October 18, 2024 • 49 mins
From the lowlands of chocolate gravy to the stunning heights of sweet potato pie, Brian and Trey cross the dessert divide with “baketivist” Rose McGee, and discover how the simple act of baking a pie can inspire and uplift in even the most difficult times.
Rose McGee is President and Founder of the Sweet Potato Comfort Pie organization. She is a well-known facilitator, one of Minnesota’s 50 Over 50, a member of the Golden Valley League of Women Voters, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and Minneapolis Women’s Rotary, and a Humanities Officer with the Minnesota Humanities Center. She resides in Golden Valley, Minnesota, where she was named Citizen of the Year and has been presented with the Bill Hobbs Human Rights Award twice. She is a 2023 Facing Race Award recipient from the St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation, a 2023 Black Collectives Fellow, a 2023 and 2024 University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts Hub Fellow and a 2019 Bush Fellowship recipient, and is featured in the national PBS documentary, A Few Good Pie Places.
For Rose’s Sweet Potato Pie recipe go to: https://www.sweetpotatocomfortpie.org/the-pie/
Brian Phelps is an American radio personality, actor, and comedian best known for co-hosting the nationally and globally syndicated Mark & Brian Morning Show in Los Angeles for 25 years. As the co-lead of his own television series, with multiple roles in movies, and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Phelps is also an inductee in the Radio Hall of Fame.
Trey Callaway is an American film and TV writer and producer who wrote the hit movie I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and has produced successful TV series like CSI:NY, Supernatural, Rush Hour, Revolution, The Messengers, APB, Station 19 and 9-1-1 LONE STAR. He is also a Professor at USC.
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Rose McGee is President and Founder of the Sweet Potato Comfort Pie organization. She is a well-known facilitator, one of Minnesota’s 50 Over 50, a member of the Golden Valley League of Women Voters, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and Minneapolis Women’s Rotary, and a Humanities Officer with the Minnesota Humanities Center. She resides in Golden Valley, Minnesota, where she was named Citizen of the Year and has been presented with the Bill Hobbs Human Rights Award twice. She is a 2023 Facing Race Award recipient from the St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation, a 2023 Black Collectives Fellow, a 2023 and 2024 University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts Hub Fellow and a 2019 Bush Fellowship recipient, and is featured in the national PBS documentary, A Few Good Pie Places.
For Rose’s Sweet Potato Pie recipe go to: https://www.sweetpotatocomfortpie.org/the-pie/
Brian Phelps is an American radio personality, actor, and comedian best known for co-hosting the nationally and globally syndicated Mark & Brian Morning Show in Los Angeles for 25 years. As the co-lead of his own television series, with multiple roles in movies, and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Phelps is also an inductee in the Radio Hall of Fame.
Trey Callaway is an American film and TV writer and producer who wrote the hit movie I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and has produced successful TV series like CSI:NY, Supernatural, Rush Hour, Revolution, The Messengers, APB, Station 19 and 9-1-1 LONE STAR. He is also a Professor at USC.
___________________________________
Make sure to follow us on social media at:
begoodhumanspodcast.com
instagram.com
tiktok.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Mm hmm. Oh my god, hey you know we're in
the air. Oh yeah, okay, are.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You getting your fixed with those? You were like sexually
enjoying those.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I kind of was a little bit sorry. Yeah, I
love jelly bellies. Really couldn't tell this is not a
this is not a paid endorsement. Really kind of weird
that that. I think I just heard your sex noises
you might have. I'm sorry, we can cut that later.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Good humans, be good humans. Be good humans, or we
will think you sucked.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Thank or we will thank you suck. Yeah. I love
jelly bellies, man, I I kind of love sweets in general.
It's a problem.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Sweet tooth, big sweet tooth.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
I think so. I think so. I you know, life
is hard Brian in a lot of ways, and and
yet I find that a jelly belly, for example, right,
is just a quick vacation for your mouth. You can
just wow, right, a vacation for your mouth. By the way,
jelly belly, you can feel free to use that if
(01:19):
you'd like.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
You've got about a half a bag left there, if
you like, we can just wait.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I'll just sit here and I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
No, I I love watching you enjoy.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Tell you what I'm gonna put him down, but every
once in a while, just to punctuate thing. As we
move on, I'm just gonna try another flavor. This is
the tropical mix, which I prefer because then it eliminates
the pesky popcorn and licorice flavors, which I'm not.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Liquor No, no, no, yeah, Well all right, let's go.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Let's go with we'll talk about sweets. Let's talk about it.
But where do you stand on sweets? Me personally? You
like them?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
To be honest, I've and I guess I'm lucky that
I never really had a sweet tooth, I believe it
or not.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I was the kid that loved.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
The taste but couldn't I couldn't finish a whole Snickers
bar or a milky weight because it was just so rich,
but so like one two bites great. Even to this day,
I'm on a date and it comes time for dessert,
and I'm secretly hoping that she will order a dessert
so I can have one bite. And I'm not holding
(02:18):
myself back, not for dietary reasons. It's just like, get
that taste, that's great, and then I just a lot
of it just makes me kind of it doesn't work
for me.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, okay, but I mean you'll at least try a bite,
and you know, yeah, you kind of.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Look forward to pancakes the same way. I hope somebody
orders pancakes for breakfast so I can have one bite.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Well, pancakes are the dessert of breakfast, that's true, but
let me okay, so so let's but let's stay with
the desserts because never mind the candy. That's just like
a quick foot.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well, moving on from candy, I just do want to
say there's another one that the candy. I don't know
you've ever had them?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I got it.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
You know, the Reces peanut butter cups been around since
we were kids. They now put potato chips in there. Yeah,
okay those Yeah, I'll take a couple of bites. You
like the sweet and savory combo sweet and savory, salty
and uh and sweet and salty.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
But if you if you had to have it was.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
My nickname in college sweet.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
There were so many college nicknames I do. So if
you had to have a dessert, even if it was
one you were going to share, are you like a
fruit dessert guy, or like a chocolate dessert kind? Of person.
What are your favorites?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Chocolate's fine. Uh, usually if I'm gonna go that way. Fruit,
what's the point that's pro fruit or anti? No antifruit? Like,
if I'm gonna go like, let's eat some sweets like fruit.
You know, I can get an apple later. But I
love ice cream. But actually specifically speaking, uh, gelato, I
(03:45):
am in love with gelato.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Again. It's a treat, not a paid endorsement. But there's
a new joint, relatively new joint in Tarzana, in the
San Fernando Valley where you. It's called Anita and they
do like full tilt authentic Italian gelato, where it's not
only are all of the flavors delicious, but they're presented
in the most beautiful you know, heaping piles of sweet deliciousness. Yeah,
(04:13):
I got to bring you there because you will totally
dig that.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I was and I was in Miami recently and waiting
to get on a ship. Went on a rock cruise
with some friends. But we spent a couple of nights
in Miami just to walk around. And they had a
gelato place right kind of about a half a block
away from the hotel. So I go in there and
it was such a great experience. And not the least
(04:36):
reason it was a great experience is because the girl
behind the counter was so happy and so helpful, and
she's just so sweet, and that just I'm buying something, sure,
even if I don't like it, I'm buying it, you know,
of course. But she goes, well, what's your favorite? I go, well,
gelato vanilla or I like pistachio a lotio. Oh yeah,
that's my favorite. And she goes, we have two. Get okay,
(05:02):
She shows me the regular pisasterio of course, gives me
the sample with a little spoon, and uh then she goes,
now follow me.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Oh, this could be like the greatest pickup story ever. Well,
I love.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
That possibly, But she walked me down the glass case
and I look down and there is pistasceio wice cream
with kind of criss crossed white chocolate on top. And
I love I like white chocolate a lot more than
dark chocolate. But it was it was heavenly.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
It was so good. Yeah, I mean that's I mean,
those are these are highbrow desserts we're talking about, right.
What about when you were a kid? Uh? What? What? What?
What were your favorite sweets then, or did you did
you have andy?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I like candy, I like bake goods. I just I
just couldn't eat a bunch of them because it made
me I didn't I didn't.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Feel good afterwards.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
But my mom had the go to my mom's world
famous eminem cookies. Now, this is basically a butter cookie,
and she puts him in there.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, that's an old standard.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
It is an old standard and delicious. But the fun
thing is, over time she kept adding ingredients, and usually
by request, she would add ingreens.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
So she's customizing the experience for the kids.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
One of my favorite foods is wal nuts of any kind,
but walnuts, so she would put with the M and
M's big chunks of walnuts in these cookies. One of
my sister's favorite foods with the Nesley's chocolate chips.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Oh yeah, so it's a chocolate chip cookie.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Now she put chocolate chips along with the M and
M's and my walnuts.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
It is like the everything cookie.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Well, the problem was eventually so many goodies, so many
extra goodies went into these cookies that something had to go.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And this is true, and that would be the cookie.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I guess basically, yes, yes, very insightful because what she
ended up doing was reducing the amount of dough in
these cookies. So basically what I'm saying is, and this
is true, the cookie dough became sort of well, nothing
more than a bonding agent. Basically just sticking everything together.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
That's what it was. You could probably accomplish the same
thing just pouring some Eminem's and some nuts and some
chocolate chips into someone's hand and then.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
It basically, Yeah, but those were the go to Everybody
wanted them, and she was so it made her feel great.
She was so sure, proud, sure of those.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
You can't beat a mom baked cookie about you? Well, yeah,
I mean the only way you might be able to
beat a mom baked cookie is with a little Debbie product,
Little Debbie of Chattanooga, Tennessee. God blessed little Debbie. Yeah.
I was a big fan of the Swiss cake rolls
(07:47):
and also the Devil's squares or whatever they wear. And
I just remember because I was a latchkey kid, right,
So I would come home with the literally with the
little key around my neck and unlock the door or
both my parents are at work, and I would go
into the pantry and I would get a box of
Swiss cake rolls and then I would go flip on
Gilligan's Island reruns or whatever, and then cut to oops,
(08:12):
I just finished a box like I would just you know,
I had a metabolism then yeah, yeah, but uh yeah,
I guarantee I took years off my life with little Debbie.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You know, I'm from the Chicago area, and when I
went to school up there, Uh the Intimates factory, oh yeah,
was there. And you drive by, you're you're on a freeway.
I forget that, it's been a while, but I forget
the number the free But you're driving into the city
and you're it's industrial. It's all these factories and smoke
(08:41):
cutting out. But you get about a half a mile distance,
you get a half a mile of smelling Intimates.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
No, I actually equate this with you. And I know
I've never told you this, but when I first moved
to Los Angeles, I had a little fleabag apartment in
Los Felis that was down the road from a hostess factory,
And so while I would be listening to you on
the radio in the mornings, I would be smelling, you know,
little powdered doughnuts basically, so.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, yeah, and Sees Candy was right across yeah, right
next to Kalos, right right next to KOs And so
you know, about once or twice a week, I'd get
to work at about four thirty in the morning and
oh my god, that smell.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
It just made me so like, well, that's feeling hungry.
Sees Candy, which is a Southern California for anybody who
doesn't live here, you know, a beloved Southern California sweets
or confectionery institution. Yeah, that brings to mind, though, Like
what about regional desserts where where you where you grew
up or maybe in your family, where there any sort
(09:40):
of family specific or or or regionally popular desserts that
come to mind?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Just like I said, my mom's cookies regionally, Like I
tell you, what I didn't like was anything with marshmallow
and like moon pies. Oh really, you know, like moon pies,
I don't. I just don't love moon Even camping with
my friends boy Scouts or whatever, we'd make s'mores, of course,
and it would just be a piece of chocolate inside
a two pieces of Graham cracker, not cooked or anything,
(10:10):
just because I can't stand marshmallows.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
That's interesting. Yeah, my dad to this day, his favorite
dessert is and this sounds horrific, but he would like
get a spoon, like a big serving spoon, and get
a glop of peanut butter and put it on his
plate and then use the back of the spoon to
create a little depression in the top, and then he
would fill that depression with maple syrup, like a lake
(10:33):
of maple syrup, which just sort of works. That was
his dessert. That kind of works though. That was his dessert.
And maybe he learned these sorts of sweet skills from
my grandma, who is legendary in our family for making
something called chocolate gravy. Now this is I think it's
also known by the name of depression gravy in certain
(10:54):
parts of the South, because, as was the case with
my grandma, who's still with us, God bless her, she
had many siblings and a poor family who really could
afford to feed their kids maybe one meal of the
day before they would not only have to work in
the fields but then go to school. So they needed
to give the kids something that would give them some energy, right,
(11:15):
but also something that was affordable. So chocolate gravy if
you can imagine the consistency of like white country gravy,
except you're using cocoa powder in the mix, so that
you have like a runny chocolate pudding that you then
pour over biscuits and that's your meal. Now. Of course,
I'm sure growing up in the depression the way she
(11:36):
did this would not necessarily be something that they would
look forward to eating every single day. But city kids
that we were by the time we were growing up
like that was a big treat to have chocolate grape.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Well, we have relatives, so again Dad would fill the
car full of family and drive from Illinois down to Arkansas.
So we had relatives down there. And it was my
uncle's family, his father and mother, and they lived, i
mean in this little two room house. They had a
pot bellied stove. Country living. They had a pot belly stove,
(12:09):
and you know, in an outhouse. They called it forty acres.
Gotta go to forty acres and you're walking through. So
it was kind of an adventure for me as a
little kid.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
And by the way, they had two nice things always
a brand new gigantic color TV of course, and a
white Cadillac that they kept renewing. So those were the
two things, but the rest was just kind of bare bones.
But I'll never forget the breakfasts, the biggest meal of
the day for them, the breakfasts with the bacon and
(12:41):
the eggs and the grits and just everything, the sausage.
But also in the center there was always a huge
bowl of chocolate pudding. See or what did you call it?
Chocolate a little longer? Maybe, yeah, you know, like my
sweet tooth. I just take a couple of bite said, Okay,
that's weird, but it's kind of cool. My little brother,
(13:02):
I'm seven or eight, he is five or six. My
little brother, his eyes every morning, he couldn't wait. His
eyes was just like get bigger saucers, like I'm having chocolate.
So that's all he ate chocolate pudding on the tablet pudding. Yeah,
for three days.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Maybe not the healthiest choice for.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Three days, chocolate pudding. The final day we're there, we're leaving.
Right after breakfast, Jeff has more chocolate pudding. Okay, so
we get about we'd load the car up, say our goodbyes.
We get about half hour down the road. Oh no,
and we realized that the back seat where my brother
was was suddenly filling up with something that looked an
(13:40):
awful lot like chocolate pudding. It was, it was horrible.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
I would just like to offer a sincere apology to
our viewers and listeners right now for putting that image
in your brains. But thank you, Brian. Sure anytime it
occurs to me that now you have forced my hand
to ask you what is perhaps the most important question
in life? Okay, I know we've waited a few shows
in for me to ask this. We're going there now,
(14:07):
we're gonna go there. I'm gonna ask you, and I'm
gonna go step further. I'm gonna tell you if you
answer this question wrong, it might not only mean the
end of our show, but it could spell the end
of our friends. No, this is pressure.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah yeah, okay, yeah, but I'm supposed to answer answer honestly.
You got to answer honestly, and I'm not okay, here
goes you ready?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah? Cake or Pie?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Okay, I will answer honestly.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Think carefully, Cake or Pie.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
I don't know what your answer is. I know what
the most popular of the two is, but I will
tell you, Cake or Pie. I'm a pie guy.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Oh thank god. Oh I'm gonna celebrate with Yeah, that
is great news. Yeah, I'm pie all the way.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Cake is like I don't no a graduated cotton candy.
To me, It's just like fine. But that's about it.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Pies.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I love pie.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Pi.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Man pie is where it's at.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Favorite pie. Blueberry pie, cold blueberry pie.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Cold pie is key.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
With vanilla ice cream. Vanilla bean ice cream.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
You double down on the cold. Oh so interesting because
then when it's cold, the ice cream doesn't melt as quickly.
I follow the logic. Okay, blueberry Pie, I see you,
and I raise you to key Lime pie.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Oh okay, the grill again, not advertisement. Yeah, the grill
grill on the Alley and Beverly Hills. The best key
Line pie I've ever had.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Key Lime Pie. I'm a fan of cherry pie. I
think there was a now sadly defunct place in Pasadena
that used to make this incredible chocolate banana pie that
had a chocolate Graham cracker crust. It was banana with
chocolate flakes. Oh my god. But pie is just the
ultimate comfort food, right, I can never get enough pie.
(15:58):
But but but we'll never heard anybody say that let
me just I'll drive it right down the barrel. I
can never get enough pie. But I will tell you this, sometimes,
although pie is the ultimate comfort food, Brian, sometimes it's
more than that. Uh. And so after we take a
(16:18):
quick break and I eat the rest of these jelly bellies,
we're gonna meet somebody who is ready to slice into
exactly what I mean when I say sometimes it's more
than just comfort.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
And that is next on the Bigger Humans Podcast.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Of a Bigger Kill, the bigger kill, bigger.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Then we will take you suck. Hey, you are not
eating my jelly bellies. You can eat my jelly bellies.
That's fine. No, no, yeah, I will share it only no.
Oh god wow.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
I like jellybellies, but I was gonna have one because
they look kind of good.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
I am a truly bad human. I should have shared
my jelly.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
You start off with activity, I'll go with negativity.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Okay, you know, just to counter my truly bad human
status for not sharing. We are proud and privileged to
welcome to the Big Good Humans Podcast. Rose McGee, and
let me tell you about this woman. She's incredible. Rose
is a recent Bush Fellow. She's a children's author. She's
a playwright, but probably way sweeter than all of that.
(17:40):
She is the founder of Sweet Potato Comfort Pie. This
is an organization that is headquartered in the Twin Cities
area of Minnesota. Minnesota. Rose and you will Love This
is a self described baketivist, right activist, bakectivist.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
All that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Who created this grantable organization whose work includes all kinds
of of cultural and creativity based programs that that basically
heal and uplift people in a way that I'm prepared
to say even the best pies couldn't do on their own.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
And let me tell you, we won't get into it
right away, but I will sometime during our interview with
this wonderful woman. Yeah, I know a secret about her.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Oh oh good, Okay, I like that. That's that's excellent.
Rose McGee, welcome to be good humans.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Well, thank you, my goodness. You guys are awesome. What
a wonderful title humans. Yeah, yeah, that's what this is about.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
We try. I mean, I need to be better about
sharing my jelly bellies. I really shouldn't have shut him down.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
It was like I had a handful. I was just
the green ones.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
You know what, I'll take you out for pie afterwards.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
That's what I was thinking. It's it's not the right
treat if it were pie.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
True.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
You're so right about that. Rose. There's probably nobody better
to serve up the story of exactly how you got
started with sweet potato comfort pie than you. So if
you wouldn't mind, would you please take us back to
twenty fourteen and tell us about the honestly bitter event
(19:19):
that inspired your particularly sweet movement.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah? Yeah, Well, unfortunately, it was another time in our history,
in this environment where we had seen this horrible situation
where another young black man had been killed. And for me,
I don't know why I felt compelled to do something
(19:47):
after young Michael Brown was murdered, because there have been
so many things, But I kind of say that maybe
it had to do with having watched the whole ordeal
of Trayvon Martin's murder case and knowing that you know,
(20:07):
in our opinions, that justice hadn't been served properly. I
don't know. I just know that when this hit, like others,
I felt the pain of the mothers and the grandmama's
and the folks who were aching over this child, if
(20:27):
my baby lay out there in the streets in this heat,
and you know, it was quite some time before his
body was removed. But whatever the situation was, I felt
compelled to respond. And I knew I wasn't going to
go down there and be in the streets with the protests.
That was something certainly that I have done. But I
(20:49):
just felt, well, what can I do? And this voice
spoke to me just clearly. In being a woman of faith,
I responded to it. And it wasn't like, you know,
I'm hearing your voices now, but it was an internal
voice that spoke to my heart that said, make some
pies and take them down there. And I thought that
was the most ridiculous thing.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
So I'm like, I'm not listening to myself.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
By the way, there's nothing ridiculous about that.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
It makes it. So I got up and I went
in the kitchen and I just walked around my kitchen
a little bit and I heard it again, make some
pies and take them down there, And all of a sudden,
rather than thinking rationally, I thought about all right, I
was thinking from my heart, I believe and decided, yes,
(21:36):
I will do that, And so I began trying to
figure it out and lay out the plan because I'd
never driven to this particular part of Missouri, but it turned.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Out from Minnesota. So you had this idea, and now
now what're you fill the car with pies and you
drive in Minnesota down to Missouri.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
I did. I filled a car of about thirty in
the trunk of my car. My son happened to have
been in town, and I asked him if he wanted
to ride with me. But I did make a phone
call to a pasture in that area to see if,
you know, he had any guidance, and he said, yeah,
I do have someone you can contact. So that's how
I felt more comfortable with where I was going and
(22:21):
no idea what I was going to do when I
got there. So that's how it started. And one of
the things I didn't do was just go up and say, here,
take this pie. But I would ask if you'd like
a sweet potato pie, and people would look at me like,
are you serious a sweet potato pie?
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah, because you might not take candy from strangers, but I,
for one would take a sweet potato pie from a stranger.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I don't know, but you know it was boxed in
the boxes that you will see images of and open
the box and the beautiful aroma comes out, which it
surprises me sometimes how nice it smells. And there's always
a heart on top, so people would usually be very
(23:04):
receptive to that. And I remember her name was Brittany Jones,
and she's a young lady that was standing there at
this you know, makeshift memorial there in the street where
young Michael's body had been. And I saw her standing
there just arguing with him, you should have been home,
you shouldn't have been out here that day. And I
(23:27):
walked over to her because at this time things had
calmed down by the time I arrived. You know, we
were all wondering what was going to happen, and people
that lived in the area were now inside their homes.
There was certainly, you know, the appearance of the burnings
and the looting and all that, but a lot of
(23:47):
people were also just still in shock and trying to
understand what to do next. So on this particular day,
it was pretty empty. It was a beautiful day, and
she's and I walked over to her and asked her
if she knew Michael, and she said, yes, we grew
up together. He lived right there and back there she
(24:09):
was pointing to the apartments where his son, where his
grandmother had lived. And so as a result of that,
I asked her if she would like a pie, and
she looked at me like and I said, yeah, if
you'd like one, I'd love to give you one. So
I went to my car and brought one back to her,
and she opened the box and the aroma just came out.
(24:32):
It's shocked me too. It smelled so good. And then
she said it smelled so good and it looks so pretty.
And then just like that, she fell in my arms
and started crying. And that's how it was for the
rest of that journey.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
This is extraordinary, Rosen. And you know again, if you're
just joining us, this is twenty fourteen. This is the
terrible death of Michael Brown Junior and Ferguson, Missouri. This
is a community not just locally but across the country
that is ignited by pain and grief. And Rose is
(25:08):
trying to figure out some way that she could possibly
be helpful. And you hear this voice in the back
of your head that says, you know, bake a pie,
and you don't stop there. You bake thirty pies and
fill your car with them and take your son from
Minnesota to Missouri. Let's back up though, to that moment
in the kitchen when you've got this voice talking to you.
(25:28):
Did it specifically tell you to make a sweet potato
pie or is that just where you landed? And if so,
why what is it about sweet potato pie that that
spoke to you in that moment?
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Well, it was the only pie I could make, so.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Well that helps. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Where did where did that recipe come from? Handed down?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Yeah, it began. It began with my grandmother. I grew
up in rural Tennessee, Jackson, Tennessee, actually, and that pie
well some thing that the women in the community just
knew how to make. But the thing about most, you know,
people who cook, there's always going to be something that
people really like that you make, right, So when it
(26:12):
came to sweet potato pie, my grandmothers was usually one
that people would ask for. A Rosie's pie ross and
so here I am. I didn't grow up doing a
lot of cooking. Actually, the thing that I cooked most
was probably corn bread. I really was kind of good.
But I didn't do much cooking. I had other chores
and I was raised by my grandmother and my great grandmother,
(26:35):
And here I am.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Now.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I graduated from college, and I moved to Denver, Colorado,
and I'm married. And I woke up one Sunday morning
with this desire to make sweet potato pie and a
BlackBerry cobbler. And I think, you know, I can't can't
be anything to that. So I called my grandmother, because
by then my great grandmother had passed, and I said, well, Mom,
(26:57):
I'd like to make a sweet potato pie and a
BlackBerry cobbler. Can you give me the recipe? And she said,
what recipe? It's in my head, baby, And apparently it
didn't transfer from her head to my too well, because
I made the biggest mess. It was horrible, and I
threw them both out and want anybody to see it,
(27:20):
and I felt compelled to try them both again. The
sweet potato pie was not bad, but the BlackBerry cobbler
was still horrible. And the next thing I knew, I
just continue to make the sweet potato pie and it
continued to get better.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
There you go, You worked out the kinks, and then
your sweet potato pie became the go to.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Well. A lot happened though over the course of miles
and years. Because I moved from Denver and I moved
to Minnesota. I ended up working with IBM Corporation. You know,
i'd been moved, So you're supposed to laugh at that seat.
You're too young to know. I mean, it used to
(28:02):
be that if you worked for IBM, the IBM was
I've been moved, because everybody Okay, hell so anyway, No,
you're just not old enough to get that. But as
it turned out, I started, and this is what I
tell people. The pie started calling me long before I
(28:24):
even knew it. Automatically. I would find myself no matter
where I was, and if sweet potato pie was on
the recipe, I wanted to taste it, and if there
was something unique about it, I'd ask what's in it?
So that's how I started acquiring other ingredients that worked
that tasted different. So I had a pie once and
(28:46):
it was so rich, And it turned out that she
used condensed milk instead of evaporated which I had grown
up with. And then I had assignment with IBM once
in Florida, and I was having dinner at this woman's
house and it was so different her pie, and I said,
what's in it and she starts telling me. Then she says,
(29:07):
let me think, did I use orange or did I
use limon? Or did I use And.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
I'm like, what, so uh interesting?
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Yeah, And that's when I learned about citrus ethic later.
And so now with the recipe, if you use the
lemon at the end of putting all of your ingredients,
it helps to smooth and out and balance out those
spices so that one doesn't overpower the other unless you
want one to. Then you use more of that, but
(29:39):
it just gives it a different flavor altogether interesting.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
So you're perfecting your pie recipe over time. And then
what a lot of people may not realize, Brian and
I didn't know this myself until we started preparing to
meet with Rose, but there's a real historical significance to
sweet potato pie, right, there's a fascinating history. Sweet potatoes
come from South America. They first made their way into
(30:04):
pies and tarts in Britain, and apparently they were a
big favorite of Henry the eighth, so very much a
bougie luxury dessert. But then, like so many other things,
sweet potatoes make their way to Colonial America. They wound
up getting grown on a lot of plantations, which of
course were then grown intended to by African slaves, and
(30:27):
then those cooks started adding their own tastes and passing
down recipes like the one that Rose got from her
grandmother and then perfected over time until these recipes basically
passed through generations of black families and really become If
I'm not mistaken here, Rose deeply linked to Black culture
(30:48):
in a lot of ways.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Absolutely. I consider it the sacred dessert of Black culture.
And that's what I call it, because no matter where
you are, if you really are into our culture, our
food culture, sweet potato pie is going to be there somewhere,
and if it's not there, it's because people don't know
how to make it. So that's been one of the things.
(31:10):
It's one of those things that has happened. It's a
hard process. It's not like you just go in and
you just throw up a pie just like that unless
you really know what you're doing. You've got to cook
the potatoes, and then you've got to mix the ingredients,
and then it's got to bake, and then it's got
a cool offen set for a while. So it takes time.
And when you make a pie. You don't make just
(31:33):
one unless you only want one, but a general recipe
will make two pies. So this is what I've been
teaching people over the past few years. Also that if
you're going to use the recipe and make two pies,
gift one of them to somebody. Gift one of them
to somebody, and you can keep the other one for
(31:53):
yourself if you want to eat it by yourself or
share it with anybody.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Else you are.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
You're in Missouri, and you really kind of drove down,
not knowing what to expect. You just you know, you
had some very loving made with care wanting to help
sweet potato pies. But then the lady opens the box,
smells the aroma, and falls into your arms. And this
(32:20):
happened over and over again. As you're there, talk about
what happened then afterwards, what led you to what you
do now?
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Well, if you can imagine meeting people, and I didn't
know who I was going to meet along this way
on this journey, and I remember I went out to
dinner and it had been a long day, and you know,
we've been gifting pies here and there, just gifting them
depending on who it felt like. I should. And I'm
(32:53):
in line at a very popular restaurant that you know,
we know all about it on television, this particular restaurant,
which is why the line was so long. And there
was this black family right in front of me, and
it was obvious that they were celebrating something. And I
finally just said, I can hear that you all having
(33:14):
a good celebratory time. What's happening. Congratulations, you know, And
they didn't tell me my own business. They just said
we're celebrating. Somebody said this is my niece and she
just graduated from nursing school. And I said, well, congratulations,
good for you, and then she said, yes, ma'am. And
(33:39):
this is the first time I've been out because my
baby was born a premie and has been in the
hospital for the last two months, and this is the
first time I've really gotten out to enjoy that I
got this degree now. And I just got chills when
she told me that story, and I said, I'm so
(34:00):
proud of you, and I just because I had had
a baby too that was in the hospital for three
months and he did pass away, but I can imagine
what it must have been like for her traveling back
and forth to this hospital every day to see a baby,
and she's still trying to study. And we all went
(34:22):
in and we had our lunch, our dinner. Right as
I was leaving, I looked over and saw them, and
I went over to her table and I said, congratulations
to you again, and she just looked so happy. And
that's when I asked her if she would like a pie.
And here we are in this restaurant, right we probably
(34:44):
had a very good sweet potato pie. And I said,
I will go and get one for you in my car,
and I came back and gave it to her and
she just started baling just like that.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
What is clear Rose here is that for all the
effort you have put into perfecting your sweet potato pie
over time, probably the most important key ingredient is empathy.
You are approaching strangers you meet in the street and
in restaurants, and you are in a simple act of
humanity and grace. You are feeling a need in them,
(35:21):
and you are filling that need on some level with
a pie, of all things. And if we have this right,
since this first series of experiences in Missouri, you have
delivered more than four thousand pies across the country, often
in response to racially driven events, whether it's in Charleston
(35:44):
or Pittsburgh or Standing Rock or right there at home
in Twin Cities. But your work has expanded, hasn't it.
It's not just limited to sweet potato comfort pie. At
this point, you're doing all kind things to sort of
try and heal damage that is caused by race based trauma,
(36:05):
to try and elevate marginalized voices and experiences in all
kinds of other ways. Talk to us more about how
this mission has gotten bigger for you than just making
an amazing sweet potato pie.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Volunteers, volunteers. I can't say that enough. And even with
what you just mentioned, with the four thousand that includes this,
I personally didn't make all four thousand. It's people making
these four thousand and teaching people how to And you know,
somebody says there's been more than four thousand ros, you
(36:39):
need to elevate that number, and said, okay, we'll do that.
But when COVID happened, you know, in March of twenty twenty,
I was at my home wondering how am I gonna what?
So I decided to just start making pies and putting
them on my front porch and I put them in
the plastic bags, you know, with plastic and I put
(37:01):
the word out on Facebook or whatever and say, anybody
who would like to pick up punies to take to
a first responder that you know, feel free to come
and pick it up.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Remarkable remark.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
And so that happened, and then a few weeks later,
George Floyd is murdered and all of that is happening
right during COVID. So during the midst of all of
that is when I felt the urge to go online
and invite people to make pies with me online. And
that's what they did. And I said, the recipe you're
(37:33):
making makes two pies, because they had the recipe, So
run onto the store and we're going to tune back
in on Facebook live at this particular time and see
where we go. And what happened then was I decided
to This was on a Sunday night and Monday. I
(37:53):
made the announcement to them that night. Why don't you
join me, those of you who live locally, at six
o'clock tomorrow Monday, and we're going to take these pies
up to where mister George Floyd was murdered and we'll
gift them to people. I was shocked when I looked
outside my house that day and there was a line
(38:14):
of vehicles. I'm like, oh my, and I went out
and I'm like, okay, thank you all for being here.
And they said, well, what are we going to do? Rose,
what's the plan?
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Well, let me let me interject a question for you
at this point, did you know how many followers you had?
Speaker 3 (38:30):
No?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Yeah, no, I.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Haven't paid an attention to that.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
I really did, But you were clearly you were clearly
connecting with people who also had a need to help,
felt that desire, and felt that frustration, and wanted to
try and channel it into something positive, try and put
some kind of love in the universe when it's particularly
dark all around you. And so it doesn't surprise me
(38:55):
at all that these people show up at your house,
but then you shock to the well, you speak to
the volunteerism there, like it seems like you really sort
of created a movement right that born from this has
become the story circles and speaker series and healing retreats
and workshops and all kinds of like community based artistic productions.
(39:19):
It's just it has grown into something so much bigger
than just a pie.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Right, I could say that, you know, some of this
stuff that I'm now starting to do, I've been doing
all along, and it's like, oh gosh, yeah, story circles.
It makes sense that when we bring people together over pie,
that we allow you to take some time and circle
(39:44):
and have these conversations with each other. And this play
that I wrote, you know, this is the season juneteenth.
I wrote this play twenty eight years ago, and now
you know it's starting to get greater visibility and we
want it one day to be on stage on Broadway.
You all can make that happen. Please go right ahead, call.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Somebod on it.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
We'll even settle for off Broadway. It's all right. The
idea is that people get a chance to learn about
a part and a piece of history that was omitted.
But it doesn't stop there. It's it's it's this resurgence
that folks have to survive and to to make it
(40:27):
no matter what appears to be hopeless. And that's that's
what it's about. And now you know, when when I
do any kind of presentation, always have I try to
inspire young people to tap into their own gift. What
is it? What is that likeness in your life? And
(40:48):
now that I'm an elder, I try to do the
same thing with older people too, so that people don't
allow age. It's easy to say, oh, I can't do
that because I'm just old, and that may be true
in some ways. But if there's something that you know
that you really want to do, it doesn't matter how
(41:09):
old you are, you go ahead and do it.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Yeah. Wow, that's great advice. You're amazing, Rose, as powerful
and meaningful as all of your work is. I know
for a fact that there are plenty of people watching
and listening right now who who are also going to
want first and foremost your sweet Potato pie recipe. So
rest assured, we're going to post that recipe for two pies.
(41:34):
It's key that you make two pies. We're going to
post that recipe on our YouTube channel on our website.
But Rose, can you also give our viewers and listeners,
who I'm sure have an appetite for something bigger than
just pie, some ideas on how they can help support
you and your work with Sweet Potato Comfort Pie.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
I really appreciate you asking that because we never ask
for this. I never asked for this. I just felt
like I needed to do something, and now it is there.
We have people wanting more, and what I'm finding is
what I don't feel like doing really is it takes
resources for that. So feel free to make a donation
(42:16):
if you'd like, and just go on our websites with
Potato Coomfortpie dot org. You're welcome to do that. We
also welcome volunteers. But I would love to be in
any city, any community where I can just come and
share this story with you, and you can call us
and we can have a virtual conversation if you want to.
(42:37):
I mean, I've had schools say we want to do
this in our school, and one of them, I have
to tell you, this story is such beautiful. Several student
stories that are beautiful, but this particular one is a
middle school in Minnesota here and they had been every
year round the November Thanksgiving holiday time frame. Their students
(42:58):
would gather clothing and articles and things to be taken
to a nearby shelter, but because of COVID, they couldn't
do that. The shelter wouldn't accept items. So they've heard
about the pies and they wondered, how can we take
this project and do something with it because it's such
a moving project. So I went in and I spoke
(43:20):
with students, and then they decided, we'll just make the
pies through the family consumer science class. In my day,
it was called home economics, and I thought it still
was family and consumer science.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Arose by any other names.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
So here you have this group of students making the pies,
and first they talk about how the whole school has
this aroma. The whole school seems calm down because of
the smell that's all over them when they're making these.
And then they have the pies. They can't just sell
(43:58):
the pies because they can't sell the pies, but they
have the pies available for donations. So teachers and parents
and families come and they get a pie and make
a donation, so that money from the donation is what
they're able to give to the shelter, and the shelter
is able to utilize it how it needs to be done.
(44:21):
So they've done that now for three.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Years, and how does that make you feel?
Speaker 3 (44:26):
It? Right now? It's giving me chills just thinking about it,
because they made a lovely video. It increases each year.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
They say, wow, well, that's incredible. So listen, if you
would like to find a way that you can be
helpful to Rose and this incredible cause, Sweet Potato Coomfortpie
dot org. That is the website and we will make
sure that that appears on our site and the YouTube
channel as well.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Listen, I loved you before, Rose, but what you said,
I don't usually ask you know, like you know, I
don't you know if it comes up like it did here,
But that just it's it makes you even more of
a good human. No that you're not plugging, you're not pushing,
You're just you're just sharing with not only us, but
(45:14):
with everyone you come in contact with, your love of love.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Yeah, we want to thank you so much Rose for
joining us, not just for being so sweet, but just
for being such a positive force for healing and hopefully change.
So you are, by our estimation, the very definition of
a good human and we might might actually like you
a little bit more than Pie a little bit.
Speaker 3 (45:41):
Well, thank you, thank you. This is what I want
you to do. I want between the two of you,
somebody make a pie. Make a pie, and please send
a pitch is a video or something to us so
we can see it and put it on our website
of the two of you, and let me tell you something.
You can have the same recipe. I tell people all
the time it could be ten recipe. I mean ten
(46:03):
people making the same recipe, and it's always going to
be slightly different like people. It is. So the two
of you are going to use my recipe make a
sweet potato pie, and you're gonna be able to say
you didn't put this in a did you? Oh yeah,
because mine doesn't taste like that.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
Uh Dale, Thank you so much. Rose. We're gonna we're
gonna sign off now and go make some pie. But again,
sweet Potato Coomfortpie dot org is where you want to go.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Beautiful videos, wonderful messages. Yeah, and we just touched the
tip of the iceberg on all the things that she
is doing to bring people together. So enjoy that website.
It's beautiful and so were you.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
Thank you very much, Rose, Thank.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
You, Thank you, gentlemen, thank you.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
We will take you suck.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
Oh my gosh, she's amazing.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Yeah, and do do go to that website. It's just
it's truly a gift of everything she's involved with it,
just because of that pie that she makes. I didn't
get a chance to tell you the secret I know
about her?
Speaker 1 (47:15):
Oh yeah, what's the secret?
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Look in preparation for these episodes? Sure, you know, you
do a lot of research, and I'm reading articles about
her and seeing interviews and she kind of says with
her the corners of her mouth turned up a little bit.
She goes, you know, I make these pies, but I
don't really like to cook that much.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
I just cracked me up. Wow, that truly is a
labor of love, but makes it even.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Even more special.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
Yeah, wow, well that's amazing. Yeah, please go to our website.
We will have the information there for how you can
support Sweet Potato Pie Comfort. And while you're there, do
us a favor. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead
and click the like and subscribe. That would be helpful
to us. And follow us on all the socials, Facebook
and Instagram, threads and tiktoking like us ex give us
(48:08):
your likes. They really are helpful, so we appreciate that.
And visit our website be Good Humans podcast dot com.
This is where you can not only tell us about
good humans in your lives.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
Now you think we might want to interview and just
like we did that would be super cool.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
And then you can give us also some pointers while
you're at it on how to be a good human.
We're never above those.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
I can tell you how to be a good human
if you share your gummy bears.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Or I would share them with you. But they've apparently disappeared.
I'm guessing Ryan.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Didn't take them off camera, Sean, Iona, I wonder who
that might take. That's horrible.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
You know what, I tell you what? You know what? No, No,
I've been I've been inspired by Rose. Whoever took my
jelly bellies? You may have them, awesome, you may great.
I think we're finished here other than one thing, which
is always important to remind you to do. Please, like Brian,
(49:08):
be good humans. Be good humans.
Speaker 3 (49:13):
Be good humans. Be good humans, or we will thank
you suck.
Speaker 1 (49:20):
Be Good Humans is executive produced by Brian Phelps, Trey Callaway,
and Grant Anderson, with associate producers Sean Fitzgerald and Clementine Callaway,
and partnership with straw Hut Media. Please like, follow, and subscribe,
and remember, be good humans.
Mm hmm. Oh my god, hey you know we're in
the air. Oh yeah, okay, are.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You getting your fixed with those? You were like sexually
enjoying those.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I kind of was a little bit sorry. Yeah, I
love jelly bellies. Really couldn't tell this is not a
this is not a paid endorsement. Really kind of weird
that that. I think I just heard your sex noises
you might have. I'm sorry, we can cut that later.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Good humans, be good humans. Be good humans, or we
will think you sucked.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Thank or we will thank you suck. Yeah. I love
jelly bellies, man, I I kind of love sweets in general.
It's a problem.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Sweet tooth, big sweet tooth.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
I think so. I think so. I you know, life
is hard Brian in a lot of ways, and and
yet I find that a jelly belly, for example, right,
is just a quick vacation for your mouth. You can
just wow, right, a vacation for your mouth. By the way,
jelly belly, you can feel free to use that if
(01:19):
you'd like.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
You've got about a half a bag left there, if
you like, we can just wait.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I'll just sit here and I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
No, I I love watching you enjoy.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Tell you what I'm gonna put him down, but every
once in a while, just to punctuate thing. As we
move on, I'm just gonna try another flavor. This is
the tropical mix, which I prefer because then it eliminates
the pesky popcorn and licorice flavors, which I'm not.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Liquor No, no, no, yeah, Well all right, let's go.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Let's go with we'll talk about sweets. Let's talk about it.
But where do you stand on sweets? Me personally? You
like them?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
To be honest, I've and I guess I'm lucky that
I never really had a sweet tooth, I believe it
or not.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I was the kid that loved.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
The taste but couldn't I couldn't finish a whole Snickers
bar or a milky weight because it was just so rich,
but so like one two bites great. Even to this day,
I'm on a date and it comes time for dessert,
and I'm secretly hoping that she will order a dessert
so I can have one bite. And I'm not holding
(02:18):
myself back, not for dietary reasons. It's just like, get
that taste, that's great, and then I just a lot
of it just makes me kind of it doesn't work
for me.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, okay, but I mean you'll at least try a bite,
and you know, yeah, you kind of.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Look forward to pancakes the same way. I hope somebody
orders pancakes for breakfast so I can have one bite.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Well, pancakes are the dessert of breakfast, that's true, but
let me okay, so so let's but let's stay with
the desserts because never mind the candy. That's just like
a quick foot.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well, moving on from candy, I just do want to
say there's another one that the candy. I don't know
you've ever had them?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I got it.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
You know, the Reces peanut butter cups been around since
we were kids. They now put potato chips in there. Yeah,
okay those Yeah, I'll take a couple of bites. You
like the sweet and savory combo sweet and savory, salty
and uh and sweet and salty.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
But if you if you had to have it was.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
My nickname in college sweet.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
There were so many college nicknames I do. So if
you had to have a dessert, even if it was
one you were going to share, are you like a
fruit dessert guy, or like a chocolate dessert kind? Of person.
What are your favorites?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Chocolate's fine. Uh, usually if I'm gonna go that way. Fruit,
what's the point that's pro fruit or anti? No antifruit? Like,
if I'm gonna go like, let's eat some sweets like fruit.
You know, I can get an apple later. But I
love ice cream. But actually specifically speaking, uh, gelato, I
(03:45):
am in love with gelato.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Again. It's a treat, not a paid endorsement. But there's
a new joint, relatively new joint in Tarzana, in the
San Fernando Valley where you. It's called Anita and they
do like full tilt authentic Italian gelato, where it's not
only are all of the flavors delicious, but they're presented
in the most beautiful you know, heaping piles of sweet deliciousness. Yeah,
(04:13):
I got to bring you there because you will totally
dig that.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I was and I was in Miami recently and waiting
to get on a ship. Went on a rock cruise
with some friends. But we spent a couple of nights
in Miami just to walk around. And they had a
gelato place right kind of about a half a block
away from the hotel. So I go in there and
it was such a great experience. And not the least
(04:36):
reason it was a great experience is because the girl
behind the counter was so happy and so helpful, and
she's just so sweet, and that just I'm buying something, sure,
even if I don't like it, I'm buying it, you know,
of course. But she goes, well, what's your favorite? I go, well,
gelato vanilla or I like pistachio a lotio. Oh yeah,
that's my favorite. And she goes, we have two. Get okay,
(05:02):
She shows me the regular pisasterio of course, gives me
the sample with a little spoon, and uh then she goes,
now follow me.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Oh, this could be like the greatest pickup story ever. Well,
I love.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
That possibly, But she walked me down the glass case
and I look down and there is pistasceio wice cream
with kind of criss crossed white chocolate on top. And
I love I like white chocolate a lot more than
dark chocolate. But it was it was heavenly.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
It was so good. Yeah, I mean that's I mean,
those are these are highbrow desserts we're talking about, right.
What about when you were a kid? Uh? What? What? What?
What were your favorite sweets then, or did you did
you have andy?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I like candy, I like bake goods. I just I
just couldn't eat a bunch of them because it made
me I didn't I didn't.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Feel good afterwards.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
But my mom had the go to my mom's world
famous eminem cookies. Now, this is basically a butter cookie,
and she puts him in there.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, that's an old standard.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
It is an old standard and delicious. But the fun
thing is, over time she kept adding ingredients, and usually
by request, she would add ingreens.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
So she's customizing the experience for the kids.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
One of my favorite foods is wal nuts of any kind,
but walnuts, so she would put with the M and
M's big chunks of walnuts in these cookies. One of
my sister's favorite foods with the Nesley's chocolate chips.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Oh yeah, so it's a chocolate chip cookie.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Now she put chocolate chips along with the M and
M's and my walnuts.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
It is like the everything cookie.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Well, the problem was eventually so many goodies, so many
extra goodies went into these cookies that something had to go.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And this is true, and that would be the cookie.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I guess basically, yes, yes, very insightful because what she
ended up doing was reducing the amount of dough in
these cookies. So basically what I'm saying is, and this
is true, the cookie dough became sort of well, nothing
more than a bonding agent. Basically just sticking everything together.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
That's what it was. You could probably accomplish the same
thing just pouring some Eminem's and some nuts and some
chocolate chips into someone's hand and then.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
It basically, Yeah, but those were the go to Everybody
wanted them, and she was so it made her feel great.
She was so sure, proud, sure of those.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
You can't beat a mom baked cookie about you? Well, yeah,
I mean the only way you might be able to
beat a mom baked cookie is with a little Debbie product,
Little Debbie of Chattanooga, Tennessee. God blessed little Debbie. Yeah.
I was a big fan of the Swiss cake rolls
(07:47):
and also the Devil's squares or whatever they wear. And
I just remember because I was a latchkey kid, right,
So I would come home with the literally with the
little key around my neck and unlock the door or
both my parents are at work, and I would go
into the pantry and I would get a box of
Swiss cake rolls and then I would go flip on
Gilligan's Island reruns or whatever, and then cut to oops,
(08:12):
I just finished a box like I would just you know,
I had a metabolism then yeah, yeah, but uh yeah,
I guarantee I took years off my life with little Debbie.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You know, I'm from the Chicago area, and when I
went to school up there, Uh the Intimates factory, oh yeah,
was there. And you drive by, you're you're on a freeway.
I forget that, it's been a while, but I forget
the number the free But you're driving into the city
and you're it's industrial. It's all these factories and smoke
(08:41):
cutting out. But you get about a half a mile distance,
you get a half a mile of smelling Intimates.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
No, I actually equate this with you. And I know
I've never told you this, but when I first moved
to Los Angeles, I had a little fleabag apartment in
Los Felis that was down the road from a hostess factory,
And so while I would be listening to you on
the radio in the mornings, I would be smelling, you know,
little powdered doughnuts basically, so.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, yeah, and Sees Candy was right across yeah, right
next to Kalos, right right next to KOs And so
you know, about once or twice a week, I'd get
to work at about four thirty in the morning and
oh my god, that smell.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
It just made me so like, well, that's feeling hungry.
Sees Candy, which is a Southern California for anybody who
doesn't live here, you know, a beloved Southern California sweets
or confectionery institution. Yeah, that brings to mind, though, Like
what about regional desserts where where you where you grew
up or maybe in your family, where there any sort
(09:40):
of family specific or or or regionally popular desserts that
come to mind?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Just like I said, my mom's cookies regionally, Like I
tell you, what I didn't like was anything with marshmallow
and like moon pies. Oh really, you know, like moon pies,
I don't. I just don't love moon Even camping with
my friends boy Scouts or whatever, we'd make s'mores, of course,
and it would just be a piece of chocolate inside
a two pieces of Graham cracker, not cooked or anything,
(10:10):
just because I can't stand marshmallows.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
That's interesting. Yeah, my dad to this day, his favorite
dessert is and this sounds horrific, but he would like
get a spoon, like a big serving spoon, and get
a glop of peanut butter and put it on his
plate and then use the back of the spoon to
create a little depression in the top, and then he
would fill that depression with maple syrup, like a lake
(10:33):
of maple syrup, which just sort of works. That was
his dessert. That kind of works though. That was his dessert.
And maybe he learned these sorts of sweet skills from
my grandma, who is legendary in our family for making
something called chocolate gravy. Now this is I think it's
also known by the name of depression gravy in certain
(10:54):
parts of the South, because, as was the case with
my grandma, who's still with us, God bless her, she
had many siblings and a poor family who really could
afford to feed their kids maybe one meal of the
day before they would not only have to work in
the fields but then go to school. So they needed
to give the kids something that would give them some energy, right,
(11:15):
but also something that was affordable. So chocolate gravy if
you can imagine the consistency of like white country gravy,
except you're using cocoa powder in the mix, so that
you have like a runny chocolate pudding that you then
pour over biscuits and that's your meal. Now. Of course,
I'm sure growing up in the depression the way she
(11:36):
did this would not necessarily be something that they would
look forward to eating every single day. But city kids
that we were by the time we were growing up
like that was a big treat to have chocolate grape.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Well, we have relatives, so again Dad would fill the
car full of family and drive from Illinois down to Arkansas.
So we had relatives down there. And it was my
uncle's family, his father and mother, and they lived, i
mean in this little two room house. They had a
pot bellied stove. Country living. They had a pot belly stove,
(12:09):
and you know, in an outhouse. They called it forty acres.
Gotta go to forty acres and you're walking through. So
it was kind of an adventure for me as a
little kid.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
And by the way, they had two nice things always
a brand new gigantic color TV of course, and a
white Cadillac that they kept renewing. So those were the
two things, but the rest was just kind of bare bones.
But I'll never forget the breakfasts, the biggest meal of
the day for them, the breakfasts with the bacon and
(12:41):
the eggs and the grits and just everything, the sausage.
But also in the center there was always a huge
bowl of chocolate pudding. See or what did you call it?
Chocolate a little longer? Maybe, yeah, you know, like my
sweet tooth. I just take a couple of bite said, Okay,
that's weird, but it's kind of cool. My little brother,
(13:02):
I'm seven or eight, he is five or six. My
little brother, his eyes every morning, he couldn't wait. His
eyes was just like get bigger saucers, like I'm having chocolate.
So that's all he ate chocolate pudding on the tablet pudding. Yeah,
for three days.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Maybe not the healthiest choice for.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Three days, chocolate pudding. The final day we're there, we're leaving.
Right after breakfast, Jeff has more chocolate pudding. Okay, so
we get about we'd load the car up, say our goodbyes.
We get about half hour down the road. Oh no,
and we realized that the back seat where my brother
was was suddenly filling up with something that looked an
(13:40):
awful lot like chocolate pudding. It was, it was horrible.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
I would just like to offer a sincere apology to
our viewers and listeners right now for putting that image
in your brains. But thank you, Brian. Sure anytime it
occurs to me that now you have forced my hand
to ask you what is perhaps the most important question
in life? Okay, I know we've waited a few shows
in for me to ask this. We're going there now,
(14:07):
we're gonna go there. I'm gonna ask you, and I'm
gonna go step further. I'm gonna tell you if you
answer this question wrong, it might not only mean the
end of our show, but it could spell the end
of our friends. No, this is pressure.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah yeah, okay, yeah, but I'm supposed to answer answer honestly.
You got to answer honestly, and I'm not okay, here
goes you ready?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah? Cake or Pie?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Okay, I will answer honestly.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Think carefully, Cake or Pie.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
I don't know what your answer is. I know what
the most popular of the two is, but I will
tell you, Cake or Pie. I'm a pie guy.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Oh thank god. Oh I'm gonna celebrate with Yeah, that
is great news. Yeah, I'm pie all the way.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Cake is like I don't no a graduated cotton candy.
To me, It's just like fine. But that's about it.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Pies.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I love pie.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Pi.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Man pie is where it's at.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Favorite pie. Blueberry pie, cold blueberry pie.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Cold pie is key.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
With vanilla ice cream. Vanilla bean ice cream.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
You double down on the cold. Oh so interesting because
then when it's cold, the ice cream doesn't melt as quickly.
I follow the logic. Okay, blueberry Pie, I see you,
and I raise you to key Lime pie.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Oh okay, the grill again, not advertisement. Yeah, the grill
grill on the Alley and Beverly Hills. The best key
Line pie I've ever had.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Key Lime Pie. I'm a fan of cherry pie. I
think there was a now sadly defunct place in Pasadena
that used to make this incredible chocolate banana pie that
had a chocolate Graham cracker crust. It was banana with
chocolate flakes. Oh my god. But pie is just the
ultimate comfort food, right, I can never get enough pie.
(15:58):
But but but we'll never heard anybody say that let
me just I'll drive it right down the barrel. I
can never get enough pie. But I will tell you this, sometimes,
although pie is the ultimate comfort food, Brian, sometimes it's
more than that. Uh. And so after we take a
(16:18):
quick break and I eat the rest of these jelly bellies,
we're gonna meet somebody who is ready to slice into
exactly what I mean when I say sometimes it's more
than just comfort.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
And that is next on the Bigger Humans Podcast.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Of a Bigger Kill, the bigger kill, bigger.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Then we will take you suck. Hey, you are not
eating my jelly bellies. You can eat my jelly bellies.
That's fine. No, no, yeah, I will share it only no.
Oh god wow.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
I like jellybellies, but I was gonna have one because
they look kind of good.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
I am a truly bad human. I should have shared
my jelly.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
You start off with activity, I'll go with negativity.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Okay, you know, just to counter my truly bad human
status for not sharing. We are proud and privileged to
welcome to the Big Good Humans Podcast. Rose McGee, and
let me tell you about this woman. She's incredible. Rose
is a recent Bush Fellow. She's a children's author. She's
a playwright, but probably way sweeter than all of that.
(17:40):
She is the founder of Sweet Potato Comfort Pie. This
is an organization that is headquartered in the Twin Cities
area of Minnesota. Minnesota. Rose and you will Love This
is a self described baketivist, right activist, bakectivist.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
All that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Who created this grantable organization whose work includes all kinds
of of cultural and creativity based programs that that basically
heal and uplift people in a way that I'm prepared
to say even the best pies couldn't do on their own.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
And let me tell you, we won't get into it
right away, but I will sometime during our interview with
this wonderful woman. Yeah, I know a secret about her.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Oh oh good, Okay, I like that. That's that's excellent.
Rose McGee, welcome to be good humans.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Well, thank you, my goodness. You guys are awesome. What
a wonderful title humans. Yeah, yeah, that's what this is about.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
We try. I mean, I need to be better about
sharing my jelly bellies. I really shouldn't have shut him down.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
It was like I had a handful. I was just
the green ones.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
You know what, I'll take you out for pie afterwards.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
That's what I was thinking. It's it's not the right
treat if it were pie.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
True.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
You're so right about that. Rose. There's probably nobody better
to serve up the story of exactly how you got
started with sweet potato comfort pie than you. So if
you wouldn't mind, would you please take us back to
twenty fourteen and tell us about the honestly bitter event
(19:19):
that inspired your particularly sweet movement.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah? Yeah, Well, unfortunately, it was another time in our history,
in this environment where we had seen this horrible situation
where another young black man had been killed. And for me,
I don't know why I felt compelled to do something
(19:47):
after young Michael Brown was murdered, because there have been
so many things, But I kind of say that maybe
it had to do with having watched the whole ordeal
of Trayvon Martin's murder case and knowing that you know,
(20:07):
in our opinions, that justice hadn't been served properly. I
don't know. I just know that when this hit, like others,
I felt the pain of the mothers and the grandmama's
and the folks who were aching over this child, if
(20:27):
my baby lay out there in the streets in this heat,
and you know, it was quite some time before his
body was removed. But whatever the situation was, I felt
compelled to respond. And I knew I wasn't going to
go down there and be in the streets with the protests.
That was something certainly that I have done. But I
(20:49):
just felt, well, what can I do? And this voice
spoke to me just clearly. In being a woman of faith,
I responded to it. And it wasn't like, you know,
I'm hearing your voices now, but it was an internal
voice that spoke to my heart that said, make some
pies and take them down there. And I thought that
was the most ridiculous thing.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
So I'm like, I'm not listening to myself.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
By the way, there's nothing ridiculous about that.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
It makes it. So I got up and I went
in the kitchen and I just walked around my kitchen
a little bit and I heard it again, make some
pies and take them down there, And all of a sudden,
rather than thinking rationally, I thought about all right, I
was thinking from my heart, I believe and decided, yes,
(21:36):
I will do that, And so I began trying to
figure it out and lay out the plan because I'd
never driven to this particular part of Missouri, but it turned.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Out from Minnesota. So you had this idea, and now
now what're you fill the car with pies and you
drive in Minnesota down to Missouri.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
I did. I filled a car of about thirty in
the trunk of my car. My son happened to have
been in town, and I asked him if he wanted
to ride with me. But I did make a phone
call to a pasture in that area to see if,
you know, he had any guidance, and he said, yeah,
I do have someone you can contact. So that's how
I felt more comfortable with where I was going and
(22:21):
no idea what I was going to do when I
got there. So that's how it started. And one of
the things I didn't do was just go up and say, here,
take this pie. But I would ask if you'd like
a sweet potato pie, and people would look at me like,
are you serious a sweet potato pie?
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah, because you might not take candy from strangers, but I,
for one would take a sweet potato pie from a stranger.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I don't know, but you know it was boxed in
the boxes that you will see images of and open
the box and the beautiful aroma comes out, which it
surprises me sometimes how nice it smells. And there's always
a heart on top, so people would usually be very
(23:04):
receptive to that. And I remember her name was Brittany Jones,
and she's a young lady that was standing there at
this you know, makeshift memorial there in the street where
young Michael's body had been. And I saw her standing
there just arguing with him, you should have been home,
you shouldn't have been out here that day. And I
(23:27):
walked over to her because at this time things had
calmed down by the time I arrived. You know, we
were all wondering what was going to happen, and people
that lived in the area were now inside their homes.
There was certainly, you know, the appearance of the burnings
and the looting and all that, but a lot of
(23:47):
people were also just still in shock and trying to
understand what to do next. So on this particular day,
it was pretty empty. It was a beautiful day, and
she's and I walked over to her and asked her
if she knew Michael, and she said, yes, we grew
up together. He lived right there and back there she
(24:09):
was pointing to the apartments where his son, where his
grandmother had lived. And so as a result of that,
I asked her if she would like a pie, and
she looked at me like and I said, yeah, if
you'd like one, I'd love to give you one. So
I went to my car and brought one back to her,
and she opened the box and the aroma just came out.
(24:32):
It's shocked me too. It smelled so good. And then
she said it smelled so good and it looks so pretty.
And then just like that, she fell in my arms
and started crying. And that's how it was for the
rest of that journey.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
This is extraordinary, Rosen. And you know again, if you're
just joining us, this is twenty fourteen. This is the
terrible death of Michael Brown Junior and Ferguson, Missouri. This
is a community not just locally but across the country
that is ignited by pain and grief. And Rose is
(25:08):
trying to figure out some way that she could possibly
be helpful. And you hear this voice in the back
of your head that says, you know, bake a pie,
and you don't stop there. You bake thirty pies and
fill your car with them and take your son from
Minnesota to Missouri. Let's back up though, to that moment
in the kitchen when you've got this voice talking to you.
(25:28):
Did it specifically tell you to make a sweet potato
pie or is that just where you landed? And if so,
why what is it about sweet potato pie that that
spoke to you in that moment?
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Well, it was the only pie I could make, so.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Well that helps. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Where did where did that recipe come from? Handed down?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Yeah, it began. It began with my grandmother. I grew
up in rural Tennessee, Jackson, Tennessee, actually, and that pie
well some thing that the women in the community just
knew how to make. But the thing about most, you know,
people who cook, there's always going to be something that
people really like that you make, right, So when it
(26:12):
came to sweet potato pie, my grandmothers was usually one
that people would ask for. A Rosie's pie ross and
so here I am. I didn't grow up doing a
lot of cooking. Actually, the thing that I cooked most
was probably corn bread. I really was kind of good.
But I didn't do much cooking. I had other chores
and I was raised by my grandmother and my great grandmother,
(26:35):
And here I am.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Now.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I graduated from college, and I moved to Denver, Colorado,
and I'm married. And I woke up one Sunday morning
with this desire to make sweet potato pie and a
BlackBerry cobbler. And I think, you know, I can't can't
be anything to that. So I called my grandmother, because
by then my great grandmother had passed, and I said, well, Mom,
(26:57):
I'd like to make a sweet potato pie and a
BlackBerry cobbler. Can you give me the recipe? And she said,
what recipe? It's in my head, baby, And apparently it
didn't transfer from her head to my too well, because
I made the biggest mess. It was horrible, and I
threw them both out and want anybody to see it,
(27:20):
and I felt compelled to try them both again. The
sweet potato pie was not bad, but the BlackBerry cobbler
was still horrible. And the next thing I knew, I
just continue to make the sweet potato pie and it
continued to get better.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
There you go, You worked out the kinks, and then
your sweet potato pie became the go to.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Well. A lot happened though over the course of miles
and years. Because I moved from Denver and I moved
to Minnesota. I ended up working with IBM Corporation. You know,
i'd been moved, So you're supposed to laugh at that seat.
You're too young to know. I mean, it used to
(28:02):
be that if you worked for IBM, the IBM was
I've been moved, because everybody Okay, hell so anyway, No,
you're just not old enough to get that. But as
it turned out, I started, and this is what I
tell people. The pie started calling me long before I
(28:24):
even knew it. Automatically. I would find myself no matter
where I was, and if sweet potato pie was on
the recipe, I wanted to taste it, and if there
was something unique about it, I'd ask what's in it?
So that's how I started acquiring other ingredients that worked
that tasted different. So I had a pie once and
(28:46):
it was so rich, And it turned out that she
used condensed milk instead of evaporated which I had grown
up with. And then I had assignment with IBM once
in Florida, and I was having dinner at this woman's
house and it was so different her pie, and I said,
what's in it and she starts telling me. Then she says,
(29:07):
let me think, did I use orange or did I
use limon? Or did I use And.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
I'm like, what, so uh interesting?
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Yeah, And that's when I learned about citrus ethic later.
And so now with the recipe, if you use the
lemon at the end of putting all of your ingredients,
it helps to smooth and out and balance out those
spices so that one doesn't overpower the other unless you
want one to. Then you use more of that, but
(29:39):
it just gives it a different flavor altogether interesting.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
So you're perfecting your pie recipe over time. And then
what a lot of people may not realize, Brian and
I didn't know this myself until we started preparing to
meet with Rose, but there's a real historical significance to
sweet potato pie, right, there's a fascinating history. Sweet potatoes
come from South America. They first made their way into
(30:04):
pies and tarts in Britain, and apparently they were a
big favorite of Henry the eighth, so very much a
bougie luxury dessert. But then, like so many other things,
sweet potatoes make their way to Colonial America. They wound
up getting grown on a lot of plantations, which of
course were then grown intended to by African slaves, and
(30:27):
then those cooks started adding their own tastes and passing
down recipes like the one that Rose got from her
grandmother and then perfected over time until these recipes basically
passed through generations of black families and really become If
I'm not mistaken here, Rose deeply linked to Black culture
(30:48):
in a lot of ways.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Absolutely. I consider it the sacred dessert of Black culture.
And that's what I call it, because no matter where
you are, if you really are into our culture, our
food culture, sweet potato pie is going to be there somewhere,
and if it's not there, it's because people don't know
how to make it. So that's been one of the things.
(31:10):
It's one of those things that has happened. It's a
hard process. It's not like you just go in and
you just throw up a pie just like that unless
you really know what you're doing. You've got to cook
the potatoes, and then you've got to mix the ingredients,
and then it's got to bake, and then it's got
a cool offen set for a while. So it takes time.
And when you make a pie. You don't make just
(31:33):
one unless you only want one, but a general recipe
will make two pies. So this is what I've been
teaching people over the past few years. Also that if
you're going to use the recipe and make two pies,
gift one of them to somebody. Gift one of them
to somebody, and you can keep the other one for
(31:53):
yourself if you want to eat it by yourself or
share it with anybody.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Else you are.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
You're in Missouri, and you really kind of drove down,
not knowing what to expect. You just you know, you
had some very loving made with care wanting to help
sweet potato pies. But then the lady opens the box,
smells the aroma, and falls into your arms. And this
(32:20):
happened over and over again. As you're there, talk about
what happened then afterwards, what led you to what you
do now?
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Well, if you can imagine meeting people, and I didn't
know who I was going to meet along this way
on this journey, and I remember I went out to
dinner and it had been a long day, and you know,
we've been gifting pies here and there, just gifting them
depending on who it felt like. I should. And I'm
(32:53):
in line at a very popular restaurant that you know,
we know all about it on television, this particular restaurant,
which is why the line was so long. And there
was this black family right in front of me, and
it was obvious that they were celebrating something. And I
finally just said, I can hear that you all having
(33:14):
a good celebratory time. What's happening. Congratulations, you know, And
they didn't tell me my own business. They just said
we're celebrating. Somebody said this is my niece and she
just graduated from nursing school. And I said, well, congratulations,
good for you, and then she said, yes, ma'am. And
(33:39):
this is the first time I've been out because my
baby was born a premie and has been in the
hospital for the last two months, and this is the
first time I've really gotten out to enjoy that I
got this degree now. And I just got chills when
she told me that story, and I said, I'm so
(34:00):
proud of you, and I just because I had had
a baby too that was in the hospital for three
months and he did pass away, but I can imagine
what it must have been like for her traveling back
and forth to this hospital every day to see a baby,
and she's still trying to study. And we all went
(34:22):
in and we had our lunch, our dinner. Right as
I was leaving, I looked over and saw them, and
I went over to her table and I said, congratulations
to you again, and she just looked so happy. And
that's when I asked her if she would like a pie.
And here we are in this restaurant, right we probably
(34:44):
had a very good sweet potato pie. And I said,
I will go and get one for you in my car,
and I came back and gave it to her and
she just started baling just like that.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
What is clear Rose here is that for all the
effort you have put into perfecting your sweet potato pie
over time, probably the most important key ingredient is empathy.
You are approaching strangers you meet in the street and
in restaurants, and you are in a simple act of
humanity and grace. You are feeling a need in them,
(35:21):
and you are filling that need on some level with
a pie, of all things. And if we have this right,
since this first series of experiences in Missouri, you have
delivered more than four thousand pies across the country, often
in response to racially driven events, whether it's in Charleston
(35:44):
or Pittsburgh or Standing Rock or right there at home
in Twin Cities. But your work has expanded, hasn't it.
It's not just limited to sweet potato comfort pie. At
this point, you're doing all kind things to sort of
try and heal damage that is caused by race based trauma,
(36:05):
to try and elevate marginalized voices and experiences in all
kinds of other ways. Talk to us more about how
this mission has gotten bigger for you than just making
an amazing sweet potato pie.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Volunteers, volunteers. I can't say that enough. And even with
what you just mentioned, with the four thousand that includes this,
I personally didn't make all four thousand. It's people making
these four thousand and teaching people how to And you know,
somebody says there's been more than four thousand ros, you
(36:39):
need to elevate that number, and said, okay, we'll do that.
But when COVID happened, you know, in March of twenty twenty,
I was at my home wondering how am I gonna what?
So I decided to just start making pies and putting
them on my front porch and I put them in
the plastic bags, you know, with plastic and I put
(37:01):
the word out on Facebook or whatever and say, anybody
who would like to pick up punies to take to
a first responder that you know, feel free to come
and pick it up.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Remarkable remark.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
And so that happened, and then a few weeks later,
George Floyd is murdered and all of that is happening
right during COVID. So during the midst of all of
that is when I felt the urge to go online
and invite people to make pies with me online. And
that's what they did. And I said, the recipe you're
(37:33):
making makes two pies, because they had the recipe, So
run onto the store and we're going to tune back
in on Facebook live at this particular time and see
where we go. And what happened then was I decided
to This was on a Sunday night and Monday. I
(37:53):
made the announcement to them that night. Why don't you
join me, those of you who live locally, at six
o'clock tomorrow Monday, and we're going to take these pies
up to where mister George Floyd was murdered and we'll
gift them to people. I was shocked when I looked
outside my house that day and there was a line
(38:14):
of vehicles. I'm like, oh my, and I went out
and I'm like, okay, thank you all for being here.
And they said, well, what are we going to do? Rose,
what's the plan?
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Well, let me let me interject a question for you
at this point, did you know how many followers you had?
Speaker 3 (38:30):
No?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Yeah, no, I.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Haven't paid an attention to that.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
I really did, But you were clearly you were clearly
connecting with people who also had a need to help,
felt that desire, and felt that frustration, and wanted to
try and channel it into something positive, try and put
some kind of love in the universe when it's particularly
dark all around you. And so it doesn't surprise me
(38:55):
at all that these people show up at your house,
but then you shock to the well, you speak to
the volunteerism there, like it seems like you really sort
of created a movement right that born from this has
become the story circles and speaker series and healing retreats
and workshops and all kinds of like community based artistic productions.
(39:19):
It's just it has grown into something so much bigger
than just a pie.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Right, I could say that, you know, some of this
stuff that I'm now starting to do, I've been doing
all along, and it's like, oh gosh, yeah, story circles.
It makes sense that when we bring people together over pie,
that we allow you to take some time and circle
(39:44):
and have these conversations with each other. And this play
that I wrote, you know, this is the season juneteenth.
I wrote this play twenty eight years ago, and now
you know it's starting to get greater visibility and we
want it one day to be on stage on Broadway.
You all can make that happen. Please go right ahead, call.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Somebod on it.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
We'll even settle for off Broadway. It's all right. The
idea is that people get a chance to learn about
a part and a piece of history that was omitted.
But it doesn't stop there. It's it's it's this resurgence
that folks have to survive and to to make it
(40:27):
no matter what appears to be hopeless. And that's that's
what it's about. And now you know, when when I
do any kind of presentation, always have I try to
inspire young people to tap into their own gift. What
is it? What is that likeness in your life? And
(40:48):
now that I'm an elder, I try to do the
same thing with older people too, so that people don't
allow age. It's easy to say, oh, I can't do
that because I'm just old, and that may be true
in some ways. But if there's something that you know
that you really want to do, it doesn't matter how
(41:09):
old you are, you go ahead and do it.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Yeah. Wow, that's great advice. You're amazing, Rose, as powerful
and meaningful as all of your work is. I know
for a fact that there are plenty of people watching
and listening right now who who are also going to
want first and foremost your sweet Potato pie recipe. So
rest assured, we're going to post that recipe for two pies.
(41:34):
It's key that you make two pies. We're going to
post that recipe on our YouTube channel on our website.
But Rose, can you also give our viewers and listeners,
who I'm sure have an appetite for something bigger than
just pie, some ideas on how they can help support
you and your work with Sweet Potato Comfort Pie.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
I really appreciate you asking that because we never ask
for this. I never asked for this. I just felt
like I needed to do something, and now it is there.
We have people wanting more, and what I'm finding is
what I don't feel like doing really is it takes
resources for that. So feel free to make a donation
(42:16):
if you'd like, and just go on our websites with
Potato Coomfortpie dot org. You're welcome to do that. We
also welcome volunteers. But I would love to be in
any city, any community where I can just come and
share this story with you, and you can call us
and we can have a virtual conversation if you want to.
(42:37):
I mean, I've had schools say we want to do
this in our school, and one of them, I have
to tell you, this story is such beautiful. Several student
stories that are beautiful, but this particular one is a
middle school in Minnesota here and they had been every
year round the November Thanksgiving holiday time frame. Their students
(42:58):
would gather clothing and articles and things to be taken
to a nearby shelter, but because of COVID, they couldn't
do that. The shelter wouldn't accept items. So they've heard
about the pies and they wondered, how can we take
this project and do something with it because it's such
a moving project. So I went in and I spoke
(43:20):
with students, and then they decided, we'll just make the
pies through the family consumer science class. In my day,
it was called home economics, and I thought it still
was family and consumer science.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Arose by any other names.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
So here you have this group of students making the pies,
and first they talk about how the whole school has
this aroma. The whole school seems calm down because of
the smell that's all over them when they're making these.
And then they have the pies. They can't just sell
(43:58):
the pies because they can't sell the pies, but they
have the pies available for donations. So teachers and parents
and families come and they get a pie and make
a donation, so that money from the donation is what
they're able to give to the shelter, and the shelter
is able to utilize it how it needs to be done.
(44:21):
So they've done that now for three.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Years, and how does that make you feel?
Speaker 3 (44:26):
It? Right now? It's giving me chills just thinking about it,
because they made a lovely video. It increases each year.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
They say, wow, well, that's incredible. So listen, if you
would like to find a way that you can be
helpful to Rose and this incredible cause, Sweet Potato Coomfortpie
dot org. That is the website and we will make
sure that that appears on our site and the YouTube
channel as well.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Listen, I loved you before, Rose, but what you said,
I don't usually ask you know, like you know, I
don't you know if it comes up like it did here,
But that just it's it makes you even more of
a good human. No that you're not plugging, you're not pushing,
You're just you're just sharing with not only us, but
(45:14):
with everyone you come in contact with, your love of love.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Yeah, we want to thank you so much Rose for
joining us, not just for being so sweet, but just
for being such a positive force for healing and hopefully change.
So you are, by our estimation, the very definition of
a good human and we might might actually like you
a little bit more than Pie a little bit.
Speaker 3 (45:41):
Well, thank you, thank you. This is what I want
you to do. I want between the two of you,
somebody make a pie. Make a pie, and please send
a pitch is a video or something to us so
we can see it and put it on our website
of the two of you, and let me tell you something.
You can have the same recipe. I tell people all
the time it could be ten recipe. I mean ten
(46:03):
people making the same recipe, and it's always going to
be slightly different like people. It is. So the two
of you are going to use my recipe make a
sweet potato pie, and you're gonna be able to say
you didn't put this in a did you? Oh yeah,
because mine doesn't taste like that.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
Uh Dale, Thank you so much. Rose. We're gonna we're
gonna sign off now and go make some pie. But again,
sweet Potato Coomfortpie dot org is where you want to go.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Beautiful videos, wonderful messages. Yeah, and we just touched the
tip of the iceberg on all the things that she
is doing to bring people together. So enjoy that website.
It's beautiful and so were you.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
Thank you very much, Rose, Thank.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
You, Thank you, gentlemen, thank you.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
We will take you suck.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
Oh my gosh, she's amazing.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Yeah, and do do go to that website. It's just
it's truly a gift of everything she's involved with it,
just because of that pie that she makes. I didn't
get a chance to tell you the secret I know
about her?
Speaker 1 (47:15):
Oh yeah, what's the secret?
Speaker 2 (47:17):
Look in preparation for these episodes? Sure, you know, you
do a lot of research, and I'm reading articles about
her and seeing interviews and she kind of says with
her the corners of her mouth turned up a little bit.
She goes, you know, I make these pies, but I
don't really like to cook that much.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
I just cracked me up. Wow, that truly is a
labor of love, but makes it even.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Even more special.
Speaker 1 (47:43):
Yeah, wow, well that's amazing. Yeah, please go to our website.
We will have the information there for how you can
support Sweet Potato Pie Comfort. And while you're there, do
us a favor. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead
and click the like and subscribe. That would be helpful
to us. And follow us on all the socials, Facebook
and Instagram, threads and tiktoking like us ex give us
(48:08):
your likes. They really are helpful, so we appreciate that.
And visit our website be Good Humans podcast dot com.
This is where you can not only tell us about
good humans in your lives.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
Now you think we might want to interview and just
like we did that would be super cool.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
And then you can give us also some pointers while
you're at it on how to be a good human.
We're never above those.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
I can tell you how to be a good human
if you share your gummy bears.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Or I would share them with you. But they've apparently disappeared.
I'm guessing Ryan.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Didn't take them off camera, Sean, Iona, I wonder who
that might take. That's horrible.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
You know what, I tell you what? You know what? No, No,
I've been I've been inspired by Rose. Whoever took my
jelly bellies? You may have them, awesome, you may great.
I think we're finished here other than one thing, which
is always important to remind you to do. Please, like Brian,
(49:08):
be good humans. Be good humans.
Speaker 3 (49:13):
Be good humans. Be good humans, or we will thank
you suck.
Speaker 1 (49:20):
Be Good Humans is executive produced by Brian Phelps, Trey Callaway,
and Grant Anderson, with associate producers Sean Fitzgerald and Clementine Callaway,
and partnership with straw Hut Media. Please like, follow, and subscribe,
and remember, be good humans.
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