Speaker 1: Hey, what's up everybody.
Speaker 2: I'm Jamel Hill and welcome to politics and I heard
Speaker 2: podcast and unbothered production.
Speaker 1: Time to get spolitical.
Speaker 2: With the NCAA Women's tournament in full swing, Fox Sports
Speaker 2: decided to do a ranking of the top ten greatest
Speaker 2: women's college basketball players in history. And before I get
Speaker 2: into who made the top ten list, let me preemptibly say,
Speaker 2: well played, Fox, Well fucking played. Because the nature of
Speaker 2: most of these lists is to drive engagement.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm engaged. Engagement here. Now here's their list.
Speaker 2: Number ten, Lynette Woodard, number nine, Asia Wilson, number eight,
Speaker 2: Kennis Parker number seven, Brittany Griner number six, Maya Moore
Speaker 2: number five, Shamika hold Squad number four, Cheryl Miller number three,
Speaker 2: Diana Tarassi, number two, Caitlin Clark, and number one Brianna Stewart.
Speaker 2: They also included these honorable mentions Kelsey Plus, Sabrina Ionescu,
Speaker 2: Alenda del Don, Cheryl Swoops, and Rebecca Lobo.
Speaker 1: Now, every woman listed is a great.
Speaker 2: But this list is wrong. Now I get the case
Speaker 2: for a Brianna Stewart at number one. She won a
Speaker 2: national title every single year she was at Yukon, which
Speaker 2: is an absurd accomplishment. She also won Player of the
Speaker 2: Year three straight years, which is also completely absurd.
Speaker 1: But is she the best to ever do it?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: For one accomplished and great two different things. Stewiet is
Speaker 2: by far the most accomplished player. And yes she is great,
Speaker 2: She's just not that est part. Now, how can Stewey
Speaker 2: be the goat of women's college basketball, which she's not
Speaker 2: even the greatest player in Yukon's history.
Speaker 1: Doris Burg, tell them who that is her?
Speaker 3: Connecticut's best players are concerned, I would still have Diana
Speaker 3: Tarazzi in that conversation right there with her. And here's
Speaker 3: live in two thousand and three and two thousand and
Speaker 3: four when they were winning their second and third of
Speaker 3: one of their three peats, Diana Tarazzi and Gina wri
Speaker 3: it was their brilliance and their abilities and their I
Speaker 3: don't know how to say it, but they are people
Speaker 3: who can make those around them exceed. There what you
Speaker 3: think is their ceiling as a player, regardless of sport.
Speaker 3: And Diana did not have the luxury of the next
Speaker 3: two best players in the country beside her, and you
Speaker 3: look at how she won those tournaments. Guys, it was
Speaker 3: truly a thing to watch. That goes back to his
Speaker 3: common I have Diana and you don't, And it was
Speaker 3: shill Apropos.
Speaker 2: Diana Lreena Tarassi of the House of Huskies, first of
Speaker 2: her name, winner of three national titles, ruler of stores Connecticut,
Speaker 2: mother of competitive Mayhem aka she got that dog in her,
Speaker 2: the White Mamba of ball.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: When Tarasi got to Yukon, they were at the beginning
Speaker 2: of establishing their superpowers. Her first title came her sophomore
Speaker 2: year on that historic thirty nine and Oh team with
Speaker 2: superb Swing, cash Asia Jones and Tamika Williams. But when
Speaker 2: that crew graduated a lot of people were predicting that
Speaker 2: the Huskies would fall off, including Yukon's own assistant coach
Speaker 2: Chris Day.
Speaker 1: That former Husty Ashley Battle explained.
Speaker 4: Going into my red shirt sophomore year, we didn't have
Speaker 4: a senior or we had lost super bird swin Cash,
Speaker 4: Asa Jones, Tamika Williams. So they left and CD, knowing
Speaker 4: what we had coming back, is like, oh lord, We're
Speaker 4: going to the NIT next year, and we was like dang.
Speaker 2: Like for real, now, wait a minute. The NT after
Speaker 2: going thirty nine and zero the disrespect. But Daily wasn't alone.
Speaker 4: The media thought the same thing we were. I think
Speaker 4: like preseason number six, which was like the lowest Yukon
Speaker 4: has been in years. But the media was just pretty
Speaker 4: much saying, oh, well they have Diana, but who else.
Speaker 2: Being ranked six in the preseason? I mean, that's hardly
Speaker 2: the nit but you get the point only there was
Speaker 2: no slide for Yukon. Diana Tarassi lived up to every
Speaker 2: expectation and more. The Huskies won another two national titles,
Speaker 2: with Tarassi winning National Other Player her final two seasons.
Speaker 2: See when did he and greatest Player? It's about a
Speaker 2: combination of things. Stat stature, ability, context of the moment,
Speaker 2: and accomplishments.
Speaker 1: All of that matters.
Speaker 2: So when Fox listed Caitlyn Clark as the second greatest
Speaker 2: women's player ever behind Stewart, I thought, no, it's Kitlyn
Speaker 2: Clark among the top ten greatest women's college players ever.
Speaker 2: Does Pete head seth send detailed attack plans over signal? Hell, yeah,
Speaker 2: She's just not number two.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Statistically, Caitlyn Clark almost has no peer. Offensively, nobody has
Speaker 2: scored more points than her in their college basketball career.
Speaker 2: Nobody has made more three pointers than her, Nobody has
Speaker 2: more national scoring titles.
Speaker 1: Her impact is that of a true pioneer.
Speaker 2: She broke attendance records everywhere she went, and last year,
Speaker 2: with her appearing in the national title game for the
Speaker 2: first time in history, the women's championship game had more
Speaker 2: viewers than the men's. Now, you look at the inflection
Speaker 2: points in the history of women's college basketball, and she's
Speaker 2: an obvious one.
Speaker 1: But here's the problem. All the other greats on this
Speaker 1: list have rings. Now, rings aren't a defining characteristic.
Speaker 2: It's just pretty hard to justify being that high on
Speaker 2: the list when you're missing the one component everyone else
Speaker 2: has on the same said list. Now, let's say you
Speaker 2: want to make the case that Caitlin Clark is in
Speaker 2: a unique situation because she didn't have as much firepower
Speaker 2: and as many five star recruits that she played alongside
Speaker 2: as some of the others on the list.
Speaker 1: Well, neither of this.
Speaker 2: Cheryl Swoops, who is not in the top ten but
Speaker 2: she should be. Cheryl Swoops started her career at University
Speaker 2: of Texas, but she left the school before she could
Speaker 2: even figure out where her dorm was located. Back then,
Speaker 2: the transfer portal wasn't portaling the way that it is now,
Speaker 2: so Swoops took a detour to community college for two years.
Speaker 2: She then transferred to Texas Tech, which was nowhere on
Speaker 2: anybody's women's college basketball map. Her first season at Texas Tech,
Speaker 2: she averaged twenty one a game and took the Red Raiders,
Speaker 2: who had never made it past the second round of
Speaker 2: the NCAA Tournament. She took them to the Elite eight,
Speaker 2: where they lost to the top seed in Stanford. That
Speaker 2: next year, Cheryl Swoops wasn't playing no games. She averaged
Speaker 2: twenty eight a game and scored more points than anyone
Speaker 2: in women's college basketball that season.
Speaker 1: Now Texas Tech.
Speaker 2: Earned the number two seed, and behind Cheryl Swoops' dominance,
Speaker 2: they beat number one seed Ohio State to win the
Speaker 2: national championship. In that game, Cheryl Swoops dropped forty seven,
Speaker 2: which is still the most points anybody has scored in
Speaker 2: a women's NCAA Tournament national title game. Now, Swoops was
Speaker 2: on some Dandy Manning type shit. She didn't play with
Speaker 2: any other first team All Americans. Texas Tech's second leading
Speaker 2: scorer averaged thirteen points a game. Ohio State, her opponent
Speaker 2: in the title game had four players who averaged double figures,
Speaker 2: and the buck Geys were led by future Hall of
Speaker 2: Famer Katie Smith, just saying culturally, she also was a
Speaker 2: big damn deal and doing things on the court that
Speaker 2: women simply weren't known for doing. She was packing out arenas.
Speaker 2: Her air swoops were the first Sneakers name after a woman.
Speaker 1: People were regularly.
Speaker 2: Referring to her as the female Michael Jordan. Even Michael
Speaker 2: Jordan was like, yeah, that tracks.
Speaker 3: She really unstopped me.
Speaker 5: From my standpoint. She had the skills that really seemed
Speaker 5: to be better than anybody else she was playing against,
Speaker 5: and rarely do you see women who can do that.
Speaker 5: I think she really opened eyes about women's basketball. She's
Speaker 5: a credit to women's fast.
Speaker 1: So by now I know what you're thinking.
Speaker 2: Who are my top ten greatest women's college basketball players
Speaker 2: of all time? And even if you weren't thinking that,
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you anyway. But before I reveal that,
Speaker 2: let me explain my criteria informing my list. It's team impact, ability, hardware, context, competition,
Speaker 2: and eyeball tests. See every player on my list, I've
Speaker 2: actually seen them play. So here's my list coming in
Speaker 2: at ten Tamika Catchings, a name that isn't brought up
Speaker 2: nearly as much as it should be on these Greatest
Speaker 2: Evers list. She won every significant Player of the Year
Speaker 2: award in two thousand and won a national title in
Speaker 2: ninety eight.
Speaker 1: Just a complete score.
Speaker 2: Number nine Shamika Hoes call, like the previously mentioned Meek
Speaker 2: great from her freshman year, two time player of the Year.
Speaker 2: There was nothing she couldn't do offensively, three straight national titles,
Speaker 2: all time leading scorer for Tennessee men or women. At eight,
Speaker 2: Brittany Grider, dominant, big, ferocious defender, won a national title,
Speaker 2: multiple Player of the Year awards. She came out of
Speaker 2: high school with an incredible amount of hype because of
Speaker 2: her size and dominance, and she absolutely delivered. Number seven
Speaker 2: here's where I have Kaitlyn Clark. She has truly moved
Speaker 2: the game into a new era. Number six swoops. Texas
Speaker 2: Tech has its only national title in women's basketball because
Speaker 2: of her.
Speaker 1: Number five Candice Parker.
Speaker 2: Not only does she have first team All American baby hairs,
Speaker 2: she won back to back national titles, Dynamic at both
Speaker 2: ends of the floor, and she was major, I mean
Speaker 2: major in terms of star power.
Speaker 1: She just did things and games where you say, now,
Speaker 1: what in the Sam hill was that case in point?
Speaker 2: In two thousand and six, she became the first woman
Speaker 2: to ever do this in an NCAA tournament game.
Speaker 1: Turnover to Spencer, you're thinking about it, duct there is
Speaker 1: We said it at the start. She wants to shut out.
Speaker 1: I think she feels but she's the best player in America.
Speaker 1: Best freshman in America is Canais Parker. She is siptially
Speaker 1: and the Trump Dollar Transition. Yes, ma'am received Cander's. Parker
Speaker 1: her first dunk in college. She won the McDonald's High
Speaker 1: School All American Dunk Contest against the Boys and Doors.
Speaker 6: To the best of our knowledge, that's the first dunk
Speaker 6: ever in an NCAA tournament game.
Speaker 1: Number four Paige and Stewie.
Speaker 2: No other player has her championship resume at number three.
Speaker 1: Maya Moore.
Speaker 2: I still don't think people appreciate how gifted Maya Moore
Speaker 2: was four time American, two time National Player of the Year,
Speaker 2: back to back national titles. I swear if she hadn't
Speaker 2: decided to retire from the NBA while she was still
Speaker 2: in her prime, she would have finished as the greatest
Speaker 2: player ever to play in the w She's your favorites
Speaker 2: fave because she is KATELYNK. Clark's favorite player. Number two
Speaker 2: White Mama, y'all know what it is, and she plays mean.
Speaker 2: I love that for her. Now, before I give you
Speaker 2: my number one, let me provide some honorable mentions as well.
Speaker 2: They are Sabrina iin Escu, who is in that class
Speaker 2: of best players to never win a national championship. Kelsey Plumb,
Speaker 2: who at the NCAA all time scoring record for women
Speaker 2: before Katelyn Clark broke that record. Simone Augustus led LSU
Speaker 2: to three straight final fours. And Sue Bert just the
Speaker 2: consummate winner and maybe the best floor general and leader
Speaker 2: of all time. But number one for me on this list,
Speaker 2: and I know I'm gonna have to let her go
Speaker 2: at some point, because lists, when it comes to sports,
Speaker 2: are meant to be changed. It's Cheryl Miller, because of
Speaker 2: course it is. She's the standard standard. She did it
Speaker 2: all offensively. On top of averaging fifteen boards a game
Speaker 2: or junior season, she gave usc their basketball identity. Her
Speaker 2: first national championship game drew nearly twelve million viewers. She
Speaker 2: created so much of the culture of women's basketball.
Speaker 1: Bona fide baller.
Speaker 2: I will forever stand and until further notice, any list
Speaker 2: of greatest women's college basketball players that doesn't include Cheryl Miller.
Speaker 1: Thou demands that not be the case.
Speaker 2: And if there is a day where Cheryl Miller is
Speaker 2: in danger of not being number one, a series of
Speaker 2: hearings will be held and a special commission will be
Speaker 2: convened before any official decision or any official changes are rendered.
Speaker 2: Argue with your auntie with the raggedy mumu and sliding wig.
Speaker 2: I'm Jamel Hill and I approve this message. Prepare to
Speaker 2: get your laugh on in this episode because one of
Speaker 2: my favorite people is coming through. He's one of the
Speaker 2: funniest comedians in the business and definitely one of the
Speaker 2: smartest ones too, something he.
Speaker 1: Doesn't get enough credit for.
Speaker 2: He currently has a stand up comedy special on Hulu
Speaker 2: called Lonely Flowers, which is brilliant. He's also host of
Speaker 2: the CNN show Have I Got News for You? It
Speaker 2: is informative and extremely funny. Of course, coming up next
Speaker 2: on Spolitics b ham as in Birmingham's own roy Wood Junior.
Speaker 2: Roy thank you so much for taking the time to
Speaker 2: join me. Going to start the podcast by asking a
Speaker 2: question I ask every guest that appears on Spolitics, and
Speaker 2: that is name an athlete or a moment.
Speaker 1: In sports that made you love sports.
Speaker 6: Braves ninety two NLCS Braise Pirates sid brings sliding in,
Speaker 6: allowing the Braves to come back to back pennant champion
Speaker 6: tans Down one of the most exciting baseball games I've
Speaker 6: ever witness in the sport. I rewatch it once a
Speaker 6: year for inspiration. That whole game seven is still on
Speaker 6: YouTube in its entirety, every pitch and I watched that thing.
Speaker 6: I watch it and then I go back and watch
Speaker 6: somebody on YouTube. God bless him took the Atlanta Braves
Speaker 6: radio call and put it over the actual Fox Sports
Speaker 6: because it's skip carry and all of them on the radio.
Speaker 6: No knock on the national coverage. But man, when when
Speaker 6: the hometown announcers are calling a walk off, that's just beautiful.
Speaker 2: It's beautiful, I guess because you you know, you grew
Speaker 2: up in both what Memphis and Birmingham.
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, I mean Memphis till third grade, So whatever
Speaker 6: you count that as being because you know you meet
Speaker 6: people from Mivan. I don't be trying, but it's just
Speaker 6: like the reporters be like, yes, so Memphis, and I'm like,
Speaker 6: wait a minute. I went to Catfish Cabin two times
Speaker 6: and then we was in Birmingham. We was gone, Okay,
Speaker 6: it was still Memphis State when I was there.
Speaker 1: Oh wow.
Speaker 2: But nevertheless, I mean because growing up in the South
Speaker 2: and for a lot of people from that part of
Speaker 2: the country, a lot of people were Braves fans.
Speaker 1: So the Braves your team.
Speaker 6: Well, the Cubs is what I loved, but I thought
Speaker 6: you were a Cubs fans. But just that game, that
Speaker 6: game was I just wrote in the playoffs, I just
Speaker 6: root for good baseball the Braves. I hope this makes
Speaker 6: the most. I hope this makes sense what I'm about
Speaker 6: to say. I liked the Cubs, but the Braves had
Speaker 6: the type of black players that I liked watching play,
Speaker 6: if that makes sense. Like Ron Gant was a beast,
Speaker 6: Dion had all of his flare. Dion was my favorite
Speaker 6: athlete growing up. I had his baseball cleats. They ain't
Speaker 6: helped me run faster, but I had this. And then
Speaker 6: they had Otis Nixon, who was a legit psychopath. That
Speaker 6: there's a They're like a great player, but also like
Speaker 6: just like on some on some vernon Maxwell, I don't
Speaker 6: want to dream on them because he wasn't antagonistic, but like,
Speaker 6: once you set him off, we're gonna Stephen Jackson. He
Speaker 6: was probably more of a Stephen Jackson. I don't bother anybody,
Speaker 6: but if you bother me, I will end this situation.
Speaker 6: There is a Phillies Braves fight that I also watch
Speaker 6: on YouTube once a year for inspiration, and somebody hit
Speaker 6: Otis Nixon and that boy ran at the mound and
Speaker 6: halfway to the mound, foot in the air, flying karate kick,
Speaker 6: Like anytime you just see somebody do like a legit
Speaker 6: fight maneuver in a baseball fighter said that's not even allowed,
Speaker 6: and it's like, and this is Otis Nixon. He from
Speaker 6: that era where they smoke Newports in the dugout and
Speaker 6: all that shit. How do you even have the aerobic stamina.
Speaker 1: To karate?
Speaker 6: Somebody different?
Speaker 1: Different?
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, so, I mean Braves had I mean that
Speaker 6: was a different era for black men in baseball period.
Speaker 6: But the Braves had low Kia black ass team, and
Speaker 6: then you had Terry Pimbleton, who was like the more
Speaker 6: astute I'm gonna show you all how to do the
Speaker 6: game the right way, but also don't hit Terry Pimbleton
Speaker 6: or do anything crazy because you're gonna have to deal
Speaker 6: with Oldes Nickson around game.
Speaker 2: So where would you say you stand as a baseball
Speaker 2: fan now, because as many people have noted, throughout the years,
Speaker 2: baseball has had a tough time of maintaining a black
Speaker 2: fan base.
Speaker 6: I'm still a fan of the sport. I'm going to
Speaker 6: Tokyo to watch Cubs Dodgers. That's gonna be a good time.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna take the boy with me and we're gonna,
Speaker 6: you know, have some father son kickback time. I I
Speaker 6: am still a fan. I believe baseball more so has
Speaker 6: a youth problem than well, there's a black problem statistically,
Speaker 6: but in terms of the bigger issue, is it blacks
Speaker 6: in the sports or is it black people watching the sport?
Speaker 6: You've taken the flair and the swag out of the sport.
Speaker 6: There's a reliever. I can try and find his name
Speaker 6: real quick if you want to get into the nerd
Speaker 6: and ex off it all. But there's a reliever. There's
Speaker 6: a black reliever. I don't know if it's Caribbean whatever.
Speaker 6: He's in the diaspora. There's a brother that play for
Speaker 6: the Rockies right now here, a relief pitcher. Anytime he
Speaker 6: strike your ass out, he jumped and then do like
Speaker 6: an electric slide. The only thing I can compare it
Speaker 6: to is Martin Lawrence and Blue Street when he the
Speaker 6: pizza man and he come out the police station and
Speaker 6: he got the police badge and he did slide and
Speaker 6: walk like And he do this in the middle of
Speaker 6: the game in spring training. He gonna get all his
Speaker 6: teammates killed. But if you allow something like that to
Speaker 6: stay in the game, that's a good thing. Like to me,
Speaker 6: the issue with black folks in baseball, and if you
Speaker 6: really want to go there, we can have this conversation
Speaker 6: a whole hour. So I was down in Birmingham. You know,
Speaker 6: they did a Negro League tribute game at Rickwood Field
Speaker 6: in Birmingham, the oldest ballpark in the country is what
Speaker 6: Willie Mays took his first professional at bats. And I
Speaker 6: played my high school games there. So I went around
Speaker 6: with MLB and NPR and we interviewed tons of people.
Speaker 6: We interviewed old Negro leaguers, we interviewed current people. I
Speaker 6: went by my old high school and talked to the coaches.
Speaker 6: There a lot of the issues with the lack of
Speaker 6: black people in baseball isn't entirely Major League Baseball's fault.
Speaker 6: They could kick in a little more money, but there's
Speaker 6: still parts of it that still come down to black
Speaker 6: kids wanting to play the sport. So you know, it's
Speaker 6: already priced out where you got to play travel ball
Speaker 6: year round, Like the idea of just playing baseball for
Speaker 6: three months of your high school or for three months
Speaker 6: in Little League and then going on by your business
Speaker 6: the rest of the school years. The middle school is dead,
Speaker 6: so you got to have parents with a disposable income
Speaker 6: to drive your ass all over the East Coast, crossing
Speaker 6: two three time zones every weekend during the school year, hotels,
Speaker 6: food equipment, all the registration fees for all of these leagues.
Speaker 6: That's how you stay good year round to even be
Speaker 6: remotely competitive. Andrew mccutchon wrote an article in The Players
Speaker 6: Tribute about ten years ago basically saying the only reason
Speaker 6: he went pros because he had a white teammate whose
Speaker 6: daddy saw his ability and bankrolled McCutcheon traveling with them.
Speaker 6: Because mccutchen's family didn't have the bread nor of the time.
Speaker 6: If you want to get into you know, single parent
Speaker 6: households in the black community and all of that stuff.
Speaker 6: Then the bigger issue is that if you are good
Speaker 6: at baseball, you're probably good at another sport that's probably
Speaker 6: going to give you a scholarship. Sooner ain't going to
Speaker 6: give you money faster. Baseball is guaranteed contracts, but you've
Speaker 6: got to toil in the minor leagues three four, five years,
Speaker 6: making statistically less than minimum way for the amount of
Speaker 6: time you put in for what the team pays you.
Speaker 6: It's less than minimum wave. Most minor leaguers have a
Speaker 6: day job. So if you're a black kid and you're
Speaker 6: a fast shortstopper, you're a fast center fielder. You're probably
Speaker 6: a dB or wide out too. And the football program
Speaker 6: make more money at the D one level. The football
Speaker 6: program now got more money because of the nil ain't
Speaker 6: ain't the nil fawset ain't flowing for baseball and softball
Speaker 6: not at the same level that it is for football.
Speaker 6: So why would I even go to college? Should play baseball,
Speaker 6: big dog, most black baseball, most Black college. But this
Speaker 6: is one of the first stories I pitched at the
Speaker 6: Daily show, and we ended up not being able to
Speaker 6: do it because Trump happened. Most black college baseball teams
Speaker 6: are predominantly white or Hispanic, it.
Speaker 2: Is correct, as well as the golf teams as well
Speaker 2: as the tennis teams.
Speaker 1: Like so this idea that which is what I always.
Speaker 2: Find it funny that I think there is a significant
Speaker 2: percentage of white people who legitimately think that white people
Speaker 2: do not go to HBCUs And.
Speaker 1: I'm like, mm hmm. They are there and they're on scholarship.
Speaker 6: Every black person that went to any SHOULDBCU can name
Speaker 6: the white people by name, we know them. Mine was
Speaker 6: River in Ocean and they ran cross country. Fact check
Speaker 6: that in the comments not River and Ocean. Literally those
Speaker 6: are their names, two white Like that is the most
Speaker 6: Trader joehol food ass name.
Speaker 1: And they were cool.
Speaker 6: They played spades and shit in the lobby. They come
Speaker 6: through Gibbs Hall and we showed them love because they
Speaker 6: never tried to be They didn't try to wigger it.
Speaker 6: Fucking my name is River. Good to meet you, right,
Speaker 6: and we kicked it. So so like the idea that
Speaker 6: what Major League Baseball need to do more? Okay, they
Speaker 6: got the RBI program to get the black kids excited
Speaker 6: about it, but the RBI really only carry you to
Speaker 6: about third grade, fourth grade, and even still RBI is
Speaker 6: only two three months out of the year. So you
Speaker 6: look at like if you look at Birmingham right like,
Speaker 6: if you look at the city of Birmingham, my high
Speaker 6: school was one of the ones that was halfway decent
Speaker 6: at baseball because we would schedule games out in the county.
Speaker 6: We didn't have there was let's just talk right now.
Speaker 6: Right now, the city of Birmingham, there's eight high schools,
Speaker 6: there's only three serviceable baseball fields. They don't drain well,
Speaker 6: they do not have the capacity to carry a bunch
Speaker 6: of games at a regular base. If it rained on Monday,
Speaker 6: you might not play a game again till Thursday, even
Speaker 6: if the sky is clear Tuesday Wednesday, because you know
Speaker 6: that in the hood, you get them them deep ass puddles,
Speaker 6: and so you don't get to play as frequently as
Speaker 6: you want to, or you're playing double triple headers now
Speaker 6: you out till ten o'clock at night on a school night.
Speaker 6: So just and that's partly because so many cities have
Speaker 6: cut park services, and we can get into the crime
Speaker 6: prevention of giving cared something to do, versus taking the
Speaker 6: park money and hiring more cops to arrest the kids
Speaker 6: for not having anything to do. There's a lot of
Speaker 6: that that's happening in a lot of cities in this country.
Speaker 6: So the level of accessibility of baseball as a sport.
Speaker 6: If you're black, it's hard enough even when you're trying
Speaker 6: to play it. And then your mama can't drive you nowhere.
Speaker 6: And then you got a coach from the football team
Speaker 6: coming in and saying, we can get you thirty thousand
Speaker 6: and two white girls right now if you sign this
Speaker 6: commitment letter, Baseball don't give you know what, Baseball don't
Speaker 6: give them. You don't even get a white girl. You
Speaker 6: gotta get the Triple A before you get your first
Speaker 6: white girl.
Speaker 2: I mean, it is a shame though, because, as somebody
Speaker 2: like you like, baseball was my first love as well
Speaker 2: growing up in Detroit. Big Tiger fan, Big Tiger fan
Speaker 2: even now, so happy we had the season that we
Speaker 2: just had and looking forward to They're coming out here
Speaker 2: to La so I'm gonna go see them play the
Speaker 2: Dodgers at the end of March.
Speaker 1: But you know, it's all the things that you said.
Speaker 2: It's lack of access, lack of resources, and it is
Speaker 2: just a coolness factor that football and basketball have that
Speaker 2: baseball doesn't necessarily have, and so kids are much more
Speaker 2: attracted to that than they are to playing baseball. But
Speaker 2: I will say too, I think another problem that they're
Speaker 2: experiencing is you know, and I think this goes for
Speaker 2: all sports, Like sports are becoming more expensive, regardless if
Speaker 2: it's basketball. Like the amount of games that high school
Speaker 2: and youth basketball players are playing is alarming.
Speaker 1: You know what happened? It is absurd. I mean, they're
Speaker 1: playing like seventy.
Speaker 2: Five to one hundred games a year, and then we're
Speaker 2: shocked when they're in their early twenties they get to
Speaker 2: the NBA and they got to do low management. It's
Speaker 2: like the professionalization of youth sports across the board is
Speaker 2: really it is really something that is disheartening because as
Speaker 2: those of us who grew up having rec centers, being
Speaker 2: able to play in the neighborhood is like that shit
Speaker 2: don't exist no more.
Speaker 1: Like it's going away very very rapidively. Is like it's
Speaker 1: basically gone.
Speaker 6: And you also have parents that are living vicariously through
Speaker 6: these kids. These parents got hoop dreams of their own
Speaker 6: as well. There's a little bit of that, and they're
Speaker 6: pushing the kids too hard, you know. I saw somewhere
Speaker 6: someone said that you should be cross training your children
Speaker 6: and they should be playing other sports in the off
Speaker 6: season because all sports help you with other sports. So
Speaker 6: the idea of only playing baseball and then you're just
Speaker 6: mentally and emotionally drained. And I also feel like to
Speaker 6: a degree, that leads to a lot of that post
Speaker 6: retirement depression shit that these athletes be dealing with, because
Speaker 6: who are you? All you've done is hold this ball
Speaker 6: since she was ten, and now you're thirty four, and
Speaker 6: you got to figure out what your likes are because
Speaker 6: you ain't even been to a summer camp, big nog.
Speaker 6: You ain't. You ain't done nothing. And so I think
Speaker 6: that having parents that understand the kids to need a
Speaker 6: variety of activities, I think is an important part of it.
Speaker 6: But I think by and large, when I think about
Speaker 6: why I was attracted to baseball, I liked baseball because
Speaker 6: it was the ultimate social but isolating sport like I
Speaker 6: didn't like football, like okay, like to the Memphis to
Speaker 6: Birmingham thing. So when we moved to Birmingham. I was
Speaker 6: third grade and I tried to play seventy five pound
Speaker 6: football and it's too late. Like once you're trying to
Speaker 6: play football third fourth grade, the aggression is there within
Speaker 6: the kids. And I never would like I had played. Mean,
Speaker 6: we were in Memphis. I played church baseball at Mississippi
Speaker 6: Boulevard Baptist. I played a little bit of soccer, kind
Speaker 6: polite sports. Yeah, the football. These motter fuckers, gangster disciples
Speaker 6: in the fourth grade, like we was in the hood.
Speaker 6: We're in West End and I'm like, I'm not going
Speaker 6: to tackle no gangs of this. And then I got
Speaker 6: to run home the next five days. So give me baseball.
Speaker 6: And baseball was fun. There was flamboyance to it. I
Speaker 6: remember Dave Stewart. Dave Stewart used to have the death stare.
Speaker 6: Would he'd have the glove up overs and the bib
Speaker 6: down here, the glove up here. It was like a
Speaker 6: he literally looked like a ninja like that shit was
Speaker 6: cool to me. I don't think you have you know
Speaker 6: a lot of that. I mean, you know, God bless
Speaker 6: Mookie Betts because I really feel like he's putting the
Speaker 6: culture of baseball on his back. For black Americans too,
Speaker 6: which I think is also a very important part of
Speaker 6: the equation, is that because of the international influence and
Speaker 6: the influx of international players into the sport, now, if
Speaker 6: you're a team, I don't necessarily have to get a
Speaker 6: local if you will in terms of an American. So
Speaker 6: I think that allowing the international players in to have
Speaker 6: their own flamboyance, to have their own flair to the
Speaker 6: game would help bring some brothers back to the damn sport.
Speaker 6: But I just don't think that. I think baseball is
Speaker 6: run by traditionalists, conservative, very conservative, not politically behaviorally conservative,
Speaker 6: probably conservative like that too. But you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 6: a little yeah, it's the idea of pull your pants
Speaker 6: up you're wearing Like I saw there was a post
Speaker 6: about jazz Chisholm. I don't know. It's just some spring training,
Speaker 6: just jazz being happy, just someth motherfucker happy and taking
Speaker 6: ground as at second base, and somebody in the comments
Speaker 6: talking about the jewelry and why you gotta hold that
Speaker 6: step fun. It's very pull up your pants type of verbiage.
Speaker 6: I mean, something as stupid as the Yankees letting people
Speaker 6: have a bed. God bless you I know.
Speaker 2: The fact that they're just now deciding to lift the
Speaker 2: facial hair requirement is very on brand for baseball. It's
Speaker 2: like baseball is still one of those warts that you know,
Speaker 2: it feels like segregation, but it's not just yeahs, Jim Crow,
Speaker 2: but it's like, despite our presence, you're like, what is this?
Speaker 1: Why do I feel like I'm not drinking at the
Speaker 1: proper water? Found Sometimes when I.
Speaker 6: Watch it, it's not like baseball didn't have a relationship
Speaker 6: with black people, but it's just to get black people
Speaker 6: to come and watch the game. To get black people
Speaker 6: to really care about it enough to play it, there
Speaker 6: has to be a player that looks like here that
Speaker 6: you can identify with or that you can relate to.
Speaker 6: And I think the lack of flair and the lack
Speaker 6: of swag, Like you don't even see baseball players walking
Speaker 6: in the tunnel to the to the game. Just let
Speaker 6: me see your outfit. What's your wore to the stadium
Speaker 6: in the day? Dog? Can we just see that? Like
Speaker 6: they won't even give you that. So and most baseball
Speaker 6: players are just very much blue collar mentality. So I
Speaker 6: don't know what you would get out of them anyway.
Speaker 6: But you know, like, remember, I ain't saying we need
Speaker 6: racists back in baseball, but remember how good you felt
Speaker 6: when a black person hit a home run off John
Speaker 6: Rocker from the Braves.
Speaker 1: It was a moment always.
Speaker 6: It's just it was just it was like a black
Speaker 6: person dunking on a Boston Celtic in the eighties. It
Speaker 6: just felt right. It just you need storylines. You need
Speaker 6: people that are like, like as interesting and as appealing
Speaker 6: as show hal Tani is, Show Hay is. Really he's
Speaker 6: kind of a low key person. You know, if we're
Speaker 6: just talking about some face of the league type of shit,
Speaker 6: he should show up and do his job. You're going
Speaker 6: to need something else, you know, other than that, even
Speaker 6: something as simple. So like for the last two years
Speaker 6: with MLB Network, right, I've hosted the All MLB Awards
Speaker 6: show where they have something as simple as twenty thirty
Speaker 6: athlete in the building and you know what, we're gonna
Speaker 6: give y'all some trophies. The season just ended, Come onto
Speaker 6: the room, get the trophy. And they're building it eventually
Speaker 6: to be their version of the NFL Honors. Right. First
Speaker 6: year was fine, it was cool. Second year, way more
Speaker 6: players showed up. We got Sholta to sing Sheolta Imanaga
Speaker 6: from the Cubs. We got him to sing those Cubs Go,
Speaker 6: which doesn't seem like a big deal. But this is
Speaker 6: a reserve Japanese dude. It's just over a low key
Speaker 6: to throw fastballs. He's performing. He's coming out of his shell.
Speaker 6: So if he'll come out of his shell, then maybe
Speaker 6: the rest of y'all won't be so tight, and then
Speaker 6: y'all will come out and kick it. Because baseball players
Speaker 6: a low key. They the funniest, oh four.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of personality.
Speaker 2: It's just I do think that they're often discouraged from
Speaker 2: that and they could be a little guarded, and I
Speaker 2: get it. Depending on the media market too, is that
Speaker 2: where they may not feel quite as free to you know,
Speaker 2: because it's then he would become under scrutiny and all
Speaker 2: this kind of stuff, and a lot of players just
Speaker 2: don't want the hassle of you know, people scrutinizing what
Speaker 2: they wear and what they say, and like, they may
Speaker 2: not want the hassle, but I, like yourself, I have
Speaker 2: been around baseball players in those off air like everybody's
Speaker 2: not around moments, and those cats they also have incredible
Speaker 2: stories because people have to realize baseball players when they're
Speaker 2: on the road, you know, like they're in cities three
Speaker 2: four days.
Speaker 1: Like they can have whole families about ten cities. Be
Speaker 1: there men.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, so it's a little bit different experience and
Speaker 2: the stories they tell.
Speaker 1: I promise you it's like some of the best shit
Speaker 1: you've ever heard.
Speaker 6: Here's what I'm trying to say, Baseball needs an Anthony
Speaker 6: Edwards m and I don't know who that could be.
Speaker 6: Mookie bet to Steph Curry. He's exceptional and likable, million
Speaker 6: dollar a smile. That's important. But you also need chaos, Negro.
Speaker 1: You need is a chaos agent.
Speaker 6: He told he talked to you saw the clip of
Speaker 6: him talking to Obama. He was talking to Obama like
Speaker 6: that was his little brother. Oh yeah, you what you did?
Speaker 6: You kill Ben Laden? That's what's up. You can't dunk though.
Speaker 6: That ain't literally what he said, but but it's fun.
Speaker 6: You don't know what's gonna come out of his mouth.
Speaker 6: He's not a feeling. I'm just saying he is himself
Speaker 6: authentically at all times, and he's allowed to be that
Speaker 6: without penalty.
Speaker 1: Right. That's why three dollars worth of fines already because.
Speaker 6: All the time, God forbid, you take too long jogging
Speaker 6: around the bases in a home run strut and somebody
Speaker 6: get mad at you. Josh Chisholm at home or he
Speaker 6: do a euro step. And this is when he was
Speaker 6: with the Marlins. They was eighty games out of first place,
Speaker 6: and he was still he can't carry it along, like
Speaker 6: somebody got to help them. And I just I just
Speaker 6: really feel like the sport benefit like when you talk
Speaker 6: about like somebody like even say Ronald Lacuna, who you know,
Speaker 6: we're talking like Latin players. Now, let them have their flair,
Speaker 6: let them be who they are, let them style around
Speaker 6: the basis, and that will eventually bring in the next
Speaker 6: generation of people. And there's so many there's just so
Speaker 6: many people also the baseball writers too, you know, who
Speaker 6: had just held bent on the game being played a
Speaker 6: certain way. And I just think that you have to
Speaker 6: be very careful with tradition because sometimes tradition is just
Speaker 6: dead people's baggage and it's not going to benefit you.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you said that because that actually brings about
Speaker 2: another interesting conversation that's.
Speaker 1: Been had in the NBA.
Speaker 2: And I'm not sure if you saw it, but we're
Speaker 2: just how my Anthony Edwards who said that he really
Speaker 2: didn't want to be the face of the league, all right,
Speaker 2: although that's a process where you're more chosen as.
Speaker 1: Opposed to you choosing to do it.
Speaker 2: So like if people decide he's a face, he's a face,
Speaker 2: and there's really nothing he can do about it. Lebron,
Speaker 2: on the other hand, responded by saying he doesn't blame
Speaker 2: Anthony Edwards a feeling that way because he said, like
Speaker 2: who would want to be the face? And it brought
Speaker 2: up this really interesting conversation because a lot of people
Speaker 2: think that part of what's holding the NBA back and
Speaker 2: why you know, when you watch NFL coverage, for example,
Speaker 2: like those NFL guys like they ride for the NFL,
Speaker 2: Like for the most part, they will definitely be critical,
Speaker 2: but they ride for it. When you look at NBA
Speaker 2: coverage by large, people are brutally honest, like and really
Speaker 2: a lot of things.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of this.
Speaker 2: Is centered around how the inside the NBA guys, you know,
Speaker 2: how they commentate to talk about the game, which people
Speaker 2: love the fact that they're authentic, that they tell the truth,
Speaker 2: that they don't sugarcoat that they ain't bullshiting. But some
Speaker 2: people have wondered if the NBA conversation is often too
Speaker 2: negative and too toxic, and in part some of people
Speaker 2: blame history that because of there is is a reluctance
Speaker 2: to let certain things go, certain people go, like Michael Jordan,
Speaker 2: because of course his name, you know, surfers through all
Speaker 2: of it.
Speaker 6: He is the measuring he's the bar by which but
Speaker 6: is he so.
Speaker 2: Much the bar roer that naturally it leads to us
Speaker 2: tearing down greatness of everybody we don't feel like meets
Speaker 2: that bar and whatever way we measure it like, is
Speaker 2: the reverence and the fixation with Michael Jordan sort of
Speaker 2: bad for the NBA as we try to move to
Speaker 2: a place where the players of today are actually celebrated
Speaker 2: for their own greatness.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it's bad. I think that we don't
Speaker 6: appreciate what's happening now based on the rules and the
Speaker 6: dynamics of now versus that era. And then you got
Speaker 6: people that's older than you and me that will just
Speaker 6: scream Bill Russell until the day they die, because Bill
Speaker 6: Russell also fought racism on the way to the stadium
Speaker 6: every day and that's a different type of stress. So
Speaker 6: you know, we could argue different generations, but I think
Speaker 6: the across generation arguments are not fair to the current
Speaker 6: day players. I do think the dynamic of the criticism, though,
Speaker 6: I think that that's interesting. I think you have to
Speaker 6: take that with a grain of salt if you're a
Speaker 6: current player, because also there's not nearly as many frank
Speaker 6: and verbally blatant players as there are now covering the
Speaker 6: game as there was in the eighties and nineties. You
Speaker 6: give what I'm saying, like most basketball pre game shows
Speaker 6: and postgame shows, and it's not The NBA is an
Speaker 6: anomaly because they found very opinionated players who had the
Speaker 6: respect of the sport, who would like Charles Barkley is
Speaker 6: the only like, that's one of the few people that
Speaker 6: could come in and say those things and make those
Speaker 6: accusations and make those assessments because it comes from a
Speaker 6: technical it comes from a technical place. I'm trying to
Speaker 6: think like they're like doctor j never gotten the move
Speaker 6: to critique Jordan. If I'm trying to compare like overlapping
Speaker 6: type errors, you get what I'm saying. So I just
Speaker 6: don't think I don't think that it's realistic to expect
Speaker 6: people to be as kind as they were when hate
Speaker 6: is what sales and these are media companies and they
Speaker 6: are looking for engagement. This is debate culture. They will
Speaker 6: pull a question out, they ask on a slow day,
Speaker 6: Ain't nothing more fun than watching sports debate shows in
Speaker 6: June when it's only baseball? Oh, their motherfuckers be scraping
Speaker 6: the bottom of the barrel. They refuse to talk about
Speaker 6: mid season baseball because it ain't.
Speaker 1: That's what bear you be like, Damn yes, yes, and.
Speaker 6: They will have two breaks about Lebron versus Bear. I
Speaker 6: think that being the face of the league is always
Speaker 6: going to come with some degree of criticism and staying
Speaker 6: culture is also part of the problem too. Let's not forget.
Speaker 6: I don't think it's all on the broadcasters. I think
Speaker 6: the broadcasters feel the fire a bit, but it's also fans.
Speaker 6: Some of y'all are weird. Some of y'all are weird,
Speaker 6: only riding for one person for the rest of your life,
Speaker 6: like this is a gang. None of these players know you,
Speaker 6: none of them truly care. Just appreciate the sport and
Speaker 6: the fact that you got Lebron putting up x y
Speaker 6: Z NUM. I think Lebron round the corner from fifty
Speaker 6: k points. By the time this podcast air, he'll have
Speaker 6: it and it's gonna be people going, well, he needed
Speaker 6: more games than Jordan to do it. Jordan did. Imagine
Speaker 6: if Jordan came out of high school, Jordan wasted full
Speaker 6: years at playing for Dean Smith. So if that makes
Speaker 6: you feel good to argue and belittle it and what
Speaker 6: about it, I just think that you're denying yourself an opportunity,
Speaker 6: you know, to enjoy this. But you have to have
Speaker 6: some degree of honesty, you know, if they're going to
Speaker 6: ride on him, be about about taking too many games off.
Speaker 6: That's a fair assessment. If you feel like y'all shouldn't
Speaker 6: be taken like if a player goes, y'all shouldn't be
Speaker 6: taking this many games off because the fans paid blah
Speaker 6: blah blah blah blah. Well, that's a different mindset from
Speaker 6: the nineties NBA that we came upon. Also, the contracts
Speaker 6: are much more lush, so you might have people that
Speaker 6: are a little bit more lazy and a little less
Speaker 6: incentivized to lose way to do a push up. Maybe
Speaker 6: that's what happened with Luca. So if that's the case,
Speaker 6: as an analyst, I think it's your job to call
Speaker 6: stuff as you see it, and I just think the
Speaker 6: dynamics of the support have changed. But at the end
Speaker 6: of the day, I think that it's on the fans
Speaker 6: to appreciate what's happening because the talent and the people
Speaker 6: in these media companies and the producers, they're not going
Speaker 6: to just glorify everybody because that's not ratings and that's
Speaker 6: not profit. And we paid a gajillion billion dollars for
Speaker 6: the rights to show this NBA game, and I'm going
Speaker 6: to create whatever story in narrative I need to create
Speaker 6: so that your ass tune in, because that's all I
Speaker 6: care about. Most companies don't care about goodness or or
Speaker 6: doing the right thing. I think that's one of the things.
Speaker 6: I think that's one of the places where we fail.
Speaker 6: Media as a whole is expecting media to be wholesome
Speaker 6: and have morals. It is not. And that and that's
Speaker 6: not just sports media. We're talking media, We're talking news
Speaker 6: as a whole.
Speaker 5: You know, like the.
Speaker 6: Idea of doing what you believe is the most profitable thing,
Speaker 6: even if it's not the right thing that's always been
Speaker 6: them of media.
Speaker 1: That is a.
Speaker 2: I got a lot to say about that, but I'm
Speaker 2: gonna wait. We're gonna take a quick break, Roy, and
Speaker 2: we're going to come back, and we're going to get
Speaker 2: into that, especially in light of some of the changes
Speaker 2: that we're seeing at other networks. And I definitely want
Speaker 2: to get into how I got news for you as well.
Speaker 1: Very much enjoying this season, So we're get into all
Speaker 1: of that. But break, I know she said it off.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask.
Speaker 2: You about that episode too, But yes, we'll take a
Speaker 2: quick break and we'll be back with more from Roywood Junior. Okay, Ry,
Speaker 2: before we took a break, you said that like media
Speaker 2: is about profit, and you're right. The problem is and
Speaker 2: where the lines get and maybe where I'm a little
Speaker 2: bit more emotional about it or I'm less of that
Speaker 2: mindset is because you're completely right. The problem is when
Speaker 2: I decided to become a reporter in college, journalism very much.
Speaker 1: Was considered to be a public good.
Speaker 2: You know, it wasn't really supposed to be this huge
Speaker 2: four profit industry that it became. You know, I compared
Speaker 2: to maybe the NC double A right, the NC DOUBLEA
Speaker 2: started off quote unquote amateur to some degree, never with
Speaker 2: the imagination that one day this would be billions of
Speaker 2: dollars in this sport, which as more money came in
Speaker 2: is sort of changed.
Speaker 1: What was the goal and what was the mission?
Speaker 6: Correct?
Speaker 2: And I just don't know if journalism and media and
Speaker 2: those are two separate things.
Speaker 1: If you're talking about media, yes, media is p profit.
Speaker 2: I just don't know if journalism can be that not
Speaker 2: if it's in the way that it's supposed to.
Speaker 6: Well, it's supposed to function like that, but then media
Speaker 6: we also have to separate the difference between journalism and editorial, punditry,
Speaker 6: things like that, and I think that those things emerge
Speaker 6: together as well. And I think that's part of the issue,
Speaker 6: is that the average person watching a news channel can't
Speaker 6: tell the difference between opinion and fact, and I think
Speaker 6: that's part of where well, if they if the people
Speaker 6: don't care, well, then let's just give them whatever the
Speaker 6: hell they're willing to consume, and then let's collect the
Speaker 6: dollars on the backside with the ads. I really do
Speaker 6: not like the fact that most media companies are not
Speaker 6: tied to just telling the truth just for the sake
Speaker 6: of telling the truth. If you look at before we
Speaker 6: even get the MSNBC, let's let's let's let's get in
Speaker 6: on Jeff Bezos with everything. With the Washington Post, you
Speaker 6: have the opinions page. The opinions page is supposed to
Speaker 6: be the one little corner of the paper where anybody
Speaker 6: can say whatever the fuck they feel for as long
Speaker 6: as they meet the word count. You got correct punctuation,
Speaker 6: you should be able to say exactly what it is
Speaker 6: you feel. And you got Bezos going, nah, if you
Speaker 6: on some different shit, we ain't putting that in the paper.
Speaker 6: That's not journalism anymore. It's not it's not. And so
Speaker 6: you look at you look at a lot of these
Speaker 6: media companies and I feel like they are definitely succumbing
Speaker 6: to the pressure of whatever appeace is shareholders or whatever
Speaker 6: gets ratings. And when you look at when you look
Speaker 6: at certain networks and you look at certain people on
Speaker 6: those networks, the network can go, Okay, you're a good journalist,
Speaker 6: and good journalism should ruffle a few feathers. But if
Speaker 6: you don't want a feather ruffle in there because you
Speaker 6: think they're ultimately they're well, you don't you call people
Speaker 6: out and we don't. We don't want that. You gotta go.
Speaker 6: Don't tell me. Joy Reid's firing was about ratings. Don't
Speaker 6: tell me that, Like, that's not I choose not to
Speaker 6: believe it. And this is coming from Comedy Central, where
Speaker 6: I've seen I've been on ratings calls and in ratings meetings,
Speaker 6: and I've gotten the emails good good news gained, We're
Speaker 6: up fourteen percent and seventy one to seventy three year old.
Speaker 6: You can spin ratings into whatever kind of victory or
Speaker 6: loss you want it to be. It's like ratings is
Speaker 6: like somebody's outfit. You can just say it looked nice,
Speaker 6: so you can say it look bad and that's the truth.
Speaker 6: So it's surely more involved in that. And so when
Speaker 6: you start looking at the idea of what quote good
Speaker 6: journalism is, like we joked last night, we we joked
Speaker 6: the other day on CNN. We were talking about Gail
Speaker 6: King going to space, right, and you know, Gail King
Speaker 6: for to go to space in one of the Bezos rockets,
Speaker 6: and I jokingly but kind of serious mentioned Joy Reid.
Speaker 6: And basically basically what I said on my show is
Speaker 6: that you know, if you're a black woman and you're
Speaker 6: good at journalism. They trying to trying to get rid
Speaker 6: of it. Don't don't go to space Gail, because they
Speaker 6: got joy and now they're trying to get to like
Speaker 6: one by one. And so I think that good journalism
Speaker 6: to a degree and asking the right questions to a degree.
Speaker 6: I think a lot of companies are starting to find
Speaker 6: that to be baff of business. And I think that
Speaker 6: business is appeasing the government and staying out of their
Speaker 6: crosshairs because they believe that the government will ultimately put
Speaker 6: them in a fucking figure full leg lot. That creates
Speaker 6: a space where they feel like they can no longer
Speaker 6: make money. And then you spend in you spending googabs
Speaker 6: of of money in court. You know. But it's it's
Speaker 6: media is in a weird position because of what the
Speaker 6: White House is doing. Like I saw on Twitter one day,
Speaker 6: I don't even know it's the Associated Press back in
Speaker 6: the White House briefing room. Yet are they still still.
Speaker 2: Out like they were not in the the Zelensky Trump JD.
Speaker 6: Vans Okay, so then you have people in there, of course.
Speaker 6: So I saw somebody on Twitter that was saying that
Speaker 6: the press should stand with the Associated Press and no
Speaker 6: longer cover the White House. And to me, that's a
Speaker 6: tough that's a tough one, you know. And I think
Speaker 6: that there in lies the issue, Like if you look
Speaker 6: at me, where I am a part of the media,
Speaker 6: I'm on Seeing in which a lot of people don't like.
Speaker 6: I see the comments sometimes when I post clips from
Speaker 6: the show like we love you Roy, but I ain't
Speaker 6: watching that network. I watch it on YouTube, seeing in
Speaker 6: still getting the money from YouTube? Thank you?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 6: How do you fight while still trying to honor your
Speaker 6: own mission? How do you fight for your colleagues while
Speaker 6: still trying to honor the mission of serving the people
Speaker 6: or enriching the people, or doing whatever it is you
Speaker 6: believe it's the right thing to do to make the
Speaker 6: world a better place. And I think that's the issue
Speaker 6: that a lot of journalists are going to be up
Speaker 6: against in their newsrooms. I really think that for what
Speaker 6: happened to joy Read, I really think that there is
Speaker 6: a greater dialogue to be had at the state and
Speaker 6: local levels about all of the shit starters with a
Speaker 6: pad and a pen who trying to find the truth.
Speaker 6: Are you answering to an editor that answers to a
Speaker 6: conglomerate that owns the paper that don't want that type
Speaker 6: of stuff in there. Assuming that you're at a paper
Speaker 6: that still has a local reporter, correct, because most of
Speaker 6: those are gone.
Speaker 1: Most of those are gone.
Speaker 2: And I am firmly starting off as someone who started
Speaker 2: off in newspapers, local newspapers. If you look at the
Speaker 2: number of jobs that are lost in different industries, journalism
Speaker 2: is among the highest, and a lot of it is
Speaker 2: because of what has happened at the local level, and
Speaker 2: not just with newspapers, but with also with TV. And
Speaker 2: as I've said to people many times, especially those who
Speaker 2: who kind of they hate the idea paying for a
Speaker 2: subscription because everybody was.
Speaker 1: Like, well, we used to get this for free, now
Speaker 1: you gotta pay.
Speaker 2: Well, that's because good journalism is actually expensive, very expensive.
Speaker 2: It's why a lot of companies are getting out of
Speaker 2: it because of what it costs. If they can get
Speaker 2: the same amount of money by just having somebody on
Speaker 2: their spouting and opinion, being it informed or not informed.
Speaker 1: They're gonna do that because that costs money.
Speaker 2: Like I think people would be stunned at how much
Speaker 2: a show like sixty minutes costs it costs a ton
Speaker 2: of money to do that show, and it's the same
Speaker 2: at the local level.
Speaker 1: Investigative journalism is hard. It requires a lot of money.
Speaker 2: And when you don't support those those kinds of media outlets,
Speaker 2: what happens is you don't know what's happening in your community.
Speaker 2: You don't know who's mind in the store. And trust
Speaker 2: me when I tell you, politicians, CEOs, all the people
Speaker 2: in power love the idea of destroying journalism because there's.
Speaker 1: So much you wouldn't know.
Speaker 2: You know, even now with all that's happening with Doge,
Speaker 2: the number of people I read in the comments who
Speaker 2: are like, where are the journalists and why are they reporting?
Speaker 1: Oh, I can tell you why they're not.
Speaker 2: It's because, you say, people who now all of a
Speaker 2: sudden want the journalists to come in with the kpone
Speaker 2: are the same ones also calling us the enemy the state,
Speaker 2: who are also saying that we don't deserve to have
Speaker 2: our jobs.
Speaker 1: Like no, no, no, no, no, no no, that's not the
Speaker 1: way that this works. So you're right.
Speaker 2: Is a very hard time in this business for journalists, period,
Speaker 2: very hard time for black journalists, super hard time for
Speaker 2: black journalists who have called out Trump before or who have.
Speaker 1: Gotten in his crosshairs or that of this administration.
Speaker 2: Period, because these companies have shown they're not gonna ride
Speaker 2: with you. They're not They're gonna sacrifice you and put
Speaker 2: you on the spital like anybody else.
Speaker 6: I said at the Correspondence dinner two years ago that
Speaker 6: the problem with the truth reaching people is that the
Speaker 6: truth is behind a paywall, but opinions are free. Put
Speaker 6: the opinions behind the paywall, and the first people to
Speaker 6: suffer when these situations happen are reporters that cover black
Speaker 6: and brown communities. We had a story we were trying
Speaker 6: to do right before I left Daily Show where they
Speaker 6: were doing ice raiates early. This is Biden ice ray,
Speaker 6: this is just regular deportation stuff. Latinos, there were Latinos
Speaker 6: in Atlanta had formed strategies against ice raids on how
Speaker 6: to lay low. They had their own car pools. They
Speaker 6: weren't going to the bus stop. They have their own
Speaker 6: ecosystem on how to move in plane sight but in hiding.
Speaker 6: So that's my guy to help me figure out how
Speaker 6: to tell the story. At the state level, he got
Speaker 6: laid off and so you know, they're not going to
Speaker 6: talk to me because I'm from the Big Bad pairamount
Speaker 6: and it's daily show, so it's weird. You don't know
Speaker 6: if I'm making fun of you. So I needed that
Speaker 6: reporter as the middle man vouch to even be able
Speaker 6: to amplify the story. It's same thing with the Chicago
Speaker 6: South Side stuff that we was doing. We was walking
Speaker 6: the south Side talking with people who intervened on game
Speaker 6: beats for volunteer, So it was a local reporter from
Speaker 6: the Tribune that plug like, you're not getting that type
Speaker 6: of access at the national level without a local vouch.
Speaker 6: And so those people are important, but those are the
Speaker 6: people covering those stories and telling those stories about us.
Speaker 6: They're the first ones to get let go. And I
Speaker 6: don't think that that's going to change. The thing that's frustrating, though,
Speaker 6: is that for the one side we can go, a
Speaker 6: conglomerate is not going to promote truth and journalism across
Speaker 6: the board because they go, oh, well, that's not profitable,
Speaker 6: or we're going to anger some people, either our shareholders
Speaker 6: or some shareholder who doesn't agree with the story, investors,
Speaker 6: or we're going to anger the White House. So we're
Speaker 6: not going to cover that story. But then you have
Speaker 6: media at the local level who have to have a
Speaker 6: paywall to survive. But even with the paywall, it gives
Speaker 6: you even fewer subscribers, which restrict your ability to do
Speaker 6: your mission, which is to inform the people, and eventually
Speaker 6: you die off anyway, or you have to keep cutting
Speaker 6: costs to the point where you're just running wire stories.
Speaker 6: So it's like on both ends of the sword. Money.
Speaker 6: I believe it's part of the issue, but I just
Speaker 6: I don't know if we'll ever be especially under Trump,
Speaker 6: if we're ever gonna you're not gonna get subsidized no
Speaker 6: journalism anymore.
Speaker 2: No, It's it's that that is a did conversation for them.
Speaker 6: Kids ain't getting lunch at school, They about to not
Speaker 6: get lunch free, lunch about to be gone, so they
Speaker 6: definitely not paying to have Like God bless PBS. I
Speaker 6: know they.
Speaker 2: I don't think the majority of their funding comes from
Speaker 2: the government. They do have a chunk and you see
Speaker 2: already they talking about defund PBS.
Speaker 1: I'm like, guys, Sesame Street.
Speaker 2: Can't live, Like what do we do make like it
Speaker 2: can't live? I mean it was already I think it
Speaker 2: was already on its last legs. As it was, but
Speaker 2: I want to get to some political stuff real quick.
Speaker 2: And for those who don't know, Roy's got a great show.
Speaker 2: Who knew that politics could be fun and not so traumatizing?
Speaker 2: Thanks to I have, I got news.
Speaker 1: Appreciate De Roy.
Speaker 2: You're one of the few political programs I could actually
Speaker 2: watch what I wanted to, you know, kind of slam
Speaker 2: my face into.
Speaker 1: A brick wall. But you know what I would love.
Speaker 2: I saw the episode after this, but just for this
Speaker 2: forum here, as you're watching this Donald Trump, you know,
Speaker 2: President Zelinsky from Ukraine and JD Van's meeting.
Speaker 1: As you're watching this, what is going through your mind?
Speaker 2: I need to know, Like I wish I could get
Speaker 2: the wood mental play by play that was happening as
Speaker 2: you are watching this shit show go down, uh in
Speaker 2: front of the American people.
Speaker 6: So for reference, Trump Zelensky went at it about noon,
Speaker 6: one o'clockish on Friday. We tape at six pm on Fridays.
Speaker 6: We were in the middle of rehearsal, and then after
Speaker 6: a rehearsal, they go Trump's a girl, trumpets Elynsky got
Speaker 6: into it and they was cussing each other out. We
Speaker 6: got to rewrite the whole top of the show. So
Speaker 6: you know, I duck off with the writers and just
Speaker 6: watching clips, just watching clips and were just reading body language.
Speaker 6: But you got it. Remember, like the giff and curse
Speaker 6: of what we do as CNN on Saturday nights is
Speaker 6: that my job is to just tell you what happened.
Speaker 6: For the people who haven't watched the show, it's a
Speaker 6: fake ass game show that quiz you on the news.
Speaker 6: That's it this week, this happened, Who said it, who
Speaker 6: did it, Who's respond that's it. It's just it's a
Speaker 6: speed read of the week that was the downside is
Speaker 6: that we really can't get into the weeds the way
Speaker 6: John Oliver did or the way Bill Maher did you
Speaker 6: know SNL had Elon jokes flying through. Elon wasn't even
Speaker 6: at the meat. So they can go to crazy town
Speaker 6: and be funny, but we just have to inform you.
Speaker 6: So it's just looking at what happened and then picking
Speaker 6: out the moments. Lensky made the eyebrow when Trump said
Speaker 6: he's respected. Jd Vance keep coming in like the little
Speaker 6: homie trying to get respect, acting like you know. Jd
Speaker 6: Vance was like talking to Zelenski like he was the
Speaker 6: one that's got the gun. You know, I mean, you
Speaker 6: know how you see like like two dudes yelling the
Speaker 6: dude and this one dude, yeah, and I'm clean. We
Speaker 6: know you don't have a gun. Stop it, stop it,
Speaker 6: you know like that that was fun to watch, But
Speaker 6: then in the back of your head you still like,
Speaker 6: damn this my star World War three dollars.
Speaker 1: This shit is I said by it's like America.
Speaker 2: This season of America would be great if I didn't
Speaker 2: actually live here. Like if I didn't actually live here,
Speaker 2: it would be great.
Speaker 6: I think part of the issue with war though, and
Speaker 6: I don't and I don't know quite how to fix this,
Speaker 6: but from a journalistic standpoint, I don't feel like we
Speaker 6: truly show people what war it looks like, Like like
Speaker 6: so I go down weird Reddit rabbit holes. All right,
Speaker 6: I've seen and I've always been weird like that, Like
Speaker 6: I just I can't explain it. But like when you
Speaker 6: see like can't sold your cell phone footage from Guantanamo
Speaker 6: or al Qaeda beheading or or like carnage and I
Speaker 6: rat and isis like videos like once you get into
Speaker 6: the house you bombed that they only show you on
Speaker 6: the wide shot in the country music video, and then
Speaker 6: you see footage from a soldier's go pro and you
Speaker 6: see what board does, and you see what bombs do.
Speaker 6: When you see what these weapons actually do to the
Speaker 6: human body, it's hard to be on board with anything
Speaker 6: that could lead to more of that. And you know,
Speaker 6: there's a reason why even with the footage in Gaza
Speaker 6: and Israel, they do it on a wide shot, they're
Speaker 6: painted real fast, just say, oh, yeah, it was a
Speaker 6: bun you just like, for the most part, we associate
Speaker 6: rubble with war. That's all they show you is just rubble.
Speaker 6: Pick a country and they just show you rubble, and
Speaker 6: that somehow makes it more politically digestible. But I think
Speaker 6: if regular everyday Americans saw what could potentially happen on it,
Speaker 6: Like if you ain't queasy at heart, motherfucker, go google
Speaker 6: drone bomb footage. Pick a country that like, and it's
Speaker 6: you know, it's really dark, though some of that shit
Speaker 6: still be funny. There was a video I know comedians
Speaker 6: are darker. There was a video of a Ukrainian drone
Speaker 6: above a Russian soldier and the drone itself is the bomb.
Speaker 6: Like you just fly down to Den't the right and
Speaker 6: the bomb is above him, and the Russian soldier looks
Speaker 6: up at the drone and he knows a rap, He
Speaker 6: know it's a rap. I fucker hold his hand up
Speaker 6: to the drone. My fucker pull out a new port
Speaker 6: that took a drag and then nodded at the drone
Speaker 6: and that was that. Like, it's so odd to see
Speaker 6: shit like that up close. The media, in the news
Speaker 6: media would be doing people, I think, a valuable service.
Speaker 6: It's terrible, it's horrible. Bit if you show the carnage
Speaker 6: of war just a little bit more, I don't know
Speaker 6: how gung ho we be. And don't forget, in war,
Speaker 6: our troops die too. And so there is an element
Speaker 6: of this, the visual sanitization of human conflict that that
Speaker 6: has happened that I think has made us all far
Speaker 6: more content with war because it's all electronic and it's
Speaker 6: drones and it's in for reds. And then they show you,
Speaker 6: you know, here's a WAT shot of the bomb, and like, no,
Speaker 6: go take that camera on up in there, show it
Speaker 6: to people for real, because only time you get the
Speaker 6: real shit. Now it's a documentary. And then it wins
Speaker 6: an Oscar, it wins an Oscar because it's powerful, because
Speaker 6: you cannot ignore it. There was a there was one
Speaker 6: a few years ago called the White Helmets. That's a
Speaker 6: dope one that everybody should see. The White Helmets are
Speaker 6: this group of people who want to building this bomb.
Speaker 6: We are the ones who are first responding to pull
Speaker 6: people out of the rubble. And there's and there's munitions
Speaker 6: that still have not gone off that sometimes still go
Speaker 6: off or they come back and bomb a place after
Speaker 6: the fact. So you know, I think that how war
Speaker 6: is covered could help to contribute to ending some wars.
Speaker 6: But that's also that's a tough thing to push on
Speaker 6: somebody who's just watching the news. And then Family Feud
Speaker 6: is coming on right after. That's why they put them
Speaker 6: game shows on. I used to joke about that on stage.
Speaker 6: They put game shows on right after the evening news
Speaker 6: so you feel better. And then it goes right into
Speaker 6: sitcoms like the idea that you can know everything that's
Speaker 6: fucked up in the world and now we'll a fortune.
Speaker 6: I'm sorry, what right, didn't we just bombed up? Yes
Speaker 6: we did, and now the whole new episode or the
Speaker 6: family Feud, Hey, y'all, you boss Steve Harvey hope you
Speaker 6: enjoyed that war coverage. It's tired to play the feud,
Speaker 6: you know, don't I don't know, but you know, again
Speaker 6: showing war with that level of truth. I don't know
Speaker 6: if that's good for business.
Speaker 2: Now we're in this in this political environment that can
Speaker 2: be you know, as we just talked about a little
Speaker 2: bit tenuous. You're in a different space for it because
Speaker 2: you are a comedian, but you're a comedian that also
Speaker 2: tells the truth and is also very politically aware.
Speaker 1: What do you think was the key for you kind
Speaker 1: of finding where you fit in this moment?
Speaker 6: Mm hmm. I've just tried to be who I am.
Speaker 6: You know, there's a there's an Alabama, Alabama's first black millionaire,
Speaker 6: A G. Gaston. He huge philanthropists, was a supporter of
Speaker 6: the civil rights movement. He had he had a hotel
Speaker 6: in Birmingham, the Gaston Hotel, where most civil rights leaders
Speaker 6: stayed when they came to time because it was a
Speaker 6: safe like on some green book type ship like that
Speaker 6: was a safe place, and you know, and soldiers would
Speaker 6: line up black panthers or whatever to protect the spot
Speaker 6: and all of that. But he's always poured his money
Speaker 6: into the community and used his money to back people
Speaker 6: that were fighting. You know, he had a series of
Speaker 6: boys clubs and he had a quote. His quote was
Speaker 6: finding need and fill it. And that's just what I've
Speaker 6: lived by. Like they used to preach that to us
Speaker 6: when we was little kids at the boy at the
Speaker 6: ags and boys club and that's just stuck with me.
Speaker 6: And so for me, I've always just tried to use
Speaker 6: humor as a vehicle to to me, the perfect joke
Speaker 6: or the perfect message informs white people or non black people,
Speaker 6: informs white people to something they didn't know, and then
Speaker 6: it gets black people to go. That's what I've been
Speaker 6: trying to tell you. So my first three stand up
Speaker 6: specials were just race and politics and the country and
Speaker 6: all of that stuff. The one I just did for
Speaker 6: Hulu that was more about us on a human level.
Speaker 6: You know. I called it Lonely Flowers. That's what we are.
Speaker 6: We're all beautiful, we don't talk to each other, well,
Speaker 6: we don't come together no more. And so this idea
Speaker 6: of trying to use what we're going through as a
Speaker 6: people as a vehicle for humor. It's hard, but I
Speaker 6: enjoy it because there's also not a lot of people
Speaker 6: doing it like this. You know, when I first got
Speaker 6: to Daily Show and I got to like really give
Speaker 6: Trevor Noah a shout out for this, because you know,
Speaker 6: when I got to Daily Show, you know, I think
Speaker 6: the biggest difference between me and Trevor as black men
Speaker 6: is that I'm very angry as a person. I don't
Speaker 6: show it a lot like people don't like you know me,
Speaker 6: you ain't never seen me in a bad mood and
Speaker 6: nothing like that, but very angry about what's happening in
Speaker 6: this country and what's going on in this country. But
Speaker 6: I'm not a yeller. I'm not a fighter. That's not
Speaker 6: my strategy for me. It's humor. And if I can
Speaker 6: use humor, if I can make it funny, if I
Speaker 6: can make the point and make it funny, I feel
Speaker 6: like I'm as effective as anyone that chooses to be
Speaker 6: a sledgehampan. So my approach to any issue is first
Speaker 6: to figure out a way to find some sort of
Speaker 6: entry point that tricks you into paying attention to the
Speaker 6: actual punch that's coming behind it. So, you know, when
Speaker 6: I started a Daily Show, first piece we did was
Speaker 6: me and Jordan Clapper doing a ride along with the
Speaker 6: Madison Police Department. They just shot an unarmed black man
Speaker 6: four months prior. Let's see if there's some humor there.
Speaker 6: Y'all taking biased training. No, I want to take the trainer.
Speaker 6: Bring the cameras, Oh, twentieth anniversary million mare march. I
Speaker 6: want to go, Hey, traffic, can I go cools, take
Speaker 6: the cameras, see what's going on, and so to be
Speaker 6: able to try and find humor in these very you know,
Speaker 6: unfunny situations, especially unfunny situations for black people, like we
Speaker 6: was man, we was down in the far As a
Speaker 6: cop city in Atlanta. These folks out the dying and
Speaker 6: shootouts with the police, trying to keep them from building
Speaker 6: a police training facility that's ultimately going to flood black
Speaker 6: neighborhoods downstream state. The cameras and to me, I don't know,
Speaker 6: I take I take. I take pride in that because
Speaker 6: there's not a lot of people doing that this way
Speaker 6: in comedy or in journalism. I kind of sit on,
Speaker 6: you know, a weird a weird line. But I think
Speaker 6: I have a unique ability to reach and connect with
Speaker 6: people who wouldn't have necessarily seen the point I was
Speaker 6: trying to make coming and to me, that's an important
Speaker 6: part of whatever the hell it is we're supposed to
Speaker 6: be fighting for. I think one problem is that, you know,
Speaker 6: I think with the race talking Black Americans specifically, we're
Speaker 6: often quick to critique how other people choose to approach
Speaker 6: this fight, as if they're not in the fight. That
Speaker 6: shit I don't like, but it's nothing I can do
Speaker 6: about it either. It's like it's like when so I
Speaker 6: did a ride along with Compton Fire during the LA wildfires,
Speaker 6: Compton the LA County Fire Department, Engine sixteen, and Compton,
Speaker 6: they're having to cover twice as much space. They have
Speaker 6: to cover twice as much area because all of the
Speaker 6: other firefighters is up the hill fighting the big shit, right,
Speaker 6: and so there's still regular emergencies happening. Still car crashes, still,
Speaker 6: regular house fires, Still car you know, still my fucking
Speaker 6: drove into the river. Gotta go get them. At no
Speaker 6: point do the people up the hill. Do the firefighters
Speaker 6: come up the hill, come down the hill, and that's
Speaker 6: the other firefighters, what have they been doing? And say
Speaker 6: that they're not doing enough? And I think that sometimes
Speaker 6: when you look at it's easy to look at black
Speaker 6: people who aren't necessarily in the same part of the
Speaker 6: battlefield as you and assume that they aren't fighting. And
Speaker 6: I think that's that's a big it's a big misunderstanding
Speaker 6: to me. With an I race, it doesn't stop me
Speaker 6: from my approach. My approach is my approach, Like that's
Speaker 6: what I do. I think that's what makes us special.
Speaker 6: I think it's it's no different than bees. You watch
Speaker 6: the honey, you go get the pollen. You niggas fight
Speaker 6: the hornets if they come over here, trip and do
Speaker 6: your job, and so like, that's to me, what's beautiful
Speaker 6: about us is that at the end of the day,
Speaker 6: it's still all about just better in our race and
Speaker 6: better in the country as a whole. If black folk's good,
Speaker 6: America good. I wish more people understand that.
Speaker 2: What made you Because Lonely Flowers is funny, but it's
Speaker 2: also very thoughtful. I mean a lot of your comedy is,
Speaker 2: but this especially because I think you know, when we
Speaker 2: look back on even if we were able to look
Speaker 2: back on it now within not being that long ago,
Speaker 2: but when we look back on behaviorally, how much COVID
Speaker 2: changed us and how it made us even more isolated,
Speaker 2: made us more even more tribal maybe to some degree.
Speaker 2: It is really something that I think, you know, psychologically,
Speaker 2: we will understand a major mood shift in this country.
Speaker 2: What made you decide even though you did tell a
Speaker 2: story that kind of felt like it was what ignited this,
Speaker 2: But you know, nevertheless, given the type of comomity, do
Speaker 2: this to me was still a bit of a departure.
Speaker 1: What made you decide that you were going to focus.
Speaker 2: Something that was funny but around the themes of us
Speaker 2: being more isolated, us being more lonely, us creating more
Speaker 2: space from one another.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we're disconnected, and we're happy to be disconnected. Like
Speaker 6: would rather not Like I joked about it in a
Speaker 6: special like you don't want nobody calling you about the
Speaker 6: blue You used to look forward. You used to look
Speaker 6: forward to unknown numbers. Who could it be? I built
Speaker 6: my whole prank call career.
Speaker 1: Oh can you imagine you to start that now? Ry
Speaker 1: like somebody ever pick up the phone?
Speaker 6: Impossible, There's no way you could do prank calls now.
Speaker 6: Nobody cared to answer the phone. So I had at
Speaker 6: a partner from college, and we if you would have
Speaker 6: asked me in college, I would have figured to be
Speaker 6: his best man at his wedding and he got engaged
Speaker 6: and I didn't even get an invite, and so I'm
Speaker 6: mad enough to say that hurt so so I called
Speaker 6: him up and we talk about it for a minute,
Speaker 6: and basically what it boiled down to was You're never around.
Speaker 6: You never have time anytime. Even when you come down
Speaker 6: this way for a show, you don't even have time
Speaker 6: for a drink after the show. You don't have like
Speaker 6: basically going There have been so many times where I've
Speaker 6: tried to connect with you that you rebuffed or just whatever,
Speaker 6: whatever the situation was. The answer ended up being no,
Speaker 6: that I just don't figure you to even want to
Speaker 6: be a part of anything. And it was such a
Speaker 6: fair assessment of where I was, and you know, the
Speaker 6: way I've been carrying myself that I don't know. I
Speaker 6: had to do a little bit more self inventory about
Speaker 6: being intentional because I did, like, no, I can care
Speaker 6: about you like this is like you want people supposed
Speaker 6: to be carrying a casket when I die. I got
Speaker 6: you down. I put you on the casket carried list,
Speaker 6: and like, I need to work on this relationship. So
Speaker 6: you look at I looked at that, and it just
Speaker 6: forced me to take a long look at myself, and
Speaker 6: then it's just like, oh wow, we're all disconnected. Don't
Speaker 6: nobody want to talk to nobody? Like we're just literally
Speaker 6: looking for comfort, like even like even when you think
Speaker 6: about like dating, right, and the idea that like you
Speaker 6: correct me if I'm wrong, I don't remember seeing this
Speaker 6: many single women with dogs and cats, like in my twenties,
Speaker 6: the forty year olds, I know, they didn't have the dogs.
Speaker 6: They didn't have no like the idea of pouring love
Speaker 6: into something like that's it gives you a sense of worth,
Speaker 6: It gives you a sense of purpose. This weird shit
Speaker 6: about being Polly or like Neo's four girlfriends, all right,
Speaker 6: is it weird? Or just did all five of them
Speaker 6: just go Hey, this feels good, so fuck it, let's
Speaker 6: do it. That wasn't the norm a generation to go
Speaker 6: two generations ago. So I'm less inclined to knock people
Speaker 6: that behave like that, because at least they're trying to
Speaker 6: find some form of connection and polyamory. Like the idea
Speaker 6: that you're supposed to get everything emotionally and physically from
Speaker 6: one person. Maybe that's not completely true. And your grandparents
Speaker 6: get the best they could, because that was the options
Speaker 6: back then. Your granddaddy didn't have black people meet to
Speaker 6: go sneak off and find Yeah, I mean just case
Speaker 6: in point, like your granddaddy had a family around the corner.
Speaker 6: Nowadays that family is in another country. That's what technology
Speaker 6: has done. Like, I just think that it became easy
Speaker 6: to have food delivered to your house. And the fact
Speaker 6: that even something as simple as like that's why I
Speaker 6: like nobody, Like I don't think most men will admit it,
Speaker 6: but like you ever see like these videos for like
Speaker 6: man camps and come to be your man? Oh, there's
Speaker 6: like I forget what it's called, but it's like a
Speaker 6: bunch of men in the forties and fifties doing UFC
Speaker 6: shit in the forest and punching and hugging and forcing
Speaker 6: themselves through task and then they hug and cry it
Speaker 6: out afterwards. It's because you lonely, but you never had
Speaker 6: a hug, You never had a real connection, and as
Speaker 6: a man, nobody probably ever checked on you. Because you're
Speaker 6: the man. You got to provide and finally you in
Speaker 6: a space where a bunch of people understood you. As
Speaker 6: weird as it is, I get because it's just people
Speaker 6: seeking community. Now, some of the people that run them
Speaker 6: camps little January sixth vibbish. But I understand why men
Speaker 6: would even pay two hundred dollars to cry in the
Speaker 6: forest with a bunch of dudes and flip dump truck
Speaker 6: tires up and down a hill because you need connection.
Speaker 6: And I don't know, I just felt like, oh, this
Speaker 6: might be funny because when you look at the retail
Speaker 6: experience and that was forced social interaction, you know, like
Speaker 6: I don't even think it made it into the special
Speaker 6: but like jokingly, the only two places where it feels
Speaker 6: okay to talk to a stranger is a sporting event
Speaker 6: and a protest, and that's because you there rooting for
Speaker 6: a team.
Speaker 2: I mean, I could not disagree or I could not
Speaker 2: agree with you more, especially when you talked about these
Speaker 2: self checkout.
Speaker 1: I hate self checkout on the level that is this.
Speaker 1: It's it's probably frightening because.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I work here, Like if I what is
Speaker 2: the point of be coming to the grocery store if
Speaker 2: I got a bag my own ship, It's just like,
Speaker 2: why did I do this?
Speaker 1: I'm like, I came so someone else could back and
Speaker 1: check me out.
Speaker 6: And you do it wrong. That's why I'm glad they're
Speaker 6: stealing steal all that ship so they can bring back cashiers.
Speaker 1: Good said, And I like you. I did.
Speaker 2: The grocery store I go to most frequently. I have
Speaker 2: my three favorite cashiers. I always go.
Speaker 6: That's old schoolers. Hell, nobody has that anymore.
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, I have three, Like I love each of them.
Speaker 2: Like we chit chat about sports by whatever. Like you know,
Speaker 2: it's just like a quick, little little interaction. You get
Speaker 2: to hear a different voice than your own, or in
Speaker 2: my case, the different voice than me and my husband's own,
Speaker 2: Like you know, just it's just like a little.
Speaker 1: A little interaction.
Speaker 2: And I enjoyed that sort of cheers kind of feel
Speaker 2: where everybody knows your name type of thing. So so
Speaker 2: I hear you about that.
Speaker 6: I'm at the age now, Jamail. I don't even get
Speaker 6: mad if somebody next to me talk to me on the.
Speaker 2: Plane, what okay, see now you're going too far? Maybe
Speaker 2: you need a dog.
Speaker 6: That's where your I don't. I don't mind it. I
Speaker 6: don't If they don't recognize me, I don't tell them
Speaker 6: I do entertainment. I tell him I do. I install
Speaker 6: home security systems because there's no follow up questions.
Speaker 2: But no more follow up questions because they're not like,
Speaker 2: oh hey, what do you think about?
Speaker 1: You know, how should I do my home?
Speaker 6: If I want to prevent like really it's crazy out
Speaker 6: there man, you know. But what you gotta get. You
Speaker 6: can't just get the motion detection camera. She got to
Speaker 6: hide one and get like I will just go on
Speaker 6: and on, like I'll just pull dialogue. Oh I don't
Speaker 6: want to. I tell you, I'm go down these reddit
Speaker 6: rabbit holes. When you get to the hotel rooms, turn
Speaker 6: the clocks to the walls. You gotta double check the phones.
Speaker 6: There's a little stud finder thing and you can check
Speaker 6: for signals and the walls and that. Like in one
Speaker 6: you start talking like that, people leave you alone.
Speaker 1: Interesting.
Speaker 6: You gotta like be really crazy.
Speaker 1: Before I get you out of here.
Speaker 2: Since you're the you are the king of being able
Speaker 2: to answer sort of random questions.
Speaker 1: This is a question I've been dying to ask you.
Speaker 2: Okay, if we had like a UFC type fight between
Speaker 2: an employee from Spirit Airlines and an employee from waffle House,
Speaker 2: who will ins.
Speaker 6: And why waffle House off reps alone? Spirit waffle House?
Speaker 1: They get they get some.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but I think the thing we have to remember
Speaker 6: is that most of the time with the Spirit videos,
Speaker 6: it's the passengers fighting, whereas you don't really see the
Speaker 6: flight attendants from Spirit jump in all the time. Where's
Speaker 6: a waffle house that cook is gonna be right there
Speaker 6: in the middle of it. You saw that girl catch
Speaker 6: that chair, Like damn avenger through that chair that she
Speaker 6: caught it? Like, what you're gonna do with that? Besides me, mad,
Speaker 6: I think if we go in customer for customer, though,
Speaker 6: I think a more fair matchup is Spirit customer versus
Speaker 6: waffle house customers.
Speaker 1: Oh who you got a.
Speaker 6: I think the Spirit person wins only because when you're traveling,
Speaker 6: you're already angry, so that's like steroids like when you angry,
Speaker 6: like when you're dealing with the anger of travel and
Speaker 6: then somebody piss you off. Because you also got to
Speaker 6: remember like waffle house fights. If you have a bid
Speaker 6: at a waffe house, when I fight start, they start
Speaker 6: real fast, like the customers already come in irate, and
Speaker 6: then it just jump off Spirit. You've been fucked with.
Speaker 6: In the parking lot, they charge you for luggage. Then
Speaker 6: you go through TSA and taking your shoes off, you
Speaker 6: can pull it to the side secondary search. Then you
Speaker 6: get to the gate and then you find out you
Speaker 6: got to pay an extra thirty dollars for this carry
Speaker 6: on bag and you didn't know that. Then you find
Speaker 6: out the bag don't fit. Now you got to pay
Speaker 6: another thirty dollars to check the bag under the plane.
Speaker 6: Then they telling you you don't have it a sign,
Speaker 6: and then somebody come up to you talking crazy. You're
Speaker 6: already charged up, like it's like this is a terrible
Speaker 6: analogy because it wasn't the best villain, but it's Jamie
Speaker 6: Fox and that spider Man electro where you're just getting
Speaker 6: charged up, and then the more you hold the electricity,
Speaker 6: the stronger you get. That's a spirit Airlines customer. By
Speaker 6: the time you find a spirited Airlines customer who's ready
Speaker 6: to fight, they have gone through so many gauntlets of
Speaker 6: bullshit to get to that point. They have super strength
Speaker 6: that I believe would supersede whatever alcohol is in the
Speaker 6: bloodstream of a waffle house employee or a waffle house customer.
Speaker 1: That is very that's very a student analysis. I think
Speaker 1: you're right.
Speaker 6: Anger beats Tennessee every time travel anger.
Speaker 1: You need to put that on a T shirt.
Speaker 2: Travel Anger beats Tennessee everything you need to put that
Speaker 2: on a T shirt.
Speaker 1: That's all you, all right? And finally, boy, last question.
Speaker 2: Every guest that appears on politics, I asked you what
Speaker 2: I call a messy question, the question designed to get
Speaker 2: you in trouble to say some shit that will hopefully
Speaker 2: be a headline. So here is my Bessie question for you.
Speaker 2: All Right, you stayed in Memphis until you were in
Speaker 2: third grade. I know you've been in Memphis many times.
Speaker 2: You've been around the country many times. You grew up
Speaker 2: in the Ham aka Birmingham. Ye on your reputation, on
Speaker 2: your relatives alive and dead. Who has the better barbecue
Speaker 2: is in Memphis or Alabama?
Speaker 6: Why are you going to do? This?
Speaker 2: Is designed for this, Go ahead and say it with
Speaker 2: your chest.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry what you say. Hey, you wished that a
Speaker 1: little bit louder, because I think the people is Memphis.
Speaker 2: Memphis is with you said, huh okaymph.
Speaker 1: Memphis City. What in the name of mephis is happening
Speaker 1: right now?
Speaker 6: Memphis got legacy of Birmingham. Birmingham coming up. Birmingham is
Speaker 6: like I'm trying to think Birmingham is like the Buffalo Bills,
Speaker 6: like we're finally good again and we competitive, but we
Speaker 6: got a good team, but we ain't legacy like Memphis, Memphis.
Speaker 1: Memphis been y'all, Patrick Mahomes your whole your whole life.
Speaker 6: You know, like this will be an article in the
Speaker 6: Birmingham News in like two weeks. And then when I
Speaker 6: go to fundraise and raise money for the local Yeah.
Speaker 2: They're not gonna they taking all the pictures of you
Speaker 2: and your high school now right now, just because you
Speaker 2: you have to answer it that way.
Speaker 1: Well, Roy, I woant to thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining me.
Speaker 2: You are again a bright light and exceptionally dark time,
Speaker 2: your comedy, your humor, your observations. For those who haven't
Speaker 2: seen it, please watch Lonely Flowers.
Speaker 1: It's great. It's and also if.
Speaker 2: You want a very serious, informed take on the news,
Speaker 2: but also you will get some laughs, make sure you
Speaker 2: watch a Roy show. Have I got news for you
Speaker 2: on seeing it with Amber the Great Amber Ruffins, Jasmine
Speaker 2: Crocket on there recently hilarious.
Speaker 6: Yeah, she went in on Elon and we stream on
Speaker 6: Max too, so y'all can play catch up over on Max.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, it's a. It's a great show. So yes,
Speaker 2: y'all make sure that y'all check that out. And Roy,
Speaker 2: you take care. Are you on the road anytime soon?
Speaker 6: No, not really. I had a couple of dates, but
Speaker 6: I don't I ain't even put them on the website yet.
Speaker 6: I'm in Honolulu in June at the Blue Note, So
Speaker 6: go there and figure that out. Whatever the website say,
Speaker 6: that's what the ship is.
Speaker 1: That's what it is, that's what it would be. All right, Roy,
Speaker 1: take care. Thank you.
Speaker 6: I'm a marketing genius.
Speaker 3: Look at you.
Speaker 1: That's on some website subcity somewhere. I'm good.
Speaker 6: Appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you so much. And next time I'm in
Speaker 2: New York, I will make sure that I hit you
Speaker 2: up to see what you please do please, And at
Speaker 2: the very least, I'd love to come by and watch
Speaker 2: your taping because it's very funny.
Speaker 6: And come by. You need to be on. I'll talk
Speaker 6: to that.
Speaker 1: I'll let you know that because I would love to
Speaker 1: be because you know, I got jokes. People don't know
Speaker 1: that you.
Speaker 6: Do else I can be very funny.
Speaker 1: All right, take care.
Speaker 2: One more segment to go, and you guys know what
Speaker 2: that means I got questions to answer up next your
Speaker 2: viewer slash listener questions, and I have plenty of answers
Speaker 2: coming up next on the final segment of Spolatives. Now,
Speaker 2: I don't intend to turn this final segment into an
Speaker 2: obituary page, but unfortunately, this is another week where another
Speaker 2: significant sports.
Speaker 1: Figure has passed on.
Speaker 2: Last week it was former NBA player Junior and Bridgeman.
Speaker 2: This week it was George Foreman, who died at seventy
Speaker 2: six years old. Now, I'd say a pretty high percentage
Speaker 2: of people only know George Foreman for his grills, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, became a massive cultural success.
Speaker 1: That i'd say gave Foreman one of.
Speaker 2: The most successful postscripts to an athletic career in history.
Speaker 2: But before his name became synonymous with one of the
Speaker 2: best kitchen appliances ever.
Speaker 1: I'd say it's top five and not five.
Speaker 2: George Foreman was known as one of the hardest hitting
Speaker 2: boxers of all time, but it was Foreman's loss to
Speaker 2: Muhammad Ali in the historic nineteen seventy four Rumble in
Speaker 2: the Jungle that really changed the course of Foreman's life.
Speaker 2: The fight took place in what is now known as
Speaker 2: the Republic of Congo, marking the first time a heavyweight
Speaker 2: fight was ever held on African soil. It was where
Speaker 2: Ali regained his heavyweight title after he was stripped of
Speaker 2: the honor for his refusal to be drafted into the
Speaker 2: US Armed Forces.
Speaker 1: Now, at the time.
Speaker 2: Of Rumble in the Jungle, Foreman was undefeated and he
Speaker 2: was known as a major meaty, a real badass. But
Speaker 2: that loss to Ali was sort of life changing for
Speaker 2: Forman because it made him reinvent himself and at the
Speaker 2: startling age of forty five, in nineteen ninety four, Foreman
Speaker 2: became the oldest fighter to ever win the heavyweight title.
Speaker 2: Foreman fought his last fight in nineteen ninety seven, finishing
Speaker 2: his career with a seventy six and five record. But
Speaker 2: three years before Foreman called it quits in the ring,
Speaker 2: he did something that also changed his life as much
Speaker 2: as boxing did, if not more. It was in nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety four that he launched the George Foreman Grill. He
Speaker 2: went into a partnership with the grills creator, and Foreman
Speaker 2: reportedly made and estimated half a billion dollars from those grills.
Speaker 2: At one point he was making five million a month
Speaker 2: and I won't front. I still use mine to this
Speaker 2: day anyway. George Foreman will be remembered as one of
Speaker 2: the great ones. And I don't mean just in boxing.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: If you have a question for me, you can hit
Speaker 2: me up on social media or on email. I'm at
Speaker 2: Jamail Hill across all social media platforms, Twitter, Instagram, Fan based,
Speaker 2: Blue Sky, and threads.
Speaker 1: Please use the hashtags politics.
Speaker 2: You also have the option of emailing me as Politics
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four at gmail dot com. You can also
Speaker 2: send me a video of your question, but please make
Speaker 2: sure it's thirty seconds or less. Don't forget to subscribe
Speaker 2: and follow Politics on iHeart and follow us Politics Pod
Speaker 2: on Instagram and TikTok. Politics is spelled s po l
Speaker 2: I Tics. A new episode is Politics drops every Thursday
Speaker 2: on iHeart Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This
Speaker 2: is politics where sports and politics don't just mix, they matter.
Speaker 2: Politics is the production of iHeart Podcasts and The Unbothered Network.
Speaker 2: I'm your host Jamail Hill. Executive producer is Taylor Shakog.
Speaker 2: Lucas Heimen is head of audio and executive producer. Original
Speaker 2: music first Politics provided by Kyle VISs from wiz FX,