Speaker 1: The Quest Love Show is a production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2: Hey people, what's up?
Speaker 1: This is Questlove, and this is the Quest Love Show,
Speaker 1: of course, and our guest today is the one and
Speaker 1: only Colin Kaepernick.
Speaker 2: So here's the deal.
Speaker 1: We taped this conversation earlier this month at Web Summit
Speaker 1: in Qatar in front of a live audience. This particular
Speaker 1: episode is shorter than the ones I'm usually known for.
Speaker 1: It's not the you know, pat Nick Mammoth length Questlove conversation.
Speaker 2: We sort of had a time limit on our hands.
Speaker 1: But even within those boundaries, I'll say that I wanted
Speaker 1: to approach Colin the way that I approach everyone who
Speaker 1: comes on the Quest Loft sh We talked a little
Speaker 1: bit about his childhood, how music played into his childhood
Speaker 1: and the role that it plays in his life.
Speaker 2: And it's also about the work that.
Speaker 1: He's building now with the Know Your Rights camp and
Speaker 1: a storytelling platform. Loomi and Kylin and I had connected before,
Speaker 1: kind of during the heat of the action. Unbeknownst to me,
Speaker 1: he's kind of adjacent in the neighborhood see him and
Speaker 1: nessa like kind of around the area. But you know,
Speaker 1: it never seemed like the right moment for us to
Speaker 1: sit down and break bread and really have a proper conversation.
Speaker 1: So I'm very happy that he made time to do
Speaker 1: this for us, since we were both in Qatar during
Speaker 1: this time period. But you know, it was great to
Speaker 1: sit with him in that space. You know, the space
Speaker 1: was like a very large space in front of audience,
Speaker 1: you know, a couple thousand people, and so it wasn't
Speaker 1: as sentitimate as normal episodes are, but still, you know,
Speaker 1: the energy was the same. And this is definitely not
Speaker 1: our last conversation, Like we just scratched the surface. So
Speaker 1: what you're going to hear is a snapshot, but you
Speaker 1: know it's one worth sharing beyond the large room of
Speaker 1: people watching us and guitar and as we honor Black
Speaker 1: History Month on the Quest Left Show this month and
Speaker 1: every month, Collins definitely someone that we.
Speaker 2: Continue to talk to in the future.
Speaker 1: He definitely does the work and he represents conviction, sacrifice
Speaker 1: and a commitment.
Speaker 2: To activating change. All right, so I hope you enjoy
Speaker 2: this guys.
Speaker 3: Okay, so welcome to the Web Summit.
Speaker 1: My name is Amir Thompson, otherwise known as Quest Love
Speaker 1: and shout out to my iHeart family out here, and
Speaker 1: I thank our guests for receiving us that website.
Speaker 3: I'm here for a very small sampling.
Speaker 1: Of what I do on the podcast, and we're deeply
Speaker 1: on it to have the one and only Colin Kaepernick
Speaker 1: with us today.
Speaker 2: How you doing.
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 1: So if you followed my career, you know that I
Speaker 1: entered this business thirty years ago as a musician as
Speaker 1: a DJ, and in the last five years, I've been
Speaker 1: doing everything well not but that, but in addition to that,
Speaker 1: so I'm about storytelling and books and movies and whatnot.
Speaker 1: And so basically our guest today has the same trajectory.
Speaker 1: Basically started out athlete, became a revolutionary activist and is
Speaker 1: now a storyteller helping others with the New Year Rights
Speaker 1: Camp and also with Loomi, your app. So we're going
Speaker 1: to ask you a few questions and our limited time here,
Speaker 1: I would like to know what is your morning routine?
Speaker 1: What is the first thing you do in the first
Speaker 1: twenty minutes of your day?
Speaker 4: First thing waking up always shower. That has to be
Speaker 4: to wake up, okay, and the part for me because
Speaker 4: I wake up to train early in the morning, so
Speaker 4: wake up at four point thirty by five o'clock, I'm
Speaker 4: training so that shower hot shower to be able to
Speaker 4: get everything moving ready to go. And then that last
Speaker 4: thirty minutes I'm into my workout routine. So hit the
Speaker 4: ground running is as soon as the day starts, and
Speaker 4: then take everything else from there.
Speaker 1: So without fail, training as is always the first thing
Speaker 1: in your morning, no matter what.
Speaker 3: If you don't do it, are you thrown out a whack?
Speaker 4: Or oh I feel so off if I don't do it,
Speaker 4: almost like my body reacts' is like, oh, we don't
Speaker 4: have to do anything today.
Speaker 5: Then so God starts the day with a workout.
Speaker 3: Okay, this is kind of a frothy question about your childhood.
Speaker 1: What television show would best describe what your childhood was like?
Speaker 4: Ooh, I would say Colin in Black and White is
Speaker 4: the best one that we made created. But beyond that,
Speaker 4: maybe the Power Ragers.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: You know, we're always looking at how we could be superheroes,
Speaker 4: how we could save things, how we could be better.
Speaker 5: So we liked being the heroes of the story.
Speaker 1: Okay, so even then you were sort of manifesting or
Speaker 1: see what your future was going to be. Even in
Speaker 1: your childhood, what secret talent of yours do you have
Speaker 1: that we don't know about?
Speaker 4: It's a great question. Most my talent has been primarily
Speaker 4: through sports. So I was going to be drafted by
Speaker 4: Major League Baseball coming out of high school. Okay, so
Speaker 4: baseball is an area that had a lot of talent
Speaker 4: in Unfortunately, I did not get any music talent.
Speaker 5: So I'm gonna leave that up to you. You can
Speaker 5: hold us down there, hold us out this four side.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: This year, twenty twenty six, of course, mark's the ten
Speaker 1: year anniversary of like your life pivot and to activism.
Speaker 1: Of course, you famously standing up for justice for those
Speaker 1: without a voice. I always wanted to know. So for me,
Speaker 1: music is such an integral part of my life. But
Speaker 1: during that time period ten years ago, what was the soundtrack?
Speaker 3: Was there a.
Speaker 1: Song that got you through that period, especially when you
Speaker 1: were in the thick of it?
Speaker 4: So interesting enough, during that time period, I actually had
Speaker 4: a soundtrack all wife Nessa. She obviously works Hot ninety seven,
Speaker 4: so she's been in the music industry for a long time, right.
Speaker 4: She knew a lot of my favorite songs, a lot
Speaker 4: of my favorite speeches, so she put together a playlist
Speaker 4: for me, that was my favorite songs and favorite speeches.
Speaker 4: That was like revolutionary music cut up and that was
Speaker 4: my pregame playlist for that entire season really, So that
Speaker 4: was everything from POC changes and Holler if You Hear
Speaker 4: Me to Malcolm speeches and Ali all of those innercut.
Speaker 1: Is there one song in particular that makes you always
Speaker 1: feel unstoppable when you put it on?
Speaker 4: So this fall is a little bit out outside of
Speaker 4: kind of the revolutionary music vibe DMX party up.
Speaker 3: Yes, okay that it's your adrenaline.
Speaker 5: It's all adrenaline.
Speaker 4: You can put that off for any workout, any pregame.
Speaker 3: It works in any age.
Speaker 5: His voice, his energy, like you could run through a wall.
Speaker 3: I got you.
Speaker 1: I always wanted to know when you do an active
Speaker 1: courage it comes from somewhere. Where does the source of
Speaker 1: your courage come from?
Speaker 3: Are you big on meditation?
Speaker 1: It's something that you ponder on an hour before, like,
Speaker 1: where's the source of your courage come from?
Speaker 5: I think a few different places.
Speaker 4: One knowing that you have people around you that love you,
Speaker 4: it's one piece of that.
Speaker 5: The other is doing the right thing. There's a.
Speaker 4: Morality, an integrity, a sense of obligation to do the
Speaker 4: right thing, and oftentimes that if we don't have the
Speaker 4: knowledge and insight, then it's hard to say, oh, is
Speaker 4: this the right thing? But once you have that knowledge,
Speaker 4: then it's an area that kind of forces you to action.
Speaker 4: And for me, that was a huge piece. And the
Speaker 4: third piece I think about is something that your first
Speaker 4: courageous act I took was.
Speaker 5: Was not a major one.
Speaker 4: It's trying out for a team knowing you might get cut,
Speaker 4: it's trying to lead a team knowing they may not
Speaker 4: follow you, and all of these acts. Over time, you
Speaker 4: get more and more confident in your ability to take
Speaker 4: these actions that may seem daunting. Like probably the first
Speaker 4: time you ever cut a track, it was like, oh, man,
Speaker 4: like what could come out of this?
Speaker 3: Well? I tend not to think about it and I
Speaker 3: just do it.
Speaker 1: But I think later in my career became there was
Speaker 1: a period where I started to overthink. And when you
Speaker 1: start overthinking, I think that's where pure artistry leaves, because
Speaker 1: you know, you're supposed to do things spontaneous, not you know,
Speaker 1: sort of ponder on it. I mean, it's good to
Speaker 1: plan and it's good to rehearse, but yeah, not to
Speaker 1: the point where it handicaps.
Speaker 3: You so exactly.
Speaker 4: So all that's say, like just the practice of doing
Speaker 4: things that may be uncomfortable gets you to a way
Speaker 4: that you can build courage over time through those actions.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Now, if I'm scared or fear, like even
Speaker 1: this morning, like going to the sand dunes to for
Speaker 1: the first time going down these mountains, I normally would
Speaker 1: have not done that, but yeah, sometimes you just got
Speaker 1: to lean.
Speaker 3: Into your fear.
Speaker 1: I always wanted to know was there a figure during
Speaker 1: the time period that offered you support or encouraged you
Speaker 1: that you weren't expecting, like during this early time period
Speaker 1: and your activism.
Speaker 4: So a few people that come to mind. The first
Speaker 4: one that I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to
Speaker 4: meet was Malcolm X. Like reading the autobiography of Malcolm
Speaker 4: X was life changing and life changing in the sense
Speaker 4: that a lot of that history, a lot of his
Speaker 4: life story was information that was misrepresented to me growing
Speaker 4: up as well. Right, he was not looked at as
Speaker 4: a hero, he was not looked at someone who was
Speaker 4: advancing society and communities. So for me, actually reading the
Speaker 4: autobiography was life changing. Ali was another huge influence there
Speaker 4: looking at his ability to stay steadfast in moments where
Speaker 4: the US and the world, well, I should say more
Speaker 4: specifically the US attacking him, stripping him of opportunities and
Speaker 4: titles and things of that nature. And then third one
Speaker 4: that actually got to spend time with was mister B
Speaker 4: or Harry Belafonte, being in New York. We used to
Speaker 4: go over there on Sundays, and it was like Sundays
Speaker 4: with mister B. And I loved talking to him to
Speaker 4: his last day. He was sharp, sharp, and I would
Speaker 4: ask him so like, what would you do in this situation?
Speaker 4: What are your thoughts here? And what was most interesting
Speaker 4: to me? He would never give me an answer, but
Speaker 4: he would tell me a story about an experience he
Speaker 4: had that was related.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it.
Speaker 4: Was one of those moments that I will walk out
Speaker 4: of there sometimes and I would be frustrated because I
Speaker 4: was like, I just want the answer, like I need help.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to figure this out. I need to take
Speaker 4: action now. But he's forcing you to see it yourself,
Speaker 4: and he's forcing me to walk that path myself, as
Speaker 4: opposed to saying, well, here's the path I walked, walk
Speaker 4: it as well, and I have great appreciation for it
Speaker 4: because it forced me to grow in ways that otherwise
Speaker 4: wouldn't have got you, what is the best advice you
Speaker 4: ever received? The best advice I actually think about it
Speaker 4: comes from a poster I had hanging on my wall
Speaker 4: growing up.
Speaker 1: Okay, I was just going to ask you if you
Speaker 1: had a childhood poster in your bedroom, what was it?
Speaker 5: But ah, what was to I'm getting two pieces here.
Speaker 4: So first, this was a very like non branded poster
Speaker 4: to unidentified teams on it, but it hung next to
Speaker 4: my bed and it said the power to win must
Speaker 4: come from within. And what it made me think about
Speaker 4: consistently was while I was on the field, when I
Speaker 4: was in the classroom, while I was doing anything in life,
Speaker 4: it has to come from you. No one else is
Speaker 4: going to go out and do it for you. Now,
Speaker 4: people can help along the way and they can support,
Speaker 4: but ultimately, the success you want, the goal you're trying
Speaker 4: to accomplish, any of those things, it has to come
Speaker 4: from within you. And if it doesn't come from there,
Speaker 4: then you're really just kind of floating along hoping for
Speaker 4: things to happen, as opposed to taking action and having
Speaker 4: that power in that situation.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we live in America and twenty twenty six
Speaker 1: is already a lot even though it's the first month
Speaker 1: of it, because of your work and you establishing that
Speaker 1: Know your Rights camp. How does that play now that
Speaker 1: it's more urgent than ever with what is happening back home.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it changes some of the work that we do,
Speaker 4: but a lot of the work we've been doing because
Speaker 4: this is this is a much more heightened and advanced
Speaker 4: version of it. But a lot of the issues that
Speaker 4: we're seeing have been present. So a lot of that
Speaker 4: work is how can we accelerate it. So for example,
Speaker 4: we recently did a camp in La camp in La
Speaker 4: was immigration focused because of the environment of ice coming in,
Speaker 4: trying to raid schools, trying to raid business. This is
Speaker 4: how do we offer support and protection and guidance for
Speaker 4: communities that are being attacked in real time?
Speaker 5: So that's some of the work.
Speaker 4: The other part is and this was actually insight coming
Speaker 4: out of the camp in La. Yeah, we have an
Speaker 4: autopsy initiative where we do free second autopsies for people
Speaker 4: who have had loved ones that have been killed by
Speaker 4: police or while they're detained. Right, and one of the
Speaker 4: students we're talking high school students, middle school, high school
Speaker 4: students raised his hand as we were talking about the
Speaker 4: work we're doing in an autopsy initiative and was like,
Speaker 4: does that apply to ice detention centers as well? Which
Speaker 4: the immediate thought that comes to mind is this child
Speaker 4: knows someone who was killed in the ice detention center
Speaker 4: and is trying to figure out how do we get
Speaker 4: justice for them? How do we find out what actually happened.
Speaker 4: So a lot of the work we're doing is how
Speaker 4: do we accelerate partnerships, how do we accelerate resources, how
Speaker 4: do we shift some of what we're doing to fit
Speaker 4: community needs, and how we do that as quickly as
Speaker 4: possible because it is extremely urgent.
Speaker 1: I thank you for activating and least planting and your
Speaker 1: community activism.
Speaker 3: I have two minutes left. I do want to talk
Speaker 3: about Loomi.
Speaker 1: So, of course, you know, especially in the entertainment world,
Speaker 1: older people are really slow to embrace AI. You know,
Speaker 1: there's always conspiracy theories and whatnot. However, Loomy is counter
Speaker 1: to that. Could you speak on that and what does LOOMI.
Speaker 3: Offer like a younger generation, Like, what's your goal with it?
Speaker 4: Our goal there is we're trying to address the education crisis,
Speaker 4: first being student engagement, second being literacy, and then third
Speaker 4: being building AI skills so we have future ready students.
Speaker 4: And part of the reason this is so important for
Speaker 4: us is when we think about AI, when we think
Speaker 4: about the future, we have seen the impact that digital
Speaker 4: divide has had on our communities. Yes, this is generational
Speaker 4: impact that we still feel to this day. AI is
Speaker 4: also a technology that is going to be generationally gap
Speaker 4: closing or gap widening, right, and we want to make
Speaker 4: sure that our communities are at the forefront of this,
Speaker 4: meaning our students, our teachers, our districts have to be
Speaker 4: at the forefront. So we do a lot of work
Speaker 4: with our students. We do a lot of work training teachers,
Speaker 4: We do a lot of work training districts to make
Speaker 4: sure that they have the tools and the skill sets
Speaker 4: needed to be able to engage with the tools in
Speaker 4: a way that can help them advance as effective as possible.
Speaker 3: Gotcha.
Speaker 1: Okay, so my last question to you is, and you know,
Speaker 1: I am a person who I will say, in my
Speaker 1: kind of thirty five year history as a professional, I've
Speaker 1: always been a reluctant pivoter in terms of starting at
Speaker 1: one place and then somehow morphing into to what the
Speaker 1: universe wants you to be. For someone listening that is
Speaker 1: at a place in their life in which they're at
Speaker 1: a crossroads, at a fork in a road, could you
Speaker 1: sort of give them advice on how you adjusted to
Speaker 1: pivoting starting off with, you know, dreams of athleticism and
Speaker 1: ending up being much needed activists. First of all, is
Speaker 1: it a burden on you for us to place this
Speaker 1: on your shoulders? I mean, does it sometimes feel like
Speaker 1: a burden or do you now accept in your heart
Speaker 1: that this is your life calling.
Speaker 5: I don't look at as a burden.
Speaker 4: I look at it as a responsibility, gotcha, And I
Speaker 4: think collectively that's something that we should be looking at
Speaker 4: me We're we're seeing the implications of that not taking
Speaker 4: that approach come to fruition in real time.
Speaker 5: So I take the responsibility serious.
Speaker 4: I also know if that can help save a life,
Speaker 4: if it can help us advance as a society, if
Speaker 4: it helps make someone better off, those are all phenomenal accomplishments.
Speaker 4: And to your question around pivoting and being able to
Speaker 4: be in different spaces anyone who is going through that,
Speaker 4: the key thing that I would say is jump. And
Speaker 4: that goes back to the earlier conversation around courage, like
Speaker 4: I look at from that lens that it's gonna be uncomfortable, it's.
Speaker 5: Gonna be it's gonna be scary.
Speaker 4: And for me prior to this, I had never built
Speaker 4: an AI company before. Yes, but I had done a
Speaker 4: lot of work in media. I had done a lot
Speaker 4: of work in education. I had been and investing in
Speaker 4: the tech space. I sat on the board of Medium
Speaker 4: with Evan Biz who co founders of Twitter. So I
Speaker 4: got to learn from brilliant minds along the way that
Speaker 4: ultimately led to this path. But when my career was
Speaker 4: taken away in twenty sixteen, I could have stopped and
Speaker 4: been like, man, they took everything, like what do I
Speaker 4: do now?
Speaker 3: Gotcha?
Speaker 4: Instead, it's well, let me go find a way to
Speaker 4: be successful. And I actually fully don't know what that
Speaker 4: looks like in this moment, but I'm gonna keep putting
Speaker 4: one foot in front of another until I find that
Speaker 4: exact clarity as far as what I'm gonna do, how
Speaker 4: I'm gonna do it, and then make sure that I
Speaker 4: go be great at that.
Speaker 1: There it is Colin Kaepernick, Ladies and gentlemen, my name
Speaker 1: is Questlove.
Speaker 3: It's the Quest Love Show. Thank you our family at
Speaker 3: and enjoy yourself. Thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Thank you all right, good people.
Speaker 2: I wasn't lying to you, definitely said it was. It
Speaker 2: was way shorter.
Speaker 1: Look, it wasn't my choice at length of the interview,
Speaker 1: nor was it Collins. So the deal is basically, I
Speaker 1: flew way over twelve hours to be in Doha for
Speaker 1: web summit for the conversation, and also DJ said that
Speaker 1: I did. I was slightly jet lagged, but I was
Speaker 1: fully present. But I definitely wanted to share some additional context.
Speaker 1: So when you do a summit like that number one,
Speaker 1: you're given a list of possible guests, and this particular year,
Speaker 1: there were several people I wanted to speak to, but
Speaker 1: I felt like Colin represented the moment, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of what Colin was pointing towards in terms of well,
Speaker 1: basically like where we are now. Almost felt like Colin
Speaker 1: was somewhat of a Paul Revere figure warning us about
Speaker 1: the future. And of course, now you know, the idea
Speaker 1: of speaking out, using your voice, using your platform for
Speaker 1: the climate that we're in right now is needed now
Speaker 1: more than ever and so pretty much. You know, when
Speaker 1: I found out, especially with his developing with the Know
Speaker 1: You w Rights camp, it was more urgent than ever
Speaker 1: and I'm glad we had the conversation. So, you know,
Speaker 1: shout out to Colin, and also shout out to Nessa
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: She's the architect behind the.
Speaker 1: Inspirational music and speech playlist that Colin spoke about. And
Speaker 1: you know, gratitude also to tone and to allow and
Speaker 1: if you want to know more about Colin's work at
Speaker 1: that kaepernickseven dot com.
Speaker 2: Kaepernick seven also get the.
Speaker 1: Loomy app, the Loomi app, which is basically I mean,
Speaker 1: its designed to help students foster skills and creativity through
Speaker 1: safe AI storytelling.
Speaker 2: That's available now. Yeah, so you know.
Speaker 1: Also, I'm not normally this guy. I never said these,
Speaker 1: well sometimes I do. But here we are in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six. But follow and subscribe to the Quest Love
Speaker 1: Show wherever you stream your podcast, and you know, catch
Speaker 1: these full conversations on YouTube.
Speaker 2: We have a hell of an archive.
Speaker 1: If you're a longtime fan of the show, please tell
Speaker 1: people about the show.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it, leave a rating, leave comments. I read
Speaker 2: the comments.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm still recovering after the quasi beat down I
Speaker 1: took for the open Mic Eagle app But you know, again,
Speaker 1: I told you all that.
Speaker 2: That was a really really hard day for me.
Speaker 3: And you know, sometimes you know, a god needs.
Speaker 1: A friend to talk to you, So it's like that sometimes. Anyway,
Speaker 1: people stay safe, stay informed. Yeah, I know it sounds
Speaker 1: like a cliche, but stay woke, stay aware.
Speaker 2: That is what staying woke means. Means.
Speaker 1: Stay aware, be careful of the information that you receive.
Speaker 1: Make sure don't just run off of headline clickbait. You know,
Speaker 1: and I'm a victim of it too. Sometimes I'll rush
Speaker 1: to repost something not knowing.
Speaker 2: Like oh, what's happening.
Speaker 1: If you live in a state that has early voting,
Speaker 1: I recommend it now whatever preparations you need to do
Speaker 1: for yourself, and also please make sure you're family members,
Speaker 1: older family members. I'm making sure that my mother, my sister,
Speaker 1: all my family members are prepared for anything that happens
Speaker 1: down the pike. Anyway, I would like to think that
Speaker 1: if your quest Love show listener, you know these things already.
Speaker 1: All right, take care of each other. Thank you all,
Speaker 1: and I will catch you next week. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: The Quest Love Show is hosted by me a Mere
Speaker 1: Quest Love Thompson. The executive producers are Sean g Brian
Speaker 1: Calhoun and Me. Produced by Brittany Benjamin and Jaco Payne.
Speaker 1: Produced for Ihearten by Noel Brown, Edited by Alex Khn.
Speaker 1: iHeart Video support by Mark Canton, Logos Graphics and animation
Speaker 1: by Nick by Lowie.
Speaker 3: Additional support by Lance Coleman.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Kathy Brown, Special thanks to Sugar Steve Mandel.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe, rate, review, and share The Quest Love Show.
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