Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Tisha Campbell & Xen Martin Talk New Book 'The A Word', Neurodivergence, Motherhood, Redefining 'Normal' + More

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INTERVIEW: Tisha Campbell & Xen Martin Talk New Book 'The A Word', Neurodivergence, Motherhood, Redefining 'Normal' + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We all finished or y'all done? Morning, everybody.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha Guy.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: We are The Breakfast Club. Lauren Rose is here as well.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: We got some special guests in the building.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Yes, indeed.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: We have the legend and icon, Miss Tisha Campbell.
• 0:20
  Speaker 4: Welcome.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: What's up? What's up? And we have her son, Zen. Welcome.
• 0:24
  Speaker 5: Hello there.
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: Hi, Zen.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: How are you guys feeling?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: How y'all feeling?
• 0:26
  Speaker 5: We feel good.
• 0:27
  Speaker 6: I'm just looking at this, Jess.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Oh, yes.
• 0:29
  Speaker 5: Thank you. I wrote a book. Yes, yes, yes.
• 0:32
  Speaker 7: Come on.
• 0:32
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 0:33
  Speaker 6: That's great.
• 0:34
  Speaker 5: Listen, I love watching you and Zen. I really, really do.
• 0:38
  Speaker 5: I do.
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: Yo, we be cutting up on social media. But you
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: know what? It was weird because, you know, I'm very,
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: very protective.
• 0:45
  Speaker 6: Of my kids. And I was not trying to have.
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: Them on social media until I saw Love on the
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: Spectrum and how people were like loving on everybody.
• 0:54
  Speaker 6: And I was like, Zen, we can help some people.
• 0:55
  Speaker 6: You want to do it? And he agrees, so. He
• 0:58
  Speaker 6: think he funny, but I be editing him funny, y'all.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: He really is funny.
• 1:02
  Speaker 6: Y'all, don't hype him up. It don't be editing him up.
• 1:05
  Speaker 8: Sometimes you be talking and he just say things in
• 1:07
  Speaker 8: the background and it be like, camera shift, now it's him.
• 1:10
  Speaker 6: And he's the main character.
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: He the birthday.
• 1:12
  Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: How does that feel for you as the mom? Like,
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: the fact that you see him the love that your
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: son gets. Because even when I seen you in New Orleans.
• 1:20
  Speaker 10: I'm like, hey, what's up, Tisha?
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Where's your son at?
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: You was like, nah, I'm going to bring him up.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: People are asking for your son more than they're asking
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: for you now. How does that feel as a mom?
• 1:26
  Speaker 11: They are.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: It feels really good because when I told him, when
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: I first said, you know, we're going to start doing
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: social media, I was like, if anybody pop off, you
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: know what mommy going to do.
• 1:36
  Speaker 5: Right, right.
• 1:37
  Speaker 6: But nobody did. They just loved on him like he
• 1:40
  Speaker 6: was their son.
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: Internet nephew and I just I love how people love
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: on him yo we ran into oh no I had
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: to do Essence Festival this year I was hosting one
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: of the stages and I had to introduce Tiana Taylor
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: right so so when we see each other I haven't
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: seen her in a long time we're hugging she was
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: like oh my god I love Zen I was like
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: Zen is right over here you wanna come meet him
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: and she was like yeah I wanna come meet him.
• 2:06
  Speaker 6: So I was like Zen and he goes hi, what's
• 2:11
  Speaker 6: your name?
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: I was like, I'm going to kill him. So she goes,
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: she starts laughing. And he was like, I'm sorry, what's
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: your name?
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: Who are you?
• 2:23
  Speaker 6: And I said, Zen. She's only the biggest star on
• 2:26
  Speaker 6: the planet. She said, that's why your mom's.
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: Be popping off on social media.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: But a lot of times.
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: He be trying to keep you in check too.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: You are funny.
• 2:37
  Speaker 6: Oh, girl.
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: What is it like dealing with your mom, dealing with Gina.
• 2:41
  Speaker 6: What is it like?
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: Because you call her Gina. You've been calling her Gina.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: No, no, that's Z.
• 2:44
  Speaker 6: That's the other one. He calls me Gina.
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: What is it like having Tisha Campbell as your mom?
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: What we don't see.
• 2:52
  Speaker 9: It's, it's, It's like having Tisha Campbell as my mom.
• 2:58
  Speaker 10: It's the same thing we see.
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: It's the same thing you.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: See all day.
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: Times 10.
• 3:02
  Speaker 10: Yes, but louder.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Times 10.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Does things change now that you're the star now? Because
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: you're the star now. Does it change now?
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Rules change?
• 3:14
  Speaker 10: No.
• 3:15
  Speaker 9: I just always saw our relationship the same regardless.
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: Like what? Like what?
• 3:22
  Speaker 10: Because you're just my mom.
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
• 3:24
  Speaker 9: To me, you're just my mom. Like, it's hard for
• 3:26
  Speaker 9: me to look at. It's hard for me to go
• 3:29
  Speaker 9: on the camera. Like, so when I see you on
• 3:31
  Speaker 9: the camera, I don't think that's weird at all.
• 3:33
  Speaker 10: It's just like. oh, this is my mom. It's not
• 3:36
  Speaker 10: the biggest deal in the world.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: You know what?
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: I tried to keep them as far away from Holly
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: weird as possible.
• 3:41
  Speaker 6: I did my very best.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: I didn't put them on red carpets. I didn't even,
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: you know, really show them any of my work or
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: anything like that. But I think I did it too
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: good because they don't watch nothing that I'm in.
• 3:51
  Speaker 6: They don't give up.
• 3:52
  Speaker 8: No.
• 3:52
  Speaker 6: And they're surprised when I know people like y'all. They're like, oh,
• 3:56
  Speaker 6: you know Snoop Dogg?
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: I'm like.
• 3:59
  Speaker 6: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: And all of that evolved into this book, The A Word, right?
• 4:04
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it did.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: A Mother's Journey Through Autism and Love.
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 4:07
  Speaker 7: Wow.
• 4:07
  Speaker 6: Yeah, that was... And I wrote it myself, y'all. I
• 4:09
  Speaker 6: have no ghostwriter.
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: Oh, I love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:12
  Speaker 6: No, I did it all myself.
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: And I was even shocked when I first started shopping
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: the book. You know, I was nervous and I sent
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: out my manuscript and.
• 4:24
  Speaker 6: At first, a lot of people wanted me to do
• 4:26
  Speaker 6: like a salacious tell-all, and that's not really me.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: So I really wanted this book to help people, especially,
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: you know, just watching our journey. And on another note,
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: like what you see on social media or what you
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: see me do on doing stand-up is not what you're
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: going to get out of this book. Out of this book,
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: it's not romanticized at all. you're going to get from
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: the time he was born to the time to now.
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: And so this is a different side of me. Even
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: if you don't have a child on the spectrum or
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: you're a caretaker or an advocate, if you.
• 5:01
  Speaker 6: Want to know me, for me, unmasked, without this mask on,
• 5:06
  Speaker 6: you know what?
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: I saw you do an interview recently, and I could
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: really relate to it. I don't know who you was
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: talking to, but you was talking about your husband getting
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: to know who just.
• 5:17
  Speaker 6: Yeah, Jessica Moore. Moore is, other than just hilarious.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: And it's a similar thing, like when you see this
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: book or when you read, sorry, see, when you read
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: this book or when you listen to the Audible, it's
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: the same thing. You're getting a completely different person than
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: the public persona that I've ever seen.
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: Was it emotional at all? Healing, therapeutic, all that?
• 5:41
  Speaker 6: It was healing.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: It was emotional. I'm glad I had a therapist while
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: I was writing this.
• 5:47
  Speaker 6: Yeah, because, okay, so let me back it up.
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: So while I was doing stand-up, there's a lot of
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: people that would approach me and ask me questions about
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: autism and all that stuff, right? And so even TSA workers,
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: I'd stay an hour just right before my plane and
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: just talk to people. And my other writing partner, who
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: I write scripts with, Dani Wright, she was like, it's
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: time for you to write a book. And I was like, girl,
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: I don't want to relive all that. I just, I
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: don't know if I have it in me to like,
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: live all that complex PTSD. And so it became so
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: much that people really wanted questions, had questions and wanted answers.
• 6:27
  Speaker 6: So I finally just said, okay, I remembered that I.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: I always wanted to be an author since I was
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: a little girl, y'all. When I was a little girl,
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: that was one of my goals. But then my stupid
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: brothers took my poetry book to school when I was
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: seven years old. And everybody was quoting my stuff back
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: at me. And I was like, I'm going to give
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: up on this dream, right?
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: So you were traumatized?
• 6:51
  Speaker 6: Yes, I was traumatized.
• 6:52
  Speaker 11: A lot of.
• 6:53
  Speaker 6: People quoting my shit back to me.
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: But so I gave up on that dream. So when
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: she was telling me this, I was like, no, no, no.
• 7:00
  Speaker 6: But I remembered that.
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: I never kept a diary or a journal either because
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: I just was afraid somebody.
• 7:05
  Speaker 6: Would read my words ever.
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: So, um, I remember writing down things or typing things
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: in my computer, printing it and deleting it out of
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: my computer and pushing it into the file cabinet. And
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: I had remembered I had this big file cabinet of
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: all my thoughts while we were going through this journey.
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: And so I pulled it out and started organizing and
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: started writing it. And then that was it. When I
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: finally found Amistad HarperCollins, they were like, okay.
• 7:35
  Speaker 6: So who helped you with this? And I was like, nobody.
• 7:37
  Speaker 6: They were like, well, no, right. Who's your ghostwriter? And
• 7:40
  Speaker 6: I was like, I don't have one of those. And
• 7:42
  Speaker 6: they were like, oh my God, you.
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: Can really write.
• 7:44
  Speaker 6: I was like, you think I'm a real author? I
• 7:46
  Speaker 6: should have not listened to them because I needed a ghostwriter.
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: This was the hardest thing that I've ever done, but
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: it's the most fulfilling because it really is one of
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: those healing things. Like I really, really feel like we
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: healed together and he helped me and And recognizing it,
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: looking at it from this perspective now, it's like, I
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: see how resilient I had to be back then.
• 8:10
  Speaker 11: You know, when he was diagnosed at 18 months, what
• 8:13
  Speaker 11: scared you more? What the doctors were telling you or
• 8:16
  Speaker 11: everything you didn't know about autism?
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: Well, I didn't know nothing about autism. And it was
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: just really weird because I talk about it in the book. Like,
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: when I first got that phone call, I was on
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: the set of My Wife and Kids.
• 8:27
  Speaker 10: Mm-hmm.
• 8:28
  Speaker 6: Oh, wow.
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I'm the kind of person that doesn't bring
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: her problems to work ever. Like, I don't share. I
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: don't do any of that because it's my job, you know?
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: And so I literally collapsed on the floor, got myself up,
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: washed my face, and walked in there and pretended like
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: everything was okay. But getting that first prognosis from the pediatrician,
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: because then I had to go seek specialist to make sure.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: It was all of it because the first thing out
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: my mouth was, well, what are you trying to say?
• 9:01
  Speaker 6: You think my son has autism? I didn't know what
• 9:04
  Speaker 6: autism was.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: I don't even know why that came out my mouth.
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: But that's the word that slithered out there. And I
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: had to deal with the reality of it all. And
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: so what you're going to see in this book is
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: a lot of stuff that happened behind the scenes that
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: Nobody knows that.
• 9:22
  Speaker 6: I was wearing this freaking mask.
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: I hate the mask now, but the smiling mask for
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: everybody else just to make sure everybody else was okay.
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: But I was not making sure I was okay.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: What was the most difficult thing?
• 9:34
  Speaker 10: I'm sorry.
• 9:35
  Speaker 6: No, it's okay.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: What was the most difficult thing you had to go through,
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: do this whole thing? What was the hardest thing?
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: The hardest thing was writing the book or just autism.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Just life with autism.
• 9:49
  Speaker 6: It was when Zen.
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: Was contemplating with suicide ideations. People don't know that sometimes
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: that could be really heavy and the things that they
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: have to deal with and being misunderstood.
• 10:04
  Speaker 6: You know what I mean?
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: And so that was the hardest chapter to write. That
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: was the hardest chapter to repeat inaudible. And it was
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: the hardest moment of my life because you feel as
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: if you may have failed them in some way of
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: protecting them and supporting them.
• 10:27
  Speaker 6: And so that was rough.
• 10:30
  Speaker 11: Did you ever have to grieve an expectation for Zen?
• 10:34
  Speaker 11: Like before you could really embrace who he is?
• 10:36
  Speaker 6: Of course.
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: I suggest all new parents who get this new diagnosis
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: do the same. The problem was is that I didn't
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: give myself enough time to grieve the loss of the expectations.
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: Because when you have.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: Children, you know that, you know, automatically you have these
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: goals and dreams for your kids. And maybe they'll play basketball.
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: Maybe they'll be a lawyer. Maybe they'll be all these things.
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: And your dreams have to be rudimentary.
• 11:09
  Speaker 6: Am I saying it right? Yeah, rudimentary now.
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: You have to look at it as if, I hope
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: my child can say ouch. I hope my child will
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: be able to walk or be potty trained. I hope
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: that he won't be homeless on the street or something
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: like that.
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: I hope he can say my name, mommy.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: And so you have to grieve the loss of that.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: And I only gave myself three days because that's all
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: I had.
• 11:36
  Speaker 6: I was going back to work. I gave myself the weekend.
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: It was horrible that I had to put myself through
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: that in that way.
• 11:45
  Speaker 6: But I only had three days to grieve.
• 11:49
  Speaker 7: Who was supporting you? Was there family members? I know
• 11:53
  Speaker 7: you said you usually keep everything to yourself, but family members, friends,
• 11:59
  Speaker 7: who was your support? Because That was a lot mentally.
• 12:03
  Speaker 7: Three days, and then you still... You still had to
• 12:05
  Speaker 7: keep it moving.
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: Still on set. You worried about your baby. Who was
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: there for you?
• 12:10
  Speaker 6: I had a.
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: Really great village of people who had surrounded me. I
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: had taken the lead in trying to make sure that
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: Zen had support. But really, I would have to say
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: Holly Robinson Peete was one of those people. Because she
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: was the only person that we had known who was
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: an advocate and had a kid on the spectrum and
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: was talking about it. So she was one of the
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: first people I called. And she pulled me.
• 12:36
  Speaker 6: All the way together.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: She grabbed me by the bae-yay-yangs and was like, you know,
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: like on some real stuff. Like at first she was like, oh,
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: my God, Tisha, I'm so sorry. Then her voice changed.
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: And she was like, all right, you're going to have
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: to do this. You're going to have to do this.
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: You're going to have to.
• 12:52
  Speaker 6: And I'm going to need you to pull it together because.
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: And I was like, you know, it pulled me out
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: of the sorrow and the grieving immediately and had me
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: go straight to work. Yeah. I also touch upon the
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: fact that, you know, the strong black woman trope that
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: we all lean into.
• 13:12
  Speaker 6: I touch upon that.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: Because it doesn't serve our nervous system well at all.
• 13:19
  Speaker 6: And we don't allow ourselves to grieve or be sad
• 13:24
  Speaker 6: or be angry or whatever. or be anxious. We don't
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: have it. We just keep it moving. And that's what
• 13:30
  Speaker 6: I did.
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: And I'm an advocate now for, you know, caretaker and
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: caretaker burnout. Because whether it's a special needs person or
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: an elderly person or whomever you're taking care of, you know,
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: you can have burnout.
• 13:46
  Speaker 8: I saw you say your son didn't just need a
• 13:48
  Speaker 8: mother when you found out he needed a warrior.
• 13:50
  Speaker 9: Mm-hmm.
• 13:51
  Speaker 8: I instantly thought about just you having to go through
• 13:53
  Speaker 8: like the different medical.
• 13:55
  Speaker 6: Things, like figuring out the doctors.
• 13:56
  Speaker 8: And that is a journey in itself while you are
• 13:59
  Speaker 8: Tisha Campbell. We don't even know what's going on.
• 14:01
  Speaker 6: Right. Right. Was that day to day?
• 14:03
  Speaker 8: Like how did you build that regimen of like, here's
• 14:05
  Speaker 8: the doctors, here are people I trust.
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: I was running around like a chicken. That was one
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: of the things that Holly has said.
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: She's like, you're going to be driving all over the place.
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: You're going to be fine. And she was like, and.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: Even she was like, autism doesn't care what you look like,
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: what your status is, whether you're Tisha Campbell, whether you
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: got money. When it affects you, it affects you.
• 14:25
  Speaker 6: Right. It's going to affect you.
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: So all of the running around that I had to do,
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: all of the organizing.
• 14:33
  Speaker 6: Every minute that I wasn't learning.
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: Lines for my wife and kids, I was on the
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: internet looking up stuff or calling people.
• 14:40
  Speaker 6: I was a pain in the ass. And I'm going
• 14:42
  Speaker 6: to tell you, most parents have.
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: To be because they act like the people who are
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: the programs that a child should have, whether it's speech
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: or occupational or whatever.
• 14:54
  Speaker 6: They act like it's their money. So you have to fight. Now, me,
• 14:59
  Speaker 6: it may even, well, for anybody.
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: It may take six months to a year just to
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: get a call back to get a.
• 15:06
  Speaker 6: Schedule, an appointment.
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: Not even just to see somebody. So it may take
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: that long. And so, but with me, I was calling
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: them every day. I didn't give a shit.
• 15:16
  Speaker 6: I'm going to be that crazy mama. Yeah, ask me again.
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: Y'all might want to get me an appointment. I was
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: calling them every single day until somebody.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: Did you ever blame yourself, though?
• 15:27
  Speaker 6: Yes. Absolutely. There were moments where I felt.
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: Freaking lost it and was like, I must have ate
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: something wrong or I did something bad or maybe this
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: is karma.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 15:39
  Speaker 6: I blamed.
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: Myself for everything, but I didn't have time to sit
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: in that either.
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: That's good.
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: Because I only had time to support him and make
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: sure he had the things he needed.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Did raising Zen change what normal means to you?
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:59
  Speaker 9: Mm-hmm.
• 16:00
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and it's a beautiful thing.
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: Norm, to me, and maybe it was part of the
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: reason why I was able to see it so early,
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: because a lot of us, especially African-Americans, we get diagnosed
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: two to three years after our Caucasian counterparts. Or if
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: we're diagnosed at all, we're always misdiagnosed or.
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: Labeled as bad.
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: Our kids don't get the same type of support. But
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: with me, Norm is different. Like, I just got myself tested.
• 16:41
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. What, you on the spectrum?
• 16:45
  Speaker 6: I'm all DHD. That's a newer.
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: Really?
• 16:48
  Speaker 11: Stop laughing back there. I know.
• 16:53
  Speaker 6: I am on the stage.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: She is. They listen.
• 16:58
  Speaker 6: They did.
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: They like, they've been pushing me to go get tested
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: for a while.
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: As soon as you said that, I was like, hey.
• 17:06
  Speaker 6: Zayn was like this, yeah.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: All right, I got a friend.
• 17:11
  Speaker 6: But I did get myself tested.
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: And there's this new diagnosis called ADHD, which is you're
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: partly ADHD and part autistic. So I have a combination
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: of both. I saw two different specialists, y'all. Because a
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: lot of times when you present like you're not or
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: you mask a lot, because apparently I've been masking with
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: my loudness and my jokes.
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: All my entire life. My entire life.
• 17:43
  Speaker 11: I think anybody creative that's in the arts is on
• 17:47
  Speaker 11: the spectrum.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: And I put that in there, of course, because whether
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: they be me, I'm on the spectrum.
• 17:51
  Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:52
  Speaker 11: I agree.
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: I agree.
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: And I'm so glad that I'm finally able to share
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: in this way, share with the book or share with
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: just unmasking and saying, this is what I have been
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: hiding this entire time and still trying to feed my
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: family at the same time.
• 18:08
  Speaker 6: So, I'm very.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: Proud of being, you know, with this one right here.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you said that because sometimes I think normal.
• 18:18
  Speaker 11: is used as a word just to say, I want
• 18:20
  Speaker 11: my child to have a life that doesn't scare me.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: We want them to do something normal. That is exactly right.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: What you did wasn't normal. I bet your parents was like,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: you want to do what? You want to be a singer?
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: They want you just to go get a job, go
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: to school.
• 18:34
  Speaker 6: You want to pay bills at five.
• 18:38
  Speaker 7: Who does that? How instrumental has Zeke been? You know,
• 18:44
  Speaker 7: with all of this. I know he is very close
• 18:46
  Speaker 7: with his brother.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Yes, he is.
• 18:47
  Speaker 7: How instrumental has he been with this whole process? And
• 18:49
  Speaker 7: then also, what was that talk like when you had
• 18:53
  Speaker 7: to talk to him about his brother?
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: Because I know there was a time you had to
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: explain to him.
• 18:56
  Speaker 6: You know what?
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: There wasn't really an explanation that needed to be had.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: He knew his brother was, I think, different, right? You
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: guys never had a conversation about your autism, have you?
• 19:11
  Speaker 9: We've... We, we, we've spoken about it briefly here and there,
• 19:15
  Speaker 9: but not like a whole, not like a full on, not, not,
• 19:18
  Speaker 9: not like this.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: Sometimes he says, sometimes I feel like I'm his big brother.
• 19:24
  Speaker 6: Sometimes he says that. Did you know that?
• 19:27
  Speaker 10: Zeke?
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 19:33
  Speaker 6: He says that sometimes. Yeah.
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah. How far apart are they?
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Eight years.
• 19:38
  Speaker 6: I wanted to.
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: Make sure Zen was cool before I had another child.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Were you nervous having another child?
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 19:46
  Speaker 6: Very much so.
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: And I prayed to God that I would have a
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: different experience. And he's different. He's just as different as
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: this one.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: As a mother, how do you... I'm sorry, go ahead.
• 20:00
  Speaker 10: I think Zeke and I are polar opposites.
• 20:02
  Speaker 6: Yeah, you think so?
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he's very quiet, whereas Zen actually likes being around people, which,
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: you know, most people think that autistic people are introverted,
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: but no, he's very much so.
• 20:16
  Speaker 10: I'm the complete opposite.
• 20:17
  Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 20:18
  Speaker 8: I feel like he definitely keep you on the, like,
• 20:20
  Speaker 8: in the videos, it feels like he keep you together, but, like,
• 20:23
  Speaker 8: I can feel in life he just be like, Mom,
• 20:25
  Speaker 8: come here.
• 20:26
  Speaker 6: Let me get you right here. Let me get you together.
• 20:29
  Speaker 11: How do you not view everything through the diagnosis, though?
• 20:32
  Speaker 11: Because there got to be moments when you're like, that's
• 20:34
  Speaker 11: not autism. That's just Zen being Zen.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes.
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: I think that's, too, why people love the social media
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: aspect of it all.
• 20:42
  Speaker 6: Because they're like, oh, you a black mama. You a
• 20:44
  Speaker 6: real mama.
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: I was like, oh, yeah.
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: What else am I going to be? But I didn't
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: treat him any other... I didn't treat him differently than Ezekiel.
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: That's what I love.
• 20:54
  Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying?
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: And it was very important for me to have him
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: be amongst his peers who varied. Some were neurodivergent, some
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: were neurotypical. And he went to a school that was neurotypical.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: You're saying it like we know what you're talking about.
• 21:09
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: Neurodivergent.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Neurodivergent.
• 21:12
  Speaker 6: And neurotypical.
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: So neurotypical is like people who aren't on the spectrum. Gotcha.
• 21:16
  Speaker 10: Okay.
• 21:17
  Speaker 6: And then, yeah, neurodivergent are people on the spectrum. Divergent.
• 21:21
  Speaker 6: Thinks differently.
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:23
  Speaker 6: So, sorry.
• 21:26
  Speaker 8: At what point in y'all regular real life day to day,
• 21:29
  Speaker 8: you talk about deciding to put you guys on social media,
• 21:32
  Speaker 8: did you sit back and be like, oh, no, there's
• 21:35
  Speaker 8: also a star quality here.
• 21:36
  Speaker 6: It's different.
• 21:37
  Speaker 8: Genuine and pure to see y'all, but I watch you guys'
• 21:40
  Speaker 8: videos and I'm like, no, like legit, like he's just,
• 21:43
  Speaker 8: like there's a start here.
• 21:45
  Speaker 6: Oh, why would you say that?
• 21:48
  Speaker 10: With that question.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: He said I got this one.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: You could have directed that to me. He said I
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: got this one. No, I'm not sitting here.
• 21:54
  Speaker 6: I'm going to go and find my earring. I'll be
• 21:57
  Speaker 6: underneath the table.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Go ahead.
• 22:00
  Speaker 10: I don't see it like that.
• 22:01
  Speaker 6: Oh, what do you see it as, baby?
• 22:03
  Speaker 9: I mean, I don't see, I don't see it. As
• 22:06
  Speaker 9: if I'm a star. I just see it as I'm
• 22:09
  Speaker 9: just living life.
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: Aw.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Way to look at it.
• 22:14
  Speaker 6: Aw, I like him.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: How does mom deal with dating? I've seen a couple
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: of the videos. Let me ask him first. How does
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: mom deal with your dating?
• 22:23
  Speaker 10: She's helping me.
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: You know what?
• 22:26
  Speaker 6: Is she picking a girl? No. No.
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: No.
• 22:27
  Speaker 9: Do I?
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: No.
• 22:27
  Speaker 11: No.
• 22:27
  Speaker 9: She doesn't.
• 22:33
  Speaker 6: No, but I'm going to tell you this. Let's share, Zen.
• 22:36
  Speaker 6: You ready to share?
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: Uh-oh.
• 22:37
  Speaker 6: Oh, it's right. Oh, it's right.
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: Like, Zen confuses me because one minute, we did a video, too,
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: where he was.
• 22:45
  Speaker 6: Like, yeah, mom, I'm going to be a virgin until
• 22:47
  Speaker 6: I'm mad. And I was like this. Yes.
• 22:49
  Speaker 10: I saw it.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: I didn't see it.
• 22:54
  Speaker 10: I don't want nowhere.
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: In my house oh my god and so I was
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: like well babe we gonna sit here we gonna watch
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: 40 year old virgin because he was like you think
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: that's me I was like y'all do have.
• 23:09
  Speaker 6: A lot of toys they're collectibles.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: But anyway he'll say something like that and then on
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: his 21st birthday where'd you want to go then tell
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: the television club.
• 23:19
  Speaker 10: That's exactly correct.
• 23:23
  Speaker 6: Zen went to the strip club on his 21st birthday.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: I said, geez, not me.
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: I was going to say, you ain't taking this.
• 23:29
  Speaker 6: Hell no, I wasn't going.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Who took him?
• 23:31
  Speaker 6: Yo, my friend, like a guy friend, right?
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: So he took him and he said he had so
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: much fun just watching Zen in the club.
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: Like when they first walked in, somebody came in too
• 23:42
  Speaker 6: hot and said, bow. He says, whoa. Wow. Was this
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: Atlanta or Atlanta? This was Atlanta.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: It wasn't Atlanta.
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: Atlanta is whack.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Atlanta would have scarred him.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: You remember the name of it?
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 24:02
  Speaker 10: I think it was a peppermint hippo or something.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Peppermint hippo.
• 24:06
  Speaker 6: Listen, y'all got to ease my baby into this.
• 24:09
  Speaker 7: Peppermint hippo wasn't nobody in that black team.
• 24:13
  Speaker 6: I'm saying, let's just ease him in.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: No.
• 24:17
  Speaker 6: I knew it.
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: I knew it.
• 24:19
  Speaker 6: No, there was none.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: So back in the day, so after seeing the first wows.
• 24:23
  Speaker 8: Whoa.
• 24:24
  Speaker 11: You got to go to Magic City one time for
• 24:28
  Speaker 11: one time.
• 24:29
  Speaker 6: He has to, but I'm not too.
• 24:30
  Speaker 10: Where's Magic City?
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: Atlanta, Georgia. Yes.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: So next time y'all in Atlanta, put.
• 24:33
  Speaker 10: That on an itinerary. I've never been to Atlanta.
• 24:36
  Speaker 9: Really?
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, dope.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Yeah, you got to go.
• 24:38
  Speaker 6: Zeke loved it. He just came from.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Most amazing wings there. Yes.
• 24:42
  Speaker 10: Zeke went to the strip club?
• 24:43
  Speaker 11: No!
• 24:44
  Speaker 8: What the hell.
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: Is going on?
• 24:48
  Speaker 10: No, I said Atlanta!
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Zeke said, yeah, I'm short.
• 24:51
  Speaker 6: I'm waiting. No, he loves Atlanta. I think he want
• 24:57
  Speaker 6: to move to Atlanta.
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: Really?
• 24:59
  Speaker 6: Yes, he loves Atlanta.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: I bet you your brother done been... Uh, 17. Oh, no,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: he ain't been there.
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: No, no, no, no, no.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: So, Sebastian, how was the dating going? Because I've seen
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: some of the stuff online, so.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: So, we created that show because he needed practice talking
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: to girls.
• 25:15
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: And so, we created that show for him to do that.
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: And so, we're probably going to do another episode soon, but... Yeah,
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: you know, I just want him.
• 25:23
  Speaker 6: To be happy.
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: I don't care what she look like. I just want
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: her to love him and him to love her back.
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: Yeah. Have you gotten, you think you got better with it?
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: You think you got a little Riz now?
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Okay.
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: You want to try?
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Uh-oh.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: She's married.
• 25:38
  Speaker 10: You're married.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Talk to Lauren.
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: But she's in a relationship.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: No, no, no.
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: Practice on me or Lauren.
• 25:46
  Speaker 6: Whoever you want to choose.
• 25:46
  Speaker 11: I saw you looking over here anyway.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Nah, nah, nah.
• 25:52
  Speaker 6: Don't do that.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, I did look up the club.
• 25:56
  Speaker 6: You can practice if you want. Let us know.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: Go ahead, Jess.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Let me get out the way.
• 26:00
  Speaker 6: Let me get out the way.
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: So how you doing, Zen? How are you?
• 26:06
  Speaker 10: I'm doing well.
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you look handsome.
• 26:08
  Speaker 10: Thank you very much.
• 26:10
  Speaker 7: I see you around here walking around walking your dog
• 26:12
  Speaker 7: every day. I mean, I would like to go out
• 26:14
  Speaker 7: for some coffee.
• 26:16
  Speaker 10: Sure thing. What's your number?
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: Write to me.
• 26:18
  Speaker 11: 555-5555.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Mine is 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.
• 26:41
  Speaker 8: If you do decide to bring somebody home, do you
• 26:43
  Speaker 8: tell your mom, all right, mom, just chill a little bit.
• 26:47
  Speaker 8: Let me get them used to all the things before
• 26:49
  Speaker 8: she do her thing.
• 26:50
  Speaker 9: I haven't brought anybody home, but if I said I
• 26:52
  Speaker 9: was going to bring somebody home, I would tell her first.
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you would.
• 26:55
  Speaker 6: He will tell me.
• 26:56
  Speaker 10: That's dope.
• 26:57
  Speaker 6: That's cool, Zen.
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: I love y'all so much.
• 26:59
  Speaker 11: I'm trying to pull up some videos of Magic City.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: Don't do that to him. Don't do that to him.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: I just want him to see what's happening. What's happening?
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: What's up?
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Yo, get a break, Charlamagne.
• 27:09
  Speaker 5: Oh, here you go.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: Here you go.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: See what I'm saying?
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: Listen, Zen mess around and be like, them legs don't match.
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: What the hell going on here? See what I'm saying?
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: They do tricks. You know what I mean? These sisters.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? See what I'm saying? you
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: got to go.
• 27:22
  Speaker 5: Zen he married too me and.
• 27:24
  Speaker 11: My wife go to the strip club together see that's
• 27:26
  Speaker 11: a good move see what I'm saying.
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: What you looking at, Sid?
• 27:30
  Speaker 7: He looking like that's not what he want. He going
• 27:32
  Speaker 7: to go back to the peppermint patty.
• 27:34
  Speaker 10: He is not playing with that. I would go back.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: To peppermint patty.
• 27:41
  Speaker 9: Yo.
• 27:41
  Speaker 6: No. You got to go.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: To Magic City one time just to experience it.
• 27:45
  Speaker 6: You just have to have the experience.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: You got to experience it.
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: That's all. He looking like, what the.
• 27:50
  Speaker 9: Hell is going on?
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: It doesn't look sanitary.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: It doesn't look too sanitary.
• 27:53
  Speaker 11: Oh, man.
• 27:55
  Speaker 6: At least it's not sex level.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: I do want to ask one more question.
• 28:00
  Speaker 11: At what point did you stop asking how do I
• 28:02
  Speaker 11: fix this and just started asking how do I understand
• 28:04
  Speaker 11: my son?
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: You know, I want to say once he got into
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: grade school and started talking, because Zen was completely nonverbal
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: until he was about seven years old. He would say
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: one or two words when he was like six or something,
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: but to have like full-blown sentences.
• 28:25
  Speaker 6: Really, it was closer to eight.
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: But, you know, once he started to really have more communication,
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: I think that's when I was like, I just got
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: to let him be him. No, that's a lie. Let
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: me take it back. No, it happened at a Mommy
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: and Me class. So he was actually much younger than that.
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: He was more of a toddler class. And he was
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: not acting like the rest of the kids at all.
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: And I was trying to keep everything inside while, while
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: soothing him, like, baby, you're okay. But inside I was like,
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: why can't you act like the rest of the kids?
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: And it was, it was an epiphany that I had.
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: And I, and I, I do talk about it in
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: a book, but it was an epiphany. I was like,
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: oh my gosh, you're not used to the sights and
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: the sounds and the, and the and the feelings of
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: our world and I have to allow you to think
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: the way you think and ease you into our world
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: so that you can survive in it, but I'm gonna
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: let you be you. And I think that was the turnaround.
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: So he was a toddler when I really got it together.
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: But when I started feeling more comfortable was when he
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: started talking.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: I do have one last question.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: For parents out there and mothers out there specifically who
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: are dealing with a child on the spectrum, what would
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: you tell them?
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: What's the first thing that you would tell them? If
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: you could only tell them, give them one piece of advice,
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: what would you give them?
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: You got to fight. You have to fight. You're going
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: to have to fight with all your might. And I
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: know that things look bleak in the beginning and that
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: you have to grieve. If you have to grieve, grieve.
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: But you're going to have to fight for everything that
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: your child needs. But I would also tell them, please
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: don't forget about you because you can get burnt out
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: And you take this journey by yourself because you don't
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: want to burden anybody or you want to be the
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: person who is the supporter of this human being. And
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: you kind of isolate yourself and you just go into
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: this darker place. You've got to get therapy. You've got
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: to have respite aid. So taking care of you, I think,
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: is something.
• 30:48
  Speaker 6: That I would keep reminding them of, which is really hard.
• 30:52
  Speaker 11: Then when you saw the book, was there anything you
• 30:55
  Speaker 11: remember different than your mom did?
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: He was like, that ain't happening.
• 30:58
  Speaker 10: We, yeah, we, we do this. This does happen. This
• 31:01
  Speaker 10: does happen a lot.
• 31:02
  Speaker 9: We're like, she had to interview me throughout for like
• 31:07
  Speaker 9: most of the book. Like there's like, there's like a couple,
• 31:11
  Speaker 9: there's like a couple, uh, they're like, there's, there's like
• 31:14
  Speaker 9: a couple things. Like, for example, there's, there's a part
• 31:17
  Speaker 9: of the book where I had a whole Michael Jackson phase.
• 31:21
  Speaker 9: I was like, Hey, that's not what happened. Sometimes I'm like, No,
• 31:27
  Speaker 9: it happened this way. So, no, it actually happened this way.
• 31:32
  Speaker 9: And the reason why is because, insert here.
• 31:35
  Speaker 6: Insert here.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: You had a Michael Jackson face for real?
• 31:38
  Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah.
• 31:39
  Speaker 6: He loved Michael Jackson. But really, Tito.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: You used to like Tito?
• 31:44
  Speaker 6: Tito!
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: He had an obsession with Tito.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Don't disrespect Tito.
• 31:49
  Speaker 5: God bless Tito. Because he died today.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: He died today.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: Today's Tito's death anniversary. I mean, over a year, years ago.
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: No way.
• 31:55
  Speaker 10: Yeah, he died. No, he loved you.
• 31:57
  Speaker 6: I think it was the instrument and the hat.
• 31:59
  Speaker 10: It was the guitar. It was the instrument.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, the guitar.
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: Okay, okay, okay.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: It was the guitar. Man, shout out to Tito, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: Rest in peace, Tito.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Too bad he not here to hear that, because I've
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: never heard that in my life.
• 32:09
  Speaker 6: I just told his son.
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: You don't try to play Tito.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: I just told his son.
• 32:11
  Speaker 5: Like you, just now. Like you just damn did. Shout
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: out to Tito.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Shout out to Tito.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: Tito Heaven.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Why can't you say shout out to Tito?
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: No, you just left it there anyway.
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: Thank you guys for joining us. The A-Word, A Mother's
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: Journey Through Autism and Love. Tisha Campbell, we appreciate you
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: for joining us.
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: Thank you so much.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Go pick up the book right now. Praise for the A-Word, man.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Go get it.
• 32:30
  Speaker 6: Thank you.
• 32:31
  Speaker 10: Here it is. It's out today. It's out today.
• 32:34
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 32:35
  Speaker 10: It's Goku time.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: Tell them on Instagram so I know because they're going
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: to be hollering now.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: They're going to be wanting to get at you. They're
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: going to be wanting to get at you.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:43
  Speaker 9: This is my first time giving it out in front of,
• 32:47
  Speaker 9: on a live radio show.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Okay, so do it. It's fine. I want all the
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Magic City strippers.
• 32:51
  Speaker 6: In your DMs to show you what you're missing.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Talking about some peppermint hippo.
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Oh, God.
• 32:56
  Speaker 9: Okay, well, my Instagram is Zen the Marvel Legends. DM
• 33:00
  Speaker 9: me and we can talk about Avatar The Last Airbender.
• 33:02
  Speaker 6: That's how you get them going, everybody.
• 33:06
  Speaker 9: Avatar.
• 33:07
  Speaker 8: I know what Avatar stands for.
• 33:12
  Speaker 10: It's the Breakfast Club.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 33:15
  Speaker 6: Y'all nuts.