Baby Bonds, Tax Confusion & Essence Fest Mayhem

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There are some positive things from this bill. Yeah, for
sure that I personally am thrilled with the increase to
the salt deduction, the fact that it's been increased from
ten thousand to forty thousand dollars, which is amazing because
my property taxes are in effingsaane, it's like twenty thousand
dollars a year.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah. Wait, is that one of the ones that is
permanent or temporary through twenty twenty eight? Well, win is
the wind will take it. But most of the wins
that we're talking about expire in twenty twenty eight, and
most of the damage being done is permanent, So we
really have Like that piece is what I really want
people to pay attention to because to your point, yeah,
we can celebrate these things, but then if it expires
in twenty twenty eight and all the really bad things
keep going, what is the net effect of the bill.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
After the four years of this administration. They're going to
use that against the other party, right, They're going to say, Okay, well,
all these things are expiring, and it saved all these
people all types of money, and if you go with
this this other administration, then you're not going to get
any of that.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Hey, hey, Batham, welcome back to another Brown Table. It's
the best time of the week, and I am joined
by you know, according to Chris, they're interchangeable, which I
think is some internalized racism on his own part. But
we have a new dude in the stew this week.
We have a friend of the show, the Mark Russell,

(01:24):
founder of Better Wallet, in the house. Welcome Mark.

Speaker 4 (01:28):
We're interchangeable, me and Chris.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
That's what he said. When I said, I was like, Chris,
can you make it? He said no. I was like, final,
ask Mark similar to me, and he said, you just
swapping out black dudes. I'm like, well, yes, yes, it's casting,
a central casting. There's a profile. You guys fit it.
What do you want?

Speaker 4 (01:49):
What I'm okay with?

Speaker 1 (01:53):
I think everyone should be fine with it. I think
it's fine. And we have the one and only a
Yan Ellies finale from this be helpful? A K A wait,
what's your title at next Gen PF. I don't think
I even know if you have a title.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
I do a director of educational Outreach. Oh carry, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
We'll have Nelly, we have Mark.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
Mark.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Has been months since you've been at the Brown Table.
How does it feel to be back.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
I'm happy to be back.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Shocked that wasn't invited over the last few months. I'm
happy that we're unavailable. I'm happy that you you stuck
with the name of Brown Table.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Oh I forgot you gave it that name.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
Yeah, I did, let her know. Let her know, trying
to forget.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Props do I don't try to forget. I don't try
to forget. No, but I have invited you back. You
just have been so busy.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
I have been a lot going.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Making your Instagram carousels a lot.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
I love that, which I feel like content creation is
a secondary job at this point, like the back end
business stuff. It's like what I'm working on now. So
just trying to juggle all of that and attempt to
have a personal life and drink water and work out
all the things too.

Speaker 4 (03:10):
Effects.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Do you want to talk about the personal life that's
going on?

Speaker 4 (03:14):
No, you know, I don't. I don't jump into all that.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
But well, you open, you open that door. I thought
we could just like push it open a little bit.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
No, I think I probably share too much already. So
enough about me, what about you?

Speaker 1 (03:28):
You know what, I'm in Atlanta all week. My friend
so I'm going to find a way to come bother you.
I should.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
I feel like everyone's here this weekend.

Speaker 5 (03:35):
Who else?

Speaker 3 (03:36):
I think we have Nascar coming? Uh this weekend? We
got Beyonce here this weekend. I feel like there's so
many different events. And this is what the girls do.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
They tap with their for these middle fingers.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
One.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Yeah, but I don't have long nails, so it looks stupid.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
I mean, short nails will do.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
No Nascar Beyonce. What else?

Speaker 4 (04:00):
Yeah, there's another event that's happened this weekend.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
I forget what the third one, but I mean the
only one that people care about happens to be Beyonce.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
So yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 4 (04:10):
It should be a It should be a great event.
Though I'm not going.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
I'm so excited. I'm going on Sunday, by my damn self.
I only bought one ticket. There was one ticket in
the Prime Primes to Prima seats and I can't wait.
And I got to put a fit together. But seeing
her twice just feels right. It does. I'm excited. I
kind of have some breaking news about Atlanta, though, was it?

(04:34):
And as it regards to me, Oh, something clicked in
my brain in the past few weeks and I think
it's time to move time. I think it's time to
go home.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
Come on down, to come on home. We're welcome you.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Well, I think I'm ready. I think I'm done with
New York the heights. I'm not in the heights. I'm
in the burbs. Oh that's but yeah, we've been done
with the heights.

Speaker 4 (05:00):
Come down.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
So yeah, I think I'm ready. My mom and my
sister are both moving back, and they've been. My sister's
been in Wisconsin, my mom has been in Saint Louis,
and my dad and my brother have been here. You know,
they haven't gone anywhere. But yeah, I'm just I always
i've been. I've been thinking about in the back of
my mind. But yeah, I think I'm good. I think
it's easy enough to get to New York that it's

(05:25):
not going to be a problem. You know, I can
still and if I do it the way I want,
we might end up like keeping our house in New
York and buying another one in Atlanta, and then maybe
I can like go in between. But I think, I mean,
my kids are the right age. I think it's not
going to be too disruptive to them, and I just
feel home here. I just I don't know.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
I mean, if you're going to be in the suburbs,
then why not just do it in Georgia instead of
New York. I'm it's going to definitely be.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Cheaper, way cheaper, you know, so much cheaper. Yeah, yeah,
I mean, is it nice to be forty minutes from
the city whenever I need to go? Yeah, I mean
New York City. Yes, But if I'm real honest, there's
not that many things, although it'll probably change once I
move here officially. I'm sure there'll be so many things.
I'll be like, Damn, I wish I was still in
New York.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
That's how it would be. Always.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
You can always take a flight anytime I'm getting up
to Northern Jersey or Philly, I just jump on the flight,
go see family, pop back into Georgia. So and then
airport's great here, like Delta flying out with.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Some respect on it. Atlanta is the best airport, hands down.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
It's chaotic at times, but if you have digit ID
and you if you have digit ID and you have
pre check and all it, things like I spend maybe
two minutes in line if that, and I only have
to talk to anyone and then I get right on
the flight I'm in New York or Philly, and then
I pop back down, So there's always flights going back

(06:50):
and forth. Oh.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
The other hack for Atlanta Airport is bring a kid
with you because family assist much faster, faster than pre check.
Even Okay, I.

Speaker 3 (06:59):
Will saynumber one, get a child, number three, any kid.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Anything'll do.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
That's a lot.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, it's weird to say that. Kennelle. Do you think
you'll ever go back to New York? You've been in
Miami for how long now?

Speaker 2 (07:12):
I've been in Miami for going on five years. Our
lease is up in mid twenty twenty six, in which
case we have to like decide what we're about to do.
I don't know if Miami is ever going to feel
like home, but it was really good to me in
my early thirties. You know, having a little bit of
money and being in Miami is very different from like
when I was broken my twenties. Coming to Miami, it's
just not the same. So I have definitely enjoyed the

(07:33):
lifestyle and the amazing weather every single day. Like it's
definitely been a lot more like physical activity versus when
I live in New York City. But at the same time,
when I go visit New York, I just I feel
like the energy of the city is never quite what
I put on it. Like I have this like nostalgic
thing for New York City, but I feel like every
time I go back, it never lives up to that.

(07:54):
So I'm just like, oh, you know what, I think
I've just accepted that it's just never going to be
that so and it's changed so much. But I love
New York City. I don't think I'll ever live there again, though.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
No, I'm good, She's good, Okay, So maybe somewhere else
but not New York.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, We're trying to figure out where else we might
want to live. Miami is cool for now, but I
definitely think I want to try other cities. Like I
would like to live in Atlanta. I would I would
like to check out like Houston or Dallas. I'd be
open to other cities for sure. But you know, my
boyfriend works in tex So it's always a thing of like, well,
is he going to be able to like plug into
a tex scene, you know, like Miami, there's this Latino
tech scene right now, like it works for him, So

(08:30):
there's always something to think about, like where you want
to try a new city. But that's the good thing
about renting is that we don't really have to worry
too much about like where we go. We can just
pop up and go rent somewhere for six months or
a year and just see if we like it, and
if not, we can go back to where we were.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, Austin has an amazing scene in Texas, and then
Dallas is like one of my favorite cities. Nice And
I've always thought about, like if I ever left Atlanta,
where I moved to, I would either move back home
to Philly or to New York or Northern Jersey or
moved to Dallas.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Dallas. Really, I've never been to Dallas.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
You haven't been in Dallas.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Dallas.

Speaker 4 (09:07):
Dallas is beautiful, is it? Okay?

Speaker 3 (09:09):
They have a lot of money that was put into
the infrastructure of the of the city. And it's coming
from a guy from Philly that we naturally don't like
anything related to Texas, but I went there and that
was absolutely shocked. The uh the football franchise which I
will not name on this podcast, they bring in a
lot of money and they put all that money back

(09:30):
into the city.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Which I respect interesting. I've never if I'm going to
be sweating balls, like if I'm going to be really hot,
it's going to be Atlanta for me. And you know
what's crazy is New York is not the climate is
more similar to it to Georgia's right now. It is so.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Huge New York. I don't know what you're talking about.
Sweating and balls. We sweat balls in New York summer
it is bad every single year and then the winters
are crazy cold. So it's just like you get those extremes,
and that's what I don't miss. That's I don't imagine
moving back to New York because the extremes. I'm just
I really do like consistency, and I feel like those
extremes just throw me off. And yeah, I'm.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Good, I think for me. Also, my falling in love
with gardening, which sounds so corny, but it's just it
just happened. It has truly just been like a whole
life ship for me this past year. And I want
land now. I want land.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
I want lands.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
I want land two thousand a week.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Girl tell us you tell us you a mom and
the Serbs and the Burbs without telling knows that your
mom and the burbs.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
Literally, like Atlanta suburbs are like unparalleled in Alanta, but.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
You can still be in the city and be in
the suburbs like where my brother lives, like I could
get a house. I mean they're they're they're small, cute
little houses here, but you can find those little gems
where it's like massive yard but you're kind of I mean,
they call the Atlanta the City in the forest or
city in the trees, what's it called something like that.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
I feel it feels like the urban suburbs. It gives
me the urban.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Forest, Like yeah, because you're right here, but you have
so much It really is like you're in a it's
built in a forest. The city is and so there's
history here. I'm just and you know the way that
I've really wanted to see Beyonce here. I just want
to be around. I want to be in a place where,
I mean, truly, I want to be in a place

(11:26):
where I can run into black women, black families living
their best life every day. And right now I can't
say that exactly where I live. I mean, I do
live in a really diverse neighborhood, but once we leave
our neighborhood once we leave, you know, our little pocket.
It's just not like that. And I just feel like
Atlanta is just that's where my heart is right now.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, so yep, that was That's exactly what I was
talking about with the nostalgia for New York City, that
the New York City that I grew up in was
very much like black and Latinos in Brooklyn. And now
when I go back to I was just in Bushwick
like July second and third, and I was just walking
around like dang, like this is really different. And look,

(12:10):
there's something to celebrate about diversity, for sure, But it's
not that we didn't have diversity. You had Jamaican's, Haitians, Basians,
Jamake Trinidaddy is Puerto Rican Dominicans. Look, we have diversity.
It's just that we have a shared Caribbean ancestry that
is also very beautiful. And now it feels like every
time I go to Brooklyn is like a lot of
transplants and a lot of different people from all over

(12:31):
and like, again that's whe're celebrating as well. Diversity from
many different places is beautiful, but it's not the same
as the Brooklyn I remember. So it speaks to that
nostalgia that I had mentioned earlier.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
It'll be fifteen years. So I got to get my
husband a job first, shamelessly, y'all. So speaking of tech,
my husband works, he works, and I can't even say
where he works. It's so cool and interesting. I gotta
tell y'all. He got to testify during the Diddy trial.
Oh he got character sketched in the courtroom. Stops so
fucking cool. Would I send you the link? And as

(13:04):
he told me not to, Okay, well I'll send a link.
It's not like this is the thing. Is he's finally
done something really interesting. So then like no time, became
a part of this like viral, even a part of
this viral. Well, this is the thing, I guess. No,
the trial's over now, so let me just I can't

(13:24):
think I can say it now, and if not, I'll
beliam this latter. But so, his name is Enrica Santos,
my husband. There's also a famous did I tell you
the same Only there's a famous DJ or a DJ
in in Miami called Enrique A Santos. So if you
search in Rique Santos is usually that one that pops up.
Because my husband is very like under the radar. But
and so this ditty trial, they they everyone was tracking

(13:47):
the list of witnesses because nothing was televised, so like
people were following the witness list who's going to testify?
And somehow CNN. I'm sure it was like an intern
or not to blame the intern, it is probably just
some like AI generated story about who was testifying. And
so the AI or whoever thought it was mistakenly said
it was Enrique Santos of the radio show Fame charolet

(14:09):
Mene the God on Breakfast Club. As his co host
was reading out the list, he was like, hell Enrique,
why isn't Rikue testifying? Like and it went on and
on and on and it wasn't the DJ, it was
my husband, and so that clip is everywhere and it
was just so funny and he's like, don't don't comment
on it. No one can know. I don't want to

(14:29):
get docks or whatever it is. Wow, but we need
to get him a job because he's the hold up.
I can work from anywhere. He's the one who works
for the federal government, you know, doing like cybersecurity type stuff.
And the last time I came through the Atlanta airport.
I literally stopped this man. He was walking through the airport.
He's and I'll finish the story, but walking through the

(14:51):
airport he had he had a backpack on it said
TikTok Data Security. I said, excuse me, he was about
to get on the plane train. I was like, excuse me, sir,
do you really work at TikTok or is that just
like your girlfriend's backpack whatever. He's like, oh no. I
am like here, he's a big deal in the in
the cybersecurity team. And within like five minutes I have
him added. I added him on LinkedIn. I was like,
I got to talk to you, my husband. I'm trying

(15:12):
to like I became my husband's career coach overnight, his
unwanted career coach, I will say, because he wants to
like follow the apply for the job and get the job.
But I'm like, in this market doesn't pay they.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Know somebody. You gotta know somebody who knows somebody.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
You need to be hired from the inside at this point,
like you need to know someone. They need to basically
be vouching for you from the inside, and then from
there you apply.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
Applying is on the back end versus a front.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
End, So applying should be it should be like send
me your resume. Oh yay, did I ask for your
resume yet? Yeah, go ahead and send that over after
you get the first scheduled right, h Yeah. So I
was I was sharing that with ba fam that I
tracked this guy down, that I followed him at the airport,
got in touch with him, added him on LinkedIn, but
he had an me back. It's been three weeks. I

(16:02):
have a good friend who works at TikTok whole different
I mean it's a huge company, whole different department. But
I texted him. I was like, can you give me
this guy's email hundred And he's like no, But he
did email him and he nudged him for me through
TikTok's email system, and finally he accepted my request, and
I'm like, oh yeah, so it's me. I'm back, and

(16:23):
we're going to be friends really quick because I have question.
I'm trying to get his advice on what kind of program,
what kind of like degree Enrique should get right because
stuff is changing so quickly and they want all these
new shirts. So that's the game plan. I am in
Rique's unwilling career coach now and we're going to get
him a really good, fat paycheck. Yes, girl.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
And back in the day, coming from a federal job
might have looked really good on the resume. Nowadays, not
so much.

Speaker 4 (16:47):
Yeah, not so much.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
I was literally about to say that you have to
have all asserts, but I think there is something to
be said coming from the federal government, the things that
they know versus these private companies. I think he can
leverage and get the job. But cool, see you for
trying to find a high paying job down here in Atlanta.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
I mean, yeah, because the way, I'm not going to
spend money on insurance. He needs to carry the insurance.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
He still that part. I'm mooching off my boyfriend's insurance.
Let me not even lie. I don't get insurance at
my job. I'm mooching off my boyfriends. I'm a dependent
on his policy. Thank goodness they allow that for domestic
partners because we ain't even married. But that I feel
you on because I used to pay almost one thousand
dollars a month for my own private insurance when I
lived in New Jersey. And I yeah, and I did,

(17:34):
And I had accept an offer for a job with
no health insurance and it was it was rough.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
Yeah, I'm paying hundred right now.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
Yeah, so Georgia has their marketplace, so I go through that.
So six hundred for medical and then like thirty dollars
for dental, So not too bad, but it's not what
I used.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
To have a high. Does it have a high deductible?

Speaker 3 (17:58):
No, the deductible is not too bad. Okay, it wouldn't
be considered a high deductible at all. But yeah, it's
like I don't go as often, like I go for
the routine checks and blood work every year, but other
than that, like I'm not injury prone, like I don't
have any conditions. So I just feel like I'm throwing
the money out the windown I would.

Speaker 4 (18:16):
Yeah, I know, I know, I know, but we're.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
In our thirties. Now.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
That's what happens when you go on the skate portal
because you're you're single, your high income earner, like all
those things that you would think like should be celebrated
are actually penalties when it comes to getting your own
health care.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
So yeah, I feel you. Those were our life updates.
Let's get into Buzzworthy's just going to get into some headlines.
I think a lot of what we're talking about can
tie into some of the stuff that's in the news. Mark,
I kind of think of you as like one of
the financial educators who does follow markets, because I mean,
you teach investing through Better Wallet.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
Right, Oh yeah, and it's like what I've been doing
for like the last fifteen years. I guess at this
point the fifteen Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Some of your invest Yeah, since your Vanguard date.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
From college to Vanguard to fintech to private equity to
now yeah, about fifteen.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
Well, then do you want to do a little market's update?
Was your intel fresh?

Speaker 4 (19:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (19:11):
Going on, how's it been?

Speaker 3 (19:13):
So the markets are a little choppy now as they
were back in April. So most people know that the
terriffs that it came from the Trump administration.

Speaker 4 (19:26):
Rle of the markets is lack.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
It's less of having the terrifts because we've had terrifts
forever and they've had terrifts on us being the other countries.
I think the challenge is there's a lot of uncertainty,
and the market doesn't like uncertainty no matter what it is.
So recently, over the last couple of days, the administration
came out and added some new tariffs and letters being

(19:50):
sent out to different countries specifically like the brick countries
out there. And now the market's a little bit more choppy, right,
I think the market dipped about one percent yes today,
even though we had an amazing upswing going from Sorry,
look at my calendar up here from May June into July. So,

(20:10):
I mean the story remains the same, right when you're
investing into the market. It's really my intel's old.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
That's from yesterday. It's like simples up.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
Well, is not too bad that that is still up?

Speaker 4 (20:22):
Yeah, it's still up. So I think we're.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
Still like regular investors.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
We're still up.

Speaker 3 (20:27):
You're to date, I mean a month to date, not
so much. But I think after having a major dip
like that, we always see like a pretty big upswing
over the short term. So again, it's like you can't
control anything in the market. You definitely can't control this administration.
So the end of the day, just stay focused on
your goals. Continue to put as much money as you

(20:49):
can into the market, try to be consistent in doing so,
and trying to take more of the noise, because you
would drive yourself crazy if you're sitting and focusing on
what the market is to do every single day, just
control the controllabooks.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Well, what's funny is that this episode is going to
air tomorrow the ninth, and we had Raquel Odin from HSBC.
She's in dang well you know these titles and investment banks,
like she has some fancy title. She's a wealth management boss.
She's the manager of a bunch of wealth advisors. Anyway,
And when she came on the show, this was back
in May, she was like July ninth, July ninth, July ninth.

(21:26):
At that time, that was the deadline for these new
tariffs to start. It's very like confusing. Some of the
tariffs have been implemented, but there's been all these pauses
that have been granted and extensions on certain countries. So
this July ninth date, as of a couple days ago,
is now no longer July ninth. Now it's August first.
So I don't think at a consumer level, I have

(21:47):
not seen the massive spikes in prices of like consumer goods,
like going to the grocery store, going to TJ Max. Like,
you know a lot of our clothes and everything, our
home goods come from overseas. I don't like that has
really hit the American consumers yet because there's been all
this talk of the real big tariffs, but they actually

(22:07):
it's been this negotiating and this bargaining chip that you
know that keeps getting pushed further and further out. Yep,
that's my take.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, it makes sense. Although when it comes to retail,
I would say inventory. I mean I used to work
at the Gap and we would do overnight shifts and
like we would get inventory for three to four months out.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Who he did the overnight shifts. It was always the
cool kids.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
You know, it was cool kids, but those kids.

Speaker 4 (22:30):
Were the overnight the graveyard.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
It was also the bro kids who like had to
pick up the shift. Nobody else wanted into the gap.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
No no, I worked at the Gap too, but it
was like the older people, like the single dads, like
I don't know, it's just maybe not cool, but just
like delinquent.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
Well, because it's because of the type of work you do.
So with the overnight shifts, it's the truck coming in,
so you really need a lot of those guys to
like pull everything off the truck and then you got
all the meals who are going to put on them
put it on the models and stuff, and like they
give you the visual of exactly how the model has
the mannequin has to look, so they would get the
detail oriented girls. Hello, the fashion girl needs to come
in and do the mannekins. But I just remember, like

(23:07):
I would if it was March, we were already getting
everything for the fall. So even though you might be thinking, oh,
should I run in by back to school stuff now,
because when these tariffs kick in, it doesn't always immediately
affect prices that way. So that's the problem with the economy.
People try to read things immediately, and that's why the
market goes up and down so quickly because people think
that the impact is going to be immediate, and usually

(23:28):
that's not the case, right, And.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
A lot of these companies frontloaded as well. So as
soon as Trump started talking about these tariffs, they went
and they tried to bring in as much as they could.
So when whatever the date is, you know, July the
ninth or April at first comes up, they arey frontloaded
for a year or so. That way, they don't have
to implement those taxes or tariffs until much later. I

(23:50):
think the other issue that we're going to see and
I mean the administration has already been on like companies
like Amazon about it is they're trying to somewhat hide
the tariffs in the way where I think Amazon came
out with it was like quick, maybe within an hour
or there was like an hour of time where they
had the price, but then they have the tariffs that

(24:11):
were added to the price, and they are clear to
have that as a line item. Than the administration went
after them and said, now to kick that out because
that's going to make us look bad. So I thought
that was I use the word interesting.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
But tactic. Do they still do that or did they
stop it?

Speaker 2 (24:28):
They stopped, they stopped, they stopped?

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Oh lording. Well, a couple other quick updates. I checked
on mortgage rates. They're still pretty high post six percent,
six between six and seven percent. That hasn't really changed much.
I was happy to see gas prices are down twelve
percent from last year, especially since my dad has a
big ass truck that I have to fuel up when
I come to visit him and drive him around. Ye.

(24:52):
But yeah, gas prices have been pretty low and overall
inflation is only up two point eight percent over a year,
so that's good news. I think for like people who
who have everyday essentials to buy, which is all of us.
Else didn't want to talk about, Oh the credit score,
so there. I wanted to get y'all's thoughts on fighto

(25:13):
FiOS rolling out a new credit score that are going
to start factoring and buy now Pay later, those like
affirm Klarna's yep, and I wanted to I'd like to
get y'all's take on it, because y'all, you're out there
really educating people about, you know, using these types of services,
and I think they've been I've heard a lot of
like be cautious about it because it's like an easy

(25:34):
way to take on more debt. But could it also
be a way for the un banked underbanked to build
credit potentially?

Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yeah, I mean I would. I would say I definitely
think it can be helpful when used correctly. Just like
a credit card, there's gonna be people who are to say,
cut them up, don't use it, is bad da da dah.
But when used properly and correctly, it can definitely be
advantageous to you in your financial situation. Same thing would
buy now Pay later if you're using it properly. But
if you're depending on it and doing all these like
payments and you can't keep up. Then of course it's

(26:05):
you know, when you abuse of anything and don't use
it properly, it's going to be hurtful for you financially.
But I would say with the fycal score thing, I'm
not gonna lie. I think it's personally. I went live
about this a couple of days ago too and talked
about it, But I feel like it's overhyped because the
actual lenders have to choose which Fyco score model they're
going to check, and unless they opt into the Fyco

(26:28):
model that actually includes by now pay later, which is
called the FICO ten BNPL score, Like it's a new
it's a whole new algorithm and it says in the
name of the score BNPL. So if they don't check
that specific score using that algorithm, that data's not going
to matter. They're still just gonna run up your regular
old five goal ten Fyco nine fi Go eight. So
I really do think it's important for us to start

(26:50):
paying attention. When you're going to apply for a mortgage,
ask go and inquire which fi coscore are you checking,
because you might think you're putting all this work to
buy it now, pay later to boost your score, and
that might have no impact on what lenders even see
because they're going to check a completely different algorithm. So
I know it can sound a little complex, but there
are multiple different algorithms used, and they each have different names,

(27:12):
and the FICO model that includes BNPL is a separate one.
It's not going to be included in the one that
most lenders use. So just don't be shocked if there's
not really much of a bump to your credit or
to applications that you're putting out and you're expecting to
get approved and things like that, it might not actually
affect you as much in a positive way as you
might think because it's a completely separate score that a

(27:33):
lot of lenders might not even opt into using that
score at all.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yeah, if it's not reported, then it's just like it
never even happened. But I think it's good. I mean,
eventually it will be used to have a well rounded
understanding of how people treat credit and making payments and
things like that. I think it will help to boost credit.
But to you, it's point, I don't think it's going
to have an immediate impact in the short term, but over.

Speaker 4 (27:57):
The long term, I think it's a going the right direction.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah, for sure. I mean it it's about time like
that these models included non traditional credit types, and I
could go on my high horse about this, but I
wrote about it in my book how there's so many
credit types that are completely ignored by the financial system,
right like when you get rent to own payments, when
you have private score, Catholic score, religious school payments, when
you go and do like layaway plans. When there's so

(28:22):
many different things that people pay every single month that
don't get reported to the credit bureaus. So when you
pay your light, build, your gas bill, your electric bill,
those things do not get reported on your credit necessarily
unless you don't pay it. Then it does get reported
as a negative remark on your report. So to me,
it's like I wrote in my book, like heads you lose,

(28:43):
tails you lose because if you pay everything on time,
it doesn't help you. But if you pay it late,
it doesn't help. It hurts you. So it's like, no
matter what you do, it doesn't help you. So I
really do think it is long overdue that Fyico redoes
the algorithm and starts to include things that, let's be real,
predominantly low income communities tend to rely on like rent
to own, you know, making monthly payments on things that

(29:05):
are not necessarily a credit card or personal.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
I don't know, though, I actually been using. I bought
my husband at grill and I was like, yeah, I
don't want to pay upfront. Why not? It's no interest.
So I got it on an affirm loan. No, but
that's a good point. I remember when I used to
work at lending Tree, we would write and magnify money.
I did content for them, and we the number of
credit scores, like and you're right, there's so many variations
and you got the vantage score. They are products that

(29:31):
these credit bureaus sell, you know, so they have a
vested interest in creating a different model to entice these
lenders to purchase this different model, like, oh, well, try
our brand new fight what'd you call it? A FICO
BNPO ten BNPL. Yeah, but then the old krusty, dusty mortgage,
like the lenders like banks, they'll be using FIKO two

(29:52):
from like nineteen ninety four.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
Yeah, you know, so that takes them a long time
to update. I try to actually get a business loan
from and see that. You know, I've been with P
and C since college. It was my first bank, and yeah,
it was like, I have the money to cash flow it,
but why not just take out a loan and boost
my business credit? And it was only for you know,
twenty thousand dollars only, but in my head, it's not

(30:16):
too much. And it came back to me and said, oh, well,
you're we don't believe you're a business. Basically, it's not
like an legit business. It's not like a you know,
mom and pop shop. It's not like a mid sized company.
And they were like, oh, so you're making money from
being on the internet and like being a financial coach
and things like that, and they actually didn't give me

(30:36):
a loan, and I was like, you know what, I
can really put you on blast right now, but I'm
not going to do that. But I'm going to inform
you and like try to educate you on what my
business is doing, even though you have five years of
enough money coming in where you should be able to
give me a loan. And the moral stories that I
think a lot of these banks they just they think
very old school and they're not hype. They're not up

(30:58):
to up to speed with like what is happening in
his world today, where a lot of these gen Zers
or even our generation where we're building businesses on internet
and it's not a brick and mortar type of company
where you can say, hey, here's the address for the business.
You know, come see us or what have you. So
they're still catching up. And I would imagine with this
whole buy ol pay layer and having that part of

(31:20):
your FIICO, that's going to be just something else they
need to catch up on and probably won't see any
true impact of it over the next few years, I'll say,
five years from now maybe Yep.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
Agreed.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
It's crazy how like an entire country can have just
passed into law a bill that would you know, increase
our deficit by three trillion dollars over the next ten years.
But like it's totally fine. Here you go take some money.
It's fine. That's why, you know, at the big, beautiful
bill passing into law and the fact that it you know,
Trump signed it on the fourth of July, it was
just the kind of pomp and circumstance that he loves.

(31:55):
But if you want to pivot into that quickly, I
feel like you see how quickly the systems beat us down,
like the regular people, the everyday working class, like the
systems that are used to block us from access to capital,
to safe fair housing, like good schools, you know, good food,
like those types of systems, How quickly those rules don't exist,

(32:18):
or how they are broken down for the wealthy, you know,
for the powerful. And I've been thinking a lot more
about how how these major corporations, so many of them,
like they're they're cash flow negative, like literally not making
no money. They have so much debt, they're all debt,
you know, but they're going to look at your business mark,

(32:39):
you know, and you're you know, for five years of
five the past five years, like you said, bringing in capital,
you have a built in audience, like you have all
your receipts, but for whatever reason, you're not going to
get access to the same tools that you know, this
old class, old school kind of group is and that

(33:00):
just as Yeah, it's really frustrating, yep.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
And when you look at the credit types, it's so different,
like if you had been applying for twenty thousand dollars
a student loan, that they would have approved it before
you hit the submit button, so it's wild to me
that they won't allow you to grow a business this country,
which is literally built on capitalists, Like you're trying to
generate capital with your business and get an investment in that,
and that is literally what this country is predicated on.

(33:24):
And yet they're like, oh no, because it's not the
way that we like it to be done, versus it's
wild to me. And that is just a testament to
how the entire system in terms of government, in terms
of like financial systems, education systems, all of the systemic
barriers that exist, it's because they're dinosaur systems that don't
want to change, Like they really resist change. It's so

(33:47):
hard to change laws or to educate lawmakers who are
in their seventies and eighties and they're still sitting in
their positions of power with very little understanding of how
the world works today. You know, Like one little example
that gets under my skin when I go state by
state lobbying for financial education laws. You hear these people say, oh, yeah,
financial literacy education is so important. We have to teach

(34:09):
these kids how to write a check and how to
balance a check book. And I'm like, what, No, something
not going to do that? Anymore, what do you talk
We're just we're talking about two different things and calling
it the same thing. And that is so sad because
it's just a generational disconnect. M.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
Yeah, you have money management, then you have wealth generation.
What we teach about is wealth generation, not like how
to balance the check book. Like I remember those are
the classes I took in high school where they were
just talking about the accounting of it all. And I'm like,
we're not even going to use us into the into
the future. So so yeah, I think they need to
update the way they go about doing things, and I

(34:48):
think we'll see some change in the world, but who knows.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
So the other thing with the big beautiful bell that
I wanted, so we've talked about the well, just the
cost of that. The fact that it's been signings law
there are you know, it's funny as I went to
White House dot gov to like see the announcement and
I have never seen It's giving I did my homework
on the school bus, Like it's like twelve bullet points.

Speaker 4 (35:13):
That is the depth.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
I know it's a nine hundred page piece of legislation,
but on the actual like here's what's going to change,
It's like literally nine bullet points of what's changing, and
it's really difficult to find out what the how do
these things actually go into effect? So a couple of
there are some positive things from this bill. Yeah, for
sure that I personally am thrilled with the increase to

(35:36):
the salt deduction, the fact that it's been increased from
ten thousand to forty thousand dollars, which is amazing because
my property taxes are in effingsaying it's like twenty thousand
dollars a year. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
Wait, is that one of the ones that is permanent
or temporary through twenty twenty eight, because it's sill A
good question, because that's the part about this bill that
frustrated me because we're out here celebrating so many things
about it, which, look, a win is the wind will
take get But most of the wins that we're talking
about expire in twenty twenty eight, and most of the
damage being done is permanent, So we really have like

(36:08):
that piece is what I really want people to pay
attention to because to your point, yeah, we can celebrate
these things, but then if it expires in twenty twenty
eight and all the really bad things keep going, what
is the net effect of the bill.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
I think the salt is five years twenty twenty, okay,
nine or twenty thirty twenty nine thirty okay. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
The other challenge is that like after the four years
of this administration, they're going to use that against the
other party. Right, they're going to say, okay, well all
these things are expiring, and it saved all these people,
all types of money, and if you go with this
this other administration, then you're not going to get any
of that. I already know the language and the marketing
they're going to use.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
Well, we've seen it before with the with the stimulus checks,
the that's right with his this is all you know,
the twenty seventeen Tax and Jobs, Jobs and Tax Cut
Act or whatever it was called, the original Trump tax.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
Cuts, tax cuts and Jobs ACKed.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
There you go, We got there in the end. So
it makes permanent some of those tax erase, those Trump
the original Trump era tax cuts that were set in
twenty seventeen. They were supposed to expire this year, so
they've extended those. I've got the listeners too. Yeah, the
higher state and local tax deduction that's up for five years.

(37:23):
I was very interested as a mom the Child's Tax
credit has been permanently increased, permanently. It's like, oh, America
did something for children for one nice yea permanently increased
four and that could impact up to forty million families.
It hasn't been increased a ton. I think it was
like two thousand dollars has been raised to like twenty

(37:43):
two hundred or something. But you know, we'll take it.
And then these and.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
Then the Trump accounts also for kids, so be from
twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
You don't want to call it a Trump account. I
just want a thousand dollars.

Speaker 4 (37:55):
Origin was MAGA accounts.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
So let's talk about the actual original name. It was
twenty nineteen baby Boss. In twenty nineteen, it was baby
bonds because it was Corey Booker and Aana Presley who
introduced this whole idea in a bill back in twenty nineteen,
which was baby bonds, And for years they were talking
about baby bonds, baby bonds, baby Bonce, which was every
baby that's born thousand dollars in the account they invested
in treasury bonds or in no cost equity. You know,

(38:17):
they decide and then that girls and girls and girls
and they get access when they're eighteen. Doesn't that sound familiar?
That was Corey Booker and Ayana Presley's bill for baby
bonds twenty nineteen, which did not go anywhere because didn't
get the support and needed. And now all of a sudden,
we have every baby getting a thousand dollars that you
can invest in an index. Exactly the same thing except idea, yeah, yeaheah,

(38:37):
except it's called the Trump account. It's just so funny
because that's the one thing I feel like a lot
of people have been sending, isn't this a good thing?
Isn't this a good thing? I'm like, yeah, So give
Corey Booker and Aana Presley their credit because they came
up with the baby bond's idea.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
Every time I try to talk about it, like, I
bring that up just so people know, and I tag
Corey Booker because that's where originally came from.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
That's called the baby bonds Trump accounts.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
I love that so much more. I have a new
nephew that was just born in May. Hey, you baby, Alexander.
So I texted his mom and I was like, this
is coming, and she's like, cool, where do I sign up?
I said, I don't know. Nobody knows, it knows, Ye,
there's no information. Probably he's automatically signed up.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
Maybe chances are is going to be done by the
administration automatically being the Treasury Department, and then if not,
then the parents would have to go. Well, if the
parents don't do it initially, then the Treasury Department will
come in and do it automatically. I think the bigger
challenge is working with the institutions like the Vanguards and
Fidelitis atiyas to it. Yeah, so they'll probably custody through

(39:43):
some of the big studiends like TD and like Fidelity,
But it's more so of getting them on track because
you think the government works slowly the vanguards of the world,
the fidelis, well, let's Fidelity, but more vanguard. They work
very slowly and they're not They don't like change all
too much, hence.

Speaker 4 (40:04):
The reason why I stopped working there. But that's going
to be a bigger challenge.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
And just be aware of the rules because the rules
say that like the baby has to have a social
Security number and one at least one of the two
legal parents on the baby pir certificate must also have
a social Security number, so you know they're coming for
undocumented folks. But the point is you have to make
sure all of that stuff is very you know, thorough,
when you're doing your paperwork, when you're putting your child's

(40:31):
certificate together, getting all these people getting their socicurity numbers,
make sure everything is done correctly so that if you
do qualify, there's no issues getting your number from the system,
getting your baby correlated to their fathers.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
Remember they're having to do anything to get a Social
Security number for my kids. I mean, I just had
one two years ago. Maybe there's something you fill out
when you're in the hospital, but there's that's pretty much it.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yes, it is.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
They're tracked from there. I think a thousand bucks for
every kid is wonderful. We got to take a quick break,
pay some bills, and we'll be right back.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
I'm just gonna start calling them baby bonds, like I'm
just never going to say Trump account, Like it's just
not going to happen.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
Baby bonds. Well, I wish I could tell you to
go to some website and sign up for your baby bond,
but your baby also has to have I'm out my
kids are out of there. They're too old. Because you
have to have been born in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Five yea on or after January first, twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
That's right. I guess I could. I could break off
a little something for them. I already do break off
a little something for them. But it's nice.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
It's out there for sure, for sure because Toty Brokeradge
Accounts five twenty nine. You may, I mean you look,
there's no short short like there's we are not sure
of account types. What we are short on is educated
families and parents to understand the differences between these accounts, yes, exactly.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
Yeah, and they're very short on that because there's nothing
on that website. And then the other text break which
break deduction like I'll use these words are use interchangeable.
But I was trying to understand the social Security one
because I mean, I think my parents are both over
sixty five? Now, what about y'all?

Speaker 2 (42:07):
Mine are two? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (42:08):
Same which And I'm their own official financial advisor for
real on.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Their entire retirement plan, and their financial advisor and their
allowance management person and.

Speaker 4 (42:17):
Therapist and therapist.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Hey, all the things I can and hopes and dreams
all bottled. The one chauffeur oh, I don't have a.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Drums license, so that I'm got to deal with that one.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
It's such a New Yorker, it's such a new response.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
While the new tax package includes a deduction of up
to six thousand dollars for seniors ages sixty five and over,
don't get excited if you're either really really poor or
really really rich. It's more of like middle income seniors.
So it's been called a bonus, although it's technically a
deduction which reduces the amount of income subject to taxes,

(42:55):
so it doesn't necessarily mean that. It doesn't mean at
all you're going to get a six thousand dollars check
in the mail or in your refund.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
That would be a refundable tax credit. And that's why
I get out the tax credit right when they call
it a credit, when they call it a Social Security
tax credit, it I guess it gets under my skin
because it's not a credit. It's a deduction. And people
have to understand the difference between a credit, which is
dollar for dollar versus a deduction, which just lowers your
taxable income. So and if it's a refundable tax credit,
let's say you're you owe a thousand, five hundred dollars

(43:22):
in taxes, but you are owed a two thousand dollars
tax credit. If it's a refundable tax credit, you would
still get a five hundred dollars refund check because you
owed fifteen hundred, but then that credit was two thousand,
So the surplus that five hundred credit comes back to
you as a check, as a refund check. That's not
the case with deductions. Deductions just get you to zero,
and they don't they don't give you any money for it.

(43:43):
So because this is a deduction and not a credit,
especially not a refundable tax credit, no one is getting
a check. You can just lower your taxable income buy
six thousand dollars, and that's only if you make seventy
five thousand dollars or less. And then when it starts
phasing out at seventy five thousand, and if you make
over one hundred and seventy five thousand, then there's no
benefit to you at all. This doesn't even apply to you.
So I think this is from what I read, it

(44:04):
covers up to ninety percent of people who do collect
Social Security benefits because they're just really there. Most of
them are under seventy five thousand a year and a
six thousand dollars time.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
They're so poultry in the first place. First of all,
let's be seventy five for individuals, seventy five k for
individuals and up to one hundred and fifty k if
you're married and fining shortly, right.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
Yeah, but the difference between like the credit and the
deduction is a really big deal, and I feel that
people will continue to think that it's a credit, but
it's very much not. So I was looking at it
in the average that they feel people will be able
to get would be about six hundred and seventy dollars
per year on average. As you know, the actual savings

(44:47):
which only is about thirteen dollars per week. So as
much as their chuting is being this huge thing and
people think it's a credit, is really not helping them
out as much as they probably need.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
Yeah, It's two things that kind of pissed me off
about it because I'm I'm the one that manages my
parents or security benefits and their weekly allowance and their
finances and everything, and so I'm always paying attention to
what they do with Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid,
and I feel like this changed. Two things that I
noticed in the language that pissed me off. One was
they kept calling it a Social Security tax credit. It's
not a credit, it's a deduction. So that's first, first

(45:19):
of all, that's correct.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
Lawmakers were saying that.

Speaker 2 (45:21):
Yeah, and in the media and the press, so social
Security tax credit. And then the second thing they were
saying that really made me mad was that it's going
to eliminate taxes on Social Security income. And that is
not true. It's just that most people don't make more
than six thousand dollars a year on Social Security benefits.
So that's why it kind of cancels it out. But
it's not repealing taxes on social Security income. Social Security

(45:43):
income is still taxable. Let's all be real. It shouldn't be,
but it is. And so at this point, it's like
misinformation trying to make this a selling point for it,
and it's just not factually right.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
Well you heard it here, ba fam, come here for
all of your clarificational needs. This big, beautiful pile of
tangled web of nonsense with some little little and I
do want to end some little bright spots. Yes, but
this is one of those ones. Youan Nelly, Like you said,
there's a trip wire. In three years, this expires, so
it's definitely going to become a bargaining chip in the

(46:15):
next election. I'm just praying for like what can get him.
He's in his eighties and now we need like a
little strokey stroke, like like just a little like coorinery
by like something. He's got to die sometime soon, right, Oh?
Can I just say that, like, when is this man
going to die? I think dead is the only way

(46:36):
we get rid of it is full do not. I'm
not condoning assassination. I'm looking for natural causes, you know. God.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
The bigger issue is less the administration and more so
of like the people that I feel like he's enabling. Yeah,
because after him, and you know, even the first four
years with Trump, I think there was definitely a wave
of people thinking, Okay, well, if Trump can do this,
then I'm going to do it too. All his supporters,
I think are more harmful than what they wore before.

(47:06):
I think it's going to be a total wave of
politicians that are coming out saying, hey, if Trump is
able to win, then I could be polarizing as well.
So I don't see that impact of what he's putting
out there is going to live for multiple generations. That's
why I worry about more, because the person only lives
for a finite amount of years, but the impact and
who he's able to persuade through propaganda like that lasts

(47:30):
for multiple generations. And hopefully it doesn't get worse. I
don't know if it can get worse, but hopefully.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
That's another reason I want to come back to Atlanta
is I just feel like here, my family and our
boats can make it a red state. Yeah, at different,
but Georgia's I have hope for Georgia. I have hope
for Georgia. We got very close with Stacy Abrams. I
feel like here my politics matter a lot more. And

(47:58):
because you know, and it's sad to say, but as
a mother who's had her children, I've my reproductive health
is less of a front of center issue for me.
You know, moving here guns and guns now, that is
a huge one. I'm not gonna lie and sending my
kids to school in a state where guns are just
on everyone's you know, everyone's got you know, there's more

(48:19):
guns than people. And I'm sure George's from of those
states too, And like that is a terrifying, you know
thought for me. But yeah, it's definitely. It's definitely factoring
in to the eperation that was great for.

Speaker 4 (48:31):
Me when I first moved down here.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
Now, I grew up in the country, like small town Pennsylvania,
and everyone owned a gun, but you didn't see it
all too often unless you were like hunting or whatever
you like. I shot many of guns growing up going
to Philly, like you didn't really see it too much.
But here in Georgia, you could be in the elevator
with someone who has a gun just right there, and
they can range from people who are you know, kids

(48:53):
are eighteen all the way to someone was holding he
had like a little purse and he dropped. The person
didn't have zipped up. His gun just fell right out.
He was the older gentleman at the bar, right, So
everyone carries down here and you're somewhat convinced that you
need a gun. I've had many of conversations with friends
where are like, oh, you don't have one. I'm like, yeah,

(49:15):
kind of the dangers of them. I've shot one more
than you guys have, and I don't think I need one.

Speaker 4 (49:21):
So it's interesting for sure.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
Yeah, it definitely creates like a rhetoric of like us
versus them, you know, and that it's a little bit
of what you're talking about with like trumpetboldening people to
create this like tribalism and like all of these divisive
like energies. But I feel like that is kind of
what guns do to people, because you either have one
or you don't. And then when you notice that everybody
around you has one, you feel like you need one
because if they shoot and I got nothing, I have

(49:45):
to protect myself too. So and then especially being in
the South as a black man, I imagine there's so
much more on you because of that. I mean, obviously
the deep deep South even worse, right, So I feel
like there's this pressure because even just being in Miami,
a lot of my black male friends are like, no,
I gotta have one because I can't be the one
that doesn't have a gun and somebody, or if you
own a business, there's this pressure to have a gun

(50:06):
to protect your establishment, to protect your business. So I
feel like that that is the energy that starts to
circulate and then you end up with like more guns
than people situation because of that kind of stuff spreading
as opposed to it being like a reasonable approach to well,
who are who which folks kind of need to have
a gun. Maybe there's a designated person that needs to
have a gun to protect a premises, but not everybody

(50:27):
in the premises with a gun at their hip. Like
it just you know, it goes borderline like nonsensical once
you start going that far and making everyone think that
they need one to protect themselves rather than you know,
it being logical. Yeah, it's fear, there is Yeah, there's
all fear based exactly.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
It's all fear based. The way through that for me
has always been like being really involved in the local community.
And one of my neighbors, she has a son, Leyton,
who is very he's he's in his forties, but he
is he has down syndrome and he runs away a lot,
and he's got he's been missing for days before. It's
been all scary. But one of the first things, and

(51:03):
he's a black man, and one of the first things
she's done is like take him to the local police department,
introduce him, like, let them know who he is. So
if he's acting a radict or someone complains about him
because he's you know, he's trespassing or he's wandered off
on you know, someplace that they And at first I
was it was chilling, but also I'm like, that's very smart.
That's like the most you can do is try to

(51:24):
It's fear of the unknown. It's why people aim first,
ask questions later. And that recognition, the humanizing each other,
humanizing us to other people. Is sad to say that
we need to do that, but it's like.

Speaker 3 (51:37):
Is reality survival? I mean that was I mean, it's
across the board too. Like I remember growing up when
I was maybe like fourteen fifteen, my mom introduced me
to the police officers in my town and said, hey,
this is Mark, Baby Mark basically don't don't.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
F with them.

Speaker 3 (51:52):
And they were like, okay, cool, you know, getting high
honors and all the things, like he's not gonna be
in trouble. If he does getting trouble, bring him to me.
It'll be worse than what you can never do to him.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
So and she was, damn, that's that old school motherhood.
Nowadays he got the gentle parent you got mom.

Speaker 3 (52:13):
My mom was a hot security prison guard. So where
do you know where Luigi was at? Well, he's still
at Smith Hildy. That's where mom, that's where she retired from. Wow,
so hot security prison. It's interesting because he's like basically
in my hometown, and people that I know that are

(52:33):
locked away, they know him personally at this point.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
That's why a guy who killed the CEO of United
States Yea, Mario and Luigi. It's sad to me that
that was like not that long ago. We don't I
already kind of forgot. I oh, the new cycle. Well,
speaking of the new cycle, onto the next headline. Blah
blah blah. Microsoft is laying off thousands of people I
had I guess. I knew Microsoft was huge, but four

(52:58):
hundred thousand or two was a two hundred thousands, like
hundreds of thousands of workers across the world. This company has.
It's insane, but on the whole and not always makes
a big headline, but on the whole. The job market,
as they say, it's fine, but as we said earlier,
you need to be working your sources. You need internal referrals.
Do not expect the applicant tracking system to do you

(53:18):
any favors. Let's move on to some fun stuff. So
I was not in New Orleans this past weekend. I
need essence Fest to change the date to any other season.
Why are we in New Orleans and the ass crack
of summer Black women?

Speaker 2 (53:35):
Why that's probably when they get the on the space
and the rentals.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
And I don't care. We deserve better, like let it
be February, you know, like that's great. But essence Fest happened,
and I follow a lot of creators to it, and I
have friends of the show who were there. And one
of the biggest, well two of the biggest headlines negative
about essence Fest have been Target was a big spot.

(54:02):
I bet they wrote the most fat check. But I
also feel like they probably had that sponsorship locked in
pre they came out with those dates. Correct, Yeah, that
was probably way well in advance. And the second thing
is the second and some creators were like, oh, you know,
I can't condone Target being a sponsor. I am not

(54:22):
going to infest. I'm like, girl, you don't want to
pay for that flight. You couldn't get a brand to
bring you out. You didn't want to pay for your
own hotel. That's why you're not going. Yeah. And then
this concert that they had, they had like all these
they had a glow rilla, they had Maxwell baby Face

(54:43):
and Laurence Hill. It's my boo.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
I just saw his tiny desk like a couple of
weeks ago. I know I'm late, but it was so good.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Isn't new?

Speaker 2 (54:53):
It was a couple of months ago, but only and
it was so good. Go watch the tiny desk of
Max Well, so fucking good.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
So Laurence Hill was their closing act. She left the
stage or she started at three thirty seven am.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
Oh no, no wait, I mean, I'm not shocked, but
has worked lately.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
I would have been awake, but not for stuff there.

Speaker 4 (55:18):
There were some organizational challenges from what I've.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
Read, Yes, defend her, please, yes of.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
Her, like showing up her usual lateness.

Speaker 4 (55:27):
That's done.

Speaker 1 (55:27):
It was not her, and she apparently did a really
good show. It wasn't for nobody.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
No, so it would happen? Was it sound system logistics?

Speaker 3 (55:38):
No?

Speaker 1 (55:38):
They had too many acts and they started the night
too late, like I don't know how people couldn't have foreseen.
Probably this means Lauren's not coming out until the butt
cracked like.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
Me, But how do you not skip her? To get
Lauren out sooner? Because she's the big name that Drew's
probably so many women to come like exactly Hill want
to me. As soon as she arrived, they should have
been like, okay, everyone else is getting booted because Laurence here.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
Like what. According to the so i uh local reporter
NOLA dot com, it was running late from the start,
so they started late. They also had Lucky Day Coco Jones.
Apparently they also used prerecorded tracks, which that always pisses
me off, like why am I here? They had eight
acts on the main stage. Glovilla apparently started forty five

(56:26):
minutes after the Isisley Brothers were scheduled to start. After
they were scheduled to start. Gloverlla started forty five minutes
after that, So yeah, they were way way behind. You know,
I think this is the thing, like these big black
festivals and conferences. You know, we got Black Tech Week
is coming up. I'm about to go to NABJ the

(56:47):
convention in August, and then we got Afro Tech. Like
these big black cultural like conference events. There's usually people
on the internet complain like I don't know what it
is about, like about how easy or how we like
to overly criticize these huge juggernaut you know, events that

(57:11):
are by us and for us. But there's so many, like,
there's so much negativity about it.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
It's really easy to criticize if you've never tried to
conduct a conference before.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
Now there are some I could hardly stand a two
year old's birthday party that I have to conduct in
my own house.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
There are they're just pure negligence and like oversight and
things like that that could be managed. But when you're
trying to coordinate a bunch of different personalities and people
who have clout, and people are coming in, you're navigating
private planes coming in, and you're flying into New Orleans
and secured, there's so many things that go along. I

(57:48):
think there should be a level of expectation that, hey, like,
it's not going to go perfectly. Frankly, if it goes perfectly,
I would say like something had have gone wrong because
it's almost nearly impossible. And you know, essence Fest has
grown substantially over the years or trying to make it
even more valuable than what it was, you know, last year.

Speaker 4 (58:08):
So cul to them for.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
Continue to have these events with all the uncertainty that's
happening within the country. I think people just have to
I mean, it's hard to say, but you kind of
have to expect a lot of the things like that.
I mean, Louren Hill popping in at four o'clock in
the morning is a little different, but I think it's
more so the change management conversation and talking to people

(58:34):
about what is going on. It's like when you're in
the air and you're filling, like some turbulence. Like I
love when Delta pops on and says, hey, we're gonna
see a little bit of turbulence, like nothing to worry
about whatever. But if you don't say that, then you're
freaking out because you don't know what's going on. That's
the only thing I could think of come a fearful flyer.
But Delta has really helped.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
Are you that's cute.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
I'm not a fearful flyer, but I still think I
appreciate it because it's just from more information, better, just awareness,
you know. And I worry frankly about Lauren Hill's health,
like she's up at four in the morning performing this
is sleeping again.

Speaker 1 (59:09):
People said the show was good, and she really didn't
seem to mind that. There was hardly anybody left in
the super.

Speaker 3 (59:14):
Fans stuck around rightly, nothing but great things to say.

Speaker 4 (59:18):
Regardless, I love that.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
With her voice. You know what's funny is one of
these one of the articles was like it was also
what it sounds like is you have the gen X
boomer crowd at Essence Fest. You've probably been going since
the beginning getting a little cranky that it's not as
comfortable or it's not like it used to be back
in the olden days. And I think that's where maybe
there's a disconnect as well, because you know, catering your

(59:44):
gen zs is that gonna see any one day? Am
I going to be bitching?

Speaker 2 (59:49):
I could see that. I mean, look, I'm not trying
to be up at three thirty in the more.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
I look, I'm a I'm a millennial. And even me,
I would be like, what the hell three thirty in
the morning, Like, are you kidding me? When are people sleeping?
I just like, our health is so important. My sleep
is the number one. My sleep, my working out, my
eating right, my drinking water. Sleep is everything. I would
literally show up here looking crazy if I did not
get my six hours minimum of sleep, like how and

(01:00:13):
usually that happens about the middle of My sleep is
usually through thirty in the morning, so that would bother me.
If it was me that would bother.

Speaker 4 (01:00:20):
Me, I'd be on till about eleven.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
I mean, it's it's on top of the fact that
you're at a conference, your networking with people, like if
you're a brand, like you're talking to different companies like
you guys know.

Speaker 4 (01:00:30):
How I operate in these conferences.

Speaker 3 (01:00:32):
I have a good three hours where I'm like, I
can give you my all, but then I'm going back
to the hotel room and I'm going to see same.
I'm with y'all for a little bit, you know, shake hands,
kiss babies, whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:00:45):
Then I'm out. I can't. I can't do the all day,
early into the morning.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
Nobody's ask you to kiss their baby.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
You can't get nothing, Panamandy, Mark, you can't get nothing.

Speaker 4 (01:01:00):
For everything I do.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
Do you have any nieces or nephews, so Mark.

Speaker 4 (01:01:05):
I do? I do.

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
I love my niece's nephews, so, two of which grew
up with me. I was basically like their big brother
and basically raised uff there much do you change diapers?
I did growing up.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Blessed growing up. I did. My little brother he needs
to step it up. He's like, I'm happy to have
you here, but that not not me, not me.

Speaker 4 (01:01:27):
I don't understand that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
It's all about upbringing, right, So for me, it was
a very normal. Here, I'm going to show you how
to go about doing it, and that was all of
maybe ten So I know how to do all of
that stuff and don't mind it at all. It's like
I much rather than be clean, than be walking around
smell like he knows what.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
A little baby rash on their booties.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
Baby, that's a real man right there. Good job, Mark.

Speaker 3 (01:01:50):
I'm trying to remember who mentioned that recently where he
said that's my son or daughter. But I'm not gonna
be changing diapers and one's we need.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
To cancel them. Can we use cancel culture correctly? Can
we cancel people for shit that they should be getting
canceled for? Because that's a trash as father, that is trash?

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
What do you mean by that?

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
All right, y'all, we got a late start. We gotta
take a break. We gotta come back and do Brown Boots,
Brown Break. All right, ba fan will be right back.
We're gonna do Brown boosts, Brown Break, and we have
some good ones for y'all. Stay tuned, be right back, Okay, Bavan.
We're back, We're back. We're back this time for my favorite.
I always say it's my favorite time. I love it all.

(01:02:33):
It's my show. I made them up. It is always
fun to hear what y'all are either loving or hating.
And that is my favorite segment. Brown Boost, Brown Break.
So we're gonna boost something positive that we are happy about,
or we're gonna break something that we want to vent about.
Which one of y'all? I can go first? Y'all can
go first.

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
I feel like I'm a broken record on here, but
I'll go first and make it quick.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
Not a reason.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
Last time I was on here, my brown boost was
Texas became the twenty ninth state to require a full
semester of financial literacy course for high school graduation. And
now the state, the baby, tiny, little, itty bitty state
of Delaware has passed a bill through the Senate and
through the House and it is sitting on the Governor's
desk right now. Once the governor signs it, Delaware will
officially become the thirtieth state thirty require financial literacy for

(01:03:21):
all high school grads. That is huge thirty states. Because
when I started this work in twenty twenty one, there
were only eight states. So now the fact that there's
thirty and just a couple of years, y'all. Like I'm
telling you, it's spreading like wildfire, and it's a massive
winning my girl a raise, you know what I'm saying.
I'll take it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
I'm saying, give my girl a big fat raise. Yeah,
shut out to Delli. Yes, that's incredible, all right, Mark,
what you're gonna do?

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
All right?

Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
So I don't know if it's a boost or a break,
but it's a book that I'm reading right now that
you guys have probably read already called Die with Zero.

Speaker 4 (01:03:57):
And I think the book, oh no.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
I haven't heard about it was it's so good.

Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
So basically it breaks down the way that I feel
like a lot of financial educators might have started in
their financial journey, where it was hold all his money
and you know, invest all his money, put it away
for the future, and then when that future comes up,
we spend some of it. But because of the way
that we think, we end up being frugal with that money,

(01:04:23):
and we end up passing that on to the next generation,
which I think is a great thing. But when you're
thinking about Dying with Zero, it's basically thinking about today
and saying, how can I maximize my utility my happiness
now by using money as oh I love it, yeah,
to do the things you want to do, have a
certain budgets, have a certain budget for the kids and

(01:04:48):
making sure that they're good, but not necessarily, you know,
just hoarding that money until later. And you know, he
talks about even our parents that might have that money
being put away and they're not passed and onto us
at times where we probably need it the most, like
when I was for example, when I was twenty five
and I was struggling and I was trying to pay

(01:05:08):
off debt, and my mom and dad had it. You know,
it'd be great if they could have given me some
money to help me in that moment. Or you know,
there's a story about you know, parents not giving their
kids money for their first home or what have you
because they're putting their money away. So there's things I
agree with and some things I disagree with. But I
think my bigger takeaway is really rethinking and rewiring your

(01:05:32):
brain to think, Okay, well, how am I enjoying right now?
Because we're in the era where you know, we are
in good health, and we can do the things, we
can travel and all that is and you know, something
we should take for granted because you know, we hit
fifties or sixty or seventies, we won't be able to
do all of that, and we'll be looking back saying
I wish I had my youth to enjoy those things.

(01:05:55):
Go to Bali for the third time in three years,
which I may or may not be doing, or going
on that trip that you've always wanted to go on
and you always said no. So it has helped me
to have more of a balance.

Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
I would say I love that book. It definitely changed
my mind on insurance too, because I used to just
be like, oh, insurance, it's just a damn scam. But
like when thinking about the fact that insurance is actually
just a way to protect yourself from the fears that
you have and from the risk that you can take.
So there are certain types of insurance, like you know,
disability insurance or you know long term care insurance, Like
there's things where it does probably make sense if that

(01:06:33):
thing is keeping you up at night to a point
where you can't rest in p you can't sleep peacefully,
you can't like be you know, then then maybe that
type of insurance is actually suitable for you for your
financial plan. So they changed my mind on that. And
then the second thing was the piece you talked about with,
like the inheritance. That is huge. I mean, I'm not
one I've never even once thought i was going to
get inheritance. My parents have nothing to pass down. But

(01:06:54):
I've always been the type of person who's thinking about,
like what my nieces and nephews will inherit from me,
and how I can make sure that my will and
like that, I set up trusts and things. And now
I'm like, oh, wait a minute, that makes so much sense,
because if I wait to die till they inherit their money,
then by the time they receive it, they're already in
their fifties and sixties, they don't need it. They needed
it when they were in their thirties with a kid
and trying to pay a mortgage and trying to pay

(01:07:14):
for school. That's when they needed it. But at the
same time, it really depends on how much money you have,
because you might not have as much when they're in
their thirties as opposed to thirty forty years later. They
inherit a lot more so it is a little bit
of a balance.

Speaker 1 (01:07:26):
It's a trust fund of my mid thirties, right, which for.

Speaker 2 (01:07:30):
Sure, Dude, even just even just ten or twenty thousand
dollars could have gone so far to help most people
in their thirties and forties as opposed to waiting for
one hundred thousand dollars inheritance twenty years later. I really
do think it would have been more useful to get
twenty k when they desperately needed it. So I do
think that that was a really solid point. I just
think the math sometimes you kind of got to think
about the math. But I think Mark, that book was

(01:07:51):
so good. I read it a couple months ago, and
I've been recommending it to everybody not me. Now I
recommended it to you, Bill Perk, DI was zero, Go
read it. It's so good.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
You did so good. Oh, I don't remember. I didn't remember.
I do need another book club pick, ba, It's gonna
have a new book club pick in August. So I've
been looking. If you have any ideas, BA fan, let
me know. I have some, but I don't know. I'm
kind of shying away from strictly like financial books, but
that one sounds like more philosophical almost it's like a combo.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
It is a combo. Yeah, I'm not appreciated about it
because it is about money, but it's really about life
more than it's about money, and how to make sure
you're maximizing for happiness in life and joy and meaning.

Speaker 1 (01:08:33):
You know, I was I saw a clip of Michelle
Obama's interview. Where was she interviewing at? I think it
was NPR. And by the way, Michelle missus Obama, I
think our invite lost in the mail, but you're out here.
She sure is on these podcasts. I'm just saying, well,
because she's morning her podcasts where yes, exactly, but you know,
and she's she's done a little feed drop with BA

(01:08:54):
we partnered on that. But I'm just saying, like Michelle
Malia specifically Malia saw Friends of Malia or Sasha. If
you listen to this podcast and you know Malia or
Sasha or maybe Michelle's intern, that's how we're going to
get to her. We need the youths Okay, let her
know about Brown ambition, just mention it and that we'd
love to have her on. But anyway, she told us

(01:09:15):
really like not chilling, not in like a scary way,
but just gave me chills. But she was talking about
her mother, who had passed away earlier this year, like
ear late last year she passed away, and how one
of the last things she said to Michelle, they were
just watching TV or something, and she turned to Michelle
and was like, that went really fast, you know, as

(01:09:38):
in life, like it went really fast. And it's that
whole saying of the days are long, but you know
the years are short. And I've been trying to when
I'm having my like really stressful moments that I'm just
begging for the day to end, like please let me
these kids go to sleep, let me be able to
shut my brain off, like begging, like die for that time.

(01:10:00):
I just it's always a good reminder. I think that
mindset of like we only have this one precious life.
We actually look like I may think I look really hagrid,
but I'm actually really hot compared to what I'll be
in another forty years, and like really healthy, like you said,
like my health maybe my back is hurting, my eyesight
is starting to go a little bit, but there's still

(01:10:21):
a lot of life to be excited about and to
take advantage of. So yeah, I loved that. Like that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:28):
I want to add one thing that I heard from
doctor Peter Atilla, and I thought it was brilliant. I'm
not a parent, but since Mandy, since you are, I'm
gonna give this to you and everybody listening whom I
have kids, child is having a tantrum. You are in
the thick of it. You want to just fling them
across the room and not be dealing with them. And
you know, and you say to yourself, what if in

(01:10:51):
this moment, what actually happened is just now, I was
ninety one years old, eighty seven years old, seventy five
years old put x number age right, much older. And
my kids are grown and they barely talk to me anymore.
They're live, busy, living their lives. You know, I maybe
talk to them once a week or whatever. And I've

(01:11:11):
been given this moment, this magical moment to go time
travel back in time to this moment when I get
to experience them this little again right now. And that's
the moment that you have. And yes, they're having a tantrum,
But is it gonna like is that gonna reach I get.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
To be in my thirty eight year old body.

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
Yeah, you literally get to come back right now.

Speaker 1 (01:11:35):
I'm still thirty seven for one more month, thirty seven,
thirty seven, Come on now, thirty seven, you get to
come back be thirty seven again. Yeah, my mom sent
me literally what you're talking about, you, ellie. My mom
sent me an instant, like a real today. That was
a woman reading a letter exactly like that, like you've
been you've time traveled. You're waking up in your thirty

(01:11:56):
eight year old body. You know that was And I,
of course I was crying, like, say, am right?

Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
Is it just so?

Speaker 1 (01:12:02):
Also? Yeah, shout out to anybody who was changing their
medication regimen for mental health. Like I actually stopped taking zoloft.
I've been weaning off for two months now. I'm remembering
what it feels like to feel all the things, and
I cry all the damn nuts.

Speaker 2 (01:12:19):
Anything can get me, Okay, I.

Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
Know I cried. Everything is nuts speaking of Amaya Bia,
I'm a Baia. That's gonna be my boost. I couldn't
tell if I should do a booster or break, but
I knew it was going to be about Love Island.
I knew it. Here's what I want. Margo, Please tell
me are you at the villa with us. Have you
been watching I have no Love Island.

Speaker 3 (01:12:46):
But I had a conversation. I was Atlanta Rudd Club yesterday.
One of my good buddies was like, you just have
to watch a first episode, then go all the way
to episode twenty and start there.

Speaker 4 (01:12:59):
And I was like, oh, that's very wild.

Speaker 2 (01:13:00):
Oh that's really smart.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
Yeah, I like to watch the recap from last week.
So I'll skip the episode, watch the recap, skip to
the end of the episode, watched the last fifteen minutes.
Nothing in the middle was worth it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:10):
We don't really watch it at all.

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
Well, this is the thing. Like my cousin got me
into Love Island back in the pandemic and she was
like twenty four anyway, so she's like, oh, and this
is when it was just the UK version, so it
was on Hulu. Them joints were like seventy episodes long.
They were at the villa all summer, every day. So no,
I did not watch seventy hours. I had. I had
a life. I has some dignity, But yeah, I developed

(01:13:35):
this habit. But if I get locked in, but even
like even now, like so the viral the couple that
everyone who watches Love Island has been talking about is Nikodladria.
I didn't know. I was still a giddy thirteen year
old shipping the Pink and Green Ranger. She said, that
is what it feels like. I I need I need

(01:13:59):
their love to survive. I legitimate. I was really I
don't know how it is tapped. It is really tapped
into this, like, okay, thirteen is too old, Like eight
year old me. I was so invested in the Pink
and Green Rainfair. I mean like, and they gave us nothing.
They gave us crumbs because it's a children's show. There
was no smoochy smooches. There was barely like a date scene.

(01:14:21):
But whatever, I'm lean. I'm just like, I'm letting it happen.
I am. I love love. I love watching them fall
them love. It's really really cute. It's so cute, and
I want to do a boost for Nicolandria and I
want to say, we have to use our voices and vote, y'all.
We have to be I never.

Speaker 2 (01:14:38):
Watch when I watch you don't vote, you're my quote
worst kind of American girls, because watching it live, you'll
be texting me live and I'm like, I didn't watch
it yet. Because I'm doing all this stuff. I watch it,
watch it to vote.

Speaker 1 (01:14:50):
You just got to go with the love isolent.

Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
App Yes, true, but like I always feel like I
have to be up on what happened. But like I
usually will watch it when I'm have to be.

Speaker 1 (01:14:58):
A you don't always have to be an education voter.
Just vote. I mean, is that what you're like, Gandria,
that's what you're talking to promote for Love Island.

Speaker 2 (01:15:07):
Yes, I'll just vote anything to Calandria from now on,
just to make you happy the go.

Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
But some and I blame the person on threads who
sent me a link to some fan fiction because.

Speaker 4 (01:15:21):
You text me.

Speaker 2 (01:15:22):
I read this fan fiction. It was so good. And
this was before they even hooked up, Before they even
hooked up, I.

Speaker 1 (01:15:29):
Was reading a chat. I'm like, oh, it was very spicy.
I was like, at this is when it's sad. I
was at a family function this past week. It's for
my father in law. Everyone's chatting. I'm in the corner
because chapter thirteen just dropped of the fanficad.

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
Like, give me alone anutes.

Speaker 1 (01:15:48):
It's a little drip, drip, a little some some, but no,
I'm so excited for my girl my guy. I want
them to win. However, I do want to just like
to bring it down to reality a little bit. I
got to talk about the reason why they've had this
additional opportunity too, to find each other again into couple up.
It's and for marks, the marks of the world who

(01:16:09):
may not know. So Nick, yeah, yeah, it's fine. But
you were happy for me because you have love for me.
We're friends, Like you're happy. You see how happy I am? Right,
you invested? So, so what Nick was coupled up with Sierra.
Sierra is this influencer and she's been an influencer for
a long time. She's had hundreds of thousands of followers

(01:16:30):
across socials for a long time. And even with all that,
bitch did not think to go back into her you know,
her history and take on anything problematic. And so they
had uncovered So I don't know who. I low key
think it was the producers of the show. I think
they's the mom.

Speaker 2 (01:16:49):
Social mode.

Speaker 1 (01:16:51):
So they found some They found a post where she
was talking about her Boatox, trying to be a cool
girl like I acknowledge my I acknowledge my Boatox. I'm
a cool girl. I'm casual about it Hi, Ronnie, my
dad's friends.

Speaker 2 (01:17:03):
It ain't botoks at like twenty one years old?

Speaker 1 (01:17:05):
Is so sad? Oh crazy, so sad, so much lip filler?
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (01:17:09):
Trying not to judge. But if you're twenty one years
old though.

Speaker 3 (01:17:11):
Like.

Speaker 1 (01:17:13):
Too much disposable income. They needs to read that book.
I was zero, Do something regularly, do something good with
him money. But so she has said in her posts
like I'm doing this because my eyes like a little
C word C hi n ky.

Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
Which how are we.

Speaker 1 (01:17:29):
Still like using that word in twenty twenty five. I
have known since I was like nine.

Speaker 2 (01:17:34):
Really I thought that post was from when she was
a teenager? Is that from now?

Speaker 1 (01:17:37):
No? No, no, no, no, no teenager? Yeah no no,
it was an Instagram story she's getting her botox. I'm
talking about like I've known for years that, like since
I was in middle school. I remember because I had
a lot of I had a couple of Asian friends,
and I remember them they would use that word and
for it was kind of like the N word, like
they could say it. Maybe it would be their a
well aim profile name like maybe you know, but like

(01:18:01):
you wouldn't use that word anyway. So she used it
to say why she was getting her botox and how
could you let someone put a needle so close to
your eyeball? Oh my god, And I don't even know
how that would help. But the shape of her eye,
she said, was a little C word, and she wrote
that in the post, and it was that was the
initial like, oh no, Sarah Sierra said this racist thing.
It was like from twenty twenty three, the mob continued.

(01:18:23):
A couple of mob members sent receipts she had said
it even before that, or no, she had went on
to say it again a year later, twenty twenty four,
and someone had DMed her like, hey, we don't say
that that's racist, we don't use that.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
Take it down.

Speaker 1 (01:18:37):
So sorry, I won't do it again.

Speaker 2 (01:18:38):
Sorry, bitch did it again. But she didn't take it
down though, How sorry are you if you didn't take
it down?

Speaker 1 (01:18:42):
And you can not? Sorry? Yeah, not at all. So
she gets she gets ghosted from the villa. All of
a sudden, she's no longer there Mark, they've taken a
fear out for her personal reasons. She had to go home,
and she's but I'm actually I feel I don't feel
compassion for her, because obviously she said these horrible things,

(01:19:02):
and she needs to not be have a platform like this.
But imagine you're in this villa. You are with the
finest man who looks like.

Speaker 5 (01:19:12):
And you're clothed like it, and you're clothes and you're
clothed off and somehow, somehow you have overcome Alandria, even
though I know he never ever stopped loving Alandra, somehow
you still have this man.

Speaker 1 (01:19:25):
Then you ask it's and you're in Fiji. Then your
usk it's escorted out. You got to go back home
to your life, and you're like, not that sad, because
you're hot, you're young, you're an influencer, like, you're probably rich, Like,
go back to La Shore. But then you get your
phone back and you find out that not only have
you lost you know, not only have has these these
racist things that you've said been uncovered. And that's really embarrassing.

(01:19:47):
But Nick's own mother didn't want him with you. She
was rooting for Landria the whole time. There is memes,
there is a whole movement, there's fan fiction. There's thirty
eight year old moms out here obsessed with you, with
someone else taking.

Speaker 2 (01:20:01):
Your band, and she lost two hundred thousand plus followers.
She was about to hit a million, and then she
lost two hundred thousand followers.

Speaker 1 (01:20:10):
That kind of downfall. I mean, I don't I don't
wish harm about anybody except for the commander in chief
Orange clockwork, Like obviously, I hope that she does. I
hope she I hope she comes out on the other side, okay,
because I know that the internet is so mean and
so like so violent, you know, aggressive is the word aggressive?

(01:20:37):
And I want I want to be clear. I want Landria,
I want Nicolandria to live on. I want them to
get married. I want the wedding to be televised. I
want to be a bridesmaid, all those things. I think
Sierra has suffered enough embarrassment, like yeah, and the core public.
I think the fact that she's getting death threats, her
family's getting death threats, like yeah, you know, too much,

(01:20:59):
we'd be doing too much, which.

Speaker 3 (01:21:01):
Yeah, I feel like, of course she shouldn't have done
any of that, and hopefully it's a learning lesson for
her and all the people that are watching Love Island.
But marketing is marketing, right, like if she was to
take advantage of it, we're thinking about the other side
write a book, you know, get something, create something of

(01:21:21):
your own.

Speaker 1 (01:21:21):
What would it say?

Speaker 4 (01:21:23):
I don't know, but I learned the hard way.

Speaker 1 (01:21:26):
Don't put out on national television for twenty five seconds
with the boy who's clearly in love with a goddess.

Speaker 2 (01:21:33):
A goddess who sells elevators, sells she's a woman. No,
I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 1 (01:21:40):
She has a real career.

Speaker 2 (01:21:42):
She is fine a she's fine af She beautiful head
to toe. She's probably the most beautiful or second most
beautiful woman in ever loved. For real. Between her and Shelley,
I can't tell. They're both freaking gorgeous. But I mean,
you know, she crashed out a little bit about the
tailor situation and lost a little bit of respect. I
was on there on that one, A little embarrassing for her,
But no, one hundred percent. I'm with you. She's gorgeous
and Nick and her are cute. But I just I

(01:22:04):
don't know. I agree with you, Mark. I feel like
it should, if anything, be a learning experience. But it's
kind of hard to pivot when you are in the
thick of such negativity, and it's you know, it's not
just about a brand that you were affiliated with. It's
about you, your personal brand, you know. So it's a
little it's hard.

Speaker 4 (01:22:22):
Give me the money.

Speaker 2 (01:22:22):
She can exactly that. That's the learning.

Speaker 1 (01:22:28):
This is the week we're gonna find out. Are they
gonna win? Are they or I don't think.

Speaker 2 (01:22:33):
I don't think they're gonna win. I think in my papyas,
she already stole America's heart, like and rightfully so.

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
She's such a sweet heard Brian or not.

Speaker 2 (01:22:40):
No, I don't think her and Brian are real. I
think she has a question on Brian. I don't think
Brian is checking for her at all. But you know,
it's a game trying to win money, Like I get it,
do what you gotta do, kiss who you gotta kiss?
You about to come out there with a couple hundred thousand,
I mean, you know, do what you gotta do twenty.

Speaker 3 (01:22:56):
The competition, like you get enough votes and then you
win money and then they.

Speaker 2 (01:23:01):
Yeah, the winning couple, America's favorite couple wins the money.

Speaker 4 (01:23:05):
So it's one hundred thousand dollars, yeah, split between the two.

Speaker 1 (01:23:10):
Potentially there's a chance that it depends on if they
there's like an element they may not. They've been switching
stuff up, but typically they give them a chance to
say do you want to keep it for yourself or
do you want to share it?

Speaker 2 (01:23:21):
Or do you want to share with the waister partner? Yeah,
so it's yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:23:25):
If Amiah win, she better take it all.

Speaker 2 (01:23:27):
I know, right. You know Brian was using her to
stay in the villa, So let her use Brian to
get the money because she won't.

Speaker 1 (01:23:32):
She's too sweet. I know, she is so sweet. Sweet,
she's so sweet. But yeah, that was I'm forget now
if it was a booster of break but I just
think it was a.

Speaker 2 (01:23:39):
Boost because you're so damn excited about Nicolander. There's no
way that's a damn break girl.

Speaker 1 (01:23:45):
Pink Creamer and green Ranger forever. Wait, I gotta do
the Leve Island thing. This is how they do that? Wait,
how do they do the fucking hard thing again? Now? Yelly,
not yelly, No, use their second finger. Now it looks
stupid when you don't have stiletto nails, because I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:24:00):
It does. But they're doing but they're not. But they're
not doing that one anymore. They're doing a new one.

Speaker 1 (01:24:05):
What are they doing? Now?

Speaker 2 (01:24:06):
We're both old, so you know we can't know they're
doing this.

Speaker 1 (01:24:09):
Now they do this. That's what I was trying to do.

Speaker 2 (01:24:12):
Oh that's what you were trying to do. Girls, you
were doing this. I was like, girl, this is us.

Speaker 3 (01:24:16):
This is.

Speaker 1 (01:24:18):
But they don't even does this. Oh my god, no,
but they don't even do that. It looks like they
use their second finger on Camra. All right, all right,
ba Vam, Okay, well I got some thank you Nelly
and Chris.

Speaker 4 (01:24:37):
Oops, now I'm Chris.

Speaker 2 (01:24:40):
Oh my guys, it's because she always pairs me up
with Chris.

Speaker 4 (01:24:44):
That's why it's not you the replacement.

Speaker 1 (01:24:48):
Actually there's another Chris. Marcus usually was here with Chris
before Chris.

Speaker 2 (01:24:52):
Chris Cynthian. We love him.

Speaker 1 (01:24:54):
I'm sorry, that's show business, baby Central casting. I had
to do it. Mark, ma'am my brother from another mother
and father. Thank you so much for joining me on brannanbish. Yeah, Nellie,
it's always a pleasure, ba Vam. We have a lot
to look forward to. It's going to be a hot
va Fam summer. We have our August summer book club

(01:25:16):
pick coming up. We have a special book club meeting
with the author of our June book club pick, sky
Full of Elephants. We're gonna have c Bo Campbell come
back and do a little meeting with a BA book club.
If you want to join the book club, you can
join our patreon. Don't have to be a paid member
to join the book club. Join our patreon to go
to the in the show notes right now and make

(01:25:38):
sure that you become a patri is it become a patron,
Patreon whatever, and you'll get invited to that sash and
I'll be picking the new pick. I'm not doing a
monthly book club because that's just too much work, so
we'll do our I'm going to I'm aiming for an
August book club pick. So if you have ideas, let
me know. And I'm this close to making my final

(01:26:01):
decision though, so do let me know. And what else?
What else? We've got some exciting We have a Speaking
of Love. I'm going to do a summer dating episode,
how to Find True Love this summer. We're gonna have
some dating and relationship experts on the show.

Speaker 4 (01:26:19):
Would you want to.

Speaker 1 (01:26:19):
Tune in, Mark or do you not need to tune in?

Speaker 4 (01:26:23):
I probably don't.

Speaker 1 (01:26:24):
Just wondering.

Speaker 2 (01:26:32):
Mandy's going to get information out of you, whether you
can get it out of if I if I bothered
to call you when it's not for the podcast, I
can get the information.

Speaker 1 (01:26:41):
I'm sure. Sure, and Rah, That's all I can think
of right now. We'll see you Friday for b A
q A and that's it. By BA fan okay v
A fan. Thank you so much for listening to this
week's show. I want to shout out to our production team, Courtney,
our editor, car Our, fearless leader for idea to launch productions.

(01:27:04):
I want to shout out my assistant Lauda Escalante and
Cameron McNair for helping me put the show together. It
is not a one person project, as much as I
have tried to make it so these past ten years,
I need help y'all, and thank goodness I've been able
to put this team around me to support me on
this journey and to y'all bea fam. I love you

(01:27:25):
so so so so much. Please rate, review, subscribe, make
sure you're signed up to the newsletter to get all
the latest updates on upcoming episodes, our ten year anniversary
celebrations to come, and until next time, talk to you
soon via buye

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