Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Mandii B, A-King & Jason 'Jah' Lee Talks 'Selective Ignorance' Podcast, The Passing Of Combat Jack, The Silence Around Midterms/Politics + More

Transcript

INTERVIEW: Mandii B, A-King & Jason 'Jah' Lee Talks 'Selective Ignorance' Podcast, The Passing Of Combat Jack, The Silence Around Midterms/Politics + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hold up.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up.
• 0:03
  Speaker 3: The Breakfast Club. You all finished or you all done? Yes,
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: it's the world's most dangerous morning show, The Breakfast Club.
• 0:10
  Speaker 4: DJ Envy, Jessa Larry, Charlamagne Tha God, Lauren LaRosa is
• 0:14
  Speaker 4: here as well.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: Envy and Jessa out.
• 0:16
  Speaker 4: We got some special guests in the building from the
• 0:18
  Speaker 4: Selective Ignorance podcast. Jason Jolly, my man A-King, and Mandy B.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: How y'all feeling, man?
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: We're feeling good, feeling great. And you ain't even letting
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: them know we on season two now on the Black
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Effect Network.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: How about that?
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Hello already.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: By the way, very successful podcast.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Very profitable podcast.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: I ain't going to hold you. Black Up Bank doing
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: their big one.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: That's because y'all doing y'all big one.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: And how about that? This has been a really fun journey.
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: I be wanting to talk to Mandy because I be
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: wanting Mandy to explain to people.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: And Lauren knows this as well. The podcast industry has
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: changed a lot.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Oh my God.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: We've been talking about that all week.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: But I think that the best way for people to
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: make money, this is my personal opinion, is through ad revenue.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Hello. 100%.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Ad revenue. It's hard though because without a partner, I
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: get how other podcasts, Independent podcast can't do it, right?
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: I completely understand that, which is why Patreon is a thing.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: I know people are trying to do touring and merch,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: but I ain't going to hold y'all. I invested my
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: coins into this show for a solid year. I've done
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: the partnership route. I was like, I'm going to do
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: this on my own, and everybody out the gate is
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: getting paid. Because unfortunately I've been in this too long,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: people ain't working for me for free. They're like, intern
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: for Mandy B? Oh no girl, you was just on
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: an island.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: We read about you.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: You got it. We know what's going on.
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: You got it.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: So the first year I started this pod, I brought
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: in A-King and Jason Rodriguez actually.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: My guy.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: I love Jason. Yes, Jason used to be up here
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: and brought them in. And I was like, I know
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: I need producers. Producers and a team. Like thinking you
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: could do everything by yourself isn't a thing. So brought
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: them in. And I think the first year probably easily
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: out of pocket because podcasting now needs video and you're
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: shooting a Television show, once or twice a week essentially
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: is what it is. Editors, clippers, probably about $ 40, 000 to
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: $ 50, 000 first year. Because I was paying them as producers.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: I was paying my engineer. I bought it. I ended
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: up getting my own studio. Bought all the equipment in it.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: And then joined Black Effect Network and was able to,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: probably after two quarters of get all my money back,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: and then now, now I ain't gonna tell y'all what
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: I made last quarter.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Selective ignorance and the black.
• 2:39
  Speaker 6: No, listen. The black effect for real.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: But it's been great because now Jason's come on as
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: a co-host to lend his lens of journalism. and experience
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: in the space. And it's just been great.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: I got adopted by the fairy pod mother.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Hello.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: There you go.
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: Two successful podcasts, of course, Decisions to Decisions, now Selective Ignorance.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: And I like the fact that you got A. King
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: and Ja. And you mentioned people like Jason Rodriguez, because
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: for years in this business, those are the people who
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: have been behind the scenes making so many things move.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: But now they're in front of the camera as well. A.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: King is the reason, and we'll get, of course, into
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: his history. A. King is the reason I'm I'm here
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: and kind of with you as well.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Episode three.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: Combat Jack alumni. Long live Combat Jack.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Long live Combat Jack.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: He brought us in his horrible decisions. He was there
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: recording by our third episode. made sure like we was
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: staying on track and then brought us into the bubble.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: And then John, I've known since the blog era.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Way, way back.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: We've known each other for about a day now. He
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: was at Boston.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Not no more.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: I just saw you. I thought you was big at
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: left Boston.
• 3:44
  Speaker 6: Nah.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: He was getting that check. Nigga, he was with 401K,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: full health insurance. I got to go to the doctor.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: I just saw you announce that.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I'm like.
• 3:52
  Speaker 7: I was still getting that check. But, you know, media
• 3:55
  Speaker 7: is tough now. We've been seeing for years, over a decade,
• 3:59
  Speaker 7: of black media doing layoffs. And so I just felt
• 4:02
  Speaker 7: fortunate to have survived one layoff season. And we had
• 4:06
  Speaker 7: been around for so long that, like, I was just
• 4:08
  Speaker 7: happy to still be in that position and be able
• 4:10
  Speaker 7: to do what I needed to do.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: But, you know, the reaper comes for everybody eventually.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: I will say, I love that you brought up black media.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: KevOnStage was recently talking about, like, not having to go mainstream.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: And I think being on Black Effect, making sure we
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: keep our content as black as possible. Even with my
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: other podcast, like, our narrative is for the black woman, right?
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: And so I just love that we kind of don't
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: have to switch up in the space. Now, I know
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of $ 100 million deals for podcasting.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: Not a lot.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Not a lot no more.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: But in terms of what we can do in this
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: space and who we can talk to, I love that
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: we kind of don't have to switch up.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're enough. Our community is enough. Black people are enough.
• 4:48
  Speaker 7: There's enough of us out there who want this content,
• 4:50
  Speaker 7: who want to be entertained and informed, and we can
• 4:53
  Speaker 7: do that for ourselves.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: We don't need to go pot.
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: I think the mainstream has changed too. There's that world.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: We all know the mainstream and what that is.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: And that's there.
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: But I think nowadays, it kind of depends on who
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: you follow, what your algorithm is, who you care about.
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: You can get support with your podcast the same way
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: mainstream would have been supporting something big. 10 years ago
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: when we didn't have these sectors.
• 5:21
  Speaker 7: Isn't that crazy, though, that the word mainstream and we
• 5:24
  Speaker 7: talk about pop is synonymous with white people? Because everything
• 5:29
  Speaker 7: that's big pop culture is made as black.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: So what makes them mainstream and not us mainstream?
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Because that's in Breakfast Club. It's very mainstream.
• 5:37
  Speaker 7: And we know who y'all are talking to. So it's
• 5:39
  Speaker 7: crazy that we're still using, that that language still proliferates
• 5:44
  Speaker 7: the conversations around art and culture in those kind of ways,
• 5:47
  Speaker 7: these silos that don't even make no sense. A.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: King, as somebody who's been around literally at the forefront
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: of this podcasting boom, because, you know, we like to
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: say black podcasting boom, but even when Combat Jack first started,
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: God bless the dead, Podcasting had just started, period.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: Y'all was in the space super, super early. How have
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: you seen things change? Wow.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: It changes like every two years.
• 6:12
  Speaker 6: I think the money changes the optics and what it
• 6:15
  Speaker 6: takes to do the podcasting thing. And to Manny's point earlier,
• 6:18
  Speaker 6: I think a lot of people get in the game
• 6:21
  Speaker 6: and the first thing they want is they want the
• 6:22
  Speaker 6: breakfast cup look.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: They want the selective ignorance look.
• 6:24
  Speaker 6: But if you're not willing to invest in the product,
• 6:26
  Speaker 6: you're probably going to be around six months and have
• 6:29
  Speaker 6: a burnout. So I think to answer your question, I
• 6:31
  Speaker 6: think it changed from the intentionality, the creative aspect, as
• 6:37
  Speaker 6: it relates to the return on investment. There was a
• 6:40
  Speaker 6: time where, you know, all the celebrities would jump into space,
• 6:43
  Speaker 6: but then when they didn't see success.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: They out.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Six months, they out. Four months, they out. And they're like,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: I don't want to do it. It costs too much.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, I compared a podcast game.
• 6:51
  Speaker 6: Similar to the music industry. Well, not the now music industry,
• 6:54
  Speaker 6: but you got to be willing to make the investment.
• 6:57
  Speaker 6: If it's not money, it's time. It's research, intentionality, and
• 7:02
  Speaker 6: You don't have to copycat.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 7:04
  Speaker 6: And I think there's a lot of copycats out there.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Everybody want to be Charlamagne.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Everybody want to be Mandy B. I was going to say, though,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: the artists ain't singing at the malls anymore like they
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: used to. They not going to the high schools and performing,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: pop locking in the auditoriums. And so, yeah, kind of
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: like in this pod space, maybe just start out with
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: audio only.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: And build community.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: And build community. That's another thing. That's a huge thing.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: That is a loss.
• 7:30
  Speaker 6: Like, it's okay to do a venue with 75 people
• 7:33
  Speaker 6: and just pod. You don't have to make no big
• 7:34
  Speaker 6: announcement maybe to your 100 people and see who pulls up.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: And then that's your street team.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: To your 50 people. We were just talking about this.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: We're looking to do maybe live shows at the top
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: of Q1. And I'm like, I'm ready to go back
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: to venues with 75 people if I have to. And
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: I've sold out Warner Theater, Town Hall, like all of
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: these venues.
• 7:53
  Speaker 6: How many pods have put out or advertised doing a
• 7:56
  Speaker 6: live show and it's like an 800-seat venue? And then
• 7:59
  Speaker 6: they got to cancel or postpone because they're not selling tickets.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: Y'all going to see me in a 75-seat room.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: What made you want to start another podcast, Mandy? I mean,
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: Decisions is massive.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I did have another podcast. See, the thing is,
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: that one also was a seven-figure podcast. We were signed
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: on Gumball. And I miss talking culture. I miss.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Sharing my life has become a lot. It's now in
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: a book, New York Times bestseller, by the way.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: By the way, I was watching, and I was like,
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: let me see my book in the back.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: It was almost about to be a problem.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: It was. We were trying to look for a space.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: We was like, where's the rent space in here?
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: On Black Privilege Publishing. Yeah, we made the New York
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Times bestseller list. Only need it one week.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: It's there. How about that? Talk about it.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: But I was just like, you know, sharing and talking
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: about sex, dating, relationships, To me, my conversations often are
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: about politics, music, what's happening within the culture, what conversations
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: matter to me, essentially. Because at this point, y'all just
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: find who you love. I don't care how.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: You get married.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: I promise. Go get married if you want. Go have
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: 10 kids if you want. I don't care. Let me
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: live my life. And so because these conversations are what
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: I have, I love this. We were just, we had
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: a pod with Mecca Rashan recently. yesterday and we were
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: talking and he was like till death you do art
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: till death and what I realize is I love this
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: I've recorded since last week we're doing three more today
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: I've done 15 podcasts two radio shows in the last
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: eight days and.
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: I love it you need some tea oh girl you
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: see but I love this I love when I meet.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: People I was at Culture Con this past weekend and
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: I met people and they let me know how I
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: impacted their life or how I made them see themselves
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: and things like that. Y'all not getting me off this mic.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: It's because I love it.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: And A.
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: King, you could have, I mean, I'm sure over the
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: last decade plus, you could have found yourself on a
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: lot of different podcasts.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: Why does this feel like home to you?
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Relationships. I have a, you know, relationship is currency.
• 10:10
  Speaker 6: I knew this one from the third episode that she's
• 10:13
  Speaker 6: been doing podcasting. I knew him from the early days
• 10:17
  Speaker 6: of the Combat Jack show and in his you know,
• 10:20
  Speaker 6: blog era, boss of stuff. So it was, we always
• 10:23
  Speaker 6: had conversations. It was a time where they wanted me
• 10:25
  Speaker 6: to produce horrible decisions, but he.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Said, no, he said, I would need to tell me.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: But that was a different time.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: He matured.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: He got more money now. We're great now.
• 10:38
  Speaker 6: Mandy and I always talk about doing some, something, collaborating
• 10:41
  Speaker 6: on something. And we had another idea. Maybe we'll do
• 10:44
  Speaker 6: that at some point. And then she's like, you know what,
• 10:46
  Speaker 6: let's do this pod. And, It's kind of our conversations
• 10:49
  Speaker 6: we have on the phone, in text message threads, and
• 10:53
  Speaker 6: we just talk on these mics with.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: It, you know?
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: What do y'all think right now is, like, top of mind, like,
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: trending topics that is something that people are not talking
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: enough about?
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Big terms. There we go.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: Are we ready?
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Are we ready? Charlotte, Laurie, are we ready?
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: I think America is ready. Okay.
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: Because, you know, there's two things on this planet that
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: every human being wants.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: Wants they want more money in their pocket.
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: And they want to feel safe and if you can
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: speak to that you will always energize people and he
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: lied to people Donald Trump lied to people and told
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: people that's what he was speaking to and they bought
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: it but over the last two years things have gotten
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: significantly worse and he don't have Democrats to blame it
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: on Republicans are in complete control complete power so I
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: think America is ready for some type of change.
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: I think people too a lot of times politics doesn't
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: feel like it trickles down even though it does everyday
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: people don't have time to feel the trickle down. I
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: think now they feel it.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: We actually talk about that. So we have a, this
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: is America segment, um, on the show where every week
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: we talk about different cases, what justice looks like. We're
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: even talking about how, how politics trickles into sports, music,
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: what we consume, like, and you kind of can't get
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: away from it. And it's funny cause we'd be talking
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: about our age. Sometimes I'm like, dang, we talk about politics,
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: is we old? But it's like, no, like this now matters.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Like there's 20-year-olds getting involved in politics. We were just
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: talking about a Texans footballer in his 20s who, you know,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: had a free, the name of an eight-year-old girl who
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: got killed in Palestine. And so I was like, when
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: I was in my 20s, I was still throwing back
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Long Island, I see. Like, we was outside. We weren't
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: really having these conversations. So I love that, no, politics
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: is now part of our everyday life because it's impacting us.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: We about to start eating 3D foods, y'all.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Dang.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Well, not we.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Somebody out there, not us.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, it's everything. And so, like, I love that
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: we get to have those conversations now.
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: Do you feel like because you talk about age, right?
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: Do you feel like as you get older in this
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: like game, a podcaster, you talk about your public life
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: being first of how we met you? Now you're talking
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: about other people's lives. Do you, and we know sometimes
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: you go off the rails.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Off the rails? I mean, you say what you want
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: to say.
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: And sometimes it gets the people going.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: And you know, I know you see all the things.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: I saw y'all talk about me up here.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: What did we say about you?
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: We don't have to go. My take on marriage. I'm
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: also an entertainer. So I say things to get the
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: people going.
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: So what I was going to ask you is, you know,
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: as you get older in this and you build real business,
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: responsibility comes in a bit.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Do you think about that, though?
• 13:40
  Speaker 5: Like the entertainment versus the where's my responsibility?
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Well, I think that that's always been first, to be
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: honest with you. Like my responsibility. for black women specifically
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: is to find and reclaim their power, whatever that looks like,
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: to get over whatever trauma, to find themselves, to be
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: able to say no, to understand, to do that, right?
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: And in this sense now, I think I'm leaning more
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: into policy, what our autonomy looks like. So from a
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: voting perspective and talking about the midterms and talking about
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: these cases that actually impact us because it's, It's changing
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: and shifting the laws. We were just talking about what's
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: happening in New York with the Cornell 7, how they're
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: looking to change the law to what sobriety or intoxication
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: looks like when it is involved with a sexual assault. Right.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: So there's involuntary and voluntary. They're looking to change that
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: now because we're having more of these conversations. And so
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: for me, my responsibility hopefully is. to sit here and
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: have conversations that make change and impact. Because to me,
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: as a woman that don't want kids, this is my legacy.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: That book is my legacy. This is a part of
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: my story. This is how I want to be remembered
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: in history is for making a difference. So I've always
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: done that. I think I just led more with my
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: journey at first. And now it's having conversations that I
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: hope go into the group chats with people that look
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: like us.
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: Do you feel like in the media space you're in
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: that the world allows for black women to have that
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: duality that you're talking about?
• 15:02
  Speaker 6: Hmm.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Hmm.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: Tricky.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Tricky.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Tricky.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: Tricky.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: I think even me, I'm a, you know, boisterous.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Boisterous.
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: But you're not afraid.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: I'm not afraid, but so many of us are.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: And that's the problem.
• 15:16
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: Because you can have the duality, you just can't have
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: the fear.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: And that's the other part. I understand fear, whether it's
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: from still a lot of us being, you know, silenced
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: by the patriarch. In terms of even our government, they
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: silence us. When we go to these jobs, we're getting
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: paid the least amount of money. So we don't want
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: to ruffle feathers. Like, unfortunately, there's a yes, we are.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: I do believe we still are. But I'm hoping that
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: people can be like, oh, she could do what I
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: could do. Because that's how we've all been able to
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: get where we are in life. Seeing other people that
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: look like us. on these mics, on the courts, in courthouses,
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: in certain political spaces. That's why we know we can
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: do it because someone else did it.
• 15:57
  Speaker 7: And that's part of the podcasting thing, right? Like people,
• 16:00
  Speaker 7: you know, the joke online is take away podcasting equipment,
• 16:03
  Speaker 7: make podcasting equipment more expensive. But really what you're talking
• 16:06
  Speaker 7: about is people finding their voice and people not being,
• 16:10
  Speaker 7: getting past the fear and just saying the thing out
• 16:12
  Speaker 7: loud and putting those thoughts and ideas into the ether
• 16:16
  Speaker 7: so that people can understand what's going on and.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Try to push culture forward, but push good ideas forward, push.
• 16:24
  Speaker 7: Being on the right side of history forward, giving people
• 16:26
  Speaker 7: the opportunity to say their truth and not feel like
• 16:29
  Speaker 7: they have to be stifled. A.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: King, I love when you were talking about when loss
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: becomes a wake-up call and how the passing of our
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: guy Combat Jack, how it changed your perspective on men's
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: health and grief and accountability.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: You want to speak to that?
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: So, That was tough because it was unexpected, as you know, right?
• 16:52
  Speaker 6: And we had just went to Atlanta for the A3C
• 16:57
  Speaker 6: Festival and I knew something was wrong, but not that.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? He was experiencing some symptoms
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: or whatever.
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: And then when we came back, he checked himself in
• 17:06
  Speaker 6: the hospital and he sent a picture with the hospital band.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: I'm like, what?
• 17:11
  Speaker 6: He said, nah, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. And
• 17:12
  Speaker 6: then we got a call saying that he had to
• 17:15
  Speaker 6: do emergency surgery. They did a biopsy and all that stuff.
• 17:17
  Speaker 6: So everything, anything that happened prior to that didn't matter
• 17:20
  Speaker 6: anymore because now it's serious. And especially when he got
• 17:23
  Speaker 6: his diagnosis a few days after that and what we've
• 17:27
  Speaker 6: done to that point, whatever we was talking about doing
• 17:30
  Speaker 6: after that stopped. And then that's when humanity kicked in.
• 17:34
  Speaker 6: Now with the conversation of how do you want to
• 17:37
  Speaker 6: fight this? How can we, what do we do to
• 17:39
  Speaker 6: support it? You know what I'm saying? And, and, and, and,
• 17:44
  Speaker 6: I don't know if there's a time limit on grief.
• 17:46
  Speaker 6: I lost my mom a year ago. And Dallas Penn
• 17:49
  Speaker 6: died the year before that. And then my nephew died
• 17:52
  Speaker 6: in South Carolina the year before. So all of these things.
• 17:56
  Speaker 6: My mom always used to say, I'm no timekeeper. I
• 17:58
  Speaker 6: think all of us outside, whoever's listening and watching, just
• 18:01
  Speaker 6: note that. You got to stay in the moment. Always
• 18:04
  Speaker 6: have goals and things you want to tackle. But I
• 18:06
  Speaker 6: don't know that you have a time limit on grief.
• 18:09
  Speaker 6: I think it's ongoing. I think community or your village
• 18:12
  Speaker 6: is important. People that you can lean on and have
• 18:14
  Speaker 6: discussions and lean into your memories and kind of let
• 18:18
  Speaker 6: that be the light that guides you. But I don't
• 18:20
  Speaker 6: know if there's a time. I don't think so either.
• 18:22
  Speaker 6: What I will say is that, and I know you're
• 18:24
  Speaker 6: an advocate of mental health. Man, I mean, I've always
• 18:27
  Speaker 6: been pro-therapy, but I hadn't had a therapist. But that
• 18:31
  Speaker 6: was like, okay, maybe this is a good opportunity for
• 18:34
  Speaker 6: me to seek that. And shout out to Dr. J. Barnett,
• 18:38
  Speaker 6: who You know, just healed with Dr. J season two
• 18:42
  Speaker 6: on the way. You know, I produced that. But he's
• 18:44
  Speaker 6: helped me, you know, just in his conversation with that.
• 18:47
  Speaker 6: Not even just it wasn't like a direct, you know,
• 18:49
  Speaker 6: reasoning for it.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Just conversation. Community is important.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: And we talk about community. He's been someone that I've
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: gotten to lean on because of his loss with combat
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: and kind of how he worked through that. My best
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: friend this year was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: It is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so ladies, go get
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: your mammograms. But dealing with being someone who's had to
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: take her to three of the four biopsies, her beating
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: stage two five years ago, and not being able to
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: ring a bell this time around. It's been a conversation
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: that I'm like, go get a mammogram, go get a mammogram.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: But again, with someone who's dealt with a friend that's
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: went through that, he's been someone I've been able to
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: lean on. And he's like, you good? You got this.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: You got this.
• 19:30
  Speaker 6: Don't think about the... It's all about the now and
• 19:33
  Speaker 6: the journey and her fight. And that's all we could
• 19:36
  Speaker 6: live in right now.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: So when I'm hearing this, where's the ignorance? What exactly
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: is selective ignorance? Where's the goddamn ignorance, man?
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, so.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: What is selective ignorance?
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Here's the thing. Selective ignorance, what we like to do
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: is instead of just report the news, we like to
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: see why the hell is everyone so upset? Why are
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: you so mad?
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: So what we.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Do is we take the things that we see everyone
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: kind of arguing about. Why does this thing, why does
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: this topic, why does this subject matter... you know get
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: so much of a reaction emotionally from people why are
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: they fighting in the comments and so what we do
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: is we dissect that and to be very fair sometimes
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: we know better we just don't want to do better
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: and so we also have no problem leaning into okay
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: i see what they did there i know why they
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: could be a little mad like it's funny uh there
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: was a A substitute teacher, she wasn't really a substitute.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: We were talking about it.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: So we were talking about it. So as we're dissecting
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: what she was telling these kids, apparently she told these
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: two white kids, y'all kind of look like you could
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: be school shooters. And where, yes, you shouldn't talk to
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: children a certain way, but... There's a look!
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: Maybe you.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: It's also Milwaukee. It's also Milwaukee.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: So it's just like, you know, sometimes we can dissect
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: how something could be wrong, but also be like... But
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: we see how they got there.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: I mean, the bigger issue with that is she shouldn't
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: have been able to get into the school.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: No, that's what we got.
• 21:09
  Speaker 6: For three sessions, for three, what do you call it?
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Three classes.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: So then we talked about, okay, the slippery slope here
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: is the principal in charge of that. But then we
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: also wanted to say, so here's the ignorance. What's crazy
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: is she got through three periods. Had that been a man.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: he getting 10 minutes in the classroom what you mean
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: a grown man is in a high school class and
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: not an all-boys school it's some girls in there because
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: the girl also said y'all kind of look like some
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: hookers and.
• 21:41
  Speaker 7: Strippers up in here asking students are they gay or
• 21:44
  Speaker 7: are they virgins and all this while i'm like.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: What's up with you we went in was like well
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: what if that was a man oh double standards here
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: so we lean into double standards we lean into sometimes
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: uh The need to know more and sometimes not wanting
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: to know more. Because why? Like, again, knowledge is power,
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: but then when you know more, ugh, like with me,
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: standards now. Oh, why did I find him? Why did
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: I find him? It makes dating so much harder. Oh,
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: it makes dating so much harder. Not standards, not morals.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: You guys had to lose.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: We heard you on the marriage. You know. Hey.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: But yeah, like, we lean into it. We like to
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: be funny. Like, if you could go into, he renamed Ice.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: And what were you like?
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, oh. It was the... Oh, we did Ice Cold.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: It was like the.
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: Ice Cold.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: The... Man, what.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Did I call it now? I remember what I called it.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Interpreter.
• 22:34
  Speaker 7: Yeah, it was like the International Caucasian Enforcement Agency.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: It was all about like.
• 22:40
  Speaker 7: here are white people demanding that brown people and immigrants be,
• 22:44
  Speaker 7: you know, cast out from this country. And it's like,
• 22:47
  Speaker 7: there's all kinds of stuff that y'all should be cast
• 22:49
  Speaker 7: out for of this country. Things you're doing to violate people.
• 22:52
  Speaker 7: And y'all aren't the only people that should end up
• 22:54
  Speaker 7: in Guantanamo Bay. A lot of these white folks who
• 22:57
  Speaker 7: are violating people should end up in some of them
• 22:59
  Speaker 7: same jail cells.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: So the ignorance comes where we just be like, you know,
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: I get it, but no, but also this is where
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: people choose to, to remain like in a country right
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: now where racism is still running so prevalent you're choosing
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: that ignorance because you know better we've been talked about
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: it for decades now it's in the history books some
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: of them you know they trying to remove history now
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: but how are you still racist today As a black person,
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: how are you still homophobic? Like, we've dealt with oppression already.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: How would you want to instill oppression on anyone else?
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: Make it make sense. And so we kind of lean
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: into questioning those rhetorics.
• 23:36
  Speaker 7: And now we have all these people who are, you know,
• 23:38
  Speaker 7: coming back after the fact, especially like we talked about
• 23:41
  Speaker 7: Maria Salazar in Florida and some of these Latino public
• 23:45
  Speaker 7: figures who are like, Trump has gone too far with ICE.
• 23:48
  Speaker 7: And I'm like, he told you exactly what it was
• 23:50
  Speaker 7: going to be. How is any of this a surprise?
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: Or Chef Creole in Miami being mad that his workers,
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: the Haitian workers are being deported. So now he got
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: to close some businesses while he voted for Trump. So
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: like the idea that we are in this individualistic society
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: and you think that what's happening ain't going to affect
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: you until it affects you.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: The selective ignorance is all around.
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: All around.
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: Well, make sure you subscribe to the Selective Ignorance Podcast
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: everywhere you listen to podcasts, courtesy of the Black Effect
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: Podcast Network.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: Jason Jolly, my guy A-King, my niece Mandy B.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: Always a pleasure, man.
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: Thank you, man.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you, man. Appreciate y'all.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Better Marsh.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: Yes, Breakfast Club.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Better Marsh.