October 14, 2024 • 60 mins
Roy Wood Jr. (Have I Got News For You, The Daily Show) joins Ego as her dad for the day to discuss losing his father at a young age, the key to co-parenting, and the complexities of dating as a single dad. Later on, Roy offers Ego advice about online shopping.
Guest: Roy Wood Jr.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is a headgun podcast. Hello, I may go od him,
and welcome to Thanks Dad. I was raised by a
single mom and don't have a relationship with my dad,
and I don't think I'm ever going to have one
(00:23):
with him because he is in fact dead.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Oh, how to do it?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
He said, that'll do it is very funny. Okay, So
on this podcast, I'm sitting down with father figures who
are old enough to be my dad. Well, thank you,
or are just dads themselves. I actually don't know how
old you are.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You could have been my dad if I was an
irresponsible high schooler, I.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Guess, yeah, you could have been school. Middle school, yeah, well,
you know, elementary school, early early late late elementary.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I know a dude in sixth grade had a baby.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I know a girl in wait was she in no, okay,
cause I would have been sad if I said she
was also sixth grade. And she was in sixth grade
and had a baby, which is really wild, and it
was her boyfriend was like a high school or something.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Get jealous of people had a baby in middle school, Like,
damn they got it out the.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Way sometimes I do, sometimes I do. Actually I know
they really did get it out the way and like
those people who had their babies in middle school, their
kids aren't grown grown now, and it's like, yeah, it
may be Okay. I'm sitting down with father figures who
are old enough to be my dad or just dads themselves.
(01:47):
I'll get to ask the questions I've always wanted to
ask a dad, like how do I know if the
guy I'm dating is right for me? Or what should
I look out for when buying a car? Can you
help me change the oil in said car that I
am yet to own? Could you you've seen your southern
you could change oil? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
You hitting your randiators all that?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Oh wow? Okay, cumstances, Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Fan bilts too. But I'm more of a tire and
break pad guy. I'm not really an inernce of the
motor type of person. Can do it if needed, if needed.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Do you have triple A?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Okay, so if you broke down on the side of
the road, do you call triple A? You're you're rich
now in Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I don't know about rich, but.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
You have money in the bank.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Triple A is twenty dollars a month. Let's let's establish
the metric of what.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
This cost I actually don't know how much it costs
because I think I have it and my mom pays
for it. I don't even have a car.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I have Triple A because it's cheaper than the rental
car roadside assistance. Okay, and I've had Triple A since
high school, when I first had a car. Right, Yeah,
Triple A is worth the trouble.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I've had it since high school.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I can do all the man shit. I just choose
not to because I did so much of it for
so long that I feel like I've earned the right
to pay someone.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah to do it. Okay, Okay, and I respect that. Actually,
it's not a matter of you being rich. It's a
matter of I've heard I've earned this and I'm tired.
You can catch my next guest on his CNN show.
Have I Got news for you? Please welcome my dad
for the day, Roy Woods Junior. Hello, Hello, Roy Wood Junior.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
You can clean up just god damn moon, someone.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
I got someone else to do it. This is what
they did. I am too tired to clean up my
own ship, and I got someone else to clean up
this room. Thank you. I'm so happy to have you.
This is so wonderful. I you see, I didn't even
know you were a dad, and then somehow I heard
you were a dad. Your kid is a secret is? Yeah?
(03:54):
What is? And people and the people who don't know
don't They probably don't need to know anyway, right, I
don't even know how I found out you hadocated because
well maybe you said something. Why why secret ish?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Because I live a life where I talk a lot
of ship about a lot of weird people, and so
he deserves a life that's not in the cross hairs
because his dad talks a lot of shit, right, So
I try to give him a space to grow up.
You know, don't get me wrong, I'm not like it's
not Baron Trump level protocols where I have to like
(04:30):
keep him away from everything and you never see him
like I'm out of my child. I post him from
time to time.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
On the own story. Right, He's like a girl, Like
a girl you're seeing you don't know, you don't know, you.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Think, And to me, I also enjoy the fact that
you don't get to know all parts of me. It's
not for y'all, it's not for everybody.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Everything about she is not for consumption.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Correct, I mean, I'm out here to entertain. I'm not
here to entertain and make my couple of jokes and
keep it moving. There are days where, of course, you know,
he's an inspiration. I sold a book. The book is
rooted around lessons that I learned from my dad that
I hope I can pass on to him. The whole
conceit of the book his fatherhood. So I don't feel
(05:24):
like we yet know what the consequences will be for
our kids having too much visibility before they decide to
be themselves. So I grew up in Birmingham in the
shadow of my father. My father was a well established
(05:44):
and right now and respective black journalists in the city
like Birmingham that's essentially seventy five eighty percent black. Birmingham
proper is black black. So my dad was the man,
he ran the city. And then I'm walking around with
Junior tagged onto my shit. So there's just certain I
(06:08):
don't know behavioral expectations or assumptions that were made about me, Like,
I just don't know what the price is of being
my child, So I try to minimize the price for
him by minimizing exposure.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
You feel you know the price of being your father's son, though,
because you lived it, and now you can say.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, what it was. But the price of that was
the assumption that I was him. But that was in Birmingham.
My dad spoke highly of black people, He defended blackness.
He was a champion of all things black for the
entirety of his career. So it was more living in
a complimentary legacy. I don't have that same love nationally
(06:54):
that my dad had. Locally, there's a lot of people
that liked me, a lot of people that's indifferent. People
who don't rock with me, really don't rock with me.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Really.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I have to be mindful of that because you won't
be mad at me. You don't like me, that's fine, cool,
But the boy is the boy. He got none to
do with this, Okay. So I don't want my son
to ever be in a situation where he feels any
type of burden, you know, like that, because he's with
(07:24):
me and thankfully nothing crazy has ever happened. You know,
there can be some Please give me a picture of
moments that can be a little intrusively odd. But even
though we've managed o K and we talked through okay,
But yeah, no, you're not going to see me in
a commercial with my son anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
And you don't necessarily want him to be an actor.
You're not like, You're not like, yeah, you should be
on stage as well. You don't have any expectation for
him in that.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Regard, right. My approach to my son is the same
as my mother. Whatever you show interest in today, I'm
going to give you every recent source and asset to
explore that interest. And if tomorrow that interest is different,
we'll explore that, okay. But I don't steer him towards anything.
I take him with me to work sometimes just so
(08:14):
he can understand who I am and what I do.
That part of it, Like those memories of my dad
are probably the most fond, okay. Or when we got
to travel together and when I went to the radio
station or the TV station with him. So I used
to take him around the Daily show here and there.
I've taken him up to CNN once or twice, so
(08:35):
that when I'm dead and gone and he's informing himself
on who I am, he has his own memories to
add into that, and he's not piecing together everybody else's
puzzle pieces. So yeah, I'll take him to stuff, but
like he knows, I do stand up. I've taken him
(08:56):
to sound checks before. He's funny. He has a sense
of humor. But I'm never going to go you must
do comedy or you can't do comedy. I don't think
he'll be good at comedy because he has two parents
that love him.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
But didn't you have two parents that loved you? Which
one didn't love you? You had two parents, we know
that at least one you felt loved you.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I mean, you're okay, good dad, bad husband, So that's
a confliction.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I hear. You know what, can we talk about? Good dad,
bad husband? I hear from so many men in just
casual conversation. I can't wait to be a dad. I
can't wait to be a dad. I'm going to be
such a good dad, and I so rarely hear. I
don't think i've ever really heard, actually a man go,
(09:48):
I can't wait to be a husband. I'm going to
be a good husband to someone. I've never really heard that,
and I think that's unfortunate, because they say that part
of being a good dad is being a good husband
to your partner and having your kids witness that as well.
One of the best things you can do is be
a good husband. But I so rarely hear a man
say I want to be a good.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Husband because you didn't see good husbands. Yeah, so why
would I describe for that? I never saw it, So
I never even consciously understood the concept. I mean I
get it now. You know, even in a co parenting capacity,
there's still a degree of understanding of oh, well, anyone
I'm dating, which is why it's interesting. Like if I
(10:33):
meet a woman who goes, I don't want kids, well,
then in my mind I'm like, well, we can't really
do anything. Do you not want to have kids? But
do you not fuck with kids at all?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
It's different, Yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
No matter what, this is a step parent situation, you're
potentially walking yourself into so we cannot.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
But if a woman says so it's that I don't
want to have them, I don't want to do that
to my body, You're like, Okay, there's there's still potential there.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
That we'll see. It's not a green light. Yeah, okay
it let's continue. But at some point I gotta keep
game on your energy towards children and the ideology of
raising a child, and then adding in the equation of
(11:26):
co parenting on top of that. So the idea of
understanding that your child needs to see love and a
positive lighter and some sort of construct ideally keep the
home to be over but in the sense of the
(11:50):
triangulation of three people within the space are having love
and appreciation and respect for one another. If you start there,
then you got something.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, I think that makes sense. Now. You said something earlier,
which is that the expectation of you, considering who your
father was, was that you would be your father. I'm
presuming that felt like pressure for you. Is that true
or what exactly did that feel like for you to
have people expect for you to be your father.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
It's a little different the ironies that I became my father.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I think so. By the way, if I'm allowed to
say that might be rude. I don't even know him,
but the little bit you said about him and the
whole setup and how you felt and how your son
might feel right now, I'm like, I think you were
him in a different way.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Deree.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Okay to a degree.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
But the idea of the pressure I rejected because I
resented him when I got older.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
You resented him when you got older.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, it wasn't until I got older. Why so My
dad died when I was sixteen, Okay, So you know,
just for perspective, my father was a civil rights journalist
and an activist, and he co founded the National Black Network,
which at its time in the sixties was a syndicated
news radio program informing black people about black issues. It
(13:16):
was the only thing of its kind, nothing existed before it.
He was embedded in pretty much every atrocity that affected
black people from the nineteen fifties through Rodney King. He
covered physically on the ground there Vietnam, Korea, Rhodesian Civil Wars, Zimbabwe.
(13:44):
Now he was there for that, so wait till riots
in South Africa. Was there for that civil rights movement
of course. So he was a revered and trusted voice
in the black community when it came to tackle issues
about race. And so by the time he got to Birmingham,
(14:06):
that was what he was known for. His commentary was biting,
and he challenged local leaders, white politicians like my daddy
was on your ass with that microphone, and so you know,
that made him respected and revered. So the assumption when
(14:26):
you see someone that is like done everything the right
way professionally, you assume that private life, everything is humming
and necessarily wasn't and so like just for perspective without
even getting into all of it, but it's enough detail
to give you the understanding. I'm the ninth of eleven kids.
(14:46):
I'm my mother's only child, so you do the math
on it. So that's the type of person with the
dichotomy of man. And so he was a behemoth on radio.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
So when I graduate from college from Florida and m
and I come back home to Birmingham and I start
interning at the station where my father used to work.
It was the black station that you know.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Then he's no longer alive at this point, most.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Black people in radio and Birmingham owe their career to
my father, just from the sense of he hired you.
Most people at that time, especially over a certain age,
you either worked with my father or you were hired
by him. So that afforded me a degree of accessibility
(15:43):
within the city off of his name because they respected him,
they respected me. But now it's me.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
You're just like you did off the little block, right.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
He used to drive me off the fucking wall.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
And that was driving you up the law when you
were in college.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
And you were when I when I graduated college, and
I came home to intern and Burmie over what would
eventually become a twelve year arc in the morning radio
while I get stand up. But this idea of all right,
you did your thing. I am going to work so
(16:16):
hard and be so good and be so funny that
I'm going to make people forget your name. I'm going
to erase you from the memories of the people who
claim they love you.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
But then there's a junior of it all. Then you
have the same ass name.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I didn't calculate that other time.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I didn't think about that.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Anything I wanted, yeah, was to stand on my own.
And when you see me, you see me. You never
see him. You don't even think about him. You think
about me. And the idea of this independence, breaking off
from his legacy and being able to say, well, you know, yeah,
(16:57):
you did your thing with the journalism stuff, but I'm
over here and I'm funny and people love me the
same and it has nothing to do with you. And
then you look up. And then once I hit my thirties,
my comedy becomes more political, my comedy becomes more opinionated.
And then when I have my child, oh hell breaks loose.
In terms of the types of really societal stuff. I
(17:20):
want to break down point twice. Look up, I am
a funnier version of my father attacking the same issues,
and in fact, what I do in the way I
do it only strengthened the connection that people have between
the two of us because they see what I do
as an extension of.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Him, and you just you can't shake it.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
But it is an extension.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
It is. But that's and you want right now. It's fine,
It is okay.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
It's like any kid. You know, I didn't get to
go through my rebel. I hate my father face because
he died when I was a teenager, like fourteen through sixteen.
Cancer got him pretty good. He died when I was sixteen.
That's the rebel. Fuck you, you don't know. I know
(18:13):
what I'm doing. I went through that entire phase without
him and then still has to come right back around
and go. Yeah, the home life wasn't what it was
supposed to be. But damn man, you was right about this, this, this,
and this all to speaking engagements you used to make
me drive you to where I will watch you speak
about this, this, this, and this. Man, that same stuff
(18:34):
happening right now. And it's just clearly obvious, and it's like, yeah,
very interesting.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
So today, would you say your feelings towards him are
that of resentment or appreciation? Obviously it's not a binary
and it can be a little bit of both. But
you said I started to resent him when I got older.
Are you Are you saying that's where you live right now?
Or it's okay, okay, it's.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Just it's it's understanding. It wasn't. It wasn't the best move,
you know, on the family side of the game. But
I can look at that with maturity now and understand
how to move. So I try not to make the
same mistakes for my son and then identify the parts
of the parts of our parents that we want to
(19:21):
keep in the parts that we can just discard.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Right. I know you're private about your son, so I
pass on this question if you'd like to. I'm just
fascinated by the junior of it all. Is your son
(19:47):
a third Okay, Okay, I've given how private you are.
I was like, it might be enough. Okay, you knew
you didn't want to do that to him because of
what you felt by just having the junior attached, and
you didn't want to do that. Okay, now, right.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
And if they know you're related to me, they'll figure
it out.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Right now, did were you your father's first son? So
you're he has eleven children, you're the ninth. Were you
his first son? So he just didn't want to name
the others? Junior? Yes, do you have any idea why?
He was like, not this one, not this one, not this.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Nigga, but this one here, that's the one.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Because now look at you. You're literally like what you're
describing to me. Obviously I've never met your father. I'm like, yes,
you do really become your parents in so many ways,
even if you try to be. And I'm like, damn,
imagine being one of the other boys, Like I couldn't
get the junior.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Why do you hit the junior people? I'm my mother's
only child. Sure, I don't think she cared either way, but.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Maybe and okay, maybe for him, maybe that piece of information.
I really wish we could bring him back right now
and ask him why you got the junior.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yes, I don't think we can get ship out of them.
Old black people don't be.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Sharing, communicating too much. I'm going to be you know what,
I'm gonna go ahead and say, yes, that's true.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Black people don't share shit, but recipes. I'm like, if
you don't give me your trauma so I can sort
out what the fuck is wrong with me?
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah, asking all these questions my mom, I feel like
I sensed my mom getting tense anytime I started to
be like, so when you were I have a friend
tell me this. She's like, I was talking to some
healer and they were saying that you can get so
much information about the way you are day to day
and in the world based on how your mom was
(21:40):
feeling when she was pregnant with you. Was she in
an anxious state? Was she feeling positive and thriving? And
so she's like, and I talked to my mom about
how she was feeling when she was pregnant with me,
and she was like, I was so scared because we
were undocumented and this, this and that, and so I
was like, I'm going to ask my mom because maybe
I can figure out why and the way my mom
I was like, bitch, what are you doing about Yeah?
(22:02):
She was like, why are you asking me this? I'm
not trying to talk.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
To you about this instead of actually instead of actually
sitting for a second, and sitting with it, you got
to ask repeatedly for years.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Yes, that's true. So it's nice to hear that that's
not just my experience, because that is my experience now
in terms of how things were at home and you
talk about how it just it wasn't quite right or
the way it was supposed to be. Were you aware
of that as a young person or is that something
you started to realize when you got older, that this
(22:36):
wasn't quite right and that house.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Wasn't like other people's house. I mean, like just for perspective,
I mean, there were nights that my dad would be
you know, I have two younger half half siblings, so
my dad would be over there, So that'd be ninety
days I'm.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Home and you know he was over there. Yeah, Okay, it.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Didn't really the lights was on, those food in the fridge. Okay,
this doesn't. If that's if that's what you've grown up in,
then that's all you know. So yeah, I went to
some other people's homes and their daddy was home every day.
My dad's just not home every day. And that's just
how I processed. I didn't think about it in the
sense of the black family bond.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
And you're not, no, you just it's just like.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
This, Hey, I made ten dollars for the field trip.
Well your daddy he said, you ain't gonna be doing
the field trip. Okay, really cool. Call him over at
the other house.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
He would, you have to call yourself something, Mama, I'm
gonna call you were called and asked for your dad? Wow?
How old were you when that started? Or do you
remember whenever you.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Need ten dollars as a kid, like wow, thirteen tween?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, and you were like, this is what it is.
It's this is different than my friends.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
But how can you miss what you don't? You know
what I mean?
Speaker 1 (23:56):
That resonates with me so deeply because I have that
on this podcast already a million times over. It's part
of why the podcast exists is that I didn't have
a relationship with my dad. And I think people want
to go, oh, I'm so oh, and I go my
parents got divorced when I was a baby. So even
the notion of divorce and how painful or dramatic that
(24:16):
might be for a household, I'm like, didn't see it,
don't know it. My mom raised me. I had a
lot of family around me. I have two brothers, older brothers,
I have tons of uncles, and so I'm like that
thing you want me to feel, this giant void, I
don't really feel it, and so like, how can you
miss what you don't know?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Yeah, but then people will turn around and go, well,
as a father, now you don't have a reservoir to
pool from to nurture and do the thing because you
didn't have the man nurture. And even if that's true,
I can't go and sit and be sad or cry
about that. Right now, I still have a child to raise,
so right, my mind is still rooted in what can
(24:55):
I do to connect with my son? And periodically you
can go back to the reservoir of thinking about, okay,
well what did my father do in this situation? And
that file is empty?
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Okay, And that.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Can be a little annoying at times, But in the
biggest scheme of things, I don't know. I just still
feel like there's a job to be done in this race.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Kid, Right, are there things from your father that you
go when you go in that file cabinet that you
look at and go, Okay, he did give me this
that I can now impart to my son. He did
do this thing that I can now do for my
son and that I would like to do for my son.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, I'd say work ethic and tedacity. Nobody I work
my dad. My dad worked until three weeks before he
died with the full blown prostate cancer. Didn't take chemo
because it would make him too weak to do radio,
really work ethic. M. You know, I don't know if
(25:58):
that's escapism, lunacy, whatever, but that was his approach to
his craft, and he enjoyed remaining connected to people. My
son enjoys that connection. So there's I'd say that's probably
the most evident thing. Okay, but for sure the desire
to talk that boy is orator.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Mm hmm okay, it's blood life. Yeah. Did you feel
when you were younger though, did like, did you guys
did have a connection. I know, you would go with
him to work events, he would take you in the
car with him, You would go on these trips. You
would get to see him do what he does and
be good at it, see him revered by peers and colleagues.
(26:42):
But did you feel like you had a connection beyond
that outside of that? M.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
I don't know, Like, in hindsight, probably not, But I
never felt disconnected, like I never well, my dad was gonna,
never missed him, so whatever that means. But like the
idea of like, man, we were coming home, Dad's will
you hang out? Never really had that, And it really
(27:15):
wasn't until I look, you know, because my father worked
in the mornings. He was a morning radio news guy,
so my dad was gone before I woke up in
the morning. And then my father also worked an evening
shift doing jazz jazz station or whatever.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Okay, so.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
I might see my pop somewhere between four to seven pm,
like if it's his week to come pick me up
from baseball practice in high school, all right, I see
you at six thirty, practicing every day at six thirty,
So there's that he dropped me off. He right back
out the door to go to the radio station. If
my mom's a night school, like I put myself to bed,
(27:59):
I was a latch key. So the idea of having
connection never registered consciously in the moment as a child,
especially as a teenager. It wasn't until I got older
when I started realizing most of my fondest memories about
my dad were from travel. So then inherently the first
(28:21):
thing I started doing with my son is making sure
that travel is as important as the destination. Like he
had a man, he had an old Cadillac. And this
is when we were still my parents were separated. They
got separated after I was born. They didn't reconcile to
like maybe fourth grade. So my mom and I lived
(28:43):
in Memphis at the time. That was before Birmingham. And
so my pops will drive up to Memphis sometimes to
pick me up for the summer and you know whatever.
And he had this Cadillac and for whatever reason, this
negro put a fucking Cbee radio in his Cadillac with
a big ass CB and ten on the back. His
(29:06):
theory was that it was to be able to know
where the police were in real time because truck driver
snitch and man, he must have gave me that damn
CBE radio and showed me the channel switcher. Yeah, and
I would spend three hours from Memphis to Birmingham talking
(29:27):
to strangers over a radio. You just break a break
on one nine and big smokes on the radio.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Check Claier like just yeah, man.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Sounds stupid, but I used to love that, like that
fun business.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
So you couple that with my son now, This is
the cool thing about Daily Show and all of that
stuff where I have these opportunities now where I have
these weird hookups and stuff like I don't know, most
people have courtside tickets, and you know, I can. I
(30:09):
can get the latest Nikes before they come out.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Right.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
I have a friend that works in air traffic control
and can walk me and my son into any air
traffic control tower in America and we can just watch
air traffic controllers communicate with planes. My son that is
obsessed with aviation.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah, will lose his fucking mind. That's really cool.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Backstage at Sea World type shit. Yeah, Like I can
be in the back with the Yeah, those are the
weird connects. That's that's my rollo decks. Okay, Okay, So
the idea of being around my dad while he did anything,
I think that was really that was the cool thing.
(30:57):
But to be kind justly aware of it in the
moment that this's this connection, and I understand it was.
I lived in my own world as a latchkey kid.
My parents were just more so co stars.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, in that world. Do you feel proud of your
name or pride in the name you have now?
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yeah? Yeah, I mean any issues I have with the
name is internal. It's family business, so you do feel
a sense of prise brand. Yeah my father, my father
hired Don Cornelius. Yeah, so you know, it's like we
talked contributions to the culture. The Wood name make contributions
(31:44):
to Black Americans, paid in blood by my dad. You know,
I'm lucky enough to not have to get hit with
a brick in the middle of a daily show set.
But yeah, you think about the Wood family and the
idea of us having something relevant to say and it
(32:04):
being an interesting Yeah, I think I've honored the family
name up to this point.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah, you said your dad was a good father, bad husband.
Would you say your father was a good man? In
your opinion?
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Not positive? But you know you lack in a lot
of places. I think we try to boil people down
into some sort of totality. I really haven't even taken
time to really think and consider every reason why he
may have made the choices he made. But eleven kids,
four different women, and you're running from something.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Sure, do you feel you have empathy and compassion for him? Now?
Looking back at some of that stuff, you're smiling, keep smilingly.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Empathy suggests forgiveness, And I don't know if you can
necessarily because that's asking me to get past what happened
to me and the stuff that I deal with. And
I don't know if I can just wave that off
as being all in the game, you know. But I
(33:22):
do think with the tools that he had at the time,
you know, motherfucker was trying. But I think we often
self medicate our problems with alcohol or women, right, or
drugs or whatever.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Or was it just women or so No, he.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Wasn't liquor drug like alcohol would mess with his voice.
So he just he respected his instrument way more than
I do. I don't.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
I think with better tools he could have done better
as a father, you know. And that's the thing you
have to be careful about, is that when we're critiquing
people in hindsight and what they meant to us, people
on the outside looking in who had a different opinion
and interpretation of that person can get angry and take
offense to it.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
And do you feel like you want to protect people's
view of him.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I don't know if it's protect as much as just
give a full scope of it all, like, because in
my book, I'm going to talk a little bit about Hey,
here's some days he didn't come home, and here's how that.
Here's how I believe that affected me. Now, at its core,
was he just looking for love, you know, and didn't
(34:42):
know how to find it?
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Is that wrong?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
The search, the.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
How how you do things does matter, I.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Agree, But we also live in a very unnuanced society,
and you have to be careful because people will throw
out the totality of your work because of one character flaw.
I don't agree with that either. So yeah, it's definitely
a balancing act of figuring out how mad to be
and then also just how much respect to still possess.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
And you do respect your dad?
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yeah, I respect my father, but not enough to sit
quietly and not criticize.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Sure, but some people would say that to criticize one
could be an act of love though too.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
I'm just this is just what happened, and this is
how it affected me, and I have to be conscious
of that because I'm trying to raise a child, Yeah,
and I have to make sure I don't make the
same mistakes. So I got to dissect everything that happened
between me and him.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Right, were you scared to become a parent at any point.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Yeah, I'm still scared of parenting. You get the hang
of it, but you still don't know if you're doing
it right, and you don't know if if you're done
it right to the kids.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Like twenty five, how old is your son now?
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Eight?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Okay, so that's some time to go before you have
any sense of am I doing this right?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
It's you know, so far? Does he punch other children?
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Does he's helpful? No, he's very helpful.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
So you learn, you assess that first, and then from
that you're able to chip away. But the idea of
being scared, I'm not scared, but I'm definitely like worried
about Okay, well, how do I solve these problems? I
don't doubt that I'll solve the problem, but it's always
(36:32):
something new getting presented, just societally speaking, that just goes
against so many other things, you know, like I wouldn't
be opposed to another.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Child, really, but I have to.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Have there's a money in an infrastructure in place. I
wouldn't want to have a child at the expense of
the comforts of my first son.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
I'd rather have one child living good than two children.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
It's just I okay, you know that's not sure. Would
you ideally if you were to have another child, not
only would you not compromise your son's comforts, would you
ideally be married to the mother of the second child
or does that not matter to you?
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Being together is important the construct under which you want
to draw it up that you know, pick a religion,
you know, right, but yeah, let's live together, please, And
so whatever metric your religion or my religion, like, I
don't have to have a be all end all. We
must be married or else we cannot do. Marriage is
(37:41):
a system, is a little.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Interesting rights, that's one way to put it. Then, at
the very.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Least someone and that's what they want to do. I
don't know if I would be against that against but
the issues that most women that want to be married
don't want hit on. Motherfucker talk about marriage like that.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
It's a response. I don't even think you said anything controversial.
In fact, it is measured. But the thing that might
be off putting to some people who are so fascinated
and interested in marriage is that it's like this fairy
tale for them, and it's like and so I want
you to think about it like a fairy tale as well,
but it's like, it's not a fairy tale, it's a
government contract and it's a partnership and a business partnership.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
So then people go, well, if you don't want to
do it the way I want to do it, whether
then we shouldn't do it. So then we shouldn't be
together at all. Well, that means you've brought into the
idea of marriage and not necessarily togetherness, which is fine,
but that just doesn't work for me. But the construct
of a child with a woman who does not live
under that same roof, I would not want.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
To do You wouldn't want to do that.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
I wouldn't want to do that.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Okay, what's your favorite part about fatherhood?
Speaker 2 (38:52):
The parts learning about myself? I know that's selfish as fuck.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
It is selfish, but I think it's interesting. But that's
the truth. Is that your truth? If that's the truth, pleaset.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Tring a kid showed me how selfish I was. And
then when I got my place, you know when when
when the co parenting arc of my relationship with my
son started. I have my place and then you have.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Your room at my place.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Yeah, and so then he's got he's got these legos,
he'd be building, right, And we built one or two
of the legos and then there's just like a shelf
near the TV and I put one of the little
small legos out there. You know, good job, my fucker
is masking it. And they never wanted we did together
and put that one out there. Look at look at
(39:44):
what we did. No more dawned on me. I'm like, oh, wait,
this is his house too, right, your room at my
place and I'm some single bachelor's Yeah, we live together.
You're in my roommate. Yeah, that's my roommate. My roommate
(40:05):
gets some degree of space, and so little things like
your books are in the living room on a living
room bookshelf, and that seems small, but I got to
figure out what I want to do. I need to
make an office for myself, but he'll have a desk
in there too. Yeah, it's just your space. And so
(40:27):
this idea of making room for people, it's something that
I've never inherently had to do, and so to be
consciously aware of it and doing it is a serious
piece of growth.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Yeah. So you think then having a son in your
experience for you has made you better, a better person
at the very least more self aware.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
I would not have achieved what I've achieved in the
last nine years if I did not have a child
and the pressure of providing driving me. It is another layer,
another level of focus that you cannot simulate. But I
think within that it made everything that I say and
do more intentional, more scalpo level efficient. You know. It's
(41:14):
made me want to make sure that every moment I
spend away from home is worth it. So it changed
the types of things I say yes to. Okay, because
it's not just a gig and some money. This is
time away from him when I could be doing dad
dude bro shit with him. So I'm not I'm not
(41:38):
just gonna say yes. So it just made me more
efficient across the board.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Yeah, it sounds like you take the duty of being
a father very seriously and there are things you enjoy,
including learning about yourself. But do you do you find
it fun? But you're like, I'm going to say no
to being on the road. Okay.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Yeah, that's why the CNN show is so dope because
I get to be in town on weekends.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Now, oh night, Okay, I get to be in.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Town on weekends, and actually, if I want to go
somewhere with him during the day on a Saturday, I can.
I haven't had that since twenty fifteen, you know, because
even when Daily Show, when I wasn't doing Daily Show,
i was still touring as a stand up And I'm
going to get back to touring next year at some point.
But to be able to sit still at a time
(42:23):
where your kids still think.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
You're cool, yeah, Yeah, When do you think your son's
going to stop thinking you're cool? If you had to
predict based on your experience or what you've seen.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
According to the Instagram videos I watch, it's around age twelve.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Okay, so you have four more years somewhere in there.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Your kids think you're just garbage and just terrible, and
you're icky, you're embarrassing me, all of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Is that time coming? Does that make you nervous or
anxious in any way or you're just like, I know
it's coming, and I've.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
You know, I'm not going to repeat myself to my son.
If he doesn't want to listen, I keep telling you
can listen to me, you can get the lesson.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
So if you think I'm dumb, that's fine. Go out
in the world and give it a shot and then
let me know how that works out for you, that
big dog.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Are you a disciplinarian?
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Yeah, I mean not in a whipping yell and beat
your kids type sense, but in the sense of that
was an action. Here's the consequence.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Absolutely, are we talking time out? Are we talking allowance
being withheld?
Speaker 2 (43:25):
A lot of it is revocan privileges. Okay, that's really
where a lot of it starts. And then some of
it is just written stuff. You know, it really helps sometimes,
but making people write.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Shit, that's why they used to do that on the
board and on the chalkboard and over and over and
over and over again. Now do you think it's because
you're you're creating a new neuropathway and it's like you're
gonna this is going to penetrate your psyche what you
are writing, or the act of writing over and over
feels like punishment in and of itself, regardless of Yeah,
(43:57):
I think it's both.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
It's I want your hand to but also I really
need you to remember this, bro. Yeah, So I think
in that regard, Okay, I think he's got it together.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
It's something you've made him write over? Is it over
and over?
Speaker 2 (44:11):
Again, it's just regular handwriting stuff. You just do handwriting
notebooks and stuff like that. But for the most part,
we have a good child. Like, the most I can
say is that my son just wants to stay up later, Okay,
an extra tablet time. Yeah, and we really don't do
a lot of tablet time to begin with. So in
the bigger scheme of behaviorally, where he could be at
(44:34):
this mild marker in the third grade, I'm lucky. Okay,
I'm very lucky.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
I love that. Now. You said you are co parenting
now and the notion of having another child is cool
with you, especially particularly if you and your partner are
at least living together. So you and your partner now
are not living together when that split happened, did you
(44:58):
feel like somehow, like fuck, I fucked this up?
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Yeah? You always feel like you fucked it up because
you don't want the child existing in something that's split.
You know, my son didn't get the luxury of coming
up in a house that was already split. I did.
I came up in a house that was already a
single parent home, and they and my parents were reconciled.
(45:23):
This was the opposite. So yeah, you know, there's definitely
a feeling in that. But I think where relationships are concerned,
as parents, what we have to weigh, And I don't
think there's a right answer, it's just what's right for you.
I think as a parent, you have to weigh how
much your own well being plays into the psyche of
(45:47):
what your child observes and what your child sees, and
whether or not that's for the betterment or detriment of
the child. Same as with the pregnancy, using a good
mood in the pregnancy versus the general demeanor around each other.
If that's starting to change, I think if you're if
you're in any type of parenting situation with a child,
(46:08):
you have to start considering that. Consider your mood, Consider
how you're showing up emotionally into this home, because sooner
or later that's going to inform the child is going
to be informed by that. Right, So then it becomes,
all right, are you a failure for leaving? Or are
you a bigger detriment if you stay?
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Sure that's the question, right, Well, I mean there's a lot.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Of people that have come up in homes with two
parents who just made it, made do, and then the
day you left for college, they filed for divorce.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Always I'm fascinated by that. Is that a win? Yeah,
I'm fascinated by that. I just I've said this before,
but I saw it on a I was watching some
docuseries and about the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and this one
girl America Sweetheart, which it was an interesting watch. I
love me a docuseries. I'm watching this one young girl
(47:05):
her who's auditioning. Her parents were like, we kept it
together for her, and literally when she turned to eighteen,
they're like, and we're getting divorced. But I'm like, so
you kept her from the notion and the reality that
there was conflict between you two. I'm like, I feel
like that does its own number on a person.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
If she's in a relationship, she's going to be more
inclined to stay in something that's boring and emotionally detrimental
to her.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
Yeah, or even like you're telling me one thing is true,
but I don't know if it is true, because I
thought my parents were happily married for it was a lie.
Like I was like, I don't know if that's that's better, right,
So I don't know, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
I don't know. I just think that as a parent.
You have a responsibility to the energy that you show
up with two parents, and if anything is creating a
shifting that energy, you have to figure out out what
you're going to do about it. And for me, the
best case scenario was to leave right now.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
When you're talking about showing up with a certain type
of energy while parenting and being responsible for that and
understanding that the energy you bring as a parent is
going to impact the child. You spent a lot of
time on the road as a comedian, and obviously now
you're looking forward to being in a home more and
available on the weekends. But I going on the road
in the little bits and ways that I have, I'm like,
(48:28):
I'm exhausted from travel. So was that a challenge for
you to be like on the road building your career,
doing daily show, living that life, doing that schedule, but
then still making sure you're showing up with energy and
attention for your son.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Yeah, but also, you know, a great deal of that
also still goes back to my son's mother. I have
a great co parenting partner who's still been able to
afford me the space to be able to go and
chase things at the speed at which things need to
(49:04):
be done, and so to be able to be a
way is still a gift and that's positive. You know, Yeah,
I come home tired sometimes. But what Bernie Mack said
and players welcome to the stripping game, partner.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
But do you feel guilty about it though, or you're like,
this is what it is, and I know that my
intent is to show up with as much energy as
I can, there's still guilt.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
Nothing alleviates the guilt of sending your child to voicemail
when he facetimes you two minutes before you're about to
go on air, and you know if you answer this call,
he's not going to understand completely why you're rushing him
off the phone, which means the next time he calls,
(49:53):
he might not call because he's going to feel rushed
versus not answering at all, and then him go on
with ever I call, you never answer.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
But then you do. Even with the you know I'm
making I am making an informed decision here. It's not
I wish I didn't have to make the call, but
I have to, and by make the climate make the
decision I wish I didn't have to. But given my
two options here and what the other is do this
is the best.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
But then that also means I have to leave that
completely alone and not feel that because now it's inhibiting
my ability to perform because I'm sad. So I can't
allow that emotion to even enter my heart. Because the
whole point of leaving town was to do this job
really well, make people laugh, get money, so then the
(50:41):
next time I come, I can make more money so
I don't have to travel as much, so I can
be home. So then whatever it takes to do this
job properly. When I'm gone, I'm at work and the
phone is on like and a special like my phone
is set whatever that DND.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
Is do not disturbuish. Some people just their phones live
on it.
Speaker 2 (51:04):
But you can. You can set overrides. And so mama
babysitter sometimes my mom, but my mom is still she
abused the privilege.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
Moms cut off the one loving parent, not you.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
Not. If his mom called me with something wherever I
am on Earth, I will walk the fuck off that
stage and deal with it. But unless it's a five
alarm fire, I have to focus on these jokes, so
I can't connect with sadness. I can't allow myself to
because now I'm away and I'm not efficient. What the
(51:39):
fuck is the point of leaving town? M H. So
I'd rather I'd rather speak to him as best I
can before the show or during sound check. You know,
you almost have to make sure that you're scheduling time
to be connected. That's probably the biggest change that you
have to make as a performer when you become a father,
(52:02):
is figuring out, Hey, I love you. We're gonna talk now,
because in two hours I'm not gonna be able to talk.
So that became one of the adjustments that I started making.
And so now Marten or not on the weekends, if
I'm on the road, you know, we try and catch
up in the mornings, talk in the mornings. But you know,
(52:23):
in three four years, he's not gonna want to talk
to me at all. He might text me for money.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
Are you probably call your daddy to side check out
and he'll call you. But at this time, it's still
the same phone number, because your cell phone is your
cell phone number, correct, Whereas you had the side check's
house number different times. Yeah, if it was now, you
could have just called dad's cell phone wherever his dad is.
(52:49):
If it's the side chick's house, another side, chick's house,
work whatever, it's the same.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
And I talked to my two younger half brothers. We
rapped for a minut which were up. Two men. We
go out of school, my school, gonna beat your school,
your school.
Speaker 1 (53:01):
And then you talk to you okay, our shared father
on the phone. Okay, thank you for sharing all of
this and being open and vulnerable. May I ask the
name of your book, Oh, the Man of many fathers,
The Man of many fathers.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
I I got all of these lessons from just so
many different people that I've worked with and opened for.
And I'm just so grateful that because for all of
the traveling and interacting that we did, my father and
I never really talked. We never really got deep about
anything other than work in politics and how he sees
(53:36):
the world of politics. Outside of that, we never talked
about just regular life stuff. And I'm just so grateful
for all of these different men that filled my life
over the last couple of decades that when I look
back on those moments, I'm able to glean so many
different things. You know, the idea from the book came
(53:56):
from the birth of my son, when I started trying
to think about all right, well, what lessons did I
learn from my dad?
Speaker 1 (54:03):
Well?
Speaker 2 (54:03):
I didn't learn that from him. Who do I learned
that from? Right? I learned that from who I learned
that from? And then you look up and it's like,
oh wow, there was an entire village of people that
came together.
Speaker 1 (54:18):
Right.
Speaker 2 (54:19):
Oh yeah, So I'm excited to get that book done.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
Okay, I'll be looking out for it, truly, I'm serious. Again, this,
the conceit of it really resonates with me too. Where
I go. You might not have had a present father,
but if you're fortunate, and I feel like I'm one
of those people who's fortunate, you had many father figures.
And in the case of this podcast, you've been my
dad today.
Speaker 2 (54:42):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (54:43):
Thank you Dad for real? Thanks? So I actually thanks Dad,
I should.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
Say, cannot borrow ten dollars?
Speaker 1 (54:48):
Can I borrow ten? K?
Speaker 2 (54:50):
Shit?
Speaker 1 (54:50):
Now, hold on, what's going on? We're gonna borrows? Okay though,
oh wait, this has been such a wonderful conversation. Do
you want your son to be able to talk to
you about anything and everything?
Speaker 2 (55:06):
Yeah? Okay, so far we can. What I noticed with
him is that if I share my fears and concerns.
Am I sadness says that's not a word. Then he's
more inclined to share he is on the backside.
Speaker 1 (55:22):
It's a psychological phenomenon, they said, when you're vulnerable, the
person you're speaking to is more willing to be vulnerable themselves.
And so just shout out to you, and I am
really looking forward to getting that book, and thank you
for being my dad for the day. I end every
episode asking all my dads for a piece of advice.
I think I want to start calling this segment dad vice,
(55:45):
Dad advice, dadvice, a piece of advice. Okay, anyways, Okay,
so I have been doing a lot of online shopping Dad,
and I've also then been doing a lot of returning
of those online items. But in my mind, it's saving
me time because I don't have to go in the store,
(56:06):
find out they don't have any of the sizes I
need or want, spend time perusing on foot, whereas I
can just instead be on a website see what sizes
they have. Have it shipped directly to my house, and
if I don't want it, I ship it back. Okay, correct,
do you Dad think that it's time I go back
(56:27):
to stores because it's something I've been considering. Should I
go back to stores less returning that way because I'm
actually trying the thing on in real time?
Speaker 2 (56:35):
What joy do you get out of the store?
Speaker 1 (56:40):
Do I get any joy out of going to the store?
I mean, I guess having the item in my hand
in real time and not having to wait for it.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
Yes, that's not enough, right, I'd say keep doing the
online shopping only because stores are chaotic. You will see
some things that are different in the store, but more
often it or not. I go to a store for
sizing purposes, but you can order two sizes and send
stuff back. It's hard to say no when it's when
(57:09):
it's set up that easy, with the return label.
Speaker 1 (57:11):
Already in it.
Speaker 2 (57:13):
You can't say no to that. And we're keeping the
shipping industry in business.
Speaker 1 (57:18):
Yeah, okay, there's something charitable about.
Speaker 2 (57:21):
What I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
And where would you be if it were those men
in those brown blouses. Where would they be in the
little shorts in the summer? Yeah? Okay.
Speaker 2 (57:33):
As a person who enjoys shopping for electronics in person
and shoes in persons, okay, I think it's hard to
justify going in a store when you know they're going
to have less.
Speaker 1 (57:44):
Options every time. Stores don't have anything in them anymore.
Speaker 2 (57:48):
And my issue with stores is that for me, I'm
an extremely indecisive person. So I'm going to price match
this across every other store.
Speaker 1 (57:57):
I understand. Okay, you're going to go from store store,
will you while you're in store Google and see like, okay,
is this available for less online? Oh no, I hadn't
even thought about that, because that's something I'll do.
Speaker 2 (58:09):
You take a picture to drop it into Google. They
are apt where you can take a picture of anything.
Speaker 1 (58:13):
Yes, there is, there is, but I will Okay, this
is an item. I look at the item. I look
at the not model name, but the style name, whatever
the blouse is called. And or I'll put in the
description of the blouse. I know the brand. I'll put
in the description of the blouse. This is if I'm
in store and then go, oh no, it's cheaper on
this website. They're having this crazy sale. I'm gonna just
get it here. Yes, yeah, So if you're already doing that,
(58:36):
you Sometimes I will, but but I'm like, is it
worth it? Because I feel like there are people who
value a discount, and there are people who value their time.
People were trying to save time. Other people were trying
to get the best deal. And I'm like, should I
become a person?
Speaker 2 (58:51):
You're in New Yorker, so you value time? Yeah, so
I think you have to go with the time efficient?
Speaker 1 (58:57):
Okay, yeah, everything, okay, all right? Thank you, Dad. You
were worried you were gonna have the tools to give
me advice.
Speaker 2 (59:03):
I thought it was gonna be some serious ship.
Speaker 1 (59:05):
I mean, I can make it some serious shit.
Speaker 2 (59:08):
Hang, gonna know, none have a conversation with that man
about what they gonna do about that baby.
Speaker 1 (59:16):
You just kid me being like my advice is so
let me tell you what's going on. Thank you so much, Roy,
appreciate you being here. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (59:25):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (59:28):
Thanks. Dad is a Headgum podcast created and hosted by
me Ago Widhem. The show is produced and edited by
Anita Flores and engineered by Anita Flores and Anya Kutaskaya,
with executive producer Emma Foley. Katie Moose is our VP
of Content at Headgum. Thanks to Jason Mathony for our
show art and Faris Marshie for our theme song. For
(59:48):
more podcasts by Headgum, visit headgum dot com, or wherever
we listen to your favorite shows, Leave us a review
on Apple Podcasts, and maybe, just maybe we'll read it
on future episode.
This is a headgun podcast. Hello, I may go od him,
and welcome to Thanks Dad. I was raised by a
single mom and don't have a relationship with my dad,
and I don't think I'm ever going to have one
(00:23):
with him because he is in fact dead.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Oh, how to do it?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
He said, that'll do it is very funny. Okay, So
on this podcast, I'm sitting down with father figures who
are old enough to be my dad. Well, thank you,
or are just dads themselves. I actually don't know how
old you are.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You could have been my dad if I was an
irresponsible high schooler, I.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Guess, yeah, you could have been school. Middle school, yeah, well,
you know, elementary school, early early late late elementary.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I know a dude in sixth grade had a baby.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I know a girl in wait was she in no, okay,
cause I would have been sad if I said she
was also sixth grade. And she was in sixth grade
and had a baby, which is really wild, and it
was her boyfriend was like a high school or something.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Get jealous of people had a baby in middle school, Like,
damn they got it out the.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Way sometimes I do, sometimes I do. Actually I know
they really did get it out the way and like
those people who had their babies in middle school, their
kids aren't grown grown now, and it's like, yeah, it
may be Okay. I'm sitting down with father figures who
are old enough to be my dad or just dads themselves.
(01:47):
I'll get to ask the questions I've always wanted to
ask a dad, like how do I know if the
guy I'm dating is right for me? Or what should
I look out for when buying a car? Can you
help me change the oil in said car that I
am yet to own? Could you you've seen your southern
you could change oil? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
You hitting your randiators all that?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Oh wow? Okay, cumstances, Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Fan bilts too. But I'm more of a tire and
break pad guy. I'm not really an inernce of the
motor type of person. Can do it if needed, if needed.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Do you have triple A?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Okay, so if you broke down on the side of
the road, do you call triple A? You're you're rich
now in Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I don't know about rich, but.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
You have money in the bank.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Triple A is twenty dollars a month. Let's let's establish
the metric of what.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
This cost I actually don't know how much it costs
because I think I have it and my mom pays
for it. I don't even have a car.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I have Triple A because it's cheaper than the rental
car roadside assistance. Okay, and I've had Triple A since
high school, when I first had a car. Right, Yeah,
Triple A is worth the trouble.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I've had it since high school.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I can do all the man shit. I just choose
not to because I did so much of it for
so long that I feel like I've earned the right
to pay someone.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah to do it. Okay, Okay, and I respect that. Actually,
it's not a matter of you being rich. It's a
matter of I've heard I've earned this and I'm tired.
You can catch my next guest on his CNN show.
Have I Got news for you? Please welcome my dad
for the day, Roy Woods Junior. Hello, Hello, Roy Wood Junior.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
You can clean up just god damn moon, someone.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
I got someone else to do it. This is what
they did. I am too tired to clean up my
own ship, and I got someone else to clean up
this room. Thank you. I'm so happy to have you.
This is so wonderful. I you see, I didn't even
know you were a dad, and then somehow I heard
you were a dad. Your kid is a secret is? Yeah?
(03:54):
What is? And people and the people who don't know
don't They probably don't need to know anyway, right, I
don't even know how I found out you hadocated because
well maybe you said something. Why why secret ish?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Because I live a life where I talk a lot
of ship about a lot of weird people, and so
he deserves a life that's not in the cross hairs
because his dad talks a lot of shit, right, So
I try to give him a space to grow up.
You know, don't get me wrong, I'm not like it's
not Baron Trump level protocols where I have to like
(04:30):
keep him away from everything and you never see him
like I'm out of my child. I post him from
time to time.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
On the own story. Right, He's like a girl, Like
a girl you're seeing you don't know, you don't know, you.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Think, And to me, I also enjoy the fact that
you don't get to know all parts of me. It's
not for y'all, it's not for everybody.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Everything about she is not for consumption.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Correct, I mean, I'm out here to entertain. I'm not
here to entertain and make my couple of jokes and
keep it moving. There are days where, of course, you know,
he's an inspiration. I sold a book. The book is
rooted around lessons that I learned from my dad that
I hope I can pass on to him. The whole
conceit of the book his fatherhood. So I don't feel
(05:24):
like we yet know what the consequences will be for
our kids having too much visibility before they decide to
be themselves. So I grew up in Birmingham in the
shadow of my father. My father was a well established
(05:44):
and right now and respective black journalists in the city
like Birmingham that's essentially seventy five eighty percent black. Birmingham
proper is black black. So my dad was the man,
he ran the city. And then I'm walking around with
Junior tagged onto my shit. So there's just certain I
(06:08):
don't know behavioral expectations or assumptions that were made about me, Like,
I just don't know what the price is of being
my child, So I try to minimize the price for
him by minimizing exposure.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
You feel you know the price of being your father's son, though,
because you lived it, and now you can say.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, what it was. But the price of that was
the assumption that I was him. But that was in Birmingham.
My dad spoke highly of black people, He defended blackness.
He was a champion of all things black for the
entirety of his career. So it was more living in
a complimentary legacy. I don't have that same love nationally
(06:54):
that my dad had. Locally, there's a lot of people
that liked me, a lot of people that's indifferent. People
who don't rock with me, really don't rock with me.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Really.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I have to be mindful of that because you won't
be mad at me. You don't like me, that's fine, cool,
But the boy is the boy. He got none to
do with this, Okay. So I don't want my son
to ever be in a situation where he feels any
type of burden, you know, like that, because he's with
(07:24):
me and thankfully nothing crazy has ever happened. You know,
there can be some Please give me a picture of
moments that can be a little intrusively odd. But even
though we've managed o K and we talked through okay,
But yeah, no, you're not going to see me in
a commercial with my son anytime soon.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
And you don't necessarily want him to be an actor.
You're not like, You're not like, yeah, you should be
on stage as well. You don't have any expectation for
him in that.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Regard, right. My approach to my son is the same
as my mother. Whatever you show interest in today, I'm
going to give you every recent source and asset to
explore that interest. And if tomorrow that interest is different,
we'll explore that, okay. But I don't steer him towards anything.
I take him with me to work sometimes just so
(08:14):
he can understand who I am and what I do.
That part of it, Like those memories of my dad
are probably the most fond, okay. Or when we got
to travel together and when I went to the radio
station or the TV station with him. So I used
to take him around the Daily show here and there.
I've taken him up to CNN once or twice, so
(08:35):
that when I'm dead and gone and he's informing himself
on who I am, he has his own memories to
add into that, and he's not piecing together everybody else's
puzzle pieces. So yeah, I'll take him to stuff, but
like he knows, I do stand up. I've taken him
(08:56):
to sound checks before. He's funny. He has a sense
of humor. But I'm never going to go you must
do comedy or you can't do comedy. I don't think
he'll be good at comedy because he has two parents
that love him.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
But didn't you have two parents that loved you? Which
one didn't love you? You had two parents, we know
that at least one you felt loved you.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I mean, you're okay, good dad, bad husband, So that's
a confliction.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I hear. You know what, can we talk about? Good dad,
bad husband? I hear from so many men in just
casual conversation. I can't wait to be a dad. I
can't wait to be a dad. I'm going to be
such a good dad, and I so rarely hear. I
don't think i've ever really heard, actually a man go,
(09:48):
I can't wait to be a husband. I'm going to
be a good husband to someone. I've never really heard that,
and I think that's unfortunate, because they say that part
of being a good dad is being a good husband
to your partner and having your kids witness that as well.
One of the best things you can do is be
a good husband. But I so rarely hear a man
say I want to be a good.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Husband because you didn't see good husbands. Yeah, so why
would I describe for that? I never saw it, So
I never even consciously understood the concept. I mean I
get it now. You know, even in a co parenting capacity,
there's still a degree of understanding of oh, well, anyone
I'm dating, which is why it's interesting. Like if I
(10:33):
meet a woman who goes, I don't want kids, well,
then in my mind I'm like, well, we can't really
do anything. Do you not want to have kids? But
do you not fuck with kids at all?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
It's different, Yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
No matter what, this is a step parent situation, you're
potentially walking yourself into so we cannot.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
But if a woman says so it's that I don't
want to have them, I don't want to do that
to my body, You're like, Okay, there's there's still potential there.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
That we'll see. It's not a green light. Yeah, okay
it let's continue. But at some point I gotta keep
game on your energy towards children and the ideology of
raising a child, and then adding in the equation of
(11:26):
co parenting on top of that. So the idea of
understanding that your child needs to see love and a
positive lighter and some sort of construct ideally keep the
home to be over but in the sense of the
(11:50):
triangulation of three people within the space are having love
and appreciation and respect for one another. If you start there,
then you got something.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, I think that makes sense. Now. You said something earlier,
which is that the expectation of you, considering who your
father was, was that you would be your father. I'm
presuming that felt like pressure for you. Is that true
or what exactly did that feel like for you to
have people expect for you to be your father.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
It's a little different the ironies that I became my father.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I think so. By the way, if I'm allowed to
say that might be rude. I don't even know him,
but the little bit you said about him and the
whole setup and how you felt and how your son
might feel right now, I'm like, I think you were
him in a different way.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Deree.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Okay to a degree.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
But the idea of the pressure I rejected because I
resented him when I got older.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
You resented him when you got older.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah, it wasn't until I got older. Why so My
dad died when I was sixteen, Okay, So you know,
just for perspective, my father was a civil rights journalist
and an activist, and he co founded the National Black Network,
which at its time in the sixties was a syndicated
news radio program informing black people about black issues. It
(13:16):
was the only thing of its kind, nothing existed before it.
He was embedded in pretty much every atrocity that affected
black people from the nineteen fifties through Rodney King. He
covered physically on the ground there Vietnam, Korea, Rhodesian Civil Wars, Zimbabwe.
(13:44):
Now he was there for that, so wait till riots
in South Africa. Was there for that civil rights movement
of course. So he was a revered and trusted voice
in the black community when it came to tackle issues
about race. And so by the time he got to Birmingham,
(14:06):
that was what he was known for. His commentary was biting,
and he challenged local leaders, white politicians like my daddy
was on your ass with that microphone, and so you know,
that made him respected and revered. So the assumption when
(14:26):
you see someone that is like done everything the right
way professionally, you assume that private life, everything is humming
and necessarily wasn't and so like just for perspective without
even getting into all of it, but it's enough detail
to give you the understanding. I'm the ninth of eleven kids.
(14:46):
I'm my mother's only child, so you do the math
on it. So that's the type of person with the
dichotomy of man. And so he was a behemoth on radio.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
So when I graduate from college from Florida and m
and I come back home to Birmingham and I start
interning at the station where my father used to work.
It was the black station that you know.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Then he's no longer alive at this point, most.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Black people in radio and Birmingham owe their career to
my father, just from the sense of he hired you.
Most people at that time, especially over a certain age,
you either worked with my father or you were hired
by him. So that afforded me a degree of accessibility
(15:43):
within the city off of his name because they respected him,
they respected me. But now it's me.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
You're just like you did off the little block, right.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
He used to drive me off the fucking wall.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
And that was driving you up the law when you
were in college.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
And you were when I when I graduated college, and
I came home to intern and Burmie over what would
eventually become a twelve year arc in the morning radio
while I get stand up. But this idea of all right,
you did your thing. I am going to work so
(16:16):
hard and be so good and be so funny that
I'm going to make people forget your name. I'm going
to erase you from the memories of the people who
claim they love you.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
But then there's a junior of it all. Then you
have the same ass name.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I didn't calculate that other time.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I didn't think about that.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Anything I wanted, yeah, was to stand on my own.
And when you see me, you see me. You never
see him. You don't even think about him. You think
about me. And the idea of this independence, breaking off
from his legacy and being able to say, well, you know, yeah,
(16:57):
you did your thing with the journalism stuff, but I'm
over here and I'm funny and people love me the
same and it has nothing to do with you. And
then you look up. And then once I hit my thirties,
my comedy becomes more political, my comedy becomes more opinionated.
And then when I have my child, oh hell breaks loose.
In terms of the types of really societal stuff. I
(17:20):
want to break down point twice. Look up, I am
a funnier version of my father attacking the same issues,
and in fact, what I do in the way I
do it only strengthened the connection that people have between
the two of us because they see what I do
as an extension of.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Him, and you just you can't shake it.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
But it is an extension.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
It is. But that's and you want right now. It's fine,
It is okay.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
It's like any kid. You know, I didn't get to
go through my rebel. I hate my father face because
he died when I was a teenager, like fourteen through sixteen.
Cancer got him pretty good. He died when I was sixteen.
That's the rebel. Fuck you, you don't know. I know
(18:13):
what I'm doing. I went through that entire phase without
him and then still has to come right back around
and go. Yeah, the home life wasn't what it was
supposed to be. But damn man, you was right about this, this, this,
and this all to speaking engagements you used to make
me drive you to where I will watch you speak
about this, this, this, and this. Man, that same stuff
(18:34):
happening right now. And it's just clearly obvious, and it's like, yeah,
very interesting.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
So today, would you say your feelings towards him are
that of resentment or appreciation? Obviously it's not a binary
and it can be a little bit of both. But
you said I started to resent him when I got older.
Are you Are you saying that's where you live right now?
Or it's okay, okay, it's.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Just it's it's understanding. It wasn't. It wasn't the best move,
you know, on the family side of the game. But
I can look at that with maturity now and understand
how to move. So I try not to make the
same mistakes for my son and then identify the parts
of the parts of our parents that we want to
(19:21):
keep in the parts that we can just discard.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Right. I know you're private about your son, so I
pass on this question if you'd like to. I'm just
fascinated by the junior of it all. Is your son
(19:47):
a third Okay, Okay, I've given how private you are.
I was like, it might be enough. Okay, you knew
you didn't want to do that to him because of
what you felt by just having the junior attached, and
you didn't want to do that. Okay, now, right.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
And if they know you're related to me, they'll figure
it out.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Right now, did were you your father's first son? So
you're he has eleven children, you're the ninth. Were you
his first son? So he just didn't want to name
the others? Junior? Yes, do you have any idea why?
He was like, not this one, not this one, not this.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Nigga, but this one here, that's the one.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Because now look at you. You're literally like what you're
describing to me. Obviously I've never met your father. I'm like, yes,
you do really become your parents in so many ways,
even if you try to be. And I'm like, damn,
imagine being one of the other boys, Like I couldn't
get the junior.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Why do you hit the junior people? I'm my mother's
only child. Sure, I don't think she cared either way, but.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Maybe and okay, maybe for him, maybe that piece of information.
I really wish we could bring him back right now
and ask him why you got the junior.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yes, I don't think we can get ship out of them.
Old black people don't be.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Sharing, communicating too much. I'm going to be you know what,
I'm gonna go ahead and say, yes, that's true.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Black people don't share shit, but recipes. I'm like, if
you don't give me your trauma so I can sort
out what the fuck is wrong with me?
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah, asking all these questions my mom, I feel like
I sensed my mom getting tense anytime I started to
be like, so when you were I have a friend
tell me this. She's like, I was talking to some
healer and they were saying that you can get so
much information about the way you are day to day
and in the world based on how your mom was
(21:40):
feeling when she was pregnant with you. Was she in
an anxious state? Was she feeling positive and thriving? And
so she's like, and I talked to my mom about
how she was feeling when she was pregnant with me,
and she was like, I was so scared because we
were undocumented and this, this and that, and so I
was like, I'm going to ask my mom because maybe
I can figure out why and the way my mom
I was like, bitch, what are you doing about Yeah?
(22:02):
She was like, why are you asking me this? I'm
not trying to talk.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
To you about this instead of actually instead of actually
sitting for a second, and sitting with it, you got
to ask repeatedly for years.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Yes, that's true. So it's nice to hear that that's
not just my experience, because that is my experience now
in terms of how things were at home and you
talk about how it just it wasn't quite right or
the way it was supposed to be. Were you aware
of that as a young person or is that something
you started to realize when you got older, that this
(22:36):
wasn't quite right and that house.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Wasn't like other people's house. I mean, like just for perspective,
I mean, there were nights that my dad would be
you know, I have two younger half half siblings, so
my dad would be over there, So that'd be ninety
days I'm.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Home and you know he was over there. Yeah, Okay, it.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Didn't really the lights was on, those food in the fridge. Okay,
this doesn't. If that's if that's what you've grown up in,
then that's all you know. So yeah, I went to
some other people's homes and their daddy was home every day.
My dad's just not home every day. And that's just
how I processed. I didn't think about it in the
sense of the black family bond.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
And you're not, no, you just it's just like.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
This, Hey, I made ten dollars for the field trip.
Well your daddy he said, you ain't gonna be doing
the field trip. Okay, really cool. Call him over at
the other house.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
He would, you have to call yourself something, Mama, I'm
gonna call you were called and asked for your dad? Wow?
How old were you when that started? Or do you
remember whenever you.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Need ten dollars as a kid, like wow, thirteen tween?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, and you were like, this is what it is.
It's this is different than my friends.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
But how can you miss what you don't? You know
what I mean?
Speaker 1 (23:56):
That resonates with me so deeply because I have that
on this podcast already a million times over. It's part
of why the podcast exists is that I didn't have
a relationship with my dad. And I think people want
to go, oh, I'm so oh, and I go my
parents got divorced when I was a baby. So even
the notion of divorce and how painful or dramatic that
(24:16):
might be for a household, I'm like, didn't see it,
don't know it. My mom raised me. I had a
lot of family around me. I have two brothers, older brothers,
I have tons of uncles, and so I'm like that
thing you want me to feel, this giant void, I
don't really feel it, and so like, how can you
miss what you don't know?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Yeah, but then people will turn around and go, well,
as a father, now you don't have a reservoir to
pool from to nurture and do the thing because you
didn't have the man nurture. And even if that's true,
I can't go and sit and be sad or cry
about that. Right now, I still have a child to raise,
so right, my mind is still rooted in what can
(24:55):
I do to connect with my son? And periodically you
can go back to the reservoir of thinking about, okay,
well what did my father do in this situation? And
that file is empty?
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Okay, And that.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Can be a little annoying at times, But in the
biggest scheme of things, I don't know. I just still
feel like there's a job to be done in this race.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Kid, Right, are there things from your father that you
go when you go in that file cabinet that you
look at and go, Okay, he did give me this
that I can now impart to my son. He did
do this thing that I can now do for my
son and that I would like to do for my son.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, I'd say work ethic and tedacity. Nobody I work
my dad. My dad worked until three weeks before he
died with the full blown prostate cancer. Didn't take chemo
because it would make him too weak to do radio,
really work ethic. M. You know, I don't know if
(25:58):
that's escapism, lunacy, whatever, but that was his approach to
his craft, and he enjoyed remaining connected to people. My
son enjoys that connection. So there's I'd say that's probably
the most evident thing. Okay, but for sure the desire
to talk that boy is orator.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Mm hmm okay, it's blood life. Yeah. Did you feel
when you were younger though, did like, did you guys
did have a connection. I know, you would go with
him to work events, he would take you in the
car with him, You would go on these trips. You
would get to see him do what he does and
be good at it, see him revered by peers and colleagues.
(26:42):
But did you feel like you had a connection beyond
that outside of that? M.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
I don't know, Like, in hindsight, probably not, But I
never felt disconnected, like I never well, my dad was gonna,
never missed him, so whatever that means. But like the
idea of like, man, we were coming home, Dad's will
you hang out? Never really had that, And it really
(27:15):
wasn't until I look, you know, because my father worked
in the mornings. He was a morning radio news guy,
so my dad was gone before I woke up in
the morning. And then my father also worked an evening
shift doing jazz jazz station or whatever.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Okay, so.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
I might see my pop somewhere between four to seven pm,
like if it's his week to come pick me up
from baseball practice in high school, all right, I see
you at six thirty, practicing every day at six thirty,
So there's that he dropped me off. He right back
out the door to go to the radio station. If
my mom's a night school, like I put myself to bed,
(27:59):
I was a latch key. So the idea of having
connection never registered consciously in the moment as a child,
especially as a teenager. It wasn't until I got older
when I started realizing most of my fondest memories about
my dad were from travel. So then inherently the first
(28:21):
thing I started doing with my son is making sure
that travel is as important as the destination. Like he
had a man, he had an old Cadillac. And this
is when we were still my parents were separated. They
got separated after I was born. They didn't reconcile to
like maybe fourth grade. So my mom and I lived
(28:43):
in Memphis at the time. That was before Birmingham. And
so my pops will drive up to Memphis sometimes to
pick me up for the summer and you know whatever.
And he had this Cadillac and for whatever reason, this
negro put a fucking Cbee radio in his Cadillac with
a big ass CB and ten on the back. His
(29:06):
theory was that it was to be able to know
where the police were in real time because truck driver
snitch and man, he must have gave me that damn
CBE radio and showed me the channel switcher. Yeah, and
I would spend three hours from Memphis to Birmingham talking
(29:27):
to strangers over a radio. You just break a break
on one nine and big smokes on the radio.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Check Claier like just yeah, man.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Sounds stupid, but I used to love that, like that
fun business.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
So you couple that with my son now, This is
the cool thing about Daily Show and all of that
stuff where I have these opportunities now where I have
these weird hookups and stuff like I don't know, most
people have courtside tickets, and you know, I can. I
(30:09):
can get the latest Nikes before they come out.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Right.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
I have a friend that works in air traffic control
and can walk me and my son into any air
traffic control tower in America and we can just watch
air traffic controllers communicate with planes. My son that is
obsessed with aviation.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah, will lose his fucking mind. That's really cool.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Backstage at Sea World type shit. Yeah, Like I can
be in the back with the Yeah, those are the
weird connects. That's that's my rollo decks. Okay, Okay, So
the idea of being around my dad while he did anything,
I think that was really that was the cool thing.
(30:57):
But to be kind justly aware of it in the
moment that this's this connection, and I understand it was.
I lived in my own world as a latchkey kid.
My parents were just more so co stars.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, in that world. Do you feel proud of your
name or pride in the name you have now?
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yeah? Yeah, I mean any issues I have with the
name is internal. It's family business, so you do feel
a sense of prise brand. Yeah my father, my father
hired Don Cornelius. Yeah, so you know, it's like we
talked contributions to the culture. The Wood name make contributions
(31:44):
to Black Americans, paid in blood by my dad. You know,
I'm lucky enough to not have to get hit with
a brick in the middle of a daily show set.
But yeah, you think about the Wood family and the
idea of us having something relevant to say and it
(32:04):
being an interesting Yeah, I think I've honored the family
name up to this point.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah, you said your dad was a good father, bad husband.
Would you say your father was a good man? In
your opinion?
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Not positive? But you know you lack in a lot
of places. I think we try to boil people down
into some sort of totality. I really haven't even taken
time to really think and consider every reason why he
may have made the choices he made. But eleven kids,
four different women, and you're running from something.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Sure, do you feel you have empathy and compassion for him? Now?
Looking back at some of that stuff, you're smiling, keep smilingly.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Empathy suggests forgiveness, And I don't know if you can
necessarily because that's asking me to get past what happened
to me and the stuff that I deal with. And
I don't know if I can just wave that off
as being all in the game, you know. But I
(33:22):
do think with the tools that he had at the time,
you know, motherfucker was trying. But I think we often
self medicate our problems with alcohol or women, right, or
drugs or whatever.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Or was it just women or so No, he.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Wasn't liquor drug like alcohol would mess with his voice.
So he just he respected his instrument way more than
I do. I don't.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
I think with better tools he could have done better
as a father, you know. And that's the thing you
have to be careful about, is that when we're critiquing
people in hindsight and what they meant to us, people
on the outside looking in who had a different opinion
and interpretation of that person can get angry and take
offense to it.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
And do you feel like you want to protect people's
view of him.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I don't know if it's protect as much as just
give a full scope of it all, like, because in
my book, I'm going to talk a little bit about Hey,
here's some days he didn't come home, and here's how that.
Here's how I believe that affected me. Now, at its core,
was he just looking for love, you know, and didn't
(34:42):
know how to find it?
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Is that wrong?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
The search, the.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
How how you do things does matter, I.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Agree, But we also live in a very unnuanced society,
and you have to be careful because people will throw
out the totality of your work because of one character flaw.
I don't agree with that either. So yeah, it's definitely
a balancing act of figuring out how mad to be
and then also just how much respect to still possess.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
And you do respect your dad?
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yeah, I respect my father, but not enough to sit
quietly and not criticize.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Sure, but some people would say that to criticize one
could be an act of love though too.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
I'm just this is just what happened, and this is
how it affected me, and I have to be conscious
of that because I'm trying to raise a child, Yeah,
and I have to make sure I don't make the
same mistakes. So I got to dissect everything that happened
between me and him.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Right, were you scared to become a parent at any point.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Yeah, I'm still scared of parenting. You get the hang
of it, but you still don't know if you're doing
it right, and you don't know if if you're done
it right to the kids.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Like twenty five, how old is your son now?
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Eight?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Okay, so that's some time to go before you have
any sense of am I doing this right?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
It's you know, so far? Does he punch other children?
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Does he's helpful? No, he's very helpful.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
So you learn, you assess that first, and then from
that you're able to chip away. But the idea of
being scared, I'm not scared, but I'm definitely like worried
about Okay, well, how do I solve these problems? I
don't doubt that I'll solve the problem, but it's always
(36:32):
something new getting presented, just societally speaking, that just goes
against so many other things, you know, like I wouldn't
be opposed to another.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Child, really, but I have to.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Have there's a money in an infrastructure in place. I
wouldn't want to have a child at the expense of
the comforts of my first son.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
I'd rather have one child living good than two children.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
It's just I okay, you know that's not sure. Would
you ideally if you were to have another child, not
only would you not compromise your son's comforts, would you
ideally be married to the mother of the second child
or does that not matter to you?
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Being together is important the construct under which you want
to draw it up that you know, pick a religion,
you know, right, but yeah, let's live together, please, And
so whatever metric your religion or my religion, like, I
don't have to have a be all end all. We
must be married or else we cannot do. Marriage is
(37:41):
a system, is a little.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Interesting rights, that's one way to put it. Then, at
the very.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Least someone and that's what they want to do. I
don't know if I would be against that against but
the issues that most women that want to be married
don't want hit on. Motherfucker talk about marriage like that.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
It's a response. I don't even think you said anything controversial.
In fact, it is measured. But the thing that might
be off putting to some people who are so fascinated
and interested in marriage is that it's like this fairy
tale for them, and it's like and so I want
you to think about it like a fairy tale as well,
but it's like, it's not a fairy tale, it's a
government contract and it's a partnership and a business partnership.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
So then people go, well, if you don't want to
do it the way I want to do it, whether
then we shouldn't do it. So then we shouldn't be
together at all. Well, that means you've brought into the
idea of marriage and not necessarily togetherness, which is fine,
but that just doesn't work for me. But the construct
of a child with a woman who does not live
under that same roof, I would not want.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
To do You wouldn't want to do that.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
I wouldn't want to do that.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Okay, what's your favorite part about fatherhood?
Speaker 2 (38:52):
The parts learning about myself? I know that's selfish as fuck.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
It is selfish, but I think it's interesting. But that's
the truth. Is that your truth? If that's the truth, pleaset.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Tring a kid showed me how selfish I was. And
then when I got my place, you know when when
when the co parenting arc of my relationship with my
son started. I have my place and then you have.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Your room at my place.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Yeah, and so then he's got he's got these legos,
he'd be building, right, And we built one or two
of the legos and then there's just like a shelf
near the TV and I put one of the little
small legos out there. You know, good job, my fucker
is masking it. And they never wanted we did together
and put that one out there. Look at look at
(39:44):
what we did. No more dawned on me. I'm like, oh, wait,
this is his house too, right, your room at my
place and I'm some single bachelor's Yeah, we live together.
You're in my roommate. Yeah, that's my roommate. My roommate
(40:05):
gets some degree of space, and so little things like
your books are in the living room on a living
room bookshelf, and that seems small, but I got to
figure out what I want to do. I need to
make an office for myself, but he'll have a desk
in there too. Yeah, it's just your space. And so
(40:27):
this idea of making room for people, it's something that
I've never inherently had to do, and so to be
consciously aware of it and doing it is a serious
piece of growth.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Yeah. So you think then having a son in your
experience for you has made you better, a better person
at the very least more self aware.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
I would not have achieved what I've achieved in the
last nine years if I did not have a child
and the pressure of providing driving me. It is another layer,
another level of focus that you cannot simulate. But I
think within that it made everything that I say and
do more intentional, more scalpo level efficient. You know. It's
(41:14):
made me want to make sure that every moment I
spend away from home is worth it. So it changed
the types of things I say yes to. Okay, because
it's not just a gig and some money. This is
time away from him when I could be doing dad
dude bro shit with him. So I'm not I'm not
(41:38):
just gonna say yes. So it just made me more
efficient across the board.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Yeah, it sounds like you take the duty of being
a father very seriously and there are things you enjoy,
including learning about yourself. But do you do you find
it fun? But you're like, I'm going to say no
to being on the road. Okay.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Yeah, that's why the CNN show is so dope because
I get to be in town on weekends.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Now, oh night, Okay, I get to be in.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Town on weekends, and actually, if I want to go
somewhere with him during the day on a Saturday, I can.
I haven't had that since twenty fifteen, you know, because
even when Daily Show, when I wasn't doing Daily Show,
i was still touring as a stand up And I'm
going to get back to touring next year at some point.
But to be able to sit still at a time
(42:23):
where your kids still think.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
You're cool, yeah, Yeah, When do you think your son's
going to stop thinking you're cool? If you had to
predict based on your experience or what you've seen.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
According to the Instagram videos I watch, it's around age twelve.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Okay, so you have four more years somewhere in there.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Your kids think you're just garbage and just terrible, and
you're icky, you're embarrassing me, all of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Is that time coming? Does that make you nervous or
anxious in any way or you're just like, I know
it's coming, and I've.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
You know, I'm not going to repeat myself to my son.
If he doesn't want to listen, I keep telling you
can listen to me, you can get the lesson.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
So if you think I'm dumb, that's fine. Go out
in the world and give it a shot and then
let me know how that works out for you, that
big dog.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Are you a disciplinarian?
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Yeah, I mean not in a whipping yell and beat
your kids type sense, but in the sense of that
was an action. Here's the consequence.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Absolutely, are we talking time out? Are we talking allowance
being withheld?
Speaker 2 (43:25):
A lot of it is revocan privileges. Okay, that's really
where a lot of it starts. And then some of
it is just written stuff. You know, it really helps sometimes,
but making people write.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Shit, that's why they used to do that on the
board and on the chalkboard and over and over and
over and over again. Now do you think it's because
you're you're creating a new neuropathway and it's like you're
gonna this is going to penetrate your psyche what you
are writing, or the act of writing over and over
feels like punishment in and of itself, regardless of Yeah,
(43:57):
I think it's both.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
It's I want your hand to but also I really
need you to remember this, bro. Yeah, So I think
in that regard, Okay, I think he's got it together.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
It's something you've made him write over? Is it over
and over?
Speaker 2 (44:11):
Again, it's just regular handwriting stuff. You just do handwriting
notebooks and stuff like that. But for the most part,
we have a good child. Like, the most I can
say is that my son just wants to stay up later, Okay,
an extra tablet time. Yeah, and we really don't do
a lot of tablet time to begin with. So in
the bigger scheme of behaviorally, where he could be at
(44:34):
this mild marker in the third grade, I'm lucky. Okay,
I'm very lucky.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
I love that. Now. You said you are co parenting
now and the notion of having another child is cool
with you, especially particularly if you and your partner are
at least living together. So you and your partner now
are not living together when that split happened, did you
(44:58):
feel like somehow, like fuck, I fucked this up?
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Yeah? You always feel like you fucked it up because
you don't want the child existing in something that's split.
You know, my son didn't get the luxury of coming
up in a house that was already split. I did.
I came up in a house that was already a
single parent home, and they and my parents were reconciled.
(45:23):
This was the opposite. So yeah, you know, there's definitely
a feeling in that. But I think where relationships are concerned,
as parents, what we have to weigh, And I don't
think there's a right answer, it's just what's right for you.
I think as a parent, you have to weigh how
much your own well being plays into the psyche of
(45:47):
what your child observes and what your child sees, and
whether or not that's for the betterment or detriment of
the child. Same as with the pregnancy, using a good
mood in the pregnancy versus the general demeanor around each other.
If that's starting to change, I think if you're if
you're in any type of parenting situation with a child,
(46:08):
you have to start considering that. Consider your mood, Consider
how you're showing up emotionally into this home, because sooner
or later that's going to inform the child is going
to be informed by that. Right, So then it becomes,
all right, are you a failure for leaving? Or are
you a bigger detriment if you stay?
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Sure that's the question, right, Well, I mean there's a lot.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Of people that have come up in homes with two
parents who just made it, made do, and then the
day you left for college, they filed for divorce.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Always I'm fascinated by that. Is that a win? Yeah,
I'm fascinated by that. I just I've said this before,
but I saw it on a I was watching some
docuseries and about the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and this one
girl America Sweetheart, which it was an interesting watch. I
love me a docuseries. I'm watching this one young girl
(47:05):
her who's auditioning. Her parents were like, we kept it
together for her, and literally when she turned to eighteen,
they're like, and we're getting divorced. But I'm like, so
you kept her from the notion and the reality that
there was conflict between you two. I'm like, I feel
like that does its own number on a person.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
If she's in a relationship, she's going to be more
inclined to stay in something that's boring and emotionally detrimental
to her.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
Yeah, or even like you're telling me one thing is true,
but I don't know if it is true, because I
thought my parents were happily married for it was a lie.
Like I was like, I don't know if that's that's better, right,
So I don't know, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
I don't know. I just think that as a parent.
You have a responsibility to the energy that you show
up with two parents, and if anything is creating a
shifting that energy, you have to figure out out what
you're going to do about it. And for me, the
best case scenario was to leave right now.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
When you're talking about showing up with a certain type
of energy while parenting and being responsible for that and
understanding that the energy you bring as a parent is
going to impact the child. You spent a lot of
time on the road as a comedian, and obviously now
you're looking forward to being in a home more and
available on the weekends. But I going on the road
in the little bits and ways that I have, I'm like,
(48:28):
I'm exhausted from travel. So was that a challenge for
you to be like on the road building your career,
doing daily show, living that life, doing that schedule, but
then still making sure you're showing up with energy and
attention for your son.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Yeah, but also, you know, a great deal of that
also still goes back to my son's mother. I have
a great co parenting partner who's still been able to
afford me the space to be able to go and
chase things at the speed at which things need to
(49:04):
be done, and so to be able to be a
way is still a gift and that's positive. You know, Yeah,
I come home tired sometimes. But what Bernie Mack said
and players welcome to the stripping game, partner.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
But do you feel guilty about it though, or you're like,
this is what it is, and I know that my
intent is to show up with as much energy as
I can, there's still guilt.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
Nothing alleviates the guilt of sending your child to voicemail
when he facetimes you two minutes before you're about to
go on air, and you know if you answer this call,
he's not going to understand completely why you're rushing him
off the phone, which means the next time he calls,
(49:53):
he might not call because he's going to feel rushed
versus not answering at all, and then him go on
with ever I call, you never answer.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
But then you do. Even with the you know I'm
making I am making an informed decision here. It's not
I wish I didn't have to make the call, but
I have to, and by make the climate make the
decision I wish I didn't have to. But given my
two options here and what the other is do this
is the best.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
But then that also means I have to leave that
completely alone and not feel that because now it's inhibiting
my ability to perform because I'm sad. So I can't
allow that emotion to even enter my heart. Because the
whole point of leaving town was to do this job
really well, make people laugh, get money, so then the
(50:41):
next time I come, I can make more money so
I don't have to travel as much, so I can
be home. So then whatever it takes to do this
job properly. When I'm gone, I'm at work and the
phone is on like and a special like my phone
is set whatever that DND.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
Is do not disturbuish. Some people just their phones live
on it.
Speaker 2 (51:04):
But you can. You can set overrides. And so mama
babysitter sometimes my mom, but my mom is still she
abused the privilege.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
Moms cut off the one loving parent, not you.
Speaker 2 (51:17):
Not. If his mom called me with something wherever I
am on Earth, I will walk the fuck off that
stage and deal with it. But unless it's a five
alarm fire, I have to focus on these jokes, so
I can't connect with sadness. I can't allow myself to
because now I'm away and I'm not efficient. What the
(51:39):
fuck is the point of leaving town? M H. So
I'd rather I'd rather speak to him as best I
can before the show or during sound check. You know,
you almost have to make sure that you're scheduling time
to be connected. That's probably the biggest change that you
have to make as a performer when you become a father,
(52:02):
is figuring out, Hey, I love you. We're gonna talk now,
because in two hours I'm not gonna be able to talk.
So that became one of the adjustments that I started making.
And so now Marten or not on the weekends, if
I'm on the road, you know, we try and catch
up in the mornings, talk in the mornings. But you know,
(52:23):
in three four years, he's not gonna want to talk
to me at all. He might text me for money.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
Are you probably call your daddy to side check out
and he'll call you. But at this time, it's still
the same phone number, because your cell phone is your
cell phone number, correct, Whereas you had the side check's
house number different times. Yeah, if it was now, you
could have just called dad's cell phone wherever his dad is.
(52:49):
If it's the side chick's house, another side, chick's house,
work whatever, it's the same.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
And I talked to my two younger half brothers. We
rapped for a minut which were up. Two men. We
go out of school, my school, gonna beat your school,
your school.
Speaker 1 (53:01):
And then you talk to you okay, our shared father
on the phone. Okay, thank you for sharing all of
this and being open and vulnerable. May I ask the
name of your book, Oh, the Man of many fathers,
The Man of many fathers.
Speaker 2 (53:14):
I I got all of these lessons from just so
many different people that I've worked with and opened for.
And I'm just so grateful that because for all of
the traveling and interacting that we did, my father and
I never really talked. We never really got deep about
anything other than work in politics and how he sees
(53:36):
the world of politics. Outside of that, we never talked
about just regular life stuff. And I'm just so grateful
for all of these different men that filled my life
over the last couple of decades that when I look
back on those moments, I'm able to glean so many
different things. You know, the idea from the book came
(53:56):
from the birth of my son, when I started trying
to think about all right, well, what lessons did I
learn from my dad?
Speaker 1 (54:03):
Well?
Speaker 2 (54:03):
I didn't learn that from him. Who do I learned
that from? Right? I learned that from who I learned
that from? And then you look up and it's like,
oh wow, there was an entire village of people that
came together.
Speaker 1 (54:18):
Right.
Speaker 2 (54:19):
Oh yeah, So I'm excited to get that book done.
Speaker 1 (54:21):
Okay, I'll be looking out for it, truly, I'm serious. Again, this,
the conceit of it really resonates with me too. Where
I go. You might not have had a present father,
but if you're fortunate, and I feel like I'm one
of those people who's fortunate, you had many father figures.
And in the case of this podcast, you've been my
dad today.
Speaker 2 (54:42):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (54:43):
Thank you Dad for real? Thanks? So I actually thanks Dad,
I should.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
Say, cannot borrow ten dollars?
Speaker 1 (54:48):
Can I borrow ten? K?
Speaker 2 (54:50):
Shit?
Speaker 1 (54:50):
Now, hold on, what's going on? We're gonna borrows? Okay though,
oh wait, this has been such a wonderful conversation. Do
you want your son to be able to talk to
you about anything and everything?
Speaker 2 (55:06):
Yeah? Okay, so far we can. What I noticed with
him is that if I share my fears and concerns.
Am I sadness says that's not a word. Then he's
more inclined to share he is on the backside.
Speaker 1 (55:22):
It's a psychological phenomenon, they said, when you're vulnerable, the
person you're speaking to is more willing to be vulnerable themselves.
And so just shout out to you, and I am
really looking forward to getting that book, and thank you
for being my dad for the day. I end every
episode asking all my dads for a piece of advice.
I think I want to start calling this segment dad vice,
(55:45):
Dad advice, dadvice, a piece of advice. Okay, anyways, Okay,
so I have been doing a lot of online shopping Dad,
and I've also then been doing a lot of returning
of those online items. But in my mind, it's saving
me time because I don't have to go in the store,
(56:06):
find out they don't have any of the sizes I
need or want, spend time perusing on foot, whereas I
can just instead be on a website see what sizes
they have. Have it shipped directly to my house, and
if I don't want it, I ship it back. Okay, correct,
do you Dad think that it's time I go back
(56:27):
to stores because it's something I've been considering. Should I
go back to stores less returning that way because I'm
actually trying the thing on in real time?
Speaker 2 (56:35):
What joy do you get out of the store?
Speaker 1 (56:40):
Do I get any joy out of going to the store?
I mean, I guess having the item in my hand
in real time and not having to wait for it.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
Yes, that's not enough, right, I'd say keep doing the
online shopping only because stores are chaotic. You will see
some things that are different in the store, but more
often it or not. I go to a store for
sizing purposes, but you can order two sizes and send
stuff back. It's hard to say no when it's when
(57:09):
it's set up that easy, with the return label.
Speaker 1 (57:11):
Already in it.
Speaker 2 (57:13):
You can't say no to that. And we're keeping the
shipping industry in business.
Speaker 1 (57:18):
Yeah, okay, there's something charitable about.
Speaker 2 (57:21):
What I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
And where would you be if it were those men
in those brown blouses. Where would they be in the
little shorts in the summer? Yeah? Okay.
Speaker 2 (57:33):
As a person who enjoys shopping for electronics in person
and shoes in persons, okay, I think it's hard to
justify going in a store when you know they're going
to have less.
Speaker 1 (57:44):
Options every time. Stores don't have anything in them anymore.
Speaker 2 (57:48):
And my issue with stores is that for me, I'm
an extremely indecisive person. So I'm going to price match
this across every other store.
Speaker 1 (57:57):
I understand. Okay, you're going to go from store store,
will you while you're in store Google and see like, okay,
is this available for less online? Oh no, I hadn't
even thought about that, because that's something I'll do.
Speaker 2 (58:09):
You take a picture to drop it into Google. They
are apt where you can take a picture of anything.
Speaker 1 (58:13):
Yes, there is, there is, but I will Okay, this
is an item. I look at the item. I look
at the not model name, but the style name, whatever
the blouse is called. And or I'll put in the
description of the blouse. I know the brand. I'll put
in the description of the blouse. This is if I'm
in store and then go, oh no, it's cheaper on
this website. They're having this crazy sale. I'm gonna just
get it here. Yes, yeah, So if you're already doing that,
(58:36):
you Sometimes I will, but but I'm like, is it
worth it? Because I feel like there are people who
value a discount, and there are people who value their time.
People were trying to save time. Other people were trying
to get the best deal. And I'm like, should I
become a person?
Speaker 2 (58:51):
You're in New Yorker, so you value time? Yeah, so
I think you have to go with the time efficient?
Speaker 1 (58:57):
Okay, yeah, everything, okay, all right? Thank you, Dad. You
were worried you were gonna have the tools to give
me advice.
Speaker 2 (59:03):
I thought it was gonna be some serious ship.
Speaker 1 (59:05):
I mean, I can make it some serious shit.
Speaker 2 (59:08):
Hang, gonna know, none have a conversation with that man
about what they gonna do about that baby.
Speaker 1 (59:16):
You just kid me being like my advice is so
let me tell you what's going on. Thank you so much, Roy,
appreciate you being here. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (59:25):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (59:28):
Thanks. Dad is a Headgum podcast created and hosted by
me Ago Widhem. The show is produced and edited by
Anita Flores and engineered by Anita Flores and Anya Kutaskaya,
with executive producer Emma Foley. Katie Moose is our VP
of Content at Headgum. Thanks to Jason Mathony for our
show art and Faris Marshie for our theme song. For
(59:48):
more podcasts by Headgum, visit headgum dot com, or wherever
we listen to your favorite shows, Leave us a review
on Apple Podcasts, and maybe, just maybe we'll read it
on future episode.
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