Episode 24 featuring Dr. Malik Yoba and Dena Yoba

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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airing of this program constitutes neither an endorsement of the
products offered or the ideas expressed. Welcome to Dear America,

(00:21):
where your voice matters and every vote counts. Join us
as we explore the power of black and brown communities
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and be heard.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hello America.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
This is Dear America with Chanel Barnes and I am
so incredibly thrilled to be joined with doctor Malik Yoba
and Dina Yoba. Today we're joined with doctor Malik Yoba,
a renowned actor, filmmaker, educator, and serial entrepreneur. A South
Bronx native, Doctor Yoba's experiences with urban decay inspired his

(00:58):
work in real estate, education and the arts, building compassionate
capitalism with a drive to make positive impact, He co
developed Center West Baltimore and now leads his own company
focused on transforming communities. Can we just give a quick
hand for doctor Malik yo So excited to have you here.

(01:21):
Also joining him is Dina Yoba, an artist and the
president of Yoba Development Foundation, who continues her father's legacy
while carving out her own path in the world of
art and development. Together, they'll share how their work is
shaping change and creating lasting impact. Please welcome, Doctor Malik

(01:42):
Yoba and Dina Yoba, and I'm super excited to have
you all here with us today. Let's jump in Doctor
Yoba and New York Undercover. You portray law enforcement in
the nineties. How has the conversation about portraying police officers
of color shifted from the nineties to now?

Speaker 4 (02:00):
This is a great question. This is perfect for the
tour we're about to do.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
I know what, I'm trying to get that exclusive.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
We might have to bring you on tour with us.
You know, it's crazy.

Speaker 5 (02:10):
So at the time, obviously it was the first time
in the history of American television that you had a
black and Latino star on a drama of any kind,
right as two leads to be renewed past the first season.
So as groundbreaking as that was, in some ways we're
going backwards. So I think that given the fact that

(02:30):
historically police dramas have always portrayed cops as the good guys,
like purely good guys. And one thing about New York
Undercover is we showed corruption within the department, Yes.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Right, faithfully every time.

Speaker 5 (02:45):
Yes, so we were we were those those, we were
that sort of moral compass within the department. So I
think that since that time, you have a lot more representation,
particularly in police dramas. But I think in terms terms
of the impact that the show had that made so
many people want to join law enforcement, I'm not sure

(03:07):
that that's still the case.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Okay, say more about that.

Speaker 5 (03:10):
Well, you know, so there are many people. One of
the people like Edwin Raymond as an example, who wrote
the book Inconvenient Cop.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
Right.

Speaker 5 (03:18):
Haitian Cap from Crown Heights, Flatbush has become a friend
of mine. He was part of the NYPD twelve that
sued NYPD for the Stop in Frist program R right.
He became a cop in part because of New York
under Cover. People like Rodney Harrison, who was the chief
of police in New York who's now the commissioner of

(03:39):
Suffolk County Police Department. He became a cop because of
New York Undercover. So those are just two examples of
many people that became cops. In fact, I did a
film in Turks and Caicos called Turks and Caicos for
the BBC, and I'm playing law enforcement and I'm doing
research of a local law enforcement officer and I'm talking

(04:00):
a dude for about a half hour, ask him all
kinds of questions, and he goes, you know, I just
got to stop you, man, He said, everything that I
do is a cop.

Speaker 4 (04:07):
I got off for you.

Speaker 5 (04:09):
He was like, I grew up watching you, the way
you wore your clothes, your haircut.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
That's what made me want to be a cop.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
I love that, Dina.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
Growing up watching your father portray powerful black characters like
the one on New York Undercover, or I should say,
like the one who was on New York Undercover. How
did that shape your view of representation and media?

Speaker 6 (04:31):
So I stopped watching my dad a while ago on things,
mainly just because.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Let's talk about it.

Speaker 7 (04:41):
There's a couple of reasons.

Speaker 6 (04:42):
We can start with nine years old, when I was
traumatized in the movie theater when he passed away in
a movie and that was like really harsh. And then
following another show he was on where he was killed
and hit in the back of the head.

Speaker 7 (04:54):
So I probably should watch it. I probably should.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
But you know, my question is, so you've never watched
it before, but you've had the unique experience of being
able to see live across our nation so many things
that are happening. As it pertains to police the concept
of police saying, we saw what happened with George Floyd,
we see what happens with so many others. What would
be your advice, your unsolicited advice to your dead to

(05:21):
production going into New York undercover about how they can
expose the world to some of the things that we've
been seeing growing up.

Speaker 5 (05:30):
Well, just to help you with the question, So, what
we're about to do is a tour commemorating thirty years
of the show. Okay, we shot a reboot that didn't
go anywhere, so we're.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Not redoing Okay, cause I just saw the reboot. I
just think you know that.

Speaker 5 (05:43):
Yeah, that's not okay, Yeah, which is part of the
reason why the tour is happening, because you know, the
initial impact of the show has been so significant now
for a generation and a half, Right, we're talking thirty
thirty one years later, Yeah, right, people still talk about
the show. What it means said when I have when
I meet young people like her age or younger who
are now watching the show because of Hulu or tub

(06:06):
or Amazon or Jack or where it's been streaming in
the last couple of years, it's now raising up a
whole new generation. Sure, right, but what we missed the
first time was how to leverage the impact that the
show had to answer your question about what's really going
on in the culture and how the show could actually
impact that. And when your talent on a show or

(06:29):
in a film, no one knows better than you the
impact you're making, but the decisions regarding that ip are
often made by people who are not on the ground.
And so that's been a frustration my entire career, from
Empire to Designated Survivor to Girlfriends. So many shows where
as a person who comes from community work and comes

(06:51):
from community organizing using art to do that, oftentimes the
art that you're part of makes impact as an unintended
consequence of the creator of it. But if you're oriented
to say, how do I take what's happening on the
screen and leverage that in really impactful ways in the community,
then we could not only drive business which is the

(07:13):
part that they miss. But you can really drive real
social impact.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
So the tour is going to give an opportunity essentially
for a series of town halls where people can they can.

Speaker 5 (07:25):
Explore the performance, not even the rebosout so the tours
really So when we did the show, I came up
with something called the Protecting Serf Tour. But when I
put together the plan for the Protecting Serf Tour, which
showed ten million dollars of profit for Universal through merchandise
and licensing deals, amazing, they said, no, a particular individual, right,

(07:48):
the creative Dick Wolf, and you know, you know love
Dick Wolf for many reasons. But when you're young talent
and they're telling you shut up and dribble, but you
come from the community, and you know, if we use
this art in a thoughtful way, it can make impact
and it can drive a business. So for me, as
a twenty six year or one of the reasons why

(08:08):
I wanted to make sure that my daughter was the
president of Yo Development Foundation is I was the vice
president of City Kids Foundation when I was twenty three
years old. So before I made my first movie, before
I made TV, I was producing television specials. I was
doing town halls, we were doing events at Carnegie Hall.
The founder, Laurie Meadoff, who I don't know who I

(08:31):
would be without this woman. She poured into me as
a young person and said, I'm going to put you
in a position of leadership. And if I had an idea,
that was the direction of the organization. So for my daughter,
I tell her, for all of my kids when they
choose to listen, this one's choosing to listen. If you're
in the mix and you're part of this podcast, you're

(08:53):
at on investor calls, you were you know, on strategy calls.
You're part of you know whether it's in real estate right,
you're a part of those calls. You're part of the
education programs through actual participation in osmosis, you going and
get a lot. Yes, I don't know who I would
be without that history.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
So that's really what this is about.

Speaker 5 (09:15):
So this tour is about recognizing the need is still there.
The need is still there for the community to come.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
Together and for safe space to be able to have
these conversations. Absolutely, So let me make a pivot on
my question to you. Given the tour, given this opportunity
for safe space to be able to explore what New
York Undercover was, the state of the nation of policing
police brutality. What would be your advice to your dad

(09:43):
as he goes on this tour, going into these conversations.

Speaker 6 (09:46):
I don't think it would be advice, more just amplification
of just what he already is and who he already
is and how he already moves. Okay, So to his point,
me running the foundation and doing the things I have
been doing for the last year alone, but the last.

Speaker 7 (10:00):
Couple of years.

Speaker 6 (10:00):
Community, just fostering community wherever we go, whether it's in
a room like this where three of us are having
a conversation and we have a shared experience just being
black people and being in America and being into twenty
twenty five and in the society. This is a version
of community. Having this conversation, you asking me that question
and highlighting these things. So, yeah, not advice, but just

(10:22):
amplifying the things he already does because he has been
who he's been my whole life and he's exactly who
he thinks he is.

Speaker 7 (10:28):
So and that's another thing too.

Speaker 6 (10:35):
It's like conversations like this are really interesting because I
think everyone always asks me about the celebrity and I
could care less because I don't know him through that,
as I said, And so it's just like whatever we do,
he does plug and play me and he brings me
in and I feel seen. So that's where I'm learning community.
I mean, even having Elena here, who is on our

(10:56):
team Helena and he's our in turn in our everything
or super intern really right, but even just having her
and you know, we're the things that we're doing right
now and being able to spearhead conversations and like tasks
and were having our first fundraiser for the foundation in
a couple of weeks that I'm we keep calling it

(11:17):
my coming out party as a business woman, which I'm
very excited about. I've even just been talking about that
more and making sure I integrate it in my conversations
because I'm proud of it and like I have found
my own natural born love for the work that we're doing. Yeah,
And with that, that's another form of me fostering community
and being able to do things that matter and that

(11:38):
make me feel purposeful and align with the things that
I want to do, and implementing all the other creative
aspects of my life into it.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
I want to I want to get into this because
we're talking about Yoba Development. We're talking about Yoga Development
Foundation you mentioned working with you specifically to help them
understand real estate, get into it. Talk to us a
little bit more about that path, in that journey and
why you Well, we're all young.

Speaker 4 (12:03):
If you don't know something, you're young or whatever. Business.

Speaker 5 (12:06):
I'm looking at it like we're all young in AI
right now as a community, as a society, right, we're
all infants trying to figure it out. So same thing
as real estate. So for me, I'll try to keep
this brief. But I grew up in the South Bronx,
raised in Harlem, and I was born in the sixties, raised
in seventies eighties when it was cracked out, burnt out,
you know, urban blight.

Speaker 4 (12:26):
Right.

Speaker 5 (12:26):
For the most part, we didn't live like that person
as a family in Harlem. We lived in co ops,
you know, duplex apartment, you know, Olympic sized pool downstairs
in the health club with a gym and a sauna
and weight room, all that stuff in the seventies.

Speaker 4 (12:41):
Right.

Speaker 5 (12:42):
It's now called East River Landing on one hundred and
eighth Street and first from one hundred and eighth one
hundred and eighth to one hundred and eleventh on First Avenue.
Dame Dash and I grew up in the same building.
Jim Jones was the next building, so we had that.
My father was always preaching the value of ownership and
his union was a sponsor, meaning the developer of that development.

(13:04):
So we moved in before anyway the buildings even officially opened.
We moved in November seventy four. The buildings opened in
January of seventy five. And growing up with a sense
of being part of the development of something, even though
we didn't have our hands in it. Like my father
took us into the apartment that we were going to
move into before they painted it and had us write

(13:25):
our names on the walls before the paint went over, right,
And so you had that memory. And he always told
you got to own, you gotta own, you know, build
your own generators so when they turn off the power,
you still have lights. So again the orientation has always
been toward community and entrepreneurship, like from the home. And
then for me, you know, my mother was always into

(13:47):
real interior design and architecture, so it was always you know,
architecture magazines and books and make it beautiful.

Speaker 4 (13:54):
And that was I think.

Speaker 5 (13:55):
So I grew up with a deep appreciation of aesthetics
and design, but I was all I saw that kid
that used to love hanging out by construction sites.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
I still do this to this day.

Speaker 5 (14:05):
I can stand literally like I've done it for like
an hour. Yeah, just watching the workers work, watching stuff
go up from the.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Ground up, watching dreams come to life, but.

Speaker 5 (14:18):
Also just watching people bill even as a kid, like
you tor Cereal and like you know how you have
like you put it around the edge of the bowl
and there's like a little milk at the bottom.

Speaker 4 (14:28):
Yeah, I would pick a spoon and be like yeah.

Speaker 5 (14:31):
Like I was like, so, I've always been thinking about
this stuff since I was a kid. But the short
story is, in two thousand and seven, a brother named
Dan Bythewood, whose cousin Reggie used to write on New
York on the cover Reggie Bythewood. He gave me my
first seat to table in development when I was actually

(14:52):
raising money from my theater company, and we connected through
a woman I was dating who was a developer and
she's like, oh, you need to reach out to Dan
for what you're trying to do. I told him, Hey, man,
I've always wanted to learn development. So he said, come
down to Baltimore, become a partner in this deal. And
so that's what started around two thousand and seven. And
along the journey, as I learned, you know, meeting with

(15:12):
the city, meeting with land use, meeting with council people,
meeting with engineers, meeting with construction companies, marketing companies, architects.
I'm learning just very very organically, the same way you know,
I try to bring Diana into the mix with stuff.
But the more I learned, the more I felt I
wanted to teach it right twenty eighteen, I'm shooting a
show called God Friend in Me and I'm playing a

(15:34):
real estate developer of affordable housing in Harlem. And it's
one of those moments where art imitates life and I
read the script, I push it away from me and
literally I'm like, God.

Speaker 4 (15:43):
Seriously, like this is me.

Speaker 5 (15:46):
The words that my character are saying are things that
I say in real life. Yeah, so I had me
and God have a conversation with crip By myself. I'm
always set with shooting in Bushwick on this construction site.
We had started construction in Baltimore. In real life, I'm
Central West and there's cameras on the construction site and

(16:07):
I'm like, oh wow, my world's are converted. A few
days later, we're shooting downtown Brooklyn at the Navy Yard.
Across the street, a friend of mine, Scott Reckler of
Arxro Realty, is developing an entire city block down the
block as the housing projects. I love it, and I'm
thinking about how many people from the projects work by
film sets and construction sites and have no idea about

(16:29):
either space.

Speaker 4 (16:30):
And I'm in both of these spaces.

Speaker 5 (16:32):
So I want to find a way to bring real estate, filmmaking,
and working with young people together together. So I've been
working with young people since the eighties, since I was
a sixteen year old kid tutoring kids. Twenty years old,
I'm working in thirteen high schools using art to engage
young people to help produce a dropout right. So again,
my orientation is always community young people. I'm always thinking

(16:52):
about how do I create more opportunities like the one
I had right when somebody gave me a seated table
seventeen eighteen, nineteen years old. Who would I be if
I wasn't giving those opportunities if lur Meetoff didn't hire
me at twenty because she saw something in me and say,
hey kid, I'm gonna hire you. I was twenty years
old making twenty thousand dollars a year. You can tell
me nothing.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
You can't tell can tell me nothing that twenty thousand
nineteen right, living your best life.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
So it is like, okay, so I'm.

Speaker 8 (17:23):
You know, you could get an apartment for six hundred
seven seven hundred and sixteen dollars was my apartment on
seventeenth Street above Barney's between six and seventh aus seven hundred.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
And sixteen dollars prices.

Speaker 5 (17:35):
Now seven hundred and sixteen dollars was my rent wow
in Chelsea.

Speaker 4 (17:41):
In ninetel in nineteen ninety one. Yeah, so insane. So anyway,
I'm all set.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
I'm still processing still.

Speaker 5 (17:53):
When I booked New York on the cover, my rent
was not seven hundred and sixteen dollars ridiculous. But then
people started ringing my doorbell because they could see me
going in the building, and so I had to move
into a doorman.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Building rights a little bit.

Speaker 5 (18:06):
Then I bought a place of town. But the point
was is that I'm on set, I'm having this experience.
I'm thinking about people from the hood that have no idea.
So I sit down with some woman who at the
time wanted to start a foundation and I was like, nah,
I got this for profit company, Yoba Development, but I
haven't done anything with it. And I said, but I

(18:28):
want the focus to be real estate, but I want
to use film to educate people and have young people involved.
Two days later, a woman named Leslie and Dunn who's
now my chief staff. She wrote a deck and sent
it to me, and it said, I build New York.
So she articulated my vision back New York. So she
articulated that back to me in a form of a deck.

(18:49):
I took that deck to Scott Reckler and develop what
I'm telling you about, and he said, let's meet about it.
I've been trying to figure out ways to bring more
diversity into the business. And we met right down the
block at seventy five Rock, which he owns, which we
just drove past, and I was like, that's Scott's building

(19:10):
and he said, I'll fund it. And so when he
said I'll fund it, I said, you know what, I'm
gonna shoot a doc like Anthony Bourdain, parts are known.

Speaker 4 (19:19):
I'm gonna go through New York. I take seven young people.

Speaker 5 (19:21):
I didn't know it was gonna be seven, but I'm
gonna take some young people on this journey because if
people could see who I do business with, who are
my friends, what my role index looks like. Most people
don't think, like Milik Yoba, the actor that we think
we know from some roles you play in real life,
who am I moving with? People in government, people in business,

(19:42):
across the sectors. And I just started to be interesting
for people to see that and most importantly highlight black
and brown, mostly black people in real estate that were
killing the game that no one knows who they are.
So how do we elevate these people? How do I
expose young people to that? And so that became creating community,
creating community.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
And a community right.

Speaker 5 (20:03):
That became something called the Real Estate Mixtape, which is
a ten part doc series that then became the basis
of the Eyebuilding New York curriculum that we introduced to
high school students. Then that led to partnerships with Pratt
Institute and fam You and Johannesburg School of Architecture and
so I've been screening this dock around the world fifty

(20:24):
one city, six countries, and so in the last three years, almost.

Speaker 4 (20:30):
Like a pie piper.

Speaker 5 (20:32):
Sure, you know, just sort of screening, letting people see
themselves on film, right in this world of real estate.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
And I think also it sounds like seeing the possibility.

Speaker 4 (20:45):
Ability you don't know you could be it.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
Right, And I mean on possibility. I want to queue
to you a little bit, DNA, talk about your role
now as the president of the Yoga Development Foundation. Talk
to us a little bit about the vision, the mission,
how you got there, and what you see for the future.

Speaker 6 (21:04):
So it started off, like he said, he asked me
to do the paperwork for the foundation, and I was like, sure,
it felt like a side quest. Honestly, it was just
like all right, especially because at that time I was
working at like a little boutique in the neighborhood, so
I just I wasn't locked in entirely. I was just like, Okay,
this is cool. And really just a lot of it

(21:26):
was because what I was seeing him doing was so
removed for myself. So for a while it was like, oh,
the work I'm doing for my dad. Now it's more
of the work I'm doing alongside my dad, and work
I'm doing for myself.

Speaker 7 (21:36):
So that's really that.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Feels different, so different. Yeah, that's really transformed.

Speaker 6 (21:40):
So you know, as he talks about working with youth,
a side effect of that, or byproduct rather is my
love for personal development, which is kind of how I've
been since I was a kid. I've always been like
the one giving my friends advice and like the mom
of my friend groups.

Speaker 7 (21:56):
And I I'm a Caprahorn, so like I take Capricorn energy,
I take that.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
I take you that later birthday, thank.

Speaker 7 (22:03):
You, thank you, thank you. I take that and kind
of run with it.

Speaker 6 (22:06):
So being in this position, I don't really think I
took it to heart until like six months ago, Okay,
And I'm thankful for just how my dad and my
mom have raised me because that's always been at the
top of my pyramid in how I operate. And so
with Yoba Development, it was like, okay, cool, you have
me signing the paperwork.

Speaker 4 (22:25):
Great.

Speaker 7 (22:25):
Then in twenty twenty.

Speaker 6 (22:26):
Three we had our activation and it was like, oh,
people are here for this, people are showing up for this.

Speaker 7 (22:30):
It's like, okay, it was it.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
Was internation was tell us about that.

Speaker 6 (22:34):
So the activation was a two day event basically, but
we don't call it an event because, as he likes
to say, it's built Yoba Development is a build. Builder
are people, places and things, and so it was really
kind of just activating the minds of young people. So
we had students, we had oh from the ground up,
flipping the hood. Okay, all right, I thought, okay, and

(22:57):
just now it's yeah, yeah, and so at that I'm
I really didn't understand it a lot of it. Again,
he was doing it by himself, like there's other people involved,
but really him being the awesome virgo man that he is, just.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
Like Io and you're very meticulous, Yes.

Speaker 6 (23:15):
Yes, this is this is my bestie. Okay, yeah, it's
a great combo. But at that time I was like,
I'm not really doing this with you. So I don't
have the passion for it that you do or the
understanding for it that you do. And it wasn't until
we had the activation where I was like, Okay, this
is really something. And so, like I said, it was
two days, and you know, we we saw the real
life effects of that, like kids got internships. We have

(23:35):
one kid, Dante, who had a he got a scholarship,
and then now and an internship, and then now is
working for JP Morgan.

Speaker 5 (23:43):
Right, he's working in facilities management and he's joined the
union and he's making great money.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
That's a nineteen year old, yes, and.

Speaker 4 (23:55):
By himself at nineteen.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Yeah, I loved it.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
And in this economy where so many are trying to
figure out how to navigate employment, how to navigate economic mobility,
this offers a true platform. Does the foundation the development
have any goals around economic mobility specifically for inner city
youth or beyond?

Speaker 4 (24:18):
Yeah, Zita said, you know, build up people, places and things.

Speaker 5 (24:21):
Right. I think that that positions us uniquely within the
real estate ecosystem as not just somebody that's not an
organization that's purely focused on the sticks in the bricks.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
Right.

Speaker 5 (24:31):
We used to be the real estate, so let's get
into it. Yes, like in real time, like we were property,
but yet we couldn't own property, so we couldn't even
own ourselves. And the vestiges of slavery and Jim Crow
continue today in twenty twenty five. Project twenty twenty five
is in full effect, which is essentially saying you don't matter.

(24:53):
We're going to wipe you or for websites. Government wipe websites.
We're going to take the ski yearman out of the navy.
We're going to wipe you know, black representation at NASA.
See what's happening in real time. That's the power of
the word.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
How is that impact to you as a man.

Speaker 4 (25:10):
So I'm getting there.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
Okay, all right, I'm ready. I'm ready to go to here.

Speaker 5 (25:13):
That is what this So when you talk about the goal,
it's what Bob said, emancipate yourself from mental slavery. None
but ourselves can free our mind. Have no fear for
atomic energy because none of them can't stop the time.

Speaker 4 (25:28):
Right.

Speaker 5 (25:28):
So this work is about builder of people, places and things.
The people need to be educated emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically,
and then financially. And what we're saying the goal is
how many people can we create community with that are
like minded, that want to work collectively for the good

(25:52):
of the whole. That will always be the goal. The
goal is never going to change. If I passed away today,
I hope the Dina and and you know whoever else
that she can bring along the team, the Soryda. We
have Elena here shooting our first intern that is the goal.
The goal is mental freedom, right education. The goal is participation,

(26:18):
letting people see that they belong because this idea that
with all the world's resources, all the abundance of the universe,
there are people with a pervasive and predominant narrative that
says there's not enough for everybody. Elon alone when his
valuation could end poverty in America. Because for me, every

(26:39):
blessing I've ever had or gotten or continue to get
is because I've always been in service or something bigger
than myself. I don't know what it's like to just
think about myself. It's just not my orientation. I was
raised in the household with six kids. Parents separated when
I was ten. We all stayed with my father, six kids.
It's a really really interesting time.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
It's a really really wild time. You kicked off the
conversation that we were just having with dear America.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
What's your dear America.

Speaker 6 (27:09):
I think I would just stay on the stance of community, right.
I don't know who I'd be without the people around
me that have helped foster who I am. And so
it's like, and there's a lot that could be said,
but it would just fall under sticking together as much
as possible in whatever way that means for anybody.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Doctor Yoba, can you tell us about the moment you
actually realize you are a black man in America?

Speaker 2 (27:42):
When did that happen for you and what did that
mean for you?

Speaker 5 (27:45):
Well, Yoba means last of the slaves and new generation. Okay,
So my father made that name up. So we were
raised in a very pan African nationalist household. So there
was no television because my father refused to put a
TV in the house because quote, I don't want white
folks teaching my kids how to think. So there were

(28:07):
books on like Nat Turner, who apparently was a distant
relative of the family, whether she or not, Like we
grew up believing a dude who ran a slave rebellion
was family right, and so there was always this sense
of you know, black man got a hustle, black man
got a hustle. My father always said that, you know,

(28:30):
Bill Jones generators, so when they turned off the power,
you still have lights. So there was certain indoctrination around
self and love of self, love of your nappy hair right,
did dark skin right like he was? If we were
still in Africa, we'd be princes and princes, kings and
king queens and kings.

Speaker 4 (28:49):
I believe that.

Speaker 5 (28:50):
In fact, it hit me how much I believed it
when I dated a woman in my twenties whose mother
used to tell her that if she wore a strike
shirt with horizontal stripes, it will make her look fat.
The things that our parents tell us and the roots
that those those thoughts can take are real.

Speaker 4 (29:08):
And so.

Speaker 5 (29:11):
Although I was always indoctrinated around like our blackness, our africanness,
when you graduate high school, you move into Africa.

Speaker 4 (29:22):
My father was obsessed with s Dan. Don't ask me.

Speaker 5 (29:24):
Why it was a Muslim country. We were raised Muslim,
even though he was a huge fan of Kame and Krima,
you know, the liberation of Ghana in the fifties or sixties.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
So there was that.

Speaker 5 (29:37):
However, for the most part, as a black man in America,
I have not really experienced a whole lot of cops
pulling you over because you're driving a nice car and
you're black. Personally, I've never really identified as I've never
identified struggle or I can't do X y Z because

(29:59):
I'm and honestly hasn't been until adult.

Speaker 4 (30:02):
Working in real estate development, when you.

Speaker 5 (30:05):
Understand how federal policy was codified, right laws. You can't
own here, you can't live here, you can't drink from here.
We ain't gonna give you mortgages, We're not going to
give you insurance, We're not going to invest in your community.
That's when it became real. Yeah, did you start feeling
real black?

Speaker 3 (30:25):
I was talking to a developer and he's a black developer,
and he said, when he walks into rooms, he has
to actually decide that he is not a black man,
because if he walks into the room as a black man,
he already feels like he's operating from a space of
black versus a space of abundance.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
What's your reaction to.

Speaker 6 (30:44):
That, Yes, because I was thinking about that to again
underscore it. I just said, the mind is so powerful
if we have conversations about this all the time. I've
experienced a lot just as a young black woman. And
I was born in LA. I grew up in LA
I grew up in the valley. I don't know if
you know anything about the valley, but.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
It's I only know what I hear.

Speaker 6 (31:06):
Okay, it's predominantly Latino kids, and there's a lot of colorism.
I dealt with in high school. And I was just
talking about this one of my best friends yesterday, like
how I had to really get out of that mindset
of like I'm not enough because I'm brown skin and
I'm dark skin. And when I lived in La I
was I was in the sun, so I was a

(31:28):
little bit darker than I am now. But like even
that being a thing, there was a mindset at a
point in time where it was like I would walk
into spaces and feel like, Okay, maybe I won't be
as like like I'd have to push my personality more,
or like I'd have to be the funny one in
the room. I have to be exceptionally beautiful to get
compliments or to get X, Y and Z. And you know,
as a young person, you care about what people think

(31:49):
about you. Sure I've now built up some adults still
care exactly, I personally don't feel like I build up
like brass ovaries enough at this point in time to
like really get out of that mind of like whether
it be rejection or just like, oh will you like me?
Because I don't, I could care less because I like
myself enough. And of course it fluctuates, but to that

(32:09):
whole black mindset. It's real for a lot of black people,
and even other there's other black girls that I've talked
to in the last couple of years alone, And I'm
happy now that the Black women that I have in
my life are very confident and love themselves and are
very aware of themselves and secure in themselves in a
lot of way. But we all had to go through

(32:31):
a very significant point of insecurity to get to this
point of security. And so when I do walk into spaces,
I don't Yeah, I don't always think about me being black.
It's there, of course, it's always. I'm not ignorant to
the fact and the things that come with that. But yeah,
when you're in even conversations like this and like even

(32:51):
coming here today, like there's a time or point in
time where they don't want black people getting interviewed. They
don't care what we have to say, they don't care
about our opinion, especially black women, and the way black
women are treated to just historically is insane. But luckily,
I feel like we live in a time where we
can have these conversations and so the mindset can be shifted.

(33:11):
But the mind is really powerful. Yes, So if you
walk in with the state of lack regardless of your circumstance,
regardless of your experience, that is what you're gonna get. Yeah,
with anything you call yourself broke, even if you are broke,
you're going to keep having very broke experiences. Yes, you
call yourself this and that, whatever, You're gonna keep perpetuating
those experiences for yourself.

Speaker 7 (33:31):
So yeah, I would agree with what Homeboy said. You can't.
You can't go into space. You have to also believe
that you deserve it.

Speaker 4 (33:40):
Too.

Speaker 6 (33:40):
Interesting, That's where that personal development comes from. Like, you
really need to believe that you deserve yourself. You deserve
the experiences in equality of life that you want to
have no matter what.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
I love this.

Speaker 4 (33:53):
She was a kid, yeah, and so it's evolved.

Speaker 5 (33:56):
But I remember she was like sixteen that would be
listening to her on the phone with her friend mag
You need a YouTube.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
Channel, Okay, where do we find it?

Speaker 7 (34:07):
It's my name.

Speaker 6 (34:08):
I have a bunch of videos on a queue that
are going to be slowly rolled out over the next
couple of months.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (34:13):
Yeah, she's got a lot to offer. She's hilarious. She
isn't going all the way in her fronty bag, right
and I haven't.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
I've been very's hilarious.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
But no, yeah, to you, to you, to your friend. Man,
it's real.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
It's crazy how it is for you.

Speaker 4 (34:31):
Like, no, I don't think I deserve to be in every.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
Space I'm in, But I mean, do you walk into
the space saying I'm a black man?

Speaker 2 (34:39):
I own that doctor?

Speaker 5 (34:41):
In fact, every time you say doctor bleek yoba, yeah,
I earned that right. Livingstone College shout out right decided
we want to give you an honorary doctorate in humane letters.
That's one of the great honors of my life. I
didn't ask for it, right, but an educational institution, HBC,
you said in Salisbury, North Carolina, said we're going to
give this to you. And it pays dividends because no

(35:03):
matter where I'm speaking, whether it's USX and Bank, whether
it's you know, on television, whether it's the real estate
conference of school, people know, oh that's that act to do.
But there's a doctor, right, doctorate And so for my
friends with PhDs that they went.

Speaker 4 (35:17):
To school for, God bless it.

Speaker 5 (35:19):
But guess what, I've been in these trenches for forty years,
like in community around the world, learning, contributing. I didn't
sit in the classroom to learn that I've been out
here in the streets literally transforming live. So I no,
I don't walk into rooms like you know, I've got
to like not be a black man. No, It's evident

(35:39):
in my melaninep I just walk in rooms as prepared
as possible. And I'm the king of If you say
something I don't know, I'm gonna be quick with the
Google and check yes in the middle of the meeting, like, oh,
that's what that means, right.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
To it?

Speaker 5 (36:01):
Because that's the point. Yes, Right, we should constantly be
learning and growing. And I think that people can be
caught up with other people's perceptions in them. But no,
I think that you know, this is an abundant universe.
The earth is a learning environment. Our goal is to
tap in as much as we can learn into much
abundance as possible, regardless of other people's narratives.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
Right, doctor Yoba, you said something that really stuck with me. Earlier,
you were mentioning someone you dated before and how something
her mom said really impacted her but obviously didn't impact
her for the best. But parents have a way of
impacting us. I'm interested to hear from you Dina, what
have you received from your father, doctor Yoba that has

(36:47):
impacting you and that stays with you on a regular basis,
especially as we're navigating so much in the country.

Speaker 6 (36:53):
Yeah, I find myself having conversations with other people talking
about owning your life, owning who you are, and that's
the whole point of yoga development. He said, my grandfather
didn't get the chance to me build your own generator.
So the lights turn off, you have power. That's what
we're doing. That's what we're doing. And so that's the
biggest takeaway amongst everything else as that I've said, whether

(37:16):
it be how I carry myself, the personal development aspect,
community learning, always be ready to learn, know yourself, love yourself, live, laugh, love,
all of that owning.

Speaker 5 (37:26):
I'm really like enjoying this because last week she did
a movie with her mother. Okay, in fact, her mother
and I met doing a play His Women's Wife, where
she played my baby Mama.

Speaker 6 (37:37):
Okay before came along, before I entered the show, and
we engaged.

Speaker 5 (37:42):
And you know, we end up having this young person
and it's a trip like watching her in this interview
and thing. And just a week ago she was on
set where her mother doing her first film.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
I'm so thankful you all trusted me with this interview.
For those of you just.

Speaker 5 (37:55):
Want to a podcast too, So we people love so
who were talking to around here, we we did you know,
yes for real, there's a few podcasts and me there's
one on real estate that actually shot already.

Speaker 4 (38:08):
It's called Think real Estate. So we want to do that.

Speaker 5 (38:11):
But we got stories to tell and we got value
to add to the community and really want to do that.
But to the thing that my father would always say,
build your own generator. So when they turn off the
power to have lights, that's tat you on my arm,
it's in my heart.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
Build your own generators, so they turn off the power
to have lights.

Speaker 5 (38:30):
One of the greatest moments of my life sharing my
father's quote was last year I was a keynote for
the Department of Energy Small Business Expo. So aside from
Yoba Development, I also have Yoba Global Solutions, which is
a federal contracting company that I started with two of
my siblings, a cousin and an adopted family member we

(38:50):
grew up with.

Speaker 4 (38:51):
And that's been about three years.

Speaker 5 (38:52):
We've been in federal space learning about how that's that's
that's financial literacy for literate people, right, understanding how our
tax dollars flow into these different agencies.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
So like when you're much to learn.

Speaker 5 (39:07):
You hear about USAID, people have no idea what does
that mean? Trump's cutting this agency. Well, there's a reason
that civics are not taught and most people don't understand
how do our federal tax dollars make it into the
federal government and how is that money deployed. Sure, there's
business opportunities for all of us at the city, state,

(39:28):
and federal level when it comes to contracting. So regardless
of what it is that you do, the federal government
is the largest buyer of goods and services in the world.
That's part of the reason why we have nine trillion
going out and only seven trillion coming in. And that's
definit that's part of our deficit, which is like one
hundred and thirty five trillion dollars some crazy whatever number is, right,

(39:49):
it's a crazy it's a crazy number. And so we
should all be educated right on how the money flow.
Our money flows, and people think about federal contracting. They
tend to think about defense, which is huge, but literally
everything in this room, the federal government needs.

Speaker 4 (40:08):
It doesn't make anything.

Speaker 5 (40:10):
So if they need to set up a radio station
and army base, somebody has to supply these microphones and
these tables and these lights, and this wall and the building,
and paint the building and the windows.

Speaker 4 (40:21):
That's all contract work. And so.

Speaker 5 (40:25):
This quote of my father's build your own generator. So
when they turn off the power used to have lights
every single day, I'm working to build a generator. So
even me as an artist, and this is one of
the reasons why I love the fact that Lane is here,
who's a recent graduate. As an artist, we have to
own things as women, as people of color. We you know,

(40:46):
our schools essentially saying go get an education to get
a job. Yes, yes, we need workers because it don't
move until you move it right, So it's cool to
fall back, you know, scale up, you know, get skilled up,
find your place an ecosystem, get a job. We need employees,
but we also need entrepreneurs. We need people innovating, people
who are thinking about things that don't exist with thinking

(41:08):
about how do we solve problems. So for us with
YOB Development, whether it's foundation' was LLC, the problems that
we solve for more than anything, are informing people of
their right to participate and participate in yourself, in your
personal development. Most people may I'm gonna go to gymna.
Look good, I'm gonna go get money. Okay, that's only

(41:30):
two legs of the table. What about your mental wellness?
What about your emotional wellness? What about your spiritual so
important because those things are going to drive the other things,
because guess what, there are tons of depressed billionaires. There's
tons of folks with money that commit suicide, that's right,
that flame out on drugs and alcohol and other vices
because their mental and emotional and spiritual capacity has not

(41:52):
been maximized. And then I focused on that, and then
I've thought about that. So back to the question about goals.
Why do we? Why are we here? You know, what
do I need? You know, Dina and her siblings, because
there are the.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
Other shout out to the Slings.

Speaker 4 (42:12):
But it's about own your thoughts.

Speaker 5 (42:16):
Make sure your thoughts are pure, make sure they're about
edification of yourself, other people, the environment, All of these
things are important, right, But we can get so distracted.
But I gotta survive. I gotta get this. I got
time to think about how you feel I gotta survive.
But there's something magical about when your orientation is about

(42:37):
how do I leave places better than they were when
I found them? How do I make sure that I
am doing everything that I can to make sure they're mentally,
mostly spiritually, physically, and then financially to me always last,
I don't ever leave with the money. How do I
make sure that I'm vibrating at the highest possible frequency

(42:58):
to attract the things that I need uh to to
live the life that I want. And what Diina said,
you know you hear it all the time. Yeah, you know,
believe in yourself, But there isn't enough emphasis on the
power of how we think about things, like literally, what
is the story that you're telling yourself?

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Yes, this is exactly yeah right, it all starts with you.

Speaker 5 (43:21):
Yes, And that's where the power is. And that's the
magic that people think. It's just like, oh, well I
don't really know.

Speaker 4 (43:27):
Well yeah, if you say I don't really know, I
don't know. I don't.

Speaker 5 (43:31):
But if you say I want to know, I want
to continue to expand I want to continue to learn.
I'm in process of the thing as well. You know,
it's just where I am now that's the way you
were five minutes ago, right right, But that doesn't have
to be you know your destiny just because you're saying
it in that moment.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
Yes, you know, yeah, I will will's your free will
and choice. I want to I mean, I can have
you two here all day. I'm kind of sure we're
ning out of time.

Speaker 4 (43:59):
We don't have that.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
We are, but I want to get in just a
few we're doing this rapid fire wisdom. So I'm just
gonna ask a quick question, and I want a quick
answer from both of you. One word to describe America
right now? It is it hard to find just one.

Speaker 6 (44:15):
I was gonna say, I don't want to live in
this country.

Speaker 7 (44:22):
I'm just hearing I was born here, man, this.

Speaker 4 (44:25):
Is the right.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
That's transparent, transparent, Okay, shoot, I'm gonna have to ask
just a little bit more transparent.

Speaker 4 (44:35):
We see, we see what it is. Okay, things are
not being hidden.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (44:40):
It's like, no, you don't care women, gay, straight like
veterans like no, like we see like people.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
Are like nah, it's very clear.

Speaker 4 (44:50):
We see. We're telling you here's the playbook. Before we
even win the election.

Speaker 5 (44:54):
We're gonna tell you what we're gonna do and we're
gonna do it, and every single day they're watching people
been to the will of the word.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
Yeah, that's right. Okay.

Speaker 3 (45:03):
Biggest misconception about your generation, your generation and then your generation.

Speaker 7 (45:08):
That there's so many misconceptions.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
Just one, I doubt.

Speaker 7 (45:16):
That we don't know what we're doing, that we're just freestyling.
I mean we are.

Speaker 6 (45:19):
Well, there's a lot of other components like mental health
and anxiety and all these other things, which, in my opinion,
are just symptoms of the environment that we were born into.

Speaker 7 (45:29):
We still find a way to, as I always say, live, laugh,
love through it all.

Speaker 6 (45:34):
So there's a big misconception that we don't really care,
that we're lazy.

Speaker 7 (45:38):
Everybody could be lazy. It's not just gen Z So.

Speaker 4 (45:42):
Well is the biggest misconception.

Speaker 5 (45:44):
Oh, I would say that we think everything was safe
and secure, okay, and we're learning that it was not.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Never was right, Okay, last one, what gives you hope? Cute? Didna?

Speaker 4 (46:00):
No, that's the answer.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (46:03):
Oh all right, wait a minute, wait a minute. For
those of you that didn't see that, doctor Yoba just
pointed to his daughter and we were like, okay, cue
to Dina, but no, Dina was given doctor jobob. I
love that. How you gonna talk that one?

Speaker 2 (46:17):
Dina?

Speaker 6 (46:21):
Just taking it knowing that if I wake up the
next day, if I who knows if I wake up tomorrow,
but if I do, that's the hope right there. If
I open my eyes every morning and I'm blessed to
be blessed with another day in safety and protection and
guidance and divine guidance, and I'm that's the hope, Okay.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
All right?

Speaker 3 (46:39):
And doctor hope having conversations like this and not being
in a space at least hopefully not yet where.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
We're where we're gonna be censored.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
I've had a lot of people ask me, Dear America
with Chanelle Barnes, are you gonna keep the show?

Speaker 2 (46:56):
Will the show be let go?

Speaker 3 (46:58):
And so I think what's giving me hope is to
being able to have this platform so that we could
share the stories of people of color and continue to
amplify our voices.

Speaker 4 (47:07):
Can I get offered something?

Speaker 7 (47:08):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (47:09):
Absolutely?

Speaker 5 (47:09):
I've been asking where the hell is georgecluding? Where's Brad
Pitt right, where's all the people that march during George Floyd?
And where are those people? Where are all the people
that said black Lives matter that didn't look like us?
Why are we not hearing from.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
Everyone else a call to action?

Speaker 5 (47:25):
The problem in America is not black people, never has been.
We've been the ones that're told you can't vote, you
can't own, you can't go to school here, you can't
eat here, you can't drink here, you can't ride this bus,
you can't play in this league, you can't get a degree.
We're the only ones that, for hundreds of years have
been told you can't, you can't, you can't, it's illegal. So,

(47:48):
dear America, I think it's an incredible platform and hopefully
you get to keep it for a long time. But
I really feel like you have an opportunity and a
responsibility to make sure you get those other diverse as voices,
not us. It's only a problem with it's us. But
let's get a whole bunch of different kind of white folks.

Speaker 4 (48:06):
Up in here.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
George Clooney Pitt, you heard it. Yeah, we need you
on the show and it listens.

Speaker 5 (48:14):
Those are people in entertainment. But where's Jamie Diamond right?
Where are where's the head of you know the unions?

Speaker 4 (48:21):
Right?

Speaker 5 (48:22):
Who are these people, do you really believe that we
don't belong? And the reality is, listen, man, God is
off from passports. I'm about to go get one. And
so you know we're looking at Africa because you know, look,
y'all don't want to see it, because what does it
look like? And this is I have so many fantasies
about this a day. With our sports, if every athlete decided,

(48:44):
you know, we're just not playing.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
Tonight, right, like, what would that look like?

Speaker 5 (48:48):
And again, because we're so conditioned to take care to
only think about ourselves. But I've been in that position
to stand up for things that people will in comfort
you for and will take you down and put a
bullet in your head because they say you should not
talk about those things. You don't deserve to do that.
So my heroes have all been murdered. I'm doing an

(49:08):
event next month April Mega Evers. Mega Evers would have
been one hundred years old this year. So when Medgar
and there's a whole list of them, right that would
have been one hundred years old right now.

Speaker 4 (49:19):
James Baldwin would have been one hundred years old this year.

Speaker 5 (49:22):
And so those dudes were willing to die for what
they believed in, and we talk about them now because
they stood up when we had less right and we
had more at stake. And so back to the misconception.
Because we've made a little money, we got comfortable. You know,
we live nice, we drive nice cars. Right, yes, but
are you willing to forsake all of that for the

(49:43):
freedom of your people?

Speaker 2 (49:45):
The answer has to be yes, you have to. The
answer has to be yes.

Speaker 4 (49:49):
That's how I feel.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
Yes.

Speaker 5 (49:51):
And so even working in entertainment, like I struggles wrong word,
but in my processing, it's it's very hard to want
to portray other characters at this point in my life.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
Doctor Yoba, you just joined us for Dear America, A
Letter from Black Women, the film that I executive produced
alongside Freedom Studios. Thank you and Dina you also joined us,
which was so exciting.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
Is there anything that you want to share about.

Speaker 3 (50:21):
What moved you to be a part of the project
and how you felt just being in the space with
over three hundred people talking about the state of black
women in America.

Speaker 7 (50:31):
Platform things like this are important.

Speaker 6 (50:33):
Being put in a position to have conversations that matter
is always going to be important. So just honored and
excited and happy that my current state of consciousness at
twenty four years of life as a young black woman
and as I discovered myself as a black woman, is
being recognized.

Speaker 7 (50:51):
That you want to hear what I have to say.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
Amazing, Thank you so much for being thank you for
having me. And what about you, doctor Yoba what she said, No.

Speaker 4 (51:00):
I'm really proud of you.

Speaker 5 (51:01):
So I remember we first met on the zoom and
your enthusiasm which you have today was great because this
was prior to the last election and the results. But
you know, black women have been in so many ways
the backbone of this country. Think often about what Malcolm
X said about the black women is the most unprotected

(51:21):
women in the world, or something like that. I think
about that all the time, whether it's a homeless woman
I see on the street, whether it's an old lady
at the bus stop in the middle of winter. You know,
I think about that protection and that reverence that I
feel like, you know what I mean, And it's I
have to say that it increases.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
With age, you know, the awareness.

Speaker 5 (51:42):
Not just the awareness, but the sense of honor and
pride and reverence.

Speaker 4 (51:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (51:49):
I was having a conversation with a friend of mine
this morning who was made a comment about, you know,
black men, all you see is is trauma when you
look at black women, and I said, you know, I
don't believe that that may be true for some people,
and I think we can see that in each other.
And a lot of podcasts and part of the culture
right now, there's a lot of like acrimony. But you know,

(52:11):
at the end of the day, you know, eighty five
percent of black men marry black women, right, And so
although that you could see commercials with you know, multicultural families,
the reality is we are loving on each other and
we need to push that more and we need to
get the tools that we need for our healing because

(52:31):
most of us who grew up, particularly in the church
where pray it all the way, now there's a lot
more that we need to do on the mental and
emotional side, and there are tools. There are books, right
whether you're talking Joe Spencer and you know the work
around neuroscience, you're talking about you know, Don.

Speaker 4 (52:47):
Miguel Rouiz with the Four Agreements.

Speaker 5 (52:49):
There's so much right in a self help space that
we need in our toolbox to help us manage the
traumas that we've been through. So that we can love
each other in a proper.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
Way, unconditionally.

Speaker 3 (53:01):
I love this and with that everyone, this is Dear
America with Chanel Barnes. Thank you, thank you, thank you again,
doctor Malik Yoba, and thank you so much Dina Yoba
for joining us. And also I can't reiterate enough thank
you for trusting me with this conversation in between a
father and a daughter, a president and a president.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
Is that right? President, CEO, CEO, President, Everything.

Speaker 3 (53:25):
Your partners life all right? Talk to you soon, real voices,
real stories. Dear America with Shanel Barnes.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
Bye.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
This has been a Project Ready and a Freedom Studios production.
To learn more and effect change while going to Project
readynjy dot org or listen anytime on all major podcast carriers.
The proceeding was a paid program. Do wr's airing of

(53:59):
this program constitutes neither an endorsement of the products offered
or the ideas expressed. The proceeding was a paid podcast.
iHeartRadio's hosting of this podcast constitutes neither an endorsement of
the products offered or the ideas expressed.