October 20, 2023 • 60 mins
No matter the season or time of year, there’s always a reason to be in your garden. Sure, we have to tend to what we plant, but we also have to do the same for ourselves! Studies have shown the benefits and positive effects that gardening can have on our mental health. Join Dr. Imani and Meg as they share their personal green thumb stories with special guest Taylor Lindsey, The Plant Plug of Los Angeles.
If you'd like to submit a listener letter, please email us at hello@imanistateofmind.com.
If you'd like to submit a listener letter, please email us at hello@imanistateofmind.com.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:15):
Hi, everybody, Welcome to inmy podcast. I'm doctor Eimani and I
am exed. Oop. Yeah,how are you? You got your smart
glasses on? Today we've talking aboutsmart stuff. I do, got my
smart glasses on. So you know, same different days, same me and
new week. Yes, what doyou? What have you been talking about
(00:38):
this week? What have I beentalking about this week? I haven't really
been talking about a lot this week, but I it well, I guess
in white people news at least rightnow, like Russell Brand is in hot
water because I guess he like abunch of women accused him of raping them.
(00:59):
I'm so sick of all these rapeypeople. I am too, but
so sick of his story. Ally'all rapists need to just go somewhere.
But here's the thing about Russell Brand. I was like, oh really,
I was like he wasn't already metoo, Like he was me too.
But that's like the joke. No, I'm seriously, that's like the joke.
That's what I'm so sick of allof this, Like, guys,
(01:21):
go somewhere with your little rapist tendency. No, he was, But I
mean, here's the thing, RussellBrand not only put it out there that
like, I am a sex addict, I have treated women horribly, like
he made it. He made thata like part of his jokes. So
what's interesting though, is that despitethat this is it's not that it's falling
(01:44):
on deaf ears like apparently the Ohmy god, was it the Daily Mail?
Like like there were a few newsoutlets out in England who put together
this documentary that aired last weekend,and so there was like talk about like,
oh, like they would They justteased it like, oh, we're
gonna have this show that's going tocome out on the weekend. And when
(02:07):
when they don't reveal who the personis, like who the target is,
Like everybody was kind of thinking about, like, oh, who's it gonna
be, who's it gonna be,Who's it going to be? And then
it turned out to be Russell Brand, who I guess is bigger in England
obviously than he is in this country. But I guess because like, Russell
Brand's always been really skeevy and justlike gross. I mean I think all
(02:29):
of us I guess on the otherside of the pond in America were like,
well, yeah, okay, yeah. He joked about like sexually assaulting
women and back then, I guessit was like ha ha oh Russell Brand.
He's so funny because you're admitting thisabout yourself. I don't really know
him like that. I saw gethim to the Greek that's kind of it.
(02:52):
I guess he's bigger in England becausehe did like all these Big Brother
shows and whatever. But when youask, yeah, I was like,
okay. I was like, sobetween I guess what's his name? Danny
Masterson all these people, I'm sosick of y'all. Rapist is okay?
So Meg, what like, what'swhat have you found this week? Like,
what's what's up? Actually? Iwant to give a shout out to
(03:14):
coach Prime Deon Sanders, who isthe head coach of was it Colorado University?
I thought it was is it?I thought it was like, is
it? Oh? No, girl? He hadn't moved, He'd been left
there. It was a lot ofproblems. He tried. He tried his
hardest out of Jacksonville State for thelast few years, but then he moved.
(03:36):
I think it was like this pastspring. Over the summer, we
found out that he is now headcoaching at Colorado University. And he's killing
it. Where have you been,Emontie, I don't really pay attention.
He's been killing it to the pointwhere, like I think one of the
games was like the top five collegegame on ESPN ever to be viewed.
(03:57):
I believe that because it's de Deonand you know what, it's a that's
a very like white school and Iknow, white everything, and he has
bought so much seasoning. Yeah,so that's school. And here's the other
part. He wasn't getting paid.I think he only get like he got
like twenty million or something. Andthen a counterpart has like triple the amounts
coach to coach and so and likethe fact that he is bringing in like
(04:23):
all these new like you know,just people to watch the show fans.
I saw he had a KFC commercialthis morning. He's the one everything.
And so even even my husband,who doesn't even follow sports, is like,
you know, for my birthday,let's go to Colorado for like to
watch a game. And I waslike, you' even lot, I know,
because I think it's just the justwhat Dione Sanders is doing, because
(04:44):
ye you know, you have thiseven in college football, there's just it's
just old white men that are coaches, right, and then the black men
that tend to be coaches are there, they still fall in the category of
like, Okay, they're not tooout of the box, right they're black
men, but they're still they're evenkey. He always here bringing offset to
the game like win. It's justit's just I love it, and everybody
(05:10):
is so inspired. And you see, I've seen some of the clips that
he's done that that have gone viralwhere he's just the way he inspires these
these football players is just so beautifulthat I feel like I don't see from
other coaches. So to me,it's more about like how he's inspiring another
generation of young black men despite ofwhatever you think about Dion, because he's
(05:32):
eccentric. But so, I guessmy question is for you, what do
you think about like black coaches insports so we have more of them?
Do we? How do we getmore of them? What is the benefit
of having them? Okay, Iwill freely admit that I'm not really a
(05:54):
sports person. Me neither Okay,but I will say that I am First
of all, I do wish theDioncea was at a black school. I
know he wasn't the black school before. I know, he tried and it's
and I can't be mad at himbecause you know they right. If it
wasn't working, it wasn't working.But to answer your questions, I mean,
I'm here for black people being everywhere. I'm here for black people infiltrating
(06:17):
everything so that we can just spreadmore of the culture and the joy around.
As far as there being more blackcoaches, I mean, I feel
like, listen, one of thereasons why I really don't mess with football
is because it's very well and alsoa lot of other sports too. Is
(06:38):
because it's granted, when football basketballfirst originated, it was all white people,
and then it became clear that blackpeople, or at least the black
players that were being chosen for theseteams were really like athletically like much better
(06:58):
and had better athletic prowess. Let'ssay, I'm definitely here for black people
managing overseeing other black people because alot of the issues that I have with
sports right now is that it justit's just too much slave slave master.
It is. And to me,it's like the like, you you have
(07:19):
to make things equitable if you're gonnapay another white coach at another school.
Yeah, three times as much.And it's Dion Sanders. This man is
a like was a like I don'teven fuck with football. I know Dion
Sanders. I know that, LikeI remember his outfits and like how he
used to just be out here inthe right exactly like it's Deon Sander.
(07:42):
It's like, you got to givethat that man his money. Yeah,
and he played football like he deserveswhat he can get, he deserves what
he can ask for. So yeah, I mean I'm definitely here for the
equity, but also I'm here forlike this is somebody who comes with a
resume that's a mile long. Yeah, and I just hope that this,
(08:03):
you know, this paves the wayfor more black coaches and at these white
schools, but even more so,like more black coaches that bring notoriety to
yeah schools. Yeah, what shetried to do. So I can't even
fault him for that. And heleft. There was just a lot of
things that happened. I think hewas there at Jackson State when they had
the water issue, like the studentscouldn't even drink the water. They had
(08:24):
to leave campus. And so herehe is paying for hotel rooms, paying
for like just there's so many issuesthat happened at this black school at that
time, and it makes me sosad because I'm like a dine You tried,
Yeah, well he could. Imean, look, if they get
it together, he can always goback, or he can go to another
black school, not my school,Xavier, because we don't have a football
team. Sorry, well hey,that is what it is. But it
(08:46):
is what it is. So hey, you guys, if you guys have
wait, how do I do agood segue into that? Wait? Is
that worth? Wait? Where?Yeah? What's before that? Yeah?
What's before that? Hot? Topics? Hot? Okay, Okay, whatever,
I'll figure out something. Okay.So moving on from Dion Sanders and
(09:07):
Black Coaches, I guess as theunofficial coach of the show. I guess
because my name's in this idle.You are the coach, girls, I'm
the coach of the show. Ilove the show, yes, and I
hope you guys love the show.And if you've been listening to the show,
you know that I have a lovefor gardening. And if you ask
me, I feel like I havea good I have a good green thumb.
(09:28):
You really do? You have plantslike galore in here and some of
them died, but it's okay.I'm learning to accept that. Yeah.
So one place that my family andfriends know that they can find me is
my backyard nourishing all of my plantbabies. And I find guarding very therapeutic
obviously, and I think gardening isa really good tool to have on your
mental health journey. So I'm notthe only one who feels that way.
(09:50):
I ran across an organization called thePlant Plug, which is here in LA
and they're on a mission to bringorganic produce to LA residents backyards, porches,
and balconies. So don't think thatyou only have to have, like
you know, your own house oryour own like green space. The owner
of Plant Plug, Taylor Lindsay,is joining us today for an interview and
(10:11):
she's gonna talk about her journey withgardening and how it shifted her mindset and
can help shift yours too. I'mso excited because I love I just love
the fact that we're black and we'retalking about gardening. Oh yeah, I
just love it. Yeah makes mehappy. Yay. So hey, everybody,
you got a green thumb or notso green thumb. If you're loving
(10:31):
imani state of mind, please rateand review us on your favorite podcast app,
and if you're watching us on YouTube, comment on how you're feeling like
the video and hit the subscribe buttonor smash it and share with your mom
and her friends. Okay, yeah, so we have a lot to get
into on this show, so let'sget into it, all right, So
(10:52):
it's time for one of our favoritesegments, ask Doctor Emani anything. We
love reading your letters. You do, and we're ready for some more questions.
Meg, who is our first letterfrom today? Well, it comes
from Crystal. Hey Crystal, itreads, Dear Doctor Emani and Meg.
I need help with a little diagnosisand the perfect prescription to manage my new
(11:13):
anti social mood. So a littlebackground on me. I've always been that
girl who is planning the next instagrammableevent or moment for all my friends and
family. My close friends joke thatI have one hundred best friends or people
who think they're my best friend becauseI'm so social. I'm invited to everybody.
I'm in every social club. Butsince the pandemic, my ass has
(11:33):
been anti social. I literally don'twant to be bothered with anyone or be
involved in anything. I've become thepopular introvert I don't want to make small
chat or rarely kikey on the phonewith my friends anymore. I haven't been
out to a social gathering in months, and the comfort of my home and
room is all I want. Mymom was recently concerned when I began crying
(11:54):
thinking about having to attend a familyreunion because I would have to leave my
house. I know this is notlike me. I live and vibe off
the energy of other people and socialevents, but now the thought of either
brings me to tears. How canI get my social groove back? And
what do you think is wrong withme? Please help? Okay, Crystal,
(12:15):
So, first off, when Iwas listening to your letter, I
don't know if what you're experiencing isnecessarily bad because if you were like so
for all of us, there's likepre pandemic, like pre blip, and
then like post pandemic. Right,So, before the pandemic, I was
(12:39):
out just going out, and I'mI can be social, but I'm more
so introverted. So when the pandemichappened, I was really happy to be
in the house. And even whena lot of people were like, oh
my god, I have to getout of here, like I just need
to go on a trip, Ineed to do something. I wasn't ready
and so I stayed in the house. And I'm glad that I actually listened
(13:01):
to myself and listen to my body, because I really did need to recharge.
So when I was listening to yourletter of Crystal, I don't know
if what you're experiencing is actually badnecessarily like bad quote unquote, you may
just need to recharge. But towardsthe end of your letter, you also
(13:22):
said that you're like, you know, I like, I feel like this
could be a problem. So here'swhat I would say. What you really
got to do some soul searching.You really have to sit with yourself and
think about, Okay, do Ifeel like me leaving my home is going
like like you crying to leave yourhouse? Is it because you're leaving a
(13:46):
place that you feel comfortable and youfeel most at home and the thought of
you having to mingle with other peopleis just way too like overwhelming. If
that's the case, then you mightjust want to stay at home and just
kind of like really listen to yourself. But if you're like, okay,
this is bothering me, like mebeing in the house is prohibiting me from
(14:09):
really being like who my true selfis. I'm not happy. You got
to figure out like what where areyou most happy? Are are are you
most happy with other people? Orare you most happy now where you're in
your house? If you feel thatthis is really a problem, I would
suggest that you kind of start small. So maybe don't jump into going to
(14:33):
your family reunion. Or you cango to your family reunion if you know,
like obviously when the date is,but you can kind of plan some
events before, yeah, before youget up to it. It might even
be like, Okay, I'm gonnago to a park and being around some
people first, or I'm just likeone friend or two exactly, so that
(14:54):
you kind of like do Like inpsychology they call that kind of like exposure
therap So like if you're afraid ofspiders, like first they'll start with like
a little tiny baby spider, andthen they'll like the spider, let's say,
will incrementally get bigger until you're youknow, maybe now the spider's crawling
on you, You're like, Idon't even care. So it sounds like
you need to kind of indoctrinate yourown self and kind of I guess expose
(15:20):
yourself to some more social situations beforeyou jump into a family reunion, because
even me thinking about being in themidst of my entire family, like and
I do go out from time totime, just thinking about is making me
sweat. So you don't feel likeit's like maybe she might have like an
anxiety disorder. Maybe maybe, Butthat's why I'm kind of like, like,
(15:43):
I understand the need for rest,but I also understand how this how
the pandemic has obviously increased mental illnessin this country, Like a lot of
people who are dealing with anxiety,a lot of people dealing with depression,
a lot of people end up dealingwith substant use disorders. But I think
(16:03):
also that what you're kind of dealingwith is relatively normal compared to like what
a lot of people that I've atleast spoken to, or patients that I've
had, like being forced to bein the house for a month, even
though we were forced to do itfor like a couple of years. Even
after a month, we would havebeen weird anyway, you know, because
we are we are meant to besocial creatures. But I also understand as
(16:26):
an introvert what it's like to feelbeing around people and that can zap you
of your energy sometimes. Yeah,And then when I think about this,
I'm like, Okay, maybe it'sa mix of a couple things. Maybe
it is like I was so socialbefore then I had it stopped completely,
Like it was just like a lightswitch was turned off, and then now
(16:47):
you're expecting me to light switch itback on and go back to being normal.
So maybe there's some anxiety there whichwas like, well, this is
a lot. Or it could alsobe a touch of maybe you're growing up
and you don't you reconciling the factthat like I used to be in the
streets, okay, out here allthe time, and then as I got
(17:07):
older, you know, got husband, kids, like I don't really be
out like it's completely opposite when Ilook at what my life was before and
what it is now, And tobe honest, I couldn't go back to
where it was. But I thinkit's I think you have to come to
that realization. So maybe you areat a place where you're no longer really
wanting to be like that, buteveryone remembers you as this person, so
(17:30):
you're trying to reconcile, like I'msupposed to be out, but I don't
want to be. Maybe you're grownand you're growing up and you're just not
into that anymore. Yeah, soyeah, I think some soul searching it
is probably Yeah, she gotta do. Yeah. I mean, at the
very least, Crystal, you couldbe just going through an adjustment disorder,
which is kind of a low keyway, or I guess a high key
(17:52):
way of saying that you went througha lot of changes and everyone's dynamic and
you kind of need time to cashup to these changes, and that's okay.
Yeah, Yeah, So I thinkthat was helpful for you, Crystal,
all right tall. Our next lettercomes from a listener named Felicia.
Was that Alicia Hey? Felicia,Hey, Felicia, not bybe? She
(18:14):
says, I am seeking ways tomake new friends in my adulthood. I've
outgrown many of my high school andcollege friends. We just weren't on the
same paths anymore. Most of themare still single with no kids, and
I recently had my second child andhave been married for three years. I
really am missing that mom wife supporttribe. But at this big age of
thirty nine, it's hard to findwomen looking for new friends. The area
(18:36):
I live in is very cliquish,so I've been feeling really lonely lately.
Any advice on how to make newfriends please share with me before I write
in that I'm depressed. Okay,I'm sorry. What was the name of
this Felicia? Sorry Felicia, Idon't know why. I like my mind
just like cut out like that.This is actually a really good letter to
follow up Crystal's letter. Again,like I said towards the end of my
(19:03):
discussion of Crystal's letter, we're alldynamic. You have a kid, you've
been married for three years. Thingsare not going to be the same.
And I don't know if the areathat you I don't know if you grew
up in the area that you livein. I'm guessing that you might have
moved to this area, like youknow, as you got older. And
if it's really clickish, I betyou there's I bet you that there are
(19:27):
definitely people out there who are notclickers. But it's like you, yeah,
but it's just that that's kind ofwhat you see. More so,
also, when you're a young mom, I definitely can second the feeling that
like friend groups or like mom groupscan be clickish because a lot of your
(19:47):
life is really going to be focusedaround your child, and so I was
never a part of those cliques.But I just remember like dropping my kid
off at school or picking him upat school, and it was just you
know, moms like like, oh, well, you know what, what
do you have enrolled in? Andda da da da da, And I
was just like, I don't know, like things he like. I mean,
(20:08):
like it just wasn't It doesn't meanthat I obviously didn't love my son
and that I didn't want for himto have fun, but I but it
wasn't my main main focus all thetime. Yeah. I kind of feel
like this may be something that youmight have to like googles. I mean,
(20:29):
as lame as it sounds, youmight just have to be like,
okay, like what like what areevents going on? Maybe not in your
town, but like surrounding your town, Like do you, like, for
example, I mean, I'm gonnause this as an example, do you
live like in Alpharetta, but likeyou're close to a major city like Atlanta,
Like that's twenty minutes away. Youknow what I'm saying. Yeah,
there's still a lot of stuff thatyou can do not necessarily in your immediate
(20:55):
environment. Yeah, And I'll tellyou this is kind of my situation because
I don't live where I grew upanymore. I live in a whole different
city. I don't have family whereI live, and there's a lot of
stuff going on that you just don'tknow about anywhere you are. And I
say this because you get in yourbubble with your kids and you're just like,
(21:15):
well, these are the few placesthat I go and these women don't
include me. But if trust mewhat I tell you, there's somebody that
is just like you that's like,I want a tribe too. So a
couple things you can do is alike YOUMANI said, Google, that's your
best friend. There's a lot ofmom tribes. There's I don't know if
you're a minority woman, but there'sblack and brown mom tribes everywhere. Literally,
(21:38):
you can google black mom tribe.Oh really, you can, and
stuff will come up. You knowwhat I'm saying. It just takes a
little bit of research what's happening inyour area. Facebook is a really good
resource as well. Just put inwhere you're located, and you can put
different search terms of what you're lookingfor. I have found so many mom
groups like that. Yeah, youcan look for local ones. Matter of
(22:00):
fact, at your local library.Okay, everywhere, there's a local library
everywhere. There's usually some like kidslike kids' story time, and that tends
to be like younger children. Sothere's other moms that are there. A
lot of them are isolated because they'rejust with their kids. You can go
there and meet some moms and ifall else fails, girls, get on
(22:21):
meetup dot com and you start themom yeah, and just put literally look
for those of you. This groupis for moms who don't have a tribe
and looking for some other moms tohang out with with their kids. And
they're cool, right, You'll besurprised how many women are like, yes,
sign me up, We'll bring ourkids. So there's a lot of
resources. You just literally have todo a little research. You may have
(22:41):
to travel a little bit to aneighboring city. And if all those fils,
put the ask out there, girl, because you will receive there are
plenty of women who feel just likeyou. Yeah for real, Yeah,
that was great advice, hey girl, And if you live in Atlanta,
hit me up because I've been lookingfor places to go okay, and taking
tire of these kids out. Okay. So Crystal Felicia, thank you for
(23:03):
sending those letters in those those aresome really good questions. I also want
to give a big shout out andshow love to everybody who writes in and
shares with so much transparency. Theask doctor Imani anything community is so fire.
Yes, and I'm so glad y'allare vulnerable and honest about your situation.
We love it. Yeah, Soanyway, keep them coming in.
If you have a problem, aquestion, or just want to drop some
(23:26):
something that's been weighing you down,hit us up by sending an email to
hello at Imani stateomind dot com asa reminder you can keep it all the
way real with us. Ohay,no judgment a little bit, but you
know we love you. We loveyou. Yes, okay, doctor body,
(23:47):
let's plush gears and you know,talk about our deep dive today.
Last month we were discussing being mindfulabout wholeness versus wellness, and so talk
to me about your journey with Guardenand how that he is tied to having
a healthier mental state. Oh mygod. Okay, so this is a
really good question, and you know, I mean, it's a good question.
But also because I always talk aboutlike, oh my god, my
(24:10):
garden and whatever, like all thetime on the show, so you know,
so obviously I'm really excited to havesome help answering it today. Now.
Our next guest said she fell inlove with plants at a young age
and said gardening saved her life.Taylor Lindsey, the illustrious, the often,
the often imitated, never duplicated usTaylor Lindsay. She's the creator of
(24:36):
Plant Plug and Plant Plugs is anorganization to shift the mindsets of communities in
La one plant and produce at atime. So Taylor, welcome to the
show. Thank y'all for having me. Especially hold on, before we all
say something, can we just giveit up for black women who yes,
when you think about gardening, youdon't think about us, right, Yeah?
(24:57):
I mean, well they that's youknow, that's they write. That's
what they be trying to have allthe people believe. But but I'm so
happy that you're here. I readyour article. I read the article that
was about you in the La Times, and I was like, oh my
god. I was like, hope, maybe we can get her further.
Show. Thank you. Yeah.Yeah, So I was like, yay,
(25:19):
this is so this is so exciting. So first, Taylor, what
part of LA are you? Areyou from South Central? Okay? I'm
all right, okay, all right, okay, so big up south Central.
So what we need to know ishow does a girl from South Central,
the illustrious South Central become the plantplug? Like, what drives your
planting? Gardening passion? Well,I definitely keep my ears to the streets,
(25:41):
okay, and being from South Central, it's a greatly underserved community,
predominantly black and brown. And nowthere's a there's a there's an up and
coming senior population as well as it'sbecome my it's become my not only my
passion, but my calling to protectmy people and especially elders as well as
(26:03):
the children that are coming up thatare anybody I just wonder if I just
want to preface anybody under twenty fiveI called children. So the frontal lobe
is not fully developed. Okay,Okay, I mean so the children as
well as those are. That's prettymuch my two main focuses as far as
education goes, and how I becamethe plant plug was. I refrained from
(26:26):
saying this for years. I've beendoing this professionally for a little over four
years, but I didn't want totell people like the mainstay of like what
really influenced me, which was drugdealers. My business model is drug dealing,
and because the the realty about that, the facts are that when I
(26:47):
was growing up, especially in thenineties, we were deemed one of the
most dangerous. We were deemed bythe media the most dangerous city in the
world because of the riots and alsothey just muddled us all together with NWA
and just everything that you could possiblythink of a lisit that happened in any
type of ghetto per se, eventhough that's a Jewish neighborhood origin. That's
(27:08):
the words that we got. That'show we got described. So it was
either you became a basketball player,some type of rapper musician at the time,
but rap was not as big asit is now, or you became
a drug dealer and that's what yougot the coin, you know, because
higher education, higher learning was notmeant for us. We live in a
red lined area and also our schoolsare very segregated. If you did not
(27:30):
live in a certain dip code,you were not going to the best schools.
So that's how I grew up,and that really really influenced me,
not only to want a business,but also I was absolutely fascinated by the
business acumen that these so called thugswere creating to where they had their own
lingo. They weren't Forbes five hundredindividuals, but they were bringing in Forbes
(27:51):
five hundred money, you know,and that fascinated me so much. I
was a latchkey kid. My parentsworked all the time, you know,
but back then you can survive ona two and income, have a home
and done a business and everything.And I was enamored by these documentaries I
watched, you know, so onething led to another, and I would
you want to say that sobriety andrecovery is part of my life. Have
(28:11):
been sober for ten years now.So I switched gears. I didn't I
didn't deep dive into that part,but once my life changed for the better,
I just used that same business acumennow. And then I learned about
the LLCs and the ei ins andthings like that. And so there's two
(28:32):
parts of the plant plug, butit's still very multi dimensional. So my
parents got me into plants, andthen my mom she said, I don't
want no grand babies, but Iwant chickens when I retire. So we
have a two hundred fair square footgarden in South Central and now it's a
mini farm. We've had up toeight chickens at a time. We have
five garden beds. We're building alarger greenhouse, and we have four mini
greenhouses and a rain barrel system tocollect rainwater in the middle of the in
(28:56):
the middle of the hood. Sotalk to us about what the plant plug
is, what is like? Whatdo you do? So I teach mostly
and then I also do retail.So I thought it would be the other
way around because I just thinky sales, sales, sales, sales, sales,
and I hate sales, by theway, it's horrible. Yeah,
and I ten out of ten don'trecommend monetizing your hobbies. Yeah yeah.
(29:18):
And if you, if you getinto it, more power to you,
but buckle up. And so Iwas growing my own plants from seed and
I started out with seventy five plants, and I was selling them for a
dollar you because I was understanding myselfgreatly back then, and I did sell
quite a bit of plants. Intwenty twenty I started in twenty nineteen,
and what really took off from methe last two years was the education part.
My mom was a teacher for awhile and I used to watch her
(29:38):
write lesson plans when I was younger, and she also told me how to
sign a check the cash one too, okay, And I didn't really how
much that would influence me in myin my in my I'm in my late
thirties now, so all that justthat's one facet of the plant plug.
One part is the agriculture education.That's that's really what I want to make
(30:00):
as free as possible. That's whatI can spread far and wide the fastest.
And then the plug is, youknow, actually getting things in your
hand as far as if you callme, I got you, or at
least I know a guy. Sothat's just you know, to just encapsulate
it. But there's so much moreto the plant plug. Education always comes
first. I'm more about teaching theprocess than promoting the products. Gotcha,
(30:25):
okay, okay, So if peoplecall you, they can ask, they
can you have classes for them?So I work mobilely mostly, so I
do work for La County Library doingworkshops for youth. And then I can
set up shop pretty much anywhere.You just give me a couple of square
feet and we can get it popAnd whether you need like a farmer's market,
a vendor pop up, or ifyou want to do actual workshops,
(30:45):
I can do it anywhere. Iwrite curriculum and lesson plans for schools,
and I also train staff. Wow. Yeah, okay, okay, go
ahead, go ahead. God wait, what if somebody wants there in the
middle of the hood, they wantto start their own guarden, you can
help them with that. So I'mmore of the I consider myself a creative
director now because I consider myself thehomie depot right where I don't want to
(31:07):
leave. I don't want to leavepeople hanging. You know so many people.
I've done it so many times whereI'll fill my cart with plants at
the nursery at whatever one of thesebox stores are, nobody's around to help,
and then I'll just grow and throweverything in the ground and it'll just
be dead in a week or two. So what I want is I want
to lessen the dependence on that processbecause it could be so devastating. So
(31:30):
if somebody calls me, I askthem where they're at and this is where
we're going to start, because that'show I got to where I'm at.
You know. So I was Iwas killing everything back in the day when
I first started in like twenty fourteen, twenty sixteen, but I was a
queen of kale because I was theone plant. I had kale for three
years and I was so proud ofit, like that's what I could knock
out. So I just kept addingone plant at a time to my learning
(31:53):
process, and then that's what Iwant people to do. I'm fine with
them being multiple plant plugs, youknow what I'm saying. I'm fine with
that. I have the trademark,they'll put some respect on my name,
so I'm fine with that. Butwhen it comes to the study and the
passing along of the education, that'swhat I want people to take away from
me. I want to be thetip to demand the fish, you know.
(32:14):
So that is so awesome. Now. I talked a little bit just
while we were introducing you about howgardenings really helped me as far as like
mental health. It's wild how justfocusing on gardening like it's just it's all
encompassing. It's so engrossing. Reallyat the time, and so I'm not
thinking about really anything else. I'mjust like, like, as soon as
(32:36):
I put my hands in the dirt, like everything just melts away. Now,
I've read on your website that yousuffer from seasonal effective disorder and you've
had some issues with depression. Howhas gardening helped you throughout the years as
far as like helping you to feelbetter, helping you achieve a sense of
(32:57):
like wholeness. Thank you for askingthat. There are actually studieshould show that
once you do touch director, serotoninincreases in the mind, and that's one
of the happy hormones. Yeah,and it's it's it's an escape for me,
but a healthy one, not justyou know, going on benders or
(33:17):
anything like that, running away frommy life. That's not what I mean.
There's literally I turn around and I'mdeep in this evergreen and I get
to step away from the concrete jungleor close the computer for the day.
Ooh, that computer, those opentabs, it's a ten thousand emails,
the invoicing, the Excel sheets.Yes, oh my god, I do
love Excel spreads SHOs. Oh youlike Excel? Oh my god, I
(33:38):
love I love you. Just gottayeah, I mean no, you gotta.
Yeah, I did. It's sofunny you mentioned that like this spring,
and I didn't. It didn't cometo fruition. I made this whole
spreadsheet of like I want to plantthis, and I want to plant this,
and this is when I have tostart the seas indoors and this is
when I can expect to plant outside. Did I do any of that,
(34:00):
No, but but I love makinga spreadsheet organization of it. I love
the organization. But back to backto what you were saying. I have
a friend that does that too withtheir seed collections. It's it's intense,
but I appreciate this, I reallyreally do. I see that Spreadshe'm like,
oh wow. So also when itcomes to just being having the human
(34:22):
experience, I I I know andI believe that we all want to feel
needed and wanted and have a calling. And that's definitely what gardening is for
me because my path was I wassupposed to be a personal trainer. That's
what I went to school for andthat that call was loud and I had
to accept the charges. And whenit comes to gardening, there it needs
(34:45):
consistent care. Yeah, it needsconsistent care. And but It's one of
those things that kind of asks nothingof you, but to be yourself.
You know, you don't have toshow up in a certain way. Sometimes
I just came straight from the cluband I'm gonna go water my garden.
That's my peace of water at nightis so peaceful it is. Watering at
night is so peaceful, and youjust hear the trickle of the water in
(35:07):
the soil and you can hear thesounds of whatever's going on. If you
have dragonflies or fireflies, I'm veryenvious because I don't. We don't get
a lot of those type of bugsout there, so uh, that's one
thing too. It definitely is fulfillingfor me because it has a need like
it's something that I have to checkon. It can become a discipline,
(35:29):
But the balance with gardening for mecomes in knowing the processes of gardening.
Gardening is a practice. A lotof people get into gardening seeking instant gratification
and optimization, getting max yields,max crops, max flowering, max blooms,
and that's not going to be thecase all the time. Nature teaches
(35:50):
us a lot. One is thatone thing that we don't listen to is
hibernating and rest because the winter shutsit all down, okay, and we
don't shut down. We keep going. In fact, we were supposed to
have four holidays, travel all overthe world. See all the in laws.
You got three months to figure itout and you still got to go
to work. You know what I'msaying. Yeah, we do. We're
doing the most during winter. Natureis not Other mammals hibernate. They eat
(36:15):
extra, put some snacks on theside and gain a little weight and get
warm. We don't listen to that. Yeah, and we don't listen to
that. So that's another thing.It's it's given me a lot of It's
given me a lot of cues ondifferent things, different lessons that I should
add to my life and daily living. Another thing that it does for me
(36:36):
is it gives me so much purpose. And I'm not talking about the plant
plate. I'm talking about just mygarden, just my garden. It gives
me so much purpose. And alsothe creativity. Yeah, the creativity you
get to cultivate. You could cultivate. I started doing garden beds based on
culture. I worked with this womannamed gig Casey, and she showed me
the importance and also her cultivation ofshe has it's a LATINIX Hispanic herriage garden.
(37:01):
She has one for African and blackculture. It's amazing. Say,
are you talking about like the plantsthat are the type of plants. Yeah.
Yeah, we researched Asian agriculture,so fascinating. Japan actually used to
sanction because they're industrial I'm getting offtopic, I'm sorry, but their industrial
revolution kind of it actually did takeaway acres of green space because rice is
(37:27):
one of their biggest exports. Soimagine it's all taken away. So now
legislation stopped that, and they saidone point four acres has to go to
each resident because Japan's greenland, Japan'sand island, right you know, so
imagine if we all got I'm notgonna get into the forty unless you want
to, but imagine if they're likeif this this government was like, hey,
pause on all these high rises,all this this these this architecture,
(37:52):
and everybody has to get at least, you know, we could do with
half an acre, That's what I'msaying, Right, can we just get
like a crumb? Right, youknow what I'm saying. But like that,
that just the thought of that partfor IDEs me of catharsis just like
that because like here, here's alittle bit of land. Have fun,
you know what I'm saying. Sothat's another thing. It allows my dreams
to run wild. And I justlearned about free firm gardening where everything doesn't
have to be, you know,so meticulous and manicured. Right, and
(38:14):
I get tired that I am nota fan of landscaping. I'm saying that
right now. People call me,they can you do my grass? I'm
like, no, I don't know, I don't. I say no,
and then I hang up. Idon't just hang out, you know,
because just it's become so meticulous thatit takes up so many resources. Golf
courses are one of the biggest components. I do not take me golfing.
Top golf is different, but donot need me to a course because there's
(38:36):
it takes up so many resources.Yeah, So getting into back into what
gardening does for me mentally, itjust makes me feel needed, wanted,
loved, cared for, and alsoin tune and line spiritually with nature because
growing up in the concrete jungle,I didn't go on my first hike until
I was eighteen. Really yeah,and the class I was what. They
(38:58):
hated it, and I don't.I don't blame them. We're a prox
of our environment, right, theyhated it. I was struggling, but
they I was like I was.It took me the mmm. I bet
it was like only like a fifteenfoot incline. I'm trip and I'm not
going to like it's forty thousand feet. But I didn't do that. They
put us on a bus. Iwent to Hollywood High School and they're like,
okay, this is our one naturetrip. And everybody hated it but
(39:20):
me. But I was uncomfortable.Though. I was so uncomfortable on that
hike, I couldn't. We wereI think we went to Griffith Park.
Wether went to Griffith Park. Wewere walking towards the Hollywood sign. But
everybody hated it. Yeah, somethingyou're not used to, not at all.
So having that that space exists andalso knowing the schematics, like,
okay, this is what we cando with two hundred square feet. A
lot of people still have access tothat, like we can. I noticed
(39:43):
there's there's a there's a group that'strying to there's a movement going on and
they're trying to depave grade schools becausetoo hot for the kids. Yeah,
and then we can add more greenspaces growing on asphalt. It's one of
my least favorite things to do.But can we do container gardening? Can
we still have that practice? Youknow? Can we decon struck this and
then rebuild? Yes we can.So that's the thing that Garney does for
(40:05):
me too. It let's my imaginationrun wild, right, Yeah, I
consider myself an artist now through mypractice. I'm gonna say it like you
sound like like this is your artist. Definitely. I didn't know that a
year ago, though I really didn't. It's wild. It's wild how things
pop up in our lives. Yeah, you know if we let them.
Yeah, then we let them.Yeah, that's so awesome. I love
well. I started in my gardenhow many years ago, like maybe two
(40:27):
years ago, and I have help. Shout out to Georgia Victory Gardens,
Black owned. Okay, but yeah, they'll help you with your garden.
Because I don't have agreem thumb at. I kill everything, so I needed
a little bit of help. ButI love it because you know, now
that I'm a mom of two littlekids. It sometimes it's just like I
need to get away, or ifthe kids are acting up, I literally
(40:50):
take them outside, like let's goto the garden and we're gonna like cut
this piece of you know, cutthis scallion or whatever. Like well,
and I noticed them change as well, like they're not crying. It's just
something about being in nature. Andnow they're like okay, and my daughter
like will pull the cherry tomatoes offand eat them. Yeah. Next thing,
I'm like, wait a minute,we don't have anything for dinner.
(41:10):
Yeah, but I was gonna usefor our salid but okay, whatever,
So talk to me about like forpeople who think this is so hard or
who don't have a green thumb,like is this possible? And what if
they live in an apartment. That'swhere I started. That's what I started
with, was I cater to smallerspaces. That's why I emphasize that guardians
a practice because when it comes toa practice and we unpack that, there's
so many different components from from pointeight to point z, right, So
(41:34):
it starts with the seed. Everybodyshould and can have a seed collection.
Okay, everybody can, and it'sit's I want it to be as big
as Pokemon cards or whatever these hypebeasts are doing in these days. So
that's one part. And then alsoeverybody can compost. Everybody could take food
waste, not necessarily composting your house, your apartment because it can get kind
of funky, but more so contributeto compost composts like la compost. What
(42:00):
is composing so composting If people don'tknow, it's pretty much you reduce your
waste overall by taking food scraps.You can do hair too, you can
actually do I'm sorry to interrupt you. No, no, you can do
hair. You can do the lintfrom your dryer, Yeah, from your
dryer. Yes. Yeah. Youcan do organic clothes too, if you
(42:22):
don't want them anymore. Yeah,yeah, yes you can. You can
do nail clippings. You can dothat's why you prefer paper bags from grocery
stores. You can do that.You can do newspapers. You can do
some of your bills, not allof them, like not the pink,
the pink, you know, thethe not the plastic part. Don't compost
that that says, you know yourbill is dedale, you can throw that
away. But there's so many differentthings we can compost. So people can
(42:45):
literally reduce their waste. Create.I call it black Gold because it starts
at thirty five dollars a bag forhealthy organic composts. Yeah, and you
can create your own fertilizers, youcan create your own compost. And if
you can't compost in your own home, then you can definitely contribute to compost.
See projects that will do it foryou for free at large and then
redistribute it back to you. Youknow, So you have to have you
(43:05):
know the know how, and Iknow how to do that. But for
people that don't. If you're anapartment, how can I participate in gardening?
How can I participate in growing greenspaces, especially communal and local.
So what I do is like Italk to people all the time about what
they can do in an apartment,how they can get started, and then
I provide them with the research.I'm the plug, you know what I'm
saying. So it's if you wantme to physically go get plants for you,
(43:29):
I can. I can help youwith the shopping as well, And
but I really want to lead withthe education. So more so, I
don't gatekeep. Gatekeeping didn't get meanywhere. I've been around a lot of
gatekeepers. But they're greedy and Ihave a feeling that they're fighting for their
lives every day. But sometimes thehaters are just in their mind. You
know what I'm saying, sharing forwhat? You know what I'm saying that
(43:51):
grabbing the barrel mentality that needs togo. I mean, if your ultimate
goal is for like a greener world, and even if your ultimate goal is
to make money, how are yougoing to do that if you just keep
it all to yourself? Right exactly? It doesn't work that way. And
you'd be surprised though, because Ibeing in this field, urban urban agriculture
is pretty much an untapped market.But my one of my admissions is to
(44:15):
make sure that nobody becomes a celebrityin this. I don't have control in
that, but there should not bea Michael Jackson Jordan of gardening. Yeah,
there shouldn't be. And also thecommercialism and the mark of the markup
is it? Well? I sawduring the pandemic was a lot of supplies
now worth triple Like, yeah,they're worth double triple now. Lumber went
(44:36):
up. A bag of soil organicused to be six dollars a bag,
it's now ten eleven dollars and it'sjust to me, it's just arbitrary markup.
That's ridiculous. So I don't wantpeople to get discouraged too. Yeah,
I want it. That's also becamemy job is to I see them
through parts of the process. Mydms are always open for gardening related questions
only, please, and I whatif they just want to holid It happens.
(44:59):
But that's that's why the that's whythe block list is longer than a
CBS receipt, because I've had peoplesliding my dms and say, oh,
as soon as I get away frommy wife, I'm gonna come visit you.
Why did you bring that up first? Why do you why? Why
was that the like she's the problem? Right? Also, me and my
plants don't want to hang out withyou. I don't even about that.
(45:21):
I don't know where you found me, but I don't know how you gott
Yes, let's find me please yeah, oh my goodness, nerve. Yeah,
I'm just I'm just wondering if therehave been any as the plant plug,
have there been any plug geese thatyou've come into contact with that have
(45:44):
been like, oh my god,since I have since you helped me,
I, you know, like granted, like maybe you know, like oh
I was able to grow this,but like oh my god, like I
feel so much better, or likethis really helped me to slow down and
realiz this, or like are thereany like testimonials or like success stories that
(46:05):
you can recall off the top ofthe head. There, thank you for
asking that? Was that an accentthat just slipped out? Okay? Yeah,
oh yeah, yeah I heard it? So I you know, I
I'm mostly part at the I'm mostlya part of the seating stage when it
comes to gardening with and also likewhen it comes to like small installations,
(46:27):
like if we're building a garden andI just see through the seating stage.
We're adding, we're adding the seedleans, we're at it, we're sowing
seeds directly. That's usually part ofmy process. And I'll hit so many
I'll hit so many blocks up,I'll hit up so many organizations, I'll
do so many workshops that I forget, yeah you know what I'm saying,
And I'll forget how many people Itouched or or how many eyes you know,
(46:49):
came across my work. And it'sand I don't know when I say
my I mean we and us,and uh, there was this There was
this time that I went to govisit Hawkins High School and they have a
garden that I was mentioning earlier.And I was like, oh, they're
like, come harvest this corn withus. This is absolutely amazing. And
the stocks were like the corn cobswere like six six inches and I started
(47:14):
eating raw corn. Yeah, absolutelyamazing. It's so sweet and delicious.
And I was like, this isso good. Where'd you get this from?
This is from you? Wow,you got this plan from me?
They're like yeah. And then Iwasn't working with children at the time,
and there was just a staff memberhad their daughter there and she had to
be like four, and we werepicking the corn together and she was so
(47:36):
excited and I was just like,oh, I got to do this for
the rest of my life. Yeah, And that was one of the earliest
success stories I have. But Iget feedback from people all the time that
went to one of my seeds sewingclasses and then now they have a full
fledged garden, and then they takewhat they learned to their church and now
they're talking to like the pastors andthe ministers or whoever's in charge of the
(47:58):
finances about putting in new a gardenspace in and then they're going to lead
the way. Yeah. Yeah,there's a client I have. Our name
is Amy Travis. And she keptcoming to my classes, like the free
library classes with their children, andher kids were so smart, Oh my
goodness. And the next thing,you know, she took it to her
church and went from her from thelibrary to her balcony to her church.
(48:22):
And then now everybody's gardening and growingand that she did that, right,
she did that right. I loveit. I love it. So just
stuff like that, and she's whenI see people use that balcony space that
we have, and I my heartgoes out to anybody that pays these Los
Angeles apartment prices for rent and getsno parking space. That should be illegal.
(48:42):
Yeah, oh my goodness. Ijust think of that that all the
time, especially in Koreatown. Andbut they take that little space that they
do have and they they're growing.They put a trellis because we do a
lot of container gardening. Oh andspeaking container gardening, did you know that's
where green thumb comes from. Soback in the day when people didn't have
gardens, cobblestones, you know,Flintstone era when they have their spaces and
(49:02):
they wanted to grow stuff. Itwas all in clay pots. So what
happened is the moss would form onthe outside of the pot from the moisture.
So a big part of gardening ismoving your plants around you constantly,
the move them around. Yeah,and you would get the green moss on
your thumbs. That's where it comesfrom. So everybody does have green thumbs
as long as you touch grass andtouch some pots. Yea, everybody does.
(49:24):
Go on, you don't have agreen thumb. If you've been moving
and touching pots, you have agreen thumb exactly. Yeah, Oh my
god, Tailor, yes, Like, thank you so much for it coming
and thank you so so much forbeing so honest and open, and thank
you so much for like, Ihave so many ideas Okay that I want
(49:45):
to discuss with you after interview,but that thank you and everybody who wants
to reach out to Tailor tell uswhere we can find you. Yes,
uh the plant plug LA on Instagram, LA is abbreviated It's where I'm most
active. I am on TikTok,I'm also on YouTube. I do I
do have my own podcast. Aswell. Oh nice. Yes, the
(50:06):
Plant Plug podcast is on YouTube andSpotify if you don't mind me mentioning that,
of course. No, I alsohave I have a garden party coming
up, me and my cro producer, Perry Danielle, who's an artist and
also an educator. Teachers are alot of fun to hang out with.
Educators are the bomb. You knowabout that? Yeah, we know a
party too, Yeah, September thirtieth. We do have a garden party coming
up that steps away from the lectureelement of gardening and workshops. So it's
(50:30):
a garden party, but it's justa bunch of gardener's partying. Okay,
so it is. You have tobring a plant. No, we give
you, We holp you up whenyou walk in. Everybody's gonna walk out
stacked with a bag. We're givingaway free seeds. We're giving away free
plants, and I'm giving I'll getget you some. Okay. September thirtieth.
(50:51):
Such an adult party, right,we're playing real life. I know,
we're playing real adult bingo. Yesfor more plants, because everybody needs
to leave stacked. Ready, I'mthe plug. The first one is always
free. Okay, Oh my god, come through. Yeah, and the
(51:12):
party is actually in the it's inthe back. We're partying in the back
patio of a community food bank reliancecenter. I don't know if you've ever
partied a food bank before. Andthat money is going to support them as
well as agricultural education and also furtheringthe arts care Perry Danielle. Yeah,
so such a good idea. Yeah, because I throw parties every single equinox
(51:35):
and solstice, except for winter becausewe usually get rained out. But why
not in indigenous cultures, other culturesthey celebrated full moons, they celebrated the
full moon harvest, like there's away to garden by the moon. It
is wild. Yeah, have yougo. Have you guys read the Farmer's
Almanac before? It is the wildestread you can get for eight dollars.
It is out of control. Andthis this lady's talk about how she cured
(51:55):
her cancer with beer grain. Yesthat I ten out of ten recommend the
Farmer's output eliminate. But when itcomes to the garden parties, it just
became this thing because I used tojust do lectures and workshops and I can
see how you've only take in somuch information and you see people fade so
right in the middle of one ofour lectures back in March, I was
like, we're going to have aparty right now, and then they stuck
around for another four hours, right, because now we get to have conversations,
(52:19):
we get to pivot, we getto be the multiple, multiple dimensional
beans that we are, and wedon't have to just talk about gardening because
there's so much other things going on. But it's all relative, right,
Yes, yes, so that's whereyou can find me on September thirtieth,
but that's also you can find meon Instagram. And thank you for asking
me and having me on here ofcourse. Yes, Oh my god,
Taylor, you're a new friend ofthe shop. Oh my god, new
(52:40):
friend of the shop. Next birthdayparty it's okay, well garden party with
house music. Yeah, but yeah, so Taylor Lindsay awesome. Thank you.
Awesome, as you guys can clearlysee check her out. Thank you,
thank you. Taylor. You're welcome, and stick around because I'm going
(53:00):
to talk your ear off for alittle bit and then everybody else. We're
going to pivot from our deep diveconversation and we're going to go onto our
next segment, which is pop culturediagnosis. We'll be right back, okay,
(53:23):
Max. So let's get into ourpop culture diagnosis for this week.
So, just to keep the planttheme going, give us a synopsis on
an oldie but goody Little Shop ofHorror and who were diagnosing from the movie.
Oh my goodness, this movie cameout in eighty six. Yes,
Little Shop of Harbers pop Shop up. I used, I used to watch
(53:45):
this movie. Oh my god did. I watched it a lot? And
I was really little. Yeah,I was young. I mean I was
like eleven, so I know youwere like small. I was like,
I mean, it came out twoyears after I was going. But I
saw. I felt like I sawit in like eighty eight, eighty nine,
but I was really little and Ijust love this But anyway, this
movie follows Seymour, who's a nerdy, orphan and plant enthusiast who works at
(54:05):
a flower shop. He falls inlove with his coworker, Audrey, who
was out of his leg but hisluck changes when he finds a strange and
exciting plant after a random total suneclipse. Okay, my favorite line feed
Missy. Oh my god. Ifirst of all, I love I love
this movie. I remember when itcame out, like my mom and her
friends talking about how it was thevoice of Audrey two. The plant was
(54:35):
Levi from like the Temptations or something. I'd be getting. Oh really yeah,
like that makes sense, Yeah yeah, because it was I mean Audrey
too. The plant obviously was likea black man. Yes, So I
used to watch this movie all thetime. It was so weird. It
was so it was It was justa really like like quirky movie. Shout
out to Steve Martin who was thesuper weird dentist who like was clearly a
(55:02):
masochist and he would like get peoplein his chair and like it was just
it was wild, like he hadall these really weird like dental contraptions.
Okay, so Seymour, So Seymour, Rick moranis big up to you whatever
you are, honey, Ashrunk thekids and all. Yes, So Seymour
is an orphan as you described.And Seymour works for mister Kushnick. I
(55:30):
think it's his name. I can'tremember his name. Let's just say his
name is mister Kushnik. I forgothis name too, But he works for
mister Kushnick. This man who ownsa plant shop, and he took Seymour
in when he was young. Andalthough he really basically treats Seymour like trash,
Like Seymour, yeah, will doanything for the plant shop and mister
(55:51):
Kushnick. And there's really a lotof like codependency going on because when of
like, so there's mister Kushnik,who is like just a random, like
older dude. And so when Audreythe Audrey too, the plant just basically
like arrives on Seymour's doorstep, andthen he discovers that Audrey two, like,
(56:15):
oh my god, this this plantlives off of blood and Seymour is
like bleeding himself. And then hediscovers like this plant can talk and it
has emotions and stuff, and itbrings Seymour all this notoriety. Seymour then
kind of moves his codependency from misterKushnik onto the plants and it gets super
wild. As most of us know. I feel like a lot of people
(56:39):
who are listening to this have seenlittle chappahars. But the main thing about
Seymour is that he's he has alot of codependency issues, meaning that he
feels that his self worth is linkedand tied to someone else, and so
as long as that other person ishappy or gives him approval, then he's
(57:00):
happy and feels that he's worthy.Codependency is obviously a characteristic of something known
as dependent personality disorder. It's somethingthat I've seen, not very often,
but I have seen with Actually Itake that back. I've seen a lot
of codependency issues in my patients whoare really ill, and sometimes they'll have
(57:24):
a parent or a family member whowill literally like shuttle them to all of
their appointments, and a lot oftimes it happens, especially if the person
who is who's mentally ill is likenot doing what they're supposed to do,
and it falls upon the family memberlike Okay, I'm gonna do this,
(57:44):
and I'm gonna do that, andlike if I can get you to feel
better, then that means that I'mdoing something right, and that means that,
like, you know, I'm agood person. Yeah, so it's
I see it a lot. SoI take back what I said. I
see it a lot, not necessarilyin my patients, in the family of
the families of the patients that Itreat, But that being said, Seymour
(58:07):
has codependency issues and with a plantand uh, it sounds crazy and that's
why it's a great it's a greatmovie. Also, big up to Pam
and Gina, which, by theway, when you said that to me
earlier, I didn't realize. Iguess because I watched I've watched it several
times over the years. It neverclicked to me that that was Pam and
(58:28):
Gina. One are okay? ToTina Arnold and girl, what's gina name?
What's Gina's real name? I amnot having a brain feart, Yeah,
Tiacha Campbellina, why do we havingWe don't know? We need to
eat, so we need to eator something. We've been filled with these
(58:49):
episodes. I'm like Cam and we'relike, why did not think of Campbell's
name? It was like, iswrong with right? My girl? Who
is that? That's wrong with?We still like two old ladies? What's
name? What's your name? Comehere? Oh? Yes? So anyway,
that Sebour is codependent and he hasdependency issues, and you know what,
(59:15):
I hope you guys loved our plantthemed show. Yes, And also
before I say all that, that'sit. That's all the time we have
for pop culture diagnosis. That's allthe time we have for pop culture diagnosis.
This week, we'll have another funcharacter to analyze and talk about on
our next episode. Now, ify'all have any fictional character suggestions you'd like
(59:35):
for me to diagnose, hit meup on X at Doctor Underscoring Money,
hit Meg up on Instagram at MegScoop, and email us both at Hello
attimanistateomind dot com. Please do andif you love us, you love the
show, you know you want totalk to us about your plants. Remember
to rate and review us in yourfavorite podcast app or if you're watching us
on YouTube, like the video comments, share, subscribe to our channel.
(59:59):
We are preiate all of it.Thank you, Yes, I hope you
guys enjoyed this episode. Thanks fortuning in. Bye bye Little Shop up by
Hi, everybody, Welcome to inmy podcast. I'm doctor Eimani and I
am exed. Oop. Yeah,how are you? You got your smart
glasses on? Today we've talking aboutsmart stuff. I do, got my
smart glasses on. So you know, same different days, same me and
new week. Yes, what doyou? What have you been talking about
(00:38):
this week? What have I beentalking about this week? I haven't really
been talking about a lot this week, but I it well, I guess
in white people news at least rightnow, like Russell Brand is in hot
water because I guess he like abunch of women accused him of raping them.
(00:59):
I'm so sick of all these rapeypeople. I am too, but
so sick of his story. Ally'all rapists need to just go somewhere.
But here's the thing about Russell Brand. I was like, oh really,
I was like he wasn't already metoo, Like he was me too.
But that's like the joke. No, I'm seriously, that's like the joke.
That's what I'm so sick of allof this, Like, guys,
(01:21):
go somewhere with your little rapist tendency. No, he was, But I
mean, here's the thing, RussellBrand not only put it out there that
like, I am a sex addict, I have treated women horribly, like
he made it. He made thata like part of his jokes. So
what's interesting though, is that despitethat this is it's not that it's falling
(01:44):
on deaf ears like apparently the Ohmy god, was it the Daily Mail?
Like like there were a few newsoutlets out in England who put together
this documentary that aired last weekend,and so there was like talk about like,
oh, like they would They justteased it like, oh, we're
gonna have this show that's going tocome out on the weekend. And when
(02:07):
when they don't reveal who the personis, like who the target is,
Like everybody was kind of thinking about, like, oh, who's it gonna
be, who's it gonna be,Who's it going to be? And then
it turned out to be Russell Brand, who I guess is bigger in England
obviously than he is in this country. But I guess because like, Russell
Brand's always been really skeevy and justlike gross. I mean I think all
(02:29):
of us I guess on the otherside of the pond in America were like,
well, yeah, okay, yeah. He joked about like sexually assaulting
women and back then, I guessit was like ha ha oh Russell Brand.
He's so funny because you're admitting thisabout yourself. I don't really know
him like that. I saw gethim to the Greek that's kind of it.
(02:52):
I guess he's bigger in England becausehe did like all these Big Brother
shows and whatever. But when youask, yeah, I was like,
okay. I was like, sobetween I guess what's his name? Danny
Masterson all these people, I'm sosick of y'all. Rapist is okay?
So Meg, what like, what'swhat have you found this week? Like,
what's what's up? Actually? Iwant to give a shout out to
(03:14):
coach Prime Deon Sanders, who isthe head coach of was it Colorado University?
I thought it was is it?I thought it was like, is
it? Oh? No, girl? He hadn't moved, He'd been left
there. It was a lot ofproblems. He tried. He tried his
hardest out of Jacksonville State for thelast few years, but then he moved.
(03:36):
I think it was like this pastspring. Over the summer, we
found out that he is now headcoaching at Colorado University. And he's killing
it. Where have you been,Emontie, I don't really pay attention.
He's been killing it to the pointwhere, like I think one of the
games was like the top five collegegame on ESPN ever to be viewed.
(03:57):
I believe that because it's de Deonand you know what, it's a that's
a very like white school and Iknow, white everything, and he has
bought so much seasoning. Yeah,so that's school. And here's the other
part. He wasn't getting paid.I think he only get like he got
like twenty million or something. Andthen a counterpart has like triple the amounts
coach to coach and so and likethe fact that he is bringing in like
(04:23):
all these new like you know,just people to watch the show fans.
I saw he had a KFC commercialthis morning. He's the one everything.
And so even even my husband,who doesn't even follow sports, is like,
you know, for my birthday,let's go to Colorado for like to
watch a game. And I waslike, you' even lot, I know,
because I think it's just the justwhat Dione Sanders is doing, because
(04:44):
ye you know, you have thiseven in college football, there's just it's
just old white men that are coaches, right, and then the black men
that tend to be coaches are there, they still fall in the category of
like, Okay, they're not tooout of the box, right they're black
men, but they're still they're evenkey. He always here bringing offset to
the game like win. It's justit's just I love it, and everybody
(05:10):
is so inspired. And you see, I've seen some of the clips that
he's done that that have gone viralwhere he's just the way he inspires these
these football players is just so beautifulthat I feel like I don't see from
other coaches. So to me,it's more about like how he's inspiring another
generation of young black men despite ofwhatever you think about Dion, because he's
(05:32):
eccentric. But so, I guessmy question is for you, what do
you think about like black coaches insports so we have more of them?
Do we? How do we getmore of them? What is the benefit
of having them? Okay, Iwill freely admit that I'm not really a
(05:54):
sports person. Me neither Okay,but I will say that I am First
of all, I do wish theDioncea was at a black school. I
know he wasn't the black school before. I know, he tried and it's
and I can't be mad at himbecause you know they right. If it
wasn't working, it wasn't working.But to answer your questions, I mean,
I'm here for black people being everywhere. I'm here for black people infiltrating
(06:17):
everything so that we can just spreadmore of the culture and the joy around.
As far as there being more blackcoaches, I mean, I feel
like, listen, one of thereasons why I really don't mess with football
is because it's very well and alsoa lot of other sports too. Is
(06:38):
because it's granted, when football basketballfirst originated, it was all white people,
and then it became clear that blackpeople, or at least the black
players that were being chosen for theseteams were really like athletically like much better
(06:58):
and had better athletic prowess. Let'ssay, I'm definitely here for black people
managing overseeing other black people because alot of the issues that I have with
sports right now is that it justit's just too much slave slave master.
It is. And to me,it's like the like, you you have
(07:19):
to make things equitable if you're gonnapay another white coach at another school.
Yeah, three times as much.And it's Dion Sanders. This man is
a like was a like I don'teven fuck with football. I know Dion
Sanders. I know that, LikeI remember his outfits and like how he
used to just be out here inthe right exactly like it's Deon Sander.
(07:42):
It's like, you got to givethat that man his money. Yeah,
and he played football like he deserveswhat he can get, he deserves what
he can ask for. So yeah, I mean I'm definitely here for the
equity, but also I'm here forlike this is somebody who comes with a
resume that's a mile long. Yeah, and I just hope that this,
(08:03):
you know, this paves the wayfor more black coaches and at these white
schools, but even more so,like more black coaches that bring notoriety to
yeah schools. Yeah, what shetried to do. So I can't even
fault him for that. And heleft. There was just a lot of
things that happened. I think hewas there at Jackson State when they had
the water issue, like the studentscouldn't even drink the water. They had
(08:24):
to leave campus. And so herehe is paying for hotel rooms, paying
for like just there's so many issuesthat happened at this black school at that
time, and it makes me sosad because I'm like a dine You tried,
Yeah, well he could. Imean, look, if they get
it together, he can always goback, or he can go to another
black school, not my school,Xavier, because we don't have a football
team. Sorry, well hey,that is what it is. But it
(08:46):
is what it is. So hey, you guys, if you guys have
wait, how do I do agood segue into that? Wait? Is
that worth? Wait? Where?Yeah? What's before that? Yeah?
What's before that? Hot? Topics? Hot? Okay, Okay, whatever,
I'll figure out something. Okay.So moving on from Dion Sanders and
(09:07):
Black Coaches, I guess as theunofficial coach of the show. I guess
because my name's in this idle.You are the coach, girls, I'm
the coach of the show. Ilove the show, yes, and I
hope you guys love the show.And if you've been listening to the show,
you know that I have a lovefor gardening. And if you ask
me, I feel like I havea good I have a good green thumb.
(09:28):
You really do? You have plantslike galore in here and some of
them died, but it's okay.I'm learning to accept that. Yeah.
So one place that my family andfriends know that they can find me is
my backyard nourishing all of my plantbabies. And I find guarding very therapeutic
obviously, and I think gardening isa really good tool to have on your
mental health journey. So I'm notthe only one who feels that way.
(09:50):
I ran across an organization called thePlant Plug, which is here in LA
and they're on a mission to bringorganic produce to LA residents backyards, porches,
and balconies. So don't think thatyou only have to have, like
you know, your own house oryour own like green space. The owner
of Plant Plug, Taylor Lindsay,is joining us today for an interview and
(10:11):
she's gonna talk about her journey withgardening and how it shifted her mindset and
can help shift yours too. I'mso excited because I love I just love
the fact that we're black and we'retalking about gardening. Oh yeah, I
just love it. Yeah makes mehappy. Yay. So hey, everybody,
you got a green thumb or notso green thumb. If you're loving
(10:31):
imani state of mind, please rateand review us on your favorite podcast app,
and if you're watching us on YouTube, comment on how you're feeling like
the video and hit the subscribe buttonor smash it and share with your mom
and her friends. Okay, yeah, so we have a lot to get
into on this show, so let'sget into it, all right, So
(10:52):
it's time for one of our favoritesegments, ask Doctor Emani anything. We
love reading your letters. You do, and we're ready for some more questions.
Meg, who is our first letterfrom today? Well, it comes
from Crystal. Hey Crystal, itreads, Dear Doctor Emani and Meg.
I need help with a little diagnosisand the perfect prescription to manage my new
(11:13):
anti social mood. So a littlebackground on me. I've always been that
girl who is planning the next instagrammableevent or moment for all my friends and
family. My close friends joke thatI have one hundred best friends or people
who think they're my best friend becauseI'm so social. I'm invited to everybody.
I'm in every social club. Butsince the pandemic, my ass has
(11:33):
been anti social. I literally don'twant to be bothered with anyone or be
involved in anything. I've become thepopular introvert I don't want to make small
chat or rarely kikey on the phonewith my friends anymore. I haven't been
out to a social gathering in months, and the comfort of my home and
room is all I want. Mymom was recently concerned when I began crying
(11:54):
thinking about having to attend a familyreunion because I would have to leave my
house. I know this is notlike me. I live and vibe off
the energy of other people and socialevents, but now the thought of either
brings me to tears. How canI get my social groove back? And
what do you think is wrong withme? Please help? Okay, Crystal,
(12:15):
So, first off, when Iwas listening to your letter, I
don't know if what you're experiencing isnecessarily bad because if you were like so
for all of us, there's likepre pandemic, like pre blip, and
then like post pandemic. Right,So, before the pandemic, I was
(12:39):
out just going out, and I'mI can be social, but I'm more
so introverted. So when the pandemichappened, I was really happy to be
in the house. And even whena lot of people were like, oh
my god, I have to getout of here, like I just need
to go on a trip, Ineed to do something. I wasn't ready
and so I stayed in the house. And I'm glad that I actually listened
(13:01):
to myself and listen to my body, because I really did need to recharge.
So when I was listening to yourletter of Crystal, I don't know
if what you're experiencing is actually badnecessarily like bad quote unquote, you may
just need to recharge. But towardsthe end of your letter, you also
(13:22):
said that you're like, you know, I like, I feel like this
could be a problem. So here'swhat I would say. What you really
got to do some soul searching.You really have to sit with yourself and
think about, Okay, do Ifeel like me leaving my home is going
like like you crying to leave yourhouse? Is it because you're leaving a
(13:46):
place that you feel comfortable and youfeel most at home and the thought of
you having to mingle with other peopleis just way too like overwhelming. If
that's the case, then you mightjust want to stay at home and just
kind of like really listen to yourself. But if you're like, okay,
this is bothering me, like mebeing in the house is prohibiting me from
(14:09):
really being like who my true selfis. I'm not happy. You got
to figure out like what where areyou most happy? Are are are you
most happy with other people? Orare you most happy now where you're in
your house? If you feel thatthis is really a problem, I would
suggest that you kind of start small. So maybe don't jump into going to
(14:33):
your family reunion. Or you cango to your family reunion if you know,
like obviously when the date is,but you can kind of plan some
events before, yeah, before youget up to it. It might even
be like, Okay, I'm gonnago to a park and being around some
people first, or I'm just likeone friend or two exactly, so that
(14:54):
you kind of like do Like inpsychology they call that kind of like exposure
therap So like if you're afraid ofspiders, like first they'll start with like
a little tiny baby spider, andthen they'll like the spider, let's say,
will incrementally get bigger until you're youknow, maybe now the spider's crawling
on you, You're like, Idon't even care. So it sounds like
you need to kind of indoctrinate yourown self and kind of I guess expose
(15:20):
yourself to some more social situations beforeyou jump into a family reunion, because
even me thinking about being in themidst of my entire family, like and
I do go out from time totime, just thinking about is making me
sweat. So you don't feel likeit's like maybe she might have like an
anxiety disorder. Maybe maybe, Butthat's why I'm kind of like, like,
(15:43):
I understand the need for rest,but I also understand how this how
the pandemic has obviously increased mental illnessin this country, Like a lot of
people who are dealing with anxiety,a lot of people dealing with depression,
a lot of people end up dealingwith substant use disorders. But I think
(16:03):
also that what you're kind of dealingwith is relatively normal compared to like what
a lot of people that I've atleast spoken to, or patients that I've
had, like being forced to bein the house for a month, even
though we were forced to do itfor like a couple of years. Even
after a month, we would havebeen weird anyway, you know, because
we are we are meant to besocial creatures. But I also understand as
(16:26):
an introvert what it's like to feelbeing around people and that can zap you
of your energy sometimes. Yeah,And then when I think about this,
I'm like, Okay, maybe it'sa mix of a couple things. Maybe
it is like I was so socialbefore then I had it stopped completely,
Like it was just like a lightswitch was turned off, and then now
(16:47):
you're expecting me to light switch itback on and go back to being normal.
So maybe there's some anxiety there whichwas like, well, this is
a lot. Or it could alsobe a touch of maybe you're growing up
and you don't you reconciling the factthat like I used to be in the
streets, okay, out here allthe time, and then as I got
(17:07):
older, you know, got husband, kids, like I don't really be
out like it's completely opposite when Ilook at what my life was before and
what it is now, And tobe honest, I couldn't go back to
where it was. But I thinkit's I think you have to come to
that realization. So maybe you areat a place where you're no longer really
wanting to be like that, buteveryone remembers you as this person, so
(17:30):
you're trying to reconcile, like I'msupposed to be out, but I don't
want to be. Maybe you're grownand you're growing up and you're just not
into that anymore. Yeah, soyeah, I think some soul searching it
is probably Yeah, she gotta do. Yeah. I mean, at the
very least, Crystal, you couldbe just going through an adjustment disorder,
which is kind of a low keyway, or I guess a high key
(17:52):
way of saying that you went througha lot of changes and everyone's dynamic and
you kind of need time to cashup to these changes, and that's okay.
Yeah, Yeah, So I thinkthat was helpful for you, Crystal,
all right tall. Our next lettercomes from a listener named Felicia.
Was that Alicia Hey? Felicia,Hey, Felicia, not bybe? She
(18:14):
says, I am seeking ways tomake new friends in my adulthood. I've
outgrown many of my high school andcollege friends. We just weren't on the
same paths anymore. Most of themare still single with no kids, and
I recently had my second child andhave been married for three years. I
really am missing that mom wife supporttribe. But at this big age of
thirty nine, it's hard to findwomen looking for new friends. The area
(18:36):
I live in is very cliquish,so I've been feeling really lonely lately.
Any advice on how to make newfriends please share with me before I write
in that I'm depressed. Okay,I'm sorry. What was the name of
this Felicia? Sorry Felicia, Idon't know why. I like my mind
just like cut out like that.This is actually a really good letter to
follow up Crystal's letter. Again,like I said towards the end of my
(19:03):
discussion of Crystal's letter, we're alldynamic. You have a kid, you've
been married for three years. Thingsare not going to be the same.
And I don't know if the areathat you I don't know if you grew
up in the area that you livein. I'm guessing that you might have
moved to this area, like youknow, as you got older. And
if it's really clickish, I betyou there's I bet you that there are
(19:27):
definitely people out there who are notclickers. But it's like you, yeah,
but it's just that that's kind ofwhat you see. More so,
also, when you're a young mom, I definitely can second the feeling that
like friend groups or like mom groupscan be clickish because a lot of your
(19:47):
life is really going to be focusedaround your child, and so I was
never a part of those cliques.But I just remember like dropping my kid
off at school or picking him upat school, and it was just you
know, moms like like, oh, well, you know what, what
do you have enrolled in? Andda da da da da, And I
was just like, I don't know, like things he like. I mean,
(20:08):
like it just wasn't It doesn't meanthat I obviously didn't love my son
and that I didn't want for himto have fun, but I but it
wasn't my main main focus all thetime. Yeah. I kind of feel
like this may be something that youmight have to like googles. I mean,
(20:29):
as lame as it sounds, youmight just have to be like,
okay, like what like what areevents going on? Maybe not in your
town, but like surrounding your town, Like do you, like, for
example, I mean, I'm gonnause this as an example, do you
live like in Alpharetta, but likeyou're close to a major city like Atlanta,
Like that's twenty minutes away. Youknow what I'm saying. Yeah,
there's still a lot of stuff thatyou can do not necessarily in your immediate
(20:55):
environment. Yeah, And I'll tellyou this is kind of my situation because
I don't live where I grew upanymore. I live in a whole different
city. I don't have family whereI live, and there's a lot of
stuff going on that you just don'tknow about anywhere you are. And I
say this because you get in yourbubble with your kids and you're just like,
(21:15):
well, these are the few placesthat I go and these women don't
include me. But if trust mewhat I tell you, there's somebody that
is just like you that's like,I want a tribe too. So a
couple things you can do is alike YOUMANI said, Google, that's your
best friend. There's a lot ofmom tribes. There's I don't know if
you're a minority woman, but there'sblack and brown mom tribes everywhere. Literally,
(21:38):
you can google black mom tribe.Oh really, you can, and
stuff will come up. You knowwhat I'm saying. It just takes a
little bit of research what's happening inyour area. Facebook is a really good
resource as well. Just put inwhere you're located, and you can put
different search terms of what you're lookingfor. I have found so many mom
groups like that. Yeah, youcan look for local ones. Matter of
(22:00):
fact, at your local library.Okay, everywhere, there's a local library
everywhere. There's usually some like kidslike kids' story time, and that tends
to be like younger children. Sothere's other moms that are there. A
lot of them are isolated because they'rejust with their kids. You can go
there and meet some moms and ifall else fails, girls, get on
(22:21):
meetup dot com and you start themom yeah, and just put literally look
for those of you. This groupis for moms who don't have a tribe
and looking for some other moms tohang out with with their kids. And
they're cool, right, You'll besurprised how many women are like, yes,
sign me up, We'll bring ourkids. So there's a lot of
resources. You just literally have todo a little research. You may have
(22:41):
to travel a little bit to aneighboring city. And if all those fils,
put the ask out there, girl, because you will receive there are
plenty of women who feel just likeyou. Yeah for real, Yeah,
that was great advice, hey girl, And if you live in Atlanta,
hit me up because I've been lookingfor places to go okay, and taking
tire of these kids out. Okay. So Crystal Felicia, thank you for
(23:03):
sending those letters in those those aresome really good questions. I also want
to give a big shout out andshow love to everybody who writes in and
shares with so much transparency. Theask doctor Imani anything community is so fire.
Yes, and I'm so glad y'allare vulnerable and honest about your situation.
We love it. Yeah, Soanyway, keep them coming in.
If you have a problem, aquestion, or just want to drop some
(23:26):
something that's been weighing you down,hit us up by sending an email to
hello at Imani stateomind dot com asa reminder you can keep it all the
way real with us. Ohay,no judgment a little bit, but you
know we love you. We loveyou. Yes, okay, doctor body,
(23:47):
let's plush gears and you know,talk about our deep dive today.
Last month we were discussing being mindfulabout wholeness versus wellness, and so talk
to me about your journey with Guardenand how that he is tied to having
a healthier mental state. Oh mygod. Okay, so this is a
really good question, and you know, I mean, it's a good question.
But also because I always talk aboutlike, oh my god, my
(24:10):
garden and whatever, like all thetime on the show, so you know,
so obviously I'm really excited to havesome help answering it today. Now.
Our next guest said she fell inlove with plants at a young age
and said gardening saved her life.Taylor Lindsey, the illustrious, the often,
the often imitated, never duplicated usTaylor Lindsay. She's the creator of
(24:36):
Plant Plug and Plant Plugs is anorganization to shift the mindsets of communities in
La one plant and produce at atime. So Taylor, welcome to the
show. Thank y'all for having me. Especially hold on, before we all
say something, can we just giveit up for black women who yes,
when you think about gardening, youdon't think about us, right, Yeah?
(24:57):
I mean, well they that's youknow, that's they write. That's
what they be trying to have allthe people believe. But but I'm so
happy that you're here. I readyour article. I read the article that
was about you in the La Times, and I was like, oh my
god. I was like, hope, maybe we can get her further.
Show. Thank you. Yeah.Yeah, So I was like, yay,
(25:19):
this is so this is so exciting. So first, Taylor, what
part of LA are you? Areyou from South Central? Okay? I'm
all right, okay, all right, okay, so big up south Central.
So what we need to know ishow does a girl from South Central,
the illustrious South Central become the plantplug? Like, what drives your
planting? Gardening passion? Well,I definitely keep my ears to the streets,
(25:41):
okay, and being from South Central, it's a greatly underserved community,
predominantly black and brown. And nowthere's a there's a there's an up and
coming senior population as well as it'sbecome my it's become my not only my
passion, but my calling to protectmy people and especially elders as well as
(26:03):
the children that are coming up thatare anybody I just wonder if I just
want to preface anybody under twenty fiveI called children. So the frontal lobe
is not fully developed. Okay,Okay, I mean so the children as
well as those are. That's prettymuch my two main focuses as far as
education goes, and how I becamethe plant plug was. I refrained from
(26:26):
saying this for years. I've beendoing this professionally for a little over four
years, but I didn't want totell people like the mainstay of like what
really influenced me, which was drugdealers. My business model is drug dealing,
and because the the realty about that, the facts are that when I
(26:47):
was growing up, especially in thenineties, we were deemed one of the
most dangerous. We were deemed bythe media the most dangerous city in the
world because of the riots and alsothey just muddled us all together with NWA
and just everything that you could possiblythink of a lisit that happened in any
type of ghetto per se, eventhough that's a Jewish neighborhood origin. That's
(27:08):
the words that we got. That'show we got described. So it was
either you became a basketball player,some type of rapper musician at the time,
but rap was not as big asit is now, or you became
a drug dealer and that's what yougot the coin, you know, because
higher education, higher learning was notmeant for us. We live in a
red lined area and also our schoolsare very segregated. If you did not
(27:30):
live in a certain dip code,you were not going to the best schools.
So that's how I grew up,and that really really influenced me,
not only to want a business,but also I was absolutely fascinated by the
business acumen that these so called thugswere creating to where they had their own
lingo. They weren't Forbes five hundredindividuals, but they were bringing in Forbes
(27:51):
five hundred money, you know,and that fascinated me so much. I
was a latchkey kid. My parentsworked all the time, you know,
but back then you can survive ona two and income, have a home
and done a business and everything.And I was enamored by these documentaries I
watched, you know, so onething led to another, and I would
you want to say that sobriety andrecovery is part of my life. Have
(28:11):
been sober for ten years now.So I switched gears. I didn't I
didn't deep dive into that part,but once my life changed for the better,
I just used that same business acumennow. And then I learned about
the LLCs and the ei ins andthings like that. And so there's two
(28:32):
parts of the plant plug, butit's still very multi dimensional. So my
parents got me into plants, andthen my mom she said, I don't
want no grand babies, but Iwant chickens when I retire. So we
have a two hundred fair square footgarden in South Central and now it's a
mini farm. We've had up toeight chickens at a time. We have
five garden beds. We're building alarger greenhouse, and we have four mini
greenhouses and a rain barrel system tocollect rainwater in the middle of the in
(28:56):
the middle of the hood. Sotalk to us about what the plant plug
is, what is like? Whatdo you do? So I teach mostly
and then I also do retail.So I thought it would be the other
way around because I just thinky sales, sales, sales, sales, sales,
and I hate sales, by theway, it's horrible. Yeah,
and I ten out of ten don'trecommend monetizing your hobbies. Yeah yeah.
(29:18):
And if you, if you getinto it, more power to you,
but buckle up. And so Iwas growing my own plants from seed and
I started out with seventy five plants, and I was selling them for a
dollar you because I was understanding myselfgreatly back then, and I did sell
quite a bit of plants. Intwenty twenty I started in twenty nineteen,
and what really took off from methe last two years was the education part.
My mom was a teacher for awhile and I used to watch her
(29:38):
write lesson plans when I was younger, and she also told me how to
sign a check the cash one too, okay, And I didn't really how
much that would influence me in myin my in my I'm in my late
thirties now, so all that justthat's one facet of the plant plug.
One part is the agriculture education.That's that's really what I want to make
(30:00):
as free as possible. That's whatI can spread far and wide the fastest.
And then the plug is, youknow, actually getting things in your
hand as far as if you callme, I got you, or at
least I know a guy. Sothat's just you know, to just encapsulate
it. But there's so much moreto the plant plug. Education always comes
first. I'm more about teaching theprocess than promoting the products. Gotcha,
(30:25):
okay, okay, So if peoplecall you, they can ask, they
can you have classes for them?So I work mobilely mostly, so I
do work for La County Library doingworkshops for youth. And then I can
set up shop pretty much anywhere.You just give me a couple of square
feet and we can get it popAnd whether you need like a farmer's market,
a vendor pop up, or ifyou want to do actual workshops,
(30:45):
I can do it anywhere. Iwrite curriculum and lesson plans for schools,
and I also train staff. Wow. Yeah, okay, okay, go
ahead, go ahead. God wait, what if somebody wants there in the
middle of the hood, they wantto start their own guarden, you can
help them with that. So I'mmore of the I consider myself a creative
director now because I consider myself thehomie depot right where I don't want to
(31:07):
leave. I don't want to leavepeople hanging. You know so many people.
I've done it so many times whereI'll fill my cart with plants at
the nursery at whatever one of thesebox stores are, nobody's around to help,
and then I'll just grow and throweverything in the ground and it'll just
be dead in a week or two. So what I want is I want
to lessen the dependence on that processbecause it could be so devastating. So
(31:30):
if somebody calls me, I askthem where they're at and this is where
we're going to start, because that'show I got to where I'm at.
You know. So I was Iwas killing everything back in the day when
I first started in like twenty fourteen, twenty sixteen, but I was a
queen of kale because I was theone plant. I had kale for three
years and I was so proud ofit, like that's what I could knock
out. So I just kept addingone plant at a time to my learning
(31:53):
process, and then that's what Iwant people to do. I'm fine with
them being multiple plant plugs, youknow what I'm saying. I'm fine with
that. I have the trademark,they'll put some respect on my name,
so I'm fine with that. Butwhen it comes to the study and the
passing along of the education, that'swhat I want people to take away from
me. I want to be thetip to demand the fish, you know.
(32:14):
So that is so awesome. Now. I talked a little bit just
while we were introducing you about howgardenings really helped me as far as like
mental health. It's wild how justfocusing on gardening like it's just it's all
encompassing. It's so engrossing. Reallyat the time, and so I'm not
thinking about really anything else. I'mjust like, like, as soon as
(32:36):
I put my hands in the dirt, like everything just melts away. Now,
I've read on your website that yousuffer from seasonal effective disorder and you've
had some issues with depression. Howhas gardening helped you throughout the years as
far as like helping you to feelbetter, helping you achieve a sense of
(32:57):
like wholeness. Thank you for askingthat. There are actually studieshould show that
once you do touch director, serotoninincreases in the mind, and that's one
of the happy hormones. Yeah,and it's it's it's an escape for me,
but a healthy one, not justyou know, going on benders or
(33:17):
anything like that, running away frommy life. That's not what I mean.
There's literally I turn around and I'mdeep in this evergreen and I get
to step away from the concrete jungleor close the computer for the day.
Ooh, that computer, those opentabs, it's a ten thousand emails,
the invoicing, the Excel sheets.Yes, oh my god, I do
love Excel spreads SHOs. Oh youlike Excel? Oh my god, I
(33:38):
love I love you. Just gottayeah, I mean no, you gotta.
Yeah, I did. It's sofunny you mentioned that like this spring,
and I didn't. It didn't cometo fruition. I made this whole
spreadsheet of like I want to plantthis, and I want to plant this,
and this is when I have tostart the seas indoors and this is
when I can expect to plant outside. Did I do any of that,
(34:00):
No, but but I love makinga spreadsheet organization of it. I love
the organization. But back to backto what you were saying. I have
a friend that does that too withtheir seed collections. It's it's intense,
but I appreciate this, I reallyreally do. I see that Spreadshe'm like,
oh wow. So also when itcomes to just being having the human
(34:22):
experience, I I I know andI believe that we all want to feel
needed and wanted and have a calling. And that's definitely what gardening is for
me because my path was I wassupposed to be a personal trainer. That's
what I went to school for andthat that call was loud and I had
to accept the charges. And whenit comes to gardening, there it needs
(34:45):
consistent care. Yeah, it needsconsistent care. And but It's one of
those things that kind of asks nothingof you, but to be yourself.
You know, you don't have toshow up in a certain way. Sometimes
I just came straight from the cluband I'm gonna go water my garden.
That's my peace of water at nightis so peaceful it is. Watering at
night is so peaceful, and youjust hear the trickle of the water in
(35:07):
the soil and you can hear thesounds of whatever's going on. If you
have dragonflies or fireflies, I'm veryenvious because I don't. We don't get
a lot of those type of bugsout there, so uh, that's one
thing too. It definitely is fulfillingfor me because it has a need like
it's something that I have to checkon. It can become a discipline,
(35:29):
But the balance with gardening for mecomes in knowing the processes of gardening.
Gardening is a practice. A lotof people get into gardening seeking instant gratification
and optimization, getting max yields,max crops, max flowering, max blooms,
and that's not going to be thecase all the time. Nature teaches
(35:50):
us a lot. One is thatone thing that we don't listen to is
hibernating and rest because the winter shutsit all down, okay, and we
don't shut down. We keep going. In fact, we were supposed to
have four holidays, travel all overthe world. See all the in laws.
You got three months to figure itout and you still got to go
to work. You know what I'msaying. Yeah, we do. We're
doing the most during winter. Natureis not Other mammals hibernate. They eat
(36:15):
extra, put some snacks on theside and gain a little weight and get
warm. We don't listen to that. Yeah, and we don't listen to
that. So that's another thing.It's it's given me a lot of It's
given me a lot of cues ondifferent things, different lessons that I should
add to my life and daily living. Another thing that it does for me
(36:36):
is it gives me so much purpose. And I'm not talking about the plant
plate. I'm talking about just mygarden, just my garden. It gives
me so much purpose. And alsothe creativity. Yeah, the creativity you
get to cultivate. You could cultivate. I started doing garden beds based on
culture. I worked with this womannamed gig Casey, and she showed me
the importance and also her cultivation ofshe has it's a LATINIX Hispanic herriage garden.
(37:01):
She has one for African and blackculture. It's amazing. Say,
are you talking about like the plantsthat are the type of plants. Yeah.
Yeah, we researched Asian agriculture,so fascinating. Japan actually used to
sanction because they're industrial I'm getting offtopic, I'm sorry, but their industrial
revolution kind of it actually did takeaway acres of green space because rice is
(37:27):
one of their biggest exports. Soimagine it's all taken away. So now
legislation stopped that, and they saidone point four acres has to go to
each resident because Japan's greenland, Japan'sand island, right you know, so
imagine if we all got I'm notgonna get into the forty unless you want
to, but imagine if they're likeif this this government was like, hey,
pause on all these high rises,all this this these this architecture,
(37:52):
and everybody has to get at least, you know, we could do with
half an acre, That's what I'msaying, Right, can we just get
like a crumb? Right, youknow what I'm saying. But like that,
that just the thought of that partfor IDEs me of catharsis just like
that because like here, here's alittle bit of land. Have fun,
you know what I'm saying. Sothat's another thing. It allows my dreams
to run wild. And I justlearned about free firm gardening where everything doesn't
have to be, you know,so meticulous and manicured. Right, and
(38:14):
I get tired that I am nota fan of landscaping. I'm saying that
right now. People call me,they can you do my grass? I'm
like, no, I don't know, I don't. I say no,
and then I hang up. Idon't just hang out, you know,
because just it's become so meticulous thatit takes up so many resources. Golf
courses are one of the biggest components. I do not take me golfing.
Top golf is different, but donot need me to a course because there's
(38:36):
it takes up so many resources.Yeah, So getting into back into what
gardening does for me mentally, itjust makes me feel needed, wanted,
loved, cared for, and alsoin tune and line spiritually with nature because
growing up in the concrete jungle,I didn't go on my first hike until
I was eighteen. Really yeah,and the class I was what. They
(38:58):
hated it, and I don't.I don't blame them. We're a prox
of our environment, right, theyhated it. I was struggling, but
they I was like I was.It took me the mmm. I bet
it was like only like a fifteenfoot incline. I'm trip and I'm not
going to like it's forty thousand feet. But I didn't do that. They
put us on a bus. Iwent to Hollywood High School and they're like,
okay, this is our one naturetrip. And everybody hated it but
(39:20):
me. But I was uncomfortable.Though. I was so uncomfortable on that
hike, I couldn't. We wereI think we went to Griffith Park.
Wether went to Griffith Park. Wewere walking towards the Hollywood sign. But
everybody hated it. Yeah, somethingyou're not used to, not at all.
So having that that space exists andalso knowing the schematics, like,
okay, this is what we cando with two hundred square feet. A
lot of people still have access tothat, like we can. I noticed
(39:43):
there's there's a there's a group that'strying to there's a movement going on and
they're trying to depave grade schools becausetoo hot for the kids. Yeah,
and then we can add more greenspaces growing on asphalt. It's one of
my least favorite things to do.But can we do container gardening? Can
we still have that practice? Youknow? Can we decon struck this and
then rebuild? Yes we can.So that's the thing that Garney does for
(40:05):
me too. It let's my imaginationrun wild, right, Yeah, I
consider myself an artist now through mypractice. I'm gonna say it like you
sound like like this is your artist. Definitely. I didn't know that a
year ago, though I really didn't. It's wild. It's wild how things
pop up in our lives. Yeah, you know if we let them.
Yeah, then we let them.Yeah, that's so awesome. I love
well. I started in my gardenhow many years ago, like maybe two
(40:27):
years ago, and I have help. Shout out to Georgia Victory Gardens,
Black owned. Okay, but yeah, they'll help you with your garden.
Because I don't have agreem thumb at. I kill everything, so I needed
a little bit of help. ButI love it because you know, now
that I'm a mom of two littlekids. It sometimes it's just like I
need to get away, or ifthe kids are acting up, I literally
(40:50):
take them outside, like let's goto the garden and we're gonna like cut
this piece of you know, cutthis scallion or whatever. Like well,
and I noticed them change as well, like they're not crying. It's just
something about being in nature. Andnow they're like okay, and my daughter
like will pull the cherry tomatoes offand eat them. Yeah. Next thing,
I'm like, wait a minute,we don't have anything for dinner.
(41:10):
Yeah, but I was gonna usefor our salid but okay, whatever,
So talk to me about like forpeople who think this is so hard or
who don't have a green thumb,like is this possible? And what if
they live in an apartment. That'swhere I started. That's what I started
with, was I cater to smallerspaces. That's why I emphasize that guardians
a practice because when it comes toa practice and we unpack that, there's
so many different components from from pointeight to point z, right, So
(41:34):
it starts with the seed. Everybodyshould and can have a seed collection.
Okay, everybody can, and it'sit's I want it to be as big
as Pokemon cards or whatever these hypebeasts are doing in these days. So
that's one part. And then alsoeverybody can compost. Everybody could take food
waste, not necessarily composting your house, your apartment because it can get kind
of funky, but more so contributeto compost composts like la compost. What
(42:00):
is composing so composting If people don'tknow, it's pretty much you reduce your
waste overall by taking food scraps.You can do hair too, you can
actually do I'm sorry to interrupt you. No, no, you can do
hair. You can do the lintfrom your dryer, Yeah, from your
dryer. Yes. Yeah. Youcan do organic clothes too, if you
(42:22):
don't want them anymore. Yeah,yeah, yes you can. You can
do nail clippings. You can dothat's why you prefer paper bags from grocery
stores. You can do that.You can do newspapers. You can do
some of your bills, not allof them, like not the pink,
the pink, you know, thethe not the plastic part. Don't compost
that that says, you know yourbill is dedale, you can throw that
away. But there's so many differentthings we can compost. So people can
(42:45):
literally reduce their waste. Create.I call it black Gold because it starts
at thirty five dollars a bag forhealthy organic composts. Yeah, and you
can create your own fertilizers, youcan create your own compost. And if
you can't compost in your own home, then you can definitely contribute to compost.
See projects that will do it foryou for free at large and then
redistribute it back to you. Youknow, So you have to have you
(43:05):
know the know how, and Iknow how to do that. But for
people that don't. If you're anapartment, how can I participate in gardening?
How can I participate in growing greenspaces, especially communal and local.
So what I do is like Italk to people all the time about what
they can do in an apartment,how they can get started, and then
I provide them with the research.I'm the plug, you know what I'm
saying. So it's if you wantme to physically go get plants for you,
(43:29):
I can. I can help youwith the shopping as well, And
but I really want to lead withthe education. So more so, I
don't gatekeep. Gatekeeping didn't get meanywhere. I've been around a lot of
gatekeepers. But they're greedy and Ihave a feeling that they're fighting for their
lives every day. But sometimes thehaters are just in their mind. You
know what I'm saying, sharing forwhat? You know what I'm saying that
(43:51):
grabbing the barrel mentality that needs togo. I mean, if your ultimate
goal is for like a greener world, and even if your ultimate goal is
to make money, how are yougoing to do that if you just keep
it all to yourself? Right exactly? It doesn't work that way. And
you'd be surprised though, because Ibeing in this field, urban urban agriculture
is pretty much an untapped market.But my one of my admissions is to
(44:15):
make sure that nobody becomes a celebrityin this. I don't have control in
that, but there should not bea Michael Jackson Jordan of gardening. Yeah,
there shouldn't be. And also thecommercialism and the mark of the markup
is it? Well? I sawduring the pandemic was a lot of supplies
now worth triple Like, yeah,they're worth double triple now. Lumber went
(44:36):
up. A bag of soil organicused to be six dollars a bag,
it's now ten eleven dollars and it'sjust to me, it's just arbitrary markup.
That's ridiculous. So I don't wantpeople to get discouraged too. Yeah,
I want it. That's also becamemy job is to I see them
through parts of the process. Mydms are always open for gardening related questions
only, please, and I whatif they just want to holid It happens.
(44:59):
But that's that's why the that's whythe block list is longer than a
CBS receipt, because I've had peoplesliding my dms and say, oh,
as soon as I get away frommy wife, I'm gonna come visit you.
Why did you bring that up first? Why do you why? Why
was that the like she's the problem? Right? Also, me and my
plants don't want to hang out withyou. I don't even about that.
(45:21):
I don't know where you found me, but I don't know how you gott
Yes, let's find me please yeah, oh my goodness, nerve. Yeah,
I'm just I'm just wondering if therehave been any as the plant plug,
have there been any plug geese thatyou've come into contact with that have
(45:44):
been like, oh my god,since I have since you helped me,
I, you know, like granted, like maybe you know, like oh
I was able to grow this,but like oh my god, like I
feel so much better, or likethis really helped me to slow down and
realiz this, or like are thereany like testimonials or like success stories that
(46:05):
you can recall off the top ofthe head. There, thank you for
asking that? Was that an accentthat just slipped out? Okay? Yeah,
oh yeah, yeah I heard it? So I you know, I
I'm mostly part at the I'm mostlya part of the seating stage when it
comes to gardening with and also likewhen it comes to like small installations,
(46:27):
like if we're building a garden andI just see through the seating stage.
We're adding, we're adding the seedleans, we're at it, we're sowing
seeds directly. That's usually part ofmy process. And I'll hit so many
I'll hit so many blocks up,I'll hit up so many organizations, I'll
do so many workshops that I forget, yeah you know what I'm saying,
And I'll forget how many people Itouched or or how many eyes you know,
(46:49):
came across my work. And it'sand I don't know when I say
my I mean we and us,and uh, there was this There was
this time that I went to govisit Hawkins High School and they have a
garden that I was mentioning earlier.And I was like, oh, they're
like, come harvest this corn withus. This is absolutely amazing. And
the stocks were like the corn cobswere like six six inches and I started
(47:14):
eating raw corn. Yeah, absolutelyamazing. It's so sweet and delicious.
And I was like, this isso good. Where'd you get this from?
This is from you? Wow,you got this plan from me?
They're like yeah. And then Iwasn't working with children at the time,
and there was just a staff memberhad their daughter there and she had to
be like four, and we werepicking the corn together and she was so
(47:36):
excited and I was just like,oh, I got to do this for
the rest of my life. Yeah, And that was one of the earliest
success stories I have. But Iget feedback from people all the time that
went to one of my seeds sewingclasses and then now they have a full
fledged garden, and then they takewhat they learned to their church and now
they're talking to like the pastors andthe ministers or whoever's in charge of the
(47:58):
finances about putting in new a gardenspace in and then they're going to lead
the way. Yeah. Yeah,there's a client I have. Our name
is Amy Travis. And she keptcoming to my classes, like the free
library classes with their children, andher kids were so smart, Oh my
goodness. And the next thing,you know, she took it to her
church and went from her from thelibrary to her balcony to her church.
(48:22):
And then now everybody's gardening and growingand that she did that, right,
she did that right. I loveit. I love it. So just
stuff like that, and she's whenI see people use that balcony space that
we have, and I my heartgoes out to anybody that pays these Los
Angeles apartment prices for rent and getsno parking space. That should be illegal.
(48:42):
Yeah, oh my goodness. Ijust think of that that all the
time, especially in Koreatown. Andbut they take that little space that they
do have and they they're growing.They put a trellis because we do a
lot of container gardening. Oh andspeaking container gardening, did you know that's
where green thumb comes from. Soback in the day when people didn't have
gardens, cobblestones, you know,Flintstone era when they have their spaces and
(49:02):
they wanted to grow stuff. Itwas all in clay pots. So what
happened is the moss would form onthe outside of the pot from the moisture.
So a big part of gardening ismoving your plants around you constantly,
the move them around. Yeah,and you would get the green moss on
your thumbs. That's where it comesfrom. So everybody does have green thumbs
as long as you touch grass andtouch some pots. Yea, everybody does.
(49:24):
Go on, you don't have agreen thumb. If you've been moving
and touching pots, you have agreen thumb exactly. Yeah, Oh my
god, Tailor, yes, Like, thank you so much for it coming
and thank you so so much forbeing so honest and open, and thank
you so much for like, Ihave so many ideas Okay that I want
(49:45):
to discuss with you after interview,but that thank you and everybody who wants
to reach out to Tailor tell uswhere we can find you. Yes,
uh the plant plug LA on Instagram, LA is abbreviated It's where I'm most
active. I am on TikTok,I'm also on YouTube. I do I
do have my own podcast. Aswell. Oh nice. Yes, the
(50:06):
Plant Plug podcast is on YouTube andSpotify if you don't mind me mentioning that,
of course. No, I alsohave I have a garden party coming
up, me and my cro producer, Perry Danielle, who's an artist and
also an educator. Teachers are alot of fun to hang out with.
Educators are the bomb. You knowabout that? Yeah, we know a
party too, Yeah, September thirtieth. We do have a garden party coming
up that steps away from the lectureelement of gardening and workshops. So it's
(50:30):
a garden party, but it's justa bunch of gardener's partying. Okay,
so it is. You have tobring a plant. No, we give
you, We holp you up whenyou walk in. Everybody's gonna walk out
stacked with a bag. We're givingaway free seeds. We're giving away free
plants, and I'm giving I'll getget you some. Okay. September thirtieth.
(50:51):
Such an adult party, right,we're playing real life. I know,
we're playing real adult bingo. Yesfor more plants, because everybody needs
to leave stacked. Ready, I'mthe plug. The first one is always
free. Okay, Oh my god, come through. Yeah, and the
(51:12):
party is actually in the it's inthe back. We're partying in the back
patio of a community food bank reliancecenter. I don't know if you've ever
partied a food bank before. Andthat money is going to support them as
well as agricultural education and also furtheringthe arts care Perry Danielle. Yeah,
so such a good idea. Yeah, because I throw parties every single equinox
(51:35):
and solstice, except for winter becausewe usually get rained out. But why
not in indigenous cultures, other culturesthey celebrated full moons, they celebrated the
full moon harvest, like there's away to garden by the moon. It
is wild. Yeah, have yougo. Have you guys read the Farmer's
Almanac before? It is the wildestread you can get for eight dollars.
It is out of control. Andthis this lady's talk about how she cured
(51:55):
her cancer with beer grain. Yesthat I ten out of ten recommend the
Farmer's output eliminate. But when itcomes to the garden parties, it just
became this thing because I used tojust do lectures and workshops and I can
see how you've only take in somuch information and you see people fade so
right in the middle of one ofour lectures back in March, I was
like, we're going to have aparty right now, and then they stuck
around for another four hours, right, because now we get to have conversations,
(52:19):
we get to pivot, we getto be the multiple, multiple dimensional
beans that we are, and wedon't have to just talk about gardening because
there's so much other things going on. But it's all relative, right,
Yes, yes, so that's whereyou can find me on September thirtieth,
but that's also you can find meon Instagram. And thank you for asking
me and having me on here ofcourse. Yes, Oh my god,
Taylor, you're a new friend ofthe shop. Oh my god, new
(52:40):
friend of the shop. Next birthdayparty it's okay, well garden party with
house music. Yeah, but yeah, so Taylor Lindsay awesome. Thank you.
Awesome, as you guys can clearlysee check her out. Thank you,
thank you. Taylor. You're welcome, and stick around because I'm going
(53:00):
to talk your ear off for alittle bit and then everybody else. We're
going to pivot from our deep diveconversation and we're going to go onto our
next segment, which is pop culturediagnosis. We'll be right back, okay,
(53:23):
Max. So let's get into ourpop culture diagnosis for this week.
So, just to keep the planttheme going, give us a synopsis on
an oldie but goody Little Shop ofHorror and who were diagnosing from the movie.
Oh my goodness, this movie cameout in eighty six. Yes,
Little Shop of Harbers pop Shop up. I used, I used to watch
(53:45):
this movie. Oh my god did. I watched it a lot? And
I was really little. Yeah,I was young. I mean I was
like eleven, so I know youwere like small. I was like,
I mean, it came out twoyears after I was going. But I
saw. I felt like I sawit in like eighty eight, eighty nine,
but I was really little and Ijust love this But anyway, this
movie follows Seymour, who's a nerdy, orphan and plant enthusiast who works at
(54:05):
a flower shop. He falls inlove with his coworker, Audrey, who
was out of his leg but hisluck changes when he finds a strange and
exciting plant after a random total suneclipse. Okay, my favorite line feed
Missy. Oh my god. Ifirst of all, I love I love
this movie. I remember when itcame out, like my mom and her
friends talking about how it was thevoice of Audrey two. The plant was
(54:35):
Levi from like the Temptations or something. I'd be getting. Oh really yeah,
like that makes sense, Yeah yeah, because it was I mean Audrey
too. The plant obviously was likea black man. Yes, So I
used to watch this movie all thetime. It was so weird. It
was so it was It was justa really like like quirky movie. Shout
out to Steve Martin who was thesuper weird dentist who like was clearly a
(55:02):
masochist and he would like get peoplein his chair and like it was just
it was wild, like he hadall these really weird like dental contraptions.
Okay, so Seymour, So Seymour, Rick moranis big up to you whatever
you are, honey, Ashrunk thekids and all. Yes, So Seymour
is an orphan as you described.And Seymour works for mister Kushnick. I
(55:30):
think it's his name. I can'tremember his name. Let's just say his
name is mister Kushnik. I forgothis name too, But he works for
mister Kushnick. This man who ownsa plant shop, and he took Seymour
in when he was young. Andalthough he really basically treats Seymour like trash,
Like Seymour, yeah, will doanything for the plant shop and mister
(55:51):
Kushnick. And there's really a lotof like codependency going on because when of
like, so there's mister Kushnik,who is like just a random, like
older dude. And so when Audreythe Audrey too, the plant just basically
like arrives on Seymour's doorstep, andthen he discovers that Audrey two, like,
(56:15):
oh my god, this this plantlives off of blood and Seymour is
like bleeding himself. And then hediscovers like this plant can talk and it
has emotions and stuff, and itbrings Seymour all this notoriety. Seymour then
kind of moves his codependency from misterKushnik onto the plants and it gets super
wild. As most of us know. I feel like a lot of people
(56:39):
who are listening to this have seenlittle chappahars. But the main thing about
Seymour is that he's he has alot of codependency issues, meaning that he
feels that his self worth is linkedand tied to someone else, and so
as long as that other person ishappy or gives him approval, then he's
(57:00):
happy and feels that he's worthy.Codependency is obviously a characteristic of something known
as dependent personality disorder. It's somethingthat I've seen, not very often,
but I have seen with Actually Itake that back. I've seen a lot
of codependency issues in my patients whoare really ill, and sometimes they'll have
(57:24):
a parent or a family member whowill literally like shuttle them to all of
their appointments, and a lot oftimes it happens, especially if the person
who is who's mentally ill is likenot doing what they're supposed to do,
and it falls upon the family memberlike Okay, I'm gonna do this,
(57:44):
and I'm gonna do that, andlike if I can get you to feel
better, then that means that I'mdoing something right, and that means that,
like, you know, I'm agood person. Yeah, so it's
I see it a lot. SoI take back what I said. I
see it a lot, not necessarilyin my patients, in the family of
the families of the patients that Itreat, But that being said, Seymour
(58:07):
has codependency issues and with a plantand uh, it sounds crazy and that's
why it's a great it's a greatmovie. Also, big up to Pam
and Gina, which, by theway, when you said that to me
earlier, I didn't realize. Iguess because I watched I've watched it several
times over the years. It neverclicked to me that that was Pam and
(58:28):
Gina. One are okay? ToTina Arnold and girl, what's gina name?
What's Gina's real name? I amnot having a brain feart, Yeah,
Tiacha Campbellina, why do we havingWe don't know? We need to
eat, so we need to eator something. We've been filled with these
(58:49):
episodes. I'm like Cam and we'relike, why did not think of Campbell's
name? It was like, iswrong with right? My girl? Who
is that? That's wrong with?We still like two old ladies? What's
name? What's your name? Comehere? Oh? Yes? So anyway,
that Sebour is codependent and he hasdependency issues, and you know what,
(59:15):
I hope you guys loved our plantthemed show. Yes, And also
before I say all that, that'sit. That's all the time we have
for pop culture diagnosis. That's allthe time we have for pop culture diagnosis.
This week, we'll have another funcharacter to analyze and talk about on
our next episode. Now, ify'all have any fictional character suggestions you'd like
(59:35):
for me to diagnose, hit meup on X at Doctor Underscoring Money,
hit Meg up on Instagram at MegScoop, and email us both at Hello
attimanistateomind dot com. Please do andif you love us, you love the
show, you know you want totalk to us about your plants. Remember
to rate and review us in yourfavorite podcast app or if you're watching us
on YouTube, like the video comments, share, subscribe to our channel.
(59:59):
We are preiate all of it.Thank you, Yes, I hope you
guys enjoyed this episode. Thanks fortuning in. Bye bye Little Shop up by
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