March 20, 2025 • 50 mins
Charlamagne Tha God joined Lisa at her book club last night, taking an hour to discuss his new book Get Honost Or Die Lying: Why Small Talk Sucks! Charlamagne is a radio host for The Breakfast Club in New York, a TV presentor and author. Lisa asked him about quitting small talk, his ayahuasca retreat and Wendy Williams. You wont want to miss this one!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, Welcome to Lisa's Book Club, a podcast where I
interview best selling authors from the New England area, pulling
back the curtain on what it's really like being a
best selling author. They're guilty pleasures, latest projects, and so
much more.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
It's a beautiful thing to see all these people gathered
together to talk about books exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And that is what I was actually just going to say.
Because you're known as the Breakfast Club host, like you're
you're a radio you're radio royalty basically, but you're here
for your book because you're an author, and it's a
more intimate experience, I think. And I'm so excited that
you're here and that you made time for us. Charlottage
(00:42):
was actually in Boston because he did the Meil Robins
podcast today.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yep, absolutely, yeah, Mel's dope. You know. It's so interesting
because I had been venting, complaining about some things over
the last couple of weeks and my wife was like,
I'm going to get you this book. You're going to
read this book this weekend, and it was let them
by Mel Robins and I was like, oh, I'm going
to do our podcast on Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
It was meant to be.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I mean we all read it. We were with Mel
about six weeks ago. It's transformative and I'm so happy
that your wife gave it to you.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Oh yeah, I mean i've read mail stuff before. I
read a High five Habit. We actually had our own
breakfast club back in one Yeah, which he put out
the High five.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Habit, Yeah, which we all follow too.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So we're here because we as a book club, which
was formed about three years ago. Now, we came together
because we were looking for big conversations. We wanted to
meet new people, we wanted to talk about things that
are of interest to us. And I think that's why
we're all here, and that's why we all keep showing
up for each other, because we want big talk, not
(01:47):
small talk, right, And that's why we're here because this
book is basically about that. So can you define small
talk and why it is it annoys you so much?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Because small talk is just complete bs. It's a time waster, right,
because you know I talk about it in the book,
Get honest to that line I talk about you know,
there's a thing called ig and I'm not talking about Instagram.
I'm talking about intention and goal. So when you approach somebody,
you already know what the intention of your conversation is
and not nine times out of ten you know what
the goal you're trying to reach, which said conversation basically,
(02:17):
you know what you want, so don't come up to
me talking about my sneakers or you know, did you
watch Daredevil? Like come on, like, you know what you
want to get to, so let's just get to it.
I'm not ordering the appetizer.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I just want the entre I agree. And the water too.
They always make so much time in the water course.
So morning shows. You have a morning show.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
I have a morning show, Billy and Leaves in the
Morning and the Breakfast Club and thank you. And I
have to say we as we as morning shows. We
are there to entertain. We are there to be you know,
something for people driving to the job that may may hate.
But but we also have a lot of small talk.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
We do a lot of small talk just because that's
what we do.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
But in your book you said that you for the past,
you know, a couple of years, you've been able to
sort of take that small talk and make it bigger.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
How have you been able to do that?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Well, what I've been telling folks is that you know,
we live in an era right now where we make
minors majors and make majors miners, to the point that
we don't even know how to have big conversations anymore.
Like the things that we probably should be talking about,
you know, on a large scale, we don't. But then
you'll find yourself, you know, watching Instagram and wondering why
(03:41):
frogs you know, lick defeat of toads? Just something dumb,
like what like huh. So we spend a lot of time,
especially you know, via social media, just talking about things
that really don't have any importance, and I think we've
actually lost the ability to have large conversas, like at
least large conversations to each other, you know, eye to eye,
(04:04):
like we when is the last time you actually had
a conversation and walked away seeing yourself? Man, you know,
I actually learned something from that conversation. I had a
conversation that you know, you sat down with somebody that
you thought you may not agree with, but then you
walked away like, oh, actually understood what that person was
talking about. Like you know, we we we sit down
and we listened with the intent to reply, reply all
(04:24):
the time, and we're replying with a bunch of nothing,
but when the last time you sat down and spoke
to somebody with the intent to actually understand. And I
feel like that's what the larger conversations do. So that's
what the book is, is just giving people something bigger to
talk about.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
I loved it. I took so many notes in your
book and every page of yes, I don't agree, I
totally totally agree.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I want to take people back though, because a lot
of people don't realize that you growing up as in
a small town in South Carolina.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I said that, like, there's gonna be anybody in here
from there, but you know.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
My parents were then bluffed in, yeah right, bright Hilton.
It's great.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
I love I love South Carolina. But I want people
to understand it. Who you were a voracious reader as
a young boy. Who got you into read it?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Oh my mom, by far Oh my mom was an
English teacher for us and foremost so yeah, yeah, he
was an English teacher. And you know I grew up
on the book. Your program, you know, said a book
a program all day. You know, you gotta read full
full books. You get a free pizza, a little little
personal paying pizza from Pizza Hut. You know, and it's
just like yo on a Friday night when you growing up,
you know, and you know your parents ain't got the
(05:33):
most money. Like that is everything. So I just used
to read, you know, everything, and my mom gave me
the best piece of advice that I carry on even past,
you know, reading. She told me, read things that don't
pertain to you. So I was a young guy, like
you know, sitting around, you know, reading everything. But also
when she said read things that don't pertain to me,
(05:53):
I started looking for whatever the opposite of me was.
So I'm a young black man from South Carolina. Damn,
who only couple of these books? It's all these little
white girls. Oh are you there? God, it's me Margaret.
Who's just Judy Bloom person. Oh she's got more books.
Oh I love her books. I've Judy Bloom beverly clearly.
I used to run through the night.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So I'm glad that you mentioned Judy Bloom because we
read are you their goddess me Mariot. We did book
in a movie, So we read the book again, all
of us, and then we saw the movie.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Movie was fantastic, very slept on it was.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
And Judy said that she liked it too. She said
they did a good job. I guess you guys probably
don't know that. Who has been your most favorite interview
of all time?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Oh, Judy Bloom. Yeah, my father, because I used to
I've always spoken about Judy Bloom because you know, I'm
real big on storytelling. You asked me who got me
in the you know, reading, It was definitely my mother
because she was an English teacher and it was the
book at program. But because of that, I always read,
and I always you know, wrote stories. I just love storytelling.
So I look at Judy Bloom the same way I
look at Jay Z Like they're just two fantastic storytellers.
(07:05):
And so I've always spoken about that, spoken about that throughout,
you know, my whole life. And so one Christmas, I
just randomly get two books in the mail and there
was are you there, God, it's me Margaret the paperbacks
and both of them were signed by Judy Bloom. One
was for me, one was for my oldest daughter. And
I'm like, this guy, this is my team playing a
trick on me, Like why would Judy Bloom be sending
me her books? And then when the movie came out,
(07:28):
she was in New York and she asked to see me,
and so I went to go visit her in New
York and hear and her her husband George, and her
son Larry. And it's like since then we've developed the
actual real friendship. I done been down to Key West
a couple of times, you know, double dating me and
my wife, her and her husband. I went to go
watch the premiere. Are you there? God, it's me Margaret
(07:48):
and Key West with Judy.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Like, so you have like a real relationship with her,
I was, We was texting last week.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, I have to say, like.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
She's my number one.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Like if I could, if I could sit and speak
with anyone, it would be her. And I tried to
get to her when the movie came out and she
wasn't really traveling that much. And I actually remember seeing
your picture that you posted of her and I was like,
oh my god.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
He knows her.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I had the pleasure of I went down to her
bookstore in Key West and we had a conversation there
that's up on YouTube now. We also had another conversation
when Simon and Schuster was celebrating the eight hundred year anniversary.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
I think that was last year.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
If I'm not mistaken, and we had another great conversation.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
But she's dope.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
If you go down to Key West, you can catch
her in the bookstore.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
That's what I'm going to have to do.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
You have to do that.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, I have relatives in keys so that's going to
be my dream. Just walk in and she'll be there
there and we can have our conversation. Absolutely, it's incredible.
Why do you think that you were so into reading?
Because I have to say, most kids, especially my youngest.
I have a fourteen year old boy and he doesn't
like reading. And why do you think you were so
drawn to books? It was it You're a curiosity, You're
(08:57):
just I was.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Born in nineteen hundred and seventy eight, so I remember
life before the first Nintendo. I'm talking about the first
Nintendo that came with the Super Mario and.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Dunn, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Like, we didn't have that, so we were you were
either outside playing or you were in the house reading.
So you know comic scripts and newspapers, you know Judy
bloom Beverly clearly, like my dad gave me the autobiography
of Malcolm X. Like there was really nothing else to
do but read. Like you know, and you know, you
watch a little TV here and there, you know, but
(09:31):
I was really into reading comic books. Oh my god,
I was back in the day. I was a Marvel
and DC guy. I'm more of just a Marvel guy now,
But I mean that's that's what literally, reading was life like.
I didn't know any other form of entertainment. We didn't
have social media, like, we didn't have, you know, an abundance.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Of video games like that.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
You had books, and you had your friends, and you
had to actually go outside and make conversation and you know,
we would go to the library and read these books
then talk about these books like it was just a
regular thing.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Like I never knew a world where, you know, people
around me weren't.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Reading, right, And it's a struggle right now. I mean
we benefit raising a reader. We have a raffle and
raising a reader in Massachusetts basically teaches families how to
read to their children because so many families don't.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Know how to do it well. I mean, I ask
a questions, how many of y'all got bookshelves in your house?
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Good?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yeah, because you should, Like I think that your kids
will pick up the habits they see you doing so
if they constantly see you on their phone on your phone,
then they probably won't want to constantly be on the
tablets of their phone. But if they see you with
a book in your hand, they're going to be like,
I want to do what mommy and daddy doing.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Well, it's funny you bring that up because my fourteen
year old, when he was twelve, I said, you got
to start reading more.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Riley, like this is this isn't good. This is not
good for your brain.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
You're always on YouTube, and he goes, well, I don't
see you reading, mom, Damn.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Well guess what I did. I started a book club.
That's right, and now all I do is read.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I will give the kids some grace, though, because there
is so many ways to take in literary content now,
Like I'll be the type of right now I'm reading
the book and listening the one at the same time.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Like when I'm riding in the work in the morning, i.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Might listen to the audio book, which is actually become
a struggle for me and my wife because we both
got audible and we shared the same account, and sometimes
we read the same book and I'm like, I'm not
on chapter fourteen yet, and then I go back to
chapter five and then she's fussing at me. So we
have a system now, like if I see that she's
reading something that I want to read, I'll market for her.
So when I start reading, you know, I can tell
(11:34):
her where she left off.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I'm glad you brought up your wife because the book,
in the book, you describe your wife as being the
most honest person you've ever met. You met her when
you were very young, she's been with you, and you
describe a conversation in the book where you're at a
hotel and you're standing in front of those beautiful mirrors,
(11:58):
you know, those gorgeous mirrors, having these beautiful hotels, and
you said to your wife, do I have fat?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Like?
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Or have I put weight on? You know, one of
those like you know, husband wife conversations. Can you tell
the story to everyone?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, I said, do I look fat? And she's like, yes,
you gave some weight. I didn't want to hear that
in that moment, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
But I mean no, not really. But I also didn't
want her to lie to me either.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
And I'm glad that she told me the truth because
then I was able to go do something about it,
you know, And that's just the way the ego works.
Sometimes you ask questions that you really don't want the
answer to. That's why I be telling people, don't ask
no questions if you really don't want the real answer.
We all should have learned that, especially after COVID. I'm
gonna tell you what I learned after COVID. Don't ask
(12:46):
nobody how they're doing unless you don't unless you really
want to know how they're doing. Yeah, because after COVID,
people started getting real honest about how they were feeling
mentally and emotionally. So unless you got time for a
person that really had, don't ask how they're doing.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
But do you think that the fact that you were
able to take her to honesty and not get mad,
Because I have family members if I said that to them,
they would honestly like be upset with me, they would.
So do you think it's because you have you're more
evolved now, like you've been working on yourself, that you
were able just to take the honesty and be like, okay,
(13:24):
you're right.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
No, yeah, But also as my wife, so I know
that she loves me, yeah, you know, And I think
sometimes that's another thing when I talk about, you know
why small talk sucks a lot of times. A lot
of small talk talk isn't in good faith. So I'm
all for good faith conversations. You know what I mean,
our good faith critique. I know that I asked her
a question and she gave me an honest answer, and
(13:45):
so you know, now we got to train and we
work out two, three, well three times a week together.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
So it's the fact that I know she loves me.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
She's not somebody, she's not a stranger, she wasn't trying
to insult me in any way.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Plus I did ask her the question.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yeah, so and she answered big talk small talk.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
So I remember growing up, we used to have big
dinner conversations. You know, I'd have relatives over, family members
over I'm sure you the same thing, and somebody would
bring up some conversation about religion or about politics or
about you know, parenting, and you know, at one point
it might turn, you know, where someone says something and
you know, somebody gets upset and then everyone starts screaming
(14:25):
at each other, and then the conversation stops because people
have just stopped listening to Wow, and you start screaming.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
That's what it's getting good, right, Oh, well, I guess.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
But but but.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
They you stop listening, right, So big talk and big
listening I think have to go together, don't you think?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Absolutely? And that goes back to what I said. People
are listening with the intent to reply, not to understand.
If you're listening with the intent to actually understand, it
won't get the yelling and screaming. When you start yelling
and screaming, it feels like you're yelling at screaming because
you think you're not being heard, But actually you're probably
not listening to the other person. So if you actually
listening to the other person and y'all were just exchanging
(15:02):
ideas and just having a civil conversation, neither one of
y'all would would get to screaming.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
It might get passionate.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Well, usually when you see people yelling and screaming trying
to you know, over talk a person or beat the
loudest person, is because they feel like they're not being heard,
which is why listening is actually, you know, a very
and you have to be intentional about listening.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
It's a skill.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
It's a skill, it really is, and we have to
do it on morning shows. I mean, we really do
every morning when you're like interviewing someone or you've got
a caller, you really need to listen. Before we came
out here, we were sitting over at Mystique and Charlott
Mane and I were talking about social media and it's
the same thing. The dinner table conversation is now jumped
online and now you can have a really thoughtful post,
(15:46):
like you could see something someone's really trying to make
a difference, and then there's that one comment that just
takes it in a totally different direction, and then it's negative, negative, negative.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
What can we do about that?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Ignore it, don't pay no attention. I know it's hard,
but really ignore it because nowadays I say it all
the time. Man, we're all in verbally abusive relationships with
our smartphones. Yeah, and you don't have to be because
all you gotta do is turn it off, Like can
you You would not let anybody talk to you crazy
in real life.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
You would either walk away tell them to leave.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
So why do you go on social media and engage
with these people on purpose? And I like the way
our brains are wired. You ignore twenty good things somebody
says about you, but it's that one thing that drives
you crazy. You're really gonna let one comment ruin your
whole day. You're gonna really let one comment get into
your mental, get into your emotional and if it does,
(16:41):
ask yourself why it's bothering you. That's the other thing
people don't do. Don't just dismiss it, be like, dang,
why did this comment bother me so much?
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Is there some truth to it?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Am I mad? Because it's just an absence of facts?
Like what is it that's bothering you about that comment?
But other than that, just walk away from it. Ignore it.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Yeah, let them like melsa yes, because it.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Really does not matter at the end of the day.
And nowadays, man, it might be a bot. So how
stupid you are you sitting around arguing with artificial intelligence? Right,
Like you don't even know if this is a real person,
no face, no name. You really so you're gonna have
a conversation with at I eat Dick seventy two. I'm sorry,
but you know what I'm saying. But from my point,
(17:22):
like like, why are you going back and forth with
this person that may not even exist?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Like good point? You said you love when you are
on the Daily Show?
Speaker 1 (17:33):
If you talk about that experience and why you talk
about the role of satire and how we need more
of it.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, because I grew up on John Stewart. I think
John Stewart is one of the most you know, brilliant
media personalities, political minds. You know, if there's ever any
other celebrities that run for president, John Stewart is somebody
who I feel like, you know, really could could be
president of the United States of America. I feel like,
you know, sometimes you watch somebody and you like, God,
(17:59):
that's too small off of them, you know, And that's
how I feel when I watch John Stewart sometimes, you know,
I love him back on the Daily Show and everything,
but I'm just like, yo, he should be doing way
more like I would really like to see him leading
the world in a way. And so I just always
grew up with liking him. I like his brand of
common sense. I like that he's willing to engage both
sides of the isl you know. I like how objective
(18:20):
he is, and so I've just always admired.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
You know, what it is that he does.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And then I read the Daily Show book, And when
I read the Daily Show Book, I'm just like, man,
when you see this system of the Daily Show. Daily
Show's been around for twenty five years. But if you
think about everybody who's coming through the Daily Show, you
got your John Stewart, you got your Stephen Cobez, you
got your John Olivers, you got Trevor Noah. Oh, I
can't remember I blaking on the young lady's name right now.
(18:46):
She had a TV show too. But there's so many
people who have come from that system of the Daily Show,
and when you when you're up there, you realize that's
exactly what it is. It's a system.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
They have a showrunner, her name is Jen Flann.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
She's been there since she was then intern for twenty
plus year and just being a part of that system,
being able to go in there and say, hey, I
got this idea, this is what I want to talk about,
this is my POV on it. You know, I write too,
but I'm not a writer for a TV show. So
for all of us to collaborate and be able to
create these create these amazing monologues that you know, when
I'm out and about people say, hey man, I heard
what you said on the Daily Show.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
I really appreciated it.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Or to see it, you know, on CNN or MSNBC
or Fox. I just I just love the ability to
be on a platform like that and really just you know,
put some ideas out into the world that may or
may help people or may just people think about, you know,
where we are right now as.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
A country, right and you can laugh at yourself too.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yes, Yeah, the best vehicle is humor. It is always
I think the best vehicle for communication is always humor.
I'm a very un serious person, you know. The older
I get, I find myself being super less serious. You know,
my three year old just looks at me and goes, Daddy,
you're so silly.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I love.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
And it's like, I don't know why I'm getting more
and more serious as I get older, but I am.
And I like to have these conversations about topics that
are you know, really meaningful and really impacting people. But
a lot of times it's gonna come through the vehicle
of humor. I feel like comedians are the last great
storytellers and truth tellers. You know, they have a freedom
(20:14):
that a lot of us do have, but for whatever reason,
you know, we decided to relinquish it. But they haven't.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
You just mentioned one of your daughters You've got four daughters, right,
four beautiful daughters.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
One woman, my wife, Ye, God bless her.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
There's something in the book that I still can't believe
that you do, and I need you to explain it,
and I actually talked about it on our morning show
this past week.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Is that you've embraced tree hugging.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Can you explain what it is?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
And I know that you've You've talked about your anxiety
and your battle with it for in your second book
and now also it's a common thread in this book.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
So is this a strategy for you?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
No, it's a practice I picked up because you know,
I started going to therapy in twenty and sixteen. And
one thing about my first therapist, I think she gave
me a lot of the language. She was able to
make me understand a lot of the things that I
was dealing with anxiety depression. Plus you know, anybody in
here who goes to therapy, you might go for one
thing and then you start peeling back those layers and you.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Like trauma one, trauma two, trauma, tha.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Oh my god, daddy is shoes? Oh? Like you know,
like all of this different stuff. And so one thing
about the era that we're in. Yes, a lot of
us go to therapy. We get the language, but what
actual healing methods are we doing, what practices are we
doing to actually you know, know what to do when
that anxiety pops up, with that depression pops up.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
And grounding, you know, was one of the things for me.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
You know, take your shoes off, take your socks off,
just go walk, walk walk walk into grass like. People
say that trying to be funny. Man, go touch grass now,
really go touch grass like, and you'll see it's the difference,
you know. And I talk about one of my spiritual, sacred,
sacred purpose cuaches, Yachdi Alba, and she told me, face down,
(22:10):
ass up, like, go in your backyard, lay on your stomach,
but to the sky it's on the ground, and just
feel the earth. And literally, I promise you, man, you
take a few deep breaths laying in some grass, or
you take a few deep breaths just leaning up against
the tree, put your forehead on the tree, say some prayers,
say thank you, show some gratitude. I promise you your
(22:33):
mood will change instantly. I'm go out there without your
phone now I'm not done sober you know, just go
out there and feel the earth. I promise you, whatever
you're dealing with, at least for that moment, which is
sometimes all it takes.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
You will wosa.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I promise you wait till you can, wait till spring
and summer comes.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
I believe it. But do you really like actually go
and like hug a tree?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Is there like one specific tree?
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Honestly, it's like it's what when I go out in
my backyard. It's literally I got like a lot of
trees in my backyard. But it's like I really just
feel I gravitate towards whichever one, whichever one's energy is
just calling.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
Me that day.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
And how long do you?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Oh man? I mean I can be out there. I
can literally be out there for an hour, hour or two,
oh man, especially in the spring of something. Yeah, it's
beautiful be outside, shoes off, walking through the ground, just
digging your feet into the dirt, you know, laying down
like literally, that's what me and Ya, me and Yady
make a joke because you know, we both of a
certain age, So the two Live crew faced out up.
But you.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Were in the grass with it, like I love it.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
There's nothing better do.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
The girls do it? Does your wife do it?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
My wife does it?
Speaker 4 (23:46):
My say?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
They kids? So they always outside, Like so I'm old school,
I'm from the country, so I let my kids play outside.
So I think that's something that we got away from
think about. When we were young, we spent all day outside,
so our moods were up. We were getting so much sun.
Like now we stay in the house and we're on
our devices and like, so we wonder why we're depressed.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Yo, go outside and reconnect with nature.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
So it's like the kids, they're already outside anyway, so
they you know, they haven't gotten into the actual practices
of grounding, but they're already outside.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Right and it's working for them.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Yeap.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
So I want to ask you a question about your anxiety,
because do you think that.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
It's driven you to be the person that you are?
Has it?
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I know it's hard because anxiety can be really crippling
to some people, but I also think it can drive
you to want to be better to.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
So yeah, I mean when I was young, I didn't
know what it was. So I've been literally dealing with
panic attacks my whole life. The first panic attack I
can visibly remember was first grade, first day of first
grade members of elementary school in South Carolina, and I
cried uncontrollably, shaking, screaming. I don't know, I never felt
(25:07):
that feeling in my life. My mom was even looking
at me like what is wrong, Like what's going on?
And so I've been dealing with it my whole life,
not knowing what it was. As I've gotten older, I
know what you know, panic attacks and anxiety, you know,
are and how it shaped me. Yeah, I mean it's
of course, of course it's shaped me in some way,
(25:27):
shape or form. I think it shaped me in the
fact that it's just it's what led me to therapy,
and so leading to therapy to get a handle on
my anxiety, you know, caused me to do the work
on so many other traumas, has brought me closer to
a lot of people. It helped me to give my
father a lot of grace because, you know, I remember
(25:49):
once I put out the second book Shook One, anxiety
playing tricks on me. It was twenty eighteen, you know,
the week of Thanksgiving, and my father called me. I
was home in South Carolina and I had a cousin
who had completed suicide that week. He was twenty five
years old and my father said, man, I read your book.
He was talking to me about my cousin completing suicide.
And he goes, man, you know, I was going to
(26:09):
therapy twenty three times a week and I tried to
commit suicide, you know, thirty plus years ago. And I
was on ten to twelve different medications for my mental
health throughout my life.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
And I'm like, damn, if you'd.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Have told me this when I was young, I would
have known what I was dealing with. Right, So, yeah,
I think to answer the question, I guess fully, Yeah,
it's shaped me simply because it led me on a
journey of healing. But also it just showed me that
in order to eradicate the stigma around mental health, we
(26:41):
can't be afraid to talk about it. And sometimes, man,
just being honest about having a panic attack or knowing
what's going to trigger your anxiety keeps you from really
lying to people.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Sometimes you lie and say why you don't want to
go somewhere? Are you be somewhere? And lie about why
you're leaving now when all of us are having a
conversation and being honest about dealing with anxiety and panicing,
tax and be like, hey, man, I feel one coming on,
it's time to go. So I just think it's it's
just a it's a good thing just to share.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
That you that you're dealing with.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yeah, I suffer from it too, So I really that
really resonated with me in the book a lot. But
I feel like my anxiety has driven me to like
because I always think that I'm not like you talk
about imposter syndrome. I've had imposter syndrome my entire life.
Can you explain have you guys? Do you guys know
what imposter syndrome is?
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Okay, that's that's.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
That's very interesting what you said, because yes, when you
have imposta syndrome, when you don't feel worthy, like there'd
be times I could be on the stage like this,
having a conversation and in the middle of the conversation,
I'm like, you are you you? You don't even know
what the hell you're talking about. You are talking to
these people like who are you to write a book? Like?
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Who are you to write people?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Like literally, like your mind would start telling yourself all
types of crazy things and you just feel like, yo,
I'm not supposed to be here, And man, I remember
having a great conversation with you know, Bishop Tdjakes one time,
and he said to me, he was like, look, even
if you don't think you're worthy, God knows your worthy
and that's why you're in the position that you're in.
And I never forget the moment I literally got to
(28:21):
that place of worthy. There was another clip I saw
and I talk about it in the book. I saw
Tyler Perry talking about you just have to get to
a place to worthy, like you have to constantly tell yourself,
I'm gonna get the worthy. I'm gonna get the worthy,
like it's a destination. And I think the equation to
get the worthy is purpose plus gratitude. And so when
I started having these conversations about, you know, dealing with
(28:43):
my anxiety, dealing with my depression, going to therapy, it
gave me a different sense of purpose. It felt. It
made me feel like I was, you know, showing up
in the world to serve in a different way and
man owning every phase of your life, even the soul
called bad parts of your life, the worst moments of
your life, owning those and having gratitude even for those moments.
(29:06):
See a lot of us we like to thank God
when things are going great, but we don't thank God
when you know things may not necessarily be going our way.
So when you actually have just gratitude for life and
gratitude for you know, every single thing that you've gone through,
plus you couple that with the purpose of serving, then
you get to a place of worthy.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Right, and it calms you down.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Absolutely every single time.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
I had a little imposter syndrome here.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
With you. But you're right.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
But but I walked around and I saw these people,
and I thought, we're doing a good thing here.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
We're here.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
We're hundreds of people coming to talk about books. Right.
That's an amazing servey, right, and.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
That's why we're here. So you're right.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
It did calm me down, and it made me grateful.
It made me so thankful that you're here.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
With us, especially when you see how low the literacy
rates are in America.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Come on, this is amazing what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Okay, So let's talk about the book a little bit
because I always ask authors sort of what is your
writing style?
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Because you're on a third book. Do you hand right?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Do you like?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Do you dictate?
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Like?
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Do you have a writing partner? How does that work?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I'm a typer, and I'm a typer with a writing partner.
My guy Chris Moreau, great friend of mine, met him
years ago when we first started The Breakfast Club, and
the Breakfast Club for Us got syndicated on the weekends.
He was actually the producer for our weekend show. But
he had launched what was called a podcast network back then,
and this was twelve thirteen years ago. The hell is
(30:39):
a podcast right, And he had a network called the
Loud Speaker Network and Combat Jack reth in Peace Combat
Jack Y. It was Chris Christian Combat Jack Reggio. They
owned the network and I remember Chris said to me
way back then, he was like, Yo, there's two things
you're gonna have to do in your career. He said
You're gonna have to write a book. And I was like, yeah,
(31:00):
that's a given you. I love, you know, reading my
mom's English teacher, the whole spill. And he was like,
you should start a podcast. And I was like, start
up podcast? Why the hell would I start a podcast?
I do morning radio. I was a bougie.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
It was all ego.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
I like, I got a morning radio show, Why would
I do a podcast. He was like, you've been fired
four times from radio like the podcast can actually be yours.
And I'm like, you know what, he's got a point
called my guy. Andrews shouts like, hey, Andrew, you want
to do a podcast? He was like a podcast? What's
a podcast like that? You know? We just get together
and talk every week and put it out and you know,
(31:34):
not twelve years later, brilliantly its is still going strong.
But Chris is my writing partner because you know, he
was the first person to tell me, hey, you should
write a book, and so he, you know, taught me
the whole process of writing a book.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Man.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
I remember sitting around giving them all of these different
you know, I wouldn't even call them chapters. They were
just essays that I would write, and you know, they
were essays, you know, Like, for example, in my first book,
black Prints, opportunity comes to those who create it. I
have a chapter called put the Weed in the Bag,
and it's based off the movie Belly. And if you've
ever seen the movie Belly with DMX and NAS, there's
(32:10):
a scene in the movie where DMX and NAS is
sitting with these two young kids, and the two not
young kids, but like young younger men, and the younger
men are like, Hey, we want to be like y'all
man at school. We want to go out there and
get money. Man, we want to get money with y'all.
And DMX says, man, you'll put the weed in the
bag first. So I basically use that to say you
can't skip the process. Like, regardless of what it is
(32:31):
you want to do in life, there is a process
to everything that it is you want to do. So
you know, if you're sitting there and you know you
want to go out there and you know, get money.
I'm not encouraging drug dealing, by the way, this is
just it's just an example, right, if you want to
go out there and get money, and the process before
you even go out there, you got to bag it up.
You gotta put the weed in the bag first. And
so when I come with this essay and I write
it and I give it to Chris, Chris shows me
(32:53):
how to turn it into a chapter of a book,
and you know, the whole storyline, Like I mean, I
got there original storyboard of like my first book when
he was taking all of these essays in this example,
like okay, this is the f your dreams chapter. This
is to put the weed in the bag chapter. This
is the PPP chapter. Like I had people guess crazy,
I did PPP wait before there was PPP loans it
(33:15):
was passion, Purpose and progress. Yeah, so like, yeah, so
he just basically showed me how to write a book,
and you know, I use him for all my books.
Speaker 6 (33:27):
Now, how long did it take you to do this one?
Speaker 4 (33:32):
Eight years?
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Only because my last book came out two thousand, My
first book came out twenty seventeen, and then I came
right back out with Shook One Anxiety Playing Tricks on
Me in twenty eighteen, and then I didn't put out
a book for since until last year.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
This has been a lot of different thoughts and a
lot of different things that I've been writing, you know,
for eight years and just taking different forms, you know,
throughout those eight years. And I had to figure out
exactly how I wanted to package all of these things
that I'm writing about and what exactly is and I'm
trying to say and I was. I went on an
ayahuasca retreat last year, last February, and one of the
(34:10):
things that came up for me was a three day retreat.
I think it was day two, and it was like, yo,
stop lying to yourself and stop volunteering those lives to
other people. I don't know if any of y'all ever
done ayauskca, but literally it's like godess. I mean, I
feel like I always hear God, but it's like Morgan
Freeman voice.
Speaker 6 (34:26):
Like like it sounds terrifying.
Speaker 4 (34:31):
Day two was the.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Two.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yeah. Day one was like, it's interesting, right because ayahuasca.
Like Day one was, you're cool because you know the
Day one was basically like I know, I don't you
don't need to have a panic attack, don't need to
have anxiety. You're in good hands. This weekend, I got you.
We're gonna go on a journey. This is what the
medicine is telling me. Like, you're gonna go on the journey.
It's cool. So I felt like real bliss on day one,
(34:58):
like yeah, all right, okay. So day two, you know,
because you're drinking and like shot me like a large
or small whatever, So I'm like, okay, Day one was easy.
I'm gonna try large this time. Oh god, oh my god,
oh man, you know, and then once I was in it,
I was in it, So I was like, Okay, I
see what you're trying to show me, so let's really
go there and we were really gonna unearth all of this,
(35:21):
let's really go there. So I took another large one
and that's when it was on. Yeah. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely
we did it together.
Speaker 6 (35:30):
Did you guys have different experiences?
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Yes, But the interesting thing about ayahuasca is you can
see somebody else's experience, like it being you be and
you were on ayahuasca somewhere, Lisa, and you told me,
you know, hey, man, it was a I felt somebody
come up behind me and like hug me, and I'd
be like, yo, I saw the person too. They had
white hair and you know, a beer, and I'll be
(35:56):
describing the person and you'll be like, yeah, yes, that's
what I saw. Like literally, it's like it's that type
of experience, like you know, once again, not encouraging y'all
to do any of this stuff. I'm just simply telling
you what I what I've done. And so that's what
the title for the book came up for me to
do that on day two, it was stop lying to
yourself and stop volunteering those lives of other people. And
(36:16):
I realized that's what I was trying to convey the
people that Yo, we all got to show up and
be the most truest, authentic versions of ourselves at all time.
And if you don't get honest, you will absolutely die lying.
And none of us want to die lying. So it's
just like, yo, let's be as honest as possible with
each other. And so yeah, that's how I came up
(36:38):
with the title for that book.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Have you ever thought about writing a novel based on
your give as a young boy or does that interest you?
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Yeah, I got I got other ways to storytell that,
you know, I got other ways to storytell that. I
feel like that's the anime looking on Like, that's like
as an animated cartoon.
Speaker 6 (37:04):
I could see that, you know, that'd be fun.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
No, literally like an animated cartoon. And it's like, uh,
you know, anybody that's going to therapy, you know, ninety
five percent of the things that you learn in therapy,
or ninety five percent of your triggers are directly related
to something that happens in your childhood.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
So it would be interested in to show those correlations.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
How when you're in your adult life, certain things pop
up and you like, oh, why did that trigger me
because of what happened in third grade? Why did that
trigger me, oh, because of what happened to me in
ninth grade. Like, so it'd be interesting to show that
correlation through animation. I think, thank you, y.
Speaker 6 (37:39):
We look forward to seeing that.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
I got a DM from someone who couldn't be here,
actually several dms.
Speaker 6 (37:46):
And they want me to ask you about Wendy Williams.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
And I need to tell you this because I don't
know if you know this, but Wendy Williams started out
her radio career on Kiss one O eight doing an
internship on the morning show YEP, when she was here
in school, and you worked for Wendy Williams, so we
as a morning show on Kiss.
Speaker 6 (38:06):
For years, I've always talked about Wendy, and Wendy's.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Talked about Kiss went away on her, you know, when
she's absolutely on TV, and it's been nice. We've loved
seeing her, you know, and everything she's been able to accomplish.
What's your view of her situation and how do you
think it's going to play out?
Speaker 2 (38:22):
It's horrible, you know. I didn't know all the ins
and outs of conservative ships and guardianships, but I just
think it's, you know, disgusting when somebody can have absolute
access over your whole life, over your finances, tell you
when you can go, tell you when you can you know, leave,
tell you that you can't go, and you don't even
have control over your your own money, like you know,
(38:43):
I went, uh, I went to actually went to dinner
with her Monday because now because we've been raising so
much hell about it, you know, they've loosened up some
of the restrictions and so she's able to come out
a little bit. So her niece Alex was in town,
So I went to dinner with her on Monday night,
and she was just like, you're coming to dinner at
six o'clock because I don't have any money and you're
(39:03):
gonna have to pay for it.
Speaker 6 (39:04):
So I'm glad you're available.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
So it's like yeah. So it's just like the fact
that you know, she doesn't even have access to her
own money to go get something to eat. That's kind
of that's kind of crazy to me. And I think,
you know, a lot of people don't know about these
conservative ships and these guardianships, and I think there's a
lot of people who end up getting lost in the system.
Like if they can do something like that to Wendy Williams,
imagine how many people they they're they're doing that too,
(39:28):
that don't have a voice or I don't have people
to be able to speak out for them and advocate
for them. So I just, yeah, I just think it's
terrible what.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
She's and it varrages from state to state to conservatorships.
And also I think I read somewhere where she said
that it first started that there was some weird activity
in her Wells Fargo account and she was worried about that,
and she was actually okay with that at first, yeah,
because she was concerned about her accounts and stuff like that,
and then it just spiraled into.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
How does that go from that to you know, you're
locked up in a conservative So I really don't know
how it's going to play out. I hope she gets
to be free, and you know, she has things that
she still wants to do, so you know, she only
she's only.
Speaker 6 (40:13):
Sixty years old, right, and she passed that test.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
If you talk to Wendy, it's literally like, you know,
there's there's there's nothing there, right, there's nothing wrong with
her at all. Like I think the only thing is
I grew up with Wendy, right, Because you're listening to
her on the radio, plus having the pleasure of working
with her, you know, even damn near living with her
for a long time. So it's like she is a
(40:37):
pop culture kind of sore, Like she would have tabloid
stacked up to hear and just be reading the marketing
our stuff, I mean, consuming every reality.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
Show like she was all in it.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
So when you talk to her, she could sit there
and talk to you for hours about pop culture. Now
that she's disconnected from that, you know, she don't really
have that to talk about. But if you just talk
to her about life, like she was just telling us
all of these stories from the nineties on Monday, and
I'm just like, yo, I really hope you get the
opportunity to, you know, get out and share this because
it doesn't even sound real. It sounds mythical. And you
(41:13):
think about all of the things she said back then
that everybody thought she was crazy for that we've actually
seen come true over the years. Yeah, she's got a lot.
Speaker 4 (41:21):
More to say.
Speaker 6 (41:22):
So are you hopeful that she'll get out of it.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Yeah, I mean all I got is optimism, So yeah,
I hope.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
So Brittany got out of it, she can get out
of it. Too, and she's such like you said, she's
such a hard worker. I could totally see her just
reimagining a new career for herself and that would.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
Be the best thing ever.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
That's literally that's what she talks about all the time.
And I'm like, let's focus on getting out of here.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
First, you know, which could take a while.
Speaker 6 (41:48):
I think they can take some questions from the audience.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Would you like to take a couple of questions.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
Let's do it.
Speaker 6 (41:53):
You guys have any questions anyone? Yep, there's a little
microphone right down next to Abby.
Speaker 5 (42:03):
Yepously your.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Obviously different.
Speaker 4 (42:26):
Thank you. What's your name? Leanne?
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Thank you for the question. Man. Hip Hop is all
I know. You know. Hip hop is my culture. That's
my esthetic. You know, that's what I grew up on.
I don't know anything else, Like I said, I was
born in nineteen hundred and seventy eight. Like so my
sister was listening to the Salt and Pepper and Kidn't Play,
like my cousin tied let me hear rock campaign in full,
Like I don't know anything else. Hip hop is my culture.
(42:49):
Like there's so many things that I, you know, learned
from hip hop. You know there's books that you know,
I've been recommended, you know, through actual hip hop lyrics.
There's things I've been introduced to, like The Five Then
Teachers because of Wu Tang, Like there's hip hop.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
Is life, and you know, I remember being young wondering
if you know, I would.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Even care about hip hop as I got older, But
hip hop just continue to grow and hip hop continue
to evolve, and so yeah, I love it.
Speaker 4 (43:18):
That is my that's my jazz, that's my disco, like
that's what we grew up on.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
It's crazy to think that, you know, Knuck if You
Buck is an old school classic record, you know what
I'm saying, Like Uncle Luke Scar is an old school
classic record, and it's that's why you can't even judge
these kids. You can't. We can't say nothing to these kids.
Turn on an Uncle Luke record and what you see
what I'm saying. Imagine you know how my daughter looks
(43:44):
at us like we're crazy, Like when she catches me
and my wife vibing out late at night or jumps
in the car. You know, sometimes you pick your kids up,
but you was listening to something before your kids jumping.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
And you forgot that song.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Was on you rest turn the radio there like hip
hop is life, man, that's my life peace. He's awesome.
(44:21):
The advice I give all new emerging voices, it don't
matter what platform you on, is to be authentic, Like
you gotta be authentic. You know, there's a lot of
you know, imitation that goes on a lot of times,
especially in the media space. It's not just media space,
it's any type of art. Like you know, whenever you
see somebody that's successful doing something, you know, everybody tries
(44:43):
to do that. And literally everybody can try to copy
one person for a whole generation. But why be a
second rate version of somebody else when you can be
a first rate version of yourself? Like God gave you
a unique story. There's your life experiences, things that you've
gone through. Only you have been through that, So why
wouldn't you give that to the people? Like that is
(45:05):
what's going to help you cut through, Like literally just
being authentic. You can name any voice you want to.
I think since we've been up here, we've been named
Wendy Williams, We've named John Stewart. Those are two unique voices.
You know exactly what they do, You know exactly how
they deliver things. You have to find your unique voice
and put that out into the world and that will
(45:27):
that will translate regardless of what platform you're on.
Speaker 6 (45:31):
Absolutely no one more yep.
Speaker 4 (45:37):
Hey Donald.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Anytime that I didn't pay it forward but regret that
I didn't act on it, No, because the truth to
the matter is, I feel like I always pay it forward.
Because I read a long time ago. I was reading
doctor Wayne W. Dyer The Power of Intention, and doctor
Wayne W. Dya said that your true purpose in life
comes through service of others. And I thought about my grandmother,
(46:08):
and I think about my mom, and I think about
my pops, and I thought about how I always watched them,
you know, literally serve right, Like Yo, my grandmother's the
type person didn't matter who you were, It didn't matter
what color you were, didn't matter what your religion was,
if you was around, you want to eat, you know
if my dad same way. My dad always had like
a little you know bar, you know, fish market, and
(46:30):
the same thing you want to eat, you want to drink.
So it was like there was always a way to
be of service. And my dad did construction right, so
it was like I always watched him do little odd
jobs for people. You would hear conversations from the adults
about how this person may not have the money right now,
it might be an eye on you. Hey, let's just
let's just go do this because it's the right thing
to do. So that's kind of always been embedded in me.
(46:52):
I feel like that's really the only reason I've gotten
so many blessings because I always scribed to pay it forward,
and then I've always scribed to be of service, Like
there's something everybody can serve. I don't care what your
financial status is. I don't care, you know, you know
what your status in life is. You can always find
a way to serve. You can leave out of here
(47:13):
right now and go buy a homeless person some food
or something like, there's something you can figure out to
do to be of service. So yeah, I feel like
I've always constantly, you know, paid it forward, and I
think the beauty of that is like even now right
like Wendy Wood and you know, literally I didn't go
to college, So every single opportunity I've gotten is because
(47:33):
somebody saw something in me that I didn't see in myself,
and they assisted me and helped me to get in position.
So you got somebody like Wendy Williams who did that
for me back in two thousand and six, and now
I'm in a position that turn around and assist her
in her situation. That's what happens when you know, people
pay it forward and just do things because they can.
(47:55):
She didn't. I was all the way in Columbia, South Carolina.
She could have got anybody. She could have got personalities
from New York comedians, from you know, anybody could have
been on her show. She heard me on the internet
and was like, I want to talk to that guy
right there, Like she didn't have to do that.
Speaker 4 (48:09):
And I worked for her.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
I worked for WBLS for a year and a half
for free, Like no mind, I'm not talking about minimum weight,
zero dollars. They was like, yeah, we can give you
a place to stay because I was on the air
legally in New York for the first year and a half,
and so that's what I did. But the fact that
she decided to do that back then, now I'm able
to do the same things now, And I mean, I
(48:30):
think that's that's honestly what I think about all the time.
You should just always constantly be of service, and you
should always constantly assist people because you never know who
you gonna need in the future that in turn that
you talking down to you bite me, he might be
looking at your resume ten years from now because he's
now the CEO of the boss. So it's just like, yeah,
(48:52):
you should always pay it forward. So now I don't
think I've missed any of those. I always look for
the opportunity to pay it forward. Well, this was fun,
this was greatly so thank you very much.
Speaker 6 (49:03):
Just I truly great. I'm so grateful and honored that
you spent this hour with us.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
I think we can all agree, no, I appreciate its Really,
You're a very special man.
Speaker 6 (49:17):
I wish I'm so thankful to have had you here.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
So thank you very much, Liza. It's a pleasure to
be here and listen, man, what you're doing is amazing, amazing.
This is God's work because you know, like she was
just saying about the literacy rates and how low the
literacy rates are, you know, in communities across the country, man,
just to get people encouraged to read. Me personally, books
and music helped me to transcend my circumstances in life.
(49:41):
And you know, I always think about you know Malcolm X.
When Malcolm X didn't, you know, go to an Ivy
League school or go to college, but he said that
he educated himself just through reading. And I mean, that's
what books are for. And so I just really thank
you for your service and what you're doing, because this
is incredible. Thank you.
Speaker 6 (50:00):
That means a lot.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
We're all in this together, right guys.
Speaker 6 (50:03):
You our circle keeps growing. Thanks charloing me
Hey, Welcome to Lisa's Book Club, a podcast where I
interview best selling authors from the New England area, pulling
back the curtain on what it's really like being a
best selling author. They're guilty pleasures, latest projects, and so
much more.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
It's a beautiful thing to see all these people gathered
together to talk about books exactly.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And that is what I was actually just going to say.
Because you're known as the Breakfast Club host, like you're
you're a radio you're radio royalty basically, but you're here
for your book because you're an author, and it's a
more intimate experience, I think. And I'm so excited that
you're here and that you made time for us. Charlottage
(00:42):
was actually in Boston because he did the Meil Robins
podcast today.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yep, absolutely, yeah, Mel's dope. You know. It's so interesting
because I had been venting, complaining about some things over
the last couple of weeks and my wife was like,
I'm going to get you this book. You're going to
read this book this weekend, and it was let them
by Mel Robins and I was like, oh, I'm going
to do our podcast on Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
It was meant to be.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I mean we all read it. We were with Mel
about six weeks ago. It's transformative and I'm so happy
that your wife gave it to you.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Oh yeah, I mean i've read mail stuff before. I
read a High five Habit. We actually had our own
breakfast club back in one Yeah, which he put out
the High five.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Habit, Yeah, which we all follow too.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So we're here because we as a book club, which
was formed about three years ago. Now, we came together
because we were looking for big conversations. We wanted to
meet new people, we wanted to talk about things that
are of interest to us. And I think that's why
we're all here, and that's why we all keep showing
up for each other, because we want big talk, not
(01:47):
small talk, right, And that's why we're here because this
book is basically about that. So can you define small
talk and why it is it annoys you so much?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Because small talk is just complete bs. It's a time waster, right,
because you know I talk about it in the book,
Get honest to that line I talk about you know,
there's a thing called ig and I'm not talking about Instagram.
I'm talking about intention and goal. So when you approach somebody,
you already know what the intention of your conversation is
and not nine times out of ten you know what
the goal you're trying to reach, which said conversation basically,
(02:17):
you know what you want, so don't come up to
me talking about my sneakers or you know, did you
watch Daredevil? Like come on, like, you know what you
want to get to, so let's just get to it.
I'm not ordering the appetizer.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I just want the entre I agree. And the water too.
They always make so much time in the water course.
So morning shows. You have a morning show.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
I have a morning show, Billy and Leaves in the
Morning and the Breakfast Club and thank you. And I
have to say we as we as morning shows. We
are there to entertain. We are there to be you know,
something for people driving to the job that may may hate.
But but we also have a lot of small talk.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
We do a lot of small talk just because that's
what we do.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
But in your book you said that you for the past,
you know, a couple of years, you've been able to
sort of take that small talk and make it bigger.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
How have you been able to do that?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Well, what I've been telling folks is that you know,
we live in an era right now where we make
minors majors and make majors miners, to the point that
we don't even know how to have big conversations anymore.
Like the things that we probably should be talking about,
you know, on a large scale, we don't. But then
you'll find yourself, you know, watching Instagram and wondering why
(03:41):
frogs you know, lick defeat of toads? Just something dumb,
like what like huh. So we spend a lot of time,
especially you know, via social media, just talking about things
that really don't have any importance, and I think we've
actually lost the ability to have large conversas, like at
least large conversations to each other, you know, eye to eye,
(04:04):
like we when is the last time you actually had
a conversation and walked away seeing yourself? Man, you know,
I actually learned something from that conversation. I had a
conversation that you know, you sat down with somebody that
you thought you may not agree with, but then you
walked away like, oh, actually understood what that person was
talking about. Like you know, we we we sit down
and we listened with the intent to reply, reply all
(04:24):
the time, and we're replying with a bunch of nothing,
but when the last time you sat down and spoke
to somebody with the intent to actually understand. And I
feel like that's what the larger conversations do. So that's
what the book is, is just giving people something bigger to
talk about.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
I loved it. I took so many notes in your
book and every page of yes, I don't agree, I
totally totally agree.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I want to take people back though, because a lot
of people don't realize that you growing up as in
a small town in South Carolina.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I said that, like, there's gonna be anybody in here
from there, but you know.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
My parents were then bluffed in, yeah right, bright Hilton.
It's great.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
I love I love South Carolina. But I want people
to understand it. Who you were a voracious reader as
a young boy. Who got you into read it?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Oh my mom, by far Oh my mom was an
English teacher for us and foremost so yeah, yeah, he
was an English teacher. And you know I grew up
on the book. Your program, you know, said a book
a program all day. You know, you gotta read full
full books. You get a free pizza, a little little
personal paying pizza from Pizza Hut. You know, and it's
just like yo on a Friday night when you growing up,
you know, and you know your parents ain't got the
(05:33):
most money. Like that is everything. So I just used
to read, you know, everything, and my mom gave me
the best piece of advice that I carry on even past,
you know, reading. She told me, read things that don't
pertain to you. So I was a young guy, like
you know, sitting around, you know, reading everything. But also
when she said read things that don't pertain to me,
(05:53):
I started looking for whatever the opposite of me was.
So I'm a young black man from South Carolina. Damn,
who only couple of these books? It's all these little
white girls. Oh are you there? God, it's me Margaret.
Who's just Judy Bloom person. Oh she's got more books.
Oh I love her books. I've Judy Bloom beverly clearly.
I used to run through the night.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So I'm glad that you mentioned Judy Bloom because we
read are you their goddess me Mariot. We did book
in a movie, So we read the book again, all
of us, and then we saw the movie.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Movie was fantastic, very slept on it was.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
And Judy said that she liked it too. She said
they did a good job. I guess you guys probably
don't know that. Who has been your most favorite interview
of all time?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Oh, Judy Bloom. Yeah, my father, because I used to
I've always spoken about Judy Bloom because you know, I'm
real big on storytelling. You asked me who got me
in the you know, reading, It was definitely my mother
because she was an English teacher and it was the
book at program. But because of that, I always read,
and I always you know, wrote stories. I just love storytelling.
So I look at Judy Bloom the same way I
look at Jay Z Like they're just two fantastic storytellers.
(07:05):
And so I've always spoken about that, spoken about that throughout,
you know, my whole life. And so one Christmas, I
just randomly get two books in the mail and there
was are you there, God, it's me Margaret the paperbacks
and both of them were signed by Judy Bloom. One
was for me, one was for my oldest daughter. And
I'm like, this guy, this is my team playing a
trick on me, Like why would Judy Bloom be sending
me her books? And then when the movie came out,
(07:28):
she was in New York and she asked to see me,
and so I went to go visit her in New
York and hear and her her husband George, and her
son Larry. And it's like since then we've developed the
actual real friendship. I done been down to Key West
a couple of times, you know, double dating me and
my wife, her and her husband. I went to go
watch the premiere. Are you there? God, it's me Margaret
(07:48):
and Key West with Judy.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Like, so you have like a real relationship with her,
I was, We was texting last week.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, I have to say, like.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
She's my number one.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Like if I could, if I could sit and speak
with anyone, it would be her. And I tried to
get to her when the movie came out and she
wasn't really traveling that much. And I actually remember seeing
your picture that you posted of her and I was like,
oh my god.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
He knows her.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I had the pleasure of I went down to her
bookstore in Key West and we had a conversation there
that's up on YouTube now. We also had another conversation
when Simon and Schuster was celebrating the eight hundred year anniversary.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
I think that was last year.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
If I'm not mistaken, and we had another great conversation.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
But she's dope.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
If you go down to Key West, you can catch
her in the bookstore.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
That's what I'm going to have to do.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
You have to do that.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, I have relatives in keys so that's going to
be my dream. Just walk in and she'll be there
there and we can have our conversation. Absolutely, it's incredible.
Why do you think that you were so into reading?
Because I have to say, most kids, especially my youngest.
I have a fourteen year old boy and he doesn't
like reading. And why do you think you were so
drawn to books? It was it You're a curiosity, You're
(08:57):
just I was.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Born in nineteen hundred and seventy eight, so I remember
life before the first Nintendo. I'm talking about the first
Nintendo that came with the Super Mario and.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Dunn, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Like, we didn't have that, so we were you were
either outside playing or you were in the house reading.
So you know comic scripts and newspapers, you know Judy
bloom Beverly clearly, like my dad gave me the autobiography
of Malcolm X. Like there was really nothing else to
do but read. Like you know, and you know, you
watch a little TV here and there, you know, but
(09:31):
I was really into reading comic books. Oh my god,
I was back in the day. I was a Marvel
and DC guy. I'm more of just a Marvel guy now,
But I mean that's that's what literally, reading was life like.
I didn't know any other form of entertainment. We didn't
have social media, like, we didn't have, you know, an abundance.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Of video games like that.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
You had books, and you had your friends, and you
had to actually go outside and make conversation and you know,
we would go to the library and read these books
then talk about these books like it was just a
regular thing.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Like I never knew a world where, you know, people
around me weren't.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Reading, right, And it's a struggle right now. I mean
we benefit raising a reader. We have a raffle and
raising a reader in Massachusetts basically teaches families how to
read to their children because so many families don't.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Know how to do it well. I mean, I ask
a questions, how many of y'all got bookshelves in your house?
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Good?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yeah, because you should, Like I think that your kids
will pick up the habits they see you doing so
if they constantly see you on their phone on your phone,
then they probably won't want to constantly be on the
tablets of their phone. But if they see you with
a book in your hand, they're going to be like,
I want to do what mommy and daddy doing.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Well, it's funny you bring that up because my fourteen
year old, when he was twelve, I said, you got
to start reading more.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Riley, like this is this isn't good. This is not
good for your brain.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
You're always on YouTube, and he goes, well, I don't
see you reading, mom, Damn.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Well guess what I did. I started a book club.
That's right, and now all I do is read.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I will give the kids some grace, though, because there
is so many ways to take in literary content now,
Like I'll be the type of right now I'm reading
the book and listening the one at the same time.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Like when I'm riding in the work in the morning, i.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Might listen to the audio book, which is actually become
a struggle for me and my wife because we both
got audible and we shared the same account, and sometimes
we read the same book and I'm like, I'm not
on chapter fourteen yet, and then I go back to
chapter five and then she's fussing at me. So we
have a system now, like if I see that she's
reading something that I want to read, I'll market for her.
So when I start reading, you know, I can tell
(11:34):
her where she left off.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I'm glad you brought up your wife because the book,
in the book, you describe your wife as being the
most honest person you've ever met. You met her when
you were very young, she's been with you, and you
describe a conversation in the book where you're at a
hotel and you're standing in front of those beautiful mirrors,
(11:58):
you know, those gorgeous mirrors, having these beautiful hotels, and
you said to your wife, do I have fat?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Like?
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Or have I put weight on? You know, one of
those like you know, husband wife conversations. Can you tell
the story to everyone?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, I said, do I look fat? And she's like, yes,
you gave some weight. I didn't want to hear that
in that moment, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
But I mean no, not really. But I also didn't
want her to lie to me either.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
And I'm glad that she told me the truth because
then I was able to go do something about it,
you know, And that's just the way the ego works.
Sometimes you ask questions that you really don't want the
answer to. That's why I be telling people, don't ask
no questions if you really don't want the real answer.
We all should have learned that, especially after COVID. I'm
gonna tell you what I learned after COVID. Don't ask
(12:46):
nobody how they're doing unless you don't unless you really
want to know how they're doing. Yeah, because after COVID,
people started getting real honest about how they were feeling
mentally and emotionally. So unless you got time for a
person that really had, don't ask how they're doing.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
But do you think that the fact that you were
able to take her to honesty and not get mad,
Because I have family members if I said that to them,
they would honestly like be upset with me, they would.
So do you think it's because you have you're more
evolved now, like you've been working on yourself, that you
were able just to take the honesty and be like, okay,
(13:24):
you're right.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
No, yeah, But also as my wife, so I know
that she loves me, yeah, you know, And I think
sometimes that's another thing when I talk about, you know
why small talk sucks a lot of times. A lot
of small talk talk isn't in good faith. So I'm
all for good faith conversations. You know what I mean,
our good faith critique. I know that I asked her
a question and she gave me an honest answer, and
(13:45):
so you know, now we got to train and we
work out two, three, well three times a week together.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
So it's the fact that I know she loves me.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
She's not somebody, she's not a stranger, she wasn't trying
to insult me in any way.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Plus I did ask her the question.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yeah, so and she answered big talk small talk.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
So I remember growing up, we used to have big
dinner conversations. You know, I'd have relatives over, family members
over I'm sure you the same thing, and somebody would
bring up some conversation about religion or about politics or
about you know, parenting, and you know, at one point
it might turn, you know, where someone says something and
you know, somebody gets upset and then everyone starts screaming
(14:25):
at each other, and then the conversation stops because people
have just stopped listening to Wow, and you start screaming.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
That's what it's getting good, right, Oh, well, I guess.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
But but but.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
They you stop listening, right, So big talk and big
listening I think have to go together, don't you think?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Absolutely? And that goes back to what I said. People
are listening with the intent to reply, not to understand.
If you're listening with the intent to actually understand, it
won't get the yelling and screaming. When you start yelling
and screaming, it feels like you're yelling at screaming because
you think you're not being heard, But actually you're probably
not listening to the other person. So if you actually
listening to the other person and y'all were just exchanging
(15:02):
ideas and just having a civil conversation, neither one of
y'all would would get to screaming.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
It might get passionate.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Well, usually when you see people yelling and screaming trying
to you know, over talk a person or beat the
loudest person, is because they feel like they're not being heard,
which is why listening is actually, you know, a very
and you have to be intentional about listening.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
It's a skill.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
It's a skill, it really is, and we have to
do it on morning shows. I mean, we really do
every morning when you're like interviewing someone or you've got
a caller, you really need to listen. Before we came
out here, we were sitting over at Mystique and Charlott
Mane and I were talking about social media and it's
the same thing. The dinner table conversation is now jumped
online and now you can have a really thoughtful post,
(15:46):
like you could see something someone's really trying to make
a difference, and then there's that one comment that just
takes it in a totally different direction, and then it's negative, negative, negative.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
What can we do about that?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Ignore it, don't pay no attention. I know it's hard,
but really ignore it because nowadays I say it all
the time. Man, we're all in verbally abusive relationships with
our smartphones. Yeah, and you don't have to be because
all you gotta do is turn it off, Like can
you You would not let anybody talk to you crazy
in real life.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
You would either walk away tell them to leave.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
So why do you go on social media and engage
with these people on purpose? And I like the way
our brains are wired. You ignore twenty good things somebody
says about you, but it's that one thing that drives
you crazy. You're really gonna let one comment ruin your
whole day. You're gonna really let one comment get into
your mental, get into your emotional and if it does,
(16:41):
ask yourself why it's bothering you. That's the other thing
people don't do. Don't just dismiss it, be like, dang,
why did this comment bother me so much?
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Is there some truth to it?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Am I mad? Because it's just an absence of facts?
Like what is it that's bothering you about that comment?
But other than that, just walk away from it. Ignore it.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Yeah, let them like melsa yes, because it.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Really does not matter at the end of the day.
And nowadays, man, it might be a bot. So how
stupid you are you sitting around arguing with artificial intelligence? Right,
Like you don't even know if this is a real person,
no face, no name. You really so you're gonna have
a conversation with at I eat Dick seventy two. I'm sorry,
but you know what I'm saying. But from my point,
(17:22):
like like, why are you going back and forth with
this person that may not even exist?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Like good point? You said you love when you are
on the Daily Show?
Speaker 1 (17:33):
If you talk about that experience and why you talk
about the role of satire and how we need more
of it.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, because I grew up on John Stewart. I think
John Stewart is one of the most you know, brilliant
media personalities, political minds. You know, if there's ever any
other celebrities that run for president, John Stewart is somebody
who I feel like, you know, really could could be
president of the United States of America. I feel like,
you know, sometimes you watch somebody and you like, God,
(17:59):
that's too small off of them, you know, And that's
how I feel when I watch John Stewart sometimes, you know,
I love him back on the Daily Show and everything,
but I'm just like, yo, he should be doing way
more like I would really like to see him leading
the world in a way. And so I just always
grew up with liking him. I like his brand of
common sense. I like that he's willing to engage both
sides of the isl you know. I like how objective
(18:20):
he is, and so I've just always admired.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
You know, what it is that he does.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And then I read the Daily Show book, And when
I read the Daily Show Book, I'm just like, man,
when you see this system of the Daily Show. Daily
Show's been around for twenty five years. But if you
think about everybody who's coming through the Daily Show, you
got your John Stewart, you got your Stephen Cobez, you
got your John Olivers, you got Trevor Noah. Oh, I
can't remember I blaking on the young lady's name right now.
(18:46):
She had a TV show too. But there's so many
people who have come from that system of the Daily Show,
and when you when you're up there, you realize that's
exactly what it is. It's a system.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
They have a showrunner, her name is Jen Flann.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
She's been there since she was then intern for twenty
plus year and just being a part of that system,
being able to go in there and say, hey, I
got this idea, this is what I want to talk about,
this is my POV on it. You know, I write too,
but I'm not a writer for a TV show. So
for all of us to collaborate and be able to
create these create these amazing monologues that you know, when
I'm out and about people say, hey man, I heard
what you said on the Daily Show.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
I really appreciated it.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Or to see it, you know, on CNN or MSNBC
or Fox. I just I just love the ability to
be on a platform like that and really just you know,
put some ideas out into the world that may or
may help people or may just people think about, you know,
where we are right now as.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
A country, right and you can laugh at yourself too.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yes, Yeah, the best vehicle is humor. It is always
I think the best vehicle for communication is always humor.
I'm a very un serious person, you know. The older
I get, I find myself being super less serious. You know,
my three year old just looks at me and goes, Daddy,
you're so silly.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I love.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
And it's like, I don't know why I'm getting more
and more serious as I get older, but I am.
And I like to have these conversations about topics that
are you know, really meaningful and really impacting people. But
a lot of times it's gonna come through the vehicle
of humor. I feel like comedians are the last great
storytellers and truth tellers. You know, they have a freedom
(20:14):
that a lot of us do have, but for whatever reason,
you know, we decided to relinquish it. But they haven't.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
You just mentioned one of your daughters You've got four daughters, right,
four beautiful daughters.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
One woman, my wife, Ye, God bless her.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
There's something in the book that I still can't believe
that you do, and I need you to explain it,
and I actually talked about it on our morning show
this past week.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Is that you've embraced tree hugging.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Can you explain what it is?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
And I know that you've You've talked about your anxiety
and your battle with it for in your second book
and now also it's a common thread in this book.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
So is this a strategy for you?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
No, it's a practice I picked up because you know,
I started going to therapy in twenty and sixteen. And
one thing about my first therapist, I think she gave
me a lot of the language. She was able to
make me understand a lot of the things that I
was dealing with anxiety depression. Plus you know, anybody in
here who goes to therapy, you might go for one
thing and then you start peeling back those layers and you.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Like trauma one, trauma two, trauma, tha.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Oh my god, daddy is shoes? Oh? Like you know,
like all of this different stuff. And so one thing
about the era that we're in. Yes, a lot of
us go to therapy. We get the language, but what
actual healing methods are we doing, what practices are we
doing to actually you know, know what to do when
that anxiety pops up, with that depression pops up.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
And grounding, you know, was one of the things for me.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
You know, take your shoes off, take your socks off,
just go walk, walk walk walk into grass like. People
say that trying to be funny. Man, go touch grass now,
really go touch grass like, and you'll see it's the difference,
you know. And I talk about one of my spiritual, sacred,
sacred purpose cuaches, Yachdi Alba, and she told me, face down,
(22:10):
ass up, like, go in your backyard, lay on your stomach,
but to the sky it's on the ground, and just
feel the earth. And literally, I promise you, man, you
take a few deep breaths laying in some grass, or
you take a few deep breaths just leaning up against
the tree, put your forehead on the tree, say some prayers,
say thank you, show some gratitude. I promise you your
(22:33):
mood will change instantly. I'm go out there without your
phone now I'm not done sober you know, just go
out there and feel the earth. I promise you, whatever
you're dealing with, at least for that moment, which is
sometimes all it takes.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
You will wosa.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I promise you wait till you can, wait till spring
and summer comes.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
I believe it. But do you really like actually go
and like hug a tree?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Is there like one specific tree?
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Honestly, it's like it's what when I go out in
my backyard. It's literally I got like a lot of
trees in my backyard. But it's like I really just
feel I gravitate towards whichever one, whichever one's energy is
just calling.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
Me that day.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
And how long do you?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Oh man? I mean I can be out there. I
can literally be out there for an hour, hour or two,
oh man, especially in the spring of something. Yeah, it's
beautiful be outside, shoes off, walking through the ground, just
digging your feet into the dirt, you know, laying down
like literally, that's what me and Ya, me and Yady
make a joke because you know, we both of a
certain age, So the two Live crew faced out up.
But you.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Were in the grass with it, like I love it.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
There's nothing better do.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
The girls do it? Does your wife do it?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
My wife does it?
Speaker 4 (23:46):
My say?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
They kids? So they always outside, Like so I'm old school,
I'm from the country, so I let my kids play outside.
So I think that's something that we got away from
think about. When we were young, we spent all day outside,
so our moods were up. We were getting so much sun.
Like now we stay in the house and we're on
our devices and like, so we wonder why we're depressed.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
Yo, go outside and reconnect with nature.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
So it's like the kids, they're already outside anyway, so
they you know, they haven't gotten into the actual practices
of grounding, but they're already outside.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Right and it's working for them.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Yeap.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
So I want to ask you a question about your anxiety,
because do you think that.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
It's driven you to be the person that you are?
Has it?
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I know it's hard because anxiety can be really crippling
to some people, but I also think it can drive
you to want to be better to.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
So yeah, I mean when I was young, I didn't
know what it was. So I've been literally dealing with
panic attacks my whole life. The first panic attack I
can visibly remember was first grade, first day of first
grade members of elementary school in South Carolina, and I
cried uncontrollably, shaking, screaming. I don't know, I never felt
(25:07):
that feeling in my life. My mom was even looking
at me like what is wrong, Like what's going on?
And so I've been dealing with it my whole life,
not knowing what it was. As I've gotten older, I
know what you know, panic attacks and anxiety, you know,
are and how it shaped me. Yeah, I mean it's
of course, of course it's shaped me in some way,
(25:27):
shape or form. I think it shaped me in the
fact that it's just it's what led me to therapy,
and so leading to therapy to get a handle on
my anxiety, you know, caused me to do the work
on so many other traumas, has brought me closer to
a lot of people. It helped me to give my
father a lot of grace because, you know, I remember
(25:49):
once I put out the second book Shook One, anxiety
playing tricks on me. It was twenty eighteen, you know,
the week of Thanksgiving, and my father called me. I
was home in South Carolina and I had a cousin
who had completed suicide that week. He was twenty five
years old and my father said, man, I read your book.
He was talking to me about my cousin completing suicide.
And he goes, man, you know, I was going to
(26:09):
therapy twenty three times a week and I tried to
commit suicide, you know, thirty plus years ago. And I
was on ten to twelve different medications for my mental
health throughout my life.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
And I'm like, damn, if you'd.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Have told me this when I was young, I would
have known what I was dealing with. Right, So, yeah,
I think to answer the question, I guess fully, Yeah,
it's shaped me simply because it led me on a
journey of healing. But also it just showed me that
in order to eradicate the stigma around mental health, we
(26:41):
can't be afraid to talk about it. And sometimes, man,
just being honest about having a panic attack or knowing
what's going to trigger your anxiety keeps you from really
lying to people.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Sometimes you lie and say why you don't want to
go somewhere? Are you be somewhere? And lie about why
you're leaving now when all of us are having a
conversation and being honest about dealing with anxiety and panicing,
tax and be like, hey, man, I feel one coming on,
it's time to go. So I just think it's it's
just a it's a good thing just to share.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
That you that you're dealing with.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yeah, I suffer from it too, So I really that
really resonated with me in the book a lot. But
I feel like my anxiety has driven me to like
because I always think that I'm not like you talk
about imposter syndrome. I've had imposter syndrome my entire life.
Can you explain have you guys? Do you guys know
what imposter syndrome is?
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Okay, that's that's.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
That's very interesting what you said, because yes, when you
have imposta syndrome, when you don't feel worthy, like there'd
be times I could be on the stage like this,
having a conversation and in the middle of the conversation,
I'm like, you are you you? You don't even know
what the hell you're talking about. You are talking to
these people like who are you to write a book? Like?
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Who are you to write people?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
Like literally, like your mind would start telling yourself all
types of crazy things and you just feel like, yo,
I'm not supposed to be here, And man, I remember
having a great conversation with you know, Bishop Tdjakes one time,
and he said to me, he was like, look, even
if you don't think you're worthy, God knows your worthy
and that's why you're in the position that you're in.
And I never forget the moment I literally got to
(28:21):
that place of worthy. There was another clip I saw
and I talk about it in the book. I saw
Tyler Perry talking about you just have to get to
a place to worthy, like you have to constantly tell yourself,
I'm gonna get the worthy. I'm gonna get the worthy,
like it's a destination. And I think the equation to
get the worthy is purpose plus gratitude. And so when
I started having these conversations about, you know, dealing with
(28:43):
my anxiety, dealing with my depression, going to therapy, it
gave me a different sense of purpose. It felt. It
made me feel like I was, you know, showing up
in the world to serve in a different way and
man owning every phase of your life, even the soul
called bad parts of your life, the worst moments of
your life, owning those and having gratitude even for those moments.
(29:06):
See a lot of us we like to thank God
when things are going great, but we don't thank God
when you know things may not necessarily be going our way.
So when you actually have just gratitude for life and
gratitude for you know, every single thing that you've gone through,
plus you couple that with the purpose of serving, then
you get to a place of worthy.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Right, and it calms you down.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Absolutely every single time.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
I had a little imposter syndrome here.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
With you. But you're right.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
But but I walked around and I saw these people,
and I thought, we're doing a good thing here.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
We're here.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
We're hundreds of people coming to talk about books. Right.
That's an amazing servey, right, and.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
That's why we're here. So you're right.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
It did calm me down, and it made me grateful.
It made me so thankful that you're here.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
With us, especially when you see how low the literacy
rates are in America.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Come on, this is amazing what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Okay, So let's talk about the book a little bit
because I always ask authors sort of what is your
writing style?
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Because you're on a third book. Do you hand right?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Do you like?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Do you dictate?
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Like?
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Do you have a writing partner? How does that work?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I'm a typer, and I'm a typer with a writing partner.
My guy Chris Moreau, great friend of mine, met him
years ago when we first started The Breakfast Club, and
the Breakfast Club for Us got syndicated on the weekends.
He was actually the producer for our weekend show. But
he had launched what was called a podcast network back then,
and this was twelve thirteen years ago. The hell is
(30:39):
a podcast right, And he had a network called the
Loud Speaker Network and Combat Jack reth in Peace Combat
Jack Y. It was Chris Christian Combat Jack Reggio. They
owned the network and I remember Chris said to me
way back then, he was like, Yo, there's two things
you're gonna have to do in your career. He said
You're gonna have to write a book. And I was like, yeah,
(31:00):
that's a given you. I love, you know, reading my
mom's English teacher, the whole spill. And he was like,
you should start a podcast. And I was like, start
up podcast? Why the hell would I start a podcast?
I do morning radio. I was a bougie.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
It was all ego.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
I like, I got a morning radio show, Why would
I do a podcast. He was like, you've been fired
four times from radio like the podcast can actually be yours.
And I'm like, you know what, he's got a point
called my guy. Andrews shouts like, hey, Andrew, you want
to do a podcast? He was like a podcast? What's
a podcast like that? You know? We just get together
and talk every week and put it out and you know,
(31:34):
not twelve years later, brilliantly its is still going strong.
But Chris is my writing partner because you know, he
was the first person to tell me, hey, you should
write a book, and so he, you know, taught me
the whole process of writing a book.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Man.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
I remember sitting around giving them all of these different
you know, I wouldn't even call them chapters. They were
just essays that I would write, and you know, they
were essays, you know, Like, for example, in my first book,
black Prints, opportunity comes to those who create it. I
have a chapter called put the Weed in the Bag,
and it's based off the movie Belly. And if you've
ever seen the movie Belly with DMX and NAS, there's
(32:10):
a scene in the movie where DMX and NAS is
sitting with these two young kids, and the two not
young kids, but like young younger men, and the younger
men are like, Hey, we want to be like y'all
man at school. We want to go out there and
get money. Man, we want to get money with y'all.
And DMX says, man, you'll put the weed in the
bag first. So I basically use that to say you
can't skip the process. Like, regardless of what it is
(32:31):
you want to do in life, there is a process
to everything that it is you want to do. So
you know, if you're sitting there and you know you
want to go out there and you know, get money.
I'm not encouraging drug dealing, by the way, this is
just it's just an example, right, if you want to
go out there and get money, and the process before
you even go out there, you got to bag it up.
You gotta put the weed in the bag first. And
so when I come with this essay and I write
it and I give it to Chris, Chris shows me
(32:53):
how to turn it into a chapter of a book,
and you know, the whole storyline, Like I mean, I
got there original storyboard of like my first book when
he was taking all of these essays in this example,
like okay, this is the f your dreams chapter. This
is to put the weed in the bag chapter. This
is the PPP chapter. Like I had people guess crazy,
I did PPP wait before there was PPP loans it
(33:15):
was passion, Purpose and progress. Yeah, so like, yeah, so
he just basically showed me how to write a book,
and you know, I use him for all my books.
Speaker 6 (33:27):
Now, how long did it take you to do this one?
Speaker 4 (33:32):
Eight years?
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Only because my last book came out two thousand, My
first book came out twenty seventeen, and then I came
right back out with Shook One Anxiety Playing Tricks on
Me in twenty eighteen, and then I didn't put out
a book for since until last year.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
This has been a lot of different thoughts and a
lot of different things that I've been writing, you know,
for eight years and just taking different forms, you know,
throughout those eight years. And I had to figure out
exactly how I wanted to package all of these things
that I'm writing about and what exactly is and I'm
trying to say and I was. I went on an
ayahuasca retreat last year, last February, and one of the
(34:10):
things that came up for me was a three day retreat.
I think it was day two, and it was like, yo,
stop lying to yourself and stop volunteering those lives to
other people. I don't know if any of y'all ever
done ayauskca, but literally it's like godess. I mean, I
feel like I always hear God, but it's like Morgan
Freeman voice.
Speaker 6 (34:26):
Like like it sounds terrifying.
Speaker 4 (34:31):
Day two was the.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Two.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yeah. Day one was like, it's interesting, right because ayahuasca.
Like Day one was, you're cool because you know the
Day one was basically like I know, I don't you
don't need to have a panic attack, don't need to
have anxiety. You're in good hands. This weekend, I got you.
We're gonna go on a journey. This is what the
medicine is telling me. Like, you're gonna go on the journey.
It's cool. So I felt like real bliss on day one,
(34:58):
like yeah, all right, okay. So day two, you know,
because you're drinking and like shot me like a large
or small whatever, So I'm like, okay, Day one was easy.
I'm gonna try large this time. Oh god, oh my god,
oh man, you know, and then once I was in it,
I was in it, So I was like, Okay, I
see what you're trying to show me, so let's really
go there and we were really gonna unearth all of this,
(35:21):
let's really go there. So I took another large one
and that's when it was on. Yeah. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely
we did it together.
Speaker 6 (35:30):
Did you guys have different experiences?
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Yes, But the interesting thing about ayahuasca is you can
see somebody else's experience, like it being you be and
you were on ayahuasca somewhere, Lisa, and you told me,
you know, hey, man, it was a I felt somebody
come up behind me and like hug me, and I'd
be like, yo, I saw the person too. They had
white hair and you know, a beer, and I'll be
(35:56):
describing the person and you'll be like, yeah, yes, that's
what I saw. Like literally, it's like it's that type
of experience, like you know, once again, not encouraging y'all
to do any of this stuff. I'm just simply telling
you what I what I've done. And so that's what
the title for the book came up for me to
do that on day two, it was stop lying to
yourself and stop volunteering those lives of other people. And
(36:16):
I realized that's what I was trying to convey the
people that Yo, we all got to show up and
be the most truest, authentic versions of ourselves at all time.
And if you don't get honest, you will absolutely die lying.
And none of us want to die lying. So it's
just like, yo, let's be as honest as possible with
each other. And so yeah, that's how I came up
(36:38):
with the title for that book.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Have you ever thought about writing a novel based on
your give as a young boy or does that interest you?
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Yeah, I got I got other ways to storytell that,
you know, I got other ways to storytell that. I
feel like that's the anime looking on Like, that's like
as an animated cartoon.
Speaker 6 (37:04):
I could see that, you know, that'd be fun.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
No, literally like an animated cartoon. And it's like, uh,
you know, anybody that's going to therapy, you know, ninety
five percent of the things that you learn in therapy,
or ninety five percent of your triggers are directly related
to something that happens in your childhood.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
So it would be interested in to show those correlations.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
How when you're in your adult life, certain things pop
up and you like, oh, why did that trigger me
because of what happened in third grade? Why did that
trigger me, oh, because of what happened to me in
ninth grade. Like, so it'd be interesting to show that
correlation through animation. I think, thank you, y.
Speaker 6 (37:39):
We look forward to seeing that.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
I got a DM from someone who couldn't be here,
actually several dms.
Speaker 6 (37:46):
And they want me to ask you about Wendy Williams.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
And I need to tell you this because I don't
know if you know this, but Wendy Williams started out
her radio career on Kiss one O eight doing an
internship on the morning show YEP, when she was here
in school, and you worked for Wendy Williams, so we
as a morning show on Kiss.
Speaker 6 (38:06):
For years, I've always talked about Wendy, and Wendy's.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Talked about Kiss went away on her, you know, when
she's absolutely on TV, and it's been nice. We've loved
seeing her, you know, and everything she's been able to accomplish.
What's your view of her situation and how do you
think it's going to play out?
Speaker 2 (38:22):
It's horrible, you know. I didn't know all the ins
and outs of conservative ships and guardianships, but I just
think it's, you know, disgusting when somebody can have absolute
access over your whole life, over your finances, tell you
when you can go, tell you when you can you know, leave,
tell you that you can't go, and you don't even
have control over your your own money, like you know,
(38:43):
I went, uh, I went to actually went to dinner
with her Monday because now because we've been raising so
much hell about it, you know, they've loosened up some
of the restrictions and so she's able to come out
a little bit. So her niece Alex was in town,
So I went to dinner with her on Monday night,
and she was just like, you're coming to dinner at
six o'clock because I don't have any money and you're
(39:03):
gonna have to pay for it.
Speaker 6 (39:04):
So I'm glad you're available.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
So it's like yeah. So it's just like the fact
that you know, she doesn't even have access to her
own money to go get something to eat. That's kind
of that's kind of crazy to me. And I think,
you know, a lot of people don't know about these
conservative ships and these guardianships, and I think there's a
lot of people who end up getting lost in the system.
Like if they can do something like that to Wendy Williams,
imagine how many people they they're they're doing that too,
(39:28):
that don't have a voice or I don't have people
to be able to speak out for them and advocate
for them. So I just, yeah, I just think it's
terrible what.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
She's and it varrages from state to state to conservatorships.
And also I think I read somewhere where she said
that it first started that there was some weird activity
in her Wells Fargo account and she was worried about that,
and she was actually okay with that at first, yeah,
because she was concerned about her accounts and stuff like that,
and then it just spiraled into.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
How does that go from that to you know, you're
locked up in a conservative So I really don't know
how it's going to play out. I hope she gets
to be free, and you know, she has things that
she still wants to do, so you know, she only
she's only.
Speaker 6 (40:13):
Sixty years old, right, and she passed that test.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
If you talk to Wendy, it's literally like, you know,
there's there's there's nothing there, right, there's nothing wrong with
her at all. Like I think the only thing is
I grew up with Wendy, right, Because you're listening to
her on the radio, plus having the pleasure of working
with her, you know, even damn near living with her
for a long time. So it's like she is a
(40:37):
pop culture kind of sore, Like she would have tabloid
stacked up to hear and just be reading the marketing
our stuff, I mean, consuming every reality.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
Show like she was all in it.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
So when you talk to her, she could sit there
and talk to you for hours about pop culture. Now
that she's disconnected from that, you know, she don't really
have that to talk about. But if you just talk
to her about life, like she was just telling us
all of these stories from the nineties on Monday, and
I'm just like, yo, I really hope you get the
opportunity to, you know, get out and share this because
it doesn't even sound real. It sounds mythical. And you
(41:13):
think about all of the things she said back then
that everybody thought she was crazy for that we've actually
seen come true over the years. Yeah, she's got a lot.
Speaker 4 (41:21):
More to say.
Speaker 6 (41:22):
So are you hopeful that she'll get out of it.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Yeah, I mean all I got is optimism, So yeah,
I hope.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
So Brittany got out of it, she can get out
of it. Too, and she's such like you said, she's
such a hard worker. I could totally see her just
reimagining a new career for herself and that would.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
Be the best thing ever.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
That's literally that's what she talks about all the time.
And I'm like, let's focus on getting out of here.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
First, you know, which could take a while.
Speaker 6 (41:48):
I think they can take some questions from the audience.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Would you like to take a couple of questions.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
Let's do it.
Speaker 6 (41:53):
You guys have any questions anyone? Yep, there's a little
microphone right down next to Abby.
Speaker 5 (42:03):
Yepously your.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Obviously different.
Speaker 4 (42:26):
Thank you. What's your name? Leanne?
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Thank you for the question. Man. Hip Hop is all
I know. You know. Hip hop is my culture. That's
my esthetic. You know, that's what I grew up on.
I don't know anything else, Like I said, I was
born in nineteen hundred and seventy eight. Like so my
sister was listening to the Salt and Pepper and Kidn't Play,
like my cousin tied let me hear rock campaign in full,
Like I don't know anything else. Hip hop is my culture.
(42:49):
Like there's so many things that I, you know, learned
from hip hop. You know there's books that you know,
I've been recommended, you know, through actual hip hop lyrics.
There's things I've been introduced to, like The Five Then
Teachers because of Wu Tang, Like there's hip hop.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
Is life, and you know, I remember being young wondering
if you know, I would.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Even care about hip hop as I got older, But
hip hop just continue to grow and hip hop continue
to evolve, and so yeah, I love it.
Speaker 4 (43:18):
That is my that's my jazz, that's my disco, like
that's what we grew up on.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
It's crazy to think that, you know, Knuck if You
Buck is an old school classic record, you know what
I'm saying, Like Uncle Luke Scar is an old school
classic record, and it's that's why you can't even judge
these kids. You can't. We can't say nothing to these kids.
Turn on an Uncle Luke record and what you see
what I'm saying. Imagine you know how my daughter looks
(43:44):
at us like we're crazy, Like when she catches me
and my wife vibing out late at night or jumps
in the car. You know, sometimes you pick your kids up,
but you was listening to something before your kids jumping.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
And you forgot that song.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Was on you rest turn the radio there like hip
hop is life, man, that's my life peace. He's awesome.
(44:21):
The advice I give all new emerging voices, it don't
matter what platform you on, is to be authentic, Like
you gotta be authentic. You know, there's a lot of
you know, imitation that goes on a lot of times,
especially in the media space. It's not just media space,
it's any type of art. Like you know, whenever you
see somebody that's successful doing something, you know, everybody tries
(44:43):
to do that. And literally everybody can try to copy
one person for a whole generation. But why be a
second rate version of somebody else when you can be
a first rate version of yourself? Like God gave you
a unique story. There's your life experiences, things that you've
gone through. Only you have been through that, So why
wouldn't you give that to the people? Like that is
(45:05):
what's going to help you cut through, Like literally just
being authentic. You can name any voice you want to.
I think since we've been up here, we've been named
Wendy Williams, We've named John Stewart. Those are two unique voices.
You know exactly what they do, You know exactly how
they deliver things. You have to find your unique voice
and put that out into the world and that will
(45:27):
that will translate regardless of what platform you're on.
Speaker 6 (45:31):
Absolutely no one more yep.
Speaker 4 (45:37):
Hey Donald.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Anytime that I didn't pay it forward but regret that
I didn't act on it, No, because the truth to
the matter is, I feel like I always pay it forward.
Because I read a long time ago. I was reading
doctor Wayne W. Dyer The Power of Intention, and doctor
Wayne W. Dya said that your true purpose in life
comes through service of others. And I thought about my grandmother,
(46:08):
and I think about my mom, and I think about
my pops, and I thought about how I always watched them,
you know, literally serve right, Like Yo, my grandmother's the
type person didn't matter who you were, It didn't matter
what color you were, didn't matter what your religion was,
if you was around, you want to eat, you know
if my dad same way. My dad always had like
a little you know bar, you know, fish market, and
(46:30):
the same thing you want to eat, you want to drink.
So it was like there was always a way to
be of service. And my dad did construction right, so
it was like I always watched him do little odd
jobs for people. You would hear conversations from the adults
about how this person may not have the money right now,
it might be an eye on you. Hey, let's just
let's just go do this because it's the right thing
to do. So that's kind of always been embedded in me.
(46:52):
I feel like that's really the only reason I've gotten
so many blessings because I always scribed to pay it forward,
and then I've always scribed to be of service, Like
there's something everybody can serve. I don't care what your
financial status is. I don't care, you know, you know
what your status in life is. You can always find
a way to serve. You can leave out of here
(47:13):
right now and go buy a homeless person some food
or something like, there's something you can figure out to
do to be of service. So yeah, I feel like
I've always constantly, you know, paid it forward, and I
think the beauty of that is like even now right
like Wendy Wood and you know, literally I didn't go
to college, So every single opportunity I've gotten is because
(47:33):
somebody saw something in me that I didn't see in myself,
and they assisted me and helped me to get in position.
So you got somebody like Wendy Williams who did that
for me back in two thousand and six, and now
I'm in a position that turn around and assist her
in her situation. That's what happens when you know, people
pay it forward and just do things because they can.
(47:55):
She didn't. I was all the way in Columbia, South Carolina.
She could have got anybody. She could have got personalities
from New York comedians, from you know, anybody could have
been on her show. She heard me on the internet
and was like, I want to talk to that guy
right there, Like she didn't have to do that.
Speaker 4 (48:09):
And I worked for her.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
I worked for WBLS for a year and a half
for free, Like no mind, I'm not talking about minimum weight,
zero dollars. They was like, yeah, we can give you
a place to stay because I was on the air
legally in New York for the first year and a half,
and so that's what I did. But the fact that
she decided to do that back then, now I'm able
to do the same things now, And I mean, I
(48:30):
think that's that's honestly what I think about all the time.
You should just always constantly be of service, and you
should always constantly assist people because you never know who
you gonna need in the future that in turn that
you talking down to you bite me, he might be
looking at your resume ten years from now because he's
now the CEO of the boss. So it's just like, yeah,
(48:52):
you should always pay it forward. So now I don't
think I've missed any of those. I always look for
the opportunity to pay it forward. Well, this was fun,
this was greatly so thank you very much.
Speaker 6 (49:03):
Just I truly great. I'm so grateful and honored that
you spent this hour with us.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
I think we can all agree, no, I appreciate its Really,
You're a very special man.
Speaker 6 (49:17):
I wish I'm so thankful to have had you here.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
So thank you very much, Liza. It's a pleasure to
be here and listen, man, what you're doing is amazing, amazing.
This is God's work because you know, like she was
just saying about the literacy rates and how low the
literacy rates are, you know, in communities across the country, man,
just to get people encouraged to read. Me personally, books
and music helped me to transcend my circumstances in life.
(49:41):
And you know, I always think about you know Malcolm X.
When Malcolm X didn't, you know, go to an Ivy
League school or go to college, but he said that
he educated himself just through reading. And I mean, that's
what books are for. And so I just really thank
you for your service and what you're doing, because this
is incredible. Thank you.
Speaker 6 (50:00):
That means a lot.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
We're all in this together, right guys.
Speaker 6 (50:03):
You our circle keeps growing. Thanks charloing me
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