We're calling on all our fans for this one.
Jack.
This is special man. Over five years of work in two hundred episodes.
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To our biggest guests.
Yeah, I wouldn't lie about that.
You sold it. I do it over. No, you did it, so let.
Me do none of bron excuse me, our biggest guest. I've been corrected, miss Madam Vice Presidents.
Thank you, it is so good.
Thank you for sitting down with us. Thank you for having us in your home. We're excited to be here.
Thank you both. I'm so happy to have you here. Thank you, and you do me great honor to be here. Thank you.
In twenty and thirteen, a blind date with your now husband, Doug.
If you think back to that.
Date and now we're here, did you ever imagine this was going to be the journey?
No, I just have a really bossy best friend. It was a blind day, right, It was a blind day, and she called me up because she and her husband met him and got to know him, and then she just decided that this Mike cool work and said to me, just go out with once. Don't google him, just go out.
With them, don't google them, just give it a shot.
Right, and it turned out she was right in a very happy marriage. I'm very thankful.
So where'd you guys go?
Did you really eat or did you just do a salad?
Like?
Did you really like.
Us?
So he came to pick me up kind of car BMW okay, okay. But here's the thing that was actually really funny in retrospect. I gave him the car and he says, I just need to tell you something, and I'm like, okay, what's this gonna be? He said, I'm a really bad truck.
Give you the heads up.
Huh.
So that's how it started. I guess he was just trying to create little expectations. And we went to what turned out to be his one favorite restaurant where everybody knows who he is. Oh yeah, so he could walk in and they were like, hey.
Doug, uh.
Bay Area girl born in Oakland. You grew up around the TMC times. Yeahs we hear you A big fan I am. And there was a rumor that you were in the stands when we were there, and we believe the era.
I really we talk about it. Yes, yes, I do remember, I do. Okay. We want to say our warriors are always good whichever era, but that was a very special time. I mean it was electric, you guys, remember it was electric and everybody we would take bart to get there and just and go and it was just you know. I mean, this is the thing I love about sports
in general. But I'm gonna say my Warriors, our Warriors, is that it really was about bringing like all kinds of people from around the Bear, and you know, the Bear is a mounting right all coming in and that team, I mean, you guys were like the best of the best, legendary, legendary.
You know. It's funny not to cut you off.
As I went back in twenty seventeen with Steph and Katie and those guys, and we won a championship right before I retired, but they all wanted to know about that. We believe the era and the energy around the city. And when I was there at the media was talking about it, the fans talking about it. As amazing as that team was and one of all the championships, they had a fascination and what we did.
What was it like for you guys?
For me, it was big for me because I had had some trouble two years before, so I needed to come into a situation where I needed to change, and it was blessing disguise for me. You know, I landed with a whole bunch of guys I knew. I landed with a coach that didn't judge me, that let me be me. We were able to make history. So it was a blessing for me.
Yeah, I think too. I mean, it was, it was, you know, it was.
It was almost a melting pot of guys that you know, my career could have been over before it started. That's where I really first got my chance with Don Nelson, Like he said, he was coming off trouble. One of our other brothers, Baron Davis, was very talented but injuries.
And didn't really know what was going on.
So it just kind of felt like the Bay put their arms around us, like we were out in the streets, hanging out from San Francisco to Oakland to Richmond. Probably every club that they we were out race in the community. But I mean, one thing I'll say about the Bay Area fans is, like you said, you always want to say they were good, but there was times where they are terrible, but the support never waivered.
You guys were so loyalty.
I just I mean, first of all, loyalty as a general matter in life, I think is one of the most important. Growing up, my mother used to say, you got to have a code something, and you figure out what your code is. But loyalty and then loyalty to your team, right, I mean no fancy yeah, yes.
Like some presidential water right here and.
Your team, Like my husband and I have different teams. Well he's originally from Jersey, but he moved to la when he was a teenager, so most of his fans are Laka and so you know, depending on who's playing who and what time year. It's very like, really really like talking some serious smack.
What's your feelings on all three of the teams out of Oakland? Now?
It breaks my heart. Remember we used to have all of the best. We used to have all of them, you know, and you just drive by that area, you know, when I go to Oakland, when I go to the Barrier, and you know, you like Land at Oakland Airport and just past Coliseum. It is it breaks my heart. And good good teams.
For us.
I think as players when our time, were more worried about the workers and the people that were there, because that's who made us feel the workers every day we came in there. We saw those smiles, we got hugs by people actually from Oakland and to see them lose them jobs to.
It's so right. It was part of the economic engine. Yeah, exactly exactly. And then the vendors and it was you know, and it was local folks, small businesses.
Yeah, I'll definitely say, I mean, obviously we understand what that era and that team kind of did. They took the team to a new level and the business side kicked in.
Yeah, it really did.
I love where they're at.
In San Francisco, beautiful stadium, but they'll never be anything like Oracle.
Never.
No, And I'm always going to think, you know, I mean Golden State War.
That's what you think.
I think.
I grew up Italian mom, Black dad, and was always very proud of my heritage until an incident I had in high school when I was seventeen, protected my little sister, someone called her some names. I did what the big brother did. I ended up getting trouble in the KKK, came to vandalize, nearly burned down my high school, and I knew at that point, Although I was very proud to be Italian and Black, that the world looked at
me as a black man. You've always been secure in your idity who you are, But what do you feel or what do you think when you hear people kind of questioning just the fabric of who.
You are, Well, one, I don't listen to it. I'm really clear about who I am and if anybody else is not, they need to go through their own therapy. That's not my My mother was very clear she was raising two black girls to be two prout, proud black women,
and that was never it was never a question. You know, It's funny because over the years, journalists, some not most, will want to talk about it, and I say, okay, if you want to have this conversation, I'm prepared to have it, but sit down and get comfortable for a
few hours. If you want to start talking about race in America, you want to talk about the one eighth rule, you want write, you want to talk about what it means in terms of who you are perceived to be and the impact that can have on the rest of your life, regardless of who you actually are, in terms of your god given capacity and the rights that you have and should have. So you know, I don't mess
with that. I think that's other people trying to figure some stuff out that and they need they need, They got to deal with it.
You've also been attacked having biological children, but you are a step mom and I'm a step father of I just had my seventh little boy two weeks ago, but I have three step children that are mine and being a dad was natural. Being a dad to my four sons was natural. But learning to navigate not wanting to step on toes. How do you earn the love and the trust? How did you earn Ella in Cole's love and trust? And how did you get the name Mamala?
I'll start with this. I am a daughter of divorce parents. My parents were divorce when I was five, and just being very frank and handed with you, when Doug and I started dating, you know, his parents have been married
over sixty years. I had to explain to him what it is like to be a child of divorce parents, and including that it was really important to me that I knew what he and my relationship would be before I formed a relationship with the kids, because that's just it's from my perspective and experience, not fair to the children. Because you know, children form attachments. So I was very intentional about waiting until I knew that, okay, this is a real relationship, before I got to know the kids,
and then we became I mean, thick as thieves. And I love those children. They are my children. And you know, we talk about we have a modern family. And maybe the blessing that I have that not everyone has, although I think everyone should try and work on it, is I have a very close because it is a very respectful relationship with their mother.
It's important, you know, and so.
No, but it's not. But it's not. It is not, and you have to work at it. But you have to work at it. You'll be all right. Because here's the thing. Here's the thing that we have to remember. And I know we do and we feel, but we have to be intentional about it because the forces and the emotions will drag us from this point. The most
important thing is that our kids grow up healthy. And you know, I think of the many things that we role model, probably the thing we role model the most that we don't realize is how to form healthy relationships. You know, we teached our kids how to drive. We will sit down and do homework with them. But one of the things we are teaching them every day, and we have to be intentionally. We will not be perfect, we will fall short, but it's how to develop healthy
emotional relationships. One of the ways, especially in that dynamic when you're talking about my husband's ex wife, is how to be respectful. And I was very intentional about, for example, knowing that the kids, as they got to know and form relationship with me, would not want to feel like they were somehow being disloyal to their mother. And I knew that, and so I was very intentional about always making sure that I was clear with them that I would say things like, well, how does your mom do it?
Love to cook? How does your mom to show me how you do it? And just and I think that's really important because you know, this is the thing that I think has become clear, especially as I'm now running for president, and these kind of conversations are becoming more prevalent, like what does it mean to be a stepparent? The people who don't get it are understanding is there a whole lot more of these kinds of relationships than people realize.
It's not the nineteen fifty blended.
Right it is. It is, and they're beautiful and it's a beautiful way to live, to build and grow your family. You know, I talk about it even in my speech at the convention. I have and I grew up with the family that is my family by blood and the family that is my family by love and sometimes and
that's exactly right. That's exactly right. I think increasingly people, especially younger people, understand that right that there's the family you're born into it, and then there's the family you choose, and it's on you to make a decision about what you want and how you define your family. And you have the right to do that, you know.
I tell Michael, I'm just an extra layer of support and protection. I'm not there to replace your dad. I'm not there to you know, I'm here to help in any way possible.
And so Mamala came about because that because it's Kamala, and then it just got creative with it and it's Mamla.
I love it.
Yeah, all right, shifting a little bit of policy talk, and before we talk about policy, can you briefly explain because I think sometimes there's misconceptions of the power of the president or the power of the Vice President explain how a bill becomes a law.
I believe that the best way the system works is when the power is with the people to then advocate for their needs and have their needs met. So that's the big macro stepping back right. One of the ways that the system works to do that, that the system should work to do that is we have elected representation who represent the people in these state legislatures, which is where laws get passed, or in Congress, which is where
the federal laws get passed. And for the system to work the right way, legislators, these members of the state legislature, let's say your state senator, your state assembly member, or your congressmen or your United States senator, will meet with and they'll have ways of receiving information from the people about what they want. I think it's really important always that we know our power to organize around what we need.
And sometimes that'll take the form of writing letters, sometimes it will take the form of mass protests to make sure the voice of the people is heard by their representative leaders, who then have as their responsibility to write up some legislation that meets the needs of the people. And then when they write that up, they take a vote in their body if it's a state house or Congress, and if the majority the people there agree with it, it becomes a law. So that's how it's supposed to work.
And I mean it does connect to what we were talking about earlier, which is then reminding folks they have a right and a right to expect that their leaders will hear them and take seriously their needs. You know, a lot of why I think it's important to talk about our accomplishments on things like we finally let Medicare negotiate drug prices with the big pharmaceutical companies so that we could cap the cost of incident thirty five dollars
a month. You know why that's important because forever that never happened. And when we explain to people that they kept advocating and kept fighting for it to happen and it did happen, it reminds people don't give up, keep fighting for the things you know are possible, even if
it's never happened before. I think it's important for people to know, you know, when we like, for example, I helped write the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act when I was in the United States Senate, people by the hundreds of thousands marched rightly, out of pain, out of knowledge, out of commitment that we need to take seriously what
we got to do to deal with this system. And so we couldn't get enough votes to pass it, but we got it that far that we wrote it up and we got it as far as so that under our administration, the President was able to sign an executive order that put a lot of what we put in the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act into an executive order. So at least for federal law enforcement, we're now dealing
with no knock warrants. We're now talking about a national database for police officers who have committed misconduct.
To the people who say, why are we still marching in twenty twenty four, Yeah, when it's common sense what people need, What.
Do you say to that, Look, my parents march for civil rights back in the day. I do believe there is no significant progress that we've made in our country without the people often taking to the streets, going way back to the Civil Rights Act, to the Voting Rights Act, to you know, I mean, what's happening now in the streets on choice, to what happened around George Floyd's murder and moving forward an agenda that's about that. I mean, you could just go through just the different levels of
progress that we've had. Often has taken people taking to the streets, which is why, look, I support the right of people to peacefully protest my opponent in this race. You look up Project twenty twenty five Nasty Work. They're literally talking about what they would do to arrest people
and deport them because they want to suppress. Part of what really concerns me about this moment in time is we've also defined our progress over the years, and therefore our strength is being about the expansion of rights, and now we're seeing a full on intent.
To restrict rights going backwards.
I strongly believe we have to always be vigilant, meaning whatever gains we've made, they will not be permanent unless we stay on it. You got to know, you can't take any of our rights for granted, and that's why we have to stay active. And that's about voting, that's
about being involved in community organizations. That's about having those conversations when everybody gets together, whether we be at the barbershop, round the kitchen table, to remind ourselves about, look, what's happening and what do we need to do about it?
And also think too.
I mean, some of the stuff we stand and fight for, you know, I do it as a parent.
In my lifetime.
I may not see the benefits, but I have seven kids who are going to have more kids that are coming down the pipeline that may one day. I'm sure when your parents fought there thinking by the time my daughter's old enough, hopefully she won't be going through this.
That's exactly right. But see, they also taught me this, don't fall asleep on this stuff. Don't fall asleep on it. Don't sit back and get comfortable like, oh, that's done. You know, there's this old saying. It's Kreta Scott King, she said, and I paraphrase it all the time. The fight for civil rights, which she meant, the fight for justice, the fight for equality must be fought in one with each generation. And I think what she meant is one,
understand whatever games we make will not be permanent. And two, therefore you must be vigilant. You got to stay on top of it. And by the way, don't complain about that.
HBCUs are such a big thing now, and it's I feel like when things get trendy to become you know, everyone wants to talk about it and be a part of it. You were someone who went to an HBCU as an athlete, I'm just like, it's a great idea and I wish it was more cooler when I was coming up. But at the same time, I don't think the facilities could have held us, you know what I mean.
I was fortunate enough to go to UCLA and it was like being a professional athlete and we were speaking to you know, some of the brightest minds come from these HBCUs, but the conditions aren't what some of these other schools are.
So the history of our HBCUs is a phenomenal history which again was born out of struggle and people sitting around saying we're not gonna wait for other people, right. So there were a collection of people that were white and black and of many different backgrounds who understood that young black, bright people were not having equal access to top levels of education. And so, in a nutshell, that's
how our HBCUs got formed. I attended Howard University, which is one of the oldest, and it built up over the years, with its purpose and mission being to create national and international leaders, had a reputation of doing that cause it did that. But over the years, we also know that our students. HBCU students don't necessarily frankly, make the same kind of incomes that people who go to predominantly white institutions do, don't start out on the same base.
So even if they are, they're also taking care of their parents, they're also taking care of their younger siblings and don't necessarily have the extra to be able to build for the school. The endowment which alumni give to that ends up funding things like a first class program,
be it athletic or scientific or something. So a lot of my work, especially in the Senate and now as Vice President, has been to increase federal funding to HBCUs because again I know they are centers of academic excellence. They are centers of academic excellence, but don't necessarily have the same kind of resources. And so far we've given now under our administration, as i've been Vice president, sixteen
billion more dollars to o HBCUs. When I was Senator, I was responsible for helping to get billions into upgrading literally the physical structure because they're old. Yeah, And I think increasingly, to your point, more people are understanding. It's like we may be skipped an era, but we're getting back to a place of more people understanding what our HBCUs do and giving more support financially to them.
But we have to.
I mean, it's an incredible experience to walk on campus and everybody looks like you, and to go to class and to have a teacher who takes none of your excuses. That's exactly right. It reminds you that no, you just have to work harder, You just have to compete. You'll be the class president if you do that. And the other thing that's great about in HBCU. You could be the class president at the football Star Mmm. You could be in a sorority and be the head of the
science club like it. Also, the beauty of HBCUs is every signal it sends you is telling you do not confine yourself to somebody's idea of what it means for you to be a young black person in America.
I want to touch on mental health. Mental health is big in the black community, especially black men. We have a lot of black men out there who's starting grassroots organizations to help their communities. I'll give you example, a guy named Zeke. He's the building chapters called New Era in all over Detroit, the Bay Area, texts everywhere. And then what they're doing is they're taking care of the
communities regardless of race. If somebody's being mistreated, if it's store being mistreated, if somebody's been treated in.
That community, if they're going hand in hand.
Zone nineteen Keys and also you see, is it anything that you're thinking about that can help these people that's building these grass roots that actually get the stuff done.
On the ground.
Absolutely. I think, first of all, I think the mental health issue is probably one of the biggest public policy failures in our country. We have acted as though healthcare is We've acted as though the body starts from the neck down, right, instead understanding we need health care also from the neck up, and it has to be done in a way that gives people the dignity and the respect they deserve. The most effective mental health care is
often because it is peer based. It is without judgment, and it understands people have to be understood for you know, who they are culturally, who they are in terms of their life experience if you're really going to be able to get into their needs. I worked with a brother here in d C Kre who actually has been doing a lot around modeling in particular, and I had them
come in a couple of years ago. Actually, we've been talking about how we focus in particular on our black men and our young black men, because we also have to take the stigma away, and so part of that is about reminding people. It's just like you know, if you break your arm or you got a toothache. This is about health care and helping people understand it's a sign of strength to ask for help, not a sign
of weakness. Because when we talk about mental health care, a lot of it, especially for people who have who have experienced trauma, we're talking about pain, and we understand physical pain, take an aspirin, whatever, but we don't deal with mental and emotional pain in the same way. And here's the thing. First of all, look growing up in poverty, trauma inducing, growing up around you know, any form of violence which crosses socioeconomic lines, by the way, so let's not act as.
Though it's just right.
Low income people everywhere, everywhere trauma inducing. And the thing about it is you know when we talk about post traumatic stress disorder, right, what happens when you've been repeatedly exposed to trauma. Somebody explained it to me years ago. It's oversimplified, but I'm going to offer you this. So imagine you're walking across a busy street every day and a map truck comes barreling down. You will produce basically
a response without even reflection. You'll jump back. If every day you're walking across the room that thing, you overproduce the things so that one day you're walking across that street that mac truck has come barreling down. You see it, and you keep walking. And then we start talking about our young people don't have emotions, numb to it, as though they've chosen, as though they have chosen to not have emotion, and we don't realize that a lot of
it is physiological. Literally, it's how the body learns to protect itself. And for our youngest children, then what does that mean? They start acting out in class? What happens? They get kicked out of class, they're the bad kid.
They still start self identifying that way, and we know where that leads a lot of the work I did years ago when I was actually DA of San Francisco, was focused on a project that it ended up developing itself into what we call the San Franciscool Wellness Center, which was focused on early detection of childhood trauma so that we could get the diagnosis going for the treatment right, because if you don't diagnose it, you can't treat it.
And I actually brought in mental health care professionals to talk with public school teachers about it, like this is what you're seeing in the classroom and help people put a label on it as the first step to diagnosing it and then getting the treatment. And during the time i've been vice president, as part of the work we've done on gun violence, we've put now millions of extra dollars in public schools to put more mental health professionals
in our public schools. But we need to do a lot more because again, it just needs to be diagnosed and treated right and understanding this is not about some child who is bad. It's not some who wants to act out. It's not this is not this is not a choice that child is and it's not a choice this child is making. They're actually in pain, and it manifests itself in ways that are antisocial potentially, but the child's in pain.
How to get it out?
Defense mechanism?
Yeah, I have a question along the mental health line. We spoke to Kobe and did his last interview, and I asked him, you know, over his long career, was there any negativity or hatred or disrespect towards you that he heard and hurt? And he said, I heard it all and he said that it all hurt. As someone who's been the first in a lot of spaces, you've been in, a woman of color knocking on the door to possibly be the next president? How do you protect your mental health and your mental space?
Well?
Number one rule, don't read the comments there. Nasty nasty, I'm serious, don't read the comments. Just let's start there. I work out every morning. I work out every morning. For me, it's just mind, body and spirit. I think it's really important for everybody. We all have our levels
of stir. Everybody does right, be intentional about who you have in your life to the extent you can, and in particular for our young people who may not know that they have a right to be intentional about do you have people in your life who applaud your success. Do you have people in your life who you trust? Do you have people in your life who when you trip and fall, they laugh with you and then they pick you up and push you back out there. There are people that you know who will be those people
if you choose to have them. I am blessed to have an incredible family and incredible friends. My best friend from kindergarten is still one of my best friends, right, Stacey Johnson. We used to go to the clubs and her father Saville, and so I think that's part of it, right, because you do need the support to deal with it, and especially I mean people who are active on social media. It's hard out there. It's tough, and you have to
find things like I love to cook. I love to cook, and it's a way for me to want I think it's just for me. It's a great gift I can give the people I love. But it's also you know, it's like I start out, I know what I'm going to make, and then I'm done and I can give it to people and it just gives me something to do that is a productive use of time, you know. And I think people you know, choose hobbies, think about what it is that you like to do that takes
your mind off of the stresses. That is also productive.
Right, economy, small business, black business. We actually just start our business in January, so we're you know, we've grown from a show to a whole entire company.
What is your kind of your economic plan moving forward for.
People who are living paycheck to paycheck and struggling for groceries and rent and homeowners.
So look, I grew up, so my sister and I were raised by our mother. We lived for a long time in an apartment on top of a childcare center. That childcare center was actually owned by a woman who lived two doors down from us, missus Shelton, who was, by all of our accounts and feelings, our second mother. She helped raise us, and so she was a small business owner. So I'll start with the small business and congratulations on what you guys done. I from a child
knew who our small business owners are, right. I mean, you're business leaders, but you're also civic leaders. You take seriously your voice and how you can mentor how you can grow right communities and the sense of communities. I love our small businesses, and so a lot of my work in terms of building and growing the economy has focused on small businesses, and my vision overall is we need to build an opportunity economy in which we increase
opportunity for all, including small business owners. So a lot of my work even in the Senate was about increasing access to capital through our small businesses and in particular through our community banks. So I've been responsible for billions of dollars more now going into our community banks because they're in the community, and then they know who's in the community and where the town is, and who's doing
good in the community, what the community wants. And so part of my plan as president is to give small businesses startups a tax deduction of fifty thousand dollars to start up, because right now the tax deduction is five
thousand dollars. With that, that's exactly right. And see, the thing we know is that most of our small business are entrepreneurs who want to start a small business, got a great idea to have incredible work ethic, but you know, they weren't handed a bunch of money on a silver tray, and they just need to get their foot in the door. So there is that there is what I need to do and what we need to do around making housing and rent more affordable. Part of the problem there is
we have a housing supply shortage. My plan includes giving tax incentives for home builders to build three million more homes by the end of my first term to increase supply, to bring down cost, and to increase home ownership. A twenty five thousand dollars down payment assistance to first time home buyers, because again, people just need to get their foot in the door.
Grind after that.
Right, that's exactly right, That's exactly right. And we know home ownership, especially for the community, that's the fastest, most effective, and most sure ways to build intergenerational wealth. It's then when your child says I want to go to an HBC or some other college and you say, well, honey, you don't have to take out a student loan. I'm
going to take some equity out of the house. Or your child says I want to start up a small business, and you can say, let me take some equity and help you.
First, First, what is that business. Let me make sure it's not.
Productive. Right, you have something where it's about intergenerational wealth. Because see, here's how I feel about the economy and the economy I want to grow. We have for over the last four years, reduced black unemployment to the lowest it has been in decades. Okay, that is an accomplishment. However, we I believe, need to measure our success not just only about everybody's working, but can you build wealth?
Can you start saving?
Can you start saving, Can you buy a home? Can you start saving to take your family on vacation from time to time? Can you save enough so that Christmas time for you and your children is not stressful but something enjoyable. Right, And so it's about, yes, we got to make sure that we that we have high employment, but also that we create opportunities for people to build
wealth get ahead. Part of my plan is also to expand the child tax credit six thousand dollars in the first year of your child's life.
Man, I could have used that one.
Because you know what that means. First year, that's such a critical stage of a child's development, and it's expensive. A family's got to buy a car seat, a crib, the things that the necessary. Because I start from the perspective that the vast majority of parents want to raise their children well, they love their children, but don't necessarily
have the resources they need. And if we understand that the children of a community are the children of the community, we'll understand that that an investment in something like the first year of a child's life benefits all of us. But these are things about building what I call an opportunity economy, which is about helping people not just to get by, but to get ahead. Because most people, look, maybe you've gathered this already, Here's where I come from.
Most people have ambition, they have aspirations, they have dreams, and they are willing to work hard. And if we give people the opportunity to actually meet those goals, they jump for it every time. But not everybody starts out from the same place in terms of having the opportunity
to just get in there. And so my plans, whether it be twenty five thousand dollars down payment assistance, whether it be a six thousand dollars child tax credit, or helping people in terms of what they need to do to be able to start a small business with a bigger tax deduction. The reason I'm saying all that is because when those folks are successful, we are all successful, and we actually strengthen the economy overall. When middle class
is strong in America. America's economy is strong. It's a better country, and it's a better country for all of us.
All right, So we're running short on time. We're going to finish up with quick hitters. First thing to come to mind, let us know, oh, cannabis.
I just feel strongly people should not be going to jail for smoking wheed and we know historically what that is meant and who has gone to jail. Second, I just think we have come to a point where we have to understand that we need to legalize it and and stop criminalizing this behavior. And so and I've actually this is not a new position for me. I have felt for a long time we need to legalize it. So that's where I am on that.
Okay, she said we not cannabis. Pay attention to y'all.
Yeah, that's old school, right.
I like it.
I like it all right, love it.
Favorite holiday to cook and what's your signature dish?
Well, Sundays are my favorite days. Dinner, Sunday family dinner. I mean these days it's more difficult for me than ever, but Sunday family dinner might have a place and whoever is around, bring your.
Friends, party, I'm gonna leave you my number. I want to get invited to one of these.
Okay, Okay, you guys are welcome.
Best musical artists in Bay Area history.
Put her on the spot.
Oh ever, No, my mind is going through lots, and I mean, I'll just I could go with too short, but I mean, yeah, Rael.
Yeah, yeah, you know, forty yeah, five dinner are alive.
I'm going to get emotional, Liza. It's my mother and my husband never met. Okay, my mother passed away before we got married. So if I could put him at the table with my mother, Suirley Chisholm, first black woman to run for president. Oh, and I would so loved to sit with her. I would so love to sit with her. I mean, I feel that I know her because I have studied her life, and yes, that a
path that she created, right, it's a beautiful thing. One of my heroes is Thurgood Marshall, you know, and you talk about like him being active in the streets and what he did in terms of representation and then went to the court and carried that over.
Who's that last seat going to?
You know who I saw recently who I just loved. But it's He's one of two the Justins from from Tennessee. They were at they they refused to be silenced. They were they're both in the state capital and they were speaking up about gun violence and then the other legislators tried to shut them down. And Justin Jones is actually from Oakland and born where I was born at Kaiser
Hospital in Oakland, California. Yeah. Yeah, that would be kind of a good mix because then that's kind of different generations of leaders.
First thing you do in the morning, last thing you do before you go to sleep.
First thing I do in the morning is work out. There is a prayer that comes in after that, yes, of course every day. And last thing usually to tell my husband I love him.
I like that. What's your guilty pleasure? Do you have any? Yes?
One of my guilty pleasures, especially when I'm on the road, are my Dorito's what flavor? Natcho? Old school original? Come on? Come on, Yeah, that's exactly right, that's exactly gotta have an afkin nearby.
Yeah, I love it.
What was your process because it was fast? What was your process and what did you do when you were deciding who to pick for your vice president?
You know, Ultimately, what it came down to was Tim Walls. If you look at Tim Walls and you look at me, and you have a sense of who we are and where we came from, you think of nothing in common but his you know, he comes from and grew up in the same kind of you know, different part of the country. You know, folks were a different color, from a different culture, but same people. Hardworking people, straight talking people, people who have values. And I just found that so
familiar to me. And I guess that the process was Ultimately I made a decision about my gut around like do you not than any of the other candidates didn't, but just do you do you have a connection to the people and and in a life experience that is about just seeing people. And but it was a whole thing.
I mean, couldn't focus, like that's what okay.
Look from the time that the president called me and told me he wasn't running, I mean, it just like everything was in speedy, speedy motion, and I was not sleeping so well. And that one morning, I just I mean, I had I don't know, a few hours sleep, and I you know, I'd like to sleep. I just got up. I was like and So I just went out and got a pork roast and started marinate.
Your happy place.
And my family happened to me in town, so they were very happy about the whole situation. But I just got up and started sep. I just got up and started cooking.
Yes, last question, as someone who's broke a ton of barriers throughout your journey and your journeys continuing to elevate, what does it mean to you to be the first woman president, but the first black woman as president?
Well, not there yet, knock Wood. My mother had many sayings, and one of them is she would say to me, calmly, may be the first to do many things, make sure you're not the last. And I took that so very seriously. I've had the good fortune to mentor a lot of people along the way, including to this day. For me,
it's about one understanding the shoulders I stand on. We talk about a Shirley Chisholm, and then so many people who are alive who have mentored me and help me up, and I just I feel so strongly that you know, each one pull one, you got to leave that door open more than it was when you walked in. And that's what it means to me, I feel a great sense of responsibility. I mean, you talk about your daughter
and what she's doing at school. I look at our sons, I look at I mean, I feel a sense of responsibility to hopefully remind them that you should never hear no. You should never hear nobody like you has done this before, or it's not your time, or they're not ready, like don't hear that, don't hear that I eat no for breakfast. That's my saying no for breakfast.
You got to see it to believe it. We talked about that growing up in the community. We got to see it to believe it.
We can.
We've seen Obama and do what he does, and now we have an opportunity to possibly see you. To me, you know, five six daughters and you know I have a daughter, just to be able to see it means so.
Much, right well, because there's so many it's sadly, but there's so much good in the world. So let's start with that. And there's so many positive messages, and there are some that are not positive, and that would suggest to our kids, to our young people, that they're alone, that they don't have champions, that they don't belong, that they're not entitled to that they don't have rights, including
the right to be a leader. And I hope that in my career and in my work to the extent I am able to help people reject that that I can do that.
Before we get out of here, we would like to give you our first ever coffee first podcast, you ever have a coffee table book.
Simon and Schuster. We did a partnership with them, so we want to sign this.
Please do for you. Oh my goodness, that's wonderful. This is a lot of new stuff happening for you, guys.
What is the name of the company All the smoke productions?
Okay, so productions adding that, Oh that's wonderful. Thank you.
All the story of some of our favorite guests, and they're thinking everything from mental health to family to business basketball.
I'm so glad you guys are for I mean, on everything, but on the mental health piece. I think it's huge because that's especially coming from the two of you and the folks that you'll bring on. We just need to remind people that it's actually like this is about self help, right, It's like stop suffering. Yeah, and I think too, we're living with so much suffering.
We've all came. We came from as low as you can be and made it out. So to inspire and to let people know it is okay to ask for help. It's important.
But here's the other thing, if I can just add to that, I think we have a system that fails people if only the exceptional can get out. Great point, right, that's that's a failure of a system because you know, then people say, oh, but this person and that person. No, if you're pointing to the exceptional and that's the only success story you've got getting about the majority, that's a failure of a system.
Good point. Keyword is the opportunity you said.
Yeah, you know people always asking what's the difference between you and George Floyd. We grew up in the same area, did the same things, but I had the opportunity to go play basketball. He didn't have opportunity to get out the ghetto. So that was that's the only differences in our areas. It's opportunity. Everybody don't have the same opporxactly right, And.
That's what we got. That's what we got to give back to.
That's exactly right, because if you didn't have that skill, but you had others there with it. Right, exactly right, exactly right. How's his daughter doing?
She's doing great, She's doing great. She doing real good.
Yeah, you know she has the days she's in school, but you know sometimes she will hear.
Something that bring her back to that place.
She got counseling, yep.
And she has a great sports system she has, so she's doing great. Everybody has done things for she's definitely reaping the benefits of it.
So it's been blessing for tell her, I asked about it.
I definitely will, you know, I will, I will.
Yeah, we should have her come back to Yeah, she's a sweet child, she really is, and handled all that attention every way because that was a lot in every direction from even people who wanted to give her love and support.
But that was a lot for challenge, no blueprint, And she picked me up a lot of days.
A lot of days well I didn't know what I was doing, just hearing her call me uncle and you know, just tell me she loved me. Those days picked me up a lot. So she is definitely a special your child, hope. Yeah, she's the best chot.
We are all a working progress, yes, yes, we really are.
It ain't no, ain't no blueprint.
Too, not at all. We are making it up as we go.
We're still breaking the glass, still breaking the glass. Ceiling. Well, that's a rap.
Thank you for having us in your home. We appreciate you, and you know you're very busy, but sitting down and talking to us and talking to the people, and we wish you the very best moving forward.
I thank you, I thank you all look forward to talking again.
Thank thank you. That's a wrap.
You can catch this on All the Smoke YouTube. We'll see you guys next week. We called on all our fans for this one. Jack, this is special man. Over five years of work in two hundred episodes.
Releasing October eighth is the All the Smoke Coffee table Book.
Been working hard on it. We're super excited. We used guys to see it.
But October eighth, we're releasing our first All the Smoke Coffee table book.
Three hundred pages, have never before seen pictures, untold stories and highlights of our five year journey with All the Smoke.
But before it releases, you can get yours on pre sale now. Just go to our ig bio, our search on Amazon. All the smoke book, and we might have some surprises in the book for you, so.
You don't have to wait till October eighth to get yours pre order. Years now, so we can run up on that bestsellers list. Man, we need you guys to help. Man. We ain't asking too many favors. Were asking for a favor now, Man, perfect holiday book, birthday book, coffee table book, Dennis book, Jim book. Put that book anywhere. Man, it's versatile, all the smoke coffee table book. So go get your book now. It's available at Amazon or in the link in our bio