A State of Great Transition

Things are changing all around us, and that includes changes for Danielle Moodie and Woke AF.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
me your girl, Daniel Moody, recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
as we head into this holiday season, I want to
give deep thanks and gratitude to every single one of
you that has supported me and independent media and this

(00:37):
show over the last several years. It has been at
times an uphill battle to stay on top of all
of the horrendous news, and at other times, you know,
a majority of the time extraordinarily rewarding speaking to so

(00:59):
many thoughtful people who, in their different modes and industries,
are trying to advance democracy, are trying to offer critical
analysis and paths of hope and faith for the listeners
to walk. It is going to be a really difficult

(01:25):
time ahead, and you know that I don't ever sugarcoat
things or try and pretend that they're not going to
be as bad as they are. And the fact is,
I have no idea, none of us really know. We
have history as our guide, but we don't really know

(01:45):
truly what we're in for. But we do know that fundamentally,
the America that we have known will not exist anymore.
And for the last ten plus years, our country, our
democracy has been creeping towards authoritarianism. Donald Trump proved that

(02:07):
he didn't even need to be in the White House
for that to continue to creep forward, with the attacks
on media, with the attacks on political opponents, with the
fact that he was the first former president to actually
never go away from the spotlight, to never leave the stage,

(02:28):
and to continue to see discourse and distrust, and it
has overwhelmed us to the point where millions of people
decided not to vote, or handful of people peeled off
and decided that Donald Trump's vision of America and his

(02:51):
narrative that he had created was what they believed in.
And this show started in twenty seventeen as a response
and reaction to Donald Trump's administration because I honestly, I
was genuinely, like all of you, gobsmacked that someone like

(03:14):
him would be following the historic presidency of Barack Obama.
But then, if you are a student of history and
understand whitelash and what happens every time there is significant
progress in this country for black people, particularly, there is

(03:37):
always always resounding backlash to those advancements, so steep in
fact that this Civil War and reconstruction ushered in one
hundred years of Jim Crow. We have only truly had

(03:58):
a democracy in this country for the last sixty years,
where those who weren't expressly written into the Constitution were provided,
after blood, sweat and tears, the opportunity to be full
fledged citizens of this country. And now here we are

(04:19):
where once again progress is being stopped dead in its tracks,
and what comes next may indeed last a century or more.
You know, our friend Jonathan Mepzil, you know, says, you know,
sometimes he feels like the guy in the midst of

(04:41):
the one hundred Year War three years in saying, oh
my god, when is this going to end? And that
is kind of how I feel as well. You know,
I can't express the deep disappointment, devastation and grief that
I am. I'm still processing from the last three weeks

(05:05):
of where this election landed us, but also the last
several years of turning on a microphone every single day
to try and offer truth and critical thinking and a
deeper analysis of where we want this country to go.

(05:28):
And I'm proud. I'm proud of the work that I've done.
I'm proud of the conversations that we have had. That
being said at the end of this year, wokaf will end.
And as you know, I host, as people say, fifty

(05:49):
eleven podcasts and shows, but wokapp has been my flagship show.
It has been an idea that I was able to
turn into a really incredible project over the last several years.
And when faced with whether to continue this show or

(06:12):
end it, I made the really hard decision that it
was time for a new chapter. Don't be confused by
me leaving WOKF that I'm leaving the airwaves. That is
absolutely not happening until somebody pulls the microphone from me.

(06:34):
But I've been grappling for a long time with what
it actually means in this day and age where people
made the decision that they didn't want to be folk,
that they made the decision that they would rather be
led and led by a liar, that they would rather

(06:57):
bury their heads in the sand. This elect kind of
broke my heart, and I think that that is fair
to say that I am heartbroken, and I need to
figure out for myself what my resistance is going to
look like moving forward. And for many of you, you've

(07:22):
seen that I have launched a new show, a video
streaming show, a live show where I can better engage
with the audience in real time and have real time conversation,
host town halls on Tuesdays of The Danielle Moody Show,
provide call to actions on Thursday, and give people an

(07:47):
opportunity in real time to be able to create and
build community, even if that is just you know, thirty
to forty five minutes a day. But there has been
something about podcasting and speaking out into a void that

(08:09):
hasn't continued to provide me with the kind of sustenance
that I need in this moment, and that I think
that audiences need in this moment. As people turn away
from cable news, as folks turn away from legacy news,
what I hear is that people are so thirsty for

(08:35):
connection with one another. And that is why I launched
my YouTube channel. It was because one I needed to
actually be engaging with people, engaging with all of you
in a different way. I needed to be able to
kind of flex creative muscles and learn how to produce

(08:57):
my own content and control all levers of my shows
in the way that I haven't had the ability to do.
And so I make this announcement today that you know
the end of the year. December thirty first will be
the last Woke af show, and I'm just filled with

(09:22):
a mix of emotions around that. Like I said, I'm
filled with deep gratitude for having hosted this show, created
this show for years. It started out as, you know,
a gig that I was doing on Sundays on Serious
XM for three hours live taking calls and just being

(09:46):
in conversation with people. And I miss that. I miss
that daily interaction and hearing from real people. And that's
why I went to YouTube, because I was like, put
a question in the chat, comment on something. It just
it feels livelier. I say that to say that I'm

(10:10):
so appreciative of all of the support. You have no
idea how many times I have felt defeated in this
work and just wanted to, you know, give up and
let other people do it and do it better. But
I think that we are in a state of great

(10:32):
transition in this country and in our own lives. Right
If you're a person that you know believes in astrology
and the way that I do, it's one of the
oldest technologies on the planet. You know, We're ending one
cycle of Pluto leaving Capricorn and moving into Aquarius for

(10:56):
the first time. I think this was the last time
that it'll be in Capricorn in our lifetime. And we're
ending a fifteen year cycle, going back to two thousand
and eight until now. And when I think about the
last fifteen years, which is an incredibly long stretch of time,

(11:18):
and I think about what two thousand and eight symbolized
in our politics, of the election of the first black president,
and now the probably our last election and the election
of a known white supremacist and an Autocrat. We've been
on a wild journey, you know. I started two thousand

(11:39):
and eight young and fresh eyed, and so committed to
American politics and so excited about the future of this country,
and now fifteen years later find myself in deep grief
over who I thought America was, who I thought that

(12:01):
we had the possibility to be. And I say, and
I've been saying as I try and reframe my thoughts
around this election, that maybe Donald Trump is actually needed.
Maybe the destruction of systems and of a country that
never wanted to reckon with white supremacy, never wanted to

(12:24):
reckon with white violence, domestic violence, and terrorism. Maybe people
need to see it up close and personal, because we've
sanitized all of our history so much so that in
Red States you think that the Transatlantic slave trade was
some type of internship. And according to Ron DeSantis, you know,

(12:47):
slaves learn skills as opposed to you captured skillful, creative,
innovative people, and then they built this country that you
were too lazy your ancestors to do themselves. The reality
is that sometimes destruction is necessary. Sometimes people have to

(13:11):
lose things to recognize how very important things like freedom, bodily, autonomy, creativity,
and innovation were and are. And I think that in
a lot of ways America has taken for granted the
things that were fought for tooth and nail, that people

(13:32):
lost their lives for, shed blood for, shed tears for
for generations. And you know, I have said this so
many times on the Danielle Moody Show as of late,
that all of us are not making it to the
New World. We're not and we have to understand that
that millions of lives are going to be lost in

(13:56):
this deep, dark transitional state that this country and the
world are going to go through. And what comes next,
God willing, will be a rebuild that is more inclusive
that is in recognition of never allowing an autocrat a

(14:20):
dictator to ever take power again. But there is going
to be years and years and years of hardship in
order to get to the other side. Now, while I
didn't need to be a part of the find out
of the fuck around, as I continue to say, none

(14:42):
of us did, because we've been doing the right things.
Clearly as a collective, this is something that the universe
is saying that we need to go through. So as
we seek out community, as we wake from this haze
of and try and figure out what each of our

(15:03):
roles are moving forward, understand that in times of darkness,
there was still light. During the horrific terrorism and practice
of slavery and Jim Crow, they were still dancing and
jazz and delicious food being created and art being made.

(15:29):
And we need to revel in that. We need to
find those outlets, create those spaces that make us feel
our full humanity, that have us really steeped and wrapped
up in the delicious beauty that humanity does offer, even

(15:49):
in and especially in times of darkness. I had the
ability over the weekend to go to the Whitney to
see the Ali exhibit. This astounding exhibit of the Alvin
Ailey Dance Company and Alvin Ailey, the founder and creator,

(16:15):
And it was just if you have the opportunity to
come to New York to see it, or if you're
in New York or close enough, it is worth the
trip to see the inspiration to understand that. As I
was looking at the dates of the births and deaths

(16:39):
of some of these great artists that inspired and were
friends with Alvin Ailey, you're looking at births in the
nineteen hundred, nineteen twenty four, nineteen thirty nine, and seeing
how long these incredible Black artists and poits, Lorraine Hansbury,

(17:02):
Duke Ellington, Jacob Lawrence, how long of a life these
people had, what they had seen, some of them born
just at the beginning of what it would mean to
be free, born, free and black in this country but

(17:22):
not yet seen as a citizen, and what they created
during that time. And as I was walking through these
just huge rooms and taking in the art and the
dance and the music, and the sculpture and the weaving

(17:43):
and the quilts, and just it took my breath away
and or reminded me that our lives are but like
a blip in this long span and existence of the universe.
But what we do with our time to make this space,
this planet better is not about the external world being perfect,

(18:08):
or being loving, or even being kind. But it is
about the joy and the community and the connection and
the beauty that we create in spite of it all
is the testament of our humanity. And so I am
grateful for those creatives. I'm grateful for to have been

(18:31):
just marveling for a few hours in the whitney and
just taking in my ancestors, these beautiful black legends who
lived at a time where, on its face was pure despair,
but what they created was indeed extraordinary, and we were

(18:54):
all better off for it. So, as we move out
of this hate into this new world, understanding that it
is going to be filled with both the darkness and light,
be the lantern. Figure out what your resistance looks like.
It could look like gardening. It could look like monthly

(19:16):
dinner parties and gatherings with friends and family. It could
look like watercolor or poetry. It could look like rest.
But now as we enter into this next phase, this
next chapter, this next book, this next story, our entire
lives do not have to be about how we react

(19:38):
to this new regime. It can be about what we
create in spite of it. So I thank you all
so very much, and the next couple of weeks we
will continue to provide analysis and interviews, and I really
do hope that you all will join me over at

(20:02):
my YouTube channel to connect with the community that I
am building over there, And for those that are on
Patreon and continue to support my work there, you will
also see your Patreon populated with different work and musings
and things that I am working on, and you will

(20:26):
be the first to see. But I appreciate all of you,
and I'm grateful for all of you, and I thank
you for showing up for me all of these years.
I wish you a holiday season filled with love, joy, gratitude,
and peace. That is it for me today. Dear friends

(20:49):
on Woke af as always, power to the people and
to all the people. Power, get woke and stay Augus
Fack