WEBVTT - What’s on your mind - a conversation about mental health. 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:08.200 Welcome to Force Multiplier, a new podcast about leveling up 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:10.840 the impact we can have in the world through our relationships. 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:14.400 I'm barretton Day Thurston and in collaboration with I Heart 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:17.480 Radio and Salesforce dot Org, I sit with leaders from 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:21.320 across the public, private, and nonprofit world who are forging 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:25.799 partnerships to tackle some of the toughest challenges facing us today. 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:31.640 Welcome back to Force Multiplier. Today's theme is mental health. 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:35.640 To say I'm excited to talk about this topic, it 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:39.360 wouldn't be accurate. But i do need to talk about 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:42.559 this topic, and I'm very willing. I'm someone who has 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:46.120 loved sharing. When things are going well, I'm a performer, 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:50.040 always putting my best foot and face forward. When things 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:52.800 are hard, I suck it up by walk it off. 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:57.000 I use other metaphors for burying those uncomfortable feelings. At 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:00.120 least I used to do that by default. Now that 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:02.440 I've been in my forties for a few years, I'm 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.080 taking a more integrated approach to my health that incorporates 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:11.320 the physical, spiritual, and mental. I've benefited from a beautiful 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:14.679 relationship with a psychologist who helped me process the pain 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:20.000 of my divorce years ago. I've embraced breathwork, meditation, coaching, 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:23.600 all these things to become more attuned to my inner 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:28.600 self and make space for processing those uncomfortable feelings. It's 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:32.120 not always fun, I can't pretend that it is, but 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:36.000 it does make me healthier. I'm learning that investing in 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:40.119 my mental health is essential. I'm also learning just how 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:43.360 serious the effects of poor mental health can be on 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:48.880 all of us. One in seven adolescents aged ten to 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:52.640 nineteen is estimated to have a mental health condition, and 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:56.160 among adolescents, suicide is the fifth most prevalent cause of 0:01:56.200 --> 0:02:00.600 death As students go back to school, seventies that identify 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:04.880 well being as a top challenge. Overall, less than half 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.600 of all Americans with the mental disorder get the treatment 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:11.079 that they need. The root causes of these mental health 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.280 challenges are often trauma and neglect we experience at a 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:18.000 young age. When we're loved at home, we go to 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:22.120 school to learn. When we aren't loved at home, we 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:25.240 go to school to be loved, and if we don't 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:28.280 have a deep connection with a parent or caregiver, we 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:31.920 feel a sense of threat, which impacts our emotional and 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:36.079 cognitive development. Just at the moment when we're most vulnerable. 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:39.400 If we take a look at the Black community, all 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:44.080 these indicators, they're just worse. In nineteen suicide was the 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.320 second leading cause of death for black youth age fifteen 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:51.120 to twenty four, and Black Americans generally are twenty percent 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:54.560 more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:58.600 general population. Some of these root causes run deeper than 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:03.320 our individual childhood, and they span generations of neglect and 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:08.120 abuse based in a society and an economic system designed 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:13.080 precisely to neglect and abuse us. I've known and experienced 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:17.240 pieces of these facts my entire life. I've lost people 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:21.520 to suicide. I've lived in communities ravaged by neglect and abuse, 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:26.040 places where we distance ourselves from those who are hurting, 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:29.600 maybe because we fear it will highlight our own pain. 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:35.440 I'm still learning that the way to a healthier society 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:45.960 requires investment and participation by all members of society. Parents, educators, peers, policymakers, employers, everybody. 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.120 All of us must come together to support all of 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:53.920 us so we can all be healthier and whole. This 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:58.280 brings me to our guest, Charlemagne, the God co host 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.520 of the nationally syndicated show of Breakfast Club. New York 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:05.000 Times bestselling author and certainly one of the most influential 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.800 voices in modern culture. Known for his outspoken and brutally 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:12.480 honest rhetoric, Charlemagne is using his platform to amplify awareness 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:16.680 around mental health in the black community. Later in the episode, 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:20.680 we hear from Benjamin Perk's Head of Campaigns and Advocacy 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.679 in the Division of Global Communications at the United Nations 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:28.040 Children's Fund. In his role, ben leads public and policy 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:32.040 advocacy on issues related to the survival, development, and protection 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:37.120 of children. Two incredibly insightful conversations leaving us with a 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:48.440 lot to think about. Let's dive in. Charlemagne. I'm really good. 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:50.479 I'm really good. It's nice to be chatting with you 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.479 right now. Listen. You're you're so well known for the 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:58.880 Breakfast Club ten years. Congratulations on that. What does radio 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:03.200 mean to you beyond a job, beyond the source of income? 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:05.599 Oh man, I mean, that's what changed my life, is 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:08.720 what gave me a sense of purpose. You know, prior 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:10.800 to this, I was, you know, running the streets and 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:12.880 monks on the South Carolina doing a whole bunch of things. 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:14.760 I didn't have no business doing like I didn't. I 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:16.640 didn't know what my future was gonna be. My dad 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:18.520 was telling me that if I didn't change my ways, 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:20.720 you know, I was gonna end up in jail, dead 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:23.400 or broke, sitting under the tree. And you know, when 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:26.240 I started seeing people around me actually dying, when I started, 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:28.280 you know, seeing people around me going to prison, when 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:30.800 I started going to jail myself, I realized he was right. 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:35.240 And you know that that fear of literally being just 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:37.919 some dude sitting under the tree with nothing to show 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:40.680 for it but a can of bear every day, I 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:42.920 didn't want that for myself. And you know, I pride 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:45.680 myself on always being able to see, you know, what 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:48.159 life is gonna look like ten years from now. Anything 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:52.159 you do today directly impact what happens in your life tomorrow. 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:55.040 So I just started making the necessary adjustments. And so 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:57.400 for me, radio just gave me a sense of purpose 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:00.760 and it gave me a sense of of work that 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:04.760 I didn't have before. I can feel the energy of 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.000 that purpose and that worth shining through. It's still very 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:12.240 much present you. You've evolved, you know, from radio host 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:17.400 to author to activists and from the outside a lot 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:20.320 of people can see that trajectory and say, what a 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.640 smooth ride this brother has been on. Would have been 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:28.440 some of the hardest parts of building your career in 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:31.839 this way. Oh man, there's nothing been smooth. I mean 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:35.360 I've been fired, you know, four times. You have so 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:39.720 many ebbs and flows in this business, not really professionally, 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:43.240 but personally. There was a lot of things that I 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:47.240 hadn't dealt with, you know, as far as unresolved trauma, 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.080 and like, you know, I've been dealing with anxiety and 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:53.240 panic attacks my whole life. And in two thousand ten 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:55.080 was the first time the doctor said, you know, you 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:57.880 suffer from anxiety. And at the time, I have been 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:01.400 fired four times from radio. I'm like thirty two years old. 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.000 I'm back living at home with my mom. My first 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:06.920 daughter is now like one or two. My now wife 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:08.680 is back home living with her mom. We had to 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:11.440 pack up from Jersey and come back home. And like 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:14.680 when I had that really bad panic attack, I thought 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:17.000 I was going to die, and the doctor was like, no, 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:18.840 that sounds like you had an anxiety attack. He was like, 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.840 are you scratched out about anything? And I'm like, hell yeah, 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:24.280 So in my mind all I gotta do is get 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:27.640 another job, get back in position. That next radio gig 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:30.440 ended up being the Breakfast Club. Fast forward three or 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.160 four years, I'm having more success than I've ever had 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.320 in my life. I'm just really growing and evolving. But 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:40.440 I'm losing myself in the process because I started to 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:43.720 become a character to myself, because I was doing anything 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.080 to survive. I was really like pushing the limits on 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:49.600 that whole shock jock thing, you know what I'm saying. 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.200 And it was because I was getting rewarded for it. It 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.280 It was because I was getting right up since the 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:56.760 New York Times and all these different magazines and they're like, oh, 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:59.640 Charlemagne God is the hip hop Howard Stern and YadA, YadA, YadA. 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:01.520 So I'm like, oh, this is what they want. I'm 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.160 gonna give him more of that. And I probably was 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:06.080 being real and honest, but I was being real and 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:10.080 honest from a really bad place in space, because you know, 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:12.400 I was I hadn't done the work on myself. You 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:16.480 started getting more real with yourself and sharing that in 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:20.080 your book shook one anxiety planning tricks on me. And 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:22.080 one of the things you did in this book is 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:24.640 you know, I saw you describing it at one point 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.400 is you've gone to therapy for a while. You started 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:30.440 looking at your notes, and you decided to write from 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:34.080 those notes as someone who's been in therapy myself, but 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:36.960 came to it late in life because another black dude 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:39.160 friend of mine was like, you should talk to this person. 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:42.720 The idea that we don't have permission to that this 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:45.640 is something black folk don't do along with swimming and 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:49.840 eating mayonnaise, that the therapy is not for us, and 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:52.880 that there's a stigma associated with it for all kinds 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:55.320 of people, especially black people people in general, that you're weak, 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:56.920 that you don't have it, that you can't cut it, 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.559 that you can't hack it, and in the hyper competitive 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:02.120 industry like the one you're in. I guess that's a 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.520 long way of saying, did you realize what you were 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:11.080 doing to destigmatize conversations about mental health, to normalize conversations 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:15.280 about mental health? Absolutely not. I was just literally sharing 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:17.200 my experiences. That's why I tell people all the time, 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:18.680 I'm not an expert, you know, I mean, I'm just 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:22.840 a brother who was sharing his experiences. But to your point, Yeah, 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:24.839 when people started coming up to me, in the street 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:27.000 telling me they started going to therapy because of me, 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:29.480 when women were coming up to me saying my husband 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.200 started going because of you, or my brother, my uncle. 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:35.400 I remember Tracy and uh to Roger p Hinston. They 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:38.200 got the boards Lawrence Hinton Foundation, one of the only 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.000 other people out there speaking openly about mental health for 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:42.600 me and her used to do a lot of things together. 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:45.880 And remember somebody introduced me as a mental health advocate 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:49.600 and I'm like, nah, I'm not known mental health advocate. 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:53.120 And Tracy was like, brother, whether you want to be 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:56.520 or not, you are, and she said you need to 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:00.960 embrace it. You know, clearly God doesn't call the qualified, 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:04.680 He qualifies the call. And there's a lot of different 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:07.280 things that have happened over the past few years, you know, 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:11.360 along my journey of healing. That just makes me want 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:15.920 to dedicate my life to helping black people. Hell, just 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:18.280 my life's work. And so it's just like, man, I'll 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:20.160 be talking to some of these brothers. Not it's weird, 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:23.440 right because I'm still on my journey of healing, but 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:27.240 healed people here and see things differently. So it's things 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:30.439 I hearing brothers and seeing brothers and I'm like, I 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:32.920 don't judge them like I used to. I don't. I'm 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:34.920 not ready to critique them like I used to and 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:37.679 attack them like I used to, because I know that 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:41.360 brothers just dealing with unresolved trauma. I know that brother 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:43.560 is dealing with pain. I know that brothers dealing with hurts. 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.199 So I got a lot more empathy, you know, when 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:49.080 it comes to us as people, because of the work 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:53.240 I've done on myself, they're the saying hurt people, hurt people. 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.520 You kind of balanced that there with you healing people 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:00.160 in the process of healing, or at least bad are 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:03.280 able to be a part of someone else's process of healing, 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.680 all right, And the snap judgment and the willingness to attack. 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:10.719 It's a big opening to be able to see that 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:13.400 that comes. You know that that pain and someone else 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:18.000 maybe not be personal, may be historic, maybe intergenerational, may 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:20.960 be built on some trauma from earlier in their life. 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:25.560 We both love black people, and I can feel that love, 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:26.880 and I see it in a lot of your work. 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:31.040 And there are times when the size of what we've 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:36.160 been through as people overwhelms me. Right, I look at 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:38.800 all the beautiful things we've done but I also look 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:42.000 at all the ugly things we survived, and I'm just 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:47.640 amazed we're even here at all. How do you think 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:53.679 about the unique power of black people achieving a state 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:57.280 of mental health? What what would that mean for us? 0:11:57.320 --> 0:11:59.320 And why is it such an important mission to you? 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:05.760 I recently heard Will Smith say, paraphrasing, basically, it doesn't 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:12.280 matter who broke it's it's up to you to fix it. 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:15.400 My talk show to God's on His Truth on Comedy 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.800 Central World Mental Health Day is Tintin. I'm doing a 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:22.439 mental health episode this week, and I'm talking about healing 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.560 as a black person. And the question I'm asking is 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:31.160 whose responsibility is it for you to heal? And the 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:37.640 answer is you, nobody else, nobody else. So yes, I 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:41.280 feel like man, there's so many things that we can't control. 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:44.320 There's so many things that we're all fighting to change, 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.400 you know, as far as systemic racism in this country, 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:52.239 but as far as us and dealing with our traumas, 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.560 it don't matter who broke us, It's up to us 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:58.640 to fix us. And I really truly feel like man, 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.360 when we become a generation of people who really go 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.960 out there and seek healing, I think we'll see such 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.040 a change in our communities because I think there's so 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:13.720 many different things that can be directly attributed to unresolved trauma. 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:20.400 You've created this beautifully titled Mental Wealth Alliance with a 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:24.560 mission to teach, and train and treat in part because 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.880 you experienced this gap in resources, uh, and you've witnessed 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:31.760 it in the black community. Share with our audience a 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.120 bit more about the gap you witnessed and how you've 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:40.319 designed programs with the Alliance to address it. Yeah. Well, 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:44.120 you know, um, teach, train, treat our three pillars. And 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:46.319 I just was looking at a lot of people who 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:48.040 are already out there during the work, you know, like 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.920 an organization out of Philly called Black Men Hell. And 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:53.679 you know, I donated some money to Black Men Hill 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:55.240 back in the day. And what I when I when 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:57.560 I saw what they were able to do, you know, 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:02.040 with the ten dollar donation I made, I was like, Wow, 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:04.800 they were able to provide free therapy for all of 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:08.120 these different black men. And I was like, man, how 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:10.319 can we do this on a mass level? Because I'm 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:12.680 able to raise more money than a you know, Black 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:16.560 Men Heill can, So why not create a hub to 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.600 where we get the funding and distribute the funding to 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:21.840 the people that need it. And you know, that's that's 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.000 our mission statement. We want to provide you know, free therapy. 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:27.320 And you know, when you look at the the amount 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:30.880 of mental health care workers and clinical workers, I think 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:33.600 we only make up like three or four percent. So 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:35.280 it's like, I want to at least get that to 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.840 where it reflects the population of black people in America. 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:40.960 And the way we do that is through scholarships and 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:45.000 through paying for training for individuals. So I'm just trying 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:48.240 to use my platform and use my voice to to 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:50.120 do the right things. You know, I mean, I see, 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:53.320 I see who needs the funding. I see where the 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.240 funding is going. So if I'm able to raise more 0:14:56.320 --> 0:14:59.520 capital and get it to those people, why not. You 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.320 have the a beautiful array of founding partners with the 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:05.360 Mental Wealth Alliance. What did it require in terms of 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.560 partnerships to get this group off the ground? Man, it 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.920 was an idea actually that my man um Tim Striver 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:14.800 actually hit me. And Tim Striver was like, man, you 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:17.520 should really think about opening up your own foundation. And 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:19.520 I was like why I was? You know, I'd rather 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:23.160 be out here supporting, you know, the boys Lawrence Nston Foundation, 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:26.960 you know Project three seventy five, you know that Brandon 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:30.600 Marshall's Foundation, and he was like, it gives you a 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:35.000 different since the purpose, you know, and you know people 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:38.840 may want to support what you're doing faster than you 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.400 know some of those those other organizations. And I'm like, 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.280 you know, why not everybody that's involved in just people 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:46.360 that I've met over the past four or five years 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:49.280 in my journey of healing. You know, people like my 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:51.480 my home girl, Debbie Brown. Debbie Brown, Me and Debbie 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:54.600 been cool for damnit seventeen years. So you know, I've 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.480 watched Debbie evolved to become this powerhouse in the mind 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:00.600 fulm this space, you know, working with Deep poc Choper 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.040 and everything else. So it was sisters like that who 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:05.600 helped me go out in and find a sense of 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:07.880 healing and find a sense of purpose. So now that 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:12.240 we're all in these great positions, why wouldn't I want 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:16.320 somebody like Deviie Brown involved on the board? Yeah? Can 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.680 you talk one more moment about this pillar of training 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:24.920 the treatment. It's the most obvious people need help, and 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:27.760 you're helping facilitate and provide places where they can get 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:30.920 that help. But what's the training about and why is 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:34.960 that such a central pillar in your mission. We need 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:38.920 people who are culturally competent. We need, you know, black 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.800 people to be these these mental health professionals, you know, 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:48.400 we need we need culturally sensitive mental health services period. 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:51.560 If we can encourage people to go into that space, 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:53.880 to go into that field, people that look like us, 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.000 that talk like us, that sounds like us, that come 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:58.720 from the same backgrounds as us, that's what we need. 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:02.560 There's a place in Armington, Michigan called Inception and it's 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:05.280 rand by my man David mccullor. David mccullor is a brother, 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:08.720 you know, from that area. When people go there and 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:10.879 they go to Inception and they do brain training, or 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.760 they do float therapy, or they do magnuts fear, it 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:16.200 immediately opens you up and makes you want to talk. 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:18.679 And David is a brother that they can talk to. 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:21.440 He's a brother, you know what I mean. He listened 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.159 to the same music we listen to and he talks 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:27.720 like us. But he's just really educated when it comes 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.880 to the mental health space. That's what makes you want 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:34.880 to open up even more because David understands things that 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:37.960 somebody who's not from the environments we come from. Wouldn't 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:41.600 understand when you got somebody who's from the hood and 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.640 understands that your black people were not inherently evil. We're 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:47.480 not trying to just be out here doing criminal stuff 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:49.960 because that's who we are. Like, it's a set of 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.840 socio economic conditions that caused some of us to move 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:57.359 a certain way. Sometimes that that can only come from 0:17:57.400 --> 0:17:59.760 somebody who's culturally competent, and you don't have to spend 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:04.280 some time explaining yourself, your people, your history to their 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:09.560 theoretically to help you understand yourself. On October tenth, you've 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:13.680 got an expo coming up. That's a mental wealth expo. 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:15.920 I've heard of a wealth expo and how you can 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:18.639 get rich and do all these wonderful things with their finances. 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:22.520 I've never heard of a mental wealth expo. What can 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:26.840 people expect from this? Who's involved? How is it different 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:28.879 from the other types of expos that a lot of 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:32.560 us are familiar with. It's not different from other expos, 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:34.000 you know what I mean. It's a day of mental 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:36.520 health education and the day of healing. Like you always 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:39.040 hear people say things like, you know, where do I 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:41.119 start where do I start, you know, when it comes 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:44.199 to like going on a healing journey. So for me, 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:46.800 this is just like an entry point, you know. So 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:49.640 what I've done is I put together. Man. We got 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:52.080 so many different panels. Man. We gotta panel on Black 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:56.359 men's mental health, black women's mental health. We gotta spiritual 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.320 intelligence panel. You know. We got all these different breakout 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:03.879 rooms that are specifically for things like anxiety, PTSD, depression. 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:07.199 We got rooms for people who are you know, dealing 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:11.040 with family members who are bipoland skitz apriendic, because nobody 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.359 ever talks about those individuals and what and what having 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:17.800 somebody in your family with those kind of mental health 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:21.320 issues does to your mental health. And so I got man, 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.080 people that I just respect, like like deVie Brown, she'll 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:27.840 be doing her dropping Gym's podcast. They're live. Michelle Williams. 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:29.879 You know, she has a great podcast called checking In 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:31.600 when she really just checking in with people to see 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:34.000 how their mental health and emotional well being is going. 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:38.040 She's there, my man, Jay Barnett, Mr. Jason Wilson is 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:42.080 gonna be there. David McCullough, Dr Rita Walker, I got 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:44.399 Res Dominican, I got him in Angela Rye or be 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:47.280 in conversation with each other and so man, it's just 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:49.560 a day for us to love on each other from 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:52.800 eleven am to four pm. And it's free and open 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:54.679 to the public, you know what I mean. That was 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:57.240 very important to me to make sure that it was 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:00.000 free and open to the public, because to your point, 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:03.200 I not nobody for what they do. I just think 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:06.440 that some of this information, if we're really trying to 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:10.320 help people, if we're really trying to empower people, I 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:12.919 can't charge for it, you know what I mean. I 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:14.600 just I just simply can't do that. I don't not 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.520 nobody for what they do. You know, everybody's got an 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:22.439 area of expertise, get your money, do your thing. Me personally, 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:25.879 I'd rather stick up some of these corporate people and 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:29.520 get these sponsorships and let them pay for everything, you 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:31.200 know what I mean. All of these companies that say 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:33.920 they want to invest in black people and they want 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:37.520 to empower black people and they want to help black people, Okay, 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:40.760 will help us unpack some of our traumas, then, you know, 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:44.040 and sponsor this event. Yeah, that's what we're doing this Sunday, 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.960 and I can't wait. That's the Jesse Jackson method right there. 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:52.760 The corporate stick up if the truth though, and you know, 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:55.160 like we're gonna have, it's gonna be different booths there. 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:57.320 You know, people are gonna be able to come there 0:20:57.320 --> 0:20:59.600 and get so much different information. Man and all. I'm 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:05.840 hoping that people leave there with the wherewithal on how 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:09.520 to start their healing journey. They at least nowhere to begin. 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:12.320 They know if they need to talk to us psychiatrists, 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:16.480 a therapist, a grief counselor whatever it is, they know 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:18.760 what to do on their healing journey. You might get 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.000 into meditation. You might get into yoga, because we got 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:22.640 all of that there, you know, so you might get 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:25.280 into crystals. We got a lot of different things. You 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:28.320 basically just described my mother as you rest in peace. 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:32.399 All yoga, meditation and crystals. That are three strong memories 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:36.159 I have of her during my childhood. I wish I 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:39.720 could actually be there, um, but I will definitely tell 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:42.840 everybody about it, and certainly this this show is going 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:46.000 to help tell everybody about it. We call this show 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.320 force Multiplier because we think that there are some things 0:21:49.400 --> 0:21:53.520 you can do to have an outsize effect and outside impact. 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.080 If you're a bit of leverage. What would you say, 0:21:56.119 --> 0:22:00.240 the force multiplier is enclosing the mental health gap in 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:02.800 the black community, some of those few things we could 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:06.080 do that have an outside the impact. That's a great, 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:09.119 great question, man. I think, honestly, just continuing to have 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:12.320 the conversation because when I put out my my second 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:15.959 book shook one anxiety playing tricks on me. I didn't 0:22:15.960 --> 0:22:18.760 know it was gonna start so many different conversations. But 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:21.600