Speaker 1: Hey fam, Hello Sunshine. Today on the bright Side. You
Speaker 1: may know her as Ashley Banks from the nineties sitcom
Speaker 1: Fresh Prince of bel Air. The actress turned activists Tatiana
Speaker 1: Ali is here hanging.
Speaker 2: Out with us.
Speaker 1: She's talking life as a child star in the nineties
Speaker 1: and the work she's doing to support mothers and maternal
Speaker 1: health today. Plus we're giving some flowers to Josephine Micheleuk.
Speaker 1: She's the world record holder for most units of blood
Speaker 1: donated in a lifetime. It's Wednesday, June twelfth. I'm Danielle Robe.
Speaker 3: And I'm Simone Voice, and this is the bright Side
Speaker 3: from Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 4: Danielle.
Speaker 3: Tatiana Ali is here today. I remember watching her every
Speaker 3: week on Fresh Prince of bel Air. Still know every
Speaker 3: word to that theme song. I think most millennials do.
Speaker 2: We're bill trying so hard not to sing it right now.
Speaker 3: Our lawyers won't allow us, but we would if we could,
Speaker 3: We totally would.
Speaker 1: We're excited about this one. The og Ashley Banks is here.
Speaker 1: I mean, that show was such a juggernaut for NBC.
Speaker 1: It launched in nineteen ninety and can you believe this?
Speaker 1: At its peak it had twenty million people a week watching.
Speaker 3: I actually can believe it because it was one of
Speaker 3: those shows.
Speaker 4: It was monoculture.
Speaker 3: I mean, we were all watching it and felt like
Speaker 3: we were part of that family. And they also made
Speaker 3: some groundbreaking moves. I mean, first of all, it challenged
Speaker 3: the traditional sitcom models. It had this fresh, comedic voice.
Speaker 3: It brought diversity to prime time, and they also highlighted
Speaker 3: some real life issues, a lot of which we are
Speaker 3: still dealing with today. And you mentioned Tatiana played Ashley Banks,
Speaker 3: the youngest Bank's daughter. She was generally this sweet and
Speaker 3: innocent one and she always looked up to her cousin
Speaker 3: played by Will Smith, and it seems like they actually
Speaker 3: have some of that dynamic intact in real life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to ask her about that because that's
Speaker 1: a long lasting relationship. That whole cast really seems to
Speaker 1: support one another, which is cool. But you know, because
Speaker 1: she was part of such an iconic show, I think
Speaker 1: we think of her as that little Ashley Banks, and
Speaker 1: there's actually so much more to Tatiana Ali's story.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been really beautiful to see how she's expanded
Speaker 3: her identity off screen after becoming a mom.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1: She's using her platform for so much good, so much advocacy,
Speaker 1: and specifically a brand that she launched called baby Yams,
Speaker 1: which she designs and she sells handmade quilt to support
Speaker 1: birth workers of color.
Speaker 3: You know, we talked to Elaine Waltroth on this show
Speaker 3: about birth outcomes for black women in this country and
Speaker 3: women of color, and Tatiana is actually one of those statistics.
Speaker 3: I mean, she personally experienced a traumatic birth with her
Speaker 3: first son, and she's turning that pain into purpose by
Speaker 3: uplifting fellow moms and providing resources for other moms who
Speaker 3: are going through similar issues.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm really excited to have her on the show.
Speaker 1: And Simone, I just learned she's a Harvard alum.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she graduated from Harvard with a degree in government
Speaker 3: in two thousand and two.
Speaker 4: So, I mean, we have.
Speaker 1: A lot to talk about. She has such an accomplished
Speaker 1: story on and off screen.
Speaker 3: I can't wait to hear from her about this era
Speaker 3: that she's in, her activism, her purpose driven work as
Speaker 3: a mom, and we also gotta take it back a
Speaker 3: little bit and talk about her life as a child star.
Speaker 4: I mean, she is nineties royalty.
Speaker 1: We need all the stories, but We're lucky she's here
Speaker 1: with us right now.
Speaker 2: Tatiana. Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 5: Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2: Tatiana.
Speaker 1: We have a lot to discuss with you today. You
Speaker 1: are a multifaceted woman. But before we jump into everything, Tatiana,
Speaker 1: Simone and I both saw Bad Boys for Over the
Speaker 1: weekend and we saw you styling on the red carpet
Speaker 1: at the premiere in your all white suit. The first
Speaker 1: question I have for you is do you even like
Speaker 1: red carpets? Do they feel like work or are they
Speaker 1: still really fun?
Speaker 6: I mean, if I'm honest, they feel like work, But yeah,
Speaker 6: certain ones are really fun when you know who's gonna
Speaker 6: be there.
Speaker 5: That one was really fun.
Speaker 6: I got there really early, so I did all that
Speaker 6: part and then they had us all in like a
Speaker 6: kind of like a holding outdoor holding area right on
Speaker 6: the end of the carpet, and they had awesome cars
Speaker 6: and they told everybody.
Speaker 5: The theme was like Miami Nights.
Speaker 6: Little by little, I just saw like so many people
Speaker 6: that I knew from my childhood, like people that have
Speaker 6: been working with Will like forever, and their families and
Speaker 6: so there was like it was like cousins. It was
Speaker 6: like a family get together at the end of the carpet.
Speaker 6: So that was one of the funner carpets. But if
Speaker 6: I could just like support the people I love and
Speaker 6: which I have and just bypass the carpet, I do
Speaker 6: that quite often.
Speaker 2: Actually, carpets actually make me sweat.
Speaker 4: I'm with you. It's a whole thing.
Speaker 6: I mean, oh lord, even for the premiere, I'm like,
Speaker 6: are we going to the Oscars?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 4: What is why?
Speaker 5: There's so much prep? There's so much involved.
Speaker 1: Well, one of the things that I think is cool
Speaker 1: is that everybody from the Fresh Prince cast really supports
Speaker 1: each other, like on every project, every endeavor. And I
Speaker 1: was watching Bad Boys, thinking, wow, this is thirty years
Speaker 1: since that first movie that they did. I saw will
Speaker 1: post that photo of him and Martin. What does it
Speaker 1: mean to you to have that relationship with him all
Speaker 1: these years later? Like has he been sort of that
Speaker 1: guiding light for you at all? Yeah?
Speaker 5: He certainly was.
Speaker 6: When I was younger, you know, just as a kid
Speaker 6: and like, you know, an older brother to look up to.
Speaker 5: He was really protective of me.
Speaker 6: And then when I went into music, for sure, he
Speaker 6: was definitely a mentor during that time.
Speaker 5: My first producing effort.
Speaker 6: My sister and I produced a web series called Buffies,
Speaker 6: And you know, he's one of the first people that
Speaker 6: I went to and said, look what we did, you know,
Speaker 6: and he's like, oh, I want you to talk to
Speaker 6: so and so and so and so and so. He
Speaker 6: was integrol in us being able to place that at
Speaker 6: BT in business. He's definitely been a mentor.
Speaker 3: Did you learn a lot about producing being on the
Speaker 3: set of Fresh Prints and just working from such a
Speaker 3: young age? I mean you've been on Broadway, you were
Speaker 3: on Fresh Prints. I mean you've been such a fixture.
Speaker 3: Were you always kind of absorbing the behind the scenes
Speaker 3: knowledge too?
Speaker 6: You know, I started acting and acting professionally at four
Speaker 6: years old. My mom always told me and my dad
Speaker 6: they always said, you know, be a sponge like take
Speaker 6: it all in. I was in these incredible spaces with
Speaker 6: these brilliant artists and business people. But producing actually came
Speaker 6: about out of necessity. I graduated from school and there
Speaker 6: was very little to even audition for. I mean I
Speaker 6: would maybe have like an audition once every couple of months,
Speaker 6: and there were pilot seasons where there wasn't really much
Speaker 6: to audition for at all. And I had so many
Speaker 6: friends of color who were in the same exact boat,
Speaker 6: and we're all knocking on the same doors in the
Speaker 6: same hallway, and finally was just like, yo, what are
Speaker 6: we doing?
Speaker 5: Like, let's just make our own stuff. So that's how
Speaker 5: that came about.
Speaker 3: That's something that a lot of people don't hear actors
Speaker 3: talking about or creatives in this business is the downtime
Speaker 3: because there all are lulls between projects. So when you
Speaker 3: think about those periods after you end a big project
Speaker 3: like Fresh Princes, or when you're in between projects, what
Speaker 3: is that season like for you?
Speaker 4: What kind of clarity does it bring?
Speaker 3: How do you recalibrate during those times when there is
Speaker 3: a lull?
Speaker 6: You know, I kind of wait. I don't know, Like
Speaker 6: I just I wait to see what comes. I try
Speaker 6: to be financially solvent enough. This has always been important
Speaker 6: to me. I don't run with the Joneses. I was
Speaker 6: driving a Prius and other people I knew were driving
Speaker 6: Bedle's and you know, making fun of my little Prius,
Speaker 6: and I'm.
Speaker 5: Like, well, okay, that's cool, but I know my card
Speaker 5: notes made.
Speaker 6: Yeah, because of that, Like I can make choices that
Speaker 6: are not only because of finances and that's really important
Speaker 6: to me because I do believe like there's purpose in
Speaker 6: my work.
Speaker 5: So yeah, it's very much a faith thing.
Speaker 6: And then also, you know, there's a lot of work
Speaker 6: in between the big work, and sometimes that work it
Speaker 6: could be production readings that I'm doing with my community
Speaker 6: of artists, or things that not a lot of people
Speaker 6: see but are really formative.
Speaker 3: You've been such a champion for maternal health. I've seen
Speaker 3: you advocating for the passage of the Momnibus bill. We
Speaker 3: mentioned BABYMS. That's the quilt brand that you started to
Speaker 3: support Indigenous and Black birth workers, and that stems from
Speaker 3: your own experience with birth. How did your birth experience
Speaker 3: become this larger passion. Tell me about that journey and
Speaker 3: that evolution.
Speaker 6: So I experienced obstetric violence in a hospital in la
Speaker 6: a world renowned hospital.
Speaker 5: This was my first birth. We were really healthy. My baby.
Speaker 6: He ended up in the nick you for four days
Speaker 6: because of the treatment we received.
Speaker 5: He was healthy otherwise.
Speaker 6: One of the pediatric surgeons even said because of the
Speaker 6: traumatic nature of his birth in the records, I honestly,
Speaker 6: I didn't start saying anything until about a year.
Speaker 5: He was maybe a year or two old.
Speaker 6: The event was so traumatic we didn't even know how
Speaker 6: to wrap our minds around it or our feelings around it.
Speaker 6: And it wasn't until I was pregnant again with my
Speaker 6: son Alejandro, that the trauma and whatever fear I had
Speaker 6: turned into this can't happen again. This has to change.
Speaker 6: And there's a lot in the news and then the media.
Speaker 6: Now people know the statistics Black and Indigenous women are
Speaker 6: three to four times more likely to die in childbirth.
Speaker 6: That's also the same for infant mortality and trauma. But
Speaker 6: I didn't know all that, and so I had shared
Speaker 6: my nursing story on my Instagram page because I was
Speaker 6: really looking for community, and an organization called Black MAM's
Speaker 6: Matter Alliance reached out to me and they said, oh,
Speaker 6: come speak at our panel. We want you to share
Speaker 6: your nursing experience. And so from there, while I was
Speaker 6: pregnant with my second baby, I just went head first.
Speaker 6: I went to Santa Fe to a conference, and I
Speaker 6: was just you know, going as what they call in
Speaker 6: the research community, like a consumer just says a mom.
Speaker 5: I wasn't talking.
Speaker 6: I was just in little groups with other people and
Speaker 6: getting my lunch and whatever. And the reproductive justice community.
Speaker 6: Those advocates took me in, they welcomed me, and they
Speaker 6: shared information and resources with me, so that that second
Speaker 6: experience was completely different.
Speaker 3: I think you just answered it, but I'm curious to know.
Speaker 3: What would you tell Tatiana, you know, as she was
Speaker 3: nine months pregnant with her first child, like what do
Speaker 3: you wish you knew before your first birth experience?
Speaker 6: I would tell her to follow her instinct, to follow
Speaker 6: her gut, and to not allow the little micro aggressions
Speaker 6: that we deal with in everyday life, like at the
Speaker 6: grocery store, someone's eyeing you too much, or you get
Speaker 6: followed when you want these things that as a black
Speaker 6: woman I saw my mother go through.
Speaker 5: I go through it.
Speaker 6: You know this is not the space to just like
Speaker 6: let that go and move on, right, Because there were
Speaker 6: signs With my obgyn's office, I was rushed in every appointment.
Speaker 6: Concerns or questions I had were kind of dismissed, even
Speaker 6: like in jokes. If I had heeded that, if I
Speaker 6: knew that, the time for that shit is over because
Speaker 6: it's life or death. The person that cares for you
Speaker 6: has to see you as a sister, a friend, a mother.
Speaker 6: They have to care about you. It's a very pressure
Speaker 6: time in life. Nobody can give birth for you. That's
Speaker 6: what I would tell her. I would say, trust your God.
Speaker 1: You hear it, you know, I'm so sorry for the
Speaker 1: lack of care you received. I can like hear the
Speaker 1: pain in your voice still from that time, and I'm
Speaker 1: just so sorry you had that experience. Honestly, now hearing
Speaker 1: this baby Yams makes even more sense to me.
Speaker 2: What is your connection to sewing?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: What did this stem from?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 5: I have been sewing pretty much like all my life.
Speaker 6: My dad sews, my mom's mom sows, my mom my
Speaker 6: mom sews.
Speaker 5: But she's just like a mender, you know, not just.
Speaker 2: I'm a mender too. I'm like, Okay, you have a
Speaker 2: hole in your jeans. I can fix that one.
Speaker 4: One of those little hotel sewing packets.
Speaker 6: A lot of people can't do that, or like, oh
Speaker 6: you don't you know, you don't need an eye hook.
Speaker 5: Let's just sew that to the bra and you're outfit good,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 7: What I mean.
Speaker 6: But I remember being like even as a kid, like
Speaker 6: if there was something that I wanted like that, I
Speaker 6: shouldn't be wearing, you know, like a little Halter. When
Speaker 6: I was eight or whatever, I took like old fabrics
Speaker 6: and bandanas and stuff that my parents had in the house,
Speaker 6: and i'd like make really wonky things to wear, but
Speaker 6: I'd make them and that's never left. And during my
Speaker 6: pregnancies though, that just like exploded.
Speaker 5: Like I made curtains, I made.
Speaker 6: Drill like that, I made all the nursery and I
Speaker 6: used on carra fabric. Then too, my oldest son's nursery
Speaker 6: was this beautiful yellow and blue and beautiful on Kara
Speaker 6: fabric we got on our baby moon actually in Harlem.
Speaker 6: And then when I was waiting for Alejandro to come,
Speaker 6: these moms from this organization I had just worked with,
Speaker 6: they gave me this beautiful gift, like all these creams
Speaker 6: and lotions and stuff made by black women, and instead
Speaker 6: of a basket, they wrapped it in on carra fabric
Speaker 6: and took it home with me and like it was
Speaker 6: just a small piece of fabric.
Speaker 5: And so that I made a quilt.
Speaker 6: For Ali, for my youngest while I was waiting for
Speaker 6: him to come, And that's kind of like the prototype
Speaker 6: for baby Ams. I got so many compliments over the years,
Speaker 6: you know, I swaddled him in it. It became his
Speaker 6: like stroller quilt, his stroller blanket.
Speaker 2: You were in nesting mode.
Speaker 7: I was in.
Speaker 4: Total nesting mode.
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: We're taking a quick break, but we'll be right back.
Speaker 3: We're back with actor, activist and nineties icon Tatiana Ali. So,
Speaker 3: quilts are a way that we tell stories, and they've
Speaker 3: been used for centuries to do that, a way to
Speaker 3: remember loved ones, a way to tell stories, and even
Speaker 3: on the underground railroad they were used to you send
Speaker 3: secret messages. So why is quilting so powerful for you?
Speaker 3: And what are the kinds of stories that you're hoping
Speaker 3: to tell through this very specific art form.
Speaker 6: I think fabric is incredibly powerful. When my grandmother passed,
Speaker 6: my mom and my aunt thought I was so weird.
Speaker 6: I found a pair of my grandma's gloves, like a
Speaker 6: few days after she passed, and it was like it
Speaker 6: was her, Like she was in the fabrics still I
Speaker 6: could sell her. And I was like, mommy, look and
Speaker 6: my mom was like, that's weird. I don't know, But
Speaker 6: for me, that kind of tactile connection is.
Speaker 5: Everything.
Speaker 6: It's the richness of experience in life, and so the quilt, yes,
Speaker 6: there's history behind quilt. There's history and storytelling in fabrics,
Speaker 6: especially from people who come from the diasporas, and it's
Speaker 6: the perfect medium to be able to share the possibility
Speaker 6: of joy, warmth, comfort, care being covered. But the one
Speaker 6: part of the history of quilting that I love is
Speaker 6: like people coming together with their fabrics, yes, and creating
Speaker 6: something together.
Speaker 5: And I see that with the stories.
Speaker 6: That was my experience going around and advocating and doing
Speaker 6: this work. It's like every time I shared my story,
Speaker 6: it gave somebody the spark to share a story with me.
Speaker 6: And everybody has a story. That's why I kept doing
Speaker 6: it again and again. I'm like, how is this so common?
Speaker 6: So there's something about the process of quote making where
Speaker 6: we can bring all of our stories together and create
Speaker 6: something that's beautiful and also something that's new, something that
Speaker 6: is of our making, which I think is what's necessary now.
Speaker 2: Tatiana.
Speaker 1: You're telling stories through quilts, and you've told stories through
Speaker 1: TV and theater and also music. I've heard people say
Speaker 1: that the music business is the only business that's worse
Speaker 1: than the fashion industry. Is it really as brutal as
Speaker 1: people say it is? I know you were pretty young
Speaker 1: when you started making music too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I want to hear you say more about that.
Speaker 1: You want to really just get real with us, Yes,
Speaker 1: because we don't know much about it.
Speaker 2: I'm actually really curious.
Speaker 5: I'm going to tell you.
Speaker 6: And this is not like details about individual situations or whatever,
Speaker 6: but music is so powerful, and I have been in
Speaker 6: situations not with my own music, but watching other artists
Speaker 6: play music that is so beautiful and so inspiring and
Speaker 6: so dope that you see the whole studio everybody laughings
Speaker 6: up and there's like this incredible energy. And then I've
Speaker 6: seen that artist say I'm not allowed to put this out.
Speaker 6: This is the direction I'm supposed to head in boom
Speaker 6: and it's the lowest I mean, the energy just shift.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's super low, and you just wonder, like, what's happening.
Speaker 6: I was a child, I was like fifteen sixteen, and
Speaker 6: I'm like, why do I have to go into the
Speaker 6: studio at ten o'clock at night? Why do I have
Speaker 6: to have multiple conversations about what I'm gonna wear or
Speaker 6: how revealing it is, or why can't I just say
Speaker 6: I don't like it? Why are there a million meetings
Speaker 6: about like my brand? Me as a brand and you
Speaker 6: have to realize you're not you. You're a brand, So put
Speaker 6: you away and put these things on so you can
Speaker 6: be this brand. And I mean on, I mean not
Speaker 6: just clothes, words, lyrics, the vibe of the music.
Speaker 5: And it's like, that's not what I'm here for.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so I'm always gonna sing, but I'm not singing
Speaker 6: under those conditions.
Speaker 3: It must be hard to be so young and feel
Speaker 3: so powerless at the same time. Did you ever feel unsafe?
Speaker 6: There were definitely times where I was in places where
Speaker 6: I should have been unsafe. Luckily because Will was involved,
Speaker 6: and because I have the parents I have, and even
Speaker 6: in theaters, like my mother was always or my father,
Speaker 6: and if one of them couldn't be there, I had
Speaker 6: an aunt.
Speaker 5: I was never alone.
Speaker 4: Wow, So Will really like protected you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he did, And I think that's because he knew
Speaker 5: the music industry.
Speaker 4: He knew that I loved.
Speaker 3: Taking a walk down memory lane, so let me get
Speaker 3: nostalgic for a minute. We recently had Melissa joanhart On
Speaker 3: and she was telling us about like her party girl
Speaker 3: days in the nineties and just like what it was
Speaker 3: like like living the high life as a TV star
Speaker 3: back then. So I gotta know you got any good
Speaker 3: party girl stories from back then?
Speaker 5: Or were you?
Speaker 4: Were you kind of a were you a good girl?
Speaker 4: Were you a homebody? I was both? Okay, I was both.
Speaker 6: If I said, oh, get so and so is having
Speaker 6: a birthday party, Mom's like, where's the birthday party? Oh,
Speaker 6: it's at the club on Sunset. So I could see
Speaker 6: where my parents had a dilemma. It was like can
Speaker 6: she have friends?
Speaker 5: Is this the way? And so, oh my god, this
Speaker 5: is so embarrassing, but this is real.
Speaker 4: Please tell us.
Speaker 6: My mother would drive me to where the birthday party was,
Speaker 6: right and I told you it was like a club
Speaker 6: on Sunset or something like yes, And my mother would
Speaker 6: sit in the minivan.
Speaker 3: Stop the whole time, girl, like a black car service accepted.
Speaker 6: Then it was a minivan, and it was a minivan
Speaker 6: with the aluminum siding, you know the Chrysler ployments.
Speaker 3: Were you like, mom, meet me down the street, okay,
Speaker 3: pick me up around the corner.
Speaker 6: No what, there's no shame in my game, because after
Speaker 6: a while it was like, oh yo, Tatiana's mom is outside,
Speaker 6: tim salid.
Speaker 2: Everyone wants to ride home in the van?
Speaker 3: Wait, who was in your who was in your click.
Speaker 3: Who did you roll with?
Speaker 5: Oh my god, who did I roll with?
Speaker 4: Who was in the minivan?
Speaker 5: At one point? Brittany Murphy was in the minivan.
Speaker 7: I knew her.
Speaker 6: She's from New York and so for many years I
Speaker 6: knew her. We weren't like close close close friends. There
Speaker 6: were definitely people who were closer. But she was in
Speaker 6: the fan at one point, and her mom. She was
Speaker 6: very close to her mom too. They had a very
Speaker 6: similar relationship.
Speaker 1: So I'm dying to know about this alter ego of yours.
Speaker 1: Chakra seven, one of our producers worked at RuPaul's Drag Race,
Speaker 1: and we heard that Chakra seven made it to the
Speaker 1: top three in the second season of ru Paul's Secret
Speaker 1: Celebrity Drag Race. What did you learn about yourself when
Speaker 1: you transformed into a drag queen?
Speaker 5: Can I tell you that was like life changing, like
Speaker 5: life altering experience?
Speaker 7: Why?
Speaker 6: Well, we had real mentors like Brooklyn Heights and Jujubi
Speaker 6: and Monet Exchange. When the cameras weren't on, they were
Speaker 6: watching our performances, kind of crafting the looks with us
Speaker 6: and like teaching us the art of drag. And there
Speaker 6: is something so incredibly freeing RuPaul says this. He has
Speaker 6: a song that says this when it's like when you
Speaker 6: realize that, like everybody's in drag all the time, you
Speaker 6: just choose from time to time what drag you're gonna
Speaker 6: put on to be able to perform in complete anonymity.
Speaker 5: It just changed the game for me, It really did.
Speaker 5: It changed the game for me.
Speaker 1: But wait when you say it changed the game, because Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going to thrill in on this because I just
Speaker 1: interviewed a woman who said that she did drag. She's
Speaker 1: a comedian, and it changed her comedy career because she
Speaker 1: was like I could finally step into the fullest power
Speaker 1: of who I was. Like, it did free her too,
Speaker 1: So what did it free you from? Like what were
Speaker 1: you holding back?
Speaker 6: It freed me from giving a fuck, Like not in
Speaker 6: the sense of this kind of self conscious ego thing
Speaker 6: that happens over time, like especially with the business of
Speaker 6: things or whatever, for example, even.
Speaker 5: Like baby Ams.
Speaker 6: Something got freed up in me where it was just
Speaker 6: like do it do what you imagine because this is
Speaker 6: all imagination anyway. Whatever story you tell yourself about who
Speaker 6: you are and what you're capable of is what it's
Speaker 6: gonna be so if you can choose, choose the funnest shit,
Speaker 6: choose the stuff that makes you.
Speaker 3: Happy, it unblocked you. It sounds like you push through
Speaker 3: a block.
Speaker 5: I was a purple dog with blue eyes.
Speaker 6: I was in latex in like a Renaissance period doing paparazzi,
Speaker 6: like what do what you want? Do what you want,
Speaker 6: like live your life. I had to lose a lot
Speaker 6: of my preconceived ideas of myself to really get into drag.
Speaker 6: And once you do that, you realize, well, that was
Speaker 6: a fiction too.
Speaker 3: Tatiana, thank you so much for coming on our show
Speaker 3: and telling us about baby Yams and all the incredible
Speaker 3: advocacy work you're doing, y'all.
Speaker 4: I lovely Thank you, Tatiana.
Speaker 5: What a great way to spend the afternoon. Thank you.
Speaker 3: Tatian Ali is an actor, mother advocate, and the founder
Speaker 3: of baby Yams. For more information on how to support
Speaker 3: birth workers and to get one of her quilts, visit
Speaker 3: babydashyams dot com.
Speaker 1: The proceeds for the first round of quilts will go
Speaker 1: towards scholarships for midwives. Applications for those scholarships will be
Speaker 1: open in late June. We're taking a quick break and
Speaker 1: when we come back, we're giving some very well deserved
Speaker 1: flowers to Josephine Micheluck.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back.
Speaker 3: We're back and we are so excited to welcome the
Speaker 3: Guinness World record holder for units of blood donated in
Speaker 3: a lifetime. Y'all, it's time to give eighty one year
Speaker 3: old Josephine Micheluck her flowers.
Speaker 2: Incredible.
Speaker 1: So far, Josephine has donated a total of two hundred
Speaker 1: and ten pints of blood and in the process is
Speaker 1: inspiring everyone around her to give back. Her community in Alberta,
Speaker 1: Canada has just recognized her with a volunteer award called
Speaker 1: the Alberta Northern Lights Award for all that she does,
Speaker 1: and we are very lucky because she's joining us now
Speaker 1: from her home. Josephine, Welcome to the bright Side and
Speaker 1: congratulations on the world record.
Speaker 7: Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: How do your friends and family feel about what you've accomplished.
Speaker 7: Oh, they're all excited, yes, yeah, they're so thankful. A
Speaker 7: lot of them are donating the ones that can.
Speaker 3: Josephine, you've been donating blood for almost sixty years now.
Speaker 3: How did you get started?
Speaker 7: I first donated in Calgary in nineteen sixty five, and
Speaker 7: then I had my four daughters, So you can't donate
Speaker 7: while you're pregnant or a year after. So there was
Speaker 7: quite a few years there raising my four daughters until
Speaker 7: my fourth Onness born before I could donate again. But
Speaker 7: before the third and the fourth win, I had two
Speaker 7: different miscarriages and so I had to have blood given
Speaker 7: to me. The first time it was two pints, and
Speaker 7: then about a year later I miscarried again and there
Speaker 7: was three pints. So I've had five pints given to
Speaker 7: me in my past. So then I thought, well, I'm
Speaker 7: just going to keep donating and try. I got to
Speaker 7: make up those five pints for sure, and I just
Speaker 7: kept going.
Speaker 2: What motivates you to keep going back each time? It
Speaker 2: does take a toll on your body.
Speaker 7: Well, I don't notice it. I have so much energy.
Speaker 7: After one time I donated two years ago, I painted
Speaker 7: the whole inside of my house within two to three
Speaker 7: weeks I've tried donating.
Speaker 4: The kids couldn't believe it.
Speaker 7: Just had energy to burn.
Speaker 3: Josephine, I want to know a little bit more about
Speaker 3: you outside of your incredible blood donation work. So you
Speaker 3: like to paint your house. What else gives you joy?
Speaker 3: What else brings you joy? Josephine, What do you like
Speaker 3: to do?
Speaker 7: Oh gosh, I knit, I crochet, I do embroidery, oh gosh.
Speaker 7: And I make candles, and I do woodwork. I make
Speaker 7: picnic tables and furniture for the picnic area. And oh,
Speaker 7: I just I love doing everything. I make my own
Speaker 7: wine and beer too, of course you do. I made
Speaker 7: my wine from my own fruit from the when I
Speaker 7: was growing up, and in my early life after I
Speaker 7: was married, we had fruit trees and we had a
Speaker 7: market garden, and we were selling our vegetables and fruit
Speaker 7: at the farm, and I either canned it up. So
Speaker 7: I've got lots of canned fruit and vegetables.
Speaker 5: And I don't know.
Speaker 7: I just keep going. I can't throw anything away. I've
Speaker 7: worked somehow.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 1: You know what's amazing is you are eighty one years young.
Speaker 1: How long do you want to be doing this?
Speaker 5: For?
Speaker 7: As long as I can have, as long as my
Speaker 7: irons up and I feel good, I'm to keep going.
Speaker 3: You know, there might be some people out there who
Speaker 3: are listening and who are so inspired by you, Josephine,
Speaker 3: and they might want to give blood too, but it
Speaker 3: can be kind of a scary thing, at least it
Speaker 3: can sound that way. What would be your advice for
Speaker 3: anyone who's considering doing it but might be a little
Speaker 3: bit nervous to take that first step With me?
Speaker 7: I never thought of it until I went with my
Speaker 7: sister and she was going to donate, so I went
Speaker 7: with her. I could see there was nothing wrong with it,
Speaker 7: and she felt good after too, So that suck got
Speaker 7: me going. Just take somebody with you that is the
Speaker 7: regular donator. You know, if they're a regular donator, or
Speaker 7: know somebody to take them with you.
Speaker 2: Josephine.
Speaker 1: Here on the bright side, we really believe that people
Speaker 1: working hard to inspire and to uplift their communities deserve
Speaker 1: some special love. So we sent you a little surprise,
Speaker 1: a bouquet of flowers courtesy of Stems Flower and Cafe.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being of service to so many people.
Speaker 7: Well, thank you, and it's so nice to see. Who
Speaker 7: set the flowers, Danielle and Simone it set.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's from us. We hope that you love them
Speaker 3: and we hope that they brighten your day. Thank you, Josephine.
Speaker 3: Congratulations again on your world record. I am feeling so
Speaker 3: incredibly inspired by you and all of your many talents.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for joining us here on the
Speaker 3: bright Side. Thanks Josephine, Oh You're so welcome. Josephine Micheluk
Speaker 3: is the world record holder for units of blood donated
Speaker 3: in a lifetime.
Speaker 1: If you know someone in your community who deserves her flowers,
Speaker 1: let us know. Send us their name and your reasons
Speaker 1: for nominating to Hello at the Brightside podcast dot com.
Speaker 4: That's it for today's show.
Speaker 3: Tomorrow, we've got Reality Royalty in the studio. Hannah Brown
Speaker 3: is here to talk all about sharing her love life
Speaker 3: publicly on TV, and we'll find out why her new book,
Speaker 3: Mistakes We Never Made has are falling in love with
Speaker 3: romance novels all over again.
Speaker 1: Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4: I'm Simone Boye.
Speaker 3: You can find me at Simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1: I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 5: That's ro Ba.
Speaker 3: Y see you tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.