June 12, 2024 • 30 mins
From her iconic role as Ashley Banks in "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" to her advocacy work supporting maternal health through her baby quilt company, Baby Yams, the multi-talented Tatyana Ali shares her journey as a child star, activist, and entrepreneur. Get ready for laughs, insights, and a trip down memory lane with one of the most beloved stars of the ’90s. Plus, we celebrate Josephine Michalak, the world record holder for most units of blood donated in a lifetime.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey fam, Hello Sunshine. Today on the bright Side. You
may know her as Ashley Banks from the nineties sitcom
Fresh Prince of bel Air. The actress turned activists Tatiana
Ali is here hanging.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Out with us.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
She's talking life as a child star in the nineties
and the work she's doing to support mothers and maternal
health today. Plus we're giving some flowers to Josephine Micheleuk.
She's the world record holder for most units of blood
donated in a lifetime. It's Wednesday, June twelfth. I'm Danielle Robe.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
And I'm Simone Voice, and this is the bright Side
from Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Danielle.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Tatiana Ali is here today. I remember watching her every
week on Fresh Prince of bel Air. Still know every
word to that theme song. I think most millennials do.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
We're bill trying so hard not to sing it right now.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Our lawyers won't allow us, but we would if we could,
We totally would.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
We're excited about this one. The og Ashley Banks is here.
I mean, that show was such a juggernaut for NBC.
It launched in nineteen ninety and can you believe this?
At its peak it had twenty million people a week watching.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I actually can believe it because it was one of
those shows.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
It was monoculture.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I mean, we were all watching it and felt like
we were part of that family. And they also made
some groundbreaking moves. I mean, first of all, it challenged
the traditional sitcom models. It had this fresh, comedic voice.
It brought diversity to prime time, and they also highlighted
some real life issues, a lot of which we are
(01:36):
still dealing with today. And you mentioned Tatiana played Ashley Banks,
the youngest Bank's daughter. She was generally this sweet and
innocent one and she always looked up to her cousin
played by Will Smith, and it seems like they actually
have some of that dynamic intact in real life.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, we're going to ask her about that because that's
a long lasting relationship. That whole cast really seems to
support one another, which is cool. But you know, because
she was part of such an iconic show, I think
we think of her as that little Ashley Banks, and
there's actually so much more to Tatiana Ali's story.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Yeah, it's been really beautiful to see how she's expanded
her identity off screen after becoming a mom.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
She's using her platform for so much good, so much advocacy,
and specifically a brand that she launched called baby Yams,
which she designs and she sells handmade quilt to support
birth workers of color.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
You know, we talked to Elaine Waltroth on this show
about birth outcomes for black women in this country and
women of color, and Tatiana is actually one of those statistics.
I mean, she personally experienced a traumatic birth with her
first son, and she's turning that pain into purpose by
uplifting fellow moms and providing resources for other moms who
(02:55):
are going through similar issues.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, I'm really excited to have her on the show.
And Simone, I just learned she's a Harvard alum.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, she graduated from Harvard with a degree in government
in two thousand and two.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
So, I mean, we have.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
A lot to talk about. She has such an accomplished
story on and off screen.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I can't wait to hear from her about this era
that she's in, her activism, her purpose driven work as
a mom, and we also gotta take it back a
little bit and talk about her life as a child star.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
I mean, she is nineties royalty.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
We need all the stories, but We're lucky she's here
with us right now.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Tatiana. Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Tatiana.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
We have a lot to discuss with you today. You
are a multifaceted woman. But before we jump into everything, Tatiana,
Simone and I both saw Bad Boys for Over the
weekend and we saw you styling on the red carpet
at the premiere in your all white suit. The first
question I have for you is do you even like
red carpets? Do they feel like work or are they
(03:58):
still really fun?
Speaker 6 (04:00):
I mean, if I'm honest, they feel like work, But yeah,
certain ones are really fun when you know who's gonna
be there.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
That one was really fun.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
I got there really early, so I did all that
part and then they had us all in like a
kind of like a holding outdoor holding area right on
the end of the carpet, and they had awesome cars
and they told everybody.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
The theme was like Miami Nights.
Speaker 6 (04:26):
Little by little, I just saw like so many people
that I knew from my childhood, like people that have
been working with Will like forever, and their families and
so there was like it was like cousins. It was
like a family get together at the end of the carpet.
So that was one of the funner carpets. But if
I could just like support the people I love and
which I have and just bypass the carpet, I do
(04:47):
that quite often.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Actually, carpets actually make me sweat.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
I'm with you. It's a whole thing.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
I mean, oh lord, even for the premiere, I'm like,
are we going to the Oscars?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Like?
Speaker 4 (04:57):
What is why?
Speaker 5 (04:58):
There's so much prep? There's so much involved.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Well, one of the things that I think is cool
is that everybody from the Fresh Prince cast really supports
each other, like on every project, every endeavor. And I
was watching Bad Boys, thinking, wow, this is thirty years
since that first movie that they did. I saw will
post that photo of him and Martin. What does it
(05:23):
mean to you to have that relationship with him all
these years later? Like has he been sort of that
guiding light for you at all? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (05:30):
He certainly was.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
When I was younger, you know, just as a kid
and like, you know, an older brother to look up to.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
He was really protective of me.
Speaker 6 (05:41):
And then when I went into music, for sure, he
was definitely a mentor during that time.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
My first producing effort.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
My sister and I produced a web series called Buffies,
And you know, he's one of the first people that
I went to and said, look what we did, you know,
and he's like, oh, I want you to talk to
so and so and so and so and so. He
was integrol in us being able to place that at
BT in business. He's definitely been a mentor.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Did you learn a lot about producing being on the
set of Fresh Prints and just working from such a
young age? I mean you've been on Broadway, you were
on Fresh Prints. I mean you've been such a fixture.
Were you always kind of absorbing the behind the scenes
knowledge too?
Speaker 6 (06:20):
You know, I started acting and acting professionally at four
years old. My mom always told me and my dad
they always said, you know, be a sponge like take
it all in. I was in these incredible spaces with
these brilliant artists and business people. But producing actually came
about out of necessity. I graduated from school and there
was very little to even audition for. I mean I
(06:43):
would maybe have like an audition once every couple of months,
and there were pilot seasons where there wasn't really much
to audition for at all. And I had so many
friends of color who were in the same exact boat,
and we're all knocking on the same doors in the
same hallway, and finally was just like, yo, what are
we doing?
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Like, let's just make our own stuff. So that's how
that came about.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
That's something that a lot of people don't hear actors
talking about or creatives in this business is the downtime
because there all are lulls between projects. So when you
think about those periods after you end a big project
like Fresh Princes, or when you're in between projects, what
is that season like for you?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
What kind of clarity does it bring?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
How do you recalibrate during those times when there is
a lull?
Speaker 6 (07:32):
You know, I kind of wait. I don't know, Like
I just I wait to see what comes. I try
to be financially solvent enough. This has always been important
to me. I don't run with the Joneses. I was
driving a Prius and other people I knew were driving
Bedle's and you know, making fun of my little Prius,
and I'm.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Like, well, okay, that's cool, but I know my card
notes made.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
Yeah, because of that, Like I can make choices that
are not only because of finances and that's really important
to me because I do believe like there's purpose in
my work.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
So yeah, it's very much a faith thing.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
And then also, you know, there's a lot of work
in between the big work, and sometimes that work it
could be production readings that I'm doing with my community
of artists, or things that not a lot of people
see but are really formative.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
You've been such a champion for maternal health. I've seen
you advocating for the passage of the Momnibus bill. We
mentioned BABYMS. That's the quilt brand that you started to
support Indigenous and Black birth workers, and that stems from
your own experience with birth. How did your birth experience
become this larger passion. Tell me about that journey and
(08:49):
that evolution.
Speaker 6 (08:51):
So I experienced obstetric violence in a hospital in la
a world renowned hospital.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
This was my first birth. We were really healthy. My baby.
Speaker 6 (09:00):
He ended up in the nick you for four days
because of the treatment we received.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
He was healthy otherwise.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
One of the pediatric surgeons even said because of the
traumatic nature of his birth in the records, I honestly,
I didn't start saying anything until about a year.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
He was maybe a year or two old.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
The event was so traumatic we didn't even know how
to wrap our minds around it or our feelings around it.
And it wasn't until I was pregnant again with my
son Alejandro, that the trauma and whatever fear I had
turned into this can't happen again. This has to change.
And there's a lot in the news and then the media.
(09:40):
Now people know the statistics Black and Indigenous women are
three to four times more likely to die in childbirth.
That's also the same for infant mortality and trauma. But
I didn't know all that, and so I had shared
my nursing story on my Instagram page because I was
really looking for community, and an organization called Black MAM's
Matter Alliance reached out to me and they said, oh,
(10:02):
come speak at our panel. We want you to share
your nursing experience. And so from there, while I was
pregnant with my second baby, I just went head first.
I went to Santa Fe to a conference, and I
was just you know, going as what they call in
the research community, like a consumer just says a mom.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
I wasn't talking.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
I was just in little groups with other people and
getting my lunch and whatever. And the reproductive justice community.
Those advocates took me in, they welcomed me, and they
shared information and resources with me, so that that second
experience was completely different.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
I think you just answered it, but I'm curious to know.
What would you tell Tatiana, you know, as she was
nine months pregnant with her first child, like what do
you wish you knew before your first birth experience?
Speaker 6 (10:56):
I would tell her to follow her instinct, to follow
her gut, and to not allow the little micro aggressions
that we deal with in everyday life, like at the
grocery store, someone's eyeing you too much, or you get
followed when you want these things that as a black
(11:17):
woman I saw my mother go through.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
I go through it.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
You know this is not the space to just like
let that go and move on, right, Because there were
signs With my obgyn's office, I was rushed in every appointment.
Concerns or questions I had were kind of dismissed, even
like in jokes. If I had heeded that, if I
(11:41):
knew that, the time for that shit is over because
it's life or death. The person that cares for you
has to see you as a sister, a friend, a mother.
They have to care about you. It's a very pressure
time in life. Nobody can give birth for you. That's
(12:04):
what I would tell her. I would say, trust your God.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
You hear it, you know, I'm so sorry for the
lack of care you received. I can like hear the
pain in your voice still from that time, and I'm
just so sorry you had that experience. Honestly, now hearing
this baby Yams makes even more sense to me.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
What is your connection to sewing?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Like?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
What did this stem from?
Speaker 1 (12:27):
So?
Speaker 5 (12:28):
I have been sewing pretty much like all my life.
Speaker 6 (12:32):
My dad sews, my mom's mom sows, my mom my
mom sews.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
But she's just like a mender, you know, not just.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I'm a mender too. I'm like, Okay, you have a
hole in your jeans. I can fix that one.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
One of those little hotel sewing packets.
Speaker 6 (12:49):
A lot of people can't do that, or like, oh
you don't you know, you don't need an eye hook.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Let's just sew that to the bra and you're outfit good,
you know.
Speaker 7 (12:57):
What I mean.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
But I remember being like even as a kid, like
if there was something that I wanted like that, I
shouldn't be wearing, you know, like a little Halter. When
I was eight or whatever, I took like old fabrics
and bandanas and stuff that my parents had in the house,
and i'd like make really wonky things to wear, but
I'd make them and that's never left. And during my
(13:21):
pregnancies though, that just like exploded.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Like I made curtains, I made.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
Drill like that, I made all the nursery and I
used on carra fabric. Then too, my oldest son's nursery
was this beautiful yellow and blue and beautiful on Kara
fabric we got on our baby moon actually in Harlem.
And then when I was waiting for Alejandro to come,
these moms from this organization I had just worked with,
(13:47):
they gave me this beautiful gift, like all these creams
and lotions and stuff made by black women, and instead
of a basket, they wrapped it in on carra fabric
and took it home with me and like it was
just a small piece of fabric.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
And so that I made a quilt.
Speaker 6 (14:03):
For Ali, for my youngest while I was waiting for
him to come, And that's kind of like the prototype
for baby Ams. I got so many compliments over the years,
you know, I swaddled him in it. It became his
like stroller quilt, his stroller blanket.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
You were in nesting mode.
Speaker 7 (14:21):
I was in.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Total nesting mode.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
We're taking a quick break, but we'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
We're back with actor, activist and nineties icon Tatiana Ali. So,
quilts are a way that we tell stories, and they've
been used for centuries to do that, a way to
remember loved ones, a way to tell stories, and even
on the underground railroad they were used to you send
secret messages. So why is quilting so powerful for you?
(15:06):
And what are the kinds of stories that you're hoping
to tell through this very specific art form.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
I think fabric is incredibly powerful. When my grandmother passed,
my mom and my aunt thought I was so weird.
I found a pair of my grandma's gloves, like a
few days after she passed, and it was like it
was her, Like she was in the fabrics still I
could sell her. And I was like, mommy, look and
my mom was like, that's weird. I don't know, But
for me, that kind of tactile connection is.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Everything.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
It's the richness of experience in life, and so the quilt, yes,
there's history behind quilt. There's history and storytelling in fabrics,
especially from people who come from the diasporas, and it's
the perfect medium to be able to share the possibility
of joy, warmth, comfort, care being covered. But the one
(16:06):
part of the history of quilting that I love is
like people coming together with their fabrics, yes, and creating
something together.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
And I see that with the stories.
Speaker 6 (16:15):
That was my experience going around and advocating and doing
this work. It's like every time I shared my story,
it gave somebody the spark to share a story with me.
And everybody has a story. That's why I kept doing
it again and again. I'm like, how is this so common?
So there's something about the process of quote making where
we can bring all of our stories together and create
(16:37):
something that's beautiful and also something that's new, something that
is of our making, which I think is what's necessary now.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Tatiana.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
You're telling stories through quilts, and you've told stories through
TV and theater and also music. I've heard people say
that the music business is the only business that's worse
than the fashion industry. Is it really as brutal as
people say it is? I know you were pretty young
when you started making music too.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Yeah, I want to hear you say more about that.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
You want to really just get real with us, Yes,
because we don't know much about it.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I'm actually really curious.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
I'm going to tell you.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
And this is not like details about individual situations or whatever,
but music is so powerful, and I have been in
situations not with my own music, but watching other artists
play music that is so beautiful and so inspiring and
so dope that you see the whole studio everybody laughings
(17:40):
up and there's like this incredible energy. And then I've
seen that artist say I'm not allowed to put this out.
This is the direction I'm supposed to head in boom
and it's the lowest I mean, the energy just shift.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
Yeah, it's super low, and you just wonder, like, what's happening.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
I was a child, I was like fifteen sixteen, and
I'm like, why do I have to go into the
studio at ten o'clock at night? Why do I have
to have multiple conversations about what I'm gonna wear or
how revealing it is, or why can't I just say
I don't like it? Why are there a million meetings
about like my brand? Me as a brand and you
(18:21):
have to realize you're not you. You're a brand, So put
you away and put these things on so you can
be this brand. And I mean on, I mean not
just clothes, words, lyrics, the vibe of the music.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
And it's like, that's not what I'm here for.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
Yeah, so I'm always gonna sing, but I'm not singing
under those conditions.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
It must be hard to be so young and feel
so powerless at the same time. Did you ever feel unsafe?
Speaker 6 (18:48):
There were definitely times where I was in places where
I should have been unsafe. Luckily because Will was involved,
and because I have the parents I have, and even
in theaters, like my mother was always or my father,
and if one of them couldn't be there, I had
an aunt.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
I was never alone.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Wow, So Will really like protected you.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
Yeah, he did, And I think that's because he knew
the music industry.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
He knew that I loved.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Taking a walk down memory lane, so let me get
nostalgic for a minute. We recently had Melissa joanhart On
and she was telling us about like her party girl
days in the nineties and just like what it was
like like living the high life as a TV star
back then. So I gotta know you got any good
party girl stories from back then?
Speaker 5 (19:34):
Or were you?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Were you kind of a were you a good girl?
Were you a homebody? I was both? Okay, I was both.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
If I said, oh, get so and so is having
a birthday party, Mom's like, where's the birthday party? Oh,
it's at the club on Sunset. So I could see
where my parents had a dilemma. It was like can
she have friends?
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Is this the way? And so, oh my god, this
is so embarrassing, but this is real.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Please tell us.
Speaker 6 (20:02):
My mother would drive me to where the birthday party was,
right and I told you it was like a club
on Sunset or something like yes, And my mother would
sit in the minivan.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Stop the whole time, girl, like a black car service accepted.
Speaker 6 (20:16):
Then it was a minivan, and it was a minivan
with the aluminum siding, you know the Chrysler ployments.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Were you like, mom, meet me down the street, okay,
pick me up around the corner.
Speaker 6 (20:29):
No what, there's no shame in my game, because after
a while it was like, oh yo, Tatiana's mom is outside,
tim salid.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Everyone wants to ride home in the van?
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Wait, who was in your who was in your click.
Who did you roll with?
Speaker 5 (20:43):
Oh my god, who did I roll with?
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Who was in the minivan?
Speaker 5 (20:48):
At one point? Brittany Murphy was in the minivan.
Speaker 7 (20:51):
I knew her.
Speaker 6 (20:51):
She's from New York and so for many years I
knew her. We weren't like close close close friends. There
were definitely people who were closer. But she was in
the fan at one point, and her mom. She was
very close to her mom too. They had a very
similar relationship.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
So I'm dying to know about this alter ego of yours.
Chakra seven, one of our producers worked at RuPaul's Drag Race,
and we heard that Chakra seven made it to the
top three in the second season of ru Paul's Secret
Celebrity Drag Race. What did you learn about yourself when
you transformed into a drag queen?
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Can I tell you that was like life changing, like
life altering experience?
Speaker 7 (21:31):
Why?
Speaker 6 (21:32):
Well, we had real mentors like Brooklyn Heights and Jujubi
and Monet Exchange. When the cameras weren't on, they were
watching our performances, kind of crafting the looks with us
and like teaching us the art of drag. And there
is something so incredibly freeing RuPaul says this. He has
(21:53):
a song that says this when it's like when you
realize that, like everybody's in drag all the time, you
just choose from time to time what drag you're gonna
put on to be able to perform in complete anonymity.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
It just changed the game for me, It really did.
It changed the game for me.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
But wait when you say it changed the game, because Okay,
I'm going to thrill in on this because I just
interviewed a woman who said that she did drag. She's
a comedian, and it changed her comedy career because she
was like I could finally step into the fullest power
of who I was. Like, it did free her too,
So what did it free you from? Like what were
you holding back?
Speaker 6 (22:31):
It freed me from giving a fuck, Like not in
the sense of this kind of self conscious ego thing
that happens over time, like especially with the business of
things or whatever, for example, even.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
Like baby Ams.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
Something got freed up in me where it was just
like do it do what you imagine because this is
all imagination anyway. Whatever story you tell yourself about who
you are and what you're capable of is what it's
gonna be so if you can choose, choose the funnest shit,
(23:14):
choose the stuff that makes you.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Happy, it unblocked you. It sounds like you push through
a block.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
I was a purple dog with blue eyes.
Speaker 6 (23:22):
I was in latex in like a Renaissance period doing paparazzi,
like what do what you want? Do what you want,
like live your life. I had to lose a lot
of my preconceived ideas of myself to really get into drag.
And once you do that, you realize, well, that was
(23:45):
a fiction too.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Tatiana, thank you so much for coming on our show
and telling us about baby Yams and all the incredible
advocacy work you're doing, y'all.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
I lovely Thank you, Tatiana.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
What a great way to spend the afternoon. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Tatian Ali is an actor, mother advocate, and the founder
of baby Yams. For more information on how to support
birth workers and to get one of her quilts, visit
babydashyams dot com.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
The proceeds for the first round of quilts will go
towards scholarships for midwives. Applications for those scholarships will be
open in late June. We're taking a quick break and
when we come back, we're giving some very well deserved
flowers to Josephine Micheluck.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
We're back and we are so excited to welcome the
Guinness World record holder for units of blood donated in
a lifetime. Y'all, it's time to give eighty one year
old Josephine Micheluck her flowers.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Incredible.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
So far, Josephine has donated a total of two hundred
and ten pints of blood and in the process is
inspiring everyone around her to give back. Her community in Alberta,
Canada has just recognized her with a volunteer award called
the Alberta Northern Lights Award for all that she does,
and we are very lucky because she's joining us now
(25:15):
from her home. Josephine, Welcome to the bright Side and
congratulations on the world record.
Speaker 7 (25:22):
Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
How do your friends and family feel about what you've accomplished.
Speaker 7 (25:27):
Oh, they're all excited, yes, yeah, they're so thankful. A
lot of them are donating the ones that can.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Josephine, you've been donating blood for almost sixty years now.
How did you get started?
Speaker 7 (25:40):
I first donated in Calgary in nineteen sixty five, and
then I had my four daughters, So you can't donate
while you're pregnant or a year after. So there was
quite a few years there raising my four daughters until
my fourth Onness born before I could donate again. But
before the third and the fourth win, I had two
(26:03):
different miscarriages and so I had to have blood given
to me. The first time it was two pints, and
then about a year later I miscarried again and there
was three pints. So I've had five pints given to
me in my past. So then I thought, well, I'm
(26:23):
just going to keep donating and try. I got to
make up those five pints for sure, and I just
kept going.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
What motivates you to keep going back each time? It
does take a toll on your body.
Speaker 7 (26:35):
Well, I don't notice it. I have so much energy.
After one time I donated two years ago, I painted
the whole inside of my house within two to three
weeks I've tried donating.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
The kids couldn't believe it.
Speaker 7 (26:48):
Just had energy to burn.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Josephine, I want to know a little bit more about
you outside of your incredible blood donation work. So you
like to paint your house. What else gives you joy?
What else brings you joy? Josephine, What do you like
to do?
Speaker 7 (27:08):
Oh gosh, I knit, I crochet, I do embroidery, oh gosh.
And I make candles, and I do woodwork. I make
picnic tables and furniture for the picnic area. And oh,
I just I love doing everything. I make my own
wine and beer too, of course you do. I made
(27:30):
my wine from my own fruit from the when I
was growing up, and in my early life after I
was married, we had fruit trees and we had a
market garden, and we were selling our vegetables and fruit
at the farm, and I either canned it up. So
I've got lots of canned fruit and vegetables.
Speaker 5 (27:48):
And I don't know.
Speaker 7 (27:49):
I just keep going. I can't throw anything away. I've
worked somehow.
Speaker 5 (27:56):
Well.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
You know what's amazing is you are eighty one years young.
How long do you want to be doing this?
Speaker 5 (28:01):
For?
Speaker 7 (28:02):
As long as I can have, as long as my
irons up and I feel good, I'm to keep going.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
You know, there might be some people out there who
are listening and who are so inspired by you, Josephine,
and they might want to give blood too, but it
can be kind of a scary thing, at least it
can sound that way. What would be your advice for
anyone who's considering doing it but might be a little
bit nervous to take that first step With me?
Speaker 7 (28:27):
I never thought of it until I went with my
sister and she was going to donate, so I went
with her. I could see there was nothing wrong with it,
and she felt good after too, So that suck got
me going. Just take somebody with you that is the
regular donator. You know, if they're a regular donator, or
know somebody to take them with you.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Josephine.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Here on the bright side, we really believe that people
working hard to inspire and to uplift their communities deserve
some special love. So we sent you a little surprise,
a bouquet of flowers courtesy of Stems Flower and Cafe.
Thank you for being of service to so many people.
Speaker 7 (29:08):
Well, thank you, and it's so nice to see. Who
set the flowers, Danielle and Simone it set.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Yeah, it's from us. We hope that you love them
and we hope that they brighten your day. Thank you, Josephine.
Congratulations again on your world record. I am feeling so
incredibly inspired by you and all of your many talents.
Thank you so much for joining us here on the
bright Side. Thanks Josephine, Oh You're so welcome. Josephine Micheluk
(29:36):
is the world record holder for units of blood donated
in a lifetime.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
If you know someone in your community who deserves her flowers,
let us know. Send us their name and your reasons
for nominating to Hello at the Brightside podcast dot com.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
That's it for today's show.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Tomorrow, we've got Reality Royalty in the studio. Hannah Brown
is here to talk all about sharing her love life
publicly on TV, and we'll find out why her new book,
Mistakes We Never Made has are falling in love with
romance novels all over again.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
I'm Simone Boye.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
You can find me at Simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
That's ro Ba.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Y see you tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.
Hey fam, Hello Sunshine. Today on the bright Side. You
may know her as Ashley Banks from the nineties sitcom
Fresh Prince of bel Air. The actress turned activists Tatiana
Ali is here hanging.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Out with us.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
She's talking life as a child star in the nineties
and the work she's doing to support mothers and maternal
health today. Plus we're giving some flowers to Josephine Micheleuk.
She's the world record holder for most units of blood
donated in a lifetime. It's Wednesday, June twelfth. I'm Danielle Robe.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
And I'm Simone Voice, and this is the bright Side
from Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Danielle.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Tatiana Ali is here today. I remember watching her every
week on Fresh Prince of bel Air. Still know every
word to that theme song. I think most millennials do.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
We're bill trying so hard not to sing it right now.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Our lawyers won't allow us, but we would if we could,
We totally would.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
We're excited about this one. The og Ashley Banks is here.
I mean, that show was such a juggernaut for NBC.
It launched in nineteen ninety and can you believe this?
At its peak it had twenty million people a week watching.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I actually can believe it because it was one of
those shows.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
It was monoculture.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I mean, we were all watching it and felt like
we were part of that family. And they also made
some groundbreaking moves. I mean, first of all, it challenged
the traditional sitcom models. It had this fresh, comedic voice.
It brought diversity to prime time, and they also highlighted
some real life issues, a lot of which we are
(01:36):
still dealing with today. And you mentioned Tatiana played Ashley Banks,
the youngest Bank's daughter. She was generally this sweet and
innocent one and she always looked up to her cousin
played by Will Smith, and it seems like they actually
have some of that dynamic intact in real life.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, we're going to ask her about that because that's
a long lasting relationship. That whole cast really seems to
support one another, which is cool. But you know, because
she was part of such an iconic show, I think
we think of her as that little Ashley Banks, and
there's actually so much more to Tatiana Ali's story.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Yeah, it's been really beautiful to see how she's expanded
her identity off screen after becoming a mom.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
She's using her platform for so much good, so much advocacy,
and specifically a brand that she launched called baby Yams,
which she designs and she sells handmade quilt to support
birth workers of color.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
You know, we talked to Elaine Waltroth on this show
about birth outcomes for black women in this country and
women of color, and Tatiana is actually one of those statistics.
I mean, she personally experienced a traumatic birth with her
first son, and she's turning that pain into purpose by
uplifting fellow moms and providing resources for other moms who
(02:55):
are going through similar issues.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, I'm really excited to have her on the show.
And Simone, I just learned she's a Harvard alum.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, she graduated from Harvard with a degree in government
in two thousand and two.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
So, I mean, we have.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
A lot to talk about. She has such an accomplished
story on and off screen.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I can't wait to hear from her about this era
that she's in, her activism, her purpose driven work as
a mom, and we also gotta take it back a
little bit and talk about her life as a child star.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
I mean, she is nineties royalty.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
We need all the stories, but We're lucky she's here
with us right now.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Tatiana. Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Tatiana.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
We have a lot to discuss with you today. You
are a multifaceted woman. But before we jump into everything, Tatiana,
Simone and I both saw Bad Boys for Over the
weekend and we saw you styling on the red carpet
at the premiere in your all white suit. The first
question I have for you is do you even like
red carpets? Do they feel like work or are they
(03:58):
still really fun?
Speaker 6 (04:00):
I mean, if I'm honest, they feel like work, But yeah,
certain ones are really fun when you know who's gonna
be there.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
That one was really fun.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
I got there really early, so I did all that
part and then they had us all in like a
kind of like a holding outdoor holding area right on
the end of the carpet, and they had awesome cars
and they told everybody.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
The theme was like Miami Nights.
Speaker 6 (04:26):
Little by little, I just saw like so many people
that I knew from my childhood, like people that have
been working with Will like forever, and their families and
so there was like it was like cousins. It was
like a family get together at the end of the carpet.
So that was one of the funner carpets. But if
I could just like support the people I love and
which I have and just bypass the carpet, I do
(04:47):
that quite often.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Actually, carpets actually make me sweat.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
I'm with you. It's a whole thing.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
I mean, oh lord, even for the premiere, I'm like,
are we going to the Oscars?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Like?
Speaker 4 (04:57):
What is why?
Speaker 5 (04:58):
There's so much prep? There's so much involved.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Well, one of the things that I think is cool
is that everybody from the Fresh Prince cast really supports
each other, like on every project, every endeavor. And I
was watching Bad Boys, thinking, wow, this is thirty years
since that first movie that they did. I saw will
post that photo of him and Martin. What does it
(05:23):
mean to you to have that relationship with him all
these years later? Like has he been sort of that
guiding light for you at all? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (05:30):
He certainly was.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
When I was younger, you know, just as a kid
and like, you know, an older brother to look up to.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
He was really protective of me.
Speaker 6 (05:41):
And then when I went into music, for sure, he
was definitely a mentor during that time.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
My first producing effort.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
My sister and I produced a web series called Buffies,
And you know, he's one of the first people that
I went to and said, look what we did, you know,
and he's like, oh, I want you to talk to
so and so and so and so and so. He
was integrol in us being able to place that at
BT in business. He's definitely been a mentor.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Did you learn a lot about producing being on the
set of Fresh Prints and just working from such a
young age? I mean you've been on Broadway, you were
on Fresh Prints. I mean you've been such a fixture.
Were you always kind of absorbing the behind the scenes
knowledge too?
Speaker 6 (06:20):
You know, I started acting and acting professionally at four
years old. My mom always told me and my dad
they always said, you know, be a sponge like take
it all in. I was in these incredible spaces with
these brilliant artists and business people. But producing actually came
about out of necessity. I graduated from school and there
was very little to even audition for. I mean I
(06:43):
would maybe have like an audition once every couple of months,
and there were pilot seasons where there wasn't really much
to audition for at all. And I had so many
friends of color who were in the same exact boat,
and we're all knocking on the same doors in the
same hallway, and finally was just like, yo, what are
we doing?
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Like, let's just make our own stuff. So that's how
that came about.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
That's something that a lot of people don't hear actors
talking about or creatives in this business is the downtime
because there all are lulls between projects. So when you
think about those periods after you end a big project
like Fresh Princes, or when you're in between projects, what
is that season like for you?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
What kind of clarity does it bring?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
How do you recalibrate during those times when there is
a lull?
Speaker 6 (07:32):
You know, I kind of wait. I don't know, Like
I just I wait to see what comes. I try
to be financially solvent enough. This has always been important
to me. I don't run with the Joneses. I was
driving a Prius and other people I knew were driving
Bedle's and you know, making fun of my little Prius,
and I'm.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Like, well, okay, that's cool, but I know my card
notes made.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
Yeah, because of that, Like I can make choices that
are not only because of finances and that's really important
to me because I do believe like there's purpose in
my work.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
So yeah, it's very much a faith thing.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
And then also, you know, there's a lot of work
in between the big work, and sometimes that work it
could be production readings that I'm doing with my community
of artists, or things that not a lot of people
see but are really formative.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
You've been such a champion for maternal health. I've seen
you advocating for the passage of the Momnibus bill. We
mentioned BABYMS. That's the quilt brand that you started to
support Indigenous and Black birth workers, and that stems from
your own experience with birth. How did your birth experience
become this larger passion. Tell me about that journey and
(08:49):
that evolution.
Speaker 6 (08:51):
So I experienced obstetric violence in a hospital in la
a world renowned hospital.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
This was my first birth. We were really healthy. My baby.
Speaker 6 (09:00):
He ended up in the nick you for four days
because of the treatment we received.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
He was healthy otherwise.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
One of the pediatric surgeons even said because of the
traumatic nature of his birth in the records, I honestly,
I didn't start saying anything until about a year.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
He was maybe a year or two old.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
The event was so traumatic we didn't even know how
to wrap our minds around it or our feelings around it.
And it wasn't until I was pregnant again with my
son Alejandro, that the trauma and whatever fear I had
turned into this can't happen again. This has to change.
And there's a lot in the news and then the media.
(09:40):
Now people know the statistics Black and Indigenous women are
three to four times more likely to die in childbirth.
That's also the same for infant mortality and trauma. But
I didn't know all that, and so I had shared
my nursing story on my Instagram page because I was
really looking for community, and an organization called Black MAM's
Matter Alliance reached out to me and they said, oh,
(10:02):
come speak at our panel. We want you to share
your nursing experience. And so from there, while I was
pregnant with my second baby, I just went head first.
I went to Santa Fe to a conference, and I
was just you know, going as what they call in
the research community, like a consumer just says a mom.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
I wasn't talking.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
I was just in little groups with other people and
getting my lunch and whatever. And the reproductive justice community.
Those advocates took me in, they welcomed me, and they
shared information and resources with me, so that that second
experience was completely different.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
I think you just answered it, but I'm curious to know.
What would you tell Tatiana, you know, as she was
nine months pregnant with her first child, like what do
you wish you knew before your first birth experience?
Speaker 6 (10:56):
I would tell her to follow her instinct, to follow
her gut, and to not allow the little micro aggressions
that we deal with in everyday life, like at the
grocery store, someone's eyeing you too much, or you get
followed when you want these things that as a black
(11:17):
woman I saw my mother go through.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
I go through it.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
You know this is not the space to just like
let that go and move on, right, Because there were
signs With my obgyn's office, I was rushed in every appointment.
Concerns or questions I had were kind of dismissed, even
like in jokes. If I had heeded that, if I
(11:41):
knew that, the time for that shit is over because
it's life or death. The person that cares for you
has to see you as a sister, a friend, a mother.
They have to care about you. It's a very pressure
time in life. Nobody can give birth for you. That's
(12:04):
what I would tell her. I would say, trust your God.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
You hear it, you know, I'm so sorry for the
lack of care you received. I can like hear the
pain in your voice still from that time, and I'm
just so sorry you had that experience. Honestly, now hearing
this baby Yams makes even more sense to me.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
What is your connection to sewing?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Like?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
What did this stem from?
Speaker 1 (12:27):
So?
Speaker 5 (12:28):
I have been sewing pretty much like all my life.
Speaker 6 (12:32):
My dad sews, my mom's mom sows, my mom my
mom sews.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
But she's just like a mender, you know, not just.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I'm a mender too. I'm like, Okay, you have a
hole in your jeans. I can fix that one.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
One of those little hotel sewing packets.
Speaker 6 (12:49):
A lot of people can't do that, or like, oh
you don't you know, you don't need an eye hook.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Let's just sew that to the bra and you're outfit good,
you know.
Speaker 7 (12:57):
What I mean.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
But I remember being like even as a kid, like
if there was something that I wanted like that, I
shouldn't be wearing, you know, like a little Halter. When
I was eight or whatever, I took like old fabrics
and bandanas and stuff that my parents had in the house,
and i'd like make really wonky things to wear, but
I'd make them and that's never left. And during my
(13:21):
pregnancies though, that just like exploded.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
Like I made curtains, I made.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
Drill like that, I made all the nursery and I
used on carra fabric. Then too, my oldest son's nursery
was this beautiful yellow and blue and beautiful on Kara
fabric we got on our baby moon actually in Harlem.
And then when I was waiting for Alejandro to come,
these moms from this organization I had just worked with,
(13:47):
they gave me this beautiful gift, like all these creams
and lotions and stuff made by black women, and instead
of a basket, they wrapped it in on carra fabric
and took it home with me and like it was
just a small piece of fabric.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
And so that I made a quilt.
Speaker 6 (14:03):
For Ali, for my youngest while I was waiting for
him to come, And that's kind of like the prototype
for baby Ams. I got so many compliments over the years,
you know, I swaddled him in it. It became his
like stroller quilt, his stroller blanket.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
You were in nesting mode.
Speaker 7 (14:21):
I was in.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
Total nesting mode.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
We're taking a quick break, but we'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
We're back with actor, activist and nineties icon Tatiana Ali. So,
quilts are a way that we tell stories, and they've
been used for centuries to do that, a way to
remember loved ones, a way to tell stories, and even
on the underground railroad they were used to you send
secret messages. So why is quilting so powerful for you?
(15:06):
And what are the kinds of stories that you're hoping
to tell through this very specific art form.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
I think fabric is incredibly powerful. When my grandmother passed,
my mom and my aunt thought I was so weird.
I found a pair of my grandma's gloves, like a
few days after she passed, and it was like it
was her, Like she was in the fabrics still I
could sell her. And I was like, mommy, look and
my mom was like, that's weird. I don't know, But
for me, that kind of tactile connection is.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Everything.
Speaker 6 (15:38):
It's the richness of experience in life, and so the quilt, yes,
there's history behind quilt. There's history and storytelling in fabrics,
especially from people who come from the diasporas, and it's
the perfect medium to be able to share the possibility
of joy, warmth, comfort, care being covered. But the one
(16:06):
part of the history of quilting that I love is
like people coming together with their fabrics, yes, and creating
something together.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
And I see that with the stories.
Speaker 6 (16:15):
That was my experience going around and advocating and doing
this work. It's like every time I shared my story,
it gave somebody the spark to share a story with me.
And everybody has a story. That's why I kept doing
it again and again. I'm like, how is this so common?
So there's something about the process of quote making where
we can bring all of our stories together and create
(16:37):
something that's beautiful and also something that's new, something that
is of our making, which I think is what's necessary now.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Tatiana.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
You're telling stories through quilts, and you've told stories through
TV and theater and also music. I've heard people say
that the music business is the only business that's worse
than the fashion industry. Is it really as brutal as
people say it is? I know you were pretty young
when you started making music too.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Yeah, I want to hear you say more about that.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
You want to really just get real with us, Yes,
because we don't know much about it.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I'm actually really curious.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
I'm going to tell you.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
And this is not like details about individual situations or whatever,
but music is so powerful, and I have been in
situations not with my own music, but watching other artists
play music that is so beautiful and so inspiring and
so dope that you see the whole studio everybody laughings
(17:40):
up and there's like this incredible energy. And then I've
seen that artist say I'm not allowed to put this out.
This is the direction I'm supposed to head in boom
and it's the lowest I mean, the energy just shift.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
Yeah, it's super low, and you just wonder, like, what's happening.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
I was a child, I was like fifteen sixteen, and
I'm like, why do I have to go into the
studio at ten o'clock at night? Why do I have
to have multiple conversations about what I'm gonna wear or
how revealing it is, or why can't I just say
I don't like it? Why are there a million meetings
about like my brand? Me as a brand and you
(18:21):
have to realize you're not you. You're a brand, So put
you away and put these things on so you can
be this brand. And I mean on, I mean not
just clothes, words, lyrics, the vibe of the music.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
And it's like, that's not what I'm here for.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
Yeah, so I'm always gonna sing, but I'm not singing
under those conditions.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
It must be hard to be so young and feel
so powerless at the same time. Did you ever feel unsafe?
Speaker 6 (18:48):
There were definitely times where I was in places where
I should have been unsafe. Luckily because Will was involved,
and because I have the parents I have, and even
in theaters, like my mother was always or my father,
and if one of them couldn't be there, I had
an aunt.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
I was never alone.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Wow, So Will really like protected you.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
Yeah, he did, And I think that's because he knew
the music industry.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
He knew that I loved.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Taking a walk down memory lane, so let me get
nostalgic for a minute. We recently had Melissa joanhart On
and she was telling us about like her party girl
days in the nineties and just like what it was
like like living the high life as a TV star
back then. So I gotta know you got any good
party girl stories from back then?
Speaker 5 (19:34):
Or were you?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Were you kind of a were you a good girl?
Were you a homebody? I was both? Okay, I was both.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
If I said, oh, get so and so is having
a birthday party, Mom's like, where's the birthday party? Oh,
it's at the club on Sunset. So I could see
where my parents had a dilemma. It was like can
she have friends?
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Is this the way? And so, oh my god, this
is so embarrassing, but this is real.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Please tell us.
Speaker 6 (20:02):
My mother would drive me to where the birthday party was,
right and I told you it was like a club
on Sunset or something like yes, And my mother would
sit in the minivan.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Stop the whole time, girl, like a black car service accepted.
Speaker 6 (20:16):
Then it was a minivan, and it was a minivan
with the aluminum siding, you know the Chrysler ployments.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Were you like, mom, meet me down the street, okay,
pick me up around the corner.
Speaker 6 (20:29):
No what, there's no shame in my game, because after
a while it was like, oh yo, Tatiana's mom is outside,
tim salid.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Everyone wants to ride home in the van?
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Wait, who was in your who was in your click.
Who did you roll with?
Speaker 5 (20:43):
Oh my god, who did I roll with?
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Who was in the minivan?
Speaker 5 (20:48):
At one point? Brittany Murphy was in the minivan.
Speaker 7 (20:51):
I knew her.
Speaker 6 (20:51):
She's from New York and so for many years I
knew her. We weren't like close close close friends. There
were definitely people who were closer. But she was in
the fan at one point, and her mom. She was
very close to her mom too. They had a very
similar relationship.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
So I'm dying to know about this alter ego of yours.
Chakra seven, one of our producers worked at RuPaul's Drag Race,
and we heard that Chakra seven made it to the
top three in the second season of ru Paul's Secret
Celebrity Drag Race. What did you learn about yourself when
you transformed into a drag queen?
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Can I tell you that was like life changing, like
life altering experience?
Speaker 7 (21:31):
Why?
Speaker 6 (21:32):
Well, we had real mentors like Brooklyn Heights and Jujubi
and Monet Exchange. When the cameras weren't on, they were
watching our performances, kind of crafting the looks with us
and like teaching us the art of drag. And there
is something so incredibly freeing RuPaul says this. He has
(21:53):
a song that says this when it's like when you
realize that, like everybody's in drag all the time, you
just choose from time to time what drag you're gonna
put on to be able to perform in complete anonymity.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
It just changed the game for me, It really did.
It changed the game for me.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
But wait when you say it changed the game, because Okay,
I'm going to thrill in on this because I just
interviewed a woman who said that she did drag. She's
a comedian, and it changed her comedy career because she
was like I could finally step into the fullest power
of who I was. Like, it did free her too,
So what did it free you from? Like what were
you holding back?
Speaker 6 (22:31):
It freed me from giving a fuck, Like not in
the sense of this kind of self conscious ego thing
that happens over time, like especially with the business of
things or whatever, for example, even.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
Like baby Ams.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
Something got freed up in me where it was just
like do it do what you imagine because this is
all imagination anyway. Whatever story you tell yourself about who
you are and what you're capable of is what it's
gonna be so if you can choose, choose the funnest shit,
(23:14):
choose the stuff that makes you.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Happy, it unblocked you. It sounds like you push through
a block.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
I was a purple dog with blue eyes.
Speaker 6 (23:22):
I was in latex in like a Renaissance period doing paparazzi,
like what do what you want? Do what you want,
like live your life. I had to lose a lot
of my preconceived ideas of myself to really get into drag.
And once you do that, you realize, well, that was
(23:45):
a fiction too.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Tatiana, thank you so much for coming on our show
and telling us about baby Yams and all the incredible
advocacy work you're doing, y'all.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
I lovely Thank you, Tatiana.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
What a great way to spend the afternoon. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Tatian Ali is an actor, mother advocate, and the founder
of baby Yams. For more information on how to support
birth workers and to get one of her quilts, visit
babydashyams dot com.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
The proceeds for the first round of quilts will go
towards scholarships for midwives. Applications for those scholarships will be
open in late June. We're taking a quick break and
when we come back, we're giving some very well deserved
flowers to Josephine Micheluck.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
We're back and we are so excited to welcome the
Guinness World record holder for units of blood donated in
a lifetime. Y'all, it's time to give eighty one year
old Josephine Micheluck her flowers.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Incredible.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
So far, Josephine has donated a total of two hundred
and ten pints of blood and in the process is
inspiring everyone around her to give back. Her community in Alberta,
Canada has just recognized her with a volunteer award called
the Alberta Northern Lights Award for all that she does,
and we are very lucky because she's joining us now
(25:15):
from her home. Josephine, Welcome to the bright Side and
congratulations on the world record.
Speaker 7 (25:22):
Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
How do your friends and family feel about what you've accomplished.
Speaker 7 (25:27):
Oh, they're all excited, yes, yeah, they're so thankful. A
lot of them are donating the ones that can.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Josephine, you've been donating blood for almost sixty years now.
How did you get started?
Speaker 7 (25:40):
I first donated in Calgary in nineteen sixty five, and
then I had my four daughters, So you can't donate
while you're pregnant or a year after. So there was
quite a few years there raising my four daughters until
my fourth Onness born before I could donate again. But
before the third and the fourth win, I had two
(26:03):
different miscarriages and so I had to have blood given
to me. The first time it was two pints, and
then about a year later I miscarried again and there
was three pints. So I've had five pints given to
me in my past. So then I thought, well, I'm
(26:23):
just going to keep donating and try. I got to
make up those five pints for sure, and I just
kept going.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
What motivates you to keep going back each time? It
does take a toll on your body.
Speaker 7 (26:35):
Well, I don't notice it. I have so much energy.
After one time I donated two years ago, I painted
the whole inside of my house within two to three
weeks I've tried donating.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
The kids couldn't believe it.
Speaker 7 (26:48):
Just had energy to burn.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Josephine, I want to know a little bit more about
you outside of your incredible blood donation work. So you
like to paint your house. What else gives you joy?
What else brings you joy? Josephine, What do you like
to do?
Speaker 7 (27:08):
Oh gosh, I knit, I crochet, I do embroidery, oh gosh.
And I make candles, and I do woodwork. I make
picnic tables and furniture for the picnic area. And oh,
I just I love doing everything. I make my own
wine and beer too, of course you do. I made
(27:30):
my wine from my own fruit from the when I
was growing up, and in my early life after I
was married, we had fruit trees and we had a
market garden, and we were selling our vegetables and fruit
at the farm, and I either canned it up. So
I've got lots of canned fruit and vegetables.
Speaker 5 (27:48):
And I don't know.
Speaker 7 (27:49):
I just keep going. I can't throw anything away. I've
worked somehow.
Speaker 5 (27:56):
Well.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
You know what's amazing is you are eighty one years young.
How long do you want to be doing this?
Speaker 5 (28:01):
For?
Speaker 7 (28:02):
As long as I can have, as long as my
irons up and I feel good, I'm to keep going.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
You know, there might be some people out there who
are listening and who are so inspired by you, Josephine,
and they might want to give blood too, but it
can be kind of a scary thing, at least it
can sound that way. What would be your advice for
anyone who's considering doing it but might be a little
bit nervous to take that first step With me?
Speaker 7 (28:27):
I never thought of it until I went with my
sister and she was going to donate, so I went
with her. I could see there was nothing wrong with it,
and she felt good after too, So that suck got
me going. Just take somebody with you that is the
regular donator. You know, if they're a regular donator, or
know somebody to take them with you.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Josephine.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Here on the bright side, we really believe that people
working hard to inspire and to uplift their communities deserve
some special love. So we sent you a little surprise,
a bouquet of flowers courtesy of Stems Flower and Cafe.
Thank you for being of service to so many people.
Speaker 7 (29:08):
Well, thank you, and it's so nice to see. Who
set the flowers, Danielle and Simone it set.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Yeah, it's from us. We hope that you love them
and we hope that they brighten your day. Thank you, Josephine.
Congratulations again on your world record. I am feeling so
incredibly inspired by you and all of your many talents.
Thank you so much for joining us here on the
bright Side. Thanks Josephine, Oh You're so welcome. Josephine Micheluk
(29:36):
is the world record holder for units of blood donated
in a lifetime.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
If you know someone in your community who deserves her flowers,
let us know. Send us their name and your reasons
for nominating to Hello at the Brightside podcast dot com.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
That's it for today's show.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Tomorrow, we've got Reality Royalty in the studio. Hannah Brown
is here to talk all about sharing her love life
publicly on TV, and we'll find out why her new book,
Mistakes We Never Made has are falling in love with
romance novels all over again.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
I'm Simone Boye.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
You can find me at Simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
That's ro Ba.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Y see you tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.
Hosts And Creators
Simone Boyce
Danielle Robay
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