speaker 1: the warning sign is comparable countries, comparable vaccine rates even
Speaker 1: better a little bit better than ours are seeing rises
Speaker 1: and virus right now. Is still delta that there. We
Speaker 1: haven't been talking about any new variations, uh for for
Speaker 1: quite some time, thank god. But why is this you
Speaker 1: were about to say, but why is this rise happening? Well?
Speaker 1: Two reasons. One is there's probably a more contagious version
Speaker 1: of delta out there, certainly that that's what people are
Speaker 1: thinking about in the UK right now. But the other is, um,
Speaker 1: you know, kids haven't been vaccinated. People are letting their
Speaker 1: guard down and going back to mosh pits, which I
Speaker 1: love and I miss um and and other kinds of
Speaker 1: daily life kinds of things for a lot of people,
Speaker 1: and so social behavior is just going back to baseline.
Speaker 1: So there are a bunch of different reasons that people
Speaker 1: just kind of thought, oh, were this is over because
Speaker 1: our rates are falling, and so it's all of it's
Speaker 1: all of those factors together, and there's still an open
Speaker 1: debate about how how contagious fully vaccinated people are in
Speaker 1: terms of what they're passing on to other people. We still,
Speaker 1: you know, we're working on it pretty hard, but we
Speaker 1: still don't know the answer. So I think that those
Speaker 1: are the reasons. But again, this is, as they say,
Speaker 1: an evolving situation, and we have to think of it
Speaker 1: that way because it's not like, oh, here's the answer
Speaker 1: and then tomorrow, because it's not exactly the same. I
Speaker 1: understand that's anxiety producing, but I would say, you know,
Speaker 1: we just have to keep reminding people we're in the
Speaker 1: best possible spot right now right, we have the most
Speaker 1: access to the best treatment, and we should we should
Speaker 1: continually to continually remember that. And there are you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know if it will work here,
Speaker 1: but there are places like Singapore and Asia, in places
Speaker 1: like that where if people don't want to get vaccinated,
Speaker 1: that's kind of their right, but they also are getting
Speaker 1: denied access to like free treatment like the free booster
Speaker 1: you got, or free healthcare or free COVID tests stuff
Speaker 1: like that. So I think there's going to be an
Speaker 1: economic price to pay. Also, again, we'll have to see
Speaker 1: how that happens. But of course having a lot of
Speaker 1: unvaccinated people is also just very expensive for our country
Speaker 1: because those people end up in the ICU and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. So the question is what's the economic cost
Speaker 1: of this kind of kind of stuff? You know? Um,
Speaker 1: So now we have five to eleven year olds, um
Speaker 1: with the five wait oh wait, I didn't get to
Speaker 1: say a good thing. You get to say the good thing.
Speaker 1: You're right. Let me let me Jonathan, what is your
Speaker 1: good thing to say? Well, you're real leading it to
Speaker 1: two good things. Number one is um Vaccinating kids five
Speaker 1: to eleven is going to be huge it's a huge deal,
Speaker 1: massive deal, and I think that it will dramatically stop spread,
Speaker 1: it will dramatically improve health and and also because there
Speaker 1: is still long COVID for kids, it'll improve the lives
Speaker 1: of a lot of kids. And so certainly I think
Speaker 1: that getting kids vaccinated UM is a big deal. They're
Speaker 1: getting a smaller dose of the vaccine UM, but I
Speaker 1: think I think it's a huge deal. And you know
Speaker 1: that there's you know, there's like if you look at
Speaker 1: the numbers, like the negative effects are so minimal compared
Speaker 1: to the actual effects of COVID. I know in parts
Speaker 1: of the world they're not using a full dose Maderna
Speaker 1: for kids because of the very very small risk but
Speaker 1: a real risk of cardiac inflammation. So we also have
Speaker 1: Visor and other stuff like that. But the other big
Speaker 1: news is that Visor has a pill that basically works
Speaker 1: the same way that monoclonal antibodies do. This pill and
Speaker 1: I've been excited about this for a long time. I
Speaker 1: think we talked about on the show a couple of
Speaker 1: months ago that basically this is a pill that works
Speaker 1: the same way that monoclonal antibodies do. It gives you
Speaker 1: an antibody boost in response to a pill. So if
Speaker 1: you get if you get COVID, you can just take
Speaker 1: this pill and it will actually work the same way.
Speaker 1: It'll it'll boost your boost your moon response. So having
Speaker 1: a pill treatment for COVID for people who get COVID,
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be a big deal because
Speaker 1: it's really a pain in the nethers to actually go
Speaker 1: get monoclonal antibody treatment. But the fact that there's going
Speaker 1: to be a pill for people who've been infected, I
Speaker 1: think is also a very It comes with a caveat,
Speaker 1: but it's a very big deal. Is it something? Is
Speaker 1: this pill if you can track COVID, do you have
Speaker 1: to take it within a certain time frame? Otherwise the
Speaker 1: treatment is not as effective. Yeah, and that's true for
Speaker 1: monoclonal antibodies also, So if you think you've got it,
Speaker 1: you take up. It's basically the deal is going to be.
Speaker 1: If you think you've got it, you take a home task,
Speaker 1: you're positive, you take the pill and it'll improve your outcomes. Now,
Speaker 1: there are other anti inflammatory kind of medications that are working.
Speaker 1: There's an older antidepressant that seems to be helping people.
Speaker 1: So anything that's going to mitigate the effects once you
Speaker 1: get the illness is a big deal. The caveat is
Speaker 1: that the illness, as we know, is a pretty slippery mofo,
Speaker 1: and so as people start taking this pill, the virus
Speaker 1: is going to start inventing ways to get around it.
Speaker 1: And so, you know, we have a lot of pills
Speaker 1: that we're promising in the beginning, but as the antibody,
Speaker 1: as the virus became more resistant, they were less fact
Speaker 1: But at least at this moment, it's it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a big deal, you know. I wanted to ask you
Speaker 1: this question. I was reading an article in the New
Speaker 1: York Times over the weekend, and it was a story
Speaker 1: of a woman who had long COVID and she ended
Speaker 1: up killing herself because the I guess her organs were
Speaker 1: shutting down, the depression had settled in, and she just
Speaker 1: realized after months and months and months, she didn't want
Speaker 1: to live like that anymore. So sadly, she ended up
Speaker 1: taking her own life. I don't feel like we are
Speaker 1: talking about long COVID enough. I don't know if that's
Speaker 1: because we don't have a real understanding about how it's
Speaker 1: caused and how it varies from person to person, but again.
Speaker 1: You know, I am of the philosophy that we need
Speaker 1: to scare people right into wanting to get the vaccine
Speaker 1: into understanding that it isn't just oh well I get
Speaker 1: COVID and then it goes away. It's like, no, there
Speaker 1: are many people who get it and they are suffering.
Speaker 1: They are now going to be you know, technically disabled,
Speaker 1: you know, moving forward being able to get disability because
Speaker 1: of the effects. Can you talk to us about what
Speaker 1: you know about long COVID, what you have heard, what
Speaker 1: you have studied, and understand it to be sure? Well,
Speaker 1: let me just tell you why I think it makes
Speaker 1: sense and why maybe a little bit of help conceptualizing it.
Speaker 1: In the very beginning, people thought that COVID was a
Speaker 1: lung disease, and as shitty as having a lung disease is.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of people like me thought, well
Speaker 1: that's bad, but you know we can we can treat
Speaker 1: a lung disease, right, Well, we'll block access to lungs,
Speaker 1: we will, we have treatments for lung diseases, things like that.
Speaker 1: So when we thought it was just staying in the
Speaker 1: lungs the way largely some viruses, I mean, when you
Speaker 1: get a cold, for example, It's not like floating around
Speaker 1: your brain and stuff like that. So we thought it
Speaker 1: was a respiratory disease, possibly similar to like a rhinovirus
Speaker 1: or something like that. But then people started having a
Speaker 1: bunch of other symptoms like cardiac comflammation, or the most
Speaker 1: important was psychiatric symptoms, which is what I pay attention to,
Speaker 1: or forgetfulness, brain symptoms, fatigue, all these other factors, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, you're like, this virus is
Speaker 1: not just staying in one part of people's bodies. It
Speaker 1: actually has the ability to do things like, to use
Speaker 1: a technical term, cross the blood brain barrier. That's the
Speaker 1: barrier that basically keeps your brain and your cerebro spinal
Speaker 1: fluid inclosed in your spine and your brain, right, And
Speaker 1: so if a virus can get in there, which is
Speaker 1: like sacred space for humanity, right because that's like very
Speaker 1: pristine territory, if a virus can do that, then we're
Speaker 1: looking at a different kind of virus. And so you
Speaker 1: start thinking like what other viruses can do. That kind
Speaker 1: of thing can get into your heart, can get into
Speaker 1: your brain, and then it's a Then it's not a
Speaker 1: great category, right because you think, for example of lime disease, right,
Speaker 1: lime disease can get into you know, all these places
Speaker 1: that make you think and feel and feel tired and
Speaker 1: things like that. Herpies is another really good example, right
Speaker 1: because think think about like when you had chickenpox as
Speaker 1: a kid, and then you can get herpes zoster later
Speaker 1: on in your life because this thing is living in
Speaker 1: your in your nerve cells and your root ganglian for
Speaker 1: your entire life, herpes encephalitis, all these kind of things.
Speaker 1: These things never go away. They're living in you forever
Speaker 1: in a way. And you know then then then you're
Speaker 1: talking not talking about treating these things, you're talking about
Speaker 1: suppressing these things. And so um, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people who have I mean, just to be totally honest,
Speaker 1: I have a version of this because I have a
Speaker 1: version of vertigo that is in my inner ear. It
Speaker 1: turns out like a lot of men get this for
Speaker 1: some reason, and it's like a herpes virus that you
Speaker 1: get like when you're a kid from your lip or
Speaker 1: you're something like that, and it lives in your ear.
Speaker 1: And so I have this dizziness that I you know
Speaker 1: that I've had to take um of anti viral. It's
Speaker 1: kind of partly why I freaked out about to COVID
Speaker 1: so long. But it's like, you know, it's no big deal.
Speaker 1: I just have to take a suppressing drug because it's
Speaker 1: not like we can kill something like that or like,
Speaker 1: you know, people who have have shingles, right, same kind
Speaker 1: of thing. So these things live in you. And so
Speaker 1: I guess the point I'm trying to make here is
Speaker 1: COVID put itself in that category, right. It's the kind
Speaker 1: of thing that's going to live in your body and
Speaker 1: and it's and so that's why I feel like people
Speaker 1: who are fighting to not you should not get COVID
Speaker 1: if you can help it um for this reason. Now,
Speaker 1: your immune response is super important. All these things that
Speaker 1: you know, leading intellectuals like Aaron Rodgers or telling us
Speaker 1: all that stuff super imported. I wanted to I want
Speaker 1: to talk about him too very quickly. Again, but I'm
Speaker 1: saying that long COVID is telling us as a species
Speaker 1: that this illness is living in our body, right, and
Speaker 1: it's going to impact different people the way it does
Speaker 1: other people. But again, I'm thinking about this COVID in
Speaker 1: a way similar to like lyme disease causing chronic fatigue,
Speaker 1: or herpie is causing chronic encephalitis and things like that.
Speaker 1: Like in a way, all of a sudden, it becomes
Speaker 1: something that you need to suppress. And what that means
Speaker 1: is that our immune system is not just going to
Speaker 1: destroy it completely for certain people not for others. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's really frightening, right, And again, I don't think that
Speaker 1: we're having those kind of conversations about how this virus
Speaker 1: lives and where it will live and how it won't.
Speaker 1: It is not going to go away. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: on the Aaron Rodgers point, how dangerous was it what
Speaker 1: he did in terms of lying to the league or
Speaker 1: we're understanding now that everybody knew that he wasn't vaccinated,
Speaker 1: but the public didn't know. And I just want to say,
Speaker 1: again from your perspective, how dangerous is what it was
Speaker 1: that he has done, which is lying? Well, I think
Speaker 1: for me it's the line, right. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: that we're at a point right now. I were When
Speaker 1: I get on an airplane, I wear a mask. In fact,
Speaker 1: I wear three masks because a lot of people aren't
Speaker 1: wearing masks on airplanes right now. And I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to protect myself and then protect the people who I'm
Speaker 1: going to hang out with. But I don't know if
Speaker 1: somebody is not going to wear a mask. At least now,
Speaker 1: I feel like I have a mask regiment that will
Speaker 1: protect me. I just treat an airplane like I treat
Speaker 1: the emergency here. You know, I figured there's COVID all
Speaker 1: around me, and I want to protect myself and and
Speaker 1: and it's the same thing with vaccines, Like I just
Speaker 1: think I want everybody to get it. I want us
Speaker 1: to do better, but I realize certain people aren't going
Speaker 1: to do it right now. So I think that that's fine,
Speaker 1: But I think the line is a major major issue.
Speaker 1: Right this guy was not wearing a mask and going
Speaker 1: into the room with media. I think that he was
Speaker 1: putting all these other people, including his teammates, at risk.
Speaker 1: He was putting reporters at risk and things like that.
Speaker 1: So I think, really, for me, what's really the dishonesty?
Speaker 1: And then come on, dude, like you're really going to
Speaker 1: then quote MLK, you know. So I just think that
Speaker 1: it just had like weeness written all over it for me.
Speaker 1: And I would contrast it with like Kyrie Irving, who
Speaker 1: even though I don't agree with what he's doing, at
Speaker 1: least he's saying, look, I made this choice and I'm
Speaker 1: going to hear the by the policy. So I think
Speaker 1: the issue for me was the line more than anything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was the same for me because at
Speaker 1: this point in time, there honestly was no reason for
Speaker 1: him to lie. Just be honest. I'm not getting vaccinated,
Speaker 1: and stick by whatever your convictions are, even if they're bullshit,
Speaker 1: just stick by them and be honest about it. I
Speaker 1: don't agree with any of these athletes that don't get vaccinated,
Speaker 1: but I have more respect for the ones at the
Speaker 1: very least that are open and transparent about it. As always, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for making the time to join
Speaker 1: Woke a f and walk us through what is our
Speaker 1: new abnormal COVID and how we're living with it. We'll
Speaker 1: get through it. Everybody appreciate you. That is it for
Speaker 1: me today, dear friends, on this wonderful, wonderful Woke Wednesday
Speaker 1: slash Birthaday, there will be no Woke Wednesday ig live today.
Speaker 1: I am taking my own advice and I am taking
Speaker 1: the rest of the week off. But don't you worry,
Speaker 1: because there are brand new episodes every single day this
Speaker 1: week because I think about you all before I check out,
Speaker 1: So do know that there are wonderful interviews and episodes
Speaker 1: that are planned for you. But there will be no
Speaker 1: live today, but I will be back next week Wednesday,
Speaker 1: live on IG at three thirty pm Eastern, per usual
Speaker 1: as always, dear friends, Power to the people and to
Speaker 1: all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.