Speaker 1: You're listening to Winning on Reparations, a production of My
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. All right, yo, alright, this is how we
Speaker 1: do things. COVID gotta do strain must got the Delpha
Speaker 1: back loops sort of like two chains. It will make
Speaker 1: your mood change. Billionaires of place in best gamble with
Speaker 1: the system, gut everybody placed in debt, vote against the interest,
Speaker 1: get a great regret. Now they're going after oh Ma,
Speaker 1: and they're making threats. That's a no, no, we can't
Speaker 1: forget Chris Quobo helping his brother out pro bo. No.
Speaker 1: So understand when you see in my face, it's like
Speaker 1: the trouble on the speaker, see Evaperate when it comes
Speaker 1: to Rob Muffucker. Seeing op Grate make white boys say,
Speaker 1: why I gotta be about race? He happening? What's popping?
Speaker 1: My good people? What my name's dope? Night and we
Speaker 1: are waiting on reparations. We are back. I had to
Speaker 1: take a little little load off for Thanksgiving. How was
Speaker 1: your Thanksgiving? Happy thanks Giving? Happy Thanksgiving? Happy belated thanks Giving? Um,
Speaker 1: it was it was good. It was RESTful. I went
Speaker 1: up to my aunt's house. M My family lives on
Speaker 1: this compound in the middle of nowhere in North Carolina
Speaker 1: to my auntie's house. My other auntie lives on the
Speaker 1: other side of my grandma. Other auntie and cousin live
Speaker 1: right down the street. And so UM went out there
Speaker 1: held some babies. UM got very full, UM, and very high. UM.
Speaker 1: And it's it was interesting to me. This is the
Speaker 1: first These are the first years in which I'm reflecting
Speaker 1: on how fucked up of a holiday. Thanksgiving it like deep,
Speaker 1: you know, deeply and big graining awareness about like the
Speaker 1: the new observance of the National Day of Mourning for
Speaker 1: Indigenous folks on that day. UM, and my family is
Speaker 1: actually Afro Indigenous. Um, I've known my whole life, but
Speaker 1: have not really like researched or or at all attempted
Speaker 1: to learn about our customs or heritage or history. And
Speaker 1: so with the passage of a Gigenous People's Day as
Speaker 1: the first Monday in October, I guess, you know Columbus
Speaker 1: Day earlier this year, I started thinking about, Um, just
Speaker 1: like Indigenous life ways and knowledge and how that could
Speaker 1: be incorporated into you know, policymaking, but also just like
Speaker 1: what does it mean to try to recover your lost
Speaker 1: heritage that it has been erased? UM. And so I
Speaker 1: sometimes on Wikipedia, uh, just reading about our tribe, the
Speaker 1: hallowel Sa pony tribe that my family still lives on,
Speaker 1: like the tribal lands. UM. And yeah, I learned a
Speaker 1: lot of interesting history. For example, under Jim Crow, Indigenous
Speaker 1: people were treated the same as black people, disenfranchised from voting,
Speaker 1: harassed and terrorized in all these ways. UM, there's this
Speaker 1: resistance for for the indigenous folks. They wanted I guess
Speaker 1: we we wanted our own schools, We wanted separate stuff
Speaker 1: from black people because we didn't want to get lumped
Speaker 1: in with black people because black people were treated like shit.
Speaker 1: But even down to like the the birth certificate records
Speaker 1: and things like that, UM, in this area, like you
Speaker 1: were either black or white. They didn't even have like
Speaker 1: a checkbox for if you were Native American. And so
Speaker 1: like all these ways that you know, I just assumed
Speaker 1: I grew up and they just didn't teach me my history.
Speaker 1: But before that, there's like very systematic erasure of UM
Speaker 1: our all of our past. Like you couldn't even yeah,
Speaker 1: you couldn't even check the box to say I am
Speaker 1: a Native American on a lot of official documents, UM,
Speaker 1: which is partially why you know, I grew up thinking
Speaker 1: myself black, and I am black. I'm very black, proud
Speaker 1: of my black heritage. But like you know, the the
Speaker 1: Indians ship got like just totally bulldozed since you rolled
Speaker 1: generations before I even came along. So anyway, that was
Speaker 1: a day of reflection on all that stuff for me,
Speaker 1: and um, I'm looking forward to seeing where I don't
Speaker 1: know what my study is and like reflection on that
Speaker 1: take me policy wise and just like personally, it's like
Speaker 1: peeling back an onion way, Yeah, turned it all over
Speaker 1: all the stones. You know, It's like I don't I'm
Speaker 1: not quite sure what the like just regular Liberian like
Speaker 1: holiday or festivity is, or even if it even as
Speaker 1: a holiday. It's just Thanksgiving has always been something that
Speaker 1: we've celebrated, but never really like the we never really
Speaker 1: paid any emphasis to like the I guess story of Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: It's always just been kind of an excuse and in
Speaker 1: my household was right family to get together exactly exactly
Speaker 1: exactly to give it and to give thanks and to
Speaker 1: do all that sort of thing. But I don't know
Speaker 1: that the whole you know, Pilgrims and Indians and the turkey,
Speaker 1: and it was that was less of an important thing
Speaker 1: and or less of a thing when I was growing up.
Speaker 1: And then I do remember, like, you know, being a
Speaker 1: kid in the Iced Tea albums, there were a couple
Speaker 1: of Iced Tea albums where he makes like an explicit
Speaker 1: reference to Thanksgiving and how he doesn't celebrate it because
Speaker 1: black people were in chains when they created it and
Speaker 1: ship and that always stuck with me in the back
Speaker 1: of my head when I was a kid and just
Speaker 1: growing up, So like I just always had that sort
Speaker 1: of feeling that there's something wasn't right about Thanksgiving, so
Speaker 1: that by the time I got old enough to you know,
Speaker 1: learn learn the things, it wasn't really like a shock
Speaker 1: to me. It was more like, yeah, I knew this
Speaker 1: holiday was some bullshit. Yeah, taking turkey was good though. Yeah,
Speaker 1: speaking of like shocking things, UM in sort of considering
Speaker 1: what like UM returned to, like Native American stewardship or
Speaker 1: like incorporation of their practices and like knowledges into governance,
Speaker 1: looks like I've been learning a lot about the people
Speaker 1: who used to live in the lands that we now
Speaker 1: called Athens, Georgia, where I live. And it turns out
Speaker 1: that the Muskogee Creek people who have since relocated to
Speaker 1: Arkansas were a slave owning tribe, were slave owning and Asian.
Speaker 1: So yeah, they actually, um, they actually owned slaves or
Speaker 1: like you know, had people that were um yeah, captives
Speaker 1: that they forced to work. Um, And so either like
Speaker 1: a warrior based thing or where they like chattel slavey
Speaker 1: ote um. This is something we should perhaps do a
Speaker 1: future episode on because I'm still learning more about what
Speaker 1: that meant, because I imagine with their different conception of
Speaker 1: property than you know, the eurocentric white supremacist framing of
Speaker 1: what property rights are. But it's probably a little bit
Speaker 1: different than like chattel slavery as we have generally learned
Speaker 1: about or conceive of it. I just thought about, like
Speaker 1: you said, like okay, so it's just okay, So whenever anyone,
Speaker 1: you know, when you're having like these conversations, right, and
Speaker 1: obviously it's always you gotta have the caveat of you know,
Speaker 1: I guess looking at things in the past with the
Speaker 1: lens of today and that sort of ship. But like whatever,
Speaker 1: like motherfucker's you're talking about, Like like if you're talking
Speaker 1: with somebody who is maybe like a conservative or or
Speaker 1: Republican or racist or whatever, and they're like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know, this group of people had slaves too, and
Speaker 1: that group of people had slaves too. And it's like
Speaker 1: the explanation that you give when you're arguing with these
Speaker 1: people is it's like, yeah, but it's not like it's
Speaker 1: wrong when that person did it, because you know, it
Speaker 1: wasn't race based and ship and then like you stopped
Speaker 1: for a second, you think it's like, damn, but it
Speaker 1: was slavery. It was slavery and it was very wrong
Speaker 1: that they did that. And so what does that mean
Speaker 1: for like when we talk about reparations we talked about
Speaker 1: when there's you know, increasing discussion of reparations for both
Speaker 1: Indigenous and African descendants of slaves. But like, you know,
Speaker 1: so it you know, that knowledge of that history, it
Speaker 1: does complicate those conversations and a way that I do
Speaker 1: hope that folks can like productive work through, because yeah,
Speaker 1: we gotta you know, we're never gonna well, I don't
Speaker 1: want think never, it's not it's not something that's gonna
Speaker 1: get resolved you know shortly. Well, part of the whole
Speaker 1: you know, I think part of the most important step
Speaker 1: to the project of reparations, I guess would be having
Speaker 1: as many people be informed of the past. Does it
Speaker 1: really happen? Yeah, you know what I mean, so that
Speaker 1: you can get that sort of you know, just general
Speaker 1: social understanding that you know, these wrongs are committed, need
Speaker 1: to be righted, and all that sort of stuff. You'd
Speaker 1: be shocked at how many people will that. You probably
Speaker 1: wouldn't be shocked. You're and educator. Motherfucker's don't know a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff like like the you know what the
Speaker 1: Jimmy Kimmel does the thing where they ask people the
Speaker 1: questions and ship. Yeah, like that's that's just like indicative
Speaker 1: of lot more than we would want to would want
Speaker 1: to think. Yeah, Unfortunately, I'm supposed to be going on
Speaker 1: in the news today. I got a couple of stories
Speaker 1: pulled up. You got anything? Um, I'm excited to talk
Speaker 1: about the things that you, um, you pulled Yeah, things
Speaker 1: that have also been on my mind. But yeah, what's
Speaker 1: on yours? Okay? Well, going from the most important to
Speaker 1: the least important, I guess, so the two things I
Speaker 1: got So there has been a new kid on the
Speaker 1: block in terms of COVID strains. The how do you
Speaker 1: pronounce O Macron. I feel like I gotta say, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I just do it in a robot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the new Adventurous movie the O Macron strain that the
Speaker 1: white man is saying started in South now know that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is such fuckery and ridiculousness. Then then out of
Speaker 1: confirmation that it originated in Europe or it was in
Speaker 1: Europe way before they realized they was just identified in
Speaker 1: South Africa and South the whole of the South African
Speaker 1: portion of the continent had to suffer as a result,
Speaker 1: um diaction. Unsurprising, but why I'm surprised that they didn't
Speaker 1: like just straight up try some ship like that from
Speaker 1: the very beginning, Like yeah, they were probably like jumping
Speaker 1: and waving their hands and waving flags and smoke sigles. Like, bro,
Speaker 1: we're not saying it came from here. We're just the
Speaker 1: fucking as well. As I had mentioned in our interview
Speaker 1: to this coming up, we're just the best epidemiologists in
Speaker 1: the world because of the HIV AIDS epidemic. Um like,
Speaker 1: we just happened to have found this first because we're
Speaker 1: sucking sick with it with our scientific skills. But no,
Speaker 1: and literally often but nah, man. Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: feel like the like Western media was, it was always
Speaker 1: eager to jump on. You know, it's funny that Trump
Speaker 1: got so bland basket for that like ship whole country comment.
Speaker 1: He was just saying, well, a lot of people were thinking,
Speaker 1: you know what I means, excuse me? You know what
Speaker 1: I mean, like in policy like policymaking, they might not
Speaker 1: say it out loud, but it's like indicating a similar
Speaker 1: orientation towards this whole fucking continent. Yeah. I think I
Speaker 1: think that's like the that is like the brand of
Speaker 1: the Republicans. Now you heard about that ship with Lauren
Speaker 1: Bobert and the is homophobic. Yeah, so yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it's like ship like that, Like it doesn't matter what
Speaker 1: punishment that they do to her or whatever as far
Speaker 1: as in the RAI because ters and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: the Liberals are trying to silence me. Can you give
Speaker 1: five dollars today? If you if you watch that tape,
Speaker 1: like people in the room, we're laughing, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And first it was like nervously so, but
Speaker 1: then once they look around, it's like oh yeah, no, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're all yeah, we're all pieces of ship. In here, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's safe, and then the voters, her voters are with that. Ship.
Speaker 1: Republican voters are with that. So you're absolutely right when
Speaker 1: when Trump says something like ship the whole countries, it's
Speaker 1: not some gasping thing like I can't believe he said that, because,
Speaker 1: in honesty, fucking at least seventy billion people in America
Speaker 1: think that way too. And what to me, um, conjurs,
Speaker 1: is that if that's what they're willing to say in public,
Speaker 1: what are they saying in private? Like it's deeply concerning,
Speaker 1: Like that scares the ship out of me, Like I
Speaker 1: didn't imagine what their private conversations are, Like, Uh, why
Speaker 1: do you think Trump doesn't want them to get the records?
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I know people think it's for
Speaker 1: the January six ship, but I think it's more than that.
Speaker 1: I think if they get the White House records of
Speaker 1: the Trump years, more and words than the new two
Speaker 1: Chains album. Yeah yeah, who dark Times, Dark Times? But
Speaker 1: rays of Sunshine? What happened to Chris Plomo? Oh word? Okay,
Speaker 1: so yeah that was the in the unimportant half, I
Speaker 1: guess um. Chris Como was suspended indefinitely by CN for
Speaker 1: trying to help his brother in the midst of his
Speaker 1: sexual harassment allegations now, which I just feel like I'm
Speaker 1: gonna keep it real with you, folks. I don't know
Speaker 1: exactly how he helped his brother in doing this. He
Speaker 1: like when he was getting like sources for news stories,
Speaker 1: he was like letting his brother know, like yo, this
Speaker 1: person and said this and it was out in sources. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: like about you and stuff like that. Yeah. And then
Speaker 1: also the other way around, like coordinating I believe, like
Speaker 1: spin like, hey, you like trying to like what we
Speaker 1: knew what was going on, and the whole time to
Speaker 1: be frank, because like he was covering for him, and
Speaker 1: there's stuff that you would expect, you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, there was a natural like at least for me.
Speaker 1: I mean I don't really watch Chris Homo or follow it,
Speaker 1: but just knowing that their brothers and one a journalists
Speaker 1: and one was a politician, for me, there's just like
Speaker 1: you know, there's like a built in amount of corruption,
Speaker 1: automatic corruption. So it's like for me, it's just like
Speaker 1: a big Okay, dude's probably gonna help his brother show
Speaker 1: for brother, and you know, seeing and knew that and
Speaker 1: so what's happening. Probably should have suspended them immediately without malice.
Speaker 1: But yeah, they probably should have at least taken him
Speaker 1: off the air until taken them off. Yeah whatever. Anyway,
Speaker 1: It's like, I mean, you could pick any journalists you want,
Speaker 1: but like I know and Anderson Cooper's uh families, like
Speaker 1: you know, they're they're they're rich and famous and ship
Speaker 1: and it's like, yeah, if like something happened with Anderson
Speaker 1: Cooper's family, you would just expect that the dudes coverage
Speaker 1: would now be compromise, even even if he's got the
Speaker 1: integrity to be like, no, I'm not gonna help my family.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna blah blah. I'm gonna call it down
Speaker 1: the middle. As the employer, you've got to make that
Speaker 1: executive decision to be like all right, like why don't
Speaker 1: you just let you sit back until this ship is done,
Speaker 1: go collect your check, and we're just gonna take They
Speaker 1: make the decision to hold these people accountable when they
Speaker 1: get when they get caught, it's being put complicit in
Speaker 1: the corruption by like this is probably going on. We're
Speaker 1: not gonna say anything because you know, people love people
Speaker 1: love this anchor, but that's expect it's probably going on.
Speaker 1: I was like, what's the daisy. We got caught not
Speaker 1: censoring them or not like holding them accountable, So now
Speaker 1: we got to you to cover our own guts. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But I mean even even with that though, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's like that's outing sources and ship is not what
Speaker 1: I'm talking What I'm talking about, I'm talking about more
Speaker 1: like underhanded ship, you know what I mean, Like give
Speaker 1: favorable coverage or I'll cover the story in this way.
Speaker 1: That's the sort of ship that I would expect. But
Speaker 1: if motherfucker's is like yo, such as such as writing
Speaker 1: this about you, yo, such and such as came to
Speaker 1: the CNN office, is to drop it, Like if you're
Speaker 1: out in the sources and ship, that's a step away
Speaker 1: from mafia ship. Yeah, like you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: if the Trump administration was doing that, I would be
Speaker 1: all over them. So fun these dudes. But I did
Speaker 1: call it a little way of sunshine because at least something,
Speaker 1: at least there's some accountability because generally when there's just
Speaker 1: media moufie, since nothing happens, no one should never be
Speaker 1: able to get another journalism job. If that's the case.
Speaker 1: Motherfucker's gonna start a sub stack and get a bunch
Speaker 1: of subscribers who love his chiseled jaw. And yeah he's
Speaker 1: gonna only fans, isn't ship Like yeah, okay, legit. I
Speaker 1: would probably subscribe to that because it's not that it's
Speaker 1: not you know. But yeah, now you shouldn't do journalism anymore.
Speaker 1: All right, So what do we got going on today?
Speaker 1: So we opened talking about omicron um and this continuing
Speaker 1: crisis of public health that we are still facing, as
Speaker 1: well as public policy and reaction to public health challenges,
Speaker 1: you know, with the travel ban on South African countries, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So I thought it was appropriate this week to speak
Speaker 1: with a public health practitioner. So we're gonna talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about what public health is, UM, how it
Speaker 1: manifests in like practice, in local um, local contexts UM,
Speaker 1: and a little bit of just like hip hop obviously
Speaker 1: because you tune in a way, no reparations. So let's
Speaker 1: get on into it. This is demontem. We'll be right
Speaker 1: back with that after the job, all right. So today
Speaker 1: I I'm here with this Monte Dismute, host of a
Speaker 1: Dope public health podcast, which I had the pleasure of
Speaker 1: joining UM a couple of weeks ago this Monte. How
Speaker 1: are you doing today? I'm doing great. I'm doing great.
Speaker 1: How are you? I've been fabulous except for you know,
Speaker 1: having a slight little code UM today. But UM, speaking
Speaker 1: of you know, being sick, I feel like UM. With
Speaker 1: the coronavirus pandemic, which I don't think I've a rona,
Speaker 1: but you know, thinking about UM things like viruses and
Speaker 1: things like that. You know, the pandemic has brought public
Speaker 1: health into mainstream conversation in a way that I don't
Speaker 1: think has ever been true before in our lifetimes. But still,
Speaker 1: folks may have a limited scope of understanding about what
Speaker 1: public health can mean. So I wondered if you could
Speaker 1: tell us what public health is to you and describe
Speaker 1: your own public health practice. Sure? Absolutely so, like to me,
Speaker 1: like in a nutshell public health. The way I described
Speaker 1: it to people is like, okay, well, just think about
Speaker 1: you as an individual and all the things that make
Speaker 1: you you, so whether that be uh, your physical health, um,
Speaker 1: your environment, all those things. So basically, so if we
Speaker 1: start from an individual, then we go up in the
Speaker 1: air like in the drone. Then we get to looking
Speaker 1: at society as a whole. So, now it's hot, how
Speaker 1: are all of these people doing? And how do these
Speaker 1: behaviors dictate how we're moving throughout society? And do we
Speaker 1: need to encourage certain things to help people make healthier
Speaker 1: decisions or or do we need to you know, you know,
Speaker 1: encourage certain type of behavior. So, in a nutshell, basically
Speaker 1: public health is just that overall, how are we doing
Speaker 1: as a people? Yeah? So I think that gives us
Speaker 1: a good h foundation for what public health can mean.
Speaker 1: But could you talk a little about your own practice
Speaker 1: as a public health practitioner? Sure? Absolutely, So what I
Speaker 1: do um for a living in addition to my podcast
Speaker 1: as I oversee a program for youth ages eighteen two
Speaker 1: twenty one that age at a foster care So you're like, okay, um,
Speaker 1: my program runs off of what we call five pillars
Speaker 1: of stability. The organization that I work for is UH
Speaker 1: Well Point Care Network UH formerly known as Saint A.
Speaker 1: So essentially our five pillars of stability are housing, education, employment,
Speaker 1: caring connections, and health. If all of those things are
Speaker 1: addressed with the youth that we serve, then they have
Speaker 1: a more optimal opportunity to live in healthier life and
Speaker 1: because they age out the faults or care system. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, this program exists to allow folks to just
Speaker 1: trying to level that playing field. So there's just certain
Speaker 1: things like UM tuition UM scholarships that are available. That's
Speaker 1: something we call a Brighter Star scholarship. And folks can
Speaker 1: get UM five thou dollars towards their education, housing assistance
Speaker 1: up to three a month. So we are literally hearing
Speaker 1: all of those different things, and the five pillars of
Speaker 1: stability pretty much mirror UM, you know, the World Health
Speaker 1: Organization Social Determinants of Health. Yeah, that's what I got
Speaker 1: thinking about UM when we talk about like a healthy future.
Speaker 1: I think that particularly well for me and other folks
Speaker 1: UM that have become who who have had their consciousness
Speaker 1: raised through last Summer's uprising, starting to think about and
Speaker 1: and the pandemic as well, started to think about health
Speaker 1: in a in a broader way. Like you brought up
Speaker 1: housing and your housing, and we have heard the refrain
Speaker 1: a lot of housing is healthcare because you can't shelter
Speaker 1: in place if you don't have a place to go,
Speaker 1: and things like that. So I wonder, I wonder when
Speaker 1: you talk about a healthier future. Are you looking specifically
Speaker 1: at like physical health indices or or does that extend
Speaker 1: to like behavioral or is it a is it a
Speaker 1: absolutely even broader than that and thinking about just like
Speaker 1: health like healthier life outcomes in terms of self actualization. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's it's actually yes, the big picture of just healthier
Speaker 1: life outcomes and in that kind of like you know,
Speaker 1: you look at you know, sometimes we collaborate with other
Speaker 1: countries and we try to do things like alleviating UM diseases.
Speaker 1: So like, if you think about it, certain things that
Speaker 1: we have, um, you know that we're popular when we
Speaker 1: were younger are just no longer a thing due to
Speaker 1: the advances of medicine. So um. But then broadening that
Speaker 1: scope to make sure that okay, well can we make
Speaker 1: a healthier planet? So you know, but it's all broken
Speaker 1: down to you know who members in leadership in that
Speaker 1: particular location. Mm hmmm. And so what has your interaction
Speaker 1: been with I guess the leaders in your location around
Speaker 1: issues of public health. Do you find that, um, your
Speaker 1: representatives at the state of local level are being responsive
Speaker 1: to what your understanding and your UM what the needs
Speaker 1: that you've identified through your work about how we can
Speaker 1: approach public health both in like a physical health um understanding,
Speaker 1: but a broader understanding as well. Yeah so, and that's
Speaker 1: a great question. And I think I just so happened
Speaker 1: to be in the right place after you're you're in Milwaukee, correct, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And you know, so I
Speaker 1: collaborated the Department of Children and Families, which is more
Speaker 1: like a governmental issue, I mean entity, but you know,
Speaker 1: and that's how I'm able to to oversee my program.
Speaker 1: But then we have you know, county supervisor, you know,
Speaker 1: like David Crowley who yeah, yeah, so yeah, So I
Speaker 1: facilitated a public health panel back in August, and it
Speaker 1: was so cool having him on the panel because when
Speaker 1: he's talking, he literally within the first sixty seconds he
Speaker 1: mentioned social determinants health. So having amazing leaders like him
Speaker 1: um leading the charge, I feel like I'm in the
Speaker 1: right place at the right time because he hears what,
Speaker 1: you know, what what's needed in the community. That's good
Speaker 1: to hear because as in my role wasn't elected official
Speaker 1: here on the local level. When I bring up as
Speaker 1: we spoke about on your podcast, I believe the fact
Speaker 1: that like the c DC is now identified gun violence
Speaker 1: as a as a public health UH crisis, a public
Speaker 1: health issue, or when I bring up UM, you know,
Speaker 1: youth development then as an avenue to improve UM public
Speaker 1: health outcomes by ending gun violence. So some of my
Speaker 1: peers is particularly like older folks prep more moderate folks.
Speaker 1: It's it can sound like, well, you're just twisting UM,
Speaker 1: you know, science or whatever to like to match your beliefs,
Speaker 1: when really it sounds like like in the world of
Speaker 1: public health as well, you know, as I understand it
Speaker 1: as someone that doesn't practice but does interpret UM public
Speaker 1: health understandings and findings to inform my work. UM, this
Speaker 1: is actually more like you know, the state of the
Speaker 1: state of UM the field at this point of understand
Speaker 1: looking at these social determinants of health and so UM
Speaker 1: we definitely as a country and then many localities have
Speaker 1: face struggles with mashing what we understand from science and
Speaker 1: what we understand from experts to our actual UM practice
Speaker 1: as in governance. It's all I'm happy to hear that UM,
Speaker 1: in your setting, you found UM a lot of help,
Speaker 1: a lot of UM positive interactions with the folks that
Speaker 1: are making those decisions for the community. Yeah, and I mean,
Speaker 1: and we have an uphill battle. I mean, and I'm
Speaker 1: doing everything that I can, so I want to which
Speaker 1: is why I wanted to start my podcast, but it's
Speaker 1: also to Um, you know, there's a lot of different
Speaker 1: things going on in for example, in the city of Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: that we need to address these things on the public
Speaker 1: health level. And like you know, I'm sure you've heard,
Speaker 1: you know, with your practice, Like there's this push not
Speaker 1: in just wiscontent, but throughout the country evidence based policy.
Speaker 1: So it's like, you know, like you said, folks can
Speaker 1: say you're twisting it, but if you look at the
Speaker 1: data and look at the research, it's it's evidence based. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's so hard to get people, it's surprisingly difficult
Speaker 1: to get people to like consider evidence based practices. Like
Speaker 1: there's so many, so many practices that are just um
Speaker 1: ingrained in us, either the media or just what we
Speaker 1: grew up with. And so that's what you know, what
Speaker 1: we expect and what we put push forward, this continuation
Speaker 1: of stuff that just like doesn't have any sort of
Speaker 1: scientific backing. Um. I definitely, I think I think it's
Speaker 1: true of many many kinds of government, both local and
Speaker 1: even at the federal level. UM. That people really struggle,
Speaker 1: you know, even even you know democrats sometimes say like, oh,
Speaker 1: we believe in science, but like what science, like y'all
Speaker 1: you know, and how is that actually impacting um, the
Speaker 1: decisions you make UM at times not not everybody is
Speaker 1: always like up with it or just like you know,
Speaker 1: engaging with like the data and like wow. And that's
Speaker 1: such a great point because when you think about, you know,
Speaker 1: the last roughly two years now was what we've been
Speaker 1: going through with this pandemic, you can so different governments
Speaker 1: are making different decisions in regards to you know, lockdown
Speaker 1: and this or that, and when you look at it
Speaker 1: from a public health lends, it's like those leaders are
Speaker 1: making decisions based on evidence as opposed to based on
Speaker 1: emotion on economy. And it's really interesting when you can
Speaker 1: just take a step back and look, oh, wow, they
Speaker 1: made that decision and they were able to you know,
Speaker 1: alleviate this, you know, the severity of the virus in
Speaker 1: that area versus this group is really like, well, to
Speaker 1: hell with it, We're gonna do our things. So it's
Speaker 1: just very very interesting, and that that's literally all public
Speaker 1: health because we're trying to push towards you know, a
Speaker 1: healthier community so we can all truly go back outside. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so this actually makes me think of like what's
Speaker 1: going on right now with like the omicron Um coronavirus
Speaker 1: that been posed this this lockdown, this travel band from
Speaker 1: all these South African countries, despite the fact that the
Speaker 1: variants been found in Israel and Belgium and Ireland and
Speaker 1: many uh, white Western countries. And so in the name
Speaker 1: of public health, you know, we're making we're making decisions
Speaker 1: that perhaps aren't actually are actually more informed by emotion
Speaker 1: or even some racial animists more so than um facts
Speaker 1: about like you know, what is actually a threat to
Speaker 1: to the health of our communities at times? Absolutely, and
Speaker 1: you know, like like you know, the information that I've
Speaker 1: been able to get my hands on this far, it's
Speaker 1: so new that it's just like well, everybody's learning and
Speaker 1: you know, but some of the things that like this
Speaker 1: the scientists are saying already is just that this probably
Speaker 1: is everywhere already and now we've identified it, right, it
Speaker 1: was identified in South Africa because they have the best
Speaker 1: epidemiologists in the world, because of the AIDS in HIV epidemic,
Speaker 1: it's my understanding, and so they were able to track
Speaker 1: it down even though it's probably everywhere already. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it's just like you said, it's it's some people are
Speaker 1: making decisions based on emotion, others are making it based
Speaker 1: on science. Yeah. We talked a lot about I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: go for it. And the last thing I'll add it
Speaker 1: is like when you think about certain things, it's just
Speaker 1: it makes you kind of think like, well, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of other things that we're deciding and we're you know,
Speaker 1: doing because of our personal interests as well. So it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a tough tough spot. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: We talked a lot about the science of public health,
Speaker 1: but the World Health Organization also defines public health as
Speaker 1: the art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life, and
Speaker 1: promoting health through the organized efforts of society. So um,
Speaker 1: I have been increasingly, like you know, looking at the data,
Speaker 1: looking at evidence based practices, trying to inform my governance
Speaker 1: and policymaking. But I'm interested in this idea of public
Speaker 1: health being in art. Do you see that in your
Speaker 1: practice at all or your understanding of public health? And
Speaker 1: if so, aware and how I see it as an
Speaker 1: art because I don't think that there's um, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just so tough as far as perfection, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: we could come to solutions a lot of different ways,
Speaker 1: and like kind of having that artists background is like
Speaker 1: just getting people to understand it's more like it's trying
Speaker 1: to convey that information. And I just truly believe that
Speaker 1: that that's that's an art form, you know, just trying
Speaker 1: to inform and help, you know, shape and mold behaviors
Speaker 1: with honesty and like, you know, truly with the people's
Speaker 1: best interests. I think that that's in art form for sure.
Speaker 1: I mean it makes sense to me that if a
Speaker 1: part of the effort is promoting health, that then is
Speaker 1: it is an act of communication, of communicating to people
Speaker 1: you know, what will keep them healthy and will keep
Speaker 1: them safe, which you know, language is an art form,
Speaker 1: you know, communicating effectively is an art form um to
Speaker 1: a certain extent. So that makes that makes a lot
Speaker 1: of sense to me. But I'm glad that we kind
Speaker 1: of shifted to talking about the arts because you have
Speaker 1: somewhat of an artistic background as well. Is that right? Absolutely? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I talked us a little bit about that, so I
Speaker 1: really am a student of and I even tell my kids,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I am the I'm part of the first
Speaker 1: generation of hip hop. I wear that. I wear that proudly. UM.
Speaker 1: And hip hop has influenced everything that I do. UM,
Speaker 1: how I lead, how I um? You know, a fellowship.
Speaker 1: It's it's all in this, you know, under this umbrella
Speaker 1: of hip hop. And I just think about the power
Speaker 1: of hip hop. You know, there are other entities and
Speaker 1: organizations that have done some amazing things and creating social change,
Speaker 1: but hip hop is up there as well. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: talk to me about the role you see hip hop
Speaker 1: playing and making systemic change. Yeah. I think it's um.
Speaker 1: Maybe because I was born into it, it seems like
Speaker 1: it's always been there. I think what we're seeing lesson
Speaker 1: less of is maybe folks in the mainstream talking about things.
Speaker 1: But then we have you know, people like Kendrick Bamar
Speaker 1: who are very you know, they're informing, as is J Cole.
Speaker 1: And but I go back to like groups like Boogie
Speaker 1: Dawn Productions because he's like cares one Common and you
Speaker 1: know so many public enemy where they they have this um.
Speaker 1: They were conveying the stories of their their neighborhood, which
Speaker 1: basically is conveying the stories of the conditions in which
Speaker 1: they live in. That's public health. That's public health all day.
Speaker 1: So and I think that's where I think look at
Speaker 1: it as an art form for sure. Yeah, there's that
Speaker 1: consciousness raising aspect to it that I think is an
Speaker 1: important precursor. Yeah, and I think, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's every artist's responsibility to do that, um, but
Speaker 1: I always feel that there's always the right ones that
Speaker 1: are doing it that can help. Galvani has changed, So
Speaker 1: it just seems like it's just this responsibility that you know,
Speaker 1: every ten plus years or so, MC's past that torch
Speaker 1: and and it's always woven in within hip hop. Are
Speaker 1: you talking about being born into hip hop, particularly being
Speaker 1: in the first generation, because now we've had several you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's um, you know, the second generation. I guess
Speaker 1: probably on third or fourth at this point. Hip hops
Speaker 1: around for what fifty years? Um, So what do you think?
Speaker 1: So what to you does being born into hip hop
Speaker 1: as like a first generation hip hoper mean? And what
Speaker 1: was that for you? To me, it's everything because growing
Speaker 1: up African American, like I don't, you know, I can
Speaker 1: do the twenty three and me, and it says like,
Speaker 1: oh wow, like you're thirty something present Nigerian. But it's like,
Speaker 1: but I don't have that direct connection to my Nigerian
Speaker 1: Andrew and Scestry, so like, and then I can look
Speaker 1: at other folks and you can see, oh wow, that's um.
Speaker 1: You can see that culture. Hip hop was the first
Speaker 1: culture I was able to see and be a part of,
Speaker 1: and it's actually mine, not one that was like that
Speaker 1: we had to assimilate to. Mm hmm. Yeah, that's powerful.
Speaker 1: That's powerful. Um. In watching successive generations who are themselves
Speaker 1: also born into hip hop, but maybe taking it up
Speaker 1: in new ways, what has that been like for you?
Speaker 1: I think it's been amazing because some of the things
Speaker 1: that I've been saying with some of the younger artists
Speaker 1: have been blowing my mind. And and I mean that
Speaker 1: in a great way. Um. And what I say by
Speaker 1: that is um um. So for example, an artist like
Speaker 1: Uh Corday or also when you think about um essence,
Speaker 1: just Uh had like multiple covers Uh of Moan Biles
Speaker 1: and and Naomi and he was there calling it radical
Speaker 1: self care into me. I'm like, they not only do
Speaker 1: they get it, they're they're so open with their expression
Speaker 1: of of being their best selves. So I find it
Speaker 1: to be amazing with with the newer artists today. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I definitely think we're UM becoming a more conclusive community
Speaker 1: though by you know, steps forward and steps back with
Speaker 1: the kinds of truths that people are able to express
Speaker 1: in their music UM, whereas previous generations UM may have had,
Speaker 1: you know, struggles with coherently tackling and deeply tackling things
Speaker 1: like depression or homosexuality and things like that. UM for sure.
Speaker 1: But it's interesting you bring up self care. It would
Speaker 1: be really interested to hear your perspective as a public
Speaker 1: health practitioner about UM. Self care is becoming increasingly mainstream
Speaker 1: and I think at times opted by UM corporate like
Speaker 1: corporate forces, just like, oh, self care is buying this
Speaker 1: bath bomb, or you have to take this expensive ski
Speaker 1: trip to Aspen, UM and things like that. So where
Speaker 1: do you see self care fitting into your practice or
Speaker 1: you know, what you try to instill in your UM
Speaker 1: in the populations you work with, and what do you
Speaker 1: think some of the barriers that people face UM that
Speaker 1: you work with as well. UM. I would say I
Speaker 1: think it's it's so important in it. And like I
Speaker 1: was facilitating my first first conference, Um, I think back
Speaker 1: in September, and I went around the room and I
Speaker 1: asked people about self care, and one person gave the
Speaker 1: most honest answer. She was like, I'm still trying to
Speaker 1: figure it out and get it. I don't really understand
Speaker 1: it yet, I know what I'm supposed to say. And
Speaker 1: to me, that was just so powerful because I'm like,
Speaker 1: it has been become this cliche thing, so I'm trying
Speaker 1: to take the cliche away from it. It's one of
Speaker 1: the things that we discussed in our meetings all the time,
Speaker 1: and and and now I just say with my team,
Speaker 1: are you doing what you said you were going to
Speaker 1: do to take care of yourself? So that's kind of like,
Speaker 1: you know, how how I go about leading. In the
Speaker 1: second part of your question again, um, I think the
Speaker 1: second part of barriers that people face, I think you
Speaker 1: started to touch on that where you counter clients or
Speaker 1: populations you work with that people just don't even know
Speaker 1: how to begin to confront that question of what they
Speaker 1: need and how they get get there. And and I
Speaker 1: agree with that because when you um the barriers for
Speaker 1: like the youth that I serve would be you know,
Speaker 1: internet connectivity could help self care, but I don't live
Speaker 1: in an area that has WiFi, nor can I afford it,
Speaker 1: So we say these self care things. But music is
Speaker 1: my thing. So this is how I felt sooth I
Speaker 1: listened to music. Well, these are some of the barriers
Speaker 1: and folks that you know, young youth, did I serve
Speaker 1: their their face with when they tell me demante this
Speaker 1: is they give me the reel. So that allows me
Speaker 1: to do what we can to try to help, like
Speaker 1: you know, not for example, I think it was recently released,
Speaker 1: like Oprah donated, um, I forget the exact dollar, and
Speaker 1: I think twenty dollars or something to our organization just
Speaker 1: to make sure you've had access to things like WiFi
Speaker 1: throughout the pandemic. Yeah. Wow, I mean that's so interesting
Speaker 1: the ways that we think about, particularly the issue of
Speaker 1: internet access that's impacting education, ability for people and get jobs.
Speaker 1: But I didn't even think about the fact that, like
Speaker 1: I probably probably know about self care because of the
Speaker 1: Internet of seeing tweets about it or seeing something on Instagram,
Speaker 1: let alone like being able to get on Spotify and
Speaker 1: listen to my favorite music on a walk or something
Speaker 1: like that as a way to um to undertake self
Speaker 1: care and the ways that that could serve as a
Speaker 1: as a barrier. Also absolutely, because there's all these meditation
Speaker 1: apps and things. Yeah. Yeah, I listened to like bird
Speaker 1: sounds when I go to sleep at night because I
Speaker 1: have wife thought in the house. You know, stuff like
Speaker 1: that for sure. Um. So getting back to you know,
Speaker 1: public health, particularly the WHO definition we discussed earlier. Talking
Speaker 1: about public health, it's the organized efforts of society, which
Speaker 1: to me, it sounds like they're talking about collaboration in
Speaker 1: the sense and if you think, for example, um um,
Speaker 1: an example that I think is readily accessible to all
Speaker 1: of us. During the pandemic we talked about early on
Speaker 1: flattening the curve by wearing masks, social distancing and the like.
Speaker 1: They were meant to be collaborative efforts like I protect
Speaker 1: you and you protect me, but we seem to struggle
Speaker 1: with that as a society. So can you talk to
Speaker 1: us about the power of collaboration both in public health
Speaker 1: and in community service more broadly? Yeah, because into me,
Speaker 1: they go hand in hand. That's a you know, when
Speaker 1: we're talking about different communities making different decisions for their society,
Speaker 1: which helped, you know, help them flatten the curve faster
Speaker 1: than a country such as the United States. Meanwhile, there
Speaker 1: was a lot of back and forth with you know
Speaker 1: a lot of people that made big decisions about how
Speaker 1: do we collaborate. So, you know, I just think it's
Speaker 1: it's just so important that like collaboration is everything because
Speaker 1: we have like we were talking about evidence space practices, right,
Speaker 1: but if you're not really working with communities that need
Speaker 1: these things met, how evidence space is that research? So
Speaker 1: to help society get better. You know, I understand that
Speaker 1: researchers make the big books, and you know, other folks
Speaker 1: that fall under this epidemiologist and all and things like that. However,
Speaker 1: the people in the communities in which we are trying
Speaker 1: to serve are also just as important. So if we
Speaker 1: don't collaborate, then we'll continue to have this power struggle
Speaker 1: and this authoritative view on public health. And it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I understand, you're smart, but let me teach you how
Speaker 1: my people roll. For example, I mean, being black and
Speaker 1: so many things that I ate growing up that like
Speaker 1: and now, like I eat a primary primarily plant based diet,
Speaker 1: and it's like that was a cultural shift for my family.
Speaker 1: So I feel like collaboration is like the number one
Speaker 1: thing that will help really advance this this field. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I I love that you brought up, you know,
Speaker 1: collaboration with communities, between scientists and researchers and like the
Speaker 1: folks living in you know, like living the impacts of
Speaker 1: public policy and the impacts of organized efforts of society
Speaker 1: to advanced health um particularly resonates in my own experience
Speaker 1: as a scholar that you know, I'm out here as
Speaker 1: community organizer and workingmmunity center, phone cook apps, all this stuff.
Speaker 1: And as a pH d student, I have a lot
Speaker 1: of my colleagues that want to do community based research
Speaker 1: but just don't have the connections. So they come to
Speaker 1: be like, oh, how do we get in, Like how
Speaker 1: do we recruit people to do this or that study?
Speaker 1: But there's such resistance, particularly in you know, African American communities,
Speaker 1: because of the way that science has been sort of
Speaker 1: like harvested from these communities without anything given back, like oh,
Speaker 1: we got this data or you know, you look at
Speaker 1: even an example like the story of like Henrietta Lacks,
Speaker 1: where like ourselves were just taken and use for research
Speaker 1: and you know, without her permission, etcetera, etcetera. All all
Speaker 1: this history of science sort of being a very extractive
Speaker 1: and exploitative People don't trust you when you show up
Speaker 1: to say, hey, we you know, we're trying to we're
Speaker 1: trying to do the study or that study. Um, do
Speaker 1: you think the field of public health is reckoning with
Speaker 1: this adequately at this point in time? Honestly, I feel
Speaker 1: like it's too early to to say. I know, like
Speaker 1: back in you know, Wisconsin, you know here the Public
Speaker 1: Health Association day declared racism of public health crisis. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, however, it just seems it's so tough to
Speaker 1: say because it's like, well, we need more public health
Speaker 1: practitioners that look like us. So I think, um, you know,
Speaker 1: I think the jury is out on that because you know,
Speaker 1: through you know, throughout the last two years, how many
Speaker 1: times have we heard folks response just they just say
Speaker 1: to ski. But I'm like, I'm like, yeah, but I
Speaker 1: know people that look like us and that are researchers. Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: I've heard oftentimes that like the visibility of scientists that
Speaker 1: are doing this this work could be helpful in in
Speaker 1: spashing some of that stigma. Um, but the jury is
Speaker 1: still loud. I think those relationships take a really long
Speaker 1: time to form, and those and that history takes a
Speaker 1: long time to absolve, um, or to be absolved. So hopefully,
Speaker 1: hopefully we'll see you know, if these changes are happening
Speaker 1: and not in this in this particular field that I
Speaker 1: think holds a lot of power. Um. I should have
Speaker 1: asked you this at the beginning, but perhaps I will
Speaker 1: now ask you this to close out. Um, how did
Speaker 1: you get into public health in the first place. I
Speaker 1: think I just kind of fell into it. Um, you
Speaker 1: know my mental health guy love mental health. Excuse me,
Speaker 1: but um. But then I was like I was working
Speaker 1: with youth, working with mental health, and but then it
Speaker 1: was like there was a disconnect. And part of the
Speaker 1: disconnect was therapist didn't look like the kids that we served.
Speaker 1: And as I got promoted the young men that I
Speaker 1: work with, I started to see less and less of
Speaker 1: an impact. But I thought, well, if I can get promoted,
Speaker 1: I can help more young men that look like me.
Speaker 1: So long story short, I ended up saying that you know,
Speaker 1: it's out to be something bigger. So I ended up
Speaker 1: I've taken like I'm my degrees on hold right now.
Speaker 1: But I'm I've taken like six seven MPH classes and
Speaker 1: essentially that's that's what our society needs and not just
Speaker 1: so happened to be overseeing this program where I got
Speaker 1: a promotion and I now oversee this program for you
Speaker 1: to age out, And I just feel like it was
Speaker 1: like a destiny kind of thing because you know, these
Speaker 1: social determinative health I work with them every day with
Speaker 1: one of the most vulnerable populations, you know, in my
Speaker 1: in my city. M hm. Um. Earlier, you said something
Speaker 1: I thought was interesting, you love mental health, which I
Speaker 1: think is like sort of I mean makes sense who
Speaker 1: who was? Mental health is way important? But how did
Speaker 1: you get to that point of loving mental health? Um?
Speaker 1: I think it became with UM. So, like one of
Speaker 1: the things that I experienced is I was going to
Speaker 1: UM school for Human Resources and I was working as
Speaker 1: a recruiter and I talked about this on like one
Speaker 1: of my first podcast, but like, I didn't like how
Speaker 1: I was being treated by cops when I was driving
Speaker 1: out to the suburb. So I literally switched my major
Speaker 1: from human resources to human services management. And and when
Speaker 1: I started when I got my degree, I got my
Speaker 1: first drop as a care coordinator for an entity call
Speaker 1: to wrap around Milwaukee, and it was just like I
Speaker 1: was able to help young people make better outcomes and
Speaker 1: normalize these different feelings in these different emotions. You know.
Speaker 1: Now it's kind of like it's more publicly acceptable, But
Speaker 1: back when I started in like two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: not many black men in the community we're talking, we're
Speaker 1: even talking about mental health. So I think that's what
Speaker 1: made me fall in love with it because I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: if I can be one of the people in my
Speaker 1: city talking about this and trying to do right by
Speaker 1: my community, like I mean, it's it resonated with me
Speaker 1: because I feel like I'm one of those people that
Speaker 1: you know, I try to normalize, like things like therapy.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. We had a recent episode on mental health
Speaker 1: and how it's addressed in hip hop, and we discussed
Speaker 1: some of the structural barriers to accessing mental health support.
Speaker 1: You know, our system of insurance and shortage of doctors,
Speaker 1: you know, therapists most up color, but just in the
Speaker 1: field for broadly because of it's just not the most
Speaker 1: lucrative kind of doctor you can be. For um, where
Speaker 1: do you think some of the other what do you
Speaker 1: think are some of the other barriers to accessing mental
Speaker 1: health support, including cultural stigmas in the community. Where does
Speaker 1: all that come from? Yeah, I think it's a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of the issue with the barriers is
Speaker 1: just because you know, again, can I trust this person
Speaker 1: who's so supposedly an expert. Yeah, that's something I don't
Speaker 1: think we got to but yeah, just trusting is like
Speaker 1: really so you know, and I think, you know, if
Speaker 1: you look at the stats, like the last time I looked,
Speaker 1: African American people seek therapy like maybe like one third
Speaker 1: of the amount of folks that are white. And it's
Speaker 1: just because culturally we've just been raised to tough it
Speaker 1: out or pray pray through it, not not knowing that
Speaker 1: there could have been some some schizophrenia and play, which
Speaker 1: is why Uncle so and so behave that way. So
Speaker 1: I think it's really really opening up the eyes to uh,
Speaker 1: you know us as an African American community, so we
Speaker 1: can be kind too, take that healing another step for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that trust is really important and like hard to build,
Speaker 1: um for sure. And it's in the distrust is warranted
Speaker 1: again based on just the history of of health and
Speaker 1: science and black people in this country. Um, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess, yeah, we do have this culture and this
Speaker 1: something we also somehow didn't touch on in that episode.
Speaker 1: If it's like being hard, it's value. It's being really
Speaker 1: tough and being able to weather it all um is
Speaker 1: is val valorized. And I think that's that also extends
Speaker 1: to broader culture as well. I mean, I think just
Speaker 1: like a capitalist society, you're supposed to just work and
Speaker 1: work and expend yourself limitlessly, um just because that's what
Speaker 1: we're expected to do, but particularly so in black communities,
Speaker 1: that then gives rise I guess to you know, gun violence,
Speaker 1: organized crime, interpersonal you know, in domestic violence, things like that,
Speaker 1: which themselves are additional um public health issues. People aren't
Speaker 1: showing up at the yard with gunshot wounds or you know,
Speaker 1: dealing with toxic stress from living in a in an
Speaker 1: abusive household, things like that. Yeah, And I think it's
Speaker 1: it's some of those. It's one of those things that
Speaker 1: like part of my you know, one of my roles
Speaker 1: is I used to have to go to court because
Speaker 1: I work with young men that were judy kid. You know,
Speaker 1: something happened and they got charged. But then convincing the
Speaker 1: judges that we're making decisions that keep feeding this pipeline
Speaker 1: to prison was an uphill battle because going in front
Speaker 1: of the judge saying no, it's actually because of this diagnosis,
Speaker 1: these are some behaviors that aligned with that. However, with
Speaker 1: the support of services, we can help this young black
Speaker 1: man as in like instead of you sending him away
Speaker 1: exactly exactly, Well, it's all the questions I had. Is
Speaker 1: there anything else that we didn't touch on that you
Speaker 1: want to talk about? No, I just I just really
Speaker 1: appreciate um the collaboration, just in in in the spirit
Speaker 1: of it, I mean, being able to kind of catch
Speaker 1: you doing your thing when you presented, you know, at
Speaker 1: a someone on poverty in Milwaukee. You know that right there,
Speaker 1: just saying I'm like, wow it is It's a good
Speaker 1: feeling to see that there are other people fighting this
Speaker 1: good fight. So, you know, just I I appreciate you
Speaker 1: and extending that hand in collaboration because if we can
Speaker 1: continue in form each other, we can help our communities
Speaker 1: even more. Amen. Amen to that. Well, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for being here. Dsmante. Where can we find you
Speaker 1: and learn more about your work in their and their media?
Speaker 1: Absolutely so you can find me. Just adult public health podcast. Um,
Speaker 1: pretty much on all social media platforms. That's where you
Speaker 1: can learn about what I'm doing and how I want
Speaker 1: to amplify the voices of public health practitioners. So you
Speaker 1: can definitely find me there. Um you can actually you know,
Speaker 1: listen to the podcast and and provide feedback and you know,
Speaker 1: let's just keep this thing going and helping our communities
Speaker 1: become better and better. Amazing. Thank you so much, man,
Speaker 1: No problem. Hey, we are back. We are back, and
Speaker 1: we are closing it out today with a little preview
Speaker 1: of things to come. Next week, we're gonna be talking
Speaker 1: about Dick Gregory mac who's the Greig Gury. I I
Speaker 1: know him because he was like a vegetarian activist, but
Speaker 1: I didn't realize he had a very storied history otherwise.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Dick Gregory is a famous African American comedian,
Speaker 1: political activists. He even ran for office a couple of times.
Speaker 1: I think he ran for president, like I think back
Speaker 1: in the sixties and shop like that. So we're talking
Speaker 1: a little bit about that. Yeah, we're we're chat about him.
Speaker 1: Uh don't we have an interview coming up with Yeah,
Speaker 1: so um soon we're gonna have on my esteemed tell
Speaker 1: me Aaron Thorpe Um, who was a brilliant writer and
Speaker 1: political thinker. UM, gonna talk to us about retroism and
Speaker 1: the sense of futurelessness that drives this like nostalgia, UM
Speaker 1: trend with media, with fashion, etcetera. The sense that like
Speaker 1: millennials and gen z feel like we don't have a
Speaker 1: fucking future. So we reached back in time to like,
Speaker 1: you know, kick the nineteen eighties looking T shirt or
Speaker 1: like watch Stranger Things and things like that, because we
Speaker 1: don't believe there's anything ahead of us. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about that and it's and what
Speaker 1: it means for hip hop UM as well coming out
Speaker 1: very excited for that. So I checked Twitter and found
Speaker 1: that across the state of Georgia, progressive swept conservative incumbents
Speaker 1: out there seats in mass and so, in preparation for
Speaker 1: discussing that next week, I've got to break it off
Speaker 1: a little some right now. That motherfucker's thought that Georgia
Speaker 1: was Virginia Dania. And that is why I've never cared
Speaker 1: for your opinion in the way, since we'd be winning
Speaker 1: when the people who have held the power lookout. But
Speaker 1: the Renchester are reaching themselves and selved in our communities.
Speaker 1: But who would think that we let them renew the
Speaker 1: seas instead of the electrics and fresh seat out the
Speaker 1: junior League. If you believe in, but in organize and
Speaker 1: do what dutifully, then you can leave. That's the lesson
Speaker 1: from Tuesday Leaves. I'm Lingua, frank Gun. We are waiting
Speaker 1: on reparations. Listen to Waiting on Reparations on the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
Speaker 1: podcasts