May 5, 2022 • 48 mins
A parent or caregiver’s unconditional love is one of the greatest gifts any of us can receive. With Mother’s Day around the corner and Father’s Day coming up next month, this special episode of Why Am I Telling You This? brings together some of the most inspiring stories our guests have shared with President Clinton about their parents and other caregivers and the impact they made on their lives. The episode features conversations with Dr. Bernice King, Wynton Marsalis, Magic Johnson, Jason Isbell, David Ortiz, Melba Wilson, Matt Damon, Lisa Leslie, and Jose Andres.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
One of the biggest lessons I learned from Hilary's time
working with a Yale Child Study Center is that most children,
even in the hardest circumstances, will make it if they
have just one person who makes them feel like the
most important person in the world. I was very fortunate
growing up because I had three my mother and my
(00:25):
maternal grandparents, who took care of me while my mother
was away training to be a nurse and eastus so
she could give me a better life. Between the three
of them, I learned a lot about life, family, and
human nature. But most of all, I knew I was loved.
So why am I telling you this Because a parent
(00:47):
or a caregiver's unconditional love is one of the greatest
gifts any of us can receive. That's something that has
only become clearer to me as I've done this podcast
and heard the extraordinary effect that my guests parents and
other caregivers have had on their lives. With Mother's Day
around the corner and Father's Day coming up next month,
(01:10):
I wanted to put together some of the most inspiring
stories our guests have shared about their parents. I hope
you enjoy hearing them as much as I did today.
I'm honored to be joined by the youngest of those
four children Dr King dreamed of and his most famous speech.
(01:31):
She has spent a lifetime in pursuit of racial, social,
and economic justice from the pulpit and from her perch
as CEO of the King Center for Non Violent Social Change.
Dr Barnese King, thank you so much for being here.
Thank you, President Clinton. I'm always honored to be in
(01:53):
your presence and even more honored to have this conversation
with you today. Well, you know, we've known each other
for a long time now, and I've always wondered how
you came to be who you were. You could have
been forgiven if you've taken a whole pass on all
this business. If your memories of standing in the pulpit
(02:14):
and standing on the forefront of social change and the
sacrifices inherent and being a member of your family had
been so burdensome, you could have walked away and been
a perfectly fine, perfectly successful something else. But you didn't.
And I'd like to know what you think your childhood
had to do with it, And when did you realize
(02:38):
the meaning of your father letting your mother's work and
how did you come to do the same thing. The
person I believe who singularly most impactful influential in my
life with my mom. She was an extraordinary example of
(02:58):
what it means to sacrifice and serve humanity, and to
do it in a way from a place, should I say,
of continual forgiveness. You know. Uh. We grew up in
a household where my mother taught us early on about
not hating and particularly in our instance, not hating the
(03:20):
person who killed our father, um, and would always invoke
my father's words, UM, somebody has to cut off the
chain of violence. And now, as a kid, you know,
I took those words very objectively that somebody she was
talking about somebody, but it wasn't me. Uh And uh
(03:42):
so as as I, as I, as I continued to
grow and developed, I came to the understanding because I
was surrounded by all of the work that she did
to build the King's Center into the Martin of the
King Center non Violent Social Change UM and exposed early
(04:04):
on to some of the non violent teachings UM, I
began to understand that I was being drawn into this,
although I was very resistant because of the emotional trauma
that I suffered from my father's assassination at the age
of five, my uncle being mysteriously found his pool with
(04:25):
awarding his lungs I was six, my grandmother being shot
in church when I was eleven years of age. Um,
you know, trying to manage all of the barrage of
emotions that I was experiencing as a result of those
tragedies was was very difficult, and it landed me for
a season in a place of a lot of hate, uh,
(04:49):
hostility and anger. So from the point of my mother
saying as a child, somebody has to cut off the
chain of violence. I got all this anger inside and
tip clear anger. When it erupts, it's just it has
no sense about it, so it will target any and
everything and hurt and hurt people. Um. And I had
(05:11):
to figure this out, and so I could hear, you
gotta cut off the chain. You don't want to be
someone who ends up letting that anger cause you to
continue to do violence. Because I was very valuable in
my tongue. It wasn't until I became CEO of the
King's Center that my life began to really come and
(05:34):
focus because before then, you know, my mom was around,
she was the face of the legacy. You know, I
obviously went out speaking a lot of concerning my my
father's legacy. You know, I was committed to it, but
I was always wrestling with where do I fit, what
do I do? How do I distinguish myself? You know,
what is my purpose? What is my call? What can
(05:57):
I do that it's not always about king? And then
it dawned on me, Wow, Daddy's teachings really come out
of the world of God for him, So there was
not any inconsistency anymore for me. I was able to reconcile.
You know that this work is really about vancing God's kingdom.
It's about building a just, humane, equitable, and peaceful world.
(06:22):
I now understand the power of nonviolence to really transform
you first, uh, and then to pour out into the
rest of the world to change the world, and to
be that vessel, as my mother said, to cut off
the chain of violence. But thank God for her, because
I saw her over and over again. There were things
(06:43):
where people heard her, but she still extended herself in
grace and love towards those people and always wanted the
best for other people. It there's no better art for
him to explain these times in jazz that I'm very
(07:04):
lucky to have with me today. One of the greatest
jazz musicians of all time, my longtime friend went in Marsalis.
From the first time I ever heard about you, listen
to your brother, Bradford Player, I've always been fascinated by
your family story and the role your father played, and
(07:24):
the letter you wrote in tribute to him was one
of the most moving things I think I ever read,
and all the more powerful for saying that you're hurt
was no more valid or stronger than that of so
many others who lost people, which I think your dad
also said, not long for it. So tell us about
(07:45):
him and what impact he had on your growing up
and on your life, and what impact is loss has
had on what you do now. I mean, he was
my man, you know, I went from the time I
was born as that got hung with him. And it
was not glamorous like he was just he was a guy.
My father was not a physical guy, heroic wanting to
(08:07):
whatever strike want to strike people or be uh. He
was very philosophical person who who when he was growing up,
he told me he had gotten bullied by people because
that wasn't his personality, and I learned more about what
it meant to be a human being just watching him.
He talked to everybody the same. If he had the
(08:29):
chance to meet you, he would be honest. He would
be just as respectful as he would with a homeless
person in the street. He would talk to homeless cats
and come back, man, this cat had an interesting story.
You see, he used to be an architect. He could
go into the whole thing that he had talked about.
And I saw my father playing empty clubs for for
the seventeen years I lived with him. I saw him
(08:52):
be in situations that would humiliate any person. Each handled
it all with grace and sophistication. He studied, he practiced,
he art, He was a person of the community. He
played for no people. He played just as hard to
the empty room as he would play for people. I
always tell the one story, I never really liked jazz
growing up. I was just always I like to be
(09:13):
in clubs and hear older people down on their luck. Here,
the stuff they talked about, all the kind of nasty
talking things that went on. So I always loved being
in an environment. And I was fortunate to be in
the environment because I was with him. I knew how
to be quiet, how to just be in my space.
But I loved that. I did not like the music
that much. When I started to get into the music,
I was eleven or going into being twelve, and he
(09:35):
played in the club called Lewin Charlie's, and it was
late at night. He closed the club up. There was
nobody in this club but one man who was drunk.
And I went to my father and I said, Man,
let's go. You know, it's two o'clock. It's only me
and you. Let's let's look this guy here. He was drunk.
And we looked out into the club, empty club, nobody
in it, my father playing the piano. My father looks
(09:56):
at me and he's he says, man, this gig is
at two thirty in to thirty. Man, let's get this
guy out of here and close up. Charlie is the
old club on Charlie is gone. Let's let's go home.
We had a thirty minute drive home. My daddy told me, man,
sit your ass down and listen to some music for
a change. So it actually was. It was actually funny
(10:17):
because it's only meet him. So I actually sat down
and for all the years of being in the club. Then,
I guess since I was two years old, I've been
in clubs. It's the first time I really just really
listened to him playing. Now, of course I grew up
here and in practice, so his song was a part
of my life. I looked around that club and I thought,
what makes a person do what this man is doing?
Playing for no people it two in the morning, and uh,
(10:48):
you know that that shaped my life, like just the
integrity he showed, and he played a pile of piano
in that thirty minutes. And then I said to myself,
I wanted I could learn how to play like him,
because I mainly teased him a lot because he was
such a serious man. I was always joking with him,
even the last conversation I had with him before he
(11:09):
before he went to the hospital and then he died
a few days after that. I was teasing and messing
with him and always kind of joking, joking with him
that I could play better than him piano. I played
my piano and play some ones, you know, start playing
some courts like him. This is just favorite cord. He
would play this big six nine chord, so you always
(11:31):
played and you go. He always played those kind of
little phrases. I would start playing him and said, man,
you better look out, I'm coming for you. So yeah,
I remember, I remember that night. And there's so many
other things. My daddy was so fair with people, and
he had such integrity about things. You couldn't buy him out.
(11:51):
He didn't remember. When I made a little money. I
was twenty one, twenty two, I said, man, let me
get your house. He said, man, you you're an athlete.
I don't need you to get me a house. I'm
comfortable in my own house. So he he was just
philosophically if you were if you acted small, or you
did something that was small, he would call you on it.
He hated for you to call people them. He said,
who is they? Man? Who is they? That's why I
(12:12):
wrote a movement and the ever funking little down called they,
because he tell me who they are? Do you know them?
What's their name? And so many other things I could
tell you. I mean, I just he was. He was
such a he was such a big person. I remember once,
I'm gonna just tall this one last story to just
about who he was. When I first came to New York,
(12:33):
I started to get a lot of publicity, and I
talked a lot, so the older musicians really didn't like me.
And I was always talking about the integrity and music
and all these things that were far beyond what my
playing earned me the write to talk about. From a
philosophical standpoint, what I was saying was not inaccurate, but
I shouldn't have been saying it, you know. And I
went back to New Orleans to play a gig, and
(12:55):
my father always let me sit in with him, and
then this gig, he he didn't call me up on
the band stand. So the whole time I was standing
the man I was I was getting, I said, he
just like these other musicians in New York. Then finally,
on the last tune, he brought me up on the
band stand. I was dealing with all kind of emotion
and angry at him that he was mad because I
had become successful. And uh so I played, and as
(13:17):
we were walking off the band stand, thinking all the
stuff I was thinking, my father put his arm around
me and he said, man, I'm sorry about my rhythm section.
I really didn't want to call you up at all.
So I started laughing, I told him, but I said, man,
I was thinking so many small thoughts and he just
looked at me and shook his head. He said, boy,
(13:39):
this cat. So you know he was Yeah, he was,
he was. He was a good person. I mean he
had a good heart and a good, good feeling to him,
like you wasn't. I'm at Magic Johnson when I ran
for president and shortly after he'd been diagnosed with HIV
(14:02):
and retired from the NBA. From the time I first
met him, I've been more impressed by who he is
as a person than anything you've done on the basketball court.
He's built an amazing career in business and taking special
pride and shattering the myth that businesses can't thrive and
underserved urban communities. Thanks for being here, Magic, tell us
(14:24):
a little bit about growing up, how you got into basketball,
and how you decided you wanted to stay and play
for Michigan State. Well. I grew up with six sisters
and three brothers, a big family. My father worked for
General Motors for thirty years and one award for never
being late and never missing a day in thirty years. Yeah,
(14:48):
so you see where I got my work ethic from.
And so I'm just I'm built just like my father.
I'm a worker, and so my mother worked for or
the school district in the school cafeteria. The one thing
they stressed was education. Um they let me know early on. Yes,
(15:10):
we were happy that you play basketball, but if you
don't get good grades, you won't be playing at all.
So that kept me in the books. President Clinton, you'd
be happy to know that all my sisters our teachers
in the school system, and so they teach young people
today in Lansing, Michigan. I'm really proud of all of them.
(15:30):
And then I fell in love with the game watching
basketball every Saturday, every Sunday with my father. He would
sit on the floor, so I would say, sit right
next to him, and I would watch college basketball on Saturday.
And then on Sunday, they made sure that we went
to church as a family. And then every Sunday, no
(15:50):
matter what was going on, I don't care how many
games I had, we had to have dinner on Sunday
as a family. Everybody had to be there. There no excuses.
That's why I'm a family guy today, you know. But
I fell in love with the game just watching him
with my father, and then every time I would watch
(16:11):
an NBA game, and at that time, Bob Couzy, Bill
Russell of the Celtics, John Havitek of the Celtics, Oscar Robinson. Uh. Then,
of course, when Kareem was lou All Sunder with the
Milwaukee Bucks, I would go out and I would emulate
what they were doing on TV. So I would practice
(16:31):
all their moves. Uh. And I played basketball all the time,
President Clinton. I mean, it wasn't a day that I
didn't play basketball. I used to shovel the snow off
the ground and I would play basketball. And my mom
was like, she said, that boy just loved to play basketball.
(16:51):
And it was this funny thing was in the summertime,
my father also had a trash hauling service. Because so
many mouths of feed, he had to take on a
second job. And so every day in the summertime, Monday
through Saturday, I would work on the truck with my father,
picking up people's trash. But I would say this, President Clinton,
(17:14):
this is the greatest moment of my life. What happened
to me, and this thing changed my life. So during
the school year, I would get on my father's truck
on Saturdays only. And so it was it must have
been seven below zero, and my job was to get
all the loose trash around the barrels and put it
(17:38):
on the truck. It was so cold that morning that
I got half to trash and I jumped into the
cabin of the truck. And you appreciate this. By the
time I closed the door, my father had opened the
door and grabbed me and took me back to the
(17:58):
ice wood where the trash that was stuck in, and
he said, Irvin, if you do this job halfway, you
do everything in your life halfway. You're practice basketball halfway,
you will study half the time. I want you to
go get to shovel and break up the ice and
get that trash out of there and put it on
(18:19):
the truck. And at that moment in time, I became
a perfectionist and everything I was doing in my life
I had to do it right because my father taught
me that lesson early on. That's why I am the
man that I am today. I have my mother smile
and her personality and want to help everybody. And I'm
(18:43):
just like my father. I'm a worker. I get a
great joy out of out of working, and it's because
of him. We'll be right back. I'm grateful to be
(19:04):
joined by one of our nation's most effective advocates for
free and fair elections, because she's provided an incredible blueprint
for achieving real, meaningful change. No matter what you're setting
out to do, you need a clear vision, a realistic
plan to get there, the fortitude to stick with it,
and the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances. Stacy Abrams
(19:29):
has done that as well as anybody I have ever seen. Stacy,
thank you for joining us today, and I think you
should take it just a couple of moments and tell
the people who are with us today how you got
interested in this work and what you would say to
young people about what are it's worth the time and
effort and blood, sweat and tears you put into it. Well,
(19:50):
Mr President, first of all, thank you so much for
inviting me to be a part of this conversation. Like you,
I am a child of the South. I was technically
born in Wisconsin, by I grew up in Mississippi, and
my parents were both civil rights activists when they were teenagers.
So by the time I came along, I was part
of the whole history of people who had been fighting
(20:11):
for the right to vote, the right to have access
to democracy, and as you know, Jim Crow, this system
in the South that denied access to the right to
vote to black Americans existed from the end of slavery
basically through nineteen sixty five, and so my parents were
teenagers in sixty five. My dad was actually arrested helping
(20:31):
register black people to vote. We tease him that my
mom was doing the same work. She was just smart
enough not to get caught. But I came of age
knowing that the right to vote wasn't just about casting
a ballot. It was the only way to tackle the
poverty we lived in. And my parents both worked full time,
and still we barely made ends meet. We were what
(20:53):
they called working poor. And so my parents took us
with them to volunteer because they wanted us to work
our hands to people's lives better. But they also took
us with them to vote because they said, individually, we
can make a little bit of change, but when we vote,
we make collective change society's changes when you vote. I'm
(21:17):
very lucky to be joined now by someone who's one
of the most acclaimed storytellers working in music today, not
just because of what he has to say, but because
of his ability to hear what others have to say
as well. Raised in rural Alabama by an extended family
who loved playing music together, Jason Nible is a four
time Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter and guitarists. His works
(21:40):
fans rock, folk, Americana, and country genres. He's also an
outspoken advocate for progressive causes and a voice for fairness, equality,
and sensible public health measures in the music industry and
all across our society. One of the reasons that I
was so interested in talking to you is that I
(22:01):
identified with so much of your childhood and how it
led you to your calling. So let's start by telling
us a little about where and how you grew up
and how that led you into both playing music and
writing songs. Yeah, you know, I grew up in Green Hill, Alabama,
which is uh, northwestern Alabama, right up in the corner
(22:22):
by Mississippi and Tennessee. And um, my grandfather on my
dad's side was a Pentecostal preacher and um a musician
by hobby, not by trade. He he painted houses by trade.
But uh, he and my dad and and my uncle
had a house painting company together, and so they all
worked together and then my parents were really young when
(22:45):
I was born. My dad was nineteen, my mom was seventeen,
and the only you know, they were both working throughout
my childhood. So the only place that I really went
for childcare was to my grandparents house. And my grandfather,
you know, he wouldn't watch a lot of TV. He
would watch old westerns and uh he liked watching baseball.
(23:06):
But outside of that, you know, nothing really, but you know,
we watched baseball games together and old westerns, and we
played music together. And most of my time with them
was spent playing rhythm guitar while my grandfather played what
he referred to as a lead instrument like banjo or
mandolin or fiddle. I was born in chiny southern town.
(23:33):
I grew up with all my family around. He made
music on the part on Sunday now old man with
old guitars, Smogan Winston life. He would show me these
three chord gospel songs and old country and western songs,
(23:55):
and uh if I would accompany him for a couple
of hours playing rhythm guitar on the a huge flat
top acoustic when I was you know, too small to
really reach my arms around it. Then he would reward
me by playing the blues. So he would tune his
guitar to an open tuning and play slide guitar something
(24:18):
something to do when you feel like giving up something.
And this happened hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times
when I was a kid. Every day, you know, I
(24:38):
would go over there in the summer all day and
after school, I would walk across the track field to
their house because they lived behind the school, and I
would just stay with them and we would play music,
and uh, you know, I think it was his way
of spending time with me and connecting with me, and
also just keeping me busy and giving me some than
(25:00):
to do where I wouldn't get myself in trouble. Turned
out to be pretty effective talker. Yeah, I got really lucky.
I got really really lucky because, you know, music was
introduced to me as a way to communicate with the
people that I cared about. And the first songs that
I heard were songs that had been around for a
(25:21):
long long time. I mean this was in the eighties,
you know, it wasn't in the nineteen forties or fifties.
But the songs that I was here and we're already
h tried and true, and they stuck with me. And
the way those songs were written and the way those
stories were told. Uh, you know, it influenced the kind
of music that I wound up making as an adult,
(25:41):
and and all the things that are important to me,
uh now really came out of that time that I
spent with my family making music. He's a ten time
All Star, three time World Series Champions, seven times Silver Slugger,
soon to be Baseball Hall of Famer, and a hero
(26:03):
to fans young and old from New England to the
Dominican Republic. David Ortiz during his fourteen years with the
Boston Red Sox, David helped lead the team to three championships,
including ending the infamous eighty six year curse the so
called Curse of the Bambino in two thousand four. He
(26:23):
also set and still holds the team record for most
home runs in a single season with fifty four, and
it's widely considered one of the greatest designated hitters in
the history of the game. He's also always been focused
on giving back off the field, particularly through the David
Ortiz Children's Fund, which provides critical cardiac services to children
(26:45):
in need. David, Thanks for being here today. Did you
think a lot when you played that you were basically
walking in the staffs of one Marshal Sammy Cells of
the great Dominican players before. Were you aware that you
were carrying this heritage word reality is suppressing that I
(27:08):
was a kid that all I have in mind when
I first jumped into the pro was founding the way
to help my family. We were poor family coming from
the dominic, and my mom and dad I used to
work extremely hard to pay for the school, to pay
for food. We didn't have any instra things because we
(27:32):
can't afford it. And my childhood was really good because
he was full of love in respect, but nothing else.
We don't have any financial statement. It was the type
of living that it was in the day by day
(27:53):
type of things and it was basically, you know, so
living type of thing. And but my my mom and
dad they hold on tight, They protect h their kids.
They always try their best to take care of us
the way they can. At the time when I was
(28:17):
like sixteen seventeen, with all the pressure that I was
living into it, I know exactly what I need to
be and what I want to be. I just don't
know what it was gonna take me to get there,
But I know my mind has very clear the things
that I need to do. Two, put my family in
(28:41):
a situation because I was the only way out. I
was their only way out. It was the only way
out but me. So I know that I had that responsibility,
and I start, you know, working on trying to learn
what it takes to be one those guys that you
just mentioned. Well, I'm very moved by what you said
(29:03):
about your mother, and I know you lost her about
twenty years ago, I think this year in a car accident. Yes,
and you were paying tribute to her after every home running. Yes.
I remember when I lost my mom. I was playing
for the Twins and it was after New Year Deaf.
My mom used to go to busy her family, you know,
(29:25):
New Year, you know, and that one time it was
like basically saying goodbye, because on the way back home,
they asked it happened, And I was pretty close to
my mom. I was, I was, you know, my mom was.
I always give some hard time to my sister saying
that I was my mom favorite child. She just spoiled
(29:47):
men enough, you know what I'm saying. My moments to
love cooking and just sit down and watch me eat.
She used to call me her big boy, you know,
and we had that type of connection. And once that happened,
that that heat home hard, you know, because my career, uh,
it would just beginning, and it was something that no
(30:17):
one is prepared for that, you know. And and I
remember I went to spring training in March. I remember
I used to celebrate my mother's birthday because her birthday
was marched four wards. We were in the middle of
spring training and that day that it was her birthday. Uh.
(30:43):
I remember getting to the field. I got to the
parking lot and I was just bawling, crying, and I
just sitting down by myself in the parking lot, and uh,
the whole team came out and picked me up. And
I remember my boy Buddy Hunner, he was he was
(31:04):
my teammate at the time. He was the first one
who coming and grab me. And you know, everybody was
super cool. And I was in the line know that day,
and I remember I hit two homers on that game,
and the first thing that came to my mind after
I hit the first summer was doing that the celebration
(31:25):
when I got to the plate and since that day.
It was like the best feeling I have ever had
after I hit the home run. I bet you still
miss your mother? Oh yeah, every day. My mother died
twenty nine years ago, last January six, and uh I
(31:46):
still think about her, you know all the time. That's
a different love, Mr President, That's a different love. You know,
you got your wife, you got your kids, you got
your family member, you got everybody, you got friends. But
the love coming from mom is different. That's why I
always tell my kids, you love for your mom is
the love of your mom. You know, it's it's it's
something that is extremely different. That connection is different. I'm
(32:12):
a guy that I'm surrounded by so many lovely people,
so many people like my family is based on that
sprained love everywhere, but the one type of love is different.
More after this today, I am truly delighted to be
(32:40):
joined by someone who was born and bred and, as
she says, buttered in Harlem and has played a crucial
role in making the neighborhood what it is today, someone
whose mouth watering meals have earneder the unofficial title of
America's Queen of Comfort Food. Melbourne, thanks for being here today.
(33:00):
When did you decide you wanted to be a chef.
How old were you? Well? Growing up in Harlem, every summer,
what we did is the day that school ended. The
next day, my mom, dad, brother's sister, and I would
all pack into the car and we would take the
ten eleven hour drive to South Carolina, which is where
(33:21):
my parents are from. And every time, the first thing
I did when we arrived in South Carolina was greeted
my grandparents with warm hugs. But then it was to
that farm. That's where we went, and my grandmother knew
that I looked forward to going to the farm with
her where we picked greens, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, and watching
(33:46):
my grandmother gather all of these ingredients and then take
them into the kitchen, singing normally church hymns. We would
cook together, and whether I was snap and peas, peeling potatoes,
cannoned tomatoes, I loved every aspect of the magic that
(34:08):
we created in our kitchen. It was then that I
actually first fell in love with cooking, with food and
with the power of food. See, every important event in
our family happened over food. It happened over a meal,
(34:28):
whether it was the birth of a new baby or
the one birthday and celebrating my grandmother or my great grandmother,
whether it was a marriage or unfortunately a repast. I
noticed that food was at the center of everything that
(34:48):
was important to us. So I knew I wanted to
be a part of the magic. I wanted to be
a part of that magic called feeding people's souls, but
feed in their spirits as well. Wow, you brought up
a lot of old memories to me. I had. My
grandmother's brother and his wife were sort of our family
(35:11):
magnet when I was a little boy in Hope and
we all had to learn to shell fees and do
whatever else was necessary. I personally favored turning the crank
on the ice cream machine the most because I knew
what was at the other end of that effort. But
(35:31):
I think that when you were talking about being on
your grandparents farm and how it's amazing how many people
today who have never been on or around the farm,
we've never planet a garden, who've never experienced this, I
think sometimes they spend an unlimited number of days ordering
(35:52):
food out and having delivered, having no real clue about
what else is involved. And one of the things that
always impressed me is that you seem to want the
people who dined at your restaurants and buy your book
to know that that food in front of them is
part of a larger fabric of community that we should
(36:13):
nurture in respect. That is so true. Um, you know,
food was our entertainment. We come from very, very humble beginnings,
and so it wasn't about going to the movies or
taking an airplane trip any place. Food was the nucleus
of everything that we did, Mr President. So Monday through Friday,
(36:36):
my dad worked, Saturdays and Sundays were spent at our
cousin's house, my uncle's, my aunt's, my grandparents homes. That's
what we did. But not only did we go to visit,
we brought a dish, we brought a plate because remember
that's bragging rights. Who makes the best tat to salad? Okay,
(36:58):
that macaroni and cheese better be creamy, and you have
to see the cheese strings rise up from the plate
to the top of the fork like it's gonna touch
the heavens in the sky. So food is definitely it
was definitely a part of entertainment, but it's also a
way to show love. It's the way that we nurtured
(37:19):
each other. And it's also a vehicle, a conduit that
we used to tell stories of the past. See. I
never got to meet great Grandma Julia, or Mambo as
my parents affectionately called her, but every time we sat
down to eat, there was stories that were constantly told
(37:40):
about my great grandmother Mambo. And you know, we shared
these stories over food, and it could have been a
meal that she cooked. But that's how I got to
tell my son the stories of his great great grandmother.
So even though she didn't live in the present, she
lives in his mind and he knows about his lineage.
(38:02):
He knows the important part that she and the rest
of our family members played still today play in our lives,
and he knows the reason that we do certain things.
You know, I still like the shell peas because they
take me back, and that's one of the beautiful things
that food does. It transports you back to warm times
(38:23):
and wonderful memories. At the Clinton Global Initiative in two
thousand and eight, Matt Damon, actor, producer and screenwriter who
channeled his fashion for water security and the charity H
two O Africa, bonded with Gary White Water and Sanitation
(38:46):
engineer with years of on the ground expertise. Before long,
they had merged their efforts into what came to be
called water dot Org. They later started a second organization,
of Water Equity, and together they've health more than forty
three million people getting access to clean water. That when
(39:06):
you were dreaming of a career in the movies, did
you know when you were young that if you succeeded,
this would be a part of it, not this specific thing,
but that you had to have another mission? Yeah? That
was that was something instilled in me really, uh, by
my by my mother. Um. She took me at he
(39:27):
as a teenager traveling to to Mexico, but to Guatemala
and rural rural areas there where I saw things that
I had never seen before and did extreme poverty, of
political repression, you know, social injustice, all these kind of things.
And it gave me such a better context for my
own life in the world. Um and and and and
(39:48):
lit a fire in me to say, okay, well, you know,
as as as as laser focused as I was in
my twenties on trying to carve out a career in Hollywood,
which is not a not an easy one to not
an easy ring to go after. Um I knew that
if things went well, I wanted to I wanted to
return to this because I wanted it to be a
significant part of my life. Because Gary and I talked
(40:10):
about all the time, you know what is a life
right it's in you know, and how much of it
is in service to this kind of greater project and
and um you know, what's what's a life worth living?
So um so those are all things I that we're
in the back of my mind as I was as
I was kind of slugging it out and trying to
trying to build a career in Hollywood. Lisa Leslie is
(40:37):
currently they had coach of the Triplets in the Big
Three Basketball League, if she led to the inaugural Big
Three Championship in twenty nineteen. In addition to her pioneering
basketball career, which includes being the first woman to dunk
w n B a game, Lisa's resume includes fashion modeling, acting,
sports commentary, and now real estate. I had the honor
(41:00):
to meter when I was present, and she was a
member of the women's national basketball team when they won
those gold medals in n and in two thousands. I've
been a big fan ever since, and I'm so glad
to be speaking with her today. Lisa, thank you for
joining us. Tell us just a little about winning, how
you grew up and how you became interested in basketball.
(41:23):
I grew up in Compton, California, which is the inner
city of southern California. UM. I was raised by my mom,
who is a single mom, with two sisters, an older
sister and a younger sister. I'm the middle child, therefore
the best child, who's most flexible, who gets along with
everybody because I'm used to being told what to do,
but I'm also used to leading and telling my younger
(41:45):
sister what to do. So I come from very humble beginnings.
UM had so much love and just positive affirmations from
my mom for my sisters and I to, you know,
take on the world and do the best that we
can do, be our best, and do it with a
lot of love than heart and integrity. But I gotta
tell you, I didn't start playing basketball until I was
twelve years old, which is really late considering all the
(42:06):
success that I've had in this sport. But basketball for
me really was about an opportunity to create change for
our lives and for me to be able to go
to college. That was the whole reason why I picked
up a basketball because I recognize it. That was the
one sport that because obviously I was so tall. I
(42:28):
was six ft in the sixth grade, so crazy, right.
I remember telling my mom that people keep asking me
if I play basketball, and she's like, oh, well, because
you're tall. Sweeheard. You know, they associate sports with people
who are tall. And I was like, well, I don't
want to play that and she was like, oh, you
don't have to. So funny. Um, But I went to
(42:52):
middle school and there was a girl named Shay. They
called her Sha, and everybody's like Shay and she's so popular.
And I'm like, why is everybody know her name? And
he said, well, she's on the basketball team. And so
I think God just had that happen for me so
I can go, well, I want everybody to know my name.
So I tried out for the basketball team. I guess
the rest is history. It's amazing that's how I started
(43:14):
playing basketball. That's a great story. It's a great sport. Yes,
it's It's changed my life and it's enhanced my life
in ways that I would have never known. Through all
the hard work and dedication of picking up that one basketball.
Who was like, let's just jump right in. How did
(43:36):
you decide to become a chef? I always believe in
following life. Life has a plan for all of us.
Sometimes we decide to listen, and sometimes we follow, and
sometimes we fight it. I'm the type of guy that
listens to life and my father, um, we love to cook.
Men cook in a Spain. It's like if you are
(44:00):
not a chef, if you don't feed your family, if
you don't feed your friends, you are not at the
at the right social social status. Cooking is part of
who you are, makes you better. And I always saw
my dad cooking at home obviously my mother who she
was a great, a great cook. And I was not
doing very well at school, let's say, in the traditional
(44:23):
education system. But it's not like I felt because I
didn't care. I was spending more time hands on working
in restaurants around Barcelona every hour I had free. Then
going to school again, the traditional education systems was not
something I was the best way for me to learn,
and I always was trying to find other ways that
(44:43):
I could be better. That's who I became a cook,
who I became in love, uh with food. But probably
the moment Mr. President was when helping my father in
one of those sundays that he would cook for all
his friends. One day we could be twenty, other days
we could be hundred. My father will put me always
(45:04):
in charge of the fire, and he will send me
to the forest to gather the wood and I will
make a fire. He will have this very big by
a pen, a gigantic pen where we make rice dishes
in the Spain. And that day I wanted to cook.
I didn't want to make the fire anymore. I was
doing the fire for too long. See day when I cook,
my dad said, no, you have to make the fire.
(45:26):
You are the only one that knows how to do it.
It's a big He sent me away because I got
very upset, So we will speak later. When the bio
was made, he got me aside and he told me,
my son, I understand you wanted to do the cooking,
to put the spoon, to steer the pot, but actually
you were in charge of the most important which is
(45:48):
making the fire and controlling the fire. If you control
the fire, you can't do any cooking. You want control
the fire and you will be in control of your destiny.
I think that probably was the moment that they saw that, yes,
Cookine was in my future, not just physically that was
going to be my profession, but understanding that if we
(46:09):
all learn and understand what that we're fire is, we
can achieve anything we want in the world. What a
wonderful story. Why am I telling you? This is a
production of Our Heart Radio, the Clinton Foundation and at
Will Medium. Our executive producers are Craigmanascian and Will Monadi.
Our production team includes Jamison Katsufas, Tom Galton, Sara Horowitz,
(46:32):
and Jake Young, with production support from Liz Rafferee and
Josh Farnham. Original music by What White. Special thanks to
John Sykes, John Davidson on hell, Orina, Corey Ginstley, Kevin
thurm Oscar Flores, and all our dedicated staff and partners
at the Clinton Foundation. Hi. I'm Jane Park, Director of
(46:58):
National Partnerships. Too Smart to Fail the Clinton Foundation's early
learning initiative. In the United States, nearly sixty of children
start kindergarten unprepared, lagging behind in critical language and literacy skills. Luckily,
research tells us that simple everyday interactions like talking, reading,
(47:20):
and singing with young children from the moment they're born
can help set a strong foundation for lifelong learning. That's
why we're working just around families with early language, literacy
and learning opportunities during their daily routines. From a load
of the laundromat to the bus stop, the pediatrician's office
to the playground. We work to meet parents where they
(47:42):
are and help them provide their children with the best
possible start in school and in life. Learn more about
this work and see how you can get involved visit
www dot Clinton Foundation dot org. Slash podcast po
One of the biggest lessons I learned from Hilary's time
working with a Yale Child Study Center is that most children,
even in the hardest circumstances, will make it if they
have just one person who makes them feel like the
most important person in the world. I was very fortunate
growing up because I had three my mother and my
(00:25):
maternal grandparents, who took care of me while my mother
was away training to be a nurse and eastus so
she could give me a better life. Between the three
of them, I learned a lot about life, family, and
human nature. But most of all, I knew I was loved.
So why am I telling you this Because a parent
(00:47):
or a caregiver's unconditional love is one of the greatest
gifts any of us can receive. That's something that has
only become clearer to me as I've done this podcast
and heard the extraordinary effect that my guests parents and
other caregivers have had on their lives. With Mother's Day
around the corner and Father's Day coming up next month,
(01:10):
I wanted to put together some of the most inspiring
stories our guests have shared about their parents. I hope
you enjoy hearing them as much as I did today.
I'm honored to be joined by the youngest of those
four children Dr King dreamed of and his most famous speech.
(01:31):
She has spent a lifetime in pursuit of racial, social,
and economic justice from the pulpit and from her perch
as CEO of the King Center for Non Violent Social Change.
Dr Barnese King, thank you so much for being here.
Thank you, President Clinton. I'm always honored to be in
(01:53):
your presence and even more honored to have this conversation
with you today. Well, you know, we've known each other
for a long time now, and I've always wondered how
you came to be who you were. You could have
been forgiven if you've taken a whole pass on all
this business. If your memories of standing in the pulpit
(02:14):
and standing on the forefront of social change and the
sacrifices inherent and being a member of your family had
been so burdensome, you could have walked away and been
a perfectly fine, perfectly successful something else. But you didn't.
And I'd like to know what you think your childhood
had to do with it, And when did you realize
(02:38):
the meaning of your father letting your mother's work and
how did you come to do the same thing. The
person I believe who singularly most impactful influential in my
life with my mom. She was an extraordinary example of
(02:58):
what it means to sacrifice and serve humanity, and to
do it in a way from a place, should I say,
of continual forgiveness. You know. Uh. We grew up in
a household where my mother taught us early on about
not hating and particularly in our instance, not hating the
(03:20):
person who killed our father, um, and would always invoke
my father's words, UM, somebody has to cut off the
chain of violence. And now, as a kid, you know,
I took those words very objectively that somebody she was
talking about somebody, but it wasn't me. Uh And uh
(03:42):
so as as I, as I, as I continued to
grow and developed, I came to the understanding because I
was surrounded by all of the work that she did
to build the King's Center into the Martin of the
King Center non Violent Social Change UM and exposed early
(04:04):
on to some of the non violent teachings UM, I
began to understand that I was being drawn into this,
although I was very resistant because of the emotional trauma
that I suffered from my father's assassination at the age
of five, my uncle being mysteriously found his pool with
(04:25):
awarding his lungs I was six, my grandmother being shot
in church when I was eleven years of age. Um,
you know, trying to manage all of the barrage of
emotions that I was experiencing as a result of those
tragedies was was very difficult, and it landed me for
a season in a place of a lot of hate, uh,
(04:49):
hostility and anger. So from the point of my mother
saying as a child, somebody has to cut off the
chain of violence. I got all this anger inside and
tip clear anger. When it erupts, it's just it has
no sense about it, so it will target any and
everything and hurt and hurt people. Um. And I had
(05:11):
to figure this out, and so I could hear, you
gotta cut off the chain. You don't want to be
someone who ends up letting that anger cause you to
continue to do violence. Because I was very valuable in
my tongue. It wasn't until I became CEO of the
King's Center that my life began to really come and
(05:34):
focus because before then, you know, my mom was around,
she was the face of the legacy. You know, I
obviously went out speaking a lot of concerning my my
father's legacy. You know, I was committed to it, but
I was always wrestling with where do I fit, what
do I do? How do I distinguish myself? You know,
what is my purpose? What is my call? What can
(05:57):
I do that it's not always about king? And then
it dawned on me, Wow, Daddy's teachings really come out
of the world of God for him, So there was
not any inconsistency anymore for me. I was able to reconcile.
You know that this work is really about vancing God's kingdom.
It's about building a just, humane, equitable, and peaceful world.
(06:22):
I now understand the power of nonviolence to really transform
you first, uh, and then to pour out into the
rest of the world to change the world, and to
be that vessel, as my mother said, to cut off
the chain of violence. But thank God for her, because
I saw her over and over again. There were things
(06:43):
where people heard her, but she still extended herself in
grace and love towards those people and always wanted the
best for other people. It there's no better art for
him to explain these times in jazz that I'm very
(07:04):
lucky to have with me today. One of the greatest
jazz musicians of all time, my longtime friend went in Marsalis.
From the first time I ever heard about you, listen
to your brother, Bradford Player, I've always been fascinated by
your family story and the role your father played, and
(07:24):
the letter you wrote in tribute to him was one
of the most moving things I think I ever read,
and all the more powerful for saying that you're hurt
was no more valid or stronger than that of so
many others who lost people, which I think your dad
also said, not long for it. So tell us about
(07:45):
him and what impact he had on your growing up
and on your life, and what impact is loss has
had on what you do now. I mean, he was
my man, you know, I went from the time I
was born as that got hung with him. And it
was not glamorous like he was just he was a guy.
My father was not a physical guy, heroic wanting to
(08:07):
whatever strike want to strike people or be uh. He
was very philosophical person who who when he was growing up,
he told me he had gotten bullied by people because
that wasn't his personality, and I learned more about what
it meant to be a human being just watching him.
He talked to everybody the same. If he had the
(08:29):
chance to meet you, he would be honest. He would
be just as respectful as he would with a homeless
person in the street. He would talk to homeless cats
and come back, man, this cat had an interesting story.
You see, he used to be an architect. He could
go into the whole thing that he had talked about.
And I saw my father playing empty clubs for for
the seventeen years I lived with him. I saw him
(08:52):
be in situations that would humiliate any person. Each handled
it all with grace and sophistication. He studied, he practiced,
he art, He was a person of the community. He
played for no people. He played just as hard to
the empty room as he would play for people. I
always tell the one story, I never really liked jazz
growing up. I was just always I like to be
(09:13):
in clubs and hear older people down on their luck. Here,
the stuff they talked about, all the kind of nasty
talking things that went on. So I always loved being
in an environment. And I was fortunate to be in
the environment because I was with him. I knew how
to be quiet, how to just be in my space.
But I loved that. I did not like the music
that much. When I started to get into the music,
I was eleven or going into being twelve, and he
(09:35):
played in the club called Lewin Charlie's, and it was
late at night. He closed the club up. There was
nobody in this club but one man who was drunk.
And I went to my father and I said, Man,
let's go. You know, it's two o'clock. It's only me
and you. Let's let's look this guy here. He was drunk.
And we looked out into the club, empty club, nobody
in it, my father playing the piano. My father looks
(09:56):
at me and he's he says, man, this gig is
at two thirty in to thirty. Man, let's get this
guy out of here and close up. Charlie is the
old club on Charlie is gone. Let's let's go home.
We had a thirty minute drive home. My daddy told me, man,
sit your ass down and listen to some music for
a change. So it actually was. It was actually funny
(10:17):
because it's only meet him. So I actually sat down
and for all the years of being in the club. Then,
I guess since I was two years old, I've been
in clubs. It's the first time I really just really
listened to him playing. Now, of course I grew up
here and in practice, so his song was a part
of my life. I looked around that club and I thought,
what makes a person do what this man is doing?
Playing for no people it two in the morning, and uh,
(10:48):
you know that that shaped my life, like just the
integrity he showed, and he played a pile of piano
in that thirty minutes. And then I said to myself,
I wanted I could learn how to play like him,
because I mainly teased him a lot because he was
such a serious man. I was always joking with him,
even the last conversation I had with him before he
(11:09):
before he went to the hospital and then he died
a few days after that. I was teasing and messing
with him and always kind of joking, joking with him
that I could play better than him piano. I played
my piano and play some ones, you know, start playing
some courts like him. This is just favorite cord. He
would play this big six nine chord, so you always
(11:31):
played and you go. He always played those kind of
little phrases. I would start playing him and said, man,
you better look out, I'm coming for you. So yeah,
I remember, I remember that night. And there's so many
other things. My daddy was so fair with people, and
he had such integrity about things. You couldn't buy him out.
(11:51):
He didn't remember. When I made a little money. I
was twenty one, twenty two, I said, man, let me
get your house. He said, man, you you're an athlete.
I don't need you to get me a house. I'm
comfortable in my own house. So he he was just
philosophically if you were if you acted small, or you
did something that was small, he would call you on it.
He hated for you to call people them. He said,
who is they? Man? Who is they? That's why I
(12:12):
wrote a movement and the ever funking little down called they,
because he tell me who they are? Do you know them?
What's their name? And so many other things I could
tell you. I mean, I just he was. He was
such a he was such a big person. I remember once,
I'm gonna just tall this one last story to just
about who he was. When I first came to New York,
(12:33):
I started to get a lot of publicity, and I
talked a lot, so the older musicians really didn't like me.
And I was always talking about the integrity and music
and all these things that were far beyond what my
playing earned me the write to talk about. From a
philosophical standpoint, what I was saying was not inaccurate, but
I shouldn't have been saying it, you know. And I
went back to New Orleans to play a gig, and
(12:55):
my father always let me sit in with him, and
then this gig, he he didn't call me up on
the band stand. So the whole time I was standing
the man I was I was getting, I said, he
just like these other musicians in New York. Then finally,
on the last tune, he brought me up on the
band stand. I was dealing with all kind of emotion
and angry at him that he was mad because I
had become successful. And uh so I played, and as
(13:17):
we were walking off the band stand, thinking all the
stuff I was thinking, my father put his arm around
me and he said, man, I'm sorry about my rhythm section.
I really didn't want to call you up at all.
So I started laughing, I told him, but I said, man,
I was thinking so many small thoughts and he just
looked at me and shook his head. He said, boy,
(13:39):
this cat. So you know he was Yeah, he was,
he was. He was a good person. I mean he
had a good heart and a good, good feeling to him,
like you wasn't. I'm at Magic Johnson when I ran
for president and shortly after he'd been diagnosed with HIV
(14:02):
and retired from the NBA. From the time I first
met him, I've been more impressed by who he is
as a person than anything you've done on the basketball court.
He's built an amazing career in business and taking special
pride and shattering the myth that businesses can't thrive and
underserved urban communities. Thanks for being here, Magic, tell us
(14:24):
a little bit about growing up, how you got into basketball,
and how you decided you wanted to stay and play
for Michigan State. Well. I grew up with six sisters
and three brothers, a big family. My father worked for
General Motors for thirty years and one award for never
being late and never missing a day in thirty years. Yeah,
(14:48):
so you see where I got my work ethic from.
And so I'm just I'm built just like my father.
I'm a worker, and so my mother worked for or
the school district in the school cafeteria. The one thing
they stressed was education. Um they let me know early on. Yes,
(15:10):
we were happy that you play basketball, but if you
don't get good grades, you won't be playing at all.
So that kept me in the books. President Clinton, you'd
be happy to know that all my sisters our teachers
in the school system, and so they teach young people
today in Lansing, Michigan. I'm really proud of all of them.
(15:30):
And then I fell in love with the game watching
basketball every Saturday, every Sunday with my father. He would
sit on the floor, so I would say, sit right
next to him, and I would watch college basketball on Saturday.
And then on Sunday, they made sure that we went
to church as a family. And then every Sunday, no
(15:50):
matter what was going on, I don't care how many
games I had, we had to have dinner on Sunday
as a family. Everybody had to be there. There no excuses.
That's why I'm a family guy today, you know. But
I fell in love with the game just watching him
with my father, and then every time I would watch
(16:11):
an NBA game, and at that time, Bob Couzy, Bill
Russell of the Celtics, John Havitek of the Celtics, Oscar Robinson. Uh. Then,
of course, when Kareem was lou All Sunder with the
Milwaukee Bucks, I would go out and I would emulate
what they were doing on TV. So I would practice
(16:31):
all their moves. Uh. And I played basketball all the time,
President Clinton. I mean, it wasn't a day that I
didn't play basketball. I used to shovel the snow off
the ground and I would play basketball. And my mom
was like, she said, that boy just loved to play basketball.
(16:51):
And it was this funny thing was in the summertime,
my father also had a trash hauling service. Because so
many mouths of feed, he had to take on a
second job. And so every day in the summertime, Monday
through Saturday, I would work on the truck with my father,
picking up people's trash. But I would say this, President Clinton,
(17:14):
this is the greatest moment of my life. What happened
to me, and this thing changed my life. So during
the school year, I would get on my father's truck
on Saturdays only. And so it was it must have
been seven below zero, and my job was to get
all the loose trash around the barrels and put it
(17:38):
on the truck. It was so cold that morning that
I got half to trash and I jumped into the
cabin of the truck. And you appreciate this. By the
time I closed the door, my father had opened the
door and grabbed me and took me back to the
(17:58):
ice wood where the trash that was stuck in, and
he said, Irvin, if you do this job halfway, you
do everything in your life halfway. You're practice basketball halfway,
you will study half the time. I want you to
go get to shovel and break up the ice and
get that trash out of there and put it on
(18:19):
the truck. And at that moment in time, I became
a perfectionist and everything I was doing in my life
I had to do it right because my father taught
me that lesson early on. That's why I am the
man that I am today. I have my mother smile
and her personality and want to help everybody. And I'm
(18:43):
just like my father. I'm a worker. I get a
great joy out of out of working, and it's because
of him. We'll be right back. I'm grateful to be
(19:04):
joined by one of our nation's most effective advocates for
free and fair elections, because she's provided an incredible blueprint
for achieving real, meaningful change. No matter what you're setting
out to do, you need a clear vision, a realistic
plan to get there, the fortitude to stick with it,
and the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances. Stacy Abrams
(19:29):
has done that as well as anybody I have ever seen. Stacy,
thank you for joining us today, and I think you
should take it just a couple of moments and tell
the people who are with us today how you got
interested in this work and what you would say to
young people about what are it's worth the time and
effort and blood, sweat and tears you put into it. Well,
(19:50):
Mr President, first of all, thank you so much for
inviting me to be a part of this conversation. Like you,
I am a child of the South. I was technically
born in Wisconsin, by I grew up in Mississippi, and
my parents were both civil rights activists when they were teenagers.
So by the time I came along, I was part
of the whole history of people who had been fighting
(20:11):
for the right to vote, the right to have access
to democracy, and as you know, Jim Crow, this system
in the South that denied access to the right to
vote to black Americans existed from the end of slavery
basically through nineteen sixty five, and so my parents were
teenagers in sixty five. My dad was actually arrested helping
(20:31):
register black people to vote. We tease him that my
mom was doing the same work. She was just smart
enough not to get caught. But I came of age
knowing that the right to vote wasn't just about casting
a ballot. It was the only way to tackle the
poverty we lived in. And my parents both worked full time,
and still we barely made ends meet. We were what
(20:53):
they called working poor. And so my parents took us
with them to volunteer because they wanted us to work
our hands to people's lives better. But they also took
us with them to vote because they said, individually, we
can make a little bit of change, but when we vote,
we make collective change society's changes when you vote. I'm
(21:17):
very lucky to be joined now by someone who's one
of the most acclaimed storytellers working in music today, not
just because of what he has to say, but because
of his ability to hear what others have to say
as well. Raised in rural Alabama by an extended family
who loved playing music together, Jason Nible is a four
time Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter and guitarists. His works
(21:40):
fans rock, folk, Americana, and country genres. He's also an
outspoken advocate for progressive causes and a voice for fairness, equality,
and sensible public health measures in the music industry and
all across our society. One of the reasons that I
was so interested in talking to you is that I
(22:01):
identified with so much of your childhood and how it
led you to your calling. So let's start by telling
us a little about where and how you grew up
and how that led you into both playing music and
writing songs. Yeah, you know, I grew up in Green Hill, Alabama,
which is uh, northwestern Alabama, right up in the corner
(22:22):
by Mississippi and Tennessee. And um, my grandfather on my
dad's side was a Pentecostal preacher and um a musician
by hobby, not by trade. He he painted houses by trade.
But uh, he and my dad and and my uncle
had a house painting company together, and so they all
worked together and then my parents were really young when
(22:45):
I was born. My dad was nineteen, my mom was seventeen,
and the only you know, they were both working throughout
my childhood. So the only place that I really went
for childcare was to my grandparents house. And my grandfather,
you know, he wouldn't watch a lot of TV. He
would watch old westerns and uh he liked watching baseball.
(23:06):
But outside of that, you know, nothing really, but you know,
we watched baseball games together and old westerns, and we
played music together. And most of my time with them
was spent playing rhythm guitar while my grandfather played what
he referred to as a lead instrument like banjo or
mandolin or fiddle. I was born in chiny southern town.
(23:33):
I grew up with all my family around. He made
music on the part on Sunday now old man with
old guitars, Smogan Winston life. He would show me these
three chord gospel songs and old country and western songs,
(23:55):
and uh if I would accompany him for a couple
of hours playing rhythm guitar on the a huge flat
top acoustic when I was you know, too small to
really reach my arms around it. Then he would reward
me by playing the blues. So he would tune his
guitar to an open tuning and play slide guitar something
(24:18):
something to do when you feel like giving up something.
And this happened hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times
when I was a kid. Every day, you know, I
(24:38):
would go over there in the summer all day and
after school, I would walk across the track field to
their house because they lived behind the school, and I
would just stay with them and we would play music,
and uh, you know, I think it was his way
of spending time with me and connecting with me, and
also just keeping me busy and giving me some than
(25:00):
to do where I wouldn't get myself in trouble. Turned
out to be pretty effective talker. Yeah, I got really lucky.
I got really really lucky because, you know, music was
introduced to me as a way to communicate with the
people that I cared about. And the first songs that
I heard were songs that had been around for a
(25:21):
long long time. I mean this was in the eighties,
you know, it wasn't in the nineteen forties or fifties.
But the songs that I was here and we're already
h tried and true, and they stuck with me. And
the way those songs were written and the way those
stories were told. Uh, you know, it influenced the kind
of music that I wound up making as an adult,
(25:41):
and and all the things that are important to me,
uh now really came out of that time that I
spent with my family making music. He's a ten time
All Star, three time World Series Champions, seven times Silver Slugger,
soon to be Baseball Hall of Famer, and a hero
(26:03):
to fans young and old from New England to the
Dominican Republic. David Ortiz during his fourteen years with the
Boston Red Sox, David helped lead the team to three championships,
including ending the infamous eighty six year curse the so
called Curse of the Bambino in two thousand four. He
(26:23):
also set and still holds the team record for most
home runs in a single season with fifty four, and
it's widely considered one of the greatest designated hitters in
the history of the game. He's also always been focused
on giving back off the field, particularly through the David
Ortiz Children's Fund, which provides critical cardiac services to children
(26:45):
in need. David, Thanks for being here today. Did you
think a lot when you played that you were basically
walking in the staffs of one Marshal Sammy Cells of
the great Dominican players before. Were you aware that you
were carrying this heritage word reality is suppressing that I
(27:08):
was a kid that all I have in mind when
I first jumped into the pro was founding the way
to help my family. We were poor family coming from
the dominic, and my mom and dad I used to
work extremely hard to pay for the school, to pay
for food. We didn't have any instra things because we
(27:32):
can't afford it. And my childhood was really good because
he was full of love in respect, but nothing else.
We don't have any financial statement. It was the type
of living that it was in the day by day
(27:53):
type of things and it was basically, you know, so
living type of thing. And but my my mom and
dad they hold on tight, They protect h their kids.
They always try their best to take care of us
the way they can. At the time when I was
(28:17):
like sixteen seventeen, with all the pressure that I was
living into it, I know exactly what I need to
be and what I want to be. I just don't
know what it was gonna take me to get there,
But I know my mind has very clear the things
that I need to do. Two, put my family in
(28:41):
a situation because I was the only way out. I
was their only way out. It was the only way
out but me. So I know that I had that responsibility,
and I start, you know, working on trying to learn
what it takes to be one those guys that you
just mentioned. Well, I'm very moved by what you said
(29:03):
about your mother, and I know you lost her about
twenty years ago, I think this year in a car accident. Yes,
and you were paying tribute to her after every home running. Yes.
I remember when I lost my mom. I was playing
for the Twins and it was after New Year Deaf.
My mom used to go to busy her family, you know,
(29:25):
New Year, you know, and that one time it was
like basically saying goodbye, because on the way back home,
they asked it happened, And I was pretty close to
my mom. I was, I was, you know, my mom was.
I always give some hard time to my sister saying
that I was my mom favorite child. She just spoiled
(29:47):
men enough, you know what I'm saying. My moments to
love cooking and just sit down and watch me eat.
She used to call me her big boy, you know,
and we had that type of connection. And once that happened,
that that heat home hard, you know, because my career, uh,
it would just beginning, and it was something that no
(30:17):
one is prepared for that, you know. And and I
remember I went to spring training in March. I remember
I used to celebrate my mother's birthday because her birthday
was marched four wards. We were in the middle of
spring training and that day that it was her birthday. Uh.
(30:43):
I remember getting to the field. I got to the
parking lot and I was just bawling, crying, and I
just sitting down by myself in the parking lot, and uh,
the whole team came out and picked me up. And
I remember my boy Buddy Hunner, he was he was
(31:04):
my teammate at the time. He was the first one
who coming and grab me. And you know, everybody was
super cool. And I was in the line know that day,
and I remember I hit two homers on that game,
and the first thing that came to my mind after
I hit the first summer was doing that the celebration
(31:25):
when I got to the plate and since that day.
It was like the best feeling I have ever had
after I hit the home run. I bet you still
miss your mother? Oh yeah, every day. My mother died
twenty nine years ago, last January six, and uh I
(31:46):
still think about her, you know all the time. That's
a different love, Mr President, That's a different love. You know,
you got your wife, you got your kids, you got
your family member, you got everybody, you got friends. But
the love coming from mom is different. That's why I
always tell my kids, you love for your mom is
the love of your mom. You know, it's it's it's
something that is extremely different. That connection is different. I'm
(32:12):
a guy that I'm surrounded by so many lovely people,
so many people like my family is based on that
sprained love everywhere, but the one type of love is different.
More after this today, I am truly delighted to be
(32:40):
joined by someone who was born and bred and, as
she says, buttered in Harlem and has played a crucial
role in making the neighborhood what it is today, someone
whose mouth watering meals have earneder the unofficial title of
America's Queen of Comfort Food. Melbourne, thanks for being here today.
(33:00):
When did you decide you wanted to be a chef.
How old were you? Well? Growing up in Harlem, every summer,
what we did is the day that school ended. The
next day, my mom, dad, brother's sister, and I would
all pack into the car and we would take the
ten eleven hour drive to South Carolina, which is where
(33:21):
my parents are from. And every time, the first thing
I did when we arrived in South Carolina was greeted
my grandparents with warm hugs. But then it was to
that farm. That's where we went, and my grandmother knew
that I looked forward to going to the farm with
her where we picked greens, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, and watching
(33:46):
my grandmother gather all of these ingredients and then take
them into the kitchen, singing normally church hymns. We would
cook together, and whether I was snap and peas, peeling potatoes,
cannoned tomatoes, I loved every aspect of the magic that
(34:08):
we created in our kitchen. It was then that I
actually first fell in love with cooking, with food and
with the power of food. See, every important event in
our family happened over food. It happened over a meal,
(34:28):
whether it was the birth of a new baby or
the one birthday and celebrating my grandmother or my great grandmother,
whether it was a marriage or unfortunately a repast. I
noticed that food was at the center of everything that
(34:48):
was important to us. So I knew I wanted to
be a part of the magic. I wanted to be
a part of that magic called feeding people's souls, but
feed in their spirits as well. Wow, you brought up
a lot of old memories to me. I had. My
grandmother's brother and his wife were sort of our family
(35:11):
magnet when I was a little boy in Hope and
we all had to learn to shell fees and do
whatever else was necessary. I personally favored turning the crank
on the ice cream machine the most because I knew
what was at the other end of that effort. But
(35:31):
I think that when you were talking about being on
your grandparents farm and how it's amazing how many people
today who have never been on or around the farm,
we've never planet a garden, who've never experienced this, I
think sometimes they spend an unlimited number of days ordering
(35:52):
food out and having delivered, having no real clue about
what else is involved. And one of the things that
always impressed me is that you seem to want the
people who dined at your restaurants and buy your book
to know that that food in front of them is
part of a larger fabric of community that we should
(36:13):
nurture in respect. That is so true. Um, you know,
food was our entertainment. We come from very, very humble beginnings,
and so it wasn't about going to the movies or
taking an airplane trip any place. Food was the nucleus
of everything that we did, Mr President. So Monday through Friday,
(36:36):
my dad worked, Saturdays and Sundays were spent at our
cousin's house, my uncle's, my aunt's, my grandparents homes. That's
what we did. But not only did we go to visit,
we brought a dish, we brought a plate because remember
that's bragging rights. Who makes the best tat to salad? Okay,
(36:58):
that macaroni and cheese better be creamy, and you have
to see the cheese strings rise up from the plate
to the top of the fork like it's gonna touch
the heavens in the sky. So food is definitely it
was definitely a part of entertainment, but it's also a
way to show love. It's the way that we nurtured
(37:19):
each other. And it's also a vehicle, a conduit that
we used to tell stories of the past. See. I
never got to meet great Grandma Julia, or Mambo as
my parents affectionately called her, but every time we sat
down to eat, there was stories that were constantly told
(37:40):
about my great grandmother Mambo. And you know, we shared
these stories over food, and it could have been a
meal that she cooked. But that's how I got to
tell my son the stories of his great great grandmother.
So even though she didn't live in the present, she
lives in his mind and he knows about his lineage.
(38:02):
He knows the important part that she and the rest
of our family members played still today play in our lives,
and he knows the reason that we do certain things.
You know, I still like the shell peas because they
take me back, and that's one of the beautiful things
that food does. It transports you back to warm times
(38:23):
and wonderful memories. At the Clinton Global Initiative in two
thousand and eight, Matt Damon, actor, producer and screenwriter who
channeled his fashion for water security and the charity H
two O Africa, bonded with Gary White Water and Sanitation
(38:46):
engineer with years of on the ground expertise. Before long,
they had merged their efforts into what came to be
called water dot Org. They later started a second organization,
of Water Equity, and together they've health more than forty
three million people getting access to clean water. That when
(39:06):
you were dreaming of a career in the movies, did
you know when you were young that if you succeeded,
this would be a part of it, not this specific thing,
but that you had to have another mission? Yeah? That
was that was something instilled in me really, uh, by
my by my mother. Um. She took me at he
(39:27):
as a teenager traveling to to Mexico, but to Guatemala
and rural rural areas there where I saw things that
I had never seen before and did extreme poverty, of
political repression, you know, social injustice, all these kind of things.
And it gave me such a better context for my
own life in the world. Um and and and and
(39:48):
lit a fire in me to say, okay, well, you know,
as as as as laser focused as I was in
my twenties on trying to carve out a career in Hollywood,
which is not a not an easy one to not
an easy ring to go after. Um I knew that
if things went well, I wanted to I wanted to
return to this because I wanted it to be a
significant part of my life. Because Gary and I talked
(40:10):
about all the time, you know what is a life
right it's in you know, and how much of it
is in service to this kind of greater project and
and um you know, what's what's a life worth living?
So um so those are all things I that we're
in the back of my mind as I was as
I was kind of slugging it out and trying to
trying to build a career in Hollywood. Lisa Leslie is
(40:37):
currently they had coach of the Triplets in the Big
Three Basketball League, if she led to the inaugural Big
Three Championship in twenty nineteen. In addition to her pioneering
basketball career, which includes being the first woman to dunk
w n B a game, Lisa's resume includes fashion modeling, acting,
sports commentary, and now real estate. I had the honor
(41:00):
to meter when I was present, and she was a
member of the women's national basketball team when they won
those gold medals in n and in two thousands. I've
been a big fan ever since, and I'm so glad
to be speaking with her today. Lisa, thank you for
joining us. Tell us just a little about winning, how
you grew up and how you became interested in basketball.
(41:23):
I grew up in Compton, California, which is the inner
city of southern California. UM. I was raised by my mom,
who is a single mom, with two sisters, an older
sister and a younger sister. I'm the middle child, therefore
the best child, who's most flexible, who gets along with
everybody because I'm used to being told what to do,
but I'm also used to leading and telling my younger
(41:45):
sister what to do. So I come from very humble beginnings.
UM had so much love and just positive affirmations from
my mom for my sisters and I to, you know,
take on the world and do the best that we
can do, be our best, and do it with a
lot of love than heart and integrity. But I gotta
tell you, I didn't start playing basketball until I was
twelve years old, which is really late considering all the
(42:06):
success that I've had in this sport. But basketball for
me really was about an opportunity to create change for
our lives and for me to be able to go
to college. That was the whole reason why I picked
up a basketball because I recognize it. That was the
one sport that because obviously I was so tall. I
(42:28):
was six ft in the sixth grade, so crazy, right.
I remember telling my mom that people keep asking me
if I play basketball, and she's like, oh, well, because
you're tall. Sweeheard. You know, they associate sports with people
who are tall. And I was like, well, I don't
want to play that and she was like, oh, you
don't have to. So funny. Um, But I went to
(42:52):
middle school and there was a girl named Shay. They
called her Sha, and everybody's like Shay and she's so popular.
And I'm like, why is everybody know her name? And
he said, well, she's on the basketball team. And so
I think God just had that happen for me so
I can go, well, I want everybody to know my name.
So I tried out for the basketball team. I guess
the rest is history. It's amazing that's how I started
(43:14):
playing basketball. That's a great story. It's a great sport. Yes,
it's It's changed my life and it's enhanced my life
in ways that I would have never known. Through all
the hard work and dedication of picking up that one basketball.
Who was like, let's just jump right in. How did
(43:36):
you decide to become a chef? I always believe in
following life. Life has a plan for all of us.
Sometimes we decide to listen, and sometimes we follow, and
sometimes we fight it. I'm the type of guy that
listens to life and my father, um, we love to cook.
Men cook in a Spain. It's like if you are
(44:00):
not a chef, if you don't feed your family, if
you don't feed your friends, you are not at the
at the right social social status. Cooking is part of
who you are, makes you better. And I always saw
my dad cooking at home obviously my mother who she
was a great, a great cook. And I was not
doing very well at school, let's say, in the traditional
(44:23):
education system. But it's not like I felt because I
didn't care. I was spending more time hands on working
in restaurants around Barcelona every hour I had free. Then
going to school again, the traditional education systems was not
something I was the best way for me to learn,
and I always was trying to find other ways that
(44:43):
I could be better. That's who I became a cook,
who I became in love, uh with food. But probably
the moment Mr. President was when helping my father in
one of those sundays that he would cook for all
his friends. One day we could be twenty, other days
we could be hundred. My father will put me always
(45:04):
in charge of the fire, and he will send me
to the forest to gather the wood and I will
make a fire. He will have this very big by
a pen, a gigantic pen where we make rice dishes
in the Spain. And that day I wanted to cook.
I didn't want to make the fire anymore. I was
doing the fire for too long. See day when I cook,
my dad said, no, you have to make the fire.
(45:26):
You are the only one that knows how to do it.
It's a big He sent me away because I got
very upset, So we will speak later. When the bio
was made, he got me aside and he told me,
my son, I understand you wanted to do the cooking,
to put the spoon, to steer the pot, but actually
you were in charge of the most important which is
(45:48):
making the fire and controlling the fire. If you control
the fire, you can't do any cooking. You want control
the fire and you will be in control of your destiny.
I think that probably was the moment that they saw that, yes,
Cookine was in my future, not just physically that was
going to be my profession, but understanding that if we
(46:09):
all learn and understand what that we're fire is, we
can achieve anything we want in the world. What a
wonderful story. Why am I telling you? This is a
production of Our Heart Radio, the Clinton Foundation and at
Will Medium. Our executive producers are Craigmanascian and Will Monadi.
Our production team includes Jamison Katsufas, Tom Galton, Sara Horowitz,
(46:32):
and Jake Young, with production support from Liz Rafferee and
Josh Farnham. Original music by What White. Special thanks to
John Sykes, John Davidson on hell, Orina, Corey Ginstley, Kevin
thurm Oscar Flores, and all our dedicated staff and partners
at the Clinton Foundation. Hi. I'm Jane Park, Director of
(46:58):
National Partnerships. Too Smart to Fail the Clinton Foundation's early
learning initiative. In the United States, nearly sixty of children
start kindergarten unprepared, lagging behind in critical language and literacy skills. Luckily,
research tells us that simple everyday interactions like talking, reading,
(47:20):
and singing with young children from the moment they're born
can help set a strong foundation for lifelong learning. That's
why we're working just around families with early language, literacy
and learning opportunities during their daily routines. From a load
of the laundromat to the bus stop, the pediatrician's office
to the playground. We work to meet parents where they
(47:42):
are and help them provide their children with the best
possible start in school and in life. Learn more about
this work and see how you can get involved visit
www dot Clinton Foundation dot org. Slash podcast po
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