Speaker 1: Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Reason Choice Media.
Speaker 2: Welcome home, y'all, welcome.
Speaker 1: This is an inauguration of sorts because this is the
Speaker 1: inaugural episode of Native Lamppod.
Speaker 2: I am Angela Raie Hi everybody.
Speaker 3: I am Tiffany Cross, and I'm so thrilled to be
Speaker 3: in conversation with y'all in a community with my sister
Speaker 3: and brother.
Speaker 4: All Right, hellou everyone, this is Andrew Gill. I'm saying,
Speaker 4: what's up. It's been a while. I'm so so so
Speaker 4: glad to be back in conversation about relevant issues that
Speaker 4: are going to get us free.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: So, I want you all to know I've missed you
Speaker 1: on air. I'm not the only one looking at the
Speaker 1: comments on our social media posts.
Speaker 2: Folks are elated to see you back.
Speaker 1: I want you to know that your voices were ones
Speaker 1: that I could count on and and I am so
Speaker 1: glad that now I don't get to just listen to them.
Speaker 1: I get to be in the business of strategizing with
Speaker 1: you all every single week as we try to bring
Speaker 1: people back home, and you bring them home and we're
Speaker 1: welcoming them home.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 1: Before we kick this thing off. I have an oath
Speaker 1: that I'd like for you all to take because it's
Speaker 1: an inauguration.
Speaker 3: Okay, well a lawyer. I don't have a lawyer present.
Speaker 1: Hands up, right, hands up after me.
Speaker 2: I do solemnly swear, I do solemnly really already swear.
Speaker 2: I do solemnly swear.
Speaker 1: I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute.
Speaker 5: The role that I will faith.
Speaker 4: The responsibility of.
Speaker 1: Co hosts of Native Lampod, of co host the Native Lampod.
Speaker 2: And will to the best of my ability.
Speaker 3: And will, to the best of my ability preserve, preserve, protect.
Speaker 1: Protect, and defend and defend the truth, the truth and
Speaker 1: the safe space the culture deserves.
Speaker 4: And the same safe space culture.
Speaker 6: You know that.
Speaker 2: I put your hand back up.
Speaker 3: Oh, I thought we were.
Speaker 2: I put that on my own, mama.
Speaker 4: I put that on my hood.
Speaker 3: I lookd fly you guys Victorian money.
Speaker 2: Okay, they couldn't even get through the song. I put
Speaker 2: that on my own, mama. Come on anyway, Welcome home, y'all.
Speaker 1: So it would not be us if we didn't just
Speaker 1: jump right into all of the things political. And there
Speaker 1: is a lot going on, so we have to jump in.
Speaker 1: But I want to know why us, why now, why
Speaker 1: would you sign up to do political podcasting right now?
Speaker 2: If I'll start with you, Andrew, I'll go to you next.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you Angela, and I first of all, I
Speaker 3: want to say thank you for your words. Kicking us
Speaker 3: off and right back at you says people have missed
Speaker 3: hearing from you, and I want the listeners and audience
Speaker 3: to know that for our our peer group, that Angela
Speaker 3: was the first person out there to take up space
Speaker 3: and truth telling in a public way across the cable
Speaker 3: news spectrum. Because of your commentary and things you contributed
Speaker 3: to UH that network, their ratings increased, their brand increased
Speaker 3: in spaces where they weren't. And when I I've worked
Speaker 3: in TV for over twenty years behind the scenes, but
Speaker 3: when I transitioned to in front of the camera, Angela
Speaker 3: was always my go to about you know, speaker fees,
Speaker 3: about contracts, all that stuff. So thank you to you
Speaker 3: for being a trailblazer in that space. And so when
Speaker 3: you called with this vision of this podcast, it wasn't
Speaker 3: even a question. I was honored to be included. Outside
Speaker 3: of our professional work, we have a long close personal
Speaker 3: friendship and so it was you know is this work
Speaker 3: or is this me hanging out and having conversations that
Speaker 3: we would normally be having. And then I would say,
Speaker 3: because the cable news industry has so routinely and stubbornly
Speaker 3: failed to speak to us, to value our voices, there's
Speaker 3: like an unspoken rule. You can't be too truthful, you
Speaker 3: can't be too real, you can't say too much. And
Speaker 3: the cardinal rule is you can't make white folks too uncomfortable.
Speaker 3: And so it's nice to have a space, a safe space,
Speaker 3: as you talked about in the Oath, where we can
Speaker 3: speak truthfully. And I think this is a podcast for everyone.
Speaker 3: If you have intellectual curiosity about your fellow countrymen who
Speaker 3: don't look like you, this is a place where you
Speaker 3: can come and hear that. And if you are uncomfortable,
Speaker 3: then that is a good thing, because that means you're growing.
Speaker 3: So we welcome everybody here, and we welcome people who
Speaker 3: have a familiarity with us. We welcome our fan with
Speaker 3: us as well.
Speaker 2: It's real, Andrew, why you why now? Why this pod?
Speaker 4: Well? Uh, this isn't to be overly laudatory of you,
Speaker 4: Angela the individual, because I could carry on about that,
Speaker 4: but because I know. One of the premises of this show,
Speaker 4: and one of the things that we want to be
Speaker 4: able to communicate to those who join in this community
Speaker 4: is that everybody's voice is valued. We all have a
Speaker 4: role to play. And you don't have to be well known.
Speaker 4: You don't have to be Humpty dumpty and fall from
Speaker 4: the fall, you know, the tallest wall to have the
Speaker 4: experience that matters. Whatever you're experiencing, you don't need validation
Speaker 4: for it's it's real, it's you. And so, in the
Speaker 4: spirit of influencing other people, Angela, this is a yes
Speaker 4: for me because you walk the talk, and you talk
Speaker 4: the walk. There are not a lot of people who
Speaker 4: touch radioactivity knowingly, who dive, you know, headfirst into a
Speaker 4: rescue me when you see injustice and unfairness. And I
Speaker 4: think part of your invitation to me, I'll speak for me,
Speaker 4: but I think Tiffany intimated this is that you, I
Speaker 4: said on the campaign trail, nobody should be judged forever
Speaker 4: by their worst day. What you're lifting up by our
Speaker 4: examples of resilience overcoming and maybe some days is just
Speaker 4: I'm just standing right. That's emotion in and of itself
Speaker 4: is the truest story I think for the majority of
Speaker 4: us in this country, the majority of us in our community,
Speaker 4: the majority of the listeners that we will hopefully have
Speaker 4: joined us on this podcast, and they deserve to hear themselves,
Speaker 4: see themselves reflected and know that a phoenix does rise.
Speaker 4: And so thank you for Alamia partner with you and
Speaker 4: this brilliant woman next to me, Tiffany, to longtime friends
Speaker 4: and colleagues and brilliant women in this work.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: Well, when we say welcome home, we're not just what
Speaker 1: each other home, but listeners, we welcome you home too.
Speaker 1: And again, it would not be us if we didn't
Speaker 1: just jump in where we know best. I want to
Speaker 1: start off, Andrew, is something that had you hot under
Speaker 1: the collar Donald Trump. No surprises there, but basically he'dn't
Speaker 1: done it now. And he had something to say on
Speaker 1: the Civil War that you just weren't filling.
Speaker 2: Let's roll that clip.
Speaker 7: The Civil War was so fascinating, so horrible, so many
Speaker 7: mistakes were made. See, there was something I think could
Speaker 7: have been negotiated. To be honest with you, I think
Speaker 7: you could have negotiated that all the people died, so
Speaker 7: many people died.
Speaker 4: Andrew Well, I have to say, I think Donald Trump
Speaker 4: up the ante and his vitriol, this time with black
Speaker 4: people as the target and as the audience. The more
Speaker 4: fascinating side of the the question is the whole of
Speaker 4: the Republican Party, sixty percent of which seemed to be
Speaker 4: in these early states, standing right lock and step with him.
Speaker 4: I know that everybody thinks Donald Trump is disqualified from
Speaker 4: office or holding it again because of all these indictments
Speaker 4: and all that kind of stuff. But I got to
Speaker 4: tell you, if there's a disqualifier, it's that we've already
Speaker 4: experienced four years of that chaos. To me, that in
Speaker 4: and of itself is disqualified. Norton, not that I ever
Speaker 4: thought he was qualified, but this idea of renegotiating the
Speaker 4: Civil War, we have to consider who he's talking about negotiating.
Speaker 4: We're talking about people, human beings, human lives. I know
Speaker 4: Nikki Haley has a different spin on that, and we'll
Speaker 4: get to it. Yeah, but you can't in this day
Speaker 4: and age, we really ought to all be up in
Speaker 4: arms that Donald Trump would enter into the political fray.
Speaker 4: He up the ante from Nicki's comments of just ignoring
Speaker 4: slavery as a motivator for the Civil War and basically said,
Speaker 4: we could have negotiated our way around saving more white
Speaker 4: men and black men lives, slaves fought in the war,
Speaker 4: former slaves, and slave fault in the war, so on
Speaker 4: and so forth, to save people who look like him. Well,
Speaker 4: I want to me, it just blows my mind.
Speaker 1: And Tiff, before you chime in on Donald Trump, sure
Speaker 1: you got a lot to stay there. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I agree with you on if he uped the
Speaker 1: ante I'm black folks.
Speaker 2: But we'll do more on that later.
Speaker 1: I do want to roll the Nikki Haley sound bite
Speaker 1: to see if you think there's that much light between
Speaker 1: their positions.
Speaker 8: I mean, I think the cause of the Civil War
Speaker 8: was basically how government was going to run the freedoms
Speaker 8: and what people could and couldn't do. Thank you.
Speaker 4: And then in the year twenty twenty three, it's astonishing
Speaker 4: to me that you answer that question without mentioning the
Speaker 4: word slavery.
Speaker 3: What do you want me to say about slavery?
Speaker 1: If you mu.
Speaker 3: Next question, he said, Nef said, yeah, So look, one,
Speaker 3: I just want to say to the listeners who are
Speaker 3: exhausted with hearing about Donald Trump like this, is not
Speaker 3: a space where we will highlight this man every week
Speaker 3: by any means. But when he says something truly egregious,
Speaker 3: I do think he is the front runner of the
Speaker 3: Republican Party and we have to talk about it, and
Speaker 3: we have to address it. Closing your eyes pretending he's
Speaker 3: not there is not going to make him go away.
Speaker 3: He is there.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: Two, I would say to Andrew's point about Trump's comments
Speaker 3: and Nikki Haley, they are talking to a specific set
Speaker 3: of people. They're not speaking to us. So all of
Speaker 3: this bullshit about they want to, you know, attract everybody
Speaker 3: to the Republican Party. No they don't. They're speaking to racist,
Speaker 3: conservative maga extremists, and we have to stop acting like, uh,
Speaker 3: and Andrew, you said this that the Republican Party is
Speaker 3: one and Donald Trump is another. This is the same people.
Speaker 3: You know, Our good brother Michael Eric Dyson says this
Speaker 3: Frankenstein was the doctor, not the monster. This is the
Speaker 3: monster they created. But they are, by all means the doctor,
Speaker 3: all their racism, their xenophobia, their misogyny. He is the
Speaker 3: human embodiment of that. And so I'm never surprised. I'm
Speaker 3: never clutching my pearls. What I'm disgusted at is when
Speaker 3: I see this being consumed and discussed and parsed over
Speaker 3: across the media, that we can't call a thing a
Speaker 3: thing right, that these candidates are allowed to come on
Speaker 3: and wax poetic about all of their bullshit issues that
Speaker 3: they invent and they're never confronted with, But what about
Speaker 3: your racist ass comments that you said yesterday? That's why
Speaker 3: they go on these shows because they know it to
Speaker 3: be an easy pathway. They will ever be confronted with it.
Speaker 3: Everybody on the panel will pretend, you know that they're
Speaker 3: not gonna talk about this, even their voters. I think
Speaker 3: their voters have to start being confronted when you do these,
Speaker 3: you know, voter panels and talk to people. I don't
Speaker 3: know how you have that kind of panel. You don't ask, well,
Speaker 3: how are you comfortable with some of the racist comments
Speaker 3: that he's how are you comfortable with how he speaks
Speaker 3: about your fellow countrymen? And so literally quoting Hitler, absolutely,
Speaker 3: you know, everything about him is so un American and
Speaker 3: the ideology that we have that the hope of what
Speaker 3: we think this country could be, but it's also so
Speaker 3: very American in the way that this country was founded.
Speaker 3: So I'm disgusted by it. I'm unnerved by him continuing
Speaker 3: to be the front runner. And until media, which I
Speaker 3: do think has a very important role to play in democracy,
Speaker 3: until they start assuming that role in a more responsible, inclusive,
Speaker 3: aware way. I think they're helping to pave the way
Speaker 3: to America's final.
Speaker 1: Season textbook enabling and one of the things too, we
Speaker 1: throw in the Nikki Haley clip, we make it seem
Speaker 1: or they have made it seem over time, like Donald
Speaker 1: Trump was the anomaly. You referenced this Frankenstein analogy that
Speaker 1: Harry Reid actually said. He said yet right, that Donald
Speaker 1: Trump was the Republican Party spranket sign. You built it, monster,
Speaker 1: Your dog whistles are now fog horns, Like, let's be
Speaker 1: very clear about what it is. This same thing that
Speaker 1: he's doing, doubling down on the Civil War paved the
Speaker 1: way by state policy where they're challenging CRT. Now it's
Speaker 1: DEI program. So we went from critical race theory to diversity,
Speaker 1: equity and inclusion. And Donald Trump is like, oh, there's
Speaker 1: an obsession with Civil War. Turns out the Confederate soldiers
Speaker 1: were born again and showed up at the Capitol on
Speaker 1: January sixth.
Speaker 2: No surprises here at all.
Speaker 1: So I'm curious to know about your new vitriol because
Speaker 1: it's been vitriol.
Speaker 4: I'm not new to the game, and I'm not new
Speaker 4: to the tactics of Donald Trump. I find it strange
Speaker 4: the timing, yeah, of wading into this, and I don't
Speaker 4: don't I don't think that Donald Trump and Nicki Haley's
Speaker 4: comments are the same. Nicki Haley also, first of all,
Speaker 4: she's a contradiction in walking because she's also the same
Speaker 4: woman who took down the Confederate flag and removed the
Speaker 4: Confederate statutes off the state's grounds in South Carolina. That's
Speaker 4: what made many of us think that she was If
Speaker 4: slavery had nothing to do with the Civil War the Confederacy,
Speaker 4: then why was it so politically risky for her to
Speaker 4: then remove those monuments. Welled, I know exactly what's changed.
Speaker 4: But to make the difference between what Trump is saying,
Speaker 4: I have not heard a Republican and mainstream certainly not
Speaker 4: someone who has pursued the presidency say we should have
Speaker 4: renegotiated that and a lot of lives could have been saved,
Speaker 4: because when you talk about renegotiate that going back to
Speaker 4: Nikkahley's quote, which was that, no, this was about the states'
Speaker 4: rights to decide their own governing. No, a state's right
Speaker 4: to do what, or another human being to own another
Speaker 4: human being. How do you lose that FUNDAMENTALI that is
Speaker 4: the issue, that is the thing, not said state's right
Speaker 4: to own. So I get her saying that it wasn't
Speaker 4: about slavery the commerce of the trade of humans and
Speaker 4: more about a state's decision to trade humans or not
Speaker 4: to trade humans. So not the trading of them, but
Speaker 4: the decision of a state to trade human lies our
Speaker 4: ancestors lies to Donald Trump, who said, well, maybe if
Speaker 4: we could have carved up a few more states in
Speaker 4: the expansion territories for slavery and then say this is it.
Speaker 4: It cannot grow beyond these places. That's a negotiation that
Speaker 4: one keeps our ancestors still enslaved and would have painted
Speaker 4: a very few, very different future than the one that
Speaker 4: we are enjoying today. He moved the marker from me,
Speaker 4: and maybe it's a small nuance difference, but it matters
Speaker 4: more than me, because I want to know what Republican
Speaker 4: voters who are endorsing this are trying to communicate to
Speaker 4: the rest of us. And I refuse to believe as
Speaker 4: a person who ran in a majority white state, overwhelmingly
Speaker 4: white state for governor, where we had unprecedented turnout and
Speaker 4: I earned four million votes and my opponent earned four
Speaker 4: million plus folks, and we were point four percent difference
Speaker 4: between each other, and a race to elect a black
Speaker 4: man governor of the state of Florida, in addition to
Speaker 4: being a good public service on and so forth. How
Speaker 4: can that same place so fully now embrace this man
Speaker 4: and the only justification we give for embracing him is
Speaker 4: that racism. I think we have to I think we
Speaker 4: have to be more curious about what is the subtext.
Speaker 4: How can you vote for me one day and then
Speaker 4: the next day you say you're voting for Trump and
Speaker 4: we then conclude that it's just a full endorsement of racism.
Speaker 4: I think that's easy work, and I think we have
Speaker 4: to do the hard work here.
Speaker 1: Speaking of racism, we also saw terrorism at play, not
Speaker 1: just on January sixth, which of course we're just on
Speaker 1: the other side of that anniversary, but also at Mother
Speaker 1: EMMANUELAMI Church in Charleston, South Carolina, of course, Joe Biden
Speaker 1: this week delivered a speech at Mother Emmanuel and recognized
Speaker 1: the massacre of the em Manual nine. We'll hear this
Speaker 1: because he also referenced the Civil War.
Speaker 8: After the Civil War, the defeated Confederates couldn't accept the
Speaker 8: verdict of the war they had lost, so they say
Speaker 8: they embraced what's known as the Lost Cause, a self
Speaker 8: serving lie that the Civil War is not about slavery
Speaker 8: but about states rights. They've called that the Noble Cause.
Speaker 1: Now, tiff I wanted that clip to roll, especially because
Speaker 1: Andrew was making this distinction between what Nicki Haley said
Speaker 1: what Donald Trump said. It sounds like Joe Biden went
Speaker 1: right to the heart of what Nicki Haley said while
Speaker 1: standing on the ground where she used to once where
Speaker 1: she was once governor.
Speaker 2: So what do you think about what Joe Biden said?
Speaker 3: I think President Biden sometimes it's in ourticulate in the
Speaker 3: points that he's trying to make. Again, listen, I am
Speaker 3: not a Democratic talking head. As you know, I am
Speaker 3: not loyal to any Democratic party. I think Joe Biden
Speaker 3: is a flawed man, a flawed president. When I cast
Speaker 3: a ballot for him, it is not because of my
Speaker 3: blind faith in this man. I think there are very
Speaker 3: legitimate criticisms about him, but if I have to choose
Speaker 3: between him and Donald Trump, I am going to vote
Speaker 3: for harm reduction. I would rather Joe Biden be in
Speaker 3: this position than I would Donald Trump. I think, you know,
Speaker 3: this is someone who has his first round. He made
Speaker 3: it a talking point that he could work with Republicans,
Speaker 3: that he could unite the country, and I think even
Speaker 3: then we knew just as we know now. I don't
Speaker 3: know how to meet a biggot halfway. I don't know
Speaker 3: how to work with racist, and I don't want my
Speaker 3: leaders trying to figure out how to work with Rae
Speaker 3: because that means at some point I am going to
Speaker 3: get sacrificed or something that is of interest to my
Speaker 3: community will get sacrificed. So look, I don't know if
Speaker 3: that was the best, most targeted message by any means.
Speaker 3: I think this administration has needed some messaging help, for sure.
Speaker 3: And we can't be afraid he's of a different generation,
Speaker 3: but we can't be afraid to say, did y'all hear
Speaker 3: that wild shit the Nikki Haley just said? And j
Speaker 3: y'all here at wildshit? The Donald Trump just said, maybe
Speaker 3: let me hear this, may me talking, but throw some
Speaker 3: Jesus on it and clean it up.
Speaker 2: But say it.
Speaker 3: But just to point out, like you don't have to
Speaker 3: be polite. Yeah, you know, we don't want somebody who
Speaker 3: can negotiate. We want somebody who can fight. We want
Speaker 3: somebody who was going to stand up for us. And honestly,
Speaker 3: I don't know if Joe Biden is that person, but
Speaker 3: he's the person we got. And if you understand how
Speaker 3: politics work and how this two party system work, that's
Speaker 3: your choice. Donald Trump is the front runner, Joe Biden
Speaker 3: is the incumbent and the leader of the Democratic Party.
Speaker 3: That is tr way you have when you go vote.
Speaker 3: To abstain is not helping. To abstain is to It's
Speaker 3: a choice.
Speaker 2: That is a vote.
Speaker 3: Exactly to not vote is a vote. So I'm disappointed
Speaker 3: in the messaging.
Speaker 2: Andrew before you before you chime in here.
Speaker 1: I think that part of the conundrum that Tiff is
Speaker 1: addressing in her response has to do with what happened
Speaker 1: also in this speech, there was a protest that erupted,
Speaker 1: and I want us to roll that clip.
Speaker 8: Well, the truth, there's no light without light there's no
Speaker 8: path from this darkness.
Speaker 6: You really, that's all right? Thank you?
Speaker 8: What's that? I understand their passion, and I've been quietly working,
Speaker 8: I mean quietly working with the Israeli government to get
Speaker 8: them to reduce and significantly get out from gossip.
Speaker 1: So in between where he responded to the congregation who
Speaker 1: began some of them who began chanting former years, there's
Speaker 1: this divide, right, some of it.
Speaker 2: Some folks could argue by.
Speaker 1: Age, some folks could argue by political philosophy. But folks
Speaker 1: are like harm reduction all day. Other folks are like,
Speaker 1: who is my next option? Because this can be life?
Speaker 1: And there are folks who feel somewhere stuck in the middle.
Speaker 1: And you know, like we talk about all the time,
Speaker 1: there's nuance in all of that. What do you say
Speaker 1: to Andrew?
Speaker 4: I think we should everyday dream about the system that
Speaker 4: when we are free and freer we would like to
Speaker 4: create that allows for more options. And what is a
Speaker 4: dichotomous process? Right now? You get pretty much two choices.
Speaker 4: I mean, you had a billionaire and parole running, right.
Speaker 4: I mean, if there are people who Bloomberg did the
Speaker 4: same thing, that's not the cut through this system. Is
Speaker 4: deeply entrenched. But while we are dreaming our best dream
Speaker 4: and building the system that we believe we deserve, we
Speaker 4: cannot unilaterally disarmed from the one that we have. It
Speaker 4: has consequences, It prevents us from doing the other things.
Speaker 4: So for me, I know some people like to think
Speaker 4: of folks who say it's an election, you got to vote,
Speaker 4: and it's just we're middle grounds, we're softies. No, I'm
Speaker 4: a realist. I'm raising three children, three black children, daughter
Speaker 4: and two sons. And what I know for sure is
Speaker 4: that the actions that they make up here and in
Speaker 4: duc and elsewhere have consequences for our lives now but
Speaker 4: also their futures. So every damn day of the week,
Speaker 4: I'm voting my household, every day of the week. And
Speaker 4: when I'm voting, I'm not going in because I'm loyal
Speaker 4: Biden and the Democrats, or I hate Trump and thinks
Speaker 4: he's a racist. I'm going to vote my entry. And
Speaker 4: I would argue most voters when they choose to show up,
Speaker 4: because only half of us going are voting their interest.
Speaker 4: And just close the point in what I was saying before.
Speaker 4: And I need to be more curious about this Republican
Speaker 4: Party on this other side, and what they're saying is
Speaker 4: it's got to be something greater than I hate black
Speaker 4: folks or don't like them or don't want see them rise.
Speaker 4: That I think is motivating this because it doesn't explain
Speaker 4: how you can vote one way this year, one way
Speaker 4: the next year, and they're in complete contradiction of not
Speaker 4: only visually what you get, but also value wise what
Speaker 4: you get. I can't wait for us to through Nativeland
Speaker 4: further interrogate this question and just pull back the layer,
Speaker 4: because if we don't, y'all, we still have an electoral college,
Speaker 4: which means the majority of us are still going to
Speaker 4: be disempowered unless we can figure out a way to
Speaker 4: turn those folks on.
Speaker 2: I think that's exactly right.
Speaker 1: And speaking of turning folks on, the Iowa caucuses are
Speaker 1: upon us well, at least on some those who vote Republican.
Speaker 1: The Democratic Party finally did the right thing last year
Speaker 1: by reverse the order and saying, Iowa, you actually are
Speaker 1: not going to be first black folks who secured this
Speaker 1: nomination for Joe Biden in twenty twenty will be first.
Speaker 1: So South Carolina obviously now pre amps Iowa and New Hampshire,
Speaker 1: but for the Republican Party. They're not just selecting delegates,
Speaker 1: they're selecting a candidate. I think we all know where
Speaker 1: it's likely going to go, but I don't know if
Speaker 1: you all have anything you really want.
Speaker 2: To say there.
Speaker 3: I would just say that, no, die to my fellow
Speaker 3: countrymen in Iowa New Hampshire. But these are two states
Speaker 3: that are I think ninety three and ninety four percent white, respectively,
Speaker 3: and fried buttersticks and mayonnaise carvings and all the other
Speaker 3: things that they do at these Look, and that's what
Speaker 3: you're right, But if that's what you want to do,
Speaker 3: and do that. But I also think, well, look, but sure,
Speaker 3: but I would say no, it was like I like
Speaker 3: my sauce, but spare me. Yeah, Like fried mayonnaise.
Speaker 2: Is the the devil.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But I would say what has been happening has
Speaker 3: not worked. And I think the one thing that I
Speaker 3: can say about Donald Trump is in twenty sixteen, he
Speaker 3: ripped up the political playbook. So when I see campaigns
Speaker 3: operating like it's pre twenty sixteen, I do wonder, like, well,
Speaker 3: what fuck needs to happen for you to learn? You know,
Speaker 3: like that ain't the game anymore? You know, like you
Speaker 3: you trying to score a touchdown and we shoot in
Speaker 3: baskets like it is a completely different conversation. So I
Speaker 3: think the infrastructure of the country and how these things
Speaker 3: go has to change, everything from campaign finance laws, to
Speaker 3: the primary process, to the two party system, all of it.
Speaker 3: And so I can understand why people feel a bit
Speaker 3: disenfranchised and apathetic towards the process. And honestly, I think
Speaker 3: that's one of the things we'll discuss here every week
Speaker 3: because I am trying to reimagine democracy as well. And
Speaker 3: we imagine it as a blank slate and we make
Speaker 3: ourselves the architects of it, then what does democracy look
Speaker 3: like to us? And that's the challenge that I would
Speaker 3: put to our listeners, like this is what has happened,
Speaker 3: ain't working right?
Speaker 4: That's real. All I say is I don't really care
Speaker 4: about what happens to the proposing prime but I do
Speaker 4: because I know that the consequences are great. After largely,
Speaker 4: although Democrats won't know the results on Tuesday, out of Iowa,
Speaker 4: they are voting, They're getting ballots. It's just one hundred
Speaker 4: percent of them are voting through the mail and their
Speaker 4: vote will be pronounced announced after we get a more
Speaker 4: diverse state into the caucus process. So you know that
Speaker 4: is what it is. All I'm saying is people start
Speaker 4: dropping out of this race pretty quickly. Hillary was told
Speaker 4: by her campaign manager after New Hampshire that night that
Speaker 4: she needed to drop out. That we were bankrupt after
Speaker 4: New Hampshire. Could you imagine to says in right, So
Speaker 4: it matters, y'all because this process is being decided right
Speaker 4: under our noses, and it's going to be another six
Speaker 4: or seven months before we even wake up to the
Speaker 4: fact that there's an election coming.
Speaker 1: Well, that is our POV on politics and that political news.
Speaker 1: That matters a whole lot right now. But stick around because,
Speaker 1: as it turns out, politics are everywhere else. I say
Speaker 1: often that politics touches you, whether or not you touch it,
Speaker 1: and there's no place to see politics more at play
Speaker 1: than on our purses, our pockets, and our pay The
Speaker 1: word the world started paying attention recently to something our
Speaker 1: girl Taraji said and talks about on the regular, and
Speaker 1: this feels like an appropriate moment to quote Miss Celi
Speaker 1: who said, until you do right by.
Speaker 4: Me, everything you touch.
Speaker 1: Taraji is saying, mister, it's actually this entire ass industry,
Speaker 1: and so right now, let's take a listening to what
Speaker 1: Taraji said.
Speaker 5: I'm just tired of working so hard, being gracious at
Speaker 5: what I do, getting paid a fraction of the cost.
Speaker 2: It seems every.
Speaker 5: Time I do something and I break another glass ceiling.
Speaker 5: When it's time to renegotiate, I'm at the bottom again,
Speaker 5: like I never did what I.
Speaker 2: Just did, and I'm just tired. I'm tired.
Speaker 5: And if I can't fight for them coming up behind me,
Speaker 5: then what the fuck am I doing?
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, Yeah, don't apologize.
Speaker 5: Twenty plus years in the game, and I see what
Speaker 5: you do for another production, and when it's time for
Speaker 5: us to go to back, you don't have any money.
Speaker 2: Enough is enough? Enough is enough?
Speaker 1: That number of heads that were nodding in this room
Speaker 1: just on that point her pain right, and you hear it,
Speaker 1: She's like through tears, And I do want to get
Speaker 1: into this, but first I want to pull a Lady
Speaker 1: Oh's response, because Taraji took the same criticism right to
Speaker 1: this set of Color Purple, defending some of her cast mates,
Speaker 1: and I want, I want us to respond to what
Speaker 1: Oprah said.
Speaker 9: I heard I was trending yesterday because people are saying
Speaker 9: that I was not supporting Taraji. Taraji will tell you
Speaker 9: herself whenever I heard there was an issue where there
Speaker 9: was a problem, there was a problem with the cars,
Speaker 9: or there's a problem with the food, I would step
Speaker 9: in and do whatever I could to make it right.
Speaker 9: There's no validity to there being a thing between Taraji
Speaker 9: and I.
Speaker 1: Okay, So before we even get to Danielle Brooks's part,
Speaker 1: why does it take a billion narrative to have to
Speaker 1: weigh in to say she shouldn't have to drive a
Speaker 1: rental car? She needs a car service after her hard
Speaker 1: work and after the emotional commitment it takes to play
Speaker 1: a role. Why do they have to check on food
Speaker 1: about trailers?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Why let me first say, I want to thank Taraji
Speaker 3: for her testimony. Yeah, because she does not stand alone.
Speaker 3: And when she spoke, she was not on speaking for
Speaker 3: her sisters and her industry, but for all of us.
Speaker 3: Because who among us in this room and who among
Speaker 3: us at home listening can say that we have been
Speaker 3: paid what we're worth by a corporation? Very few people.
Speaker 3: And look, this was Warner Brothers production. You know, this
Speaker 3: wasn't Oprah. So it was interesting to me that the
Speaker 3: immediate attacks went to Oprah. It's like another part of
Speaker 3: the plan, Like no, look at the leadership of Warner
Speaker 3: Brothers and take that smoke to them. I also want
Speaker 3: to say about Taraji. When you're the first to speak out,
Speaker 3: you are often punished. Yeah, And so it takes courage
Speaker 3: to speak your truth because if you don't, people will
Speaker 3: think they're alone on the island that is just them.
Speaker 3: And I so understand her tears and the pain in
Speaker 3: her voice. I think all of us in this room
Speaker 3: have experienced that. I've been highly disrespected on the pay
Speaker 3: scal highly disrespected where I've made or garnered more ratings
Speaker 3: than your favor white boy at the network and he
Speaker 3: was making millions. Well, my sister, who's still you know,
Speaker 3: on set, tell them, speaking of honest truth, grossly underpaid
Speaker 3: than her colleagues. And there is some attitude that we
Speaker 3: should be grateful, we should be grateful for the crumbs
Speaker 3: they give us while we sit across from you and
Speaker 3: watch you eat a steak, watch you enjoy a meal.
Speaker 3: And I just think, if enough of us speak out,
Speaker 3: if enough of us have the righteous anger to say
Speaker 3: fuck that and we walk, if enough of us can
Speaker 3: rally our collective talents and build something for ourselves. They
Speaker 3: can't blackball everybody, they can't fire everybody. So I just
Speaker 3: want to use my time to offer nothing but gratitude
Speaker 3: to Taraji. She spoke for her, She spoke for you,
Speaker 3: and she most certainly spoke for me.
Speaker 4: It's powerful. And what I think I understood about her
Speaker 4: tears were that in some ways she's resigned that her
Speaker 4: status and her fight has been what it has been,
Speaker 4: and it's going to be what it's going to be.
Speaker 4: I heard fully the future and what she that pain,
Speaker 4: you know, the exhaustion, the humiliation was palpable. But that's
Speaker 4: the kind of that's that's the kind of connection you
Speaker 4: make when you are talking about and talking for the
Speaker 4: ages and not for the moment. And what I love
Speaker 4: is that her selflessness continues. What I know about Tajipanson
Speaker 4: is that I was a I are working on a grant,
Speaker 4: was able to hand out mental health scholarships that she
Speaker 4: funded because she knows what a toll mental health, waking up, breeding,
Speaker 4: just showing up at work, the strain, the pain that
Speaker 4: that is for a black woman. And so she added
Speaker 4: to that the LGBTQ community, the Black lgbt Q youth
Speaker 4: community is your survival requires regular, ongoing maintenance of your head.
Speaker 4: If you'll want to draw breath today, that's huge for
Speaker 4: some people. It's a luxury to talk about her salary.
Speaker 4: It's a luxury. She's talking about the fact that she
Speaker 4: has been surviving for a very long time. When does
Speaker 4: thriving happen for her?
Speaker 2: Right right?
Speaker 1: And the fact that she looked at when is thriving
Speaker 1: happened for her if and only if her sisters are
Speaker 1: thriving too. And this is what Danielle Brooks had to
Speaker 1: say about Taragi's advocacy.
Speaker 10: I remember when we first came in and we were
Speaker 10: doing rehearsal and they put us all in the same space,
Speaker 10: like we didn't have our own dressing rooms at the time,
Speaker 10: and they did not give us. Sorry miss who we
Speaker 10: didn't have no food?
Speaker 6: Had she heard about it?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 10: Yeah, and you corrected it.
Speaker 2: And I was like, miss oh, we got to fix this.
Speaker 2: And she said, say less and wasn't not. And that's
Speaker 2: what I appreciated, though you were. I love that and
Speaker 2: part of the reason.
Speaker 4: It devastates me. You said you love it. I hate it.
Speaker 4: Everybody doesn't get an Oprah to work with in their
Speaker 4: movie productions. What a what a sentinel moment for those
Speaker 4: actors actresses that had that opportunity. And we shouldn't have
Speaker 4: to have a built in advocate who's paying for the
Speaker 4: goddamn thing in order to be given appropriate accommodation's food
Speaker 4: after a hard day's work, in the middle of a
Speaker 4: hard day's work, coffee and coke for a refresh if
Speaker 4: you want so, even now, And I hope Oprah, and
Speaker 4: I hope Taji, and I hope all of us who
Speaker 4: are having this conversation are responsible enough to know that
Speaker 4: we are now talking about systems and now, how Oprah performed, now,
Speaker 4: how Taraji performed, now any one individual actor was grateful
Speaker 4: for anybody's intervention. We have to change the way that
Speaker 4: shit works, period, all free with that off jump, I agree,
Speaker 4: I know what they're doing, but I.
Speaker 2: Just and that's not the part that I loved.
Speaker 1: What I loved is that even as I sit here
Speaker 1: across from you all, I know that I could count
Speaker 1: on you to do the same thing. I love that
Speaker 1: in our friendship and our family, right, that is the
Speaker 1: expectation and the norm, not the exception. I love that
Speaker 1: when we are on the road to thriving, because we
Speaker 1: should already be there given all the debt that our
Speaker 1: ancestors paye to this country.
Speaker 2: Of course we should be there.
Speaker 1: But on the road to get there, I have people
Speaker 1: I can count on to fight for justice and equitable pay,
Speaker 1: equitable accommodation's food. I know that I could count on
Speaker 1: you all for that, and I want that for all
Speaker 1: of our people. So I love that they have that
Speaker 1: on such and I mean it's a classic in our community.
Speaker 2: There's no other place.
Speaker 3: Look at what they're going through.
Speaker 1: They're literally living out the messages of slavery in that film.
Speaker 1: Right If no other place there should be equitable treatment sisterhood.
Speaker 3: Right, Well, can I just say really quickly, one, I
Speaker 3: want to testify that Angela has been that person not
Speaker 3: just for me, not just you, but for so many people.
Speaker 3: You make the difficult ask. You know, it's not like
Speaker 3: you know, hey, I want to picture with somebody like
Speaker 3: that's easy, but it's the difficult ass that you will
Speaker 3: always make that call. I just wanted to take this
Speaker 3: moment to shout out joy Read who has been that
Speaker 3: person for me so many times, and also Tamern who
Speaker 3: was that person for joy Like, whatever space you hold,
Speaker 3: it is your responsibility to hold that space not just
Speaker 3: for you, but for us all. And if you're what
Speaker 3: what what what do you gain when you get to
Speaker 3: a level if you are not advocating for the community
Speaker 3: as a whole, if you're not disrupting a space to
Speaker 3: make space for other people. And so if we can
Speaker 3: do that again, they can't blackball us all.
Speaker 1: I love that you shouted out some folks tip and
Speaker 1: I know this wasn't part of it, but Drew, who's
Speaker 1: one of those people for you?
Speaker 4: Well, in addition to you, no, well, I'm uncomfortable, then
Speaker 4: sit in and discover my wife has been that jay
Speaker 4: for me. And there are a few others that I
Speaker 4: would name check, but I'm not going to. What I
Speaker 4: will say instead is that what I love about those
Speaker 4: people who have been that for me is that they
Speaker 4: know that their advocacy, maybe today on my behalf might
Speaker 4: be incidental to me, but those examples has to exist
Speaker 4: so that we can create a system that then knows
Speaker 4: what it looks like to do this the right way.
Speaker 4: The reason why we celebrate Oprah Taraji that example you
Speaker 4: as example, the testimony that you gave to two mentors
Speaker 4: of yours, is that right now we have to we
Speaker 4: have to give folks a model because they don't see
Speaker 4: us as fully human. And which is how you can
Speaker 4: throw a feeding trough to professional trained actors with years
Speaker 4: of experience and expect them to be grateful that they
Speaker 4: have the opportunity rather than celebrated for their gifts. We know,
Speaker 4: I think intuitively and otherwise that if we aren't changing
Speaker 4: systems that then operate without our presence, without our physically
Speaker 4: being there to advocate, then it was a good come
Speaker 4: up for you. And I'm sure you'll be a mentor
Speaker 4: to a few other people, and you will be that
Speaker 4: set example for others, and I may be for some others,
Speaker 4: but that's still exceptionalism. And what we want is a
Speaker 4: rule change, base level inalienable. I was born, I breathe today.
Speaker 4: I get this not because you like me or don't
Speaker 4: like me, but because it's my birthright.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I want to shout out to people TIF thanks for
Speaker 1: setting that standard. Jamel Hill, who's done that like to
Speaker 1: a personal cost. Yeah, thank you, Jay, and also Geraldine
Speaker 1: Marie but who I call coach forever in the day,
Speaker 1: was at CNN first and now was at the Grioh.
Speaker 1: We have a really special segment that we're going to
Speaker 1: do every week inviting people into talk with us, to
Speaker 1: pull up a seat at the table. The people have spoken,
Speaker 1: They even put we haven't even submitted the graphic yet
Speaker 1: to ask them for questions, but they put them in
Speaker 1: our comments.
Speaker 2: They were ready, y'all.
Speaker 1: So some of them have asked in our commitment to
Speaker 1: you all at Native Lampod is that you will always
Speaker 1: have a seat. And this week we pulled a couple
Speaker 1: of questions because we didn't have a lot of time.
Speaker 2: We knew we were gonna have a lot to catch
Speaker 2: up on. Well, but it's good. It's good, it's good.
Speaker 1: And so what we're gonna ask you to do going
Speaker 1: forward is to DM your videos to us at Native
Speaker 1: Lampod on ig, Twitter and Facebook. But this time we
Speaker 1: just put them in here. So the first question TIFs
Speaker 1: and your you're so surprised.
Speaker 2: I'll have you answer. Are you all a nineties R
Speaker 2: and B group?
Speaker 3: Oh listen, if you don't want to be messing with
Speaker 3: the producers all in the video dancing in the camera,
Speaker 3: come to death throat aka Native Lampod. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 3: we're not a nineties R and B group, but we
Speaker 3: bring some of that flavor. Yes, so stay tuned because
Speaker 3: every every week, every week, I feel like we are
Speaker 3: like the podcast group Chat. Yes, there's every week we
Speaker 3: It's like there's an intellectual pocket of folks out there
Speaker 3: who can debate Middle East politics, who can talk about
Speaker 3: global diplomacy, and who can also have an intense conversation
Speaker 3: about who's the better lyricist jay z nas.
Speaker 2: Or me you thank you?
Speaker 1: And there's not even a top three now, yeah.
Speaker 3: So I those are folks we talked to. So we're
Speaker 3: not an R and B group, but we can certainly
Speaker 3: have an intellectual discourse about like who was the best
Speaker 3: R and B group of the nineties.
Speaker 1: Give me the next question slightly more serious, actually a
Speaker 1: lot more serious.
Speaker 2: Andrew would come to you first, do young people?
Speaker 1: And anytime it start right there, I'm like, don't be
Speaker 1: preaching to the young folks, But anyway, do young people
Speaker 1: understand the implications of not voting since many are vowing
Speaker 1: to not vote for Biden and Harris because of the
Speaker 1: administration's policy on the Israel Hamas war.
Speaker 3: Oh, let's talk about that.
Speaker 4: Do we say the same thing about women who may
Speaker 4: vote only on choice issues, or conservatives who vote only on.
Speaker 1: You know, but their times are young people who are
Speaker 1: not voting.
Speaker 4: A country ain't voting. I just think it's so crazy.
Speaker 4: It's like, black folks, women, what are we doing to
Speaker 4: win this election for Biden next cycle? You have self
Speaker 4: selected a small group of people who happen to be
Speaker 4: a voter who is going in and voting. Their interests
Speaker 4: largely harm reduction, but the interests, and now you've made
Speaker 4: them like we gonna win this a we're gonna lose
Speaker 4: this way or without you. And I hate that we
Speaker 4: do that young voters, because it's not fair. Half the
Speaker 4: country is not voting. Let's talk to half the country.
Speaker 4: Why have you chosen to stay out of the process
Speaker 4: that pretty much decides everything you get to do and
Speaker 4: moreover what you don't get to do. Yeah, right, why'd
Speaker 4: you make that? Why are you making that choice? And
Speaker 4: I'll just say to the Biden folks and whomever else,
Speaker 4: it is not going to be enough to tell people
Speaker 4: what they are to be afraid of. To win an election,
Speaker 4: you are going to also have to give me a
Speaker 4: reason to vote for you. So some seeds of inspiration aspiration.
Speaker 4: Taraji ain't the only one who's tired of just surviving.
Speaker 4: Voters period want to survive. And I mean from poorest
Speaker 4: folks who may not know where they're sleeping tonight, to
Speaker 4: those who get up and work all kinds of hours
Speaker 4: a day, you know, and what they take home is
Speaker 4: not a reflection of how hard they work. Yeah, that's true, right,
Speaker 4: So stop blaming folks for that. It's the system that
Speaker 4: we have designed and created. And so I would love
Speaker 4: to hear some of what I talked about with us
Speaker 4: this morning, casually was around the stimulus. What happened during COVID.
Speaker 4: They seemed to see Americans as real people with real
Speaker 4: needs that had to be met as we were going
Speaker 4: through this once in a life, once in several generation crisis,
Speaker 4: and it seemed like the government didn't want anybody to
Speaker 4: fall through the cracks. So what they do. They made
Speaker 4: all lunches free for all kids. They started rebating and
Speaker 4: giving parents actually close to what it costs for a
Speaker 4: month of childcare versus a fraction of the cost for childcare.
Speaker 4: So I just I want the government, I want the
Speaker 4: candidates the parties to see us treat me like i'mbo
Speaker 4: at the table. Well, not quite, because he's not getting
Speaker 4: the defender he deserves for a system that is corruptly
Speaker 4: going after him. That's another topic another day. But treat
Speaker 4: me like you care about how I live and how
Speaker 4: I eat tonight and how I keep a roof over
Speaker 4: my head. You mean hunter, hunter, not you're right, but
Speaker 4: the point. But either way right, he loves it. There's
Speaker 4: no doubt he loves and cares of all of his children.
Speaker 4: I'm simply making the point. Put me at the table,
Speaker 4: not me us, put us at the table. And I
Speaker 4: know the President has this kind of empathy, but it
Speaker 4: must be reflected in the fierce, unapologetic advocacy that's required
Speaker 4: to move Washington because those policies all went away because
Speaker 4: two Democratic senators, Senator Cinema and Manchin, said we're not
Speaker 4: extending any of that anymore.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 4: They went hand over fists for corporate America tax breaks again,
Speaker 4: extending those right, but they couldn't put up a fight
Speaker 4: for two years of seeing too Americans essential basic needs.
Speaker 1: This tipping point is unique for young voters, and I've
Speaker 1: honestly been surprised to fit some of the ways in
Speaker 1: which I've seen them galvanize around this particular issue dealing
Speaker 1: with Israel and Palestine.
Speaker 2: What do you say to the folks who are like, well, what.
Speaker 1: Do you tell them to make them vote? Or do
Speaker 1: they understand the severity of them not voting.
Speaker 3: Well, I want to say right now, there is no
Speaker 3: evidence based thinking that they're not going to vote. When
Speaker 3: you look at the data from the last few elections,
Speaker 3: millennials over indexed, and I anticipate that gen zers who
Speaker 3: are just coming into the process will likely show up,
Speaker 3: So we don't have any proof at this point. I do, however,
Speaker 3: understand this rejection of somebody peeing in your face and
Speaker 3: telling you it's rainy. I think again, if everybody speaks out,
Speaker 3: you can't blackball everybody. And I think it is hard
Speaker 3: to look at what is happening in Gaza and not
Speaker 3: demand a cease fire immediately. We have seen the bombing
Speaker 3: of hospitals numerous times. We have seen the bombing of
Speaker 3: shelters numerous times. I do think this is a nuanced
Speaker 3: political point. I do think that President Biden is I
Speaker 3: believe that he is trying to work with net and
Speaker 3: Yahoo to calm the IDF. I fear what an unchecked
Speaker 3: IDF would be doing in Gaza right now. Whatever he's
Speaker 3: doing is not enough. When it comes to over five
Speaker 3: thousand children dead, is not enough. The only righteous answer
Speaker 3: is a ceasefire, even if you take away the very
Speaker 3: complicated history of Israel. And I understand there are members
Speaker 3: of the Jewish community who feel very strongly about this.
Speaker 3: There are members of the Jewish community who feel very
Speaker 3: strongly that there needs to be a ceasefire. I think
Speaker 3: this again, you have to abandon the pre twenty sixteen playbook.
Speaker 3: Right now, people have access to information from all across
Speaker 3: the globe. We are witnessing a superpower take out a minority.
Speaker 3: Who better understands that than black folks, especially black folks
Speaker 3: in America. I think they are losing that messaging war.
Speaker 3: I think they are losing the humanity of what's happening there.
Speaker 3: And I think when history judges all the people who
Speaker 3: have come out, and can you imagine being a Palestinian
Speaker 3: and seeing signs everywhere saying we stand with Israel, when
Speaker 3: your family has just been bombed, when your house has
Speaker 3: been destroyed. It is heartbreaking to see. And I think
Speaker 3: the only other thing that's probably more disheartening is to
Speaker 3: acknowledge the humanity of the Palestinian people results in a
Speaker 3: barrage of comments about being anti Semitic or very powerful
Speaker 3: wealthy people trying to ostracize you. Silence you take you
Speaker 3: from your post position arrogantly demand because I stood with
Speaker 3: Black Lives Matter that I feel abandoned now. I would
Speaker 3: ask what exactly did you do to stand with Black
Speaker 3: Lives Matter? Putting a Black Lives Matter sign in your
Speaker 3: window and wearing a T shirt is not standing with
Speaker 3: Black Lives Matter, And clearly you misunderstood the assignment and
Speaker 3: the message. Because we are not transactional advocates. We stand
Speaker 3: on the side of truth and righteousness and goodness, and
Speaker 3: what we're seeing happening in Gadza is anything but. So
Speaker 3: to the young people who feel frustrated by that and
Speaker 3: disheartened by that, you are not alone. We stand with you.
Speaker 3: And to the people who are begging folks in America
Speaker 3: to see their humanity, we see your humanity and we
Speaker 3: stand with you as well.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Tiff.
Speaker 1: We remember to dm us your videos every week at
Speaker 1: Native lampod on ig, Twitter, and Facebook. We are taking
Speaker 1: your questions. You always have a seat here because we
Speaker 1: welcome you home. No nudes please, oh yes, the spirit
Speaker 1: port please fully addressed in your questions.
Speaker 2: We do not want to see it.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be censored in your home, but
Speaker 1: you're censored in this home.
Speaker 2: Yes, welcome home, fully closed.
Speaker 1: Up next, I am sharing what has been asked of
Speaker 1: me often for the last three years. I've finally found
Speaker 1: the courage to tell my truth about what really happened
Speaker 1: at CNN.
Speaker 2: And that's after the break.
Speaker 1: Every week we'll be sounding off on something that matters.
Speaker 1: Our first three episodes, we will provide updates on what
Speaker 1: happened since you last saw us. I'm up first, and
Speaker 1: my story is one that I never thought i'd tell
Speaker 1: and sits at the intersection, frankly, of power and harassment.
Speaker 1: So you all know that I was a commentator on
Speaker 1: air and CNN for six years and people have consistently
Speaker 1: asked me over the last three what really happened? There
Speaker 1: was so much that I loved Andrew. As you know,
Speaker 1: we developed a squad and had some really amazing segments.
Speaker 1: Some folks were like, where's Tiffany? Were like at MSNBC,
Speaker 1: maybe one day she'll be a CNN with us.
Speaker 2: And there was a lot that was also really hard.
Speaker 1: There were a number of segments that we were in
Speaker 1: that felt like Mortal Kombat, and I would be emotionally
Speaker 1: exhausted and sometimes devastated after those segments.
Speaker 2: But the questions nonetheless have been why did I leave,
Speaker 2: that I get fired? Why did I disappear?
Speaker 1: And I think that I was in denial really that
Speaker 1: my seeming disappearance was as impactful as it was, And
Speaker 1: I wrestled with why and how for a really long time.
Speaker 1: In order for me to get to this moment, to
Speaker 1: tell this truth and my story I have suppressed for
Speaker 1: three years, I really had to extract my identity from
Speaker 1: the network that provided me the platform that helped to
Speaker 1: deepen me into my authenticity, particularly when I felt punished
Speaker 1: for doing the same. I was reprimanded for taking conversations
Speaker 1: that were on air onto Twitter like many others, for
Speaker 1: sounding angry when my debate opponent challenged my credentials when
Speaker 1: they didn't have half of them. That isn't really what
Speaker 1: closed the door. I got a call on January twenty first,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, and I was told by the executive
Speaker 1: who oversaw contributors that my contract would not be renewed
Speaker 1: that CNN right after January sixth, a historic election where
Speaker 1: we got our first ever black VP.
Speaker 2: Who was a woman, and my friend would.
Speaker 1: Be focusing more on COVID coverage and less on politics.
Speaker 1: I knew it was a lie, and it was confirmed
Speaker 1: when two black women were hired for half my current
Speaker 1: contributor rate right after Over and over again, I ran
Speaker 1: through scenarios in my mind, and I kept trying to
Speaker 1: deny to erase one of the most embarrassing, humiliating experiences
Speaker 1: I had. I've never publicly shared this, but it is
Speaker 1: my truth and it is the time. So just ten
Speaker 1: days prior to receiving that call, on January twenty first,
Speaker 1: the darling of the network and one of the most
Speaker 1: influential hosts during Jeff Zucker's tenure, was texting me about
Speaker 1: a segment idea he had for his primetime show. Chris
Speaker 1: Cuomo was suddenly excited about a prominent regular role for
Speaker 1: me where I would check the left. Truthfully, I had
Speaker 1: my doubts on the genuine nature of this idea. Our
Speaker 1: on air conversations and chemistry became something viewers looked forward to,
Speaker 1: but Cuomo came up with this particular segment idea after
Speaker 1: a text exchange that went woefully wrong.
Speaker 2: I need this.
Speaker 1: I thought a network exec had already told me they
Speaker 1: didn't see me as a host, despite my hosting a
Speaker 1: very successful podcast and hosting award winning news specials on BET.
Speaker 1: This was my chance to prove them wrong. Can't I
Speaker 1: just ignore this indiscretion. It all began on New Year's Day,
Speaker 1: when I posted a picture of myself looking forward to
Speaker 1: the new year in a gold sequin bikini on Instagram.
Speaker 1: Womo screenshot the image and said Happy New Year. Tensel
Speaker 1: Crotch stunned. I read and reread the message a dozen times,
Speaker 1: trying to understand if I somehow brought this on myself.
Speaker 1: Since whatever you post on social spare game, right. I
Speaker 1: teared up, Like now, then the tears flowed. I felt
Speaker 1: like the safest place I had on a show on
Speaker 1: CNN had been compromised. I ignored it, just hoping it would
Speaker 1: go away or even more, did I imagine this? But
Speaker 1: I didn't a few hours later, he said hello. I
Speaker 1: didn't respond for two more days, despite his plea the
Speaker 1: next day to call because he wanted to discuss work.
Speaker 1: I tried to punt until after the Georgia runoffs, asking
Speaker 1: a week later if he still wanted to discuss his
Speaker 1: work idea, despite him mentioning Tensil bikini and tensel bottom
Speaker 1: along the way. As I think about this, it feels
Speaker 1: so fucking small compared to what other women in the
Speaker 1: workplace experience.
Speaker 2: But I was afraid to speak up.
Speaker 1: Between New Year's and my follow up, an insurrection happened
Speaker 1: on Capitol Hill, where I feared I would lose loved ones.
Speaker 1: I felt like if I called him out, I was
Speaker 1: risking everything I was finally starting to build with the network,
Speaker 1: and as someone who is known for being courageous that
Speaker 1: I cannot begin to tell you how much I.
Speaker 2: Felt like Reaven now feel like a coward.
Speaker 1: In ten short days, I felt like what was a
Speaker 1: clear ride to the promised land turned into quicksand even
Speaker 1: upon receiving the call about my contract not being renewed,
Speaker 1: I was talking to another network about a big opportunity
Speaker 1: and feared I would lose that work and most importantly,
Speaker 1: the ability to reach the audiences I love in such
Speaker 1: a critical time if I spoke up. I went over
Speaker 1: this timeline over and over again, obsessing about whether I
Speaker 1: was making it a bigger deal. Chris, you texted me
Speaker 1: from a new number last year, asking if I'm mad
Speaker 1: at you. I was, but I was really mad at myself.
Speaker 1: I was mad at myself for not saying anything sooner
Speaker 1: because I was lacking courage and preferring my financial well
Speaker 1: being over my mental health, not standing up for women
Speaker 1: who are often left powerless in these situations. I was
Speaker 1: mad at myself for not addressing this sooner. I was
Speaker 1: mad at myself for protecting your image with the black
Speaker 1: women I know who loved you and look forward to
Speaker 1: hearing your voice. I know I'm not the only one,
Speaker 1: and truthfully, I'm mad about that too, that everyone has
Speaker 1: given you a pass for fear of what it might
Speaker 1: mean to hold you accountable for clearly inappropriate behavior and
Speaker 1: overstepping I was mad at myself for shrinking in the
Speaker 1: face of power when people depend on me to stand
Speaker 1: up to speak up. This was harder for me because
Speaker 1: we were legitimately cool, We had a great rapport, and
Speaker 1: I was worried about damaging a friendship and a working
Speaker 1: relationship that you actually damaged. I tried to redirect you repeatedly,
Speaker 1: and you abuse the.
Speaker 2: Grace so you did not deserve. So I apologize.
Speaker 1: I apologize for not leaning into what I know is
Speaker 1: my mission and shrinking in the face of power, for
Speaker 1: not doing more. I apologize to every woman who needed
Speaker 1: a voice and I was silent. I apologized for waiting
Speaker 1: in the wings for opportunity that never came. Well, I
Speaker 1: sacrificed sixth grade wounded angela who desperately needed a protector
Speaker 1: in the face of bullies. I apologize for knowing how
Speaker 1: to be creageous, courageous, but not acting on it.
Speaker 2: I apologize to the people who.
Speaker 1: Experienced this in newsrooms, halls of Congress, the c suite,
Speaker 1: support staff roles, in college lecture halls.
Speaker 2: I see you, and I want you to know you're
Speaker 2: not alone.
Speaker 1: And I apologize to me for minimizing the impact this
Speaker 1: had on me, for wallowing and shame and should have
Speaker 1: could as when I just wasn't ready to acknowledge or
Speaker 1: speak on what it is. So no, Chris, I won't
Speaker 1: be a guest on your program now or later. Thank
Speaker 1: you for the platform. It was not worth all of
Speaker 1: the mental and emotional turmoil, And I thank God that
Speaker 1: I'm clear about the fact that you can't take away
Speaker 1: a voice you never created, you or the network executives
Speaker 1: who enabled you. I know that I'm forever changed, not
Speaker 1: just by this, by what, by the journey it took
Speaker 1: me to get here, to be able to speak out,
Speaker 1: and for you all to hold this space.
Speaker 2: I am so grateful. Thank you.
Speaker 3: Wow, I am grateful to you because I know that
Speaker 3: was a difficult experience for you to share, and so
Speaker 3: you said a lot in that. So I just want
Speaker 3: to make sure that our viewers understood that when Chris
Speaker 3: sent Angela that response. Obviously I've known about this, but
Speaker 3: when Chris sa Angela that response, he was referencing the
Speaker 3: bikini and your crotch. And some people may hear that
Speaker 3: and think not a big deal. I have to tell you,
Speaker 3: as being on the receiving end of those types of
Speaker 3: inappropriate messages, you do panic and you have a choice
Speaker 3: of how to handle it. It's like, do I play
Speaker 3: Pollyanna and play it off like I didn't understand. Do
Speaker 3: I ignore this? Do I tell my spouse, partner, husband, boyfriend,
Speaker 3: friend group, do I tell somebody at the network? Do
Speaker 3: I confront him? I will say, Angela, we've all experienced
Speaker 3: something like that, as you know from civil rights leaders,
Speaker 3: to members of Congress, to people we know, and my
Speaker 3: go to response has always been to either say something
Speaker 3: to the person directly or ignore it, to play Pollyanna.
Speaker 3: I've never once, well that's not true. One time I
Speaker 3: did go to HR, but for the most part, I
Speaker 3: didn't go to As many times as it happened, I
Speaker 3: never went to HR. I never made a complaint, and
Speaker 3: I thought I was standing in the truth, especially we
Speaker 3: talk about Chris Cuomo, but when it comes to black men,
Speaker 3: it's a whole added layer to that because now I
Speaker 3: feel like I'm turning you over to a system that
Speaker 3: already punishes you, and you are punishing me, and I
Speaker 3: am left alone in that space. Somebody told me. My
Speaker 3: very good friend Elsa said this to me, and I'll
Speaker 3: never forget it. And she wasn't being judgmental, she was
Speaker 3: just telling me, not everyone has your constitution. Yeah, you
Speaker 3: know what you did by confronting this individual, You shame
Speaker 3: them in the moment, but left them in place to
Speaker 3: do this to other people. So I think you have
Speaker 3: to give yourself grace, which sounds like you are, and
Speaker 3: you did in getting to your truth and being comfortable
Speaker 3: enough to share this and two, by sharing this, you
Speaker 3: are telling every other person who may have experienced this
Speaker 3: or more from Chris or others, that your discomfort, your pain,
Speaker 3: you're being silenced, all of that matters, and that you
Speaker 3: stand with them. So, just as a woman who has
Speaker 3: experienced that, I just want to say thank you, and
Speaker 3: I want to say to the news media industry from
Speaker 3: CNN and everywhere else. So much of what drives these
Speaker 3: newsrooms is left in the hands of unchecked white man power.
Speaker 3: It is not giving a way power to have a
Speaker 3: more inclusive platform, is not giving a way power to
Speaker 3: have more inclusive executives in the boardroom. You're actually saving
Speaker 3: your bottom line. Maybe you'd save yourself a couple million
Speaker 3: dollars in lawsuits and complaints and litigation and employment law.
Speaker 3: And also just try not to be a piece of
Speaker 3: shit and do the right thing. You know that shouldn't
Speaker 3: be a heavy lift. We managed to do it all
Speaker 3: the time. So I just am in gratitude, and I
Speaker 3: think CNN should be in gratitude for the audiences that
Speaker 3: you brought to their platform that they didn't give a
Speaker 3: shit about because they centered a different demographic, but you
Speaker 3: introduced an entire new demographic to political minutia, and you
Speaker 3: made it relatable and interesting and always plays the path
Speaker 3: for others. And I say shame on them for trying
Speaker 3: to find watered down fried Mannai's versions of you to
Speaker 3: do such things that made audiences more comfortable, because what
Speaker 3: happened instead is when you left, a lot of youers
Speaker 3: left with you, and they're still in an identity crisis.
Speaker 3: So thank you for not just this story, but for
Speaker 3: what you did in your time in the spotlight.
Speaker 4: I didn't know this, and I've known angel a long
Speaker 4: time and we were colleagues. She brought me into CNN.
Speaker 4: We talked about our graciousness before. I'm only calling it
Speaker 4: out because let that be the example, folks, that you
Speaker 4: extend to hand out and up this hers badly because
Speaker 4: I love Angela, but I'm also raising a daughter and
Speaker 4: it really terrifies me for the stupid But stupid's too
Speaker 4: trivial a word. Responsible, the disrespectful, the life altering things
Speaker 4: that we men can do too often, because you all
Speaker 4: can give testimony probably after testimony of it that completely
Speaker 4: alters the life of the woman. Because we couldn't demonstrate
Speaker 4: just a little bit of humanistic respect for a colleague.
Speaker 4: I had a young woman who worked in the office
Speaker 4: of the mayor who shining star, harassed by a boss,
Speaker 4: would not let me intervene, would not let the city,
Speaker 4: would not report it, picked up her life, moved to
Speaker 4: a whole nother city, and started the search for a
Speaker 4: new job. She would have been head of a division
Speaker 4: by now, all because the man who's in charge, who
Speaker 4: she didn't certainly feel in her power to say no
Speaker 4: because she thought so, it ten fifteen years shot ahead
Speaker 4: of her. And if I say something this, my life
Speaker 4: change forever. Right. So, I know you've been working through this,
Speaker 4: and I guess the short version of it is, you
Speaker 4: didn't deserve your bikini shot. Is your joy, is your business,
Speaker 4: it ain't nobody else's business, and it absolutely is not
Speaker 4: an invitation for someone to disrespect you. You and I
Speaker 4: both know, Chris, and the reason why you were you
Speaker 4: mentioned hurt, was because you were friends and that relationship
Speaker 4: you didn't want to have to release, and that relationship
Speaker 4: was able to get that way with you a little
Speaker 4: because you knew him to be a good guy and
Speaker 4: a person who respected you. And the truth is is
Speaker 4: that two things can be true at once. I know
Speaker 4: that's true for me, it's true for you if we
Speaker 4: were all to have it in this moment, and your
Speaker 4: testimony to me is a level up for all of
Speaker 4: us in listening ear that we have to check ourselves,
Speaker 4: be aware, and it don't have to be that hard.
Speaker 4: It really doesn't. But I thank you for your testimony,
Speaker 4: and I just pray with you that grace continues to
Speaker 4: abound because you didn't do a thing to invite or
Speaker 4: to deserve sexualize disrespect.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Can I have a question? You were talking about your
Speaker 3: exit from CNN. What is the correlation. Do you think
Speaker 3: this had something to do with your EGEA that it
Speaker 3: was ten days apart?
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I also want to say, you need evidence,
Speaker 4: you need an email, you don't need the back channel change,
Speaker 4: you don't need anything.
Speaker 1: Well, he was brutally cold when I told him that
Speaker 1: they didn't re I'm.
Speaker 4: Not interested for I'm telling you right now because this
Speaker 4: is part of the revictimizing that we do when we
Speaker 4: call on the victim to tell us, well do are
Speaker 4: you now going further to suggest that because of that thing,
Speaker 4: then this thing happened? Because if A did, then C
Speaker 4: result from EMPTYB. And I'm telling you that ain't your
Speaker 4: job to piece that together.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think that part of what I was
Speaker 1: saying is I was like, look, I would go back
Speaker 1: and look at these text as it is in the timeline,
Speaker 1: over and over again, trying to make sense of it.
Speaker 1: So I don't know whether it happened or not, but
Speaker 1: that is certainly what I believe.
Speaker 2: Now it's ten days apart.
Speaker 1: The darling of the network, the person who, when he
Speaker 1: was released, blew that thing up. Everybody knows about Jeff
Speaker 1: and Allison because he blew that thing up. Right, at
Speaker 1: least those are the optics. So if you have that
Speaker 1: much influence to tear that bitch down, you leave. Certainly
Speaker 1: my little contract.
Speaker 3: Can I ask again, and I'm not trying to revictimized by.
Speaker 2: Any means I'm not taking.
Speaker 3: Did you outside of that incident, did you feel respected
Speaker 3: by the network?
Speaker 2: I think that that's yes and no.
Speaker 1: I think every time there was a moment that went
Speaker 1: viral that wasn't planned, because my moment I had that
Speaker 1: was viral was planned, they would send thank you congratulations.
Speaker 2: There were moments of racism.
Speaker 1: On air where producers apologized for some of the things
Speaker 1: that happened I think largely yes, more often than not.
Speaker 2: Yes, but there were certainly issues along the way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I told you, And I was like, I
Speaker 1: started seeing my attitude.
Speaker 2: What I didn't really realize.
Speaker 1: Is the attitude was a guard and a bracing for
Speaker 1: when I had to be on air with him, Like,
Speaker 1: what is he gonna say now that I'm on here?
Speaker 2: Are you going to send me another message?
Speaker 1: Even the fair game point that I mentioned, he actually
Speaker 1: said that me posting that picture meant it was fair
Speaker 1: game because I told him to leave my keeny out
Speaker 1: of it. It's like fair game, chump.
Speaker 3: So look, I think this is a good lesson for
Speaker 3: you know, our listeners out there. In your mind, it
Speaker 3: might be a joke. In your mind, it might be harmless.
Speaker 3: In your mind, it might be fair game. It is not.
Speaker 3: It is not. You know, think about how we received
Speaker 3: those comments. In most cases, we are not as physically
Speaker 3: strong as a man, you know, So there's already a
Speaker 3: power dynamic. You are a host at this network. Angela
Speaker 3: is a contributor. He was like this with Jeff Sucker.
Speaker 3: They were super close. Angela. You're not calling Jeff Zucker like, hey,
Speaker 3: you want to get lunch in the Hamptons this weekend.
Speaker 3: That wasn't your relationship. So the power dynamic is off,
Speaker 3: and what that does to us. I just don't think
Speaker 3: people always realize that, and so I hope this testimony
Speaker 3: is a lesson to people. Even if you disagree, you
Speaker 3: gotta paint whatever. Take it as a lesson, you know,
Speaker 3: decide to the side of caution when thinking. There's a
Speaker 3: civil rights leader who used to call me and say,
Speaker 3: I just want to talk to the twins, referring to
Speaker 3: my breast. No, and he I think he always thought
Speaker 3: it was a joke, and I would honestly laugh it off.
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, you stupid, Okay, anyway, and move on.
Speaker 3: Because I did not want to have a dynamic with
Speaker 3: him that would lead to something else, you know, so
Speaker 3: I would always try to operate above board. I never
Speaker 3: cursed him out or went off on him or anything
Speaker 3: like that. And we work you know very well who
Speaker 3: it is y'all used to work together. But that's a
Speaker 3: story for another day. You maybe maybe I'll tell this story. Yes, well,
Speaker 3: but look, and that's another thing. Each week we will
Speaker 3: tell our stories. I certainly have a lot of stories
Speaker 3: to tell about the network. You'll hear my story next week.
Speaker 3: But I guess why I'm asking those questions too, is
Speaker 3: because I want people to know how we're treated by
Speaker 3: these places and the fights that we fight to show
Speaker 3: up and hold the line for our not just for
Speaker 3: the craft. I mean, you know, journalism has been something
Speaker 3: that's been iant important to my life, but for the community,
Speaker 3: or the democracy, for the country, for the globe, for
Speaker 3: our humanity, all those things matter. And so while Angela
Speaker 3: was doing that, to be subjected to that and whatever
Speaker 3: other disrespect you experienced there, I think as an outsider,
Speaker 3: I did feel like you were disrespected by the network.
Speaker 3: I felt like you did a lot for the network
Speaker 3: and never really got the praise. And you have to
Speaker 3: prove yourself so much like y'all will pluck any has
Speaker 3: been who gives a shit Republican and give them a show,
Speaker 3: or you'll take somebody who is not, you know, in
Speaker 3: media or not on the serious side of media. But
Speaker 3: it's like, oh, I can take a black person who
Speaker 3: is an entertainer and give them a show, but somebody
Speaker 3: who who is articulate, a law school graduate, former executive
Speaker 3: director of the Congressional Black Caucus, business owner, all of
Speaker 3: those things can be intimidating to people somehow. You have
Speaker 3: to prove yourself. The dude who can, you know, make
Speaker 3: a killer jump shot, ain't got approve himself. But the
Speaker 3: person who is intellectually I think, very capable of discussing
Speaker 3: most things and driving conversation has to prove yourself to
Speaker 3: earn a spot there. So I could go on about
Speaker 3: this for a long time. You know, I have a
Speaker 3: lot of thoughts on how the media is run. But
Speaker 3: I know we're getting into probably our eight.
Speaker 4: Week, so I know we are. Yeah, give us, give
Speaker 4: us grace. What I It's a serious topic. I am
Speaker 4: struggling all the bouncing between my ears about this what
Speaker 4: we invite and then what becomes fair game. And I
Speaker 4: hope that I'm gonna share a little bit of this
Speaker 4: too during my testimony about that whole idea. I used
Speaker 4: this analogy earlier. You decide you want to go to
Speaker 4: a club because you want to hear music or whatever
Speaker 4: your motivation want to be, and you look in great
Speaker 4: right stunner, and someone at that club decides that they're
Speaker 4: going to slip your drink a quelude or whatever it
Speaker 4: is that causes them to knock you out. And then
Speaker 4: take advantage of you. Is it then the choice that
Speaker 4: you made? Is it your fault? Is it now fair
Speaker 4: game that whatever happened after that drink is your responsibility
Speaker 4: because you put yourself in the situation that isn't the
Speaker 4: situation you put yourself in front of. You put yourself
Speaker 4: in front of advancement off of proven deliverable work, your
Speaker 4: work product. You didn't invite anything else, and on your
Speaker 4: Instagram you can do whatever the hell you want to do.
Speaker 4: Just why some people know to DM you because they
Speaker 4: know that if it were for public eyes, it would
Speaker 4: not be appropriate. If you have the discernment enough to
Speaker 4: know that you can't go in that timeline and write
Speaker 4: that m hm.
Speaker 3: That's a good point.
Speaker 4: Then you know the difference between what's appropriate and what
Speaker 4: is not appropriate. So invitation isn't an invitation until I
Speaker 4: extend it to you.
Speaker 3: That's a good point. Because he didn't make that comment
Speaker 3: on Instagram publicly, it was on text.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and again but that's we know. We are running
Speaker 4: these traps in our head.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you run that trap, run one more.
Speaker 4: Do you respect that person as a colleague or do
Speaker 4: you acknowledge that they are a colleague? And possibly your
Speaker 4: actions can deteriorate, destroy cause monumental shifts in the lives
Speaker 4: of the other person. Now most of us aren't that
Speaker 4: selfless to do that, but we I think we owe
Speaker 4: ourselves in our listeners a real more fulsome conversation on
Speaker 4: these boundaries and what we invite. Yeah, because a lot
Speaker 4: of us got it twisted that if you put it
Speaker 4: in the public space, it's fair game. Whatever that is,
Speaker 4: I can take it to the most humiliating, disgusting extremes
Speaker 4: because you wore a bathing suit that everybody wears.
Speaker 2: Well, this was heavy.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you all for creating the space and holding space.
Speaker 1: But we did promise our listeners that every week we
Speaker 1: can't help. But when we get together, it's not just
Speaker 1: a talk show. We also have a call to action.
Speaker 1: So if you had to give the listeners of Native
Speaker 1: Lamp Pod one thing to go off and do when
Speaker 1: they turn this off, not until the benediction, but when
Speaker 1: they turn it off, what would it be?
Speaker 4: Post and recruit five of your friends, arride with five,
Speaker 4: ride with five and subscribe. Download Oh you got bars
Speaker 4: like the Native Lamb podcast, Because I honestly believe going
Speaker 4: religious you were chosen for such a time as this
Speaker 4: to do the work that we are going to do,
Speaker 4: because if we don't do it, that work will never
Speaker 4: be done. We weren't brought through it, to it and
Speaker 4: through it to sit on the miracle of it. Somebody
Speaker 4: on the listening side has to know that if I
Speaker 4: take a courageous step, there's life after Yeah, share it,
Speaker 4: arrive a five, y'all download.
Speaker 3: I like that mine is a little bit. I kind
Speaker 3: of talked about this a little earlier. I would say,
Speaker 3: after you post, follow and do all the things with
Speaker 3: Native Landpod, get the fuck off your phones, Okay, be present.
Speaker 3: Stop scrolling through Instagram for hours looking at nonsense. Stop
Speaker 3: talking at brunch about celebrity gossip. Stop talking stop. If
Speaker 3: you're doing that, at least spend as much time talking
Speaker 3: about shit that matters. It's a consequential time. If you
Speaker 3: sitting around, like Kat William said, what and they broke
Speaker 3: up with who and who did this? That's fine. We
Speaker 3: do that in our group chat too sometimes. I mean
Speaker 3: we're going to talk about you know, pop culture for sure.
Speaker 3: If that's the bulk of your conversation, take a look
Speaker 3: at what's happening around you, not just here in America,
Speaker 3: but across the globe, give a shit about something other
Speaker 3: than filters. You know, have some curiosity about what is
Speaker 3: happening in your community. Read an article from a reputable outlet,
Speaker 3: read a book that is edifying to you. And I
Speaker 3: don't mean to sound judg mental again, you guys, I
Speaker 3: get on the shits too, you know, like, I'm here
Speaker 3: for some of it, but it cannot dominate my life.
Speaker 3: And the next time you're out with your friends at
Speaker 3: brunch and I look at all these tables and everybody's
Speaker 3: looking down at their phones. Nobody's looking at each other.
Speaker 3: Just stay off your phones, connect with the people around
Speaker 3: You're doing something interesting looking at what everybody else is doing.
Speaker 3: So just put that aside. I think these smartphones have
Speaker 3: ruined so much about society, Like, just get off and
Speaker 3: be present.
Speaker 1: Tip said, get a flip phone. Mine mine is.
Speaker 2: To please not.
Speaker 1: They challenge us regularly not to parent talking points, which
Speaker 1: we do not do. That criticism gets really old. But
Speaker 1: I would actually challenge y'all to do the same. Please
Speaker 1: do not parrot talking points. The thing that you read
Speaker 1: that maybe went viral, that you thought sounds real dope.
Speaker 1: Challenge that thing stress stress test that, even if it's
Speaker 1: from us, fact check that thing right, Like, really do
Speaker 1: your own research and really decide what is the truth
Speaker 1: for you. I think that's so important in this day
Speaker 1: and age. Before we sign off, I want to remind
Speaker 1: y'all to subscribe to Native lampod right now and check
Speaker 1: us out on YouTube. New episodes drop every single Thursday.
Speaker 1: You can follow us on social media. We are Angela Raie,
Speaker 1: Tiffany Cross, and Andrew Gillumed.
Speaker 4: The social media app on my phone today.
Speaker 1: Amazing, there are two hundred and ninety eight days until
Speaker 1: election day.
Speaker 2: Welcome home, y'all, Welcome home.
Speaker 1: Native Lampod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Speaker 1: Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.