Charlamagne Tha God At Lisa's Book Club!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a beautiful thing to see all these people gathered

(00:01):
together to talk about books exactly.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
And that is what I was actually just going to say.
Because you're known as the breakfast club host, like you're
you're a radio you're radio royalty basically, but you're here
for your book because you're an author, and it's a
more intimate experience, I think. And I'm so excited that
you're here and that you made time for us. Charlottagne

(00:24):
was actually in Boston because he did the Meil Robins
podcast today.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yep, absolutely, yeah, Mel's dope. You know.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
It's so interesting because I had been venting, complaining about
some things over the last couple of weeks and my
wife was like, I'm going to get you this book.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
You're going to read this book this weekend.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
And it was let them by Mel Robins, and I
was like, oh, I'm going to do her podcast on Wednesday.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
It was meant to be.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
I mean, we all read it. We were with Mel
about six weeks ago. It's transformative and I'm so happy
that your wife gave it to you.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
Oh yeah, I mean I've read Mel stuff before. I
read a High five habit.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
We actually had her own club back in twenty one, yeah,
which you put out the High five habit.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
Yeah, which we all follow too.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
So we're here because we as a book club, which
was formed about three years ago. Now, we came together
because we were looking for big conversations. We wanted to
meet new people, we wanted to talk about things that
are of interest to us.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
And I think that's.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Why we're all here, and that's why we all keep
showing up for each other, because we want.

Speaker 4 (01:28):
Big talk, not small talk.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
That's right, and that's why we're here because this book
is basically about that. So can you define small talk
and why it is it annoys you so much?

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Because small talk is just complete bs.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
It's a time waster, right, because you know I talk
about in the book getting honest to that line I
talk about, you know, there's a thing called ig and
I'm not talking about Instagram.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
I'm talking about intention and goal.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
So when you approach somebody, you already know what the
intention of your conversation is and not nine times out
of ten, you know what the goal you're trying to reach,
which said conversation basically you know what you want, So
don't come up to me talking about my sneakers or
you know, did you watch Daredevil? Like, come on, like,
you know what you want to get to, so let's
just get to it.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
I'm not ordering the appetize.

Speaker 4 (02:12):
I just want to entre I agree. And the water too,
they always make so much time in the water course.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
So morning shows. You have a morning show. I have
a morning show, Billy and Leaves in the Morning and
the Breakfast Club and thank you. And I have to
say we as we as morning shows, we are there
to entertain. We are there to be you know, something
for people driving to the job that may may hate.

(02:41):
But but we also have a lot of small talk.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
We do a lot of small talk just because that's
what we do.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
But in your book you said that you for the past,
you know, a couple of years, you've been able to
sort of take that small talk and make it bigger.
How have you been able to do that?

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Well, what I've been telling folks is that, you know,
we live in.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
An era right now where we make minors majors and
make majors miners to the point that we don't even
know how to have big conversations anymore. Like the things
that we probably should be talking about, you know, on
a large scale.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
We don't, but then you'll find yourself, you know.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Watching Instagram and wondering why frogs you know, lick defeat
of toads just something dumb.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
It's like what, like huh.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
So we spend a lot of time, especially you know,
via social media, just talking about things that really don't
have any importance. And I think we've actually lost the
ability to have large conversations, like at least large conversations
to each other, you know, eye to eye, like we
when is the last time you actually had a conversation
and walked away saying yourself, Man, you know, I actually

(03:51):
learned something from that conversation. I had a conversation that
you know, you sat down with somebody that you thought
you may not agree with, but then you walked away like, oh,
actually understood what that person was talking about. Like you know,
we we we sit down and we listened with the
intent to reply reply all the time, and we're replying
with a bunch of nothing. But when the last time
you sat down and spoke to somebody with the intent
to actually understand? And I feel like that's what the

(04:13):
larger conversations do. So that's what the book is just
giving people something bigger to talk about.

Speaker 4 (04:19):
I loved it.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
I took so many notes in your book and every
page of yes, I don't agree, I totally agree, totally agree.
I want to take people back though, because a lot
of people don't realize that you growing up as in
a small town in South Carolina.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
I said that, like there's gonna be anybody in here
from there.

Speaker 4 (04:37):
But you know, my parents were being bluffed in right.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
It's great.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
I love I love South Carolina, But I want people
to understand who you were a voracious reader as.

Speaker 4 (04:50):
A young boy. Who got you into read it?

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Oh my mom by far Oh my mom was an
English teacher for us and foremost so yeah, yeah, he
was an English teacher. And you know I grew up
on the book your program, you know say booking program
all day.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
You know, you gotta read full books.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
You get a free pizza, little little personal paying pizza
from Pizza Hut, you know, and it's just like yo
on a Friday night when you growing up, you know,
and you know your parents ain't got the most money.
Like that is everything. So I just used to read,
you know everything, And my mom gave me the best
piece of advice that I carry on even past.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
You know, reading.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
She told me, read things that don't pertain to you.
So I was a young guy, like, you know, sitting around,
you know, reading everything. But also when she said read
things that don't pertain to me, I started looking for
whatever the opposite of me was. So I'm a young
black man from South Carolina. Damn on the couple of
these books. It's all these little white girls. Oh are

(05:45):
you there? God, it's me Margaret. Who's just Judy Bloom person.
Oh she's got more books. Oh I love her books.
I've Judy Bloom beverly clearly.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
I used to run through you know.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
So I'm glad that you mentioned Blair because we read
are you there?

Speaker 4 (06:03):
Goddess me?

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Mario?

Speaker 4 (06:04):
We did book in a movie.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
So we read the book again, all of us, and
then we saw the movie.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Movie was fantastic, very slept on it was.

Speaker 4 (06:12):
And Judy said that she liked it too. She said
they did a good job.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
I guess you guys probably don't know that. Who has
been your most favorite interview of all time?

Speaker 3 (06:24):
Oh, Judy Bloom? Yeah, my father, because I used to.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
I've always spoken about Judy Bloom because you know, I'm
real big on storytelling. You asked me who got me
in the you know reading, It was definitely my mother
because she was an English teacher and it was the
book at program. But because of that, I always read,
and I always you know, wrote stories. I just love storytelling.
So I look at Judy Bloom the same way I
look at jay Z Like they're just two fantastic storytellers.
And so I've always spoken about that, spoken about that throughout,

(06:51):
you know, my whole life. And so one Christmas, I
just randomly get two books in the mail and there
was are you there, God, it's me Margaret the paperbacks
and both of them were signed by Judy Bloom. One
was for me, one was for my oldest daughter. And
I'm like, this guy, this is my team playing a
trick on me, Like why would Judy Bloom be sending
me her books?

Speaker 3 (07:08):
And then when the movie.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
Came out, she was in New York and she asked
to see me, and so I went to go visit
her in New York and her and her her husband George,
and her son Larry. And it's like since then we've
developed the actual real friendship and don't been down to
Key West a couple of times, you know, double dating
me and my wife, her and her husband. I went
to I went to go watch the premiere. Are you there, God,

(07:29):
it's me Margaret in Key West with Judy.

Speaker 4 (07:32):
Like, so you have like a real relationship with her, Yeah,
I was.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
We was texting last week. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
She I have to say, like, she's my number one.
Like if I could, if I could sit and speak
with anyone, it would be her. And I tried to
get to her when the movie came out, and and
she wasn't really traveling that much. And I actually remember
seeing your picture that you posted of her, and I
was like, oh my god, he knows her.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah. I had the pleasure of Uh.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
I went down to her bookstore in Key West and
we had a conversation there that's up on YouTube now.
We also had another conversation when Simon and Schuster was
celebrating eight hundred year anniversary. I think that was last year,
if I'm not mistaken, and we had another great conversation.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
But she's dope. If you go down to the Key West,
you can catch her in the bookstore.

Speaker 4 (08:14):
That's what I'm gonna have to do.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
You have to do that.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, I have relatives in key As, So that's gonna
be my dream. Just walk in and she'll be there
there and we can have our conversation. Absolutely, it's incredible.
Why do I think that you were so into reading?
Because I have to say, most kids, especially my youngest.
I have a fourteen year old boy and he doesn't
like reading. And why do you think you.

Speaker 5 (08:35):
Were so drawn to books?

Speaker 3 (08:36):
Was it?

Speaker 4 (08:37):
You're a curiosity?

Speaker 1 (08:39):
You're just I was born in nineteen hundred and seventy eight,
so I remember life before the first Nintendo. I'm talking
about the first Nintendo that came with the Super Mario
and Duckment, you know what I mean. Like, we didn't
have that, so were you were either outside playing or
you were in the house reading, so you know, comic
scripts and newspapers, you know, Judy bloom Beverly clearly, like

(09:04):
my dad gave me the autobiography of Malcolm X. Like
there was really nothing else to do but read, like
you know, and you know, you watch a little TV
here and there, you know, But I was really into
reading comic books. Oh my god, I was back in
the day. I was a Marvel and DC guy. I'm
more of just a Marvel guy. Now, But I mean
that's that's what literally reading was life like. I didn't

(09:25):
know any other form of entertainment. We didn't have social media, like,
we didn't have you know, an abundance of video games
like that. You had books, and you had your friends
and you had to actually go outside and make conversation
and you know, we would go to the library and
read these books then talk about these books like it
was just a regular thing. Like I never knew a
world where, you know, people around me weren't.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Reading, right, And it's a struggle right now. I mean
we benefit raising a reader. We have a raffle and
braising a reader in Massachusetts basically teaches families how to
read to their children because so many families don't know
how to do it well.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
I mean, I ask questions, how many of y'all got
bookshelves in your house?

Speaker 3 (10:07):
Good?

Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, because you should, Like I think that your kids
will pick up the habits they see you doing. So
if they constantly see you on their phone on your phone,
then they probably won't want to constantly be on their
tablets to their phone. But if they see you with
a book in your hand, they're gonna be like, I
want to do what mommy and daddy doing.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Well, it's funny you bring that up, because my fourteen
year old, when he was twelve, I said, you got
to start reading more. Riley, like this is this isn't good,
this is not good for your brain. You're always on YouTube,
and he goes, well, I don't see you reading, mom, Damn.

Speaker 4 (10:36):
Well guess what I did. I started a book club.
That's right, and now all I.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
Do is read.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
I will give the kids some grace though, because there
is so many ways to take in literary content now,
Like I'll be the type of right now I'm reading
the book and listen to the one at the same time.
Like when I'm riding in the work in the morning,
i might listen to the audio book, which is actually
become a struggle for me and my wife because we
both got audible. We share the same account, and sometimes
we read the same book and I'm like, I'm not

(11:03):
on chapter fourteen yet, and then I go back to
chapter five and she's fussing to me. So we have
a system now, like if I see that she's reading
something that I want to read, I'll market for her.
So when I start reading, you know, I can tell
her where she left off.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
I'm glad you brought up your wife because the book,
in the book, you describe your wife as being the
most honest person you've ever met. You met her when
you were very young, she's been with you, and you
describe a conversation in the book where you're at a
hotel and you're standing in front of those beautiful mirrors,

(11:40):
you know, those gorgeous mirrors they have in these beautiful hotels,
and you said to your wife, do I have fat?

Speaker 4 (11:47):
Like or have I put weight on? You know, one
of those like you know, husband wife conversations. Can you
tell the story to everyone?

Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah, I said, do I look fat? And she's like, yes,
you've gained some plate. I didn't want to hear that
in that moment, you know what I mean, But get it,
I mean no, not really. But I also didn't want
her to lie to me either. And I'm glad that
she told me the truth because then I was able
to go do something about it, you know.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
And that's just the way the ego works.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
Sometimes you ask questions that you really don't want the
answer to. That's why I be telling people, don't ask
no questions if you really don't want the real answer.
We all should have learned that, especially after COVID. I'm
gonna tell you what I learned after COVID. Don't ask
nobody how they're doing unless you don't unless you really
want to know how they're doing. Yeah, because after COVID,

(12:34):
people started getting real honest about how they were feeling
mentally and emotionally. So unless you got time for a
person to really how they're doing, don't ask how they're doing.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
But do you think that the fact that you were
able to take her honesty and not get mad? Because
I have family members if I said that to them,
they would honestly like be upset with me.

Speaker 4 (12:57):
They would.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
So do you think it's because you have you're more
evolved now, like you've been working on yourself, that you
were able just to take the honesty and be like, okay,
you're right.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
No. Yeah. But also as my wife, so I know
that she loves me. Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
And I think sometimes that's another thing when I talk about,
you know, why small talk sucks? A lot of times,
A lot of small talk talk isn't in good faith.
So I'm all for good faith conversations, you know, I
mean our good faith critique I know that I asked
her a question, she gave me an honest answer, and
so you know, now we got to train and we
work out two, three, well three times a week together.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
So it's the fact that I know she loves me.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
She's not somebody, she's not a stranger, she wasn't trying
to insult me in any way.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
Plus I did ask her.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
A question, yeah, so and she answered big talk small talk.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
So I remember growing up, we used to have big
dinner conversations. You know, I'd have relatives over, family members
over I'm sure you the same thing, and somebody would
bring up some conversation about religion or about politics, or
about you know, parenting, and you know, at one point
it might turn, you know, where someone says something and
you know, somebody gets upset and then everyone starts screaming

(14:07):
at each other, and then the conversation stops because people
have just stopped listening to.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
Wow, when you start screaming, that's when it's getting good.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
Right, Oh well, I guess, but but.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
They you stop listening, right, So big talk and big
listening I think have.

Speaker 4 (14:22):
To go together, don't you think.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
Absolutely? And that goes back to what I said.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
People are listening with the intent to reply, not to understand.
If you're listening with the intent to actually understand, it
won't get the yelling and screaming. When you start yelling
and screaming, it feels like you're yelling at screaming because
you think you're not being heard, but actually you're probably
not listening to the other person. So if you were
actually listening to the other person and y'all were just
exchanging ideas and just having a civil conversation, neither one

(14:47):
of y'all.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
Would would get to screaming. It might get passionate.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Well, usually when you see people yelling and screaming trying
to you know, over talk a person or be the
loudest person is because they feel like they're not being heard,
which is why listening is actually, you know, a very
and you have to be intentional about listening.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
It's a skill.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
It's a skill, it really is, and we have to
do it on the morning shows. I mean we really
do every morning. When you're like interviewing someone or a caller,
you really need to listen. Before we came out here,
we were sitting over at Mystique and Charlott Mane and
I were talking about.

Speaker 4 (15:19):
Social media, and it's the same thing.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
The dinner table conversation is now jumped online and now
you can have a really thoughtful post, like you could
see something someone's really trying to make a difference, and
then there's that one comment that just takes it in
a totally different direction, and then it's negative, negative, negative.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
What can we do about that?

Speaker 3 (15:41):
Ignore it, don't pay no attention.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
I know it's hard, but really ignore it because nowadays
I say it all the time. Man, we're all in
verbally abusive relationships.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
With our smartphones.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah, and you don't have to be because all you
got to do is turn it off, Like can you
You would not let anybody talk to you crazy in
real life the walk away, tell them to leave. So
why do you go on social media and engage with
these people?

Speaker 3 (16:06):
On purpose? And I like the way our brains are wired.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
You ignore twenty good things somebody says about you, but
it's that one thing that drives you crazy. You're really
gonna let one comment ruin your whole day. You're gonna
really let one comment get into your mental, get into
your emotional and if it does, ask yourself why it's
bothering you? That's the other thing people don't do. Don't
just dismiss it, be like, dang, why did this comment
bother me so much?

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Is there some truth to it? Am I mad?

Speaker 1 (16:33):
Because it's just an absence of facts? Like what is
it that's bothering you about that comment? But other than that,
just walk away from it, ignore it.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
Yeah, let them like melsa.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yes, because it really does not matter at the end
of the day. And nowadays, man, it might be a bot.

Speaker 3 (16:49):
So y'a.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
How stupid you are you sitting around arguing with artificial intelligence?

Speaker 5 (16:52):
Right?

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Like you don't even know if this is a real person,
no face, no name. You really so you gonna have
a conversation with at I eat Dick seventy two? I'm sorry,
but you know what I'm saying. But from my point,
like like, why are you going back and forth with
this person that may not even exist?

Speaker 4 (17:09):
What good point you said? You love?

Speaker 2 (17:13):
When you are on the Daily Show you talk about
that experience and why you talk about the role of
satire and how we need more of it.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yeah, because I grew up on John Stewart. I think
John Stewart is one of the most you know, brilliant
media personalities, political minds. You know, if there's ever any
other celebrities that run for president, John Stewart is somebody
who I feel like, you know, really could could be
president of the United States of America. I feel like,
you know, sometimes you watch somebody and you like, God,

(17:41):
that's too small for them, you know, And that's how
I feel when I watch John Stewart sometimes, you know,
I love him back on the Daily Show and everything,
but I'm just like, yo, he should be doing way
more Like I would really like to see him leading
the world in a way. And so I just always
grew up with liking him. I like his brand of
common sense. I like that he's willing to engage both
sides of the awl, you know. I like how objective

(18:02):
he is, and so I've just always admired, you know,
what it is that he does. And then I read
the Daily Show book. And when I read the Daily
Show Book, I'm just like, man, when you see this
system of the Daily Show. Daily Show's been around for
twenty five years. But if you think about everybody who's
coming through the Daily Show, you got your John Stewarts,
you got your Stephen Coberz, you got your John Oliverus,
you got Trevor Noah, oh, I can't remember' blaking on

(18:26):
the young lady's name right now. She had a TV
show too. But it's so many people who have come
from that system of The Daily Show, and when you
when you're up there, you realize that's exactly what it is.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
It's a system.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
They have a showrunner, her name is Jen Flann. She's
been there since she was then intern for twenty plus years.
And just being a part of that system, being able
to go in there and say, hey, I got this idea,
this is what I want to talk about, this is
my POV on it. You know, I write too, but
I'm not a writer for a TV show. So for
all of us to collaborate and be able to create
these create these amazing monologues that you know, when I'm

(18:57):
out and about people say, hey, man, I heard what
you said on The Daily so I really appreciated it,
or to see it, you know on CNN or MSNBC
or Fox. I just I just love the ability to
be on a platform like that and really just you know,
put some ideas out into the world that may or
may help people or may just people think about, you know,
where we are right now as.

Speaker 4 (19:14):
A country, right and you can laugh at yourself too.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
Yes, Yeah, the best vehicle is humor. It is always.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
I think the best vehicle for communication is always humor.
I'm a very unserious person, you know. The older I get,
I find myself being super less serious. You know, my
three year old just looks at me and goes, Daddy,
you're so silly. And it's like, I don't know why
I'm getting more and more serious as I get older,
But I am. And I like to have these conversations

(19:43):
about topics that are, you know, really meaningful and really
impacting people. But a lot of times it's gonna come
through the vehicle of humor. I feel like comedians are
the last great storytellers and truth tellers. You know, they
have a freedom that a lot of us do have,
but for whatever reason, you know, we decided to relinquish it.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
But they haven't.

Speaker 4 (20:03):
You just mentioned one of your daughters. You've got four.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
Daughters, right, four beautiful daughters.

Speaker 4 (20:07):
It's amazing.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
One woman, my wife, yep.

Speaker 4 (20:11):
God bless her.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
There's something in the book that I still can't believe
that you do, and I need you to explain it.
And I actually talked about it on our morning show
this past week.

Speaker 4 (20:23):
Is that you've embraced tree hugging absolutely? Can you explain
what it is?

Speaker 2 (20:29):
And I know that you've talked about your anxiety and
your battle with it for in your second book and
now also it's a common thread in this book.

Speaker 4 (20:40):
So is this a strategy for you?

Speaker 1 (20:43):
No, it's a practice I picked up because you know,
I started going to therapy in twenty and sixteen. And
one thing about my first therapist, I think she gave
me a lot.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
Of the language.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
She was able to make me understand a lot of
the things that I was dealing with anxiety depression. Plus,
you know, anybody in here who goes to therapy, you might
go for one thing and then you start peeling back
those layers and you like trauma one, trauma two, trauma thay,
oh my god, daddy is shoes like you know, like
all of this different stuff. And so one thing about

(21:14):
the era that we're in, Yes, a lot of us
go to therapy. We get the language, but what actual
healing methods are we doing, What practices are we doing
to actually you know, know what to do when that
anxiety pops up with that depression pops up and grounding,
you know, was one of the things for me. You know,
take your shoes off, take your socks off. Just go

(21:34):
walk walk walk walk into grass like. People say that
trying to be funny. Man, go touch grass now, really
go touch grass like, and you'll see the difference, you know.
And I talk about my one of my spiritual sacred
sacred purpose cuaches Yachdi Alba, and she told me, face down,
ass up, like, go in your backyard, lay on your stomach,

(21:56):
but to the sky it's on the ground, and just
feel the earth. And literally, I promise you, man, you
take a few deep breaths laying in some grass, or
you take a few deep breaths just leaning up against
a tree, put your forehead on the tree, say some prayers,
say thank you, show some gratitude. I promise you your
mood will change instantly. I'm go out there without your

(22:19):
phone that I'm not done sober, you know, just go
out there and feel the earth.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
I promise you.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
Whatever you're dealing with, at least for that moment, which
is sometimes all it takes, you will woosa. I promise
you wait till you can, wait till spring and summer comes.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
I believe it. But do you really like actually go
and like hug a tree? Yeah, is there like one
specific tree?

Speaker 1 (22:44):
Honestly, it's it's what when I go out in my backyard.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
It's literally, I got like a lot of trees in
my backyard.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
But it's like I really just feel I gravitate towards
whichever one, whichever one's energy is is calling me that day.

Speaker 4 (22:57):
And how long do you?

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Oh man? I mean I can be out there. I
can literally be out there for an hour hour or two,
oh man, especially in the spring of something, be outside,
shoes off, walking through the ground, just digging your feet
into the dirt, you know, laying that like literally, that's
what me and ya, me and y'atta make a joke
cause you know we both of a certain age. So
two live crew faced out that up. But you were

(23:20):
in the grass with it, like, I love it.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
There's nothing better.

Speaker 4 (23:24):
Do the girls do it? Does your wife do it?

Speaker 3 (23:26):
My wife does it? My say? They kids?

Speaker 1 (23:30):
So they always outside, Like so I'm old school. I'm
from the country, so I let my kids play outside.
So I think that's something that we got away from
think about.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
When we were young.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
We spent all day outside, so our moods were up.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
We were getting so much sun.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Like now we stay in the house and we're on
our devices and like, so we wonder why we're depressed, Yo,
go outside and reconnect with nature. So it's like the kids,
they're already outside anyway, so they you know, they haven't
gotten into the actual practices of ground, but they're already.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
Outside right and it's working for them.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
So I want to ask you a question about your anxiety,
because do you think that.

Speaker 4 (24:11):
It's driven you to be the person that you are?
Has it?

Speaker 2 (24:16):
I know it's hard because anxiety can be really crippling
to some people, but I also think it can drive
you to want to be better to.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
So yeah, I mean when I was young, I didn't
know what it was. So I've been literally dealing with
panic attacks my whole life. The first panic attack I
can visibly remember was first grade, first day of first grade,
members of elementary school, Chalston, South Carolina, and I cried, uncontrollably, shaken, screaming.
I don't know, I never felt that feeling in my life.

(24:51):
My mom was even looking at me like what is wrong,
Like what's going on? And so I've been dealing with
it my whole life, not knowing what it was as
I've gotten older, I know. But you know, panic attacks
and anxiety, you know, are and how they shape me. Yeah,
I mean it's of course, of course it's shaped me
in some way, shape or form. I think it shaped

(25:12):
me in the fact that it's just it's what led
me to therapy, and so leading the therapy to get
a handle on my anxiety, you know, caused me to
do the work on so many other traumas.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
Has brought me closer to a lot of people.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
It helped me to give my father a lot of
grace because you know, I remember once I put out
the second book, Shook One, Anxiety playing tricks on me.
It was twenty and eighteen, you know, the week of Thanksgiving, and.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
My father called me.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
I was home in South Carolina and I had a
cousin who had completed suicide that week. He was twenty
five years old. And my father said, man, I read
your book. He was talking to me about my cousin
completing suicide. And he goes, man, you know, I was
going to therapy two and three times a week, and
I tried to commit suicide, you know, thirty plus years ago,
and I was on ten to twelve different medications for
my mental health throughout my life.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
And I'm like, damn, if you'd have.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
Told me this when I was young, I would have
I would have known what I was dealing with. Right,
So yeah, I think to answer the question, I guess fully, Yeah,
it's shaped me simply because it led me on a
journey of healing.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
But also it just showed me that in.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Order to eradicate the stigma around mental health, we can't
be afraid to talk about it. And sometimes, man, just
being honest about having a panic attack or knowing what's
going to trigger your.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Anxiety keeps you from really lying to people. You know.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Sometimes you lie and say why you don't want to
go somewhere?

Speaker 3 (26:40):
Are you be somewhere?

Speaker 1 (26:42):
And lie about why you're leaving now when all of
us are having a conversation and being honest about dealing
with anxiety and panic attacks, and be like, hey, man,
I feel one coming on, it's time to go. So
I just think it's a it's just a it's a
good thing just to share that you that you're dealing
with yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
From it too, So I really that really resonated with
me in the book a lot. But I feel like
my anxiety has driven me to like because I always
think that I'm not like you talk about imposter syndrome.
I've had imposter syndrome my entire life. Can you explain,
have you guys? Do you guys know what imposter syndrome is?

Speaker 1 (27:18):
Okay, that's that's that's very interesting what you said, because yes,
when you have imposta syndrome, when you don't feel worthy, like,
there'd be times I could be on the stage like this,
having a conversation and in the middle of the conversation,
I'm like, you.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
Are you you?

Speaker 1 (27:35):
You don't even know what the hell you're talking about.
You are talking to these people like who are you
to write a book?

Speaker 3 (27:40):
Like? Who are you to write? People?

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Like literally, like your mind will start telling yourself all
types of crazy things and you just feel like, yo,
I'm not supposed to be here. And man, I remember
having a great conversation with uh, you know, Bishop Tdjkes
one time and he said to me, he was like, look,
even if you don't think you're worthy, God knows you're worthy,
and that's why you're in the position that you're in.
And I never forget the moment I literally got to

(28:02):
that place of worthy.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
There was another clip I saw and I talk about
it in the book.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
I saw Tyler Perry talking about you just have to
get to a place to worthy, like you have to
constantly tell yourself, I'm gonna get the worthy you, I'm
gonna get the worthy, like it's a destination.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
And I think the.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Equation to get the worthy is purpose plus gratitude. And
so when I started having these conversations about, you know,
dealing with my anxiety, dealing with my depression, going to therapy,
it gave me a different sense of purpose.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
It felt.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
It made me feel like I was, you know, showing
up in the world to serve in a different way
and man owning every phase of your life, even the
so called bad parts of your life, the worst moments
of your life, owning those and having gratitude even for
those moments. See a lot of us we like to
thank God when things are going great, but we don't

(28:51):
thank God when you know, things may not necessarily be
going our way. So when you actually have just gratitude
for life and gratitude for you know, every single thing
that you've gone through, plus you couple that with the.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Purpose of serving, then you get to a place.

Speaker 4 (29:07):
Of worthy, right, and it calms you down.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
Absolutely every single time.

Speaker 4 (29:12):
I had a little imposter syndrome here.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
With you. But you're right.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
But but I walked around and I saw these people,
and I thought, we're.

Speaker 4 (29:22):
Doing a good thing here.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
We're here undreds of people come in to talk about books. Right,
that's an amazing survey.

Speaker 4 (29:29):
Right, and that's why we're here. So you're right.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
It did calm me down, and it made me grateful.
It made me so thankful that you're here with.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
Us, especially when you see how low the literacy rates
are in America.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
Come on, this is amazing what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
Okay, so let's talk about the book a little bit
because I always ask authors sort of what is your
writing style? Because you're on your third book.

Speaker 4 (29:51):
Do you hand right? Do you like? Do you dictate?

Speaker 3 (29:55):
Like?

Speaker 4 (29:55):
Do you have a writing partner? How does that work?

Speaker 1 (29:57):
I'm a typer and I'm a typer with a writing partner.
My guy, Chris Moreau, great friend of mine, met him
years ago when we first started the Breakfast Club, and
the Breakfast Club for us got syndicated on the weekends.
He was actually the producer for our weekend show, but
he hadn't launched what was called a podcast network back then.
And this was twelve thirteen years ago. The hell is

(30:21):
a podcast right? And he had a network called the
loud Speaker Network and Combat Jack ret in peace Combat
Jack it was Chris Christian Combat Jack Reggio said they
owned the network. And I remember Chris said to me
way back then, he was like, Yo, it's two things
you're gonna have to do in your career. He said
You're gonna have to write a book. And I was like, yeah,

(30:42):
that's a given you. I love you know, reading. My
mom's the English teacher. The whole spill. And he was like,
you should start a podcast. And I was like, start
a podcast? Why the hell would I start a podcast?
I do morning radio. I was a bougie. It was
all ego. I like, I got a morning radio show.
Why would I do a podcast. He was like, you've
been I had four times from radio, like the podcast

(31:02):
can actually be yours? And I'm like, you know what,
He's got a point called my guy Andrews Schoultz, Like, hey, Andrew,
you want to do a podcast?

Speaker 3 (31:11):
He was like, a podcast? What's a podcast like that.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
You know, we just get together and talk every week
and put it out and you know, not twelve years later,
brilliantly it is still going strong. But Chris is my
writing partner because you know, he was the first person
to tell me, hey, you should write a book, and
so he, you know, taught me the whole process of
writing a book.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
Man.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
I remember sitting around giving them all of these different
you know, I wouldn't even call them chapters. They were
just essays that I would write, and you know, they
were essays, you know, like, for example, and my first book,
Black Privileged, Opportunity Comes to those who created I have
a chapter called put the Weed in the Back, and
it's based off the movie Belly.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
And if you've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
The movie Belly with DMX and NAS, there's a scene
in the movie where DMX and NAS is sitting with
these two young kids and the two.

Speaker 3 (31:57):
Not young kids, but like young younger men. And the
younger men are like, and we want to be like
y'all man f school.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
We want to go out there and get money, man,
we want to get money with y'all. And DMI says, man,
you'll put the weed in the bag first. So I
basically use that to say, you can't skip the process. Like,
regardless of what it is you want to do in life,
there is a process to everything that it is you
want to do. So you know, if you're sitting there
and you know you want to go out there and
you know, get money. I'm not encouraging drug dealing, by

(32:21):
the way, this is just it's just an example, right,
if you want to go out there and get money,
and the process.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
Before you can go out there, you got to bag
it up. You gotta put the weed in the bag first.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
And so when I come with this essay and I
write it and I give it to Chris, Chris shows
me how to turn it into a chapter of a book,
and you know, the whole storyline, Like I mean, I
got the original storyboard of like my first book when
he was taking all of these essays in this example,
like Okay, this is the f your Dreams chapter, this
is to put the weed in the bag chapter. This

(32:51):
is the PPP chapter. Like I had people, it's crazy.
I did PPP way before there was PPP loans. It
was it was passion Purpose progress.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
So like yeah, so he just basically showed me how
to write a book, and you know, I use him
for all my books.

Speaker 2 (33:09):
Now, how long did it take you to do this one?

Speaker 3 (33:13):
Eight years?

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Only because my last book came out two thousand, My
first book came out twenty seventeen, and then I came
right back out with Shook One Anxiety Playing Tricks on
Me in twenty eighteen, and then I didn't put out
a book for since until last year. This has been
a lot of different thoughts and a lot of different
things that I've been writing, you know, for eight years,

(33:35):
and just taking different forms, you know, throughout those eight years.
And I had to figure out exactly how I wanted
to package all of these things that I'm writing about
and what exactly is and I'm trying to say, and
I was. I went on an ayahuasca retreat last year,
last February, and one of.

Speaker 3 (33:52):
The things that came up from me was a three
day retreat.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
I think it was day two, and it was like, yo,
stop lying to yourself and stop volunteering.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
Those lives to other people. I don't know if any
of y'all.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Ever DONEATCHA, but literally it's like godess, I mean, I
feel like I always hear God but it's like Morgan
Freeman voice, like like's.

Speaker 5 (34:10):
It sounds terrifying.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
Day two was the one was.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
Two.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
Day one was like it's interesting, right because ayahuasca. Like
Day one was, you're cool because you know. Day one
was basically like I know, I don't. You don't don't
need to have a panic attack, don't need to have
anxiety or in good hands this weekend, I got you.
We're gonna go on a journey. This is what the
medicine is telling me. Like, you're gonna go on the journey.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
It's cool.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
So I felt like real bliss on day one, like yeah,
all right, okay. So day two, you know, because you're
drinking and like shot me like a large or small whatever,
so I'm like, okay, Day one was easy.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
I'm gonna try it large this time. Oh god, oh
my god, oh man, you know.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
And then once I was in it, I was in it,
so I was like, Okay, I see what you're trying
to show me. So let's really go there. And we
were really gonna unearth all of this. Let's really go there.
So I took another large one and that's when it
was on. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, we absolutely we did it.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
Together.

Speaker 5 (35:12):
Did you guys have different experiences?

Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yes, But the interesting thing about ayahuasca is you can
see somebody else's experience.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Like if being you be and you were on ayahuasca.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Somewhere, Lisa, and you told me, you know, hey man,
it was a I felt somebody come up behind me
and like hug me.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
And I'd be like, yo, I saw the person too.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
They had white hair and you know, a beard, and
I'll be describing the person and you'll be like, yeah, yes,
that's what I saw. Like literally, it's like it's that
type of experience, like you know, once again, not encouraging
y'all to do any of this stuff. I'm just simply
telling you what I what I've done. And so that's
what the title when the book came up for me
to do that day two, it was stop lying to

(35:56):
yourself and stop volunteering those lives of other people.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
And I realized that's what I was trying to convey the.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
People that yo, we all got to show up and
be the most truest, authentic versions of ourselves at all time,
and if you don't get honest.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
You will absolutely die lying. And none of us want
to die lying.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
So it's just like, yo, let's be as honest as
possible with each other.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
And so yeah, that's how I came up with the
title for that book.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Have you ever thought about writing a novel based on
your give as a young boy or that?

Speaker 4 (36:29):
Does that interest you?

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Yeah, I got I got other ways to storytell that,
you know, I got other ways the storytell that. I
feel like that's an anime on Like, that's like as
an animated cartoon.

Speaker 5 (36:46):
I could see that, you know, that'd be fun.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
No, literally like an animated cartoon. And it's like, uh,
you know, anybody that's going to therapy, you know, ninety
five percent of the things that you learn in therapy,
or ninety five percent of your trigger as a director
related to something that happens in your childhood.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
So it would be interested in the show those correlations.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
How when you're in your adult life, certain things pop
up and you like, oh, why did that trigger me
because of what happened in third grade? Why did that
trigger me? Oh, because of what happened to me in
ninth grade? So it'd be interested to show that correlation
through animation.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
I think, thank you very we look forward to seeing them.
I got a DM from someone who couldn't be here. Actually,
several dms, and they want me to ask you about
Wendy Williams. And I need to tell you this because
I don't know if you know this, but Wendy Williams
started out her radio career on Kiss one O eight,

(37:39):
doing an internship on the morning show YEP, when she
was here in school and you worked for Wendy Williams,
so we as a morning show on Kiss. For years,
I've always talked about Wendy, and Wendy's talked about Kiss.
Went await on her, you know, when she's on TV,
and it's been nice. We've loved seeing her, you know,
and everything she's been able to accomplish. What's your view

(38:01):
of her situation and how do you think it's going
to play out?

Speaker 3 (38:04):
It's horrible, you know.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
I didn't know all the ins and outs of conservative
ships and guardianships, but I just think it's, you know,
disgusting when somebody can have absolute access over your whole life,
over your finances, tell you when you can go, tell
you when you can you know, leave, tell you that
you can't go, and you don't even have control over your.

Speaker 3 (38:23):
Your own money, like you know, I went, I want to.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
Actually went to dinner with her Monday because now because
we've been raising so much hell about it, you know,
they've loosened up some of the restrictions and so she's
able to come out a little bit. So her niece
Alex was in town, so I went to dinner with
her on Monday night, and she was just like, you're
coming to dinner at six o'clock because I don't have
any money and you're gonna have to pay for it.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
So I'm glad you're available.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
So it's just like yeah. So it's just like the
fact that you know, she doesn't even.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Have access to her own money to go get something
to eat. That's kind of that's kind of crazy to me.
And I think, you know, a lot of people don't
know about these conservatives ships and these guardianships, and I
think there's a lot of people who end up getting
lost in the system.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
Like if they can do something.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
Like that to Wendy Williams, imagine how many people they
they're they're doing that too, that don't have a voice
or I don't have people to be able to speak
out for them and advocate for them.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
So I just, yeah, I just think it's terrible.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
What she's and it varies from state to state to conservatorships.
And also I think I read somewhere where she said
that it first started that there was some weird activity
in her Wells Fargo account and she was worried about that.
And she was actually okay with that at first, yeah,
because she was concerned about her accounts and stuff like that.
And then it just spiraled into.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
How does that go from that to you know, you're
locked up in a conservativeship. So I really don't know
how it's going to play out. I hope she gets
to be free, and you know, she has things that
she still wants to do, so you know, she only
she's only sixty.

Speaker 5 (39:55):
Years old, right, and she passed that test.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
If you talk to Wendy, it's literally like, you know, there's.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
Nothing there, right, there's nothing wrong with her at all.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
Like I think the only thing is I grew up
with Wendy, right, because you're listening to her on the radio,
plus having the pleasure of working with her, you know,
even damn they're living with her for a long time.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
So it's like she.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
Is a pop culture kind of sore, like she would
have tabloid stacked up to hear and just be reading
the marketing our stuff, I mean, consuming every reality show
like she was all in it. So when you talk
to her, she could sit there and talk to you
for hours about pop culture. Now that she's disconnected from that,
you know, she don't really have.

Speaker 3 (40:39):
That to talk about.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
But if you just talk to her about life, like
she was just telling us all of these stories from
the nineties on Monday, and I'm just like, yo, I
really hope you get the opportunity to, you know, get
out and share this because it doesn't even sound real,
it sounds mythical. And you think about all of the
things she said back then that everybody thought she was
crazy for that we've actually seen I'm true over the years.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
Yeah, she's got a lot more to say.

Speaker 5 (41:04):
So are you hopeful that she'll get.

Speaker 4 (41:07):
Out of it?

Speaker 3 (41:07):
Yeah, I mean all I got is optimism. Yeah, So yeah,
I hope.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
So Brittany got out of it, she can get out
of it too. And she's such a like you said,
she's such a hard worker. I could totally see her
just reimagining a new career for herself and that would
be the best thing ever.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
That's literally that's what she talks about all the time,
and I'm like, let's focus on getting out of here first.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
Right, you know, which could take a while.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
I think they can take some questions from the audience.
Would you like to take a couple of questions, you
guys have any questions anyone. There's a little microphone right
down next to Abby.

Speaker 3 (41:45):
Yeah, thank you. What's your name, Lynne? Thank you for

(42:10):
the question. Man. Hip Hop is all I know. You know.
Hip hop is my culture. That's my aesthetic. You know,
that's what I grew up on. I don't know anything else.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
Like I said, I was born in nineteen hundred and
seventy eight, Like, so my sister was listening to Salt
and Pepper and Kidn't Play, like my cousin tied let
me hear rock campaign in full, Like I don't know
anything else.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
Hip hop is my culture.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Like there's so many things that I, you know, learned
from hip hop. You know, there's books that you know,
I've been recommended, you know, through actual hip hop lyrics.
There's things I've been introduced to, like the fopistent teachers
because of Wu Tang. Like there's hip hop is life,
and you know, I remember being young wondering if you
know I would even care.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
About hip hop as I got older, But hip.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
Hop just continue to grow and hip hop continue to evolve,
and so yeah, I love it.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
That is my that's my jazz, that's my disco, like
that's what we grew up on.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
It's crazy to think that, you know, Knuck if you
Buck is an old school classic record.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
You know what I'm saying, Like Uncle Luke Stard, it's
an old.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
School classic record, and it's that's why you can't even
judge these kids.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
You can't.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
We can't say nothing to these kids. Turn on an
Uncle Luke record and what you see what I'm saying.
Imagine you know how my daughter looks at us like
we're crazy when she catches me and my wife vibing
out late at night or jumps in the car. You know,
sometimes you pick your kids up, but you was listening
to something before your kids jumping, and you forgot that
song was on you rest turn the radio there, like.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
Hip hop is life, man, that's my life. Peace. He's awesome.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
The advice I give all new emerging voices, it don't
matter what platform you on, is to be authentic, like
you gotta be authentic. You know, there's a lot of
you know, imitation that goes on a lot of times,
especially in the media space. It's not just media space,
it's any type of art. Like you know, whenever you
see somebody that's successful doing something, you know, everybody tries

(44:25):
to do that. And literally everybody can try to copy
one person for a whole generation. But why be a
second rate version of somebody else when you can be
a first rate version of yourself? Like God gave you
a unique story, your life, experiences, things that you've gone through.
Only you have been through that, So why wouldn't you

(44:45):
give that to the people? Like that is what's going
to help you cut through, Like literally just being authentic.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
You can name any voice you want to.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
I think since we've been up here, we've be named
Wendy Williams, we've named John Stewart.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
Those are two unique voices.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
I know exactly what they do, you know exactly how
they deliver things. You have to find your unique voice
and put that out into the world and that will
that will translate regardless of what platform you're on.

Speaker 5 (45:13):
Absolutely no one more yep.

Speaker 3 (45:19):
Hey Donald.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Anytime that I didn't pay it forward, but regret that
I didn't act on it. No, because the truth to
the matter is, I feel like I always pay it
forward because I read a long time ago. I was
reading doctor Wayne W. Dyer The Power of Intention, and
doctor Wayne W. Dyer said that your true purpose in
life comes through service of others. And I thought about

(45:49):
my grandmother, and I think about my mom, and I
think about my pops, and I thought about how I
always watched them, you know, literally serve right, Like yo,
my grandmother's the type person didn't matter who you are,
It didn't matter what color you were, didn't matter what
your religion was.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
If you was around, you want to eat, you know.
If my dad same way.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
My dad always had like a little you know bar,
you know, fish market, and the same thing you want
to eat, you want to drink. So it was like
there was always a way to be of service. And
my dad did construction right, so it was like I
always watched him do little odd jobs for people. You
would hear conversations from the adults about how this person may.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
Not have the money right now, it might be an
eye on you, or hey, let's just let's just go
do this because it's the right thing to do.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
So that's kind of always been embedded in me. I
feel like that's really the only reason I've gotten so
many blessings because I've always described to pay it forward
and I've always scribed to be of service, Like there's
something everybody can serve. I don't care what your financial
status is.

Speaker 3 (46:47):
I don't care.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
You know, you know what you what your status in
life is, you can always find a way to serve.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
You can leave out of here right now.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
And go buy a homeless person some food or something like,
there's something you can figure.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
Out to do to be of service.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
So yeah, I feel like I've always constantly, you know,
paid it forward, and I think.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
The beauty of that is like even now right like
Wendy Wood and you know, literally I didn't go to college.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
So every single opportunity I've gotten is because somebody saw
something in me that I didn't see in myself and
they assisted me and helped me to get in position.
So you got somebody like Wendy Williams who did that
for me back in two thousand and six, and now
I'm in a position that turn around and assist her
in her situation.

Speaker 3 (47:30):
That's what happens when you know.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
People pay it forward and just do things because they can.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
She didn't.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
I was all the way in Columbia, South Carolina. She
could have got anybody. She could have got personalities from
New York comedians from you know, anybody could have been
on her show. She heard me on the internet and
was like, that's I want to talk to that guy
right there. Like she didn't have to do that. And
I worked for her. I worked for WBLS for a
year and a half for free, Like no mind, I'm

(47:57):
not talking about minimum weight zero dollars. They was like, yeah,
we can give you a place to stay because I
was on the air legally in New York for the
first year and a half, and so that's what I did.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
But the fact that she decided.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
To do that back then, now I'm able to do
the same things now, And I mean, I think that's
That's honestly what I think about all the time. You
should just always constantly be of service, and you should
always constantly assist people because you never know who you're
gonna need in the future that in turn that you
talking down to you bite me, he might be looking

(48:29):
at your resume ten years from now.

Speaker 3 (48:31):
Because he's now the CEO of the boss.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
So it's just like, yeah, you should always pay it forward.
So now I don't think I missed any of those.
I always look for the opportunity to.

Speaker 3 (48:41):
Pay it forward.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
Well, this was fun, this was greatly So thank you
very much, just I truly great.

Speaker 4 (48:47):
I'm so grateful and honored that you spent this hour
with us. I think we can all agree.

Speaker 3 (48:53):
No, I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (48:55):
Really, You're a very special man.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
I wish I I'm so thankful to have had you here.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
So thank you very much, Liza. It's a pleasure to
be here. And listen, man, what you're doing is amazing, amazing.
This is God's work because you know, like she was
just saying about the literacy rates and how low the
literacy rates are, you know, in communities across the country. Man,
just to get people encouraged to read. Me personally, books
and music helped me to transcend my circumstances in life.

(49:23):
And you know, I always think about, you know, Malcolm X,
when Malcolm X didn't, you know, go to an Ivy
League school or go to college, but he said that
he educated himself just through reading. And I mean that's
what books are for. And so I just really thank
you for your service and what you're doing, because this
is incredible.

Speaker 5 (49:39):
Thank you that means a lot. We're all in this together,
right guys.

Speaker 3 (49:45):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (49:46):
Our circle keeps growing. Thanks Charlotte Man