Yes, America dumb bombed Iran.
Scary times, man, especially just looking at how much of the commentary in the past has been actively trying to avoid this and then like full on doing it with little to no notice is wild.
Well, it's all. It's all scary for so many reasons. But what I've heard is that you know, and there's of course TikTok and beams like everyone's like, hey, I don't want to let Ron know it wasn't me, I'm on your side whatever, which is problematic in its own right, because Iran is doing up to some shadiness right right, BA fan, Welcome to the Brown Table. I am joined by og Brown Table guests. We have jan Nelly Espinal aka miss be Helpful and just Chris.
Already off the back, already off.
Just the energy is just horrible to start and.
Peggy, now Hamilton's back so I can sing that Chris is just that your name just says Chris, Chris.
It does around. I was just trying to get in the room because if for you who don't know, Mandy was sending me all kinds of wrong links. I was just happy to be able to get in the room finally.
Well, thanks for test driving the Patreon link. By the way, if you guys joined the Patreon, you too could be in the audience live to watch the Shenanigans up close before I edit out. You could actually hear what Chris has to say.
Really love that, No way, I love that. Imagine actually being fully behind the scenes like the whole time, and only you get to see for what really goes on.
And then y'all can be like m I heard what Mandy had edited out was Chris said something smart and she was too intimidated. She didn't want to.
You're like, because when I listened to the podcast, Chris is only only for about ten seconds. I didn't know he was in the whole time.
I wish there was more. But we're gonna, yeah, Chris, Chris is going to be prominent today, y'all. So you're welcome or I'm sorry, but yes, if you are a Patreon, we'll go to the show notes right now. If you want to check it out, you can totally join for free, but if you're a paid Patreon member. What I think is my favorite perk that I came up with in my brain is that you can join Brown Tables Live every Monday when I record, so you'll get a link. You can be in the audience. You can ask your
questions live. What else can they do in here? I don't know. You could chat us, you could distract us, notes, take notes, you can point out if I have anything problematic on the shelf behind me, like a child's toy. Today I have the brand Ambition book Club pick sky full of Elephants. Yes, I wish I could wrap all my books like the library does right wpover.
It's protected, just a nice little protected, protective book cover.
It doesn't fall off like low Ki. I don't like book jackets because they just they go flying.
Literally last night last night I was reading I just started this new nonfiction book and I was reading it in the bed and the freaking book jacket just kept slipping and sliding, and I just threw the thing all right, so annoying.
The aesthetic gone, so like, why don't they stick it?
Why why isn't it crintit on the cover itself? Maybe it didn't last as long, I don't know.
No, it's more expensive because it's a separate manufacturing process. When they just print the cover book of the book with just fabric.
And then they can like switch it out. When you become on the New York Times bestseller, they can just put a sticker on it or change the text and then just they don't got to reprint books.
That makes sense.
I do know. Let's do a quick little round of life updates. We just came through June teenth. We do bombed the country that actually the people who celebrated Juneteenth, we had nothing to do with that exactly. Now.
Was that was that consulted on that decision?
Not not at all. If Congress wasn't, then we definitely weren't.
You know what, I just want to real quick, I want to give a shout out to the Studio Museum in Harlem in New York City, because when I was fifteen years old, I interned at the museum. I did a special internship program which was for students that were interested in the arts. And I was a baby, y'all. It was two thousand and five, and they taught us about Juneteenth and had us canvassing industry to educate the community in Harlem about Juneteenth. To celebrate with the cookout,
they invited people into the community into the museum. They had a whole exhibit showing James Vandersey's photography from the Black Renaissance. And when I tell you, I was fifteen years old, my little Dominican American self from Brooklyn had never even heard of Juneteenth. And this was back in two thousand and five. And I feel like now people
are starting to learn about Juneteenth and the history. And I've been known since the early two thousands because of the Studio Museum in Harlem, which has been doing a lot of education. So shout out to them. I just got to say.
That day, that's so cool.
I didn't learn about Juneteenth, and I was much older, like it was that. Never once in school was it mentioned. You just didn't even know it was the thing.
I just went to the barbecues. I didn't really put two and three together the history cues we're hanging out. It's just what black people do. I did not put the two two the causes of a barbecue collinto college. Yeah, but there's so much that we haven't learned. It's embarrassing. But while I kind of got distracted by Juneteeth, though I was in Atlanta for a few days for a
very exciting thing. I've been sharing a little bit with BA fan about my dad's situation, and I love that he has no idea how to ever listen to this show because he has no idea how much of his business. No, he straight up texted every time he's in the hospital, not that he goes, he goes kind of off, but he'll text me. Be like, don't y'all answer anyone's dms from nosy neighbors or friends or family who wants to know about my business? And I was like, well, the
fine print you did not include. I couldn't mention on my podcast. Community got to kid me.
Yes yoge, which, oh my goodness, Congress your daddy, Congress your family.
That is huge, girl, and huge, huge shout out to my sister Mallory. She has a different father. She's not a match for my dad. But she donated a kidney altruistically, which is just because she wanted to. But the reason she did it is because that bumped my dad up the list. I think they said it was it could take like up to three years for him to get a kidney. Some people are on there for a decade
because you get kicked off, you get back on. But all in all, it's it hasn't I don't know if it's sunk in because it's been such an intense couple of years with his health. But yeah, less than two years. He has a brand new kidney. My sister donated back in January. She had a by the way, she had a ton of complications that I that were just terrible. But she's come out mostly on the other side healthy, my dad. And so it's January to now June, so
six months. And also his donate, his donate, his kidney was donated by an altruistic donor in Indiana, So thank you too, whoever that was.
That is so cool.
And uh, he's paying like a champ. No more dialysis.
Listen, listen with the little things that we take for granted every day, like sitting on the toilet or standing over the toilet.
It was so funny. Yeah, that catheter, that feedbag was filled to the brim, leaders upon leaders of urine. Liquid gold.
Poor daddy, Oh, liquid gold them Dad.
I don't want to why, you know, and I don't want to. It's hard for me to ever talk about it without getting on my on a little bit of a pedestal about health and black communities because dialysis and when, and especially in Atlanta, because like, we were driving in my dad's hospital. He was in a Piedmont Atlanta staff was amazing. He's now had open heart surgery there, he had his kidney He's been there a lot. Yeah, well I was. We were driving there, my brother and I
from Atlanta Airport to the hospital. We passed so many dialysis clinics. It is big business, the business of black and brown bodies that have been allowed to, you know, develop chronic conditions that lead to kidney disease. It's high blood pressure, it's diabetes. Those are the two biggest contributors of kidney disease. And then what do you get when
someone is diagnosed with end stage renal failure. You get a cash fucking cow because every chair you can fill in a dialysis clinic, who's paying for that insurance, you know, and they have to go three times.
A week, they see dollar signs. That's what they say.
They see dollar signs. And my dad is so I can't even tell you. He is like so not the norm for a man his age, in his sixties, with his health background, to be what a giddy kidney as fast as he did. My sister, I would say, used her privilege in the best way possible to give him a kidney, to give a kidney for him to get bumped up the list. But and I'm not even talking
about We passed one place that blew my mind. It was like, you go, if you're bench of Atlanta, it's like strip clubs, gentlemen's clubs, dark, empty, you know, you know, in some parts, right, but in like in the in some parts. And we're driving down this road, I forget what the rod was called. And then the belt line, not the belt line, the belt line is gentrification but true. And then to my left, I'm like, what the hell is it look like? I was like, is that a
spa kidney? SPA was the name of it. It was giving five star Ritz Carlton. Yes, in the middle of the Gatau. So all that is to say, I'm so damn grateful at the same time that my dad is getting a brand new kidney and a new delisan life. His brother, his fourth out of six siblings to have end stage renal failure, and my uncle David's blind. He already He's been in the hospital NonStop because one of the complications is gangreen That's how people start losing their limbs,
like my aunt Sherry Lee, God rest her soul. One of the last things happened before she died was she lost a leg. Uncle David's in the hospital and they are like amputating more and more bits of his leg,
like he just you know, is in hell. So, you know, my siblings and I it was such a fast trip, but like at a certain point we were just kind of trying to absorb and like touch base on just like our joint shared mission to break a bunch of generational not just trauma, but generational curses, as my aunt Brenda would say, and the the chronic health conditions in my family. It's it's horrible, and I really hope that we can be a part of that change. So that was a lot, but I'm really happy for my dad.
I feel like we're at that age too, like millennials, maybe slightly older millennials who are transitioning from like enjoying our parents and like older generations being these like older mentor kind of figures and like just you know, turning into grandparents or just like supporting us in different ways as they're getting older, to now us being playing the supportive role to them because now they're at age where they're just older than older and to a point where
they need us. And it's I don't know about y'all, but it's such a scary thing to experience firsthand. Like I've watched my dad. He's now seventy six, he's going to be this summer, and it's just so it just it feels like it happened one day to the next. It was like one day he was the funny, loud, laughing jokester, and all of a sudden, now I see him struggling to do basic things like get up off the couch and you know, the stretches that he used to do he can't do. And I'm like, oh, my gosh,
is it happening. Is it happening? Is happening? And I'm watching it happen, and it's so so scary and bizarre experience because he's always been in my mind like he's always been like fifty years old, like at like a static age where he doesn't change, And now it's just I can't deny it anymore, you know, And it's just like so heartbreaking.
Thank goodness you have so many siblings too. I'm really grateful for my siblings.
Yes, yes, big families and families that come through. Oh, it's everything. It really does change change the game.
It's so weird to be like to kind of become like a parent to your parents and how to tell them what they should be doing, and like, hey.
Now, can't be saying that I'm going to get it.
It's the truth.
Though.
My dad wants to be like, you gotta.
Let them think. You gotta let them think that they're in charge.
Shoes don't literally tind my dad's shoes. I was sweating. That's a heavy leg. I put on socks and shoes for little humans every day, but they're about this thing. I was like that, I don't want it. First of all, I don't want to touch his feet like the way I know I could not be a nurse. I'll put them gloves on. No, they were crusty. He has not been moisturized. Those are the things what is going on? And nuwn as those feet shoes on and I'm like, I was like, Dad, what are you gonna do? You need?
You need some slides. He's like, nah, I'm a sneaker. Who's gonna put your shoes on?
Is a market? Is a market in the retirement homes for pedicures apparently get something going.
Sorry, I brought it up. I can talk about amplications, I could talk about the pee tracker and all that, but don't let me.
Oh. You know what, guys, they don't believe in moisturizing their feet. You know, you put you just lotion. What people can see you go up to you where your sock is gonna go. And from there.
You know, guys without black girlfriends, Chris, you don't got a black girlfriend, but you have a black sister friend right here, and you better be you better be lotion in them angles.
Just don't understand it because sometimes you know, you don't put lotion on your feet, you can be slipping on the ground.
So I'm like house then when you sleep, when you when you sleep, you cutting up your sheet. You don't, you don't feel that.
Look everything everything the sun's gonna see. It's gonna get some loasure. I'm not gonna walk around ashy. But the feet sometimes they get skipped. Sometimes they get skipped. I'm not gonna lie. Nobody's looking at them.
Put some loation, Put some lotion real quick before you put the socks on. That that's the best tip I can give you because the lotion and the moisture and the warmth of the sock, it will do something for the skin.
Just the.
Vazoline on your feet at night, put the socks on top. You don't want to sleep with soocks. Let them cook for like thirty minutes, take them off. You know.
Oh, I got an aqua for a story because I didn't know what that was because I never I seen it, but I didn't know what it was. I never used it, but I seen it in the house and stuff like that. And I remember I was with Mandy for the live show the live podcast you and Tiffery were doing in New Jersey, and I remember we were riding in a car and I was like, I'm kind of ashy. Did somebody some lotion? And I think it was you. You're like, I got some aquardfer. I was like okay, and I
put way too much on my hands. I'm like, oh, it's a lotion. I was so greasy. My hands were so greasy. For the rest of that day, I was trying to wipe it off on stuff. I was like, why do you give us a vassoline? What is this?
I know, Yeah, it's a consistency of bassline bro come on.
Basically, I don't know. It's it's my it's my vix vapor rep. I will put it on everything, bug bites. Aquafor sunburned, aquafor.
It is life changing. When I was in Japan for my birthday last year, I was riding a bike across the Siddle Bridge and I looked over the bridge real quick and while I turned my head, I lost that when the bike fell off. The bike so embarrassing, y'all, so embarrassing, fell off the like scraped my elbow and my arm with I'm talking about like a gash, y'all, not like a little scratch. And I put Aqua four on that every single day, and when I tell you eight days later, it looked like I never had a
cut in the first place. Aqua four will literally heal any open wounds. I mean, Aqua four is seriously changing, y'all. If you're not on it, get on that.
Use Coke Brown Ambition to get a free tub of off for you know they don't sponsor.
Us yet, get your co grup, get your.
I want some real sponsors, like I don't want, you know, I mean no, I want the sponsors. I already have. Let me not block my blessings. But I love vexed vapor rub. I want some black and he black black sponsors are fixed vapor rub. I want orange drink. I don't know what that brand is called Crush whatever it is, crush sh No, I don't want kidney spots. I'm like, that's the center.
You have Dominigan kids. So if you do get vixed, you have to save.
You have to. I don't even have any in my house, told Elliott, I don't know. I have, like honest, I literally have to.
I will send you with me.
But there's a brand called Freda for kids stuff, and they have like a bougie eucalyptus oil and vix vapor rub knockoff. Someone gave me that.
Okay, that might be good for the kids because will be like extra extra.
That brings me back to our very first round table with y'all, because that was my story, all right. We got to get into these headlines, y'all. Yes, America dumb bombed Iran. I wanted to unless you'll have something to say about conflicts in the Middle East, I just wanted to like start thinking about personal finance implications. The one that I've heard so far, Well, let me give pause for any commentary on the state of our politics and peacekeeping operations.
Girl, I have two brothers in the military, ones in the Air Force and the other one is in the army, So I was I was certainly scared. I mean, like, I'm just praying that, you know, one or both of them don't get deployed. But scary times, man, especially just looking at how much of the commentary in the past has been actively trying to avoid this and then like full on doing it with little to no notice is wild.
It's wild, and it's definitely scary. I mean, even my brothers who are both active military right now, like just I haven't had a chance to talk to them in depth, but we're all in a family chat and when they can, you know, pop in and like comments or likes of what they're doing. One of them is in Lachlan Air Force Base in Texas near San Antonio, a little bit south of San Antonio. And then the other one is
currently in Tennessee, but he's just stationed there. He just got back from Romania because they were doing some some like intervention on like Ukraine situations. They were like on the outskirts Romania, like just setting up some camps and just trying to keep eye and keep watching soil. He got back from Romania literally just a couple months ago, so it's a little heartbreaking to see like he just got back. He's finally back home and just so excited to be able to see some of his friends and
maybe get some time off and for family. And then immediately like his Fourth of July request was denied. He can't see us for fourth of July. Like there's so many things where it's like immediately nope, going right back, And it is heartbreaking because the kid's been he's been he's been working really really hard. Like this poor kid
has been rocking. Sometimes he'll send us notes to just be like hey guys, like I have to do eight mile rock this morning with like twice my weight on my back, Like that's my morning, Like that's what I'm doing today. And I'm like, damn, Like this kid is putting in work, physical work, and to then turn around and be told, Nope, you can't even get three days off to go see your family. So kind of sucks.
That's the last time you saw him probably Christmas last year. Yeah, so over six months ago now, But.
That's the really heartbreaking thing. And well it's all it's all scary for so many reasons. But what I've heard is that you know, and there's of course TikTok and beams like everyone's like, hey, I don't want to let Ron know it wasn't me. I'm on your side whatever, which is problematic in its own right because Iran is
doing up to some shadiness right right. But the people who are really at risk are in my what I've heard is military personnel stationed in the Middle East because Iran can reach them with their weapons, with their.
Missiles pretty directly. Ye yep.
So I just pray keep them in my thoughts in prayers, and God damn commander in chief didn't know you could have weapons. Fomo just couldn't couldn't let be b, couldn't let Benjamin utt and ya who have all the fun So it said, you know what put me in Let's go, I'll bring my toys to the play to the play date, you bring your toys. Let's let's blow some shit up. It's how it felt.
It's like a pissing contest. I'm like, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me right now, that's not that's not let's not do that.
Let's not especially when it's treated as if like these are like not human lives involved in this too. I think sometimes it gets it's so easy.
For oh, they don't give a shit about hum.
Yes, aren't people on the ground and all where it's like, you know, like people can't. I just can't. I think that's what hits me so hard is like I can't imagine like that being your life. You're just there trying to raise your family, live your life, and then all of a sudden, this is what happens to where you live. You throw it into chaos, Like what does even look like anymore? What does life even look like after that? So it's it's really painful to see people going through that.
And also like, yeah, he was saying, like are people who here who are in the military, who now you know, didn't ask me a part of this and now they're part of it.
Well it seems trivial, but I did want to do some research into what potential personal finance implications there may be. I think we're already starting to see one of the most noticeable everyone's talking about eggs, but it's also gas prices, and Americans are very tied too, so those are likely
to spike. I think they have already. I think gas or sorry oil, which oil prices are tied to gasoline prices at the pump, has already shot up to over one hundred dollars a barrel and likely to keep spiking. So we may see gas increase, and y'all know, then people go at the gas station, they start, you know, hoarding gas, and then we get inflation, which brings me to the next thing, which is inflation in general. So the tie, my understanding is the tie with inflation is
that oil prices are a big driver of that. So one study by Oxford Economics estimates that when oil reaches one hundred and thirty dollars per barrel, that could push inflation in the US to six percent by the end of the year. Wow, ain't we just get this under control? Right?
It just got back to a regular rate, which would has been the goal for so long. We were at nine percent, eight percent, seven. Now we're finally down three to four, and now we're going back up to six.
Potentially that would be so scary if it does go back up like that because people are just now finally adjusting to things feeling normal again, I think after being with such high inflation, and of course a lot of that was due to COVID and things like that, but it just feels like.
We finally somewhat started to bounce back, and it just feels like you can't catch a break.
Chris my ninja googler, because you seem how you somehow know how to Google without making your whole computer shake, which I can't do. Because it's like, did you look up really quick what the oil is right now? Per barrel? I'm seeing now, I'm seeing eighty dollars per I thought.
It was eighty dollars the last time I read up on it, which was like a day ago, two days ago.
Yeah, Chris, check right quick, which could be because so far Iran hasn't blocked this crucial shipping container canal. It's called the straight of or Mooves.
Yeah.
Yeah, So if they do end up blocking that, which could be in retaliation, I don't think they have so far. It's hard, right ba Fam, You're gonna hear this on Wednesday. We're recording this Monday afternoon, So who knows what the world could look like by then. But it's something that we'll be looking at, is the oil prices and then the tie into inflation. When energy goes up, it hits all the things y'all get in Amazon shipments, we're getting
the cost of oh my god, cooling our houses. We're in the middle of a heat wave here in New York, so we could see prices the places.
Yes, yes, yes, right. I was just in Texas a couple of weeks ago, and who it was burning hot in Houston. I was in Houston. Then I was in Dallas and oh my goodness. I couldn't even step outside. I was like, nope, I'm good to stay inside in the ac So imagine if that's happening doing a heat wave, It's.
That'd be rough. My cucumbers are struggling, y'all. I had to put up some shade cover. I'm sorry. We have what is this breaking? We have an update from Chris Chris Browning in the field. Yes, Chris, give us your update.
Oh, we have an update at a crude oil prices. We're looking at prices between seventy and seventy five dollars per barrel, depending on what you're checking. All right, right now, that's where it's at.
Is that typical.
Oh, I can get back to you with that soon. I don't know off the top of my head at all.
Okay, Chris going back into that undercover Google, thank you, thank you very much for your deep research. Chris Chris Browning, San Francisco in his bedroom. Supply chain disruptions again, that could be if they close that canal cyber attacks. This is the one that freaks me out because I don't know if it would impact Like has there been an Iranian cyber attack that's impacted everyday Americans? I can't remember.
I just know that they have been attacking, like I know they've been behind some key political figures getting hacked. But there was some discussion about potentially hospitals being a target for cyber attacks. Apparently they're like a huge target and a weak one because I'm guessing because hospitals come in all different shape sizes, and they have their own systems and there's no like nationwide protection. It's up to each hospital individually. But that's scurry.
That makes sense too, because it's hard for medical institutions to keep up in general, and let alone with technology that's hard to keep up with period.
Chris Chris Browning, any word on.
What I'm saying is that it's actually been pretty low. It's been rising over the past several years, but you know, it's like between seventy and eighty bucks the past two years. It looks like it peaked around ninety bucks in twenty twenty two, and then it was like sixty eight and twenty twenty one, thirty nine and twenty twenty just because obviously the pandemic. So it's getting towards a higher end of what we see in the past ten.
Years that would track with inflation. So okay, all right, we'll keep eyes on that. Thanks so much, Christopher Browning. That was again, Christopher brown ng hard Ing.
Let's not forget that that last part there.
Very important, very important women ally.
Ally and a nonviolent peacekeeper.
Thank you, thank you. I am curious though, like because it's been like the attitude towards like electric vehicles have kind of been shifting a little bit here in the US. I feel like people were starting to be like, well, I mean one company in particular when I have to mention them, but there's a lot of other companies who make electric cars that we'll talk about. But I wonder we'll gas because there one A gas is like a driver for people wanting to go to hybrids and then
electric cars eventually. So I wonder, is it going to be like, hey all, you are hating on like green like initiatives, but electric cars, more solar, more alternative fuel sources. It may be a driver, even though an environment where that's not being supported and with regulations, if the people want it, it might be a driver to push us in that direction more.
Right, if the demand is there.
I'm really getting into my prepper bag right now, y'all. And I just feel like, I mean, I don't blame you. I want solar panels so bad. My tiny little root can't handle them. There's not enough square footage apparently, but once they get more efficient, I will be getting solar panels. I just want to be I want to be more sustainable myself. And I mean, yes for the environment sustainable, but also like.
For life, self sustaining.
Self sustaining, like I have a literal farmstead outside my house now that I'm going with my and I blame Mickey Kendall, who was on the podcast this week. I interviewed her a month or two ago. She's the author. Have you heard of that book Hood Feminism?
Oh yeah, yeah right.
Can we talk to you all about Mickey yet? So I had her on the podcast and I almost forgot how she Oh it just came out. Yeah, it just came out this week or sorry, on Friday. It was supposed to come out Monday, but I pushed it out earlier because once we hit it on, I was like, I got to get Mickey out here because she is an historian. I mean, she has like a PhD in history,
and she's a brilliant woman. But she really laid it out in academic terms and just you know, but also straight talking terms, how history is repeating itself and how the only solution she's come up with so far as community and prepping and getting ready for potential civil war potential you know, lack of resources and next thing, you know, I'm growing tomatoes and cucumbers and obsessed.
She got through to you, She got through to you. Yeah.
Yeah, let me know. I'll be cannon tomatoes shipping them across.
The country Mandy's tomatoes Dand I'm looking forward to it.
Oh thanks, Well, should we leave Iran behind? I feel like, I.
Mean, I think I think it's tough for me at least, it's really tough. I haven't I've kind of refrained from posting content about like oh, how they're on, how this is iron Ta's going to affect your finances. It's like I know that that that that that's kind of stuff that people use to get clicks. But as a content creator, I cannot get myself to do it. I have two brothers actively serving right now. I can't sit here and
go your your bank account and your investment portfolio. Here's an opportunity here, let's just what we can learn from it. I just i'd rather me personally, I just rather I just rather stay quiet. I just rat to stay quiet. I've talked about other things, but it's just it's just so hard when people take this and make it like the butt of the content type of thing, and it feels so heavy and it feels so much much bigger.
So I'm just I'm very careful about the content I'm creating right now, but also just what I'm seeing too, just like making note of it, like oh okay, okay, because we don't want to I don't know, we just don't want to perpetuate that, like war is an opportunity for your portfolio like that that is so that is so cringe eck, and just want to vomit. I want to see stuff like that. So I just am trying
to be aware of it. But I love I love that you said, like, hey, let's just address some potential impacts of it on your personal finances and not focus on like what opportunities you can get like that is wild. That framing to me is just so disgusting.
No, it really is, and it's it's I think it's interesting like us as people talk about like money all the time and finances in a time where there's so much other things outside of that that are happening in the world that it becomes really difficult to like find want to find purpose in talking about it and not be like there's so much like this is the world's going crazy and it's like everyone's lines are on hold, and it's like it's so hard to hear that and
then be like, hey, let's talk about top saving stuffs. I'm like, just it feels so it feels very hard.
Yes, that's why I've been doing nothing but gardening. I'll go to my ig and I'm like, h what should I post. Oh, I have nothing but gardening content, and it's fine. Anybody got to hear from us.
Sometimes exactly, sometimes it's better to be quiet and just participate in reading the little book. Check on people offer the resources to support help, but not necessarily just add noise to the mix, right, Like I did get somebody called me out. I posted a video about how important financial literacy was and how teens can start early with investment accounts and stuff, and somebody commented, this is valuable information, but it feels so tone deaf right now, when our
COMMUNI is really being attacked and struggled this way. And I said, listen, I one hundred percent hear you. When I was talking on this exact live that I got this minute bite from, I talked about how students need to learn about taxes early, and high school courses allowed you to learn that, including the fact that undocumented immigrants paid over ninety billion dollars of taxes. So I'm not ignoring it. It's just really hard. But I totally understand
her position. Like I saw the comment and I was like, I'm not even going to be I'm not even going to be aggressive or ever Stereo here I just was like, yes, this, I hear you. I'm with you on this. I spoke. I use my platform when I can't to speak on it. I completely get it. But I'm also not going to stop fighting the good fight that I've been fighting, that my calling is to fight for, which is for access to financial education for all of us in this country.
So companies wants, I mean hello, because I didn't send for you people, But.
I understand the algorithm. It's like people don't do their You can see a post from someone that's like from a week before, and it's out of context and it makes are you posting about this? But people don't just like click on a profile to then see, oh, let me see what else that person has said. They just want to fire off a quick comment. Yep, you know yourself.
Internet thugs, internet warriors coming from me on your low comments section.
I've got someone thinking of ice. There's some really happy news. This first sentence in this article gave me chills as I was just reading it, even though I already knew the news. But my Mood Khalil, this is the sentence ma Mood Khalil emerged from the airport gate fist raised and smiling to a cheering crowd as he pushed his newborn baby stroller with his arm around his wife. My mood is free, y'all. He got out. I'm mad they put him through Newark International Airport because y'all know Newark.
They could have they could have done they could have done the guardios, they could have done the guardious right there.
Right, even if they take the JFK. But he's out, So that's some happiness. He should not have been there in the first place. But to part him with his newborn baby. I had forgotten that his wife was pregnant, extremely pregnant when this man was kidnapped.
Yesh, So imagine having to experience that. Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness.
Uh.
The injustice and the fact that some lawmakers are using this on their social media profiles to say, now that he's back, we can sentence him, now, we can get him in the court, now we can figure out what he did wrong. Is like, wait a minute, Now we can celebrate that he's free. What are you talking about? It is wild how people sway things and twisting. Oh my goodness, I can't.
Well, let's focus on the positive. He was with that cute baby on.
Lli, I know, cute baby and his wifey and AOC was there to greet him and welcome him.
No, AOC. It was a little bit awkward. I think when he rushed it, he think he was going to hug some loved ones, and he kind of pushed her out of the way.
She should have.
Been like, oh, please, yeah, war here, carry your bag for you. People were saying like, oh, she shouldn't have been there, it was a photo op or whatever.
I think it's fine if she was there. I just don't think she should have been like the first person he hoped he got off the butt. I mean, you know it is no no, but one of the you know, one of the first few people. It's like, I think I would have waited, and once all that stuff was gone, I'd be like, hey, I just want you to know I'm here and I wanted to see you and support you and welcome you back. But I wouldn't make it
about me, per se. I don't think she did. But if people are complaining to say, oh, she shouldn't have been up there in the forefront, like she still should not, it's not fair to say she shouldn't be there exactly. You know, I don't think that's fair to say, like not being their period is crazy.
It's crazy because is the time when you need to see that there are government people in the government who are supporting the right side, right, and they're not the right side, but the correct side, you know of like hey, like there are people fighting to make sure this doesn't continue to happen to people.
Yeah, yeah, and making sure her face is connected.
And she has been so outspoken trying to get.
Him out, Yeah, trying to end this dehumanizing rhetoric. At the end of the day, Like, I think that's what she has been all about. So for her to be there, I think was totally fine as long as there was no intention to make it all about her, which I didn't. I didn't get that sense at all.
Yeah, well, people are rallying and support of him, and again, like the conflict in Gaza, not the conflict is too small of a word. The genocide, the brutality that's happening
in Gaza is still happening. So people like him who are speaking out, I think time for American citizens, as scary as it can be, it's almost like we have a privilege being a citizen because they are actively trying to target non US citizens or people who were here at immigration visas, target those who have spoken down against what's happening in the middle of what's happening in Palestine, in Gaza, what's been happening for Are we going on two years now? Jeez?
I mean, I mean, depending on how you define the conflict, this is the question.
Well since October seventh. Oh, yes, you're so right, of course, yes, yeah, that was my first One of my first impressions of New York was coming here biking past the UN in twenty ten and seeing the protesters outside the UN with the Palestinian flags and being like, well, what's that about, and just not really understanding. But yeah, it continues to rage on. And yes, two years since October seventh, and many decades that they have been and brutalized in this way,
and it's yeah, it's really heavy. But I think what I was just trying to say is like, as US citizens, I hope we would have some measure of protection, even more so than those who who may feel afraid for their families, lives, their lives, their ability to continue working, studying living here. So if you can, you know, and I think in this small way talking about it helps platform their message totally at a time when they're being targeted yep.
And not being afraid to speak out even though they're trying to scare us straight scare scare us silent really is what they're trying to do. I mean, if you look at the potential the prospective mayoral candidate Lander in Brooklyn, New York, who was like silenced and violently like put up against the wall by like by the ice officers because because he was trying to speak up.
This was a was he running from there?
Yeah, Brandon Lander, He's running from there in New York City.
It's too many of them. I can't keep.
Tracks, y'all.
It's like my knee want to text me.
My niece texted me literally, she was like THEA, I think I might need your help. Is this like a multiple choice test? Is just like how do I do this for him? I said, baby, you got to rank themb Honey, that you means you got to put you got to bubble all of them in the spot. And don't bubble two numbers for one person, and don't bubble one person for the same number, two people for the same number. It's literally like the most confusing process. I feel sorry for my New York because like there are
people literally who don't understand and they want to do. Yeah, they wanted to do the research. They wanted to understand, but it's such a complex system and process, and there's so many players, there's so many characters to just even get familiar with. And oh my goodness, but I am very proud of.
Such a terrible track record with choosing mayors. I'm saying we I don't live in New York City anymore, but.
All of us were all responsible, you know, we are responsible.
We're like, we're like because Paddy, who doesn't know she's a baddie and it's like with a trash We're like Hallie Bailey and these mayors are like, who's her boy? Her ex ddp ddposdd, whatever.
His name was.
It was like, was it his twitch name that I'm thinking of? Whatever? The manchild?
Right, accurate description work.
But the twenty fourth is tomorrow, that's when they'll be That's the primary, right.
Yes, And I think New York is very is very much so desperately trying to feel relatable to the people who are in charge. We desperately want to get rid of these people who come up there and are condescending and are talking down at us and are doing politics as usual with their corruption behind the scenes. And so instead we want to pick people who look like us,
sound like us, talk like us, act like us. But we focus so much, we over index on the relatability that we don't focus on what are the actual credentials, what's actually happening, what is this person actually about. And I'm not, you know, here to to talk crap about anybody, but the mayor who used to be the Brooklyn or president.
I had some experience working with in the capacity of Brooklyn Borough President, and I had seen firsthand working with the Brooklyn Borough President's office how a lot of it was all talk and a lot of it was yah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. And then when you follow through, when you follow up, there was there was no follow through. It
was like all talk. Oh, we definitely could make a press release out of that, we can make it a pres event, we could take pictures, but no meaning, no actual impact, no real true commitment to goals and to a long term project plan. And so I early on was like, Hugh, I don't know about this, and I'm from Brooklyn. So of course everyone that I knew was like,
what you made out Brooklyn Borough president. He got to be mayor, and then all of a sudden, all this stuff starts coming out once once this person is mayor, and people are like, get him out, he's trashed. I'm like, you were the ones who were blindly supporting because how relatable. And so we got to stop over indexing for the things that New Yorkers love, which is the real talk, straight talk, talk to me, shay, you know, no bs. But this is why so many people actually who voted
for Trump also voted for AOC. Weird right, you would think, wait, what how you're gonna because people over index for straight talk, real talk, no hearing your tongue. You say it like it is. You're not about the BS. You have to you know, anti establishment. You just say what you And that is truly what I think the mistake is in New York City is we so hard over index for that. We got to cut that out, y'all. We I mean, I say, we I live in Miami now, but I'm
in New Yorker today. I died. We need to stop. We need to cut that out.
We love an extrovert, Like, we need to really value the quiet. I mean, we almost elected that Uma Aberdeen's trash, Like, wasn't he about to her? Ex pervert? And now I'm like, but the fact that Andrew Cuomo thinks he has has a real shot. Bill Clinton is on the stump for him, Oh my god, throw them both away.
Til I was so shocked when I saw that Clinton.
Excuse me, you're trying to.
You Bill for people respect you Bill respected you Bill? What is going on?
He's like really old? Now he's like whatever, I'll show up. How do I pivot from that to Megan and the Stallion on Love Island? I don't know if I'll even go.
You know what, I have a little bit of a pivot because while you were talking about why New Yorkers are always conned by people that we vote for, I was about to bring up Ace. I felt like a a yes, because I feel like Ace is the perfect example for an analogy here, because when you start watching the show, you just love Ace. You just love Ace because you know he's so real, he's so rough, so Jenue down to Then all of a.
Sudden, a couple of episodes in and you're like, we hate him for Shelley.
Ace, What the hell are you doing? All these old heroier motives?
Ace?
What the f And this is truly a great connection to what we just talked about New York with politics, because this is how people operate. They come out the woodwork, they're all positive upfront. Then over time you start to see the ulterior motives that they had all along. Hello, Ace, what's up?
Like?
Why is he so messy? Why is what is the vindictiveness?
Child?
What is with this Ace behavior?
Like?
I was so upset, Like I just saw the episode where he convinced all the boys to vote Jeremiah off. Sorry if that's a spoiler for anybody listening, but you know how.
You going, how you I don't watch the votings. They annoy me. I will fast forward and just get to the good stuff. So I think I missed all of that, But was it, teacher to go back and watch it?
You should? And honestly, what I do is I.
Just nater Jeremiah too. He was such a dick.
Okay, So literally America voted and they basically put the three girls and the three boys who had the least votes from America up on the front of the fire pit whatever. And so then there were six people, three girls, three guys, and the rest of the cast members who were safe had to vote off one girl, one guy. Girls had to vote off one girl, and the guys
had to vote off one guy. So literally, earlier in the episode, you see Ace moving to Nick and to Austin, and so all his boys like, oh, you guys, you see how Jeremiah was all love bombinghood and now he's doing the same thing.
Now he's doing this.
You see da da da, And he was like working his little influence on them. And so when the vote happened, I'm sorry, but I think I can speak for everyone who watches the show, and I say, we all thought Austin was going his ass home. Austin has no business in the house. Don't nobody like him, don't nobody like him, don't know about it.
Before the despicable display during the work challenge with Megan thee Stallion, I hate him more after the way he is treating Homegirl Dominican homegirl. What's her name?
Andrena, Well, there's two Amaya with a little bit of a little bit of Andrea was raised in Spain, but she's from the win Public. Okay, she was Spain, lives in Jersey. Yeah, she's She's from a lot of places. She said, I live in New Jersey, but I'm Dominican, but my family from but I was raised in Spain, so all the oldest places. But but yeah, I think I know.
Austin gives me such the eck. You know his family and he's from Michigan. I just can't take it.
I mean, look, if there was even one person who was interested in Austin, actually I would have been fine. But Amaya, she's just trying to pretend she's interested in Austin because she needs to be safe. She needs a way to stay on this damn I villa. She doesn't have one. She doesn't have one prospect, so if she doesn't make a prospect, she's out the villa. So she had to pretend she likes Austin. Austin doesn't like her.
Austin doesn't like anyone, So send his ass home. Oh no, no, they send Jeremiah home, even though he genuinely was into Hoodah tried with Iris but then she was like, nah boo, I feel like we're platonic. And then now he's into Andrena They just jealous that he's with Andrena, so they kicked his ass out, and I'm just like, how are you gonna tell me that it's because he didn't actually tried with women when he tried with three women. And
not only that, but Tay. I love Taylor, but like, what woman besides the laundria the Taylor tried to get with Amen exploring who is he? Exploring way why does he get to stay? Why he's safe in the village?
Can we just do like a live watch Sash, like, who are you watching leve Islin.
With my boyfriend?
Is he into it?
No?
But I forced I twisted his arm.
See, I only want to be watching it with people like you, and I don't have any people like you in my immediate vicinity. And I mean, I know, watch Love Island with us?
Chris, come on, come on, I gotta tell you.
Come on.
I know what you two are talking about, because because I went down to La to visit my family. Was a baby shower going on from a brother and then it was Father's Day and my mom was I walk in and she's watching Love Island. I didn't know what this was. I was like, you're watching was it? When I think it was Love is Blind. I was like, love is Blind or something. I was one of the love shows. No, it's Love Island. And I'm like, what are you watch it? And so she was like, you
want to watch it with me? I was like, not really, but I was. I was like, I don't want to be mean, so you know what here it.
Was a bunch of girls with a bikini, So you said.
I mean, it can't be all bad. So I sat down and I watched it. It was like it was a pretty ten episode. I was like, okay, whatever, you know. She was. She was happy. I decided to spend time there. But then the next day another episode came on. I'm like, this is on again. She's like, I'm like, I thought this was like a what's a week? Show? Houses on every day every day? I said.
The track, film.
Crew, that film crew, and those editors they were.
They were working those people their death in the editing.
Room, overnight, post edit, overnight posts.
Yes is wild. And so I sit down and this is one where there's like some lumberjack challenge and I'm like they start they started grinding. I was like, hold up, I'm not watching this with you. I gotta leave.
I was like, that's a awkward.
I'm not watching.
I cannot be in this room.
Soft point, I said, soft point, let's call it.
It's bad.
I said, you nasty for watching this. I'm out.
I couldn't be on. That's why I could have be on Like TV TV, it has to be on. Peacock has to be on the streamer right.
Let your fama reminisce she was a bad.
I don't want to we're not even talking about that. I'm not there. I don't want to think about that. We don't need to.
We watched The Megan thee Stallion and one y'all love this. The day my dad got out of the hospital. I turned that on. I was like, we're gonna get Magian food. We're going to watch The Megan thee Stallion. It was so good. Meg.
First of all, I don't love her personality.
She's faddy, unreal, doesn't make sense, and she's talented, but that's, you know, the first and foremost.
I didn't know she was. I may myself have to go cue that episode just to understand what you were talking about and then go back and see what was going.
On with anthropological research.
Just for research purposes for sure, for just research. But Megan was is so natural and so genuine. You know, there's so many people that come on and it's forced and it's fake. Meg is actually a fan of the show. She knew the details intimately, and yeah, she was there to promote. She was there to promote a little bit bathing suit line. But so what she did it in a very natural, genuine way, mad respect. I love that episode.
I one hundred percent enjoyed it. And she added a lot of fun and flared to that episode.
So I love the marketing tie in. I thought, well, this is lovely. Is she a fan? But she has a swimsuit line coming out? Will I ever wear it? Maybe the one with like the mad underboob, like the one the one that the kind of witchy one was wearing.
She she is witchy. She is witchy, like she's brewied.
She pour in a big old yeah, like I feel like she's got crystals under her boots at all times, and probably some tarot cards. I bet she does everyone's readings and like kind of white girl dreads. Sometimes I got scared one time, but they're not actually dread it's just a little braids. She was doing. But she does braids.
She does braids. I will tell you though, she is the one that I am most impressed with in terms of her maturity level for the age of twenty five. I mean the way that she carries.
Herself away pretty old island. No, is she twenty five.
I just assume she's twenty five. But I feel like for their age, being in your twenties, I don't. I just feel like they're all so immature. I mean, Hudda is the queen of saying I'm so mature. I'm a girl's girl, and she's immature and not a girl's girl, so it's crazy. But then you have Sierra, who genuinely
is a girl's girl. She's very mature. She's like, tries very hard to be logical and not emotional, although recently she's been very emotional because she sees that Nick is interested in Andrena, so she's getting a little jealous.
But I just mean, I'm not mad at her, but that.
It's a lot. I think that she she started to deal with like a little bit of yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. But anyway, I think she's very mature, Like when I hear how she approaches some of the conversations and how she addresses conflict. I always like, okay, girl, wives beyond your years, and Ace was giving me that a little bit at the beginning, but now I can't stay an Ace.
He is like, first of all, Shelley reminds me so much of Halle Bailey, just in her little like her Disney Princess looks like I just like put her in Universal Studio. She can play Aeriel all day every day. She is just adorable. But then Ace is giving that like that not good enough for her, Like has some funny jokes and some quirks, and it makes me sick to see them get like getting closer together. Now I've missed huge chunks of the show because my love isoland.
Routine is usually to watch the recap and then skip through the middle until I get to the end and watch the last like ten minutes.
Because nothing is happening.
Just skip ahead, nothing happening. So there's a lot of long pot it was good.
I'll go back and watch it, you know what I mean.
There's a lot of long pauses, and it's a reality show, so like oftentimes it'll be like and so the girl that I choose is thirty seconds later. Yes, right, so just fast forward. I just fast forward, fast forward, fastward until I see them talking, and then I'll go back ten seconds and watch. So I just skip all the pauses and bread so I'm like, I got time for this.
This is so stupid.
This is such a waste.
Hey, ba fam, We're gonna take a quick break, pay some bills, and we'll be right back. All right, ba Fam, We're back. By the way, Nelly, I'm gonna be in Miami, Miami, which you're never there. I feel like, even though you.
Les that's what I was about to say, I said, what dates girl? You know, because I'm always I'm going to.
Be there for three days by myself because I'm speaking at Color Calm. It's just.
Wait.
Be very excited. I'm get to do a panel on podcasting and I get to do it with one of my I forget who the third panelist is. One of them is Ayusha Roscoe from NPR. I am such a fan. I love her so much. I'm gonna have to not be weird.
Because I know a little weird. I don't know.
That's so much like to hear her voice on NPR. I will get it. I was not an NPR kid growing up. My parents didn't play that in the car. I didn't even be either.
I mean I'm an NPR adult. I mean I was an NPR college kid. But growing up in.
College, people made me feel dumb, like dumb for not knowing what NPR was, like not knowing this shit. I could tell you what NPR was, but I didn't know there was a local station, and like there is is like all things considered and like you know, this American life and all that that was not my I was third ninety four.
Up is July twenty fifth in Miami. I'm home that weekend.
You didn't even wait for me to tell you.
You was talking and I was looking it up. I was looking it up.
Yes, I'll be there.
You're gonna be here, Okay, Yes, I'll be home. So you got to come hang with me.
Yes, come by the pool. We'll got on Megan thee stallion. Yeah, a real summer swimwear.
Yes, honey, wear it.
I'll just put it on top of my one.
Yeh. We'll get the fine blue beach chairs that come. You know, when you stay at the hotel, you get the nice little beach access the ip.
Okay, I'm excited. I was gonna bring the children, but I was like, nah, don't do a.
Girl, don't do it.
It was a great decision right there, summer.
No, no South Beach. It's not for the kids.
It's not the it's hot, it's you know, adults and hot. H A WTT and Chris. I mean, you're here, so I guess I should. Also, you want to come to my Miami.
You would invite me to be your videographer.
Social media.
You're always looking for at excuse to get out, honey, come travel.
The whole trip is a business, right off. If you come to support with the podcast, with the social media promo, this is true.
And maybe said she's paying for my flight too, so yeah, I'll be there.
I need some girl time. You can stay there. I'm definitely not paying for that. It's gorobably be an expensive flight.
But I was to say, now you San Francisco to Miami. They don't really have a corner because I do that flight quite a lot. They don't have any during the day, so you would have to fly red eye or leave super early in the morning, like at five six am. It's very annoying. It's very annoy because sometimes I'm done with work at like three or four pm Pacific time, and I'll be like, oh, let me get the next flight outs not till midnight, and I'm like, why the hell? Why, what the hell is going to Miami?
Mayday's gonna put me in business class. I have a little pod to sleep in. You know, it'll be fine.
Oh no, I told you my credit card. That should tell you I should not be paying for for Beyonce tickets.
I don't care wait one of the dates for Beyonce and Atlanta Mandy, because I'm going to go to the one in Houston opening night Saturday this weekend coming.
She's bringing out the goodies. Now. Now I'm hoping that Paris in London. I saw her in London. I love that show so much. I don't know. People say that she loves London more than America. I don't remember. I don't have men.
You can't live in more than Houston, her own hometown, I.
Know, But like she was doing I guess, different songs. And then in Paris though, Miley came out, Miley and j Z and Jays.
Yeah, that was crazy. You saw the crowd in that.
Man. Kendrick I'm rooting for Kendrick to come out.
Where is he right now? It's going to be lining up, the location is going to be lining up.
I don't know, it's move.
Let's see. We got to ask matched up their their towards schedules.
But the way I am ready to relive it and London was cold and rainy and I had a good time. It was it was what it was, But I just was like, I really want to look to my left into my right and see nothing but like beautiful black girls from Atlanta. Like I just know the vibes are going to be on one hundred and it's going to everything I need. And I wouldn't be alone, you know what I.
Mean, You won't absolutely not. It's never never, it's gonna feel like that. I went to Usher in Atlanta and it was incredible. But but in which my homegirls in Atlanta, she works at the CDC, So every time I'm in Atlanta, I'll go hang out with her. But this time, my knees had begged me, begged me, beg me to do it in Houston opening night, and she just finished paying off her student loans. So I got me and her tickets.
I got her tickets as a gift for her celebrating paying off her student loans, and so so I was like, all right, she wants Houston. We're gonna do Houston Opening Night Saturday, which is this weekend.
Coming I'm gonna before okay.
It's before I land. It's this Saturday coming up.
I am so I hope that out fit.
I got my cowboy boots in the mail, and I got my belt, which I got literally for like twelve dollars using my points. And then bell, I have my belt, a belt with the belt with the ut Austin.
You're going to be okay with the Longhorns on it.
And then I got nam like you already know, I got the ten of denim tube top with the DNMG and with the girl. It will be on my Instagram. It will be on my Instagram. I'll repeat all day.
Happy for you.
I'm excited. If you want to get if you want to do it three times, you want to come this weekend to Houston, girl, No no, no, no, no, you know, just more joy. You know, it's just more joy in your life.
That's all good for good.
I have a Google before you, Sorry to tell you. Sorry perplexity that's why I've been googling that Kendrick is going to be in uh in Europe all of July.
Oh dang, so it's not going.
Right, Well, it would be someone else, maybe Miley, which I'm not a fa Shaboozy. I would love Shaboozie. Or it might be Shaboozy, right, that would be lit. I love Sweet Honey Bucking. Oh my god. I made my dad listen to the whole Cowboy Carter album on the way home from the hospital because he he told me to turn my GPS off because he knew.
The album is spicy. You guys, him listening to that it is. She got some naughty live girls. She worked it into a country album, but it's a lot of nasty.
I think it's a nasty We didn't get through the whole we listened to like the first five tracks. I might have skipped like a couple in the middle. I yeah, I don't know. I don't think it's very spicy.
But see, when you really listen between the lines, you're like.
I'm sure it is because she got.
Some mature themes. She got some mature themes and some sensual undertones, if you know what I mean.
Do you have a Beyonce figure? Like, who's your Beyonce? Who would you like?
Pay?
Yeah?
I like music, like I got nobody I care.
About like that, Like you're not a concert guy or you just don't know how many music artists that's your person.
Okay, I like all kinds of music, but I'm not like you got anybody. I'm like, oh, I gotta go see them. I'm not a concert person. Does that mean? But I do love live music, so it's kind of weird. It doesn't really make sense.
I don't trust people are well.
I think a concert is different from live music in terms of like a live music experience usually for me is much more intimate and smaller. Like live music, I feel like I can actually see the instruments like that within like versus a concert. For me, it kind of takes away the live music feeling of it. It's more of an experience rather than like a live music spectacle.
It's art, yes, yes, theater.
It's theater.
It's especially acrobatics.
It's acrobatics. It's that kind of thing. It's not more circusolate than it is like a live music thing. Because I do love live music in smaller settings. I love that, but concerts, but I feel you.
I'll take it all. But yeah, I saw her from the floor in London, on the floor to the east, so I saw one very specific viewpoint. I am just excited to be dead center. Also, the screen stopped working during this one dance routine where she had like, no spoilers for you, Nelly, but anyway, and I want to see it up close.
So okay, I'm not mad at you go.
So I'm gonna get my one fifty stub Hub credit and let's take a quick break. We're going to come back with Brown Boost bron break and then we go and wrap but on up. So we'll do yeah, a little quake, A little A little quake, look quake, quick break, quake. We'll be right back via fam all right, v A fan, we are back. We're gonna do our brown Boost Brown Break at the Brown table. And I have vetted Chris's boost or break this week, y'all, so I know it's not gonna be trash.
Had did you tell them what you vetoed one that I was very I'm gonna say it. Anyways, My up from the birth of my of my nephew, Mandy was like veto. Nobody cares about this child.
Even the birth went for a baby shower. Come on, and he's not even born yet.
Wow, I'm gonna I'm gonna save this.
Think the birth of your baby nephews is important news, Chris, very sweet news.
It is very sweet.
I'm gonna save this older. Yeah, it is like you.
You see how much you love Auntie Mandy? Right, let me tell you what she did before you were born.
She was she usual number one. Hate her from day zero?
What you did come up with? But I did push you to come up with a juicy or boost, and you came up with one.
You did?
You? Did?
You do?
You want to go ahead and not get out?
Go for sure makes diamonds, you know what I mean? So if you just withstand the Mandy money pressure for a little bit longer, you will becomes person.
Yeah let's go with that.
Okay, Yeah, yeah, all right.
Anyways, my boost for this week is uh I had a friend who does these they call them like sprints.
You see them a lot out here with the tech company tech founders where they kind of sit down for this concentrated time to think through ideas that they have with It's like a business idea, I change what you're doing, and she even modified it for like, if you want to make big life changes, it's a way of sitting down, thinking through your life and the things that you value and that makes sense to you and thinking about it a very critical eye and coming up with something at
the end of the time. And so we spent a whole day doing this. We started at like we started at ten in the morning and we went to about four and the Africa.
Your friend coming up with it on their own.
No, No, she does this for a living, so she does a lot of facilitation of these for companies, for startups, for founders and things like that. I met her through Burna because Berna was there doing this with us. It was me, Berna and b was there and a couple.
Other friends whatever you want.
I know. It's it's it's like it's like it's like it's like your credit card parks. This is the San Francisco perk. I get to hang out with Berna and uh.
It was really interesting because like basically she gave us like a little bit of homework before the event started, before the day and she's like, Okay, I want you to sit down and map out your life and any important milestone so other it's like personal career wise, whatever it may be, and plotted on a timeline, and she said some link to this thing is called a mirror board.
And it's basically like almost like a if you can imagine like a big workspace where you can build like sheets and forms things like that, and you can like type and work directly in it. And so she gave us all these pre made things.
Like a kind of thing.
It sounds like no shot, not notion, because it's more free flowing. It's like you have a big like what do they call it, like a grid paper? She had a grid paper, but it like you can move around and add things to and you can zoom in, zoom out, and if they use for presentations and for working through ideas and mapping things out. And so you have this timeline and you have like a little post notes you can put on there and then type onto it, and
then you can like link things together. And so you start off with like what was this big like what are the things in your life? Were there or decisions you made that you that kind of shaped where you are now or could have forked off and gone somewhere else, and you have to sit there and think through all of this, and then you have to put down what did you do? And then if you what if you hadn't have chosen this, what would you have done? What would have life done look like? Or what how did
you feel when you made those decisions? Before, during, and after. You have to do that for your old timeline, and it really makes you reflect on all the decisions you made and like why, Like why did you make that decision? And did you feel good about it? And the things you didn't feel good about. It kind of gives you insight into like, oh I didn't I actually didn't end
up liking this. Maybe I took something from it, But it helps you as you plan now to be like, oh, I don't want to do that again, or I really like this thing. And it was such a cool thought process because when we came together the next day we started kind of working on that a little bit more. And then from there what you do is you start thinking about like why do you want to make a change,
and right, no, that's the reasons why. And then if you didn't make this change, what would you feel like how would your life be if you just didn't do anything, and you kind of keep diving into things piece by piece, and at the end of all this, to make a long story short, you end up with these things you take from each of these pages. So there's like a little some of the sheets have like a little box where it's like, Okay, what do you what was like
the biggest thing you took away from this thing? So you go through and you vote. You have little dots, little stickers, you can digital stickers you can place on all the responses you gave through this whole long process, and then you look through the ones you voted for.
It's like, oh, this was like this was meaningful to me, and then you move that down to this bigger worksheet and it builds almost kind of like a mad libs Like for me, it was like I really enjoy like video production, even though I'm thinking like I like, you know, making podcasts and stuff like this, but I really enjoy making things and being behind the scenes with a lot of stuff. And it's like, what do what do you value?
And it was like, oh, I really enjoy working with other people and it kind of gave me thoughts, like insights into things that I didn't even think about. And maybe like, oh, I need to prioritize working with other people and not just working by myself all the time. I need to work on or focus on maybe trying out doing more behind the scenes production because that seems to be something that is enjoyable to me and it really gives you something to work with. And this is
just step one. It's like stage one and then we're going to all get together another day and work on what comes after this, which is where you start brainstorming ideas from what you've learned about yourself. No, she's doing it for free. She charges other people for this, but because we're all friends, she's doing this for free for us, very kindly giving up her time for this.
But I bet it was better coming from yourself. Ellah, you love people, You already pay to go to coworking spaces, and you're a you're a gizmo gadget dude. That sounds really great. It's also like carving out the time to reflect is just something that it never feels like there's a lot of time for, but it is so nice that you got to do it and that you've spent time and that it was a group activity.
Yep, and people don't put that on the to do list. People don't put that on the to do list. Like you're constantly like an energizer bunny, like you go go, go, go, go, complete the next task, check the check that box, check that box. Reflection doesn't feel like one of those things that gives you a sense of like you know that
you were actually productive. And so I think that's why it's you have to force yourself to be in spaces and experiences like that to make room for reflection, because I feel like that's so important, especially when you have a business, because you're just holding the weeds, doing the go to go every day. And yeah, I think that's that sounds amazing.
Yeah, it's like you just don't make time for this, and it was and you have the pressure of being around other people, so you got to do it. If I was doing this by myself, I probably want to stop fifteen times and gone and done something else, picked up my phone. But you're like you're in an environment where everyone's doing it, We're all focused, we all want to hit the same endpoint when we're done with this.
And uh, yeah, I feel very fortunate to you know, may friends with someone who would do this and facilitate this and help us all kind of kind of figure it out, you know at the you know, in your thirties man, basically forty like me. You know, when you get to this point in life, you know, sometimes you need to it's good to reflect. You don't have to be doing the same thing forever.
Forty this week, Oh, who does my husband happy birthday? Happy birthday, younger, mm hmm.
Yeah, sure about for about five.
Minutes days younger.
Yeah, Chris, I feel like the one thing that you said that really stuck with me about how cool that experiences is that you can do it for anything. It's not just like a work thing. It's like if you have a personal issue that you're dealing with, a work issue, a relationship issue, like if any aspect of your life you can kind of workshop through in this way. And maybe this person over here is working on their business, you're working on something personal. Somebody over there is working
to a relationship issue. And it's so cool that that framework allows you to work through pretty much anything that you want to reflect on. So I like that a lot. I feel like that's really smart for her in terms of versatility for her business, for the model that she can offer it in a lot of different settings.
Yeah, and that's exactly what it was like.
You could give her. I was going to say, did she teach it online? Does she like do tips on ig or something? Does she have a social media handle you can shout out?
Oh, I think I can. Let me look it up, so I know she does this for a lot of companies out here in the Bay Area. Her name is Kristen shout out to her and her husband run a restaurant called Swopshop. It's a Filipino restaurant out.
Here, and she's got a restaurant.
Okay, and they got a restaurant. But I'll find I'll find her handle it out, I'll share the people that connect with her. But we were telling her like, yeah, this is a great idea. You definitely should be doing this more because she's also this is her way of like molding it for individuals instead of companies to see if there's like a way to do it that makes sense and kind of works. Well.
I would love to talk to her, Yeah, because I'm doing this VIP coaching one on one now and I'm so happy that I started doing it. It's just one person for twelve weeks, well twelve sessions, and I don't have And they've been asking like, is there a framework? Is there such and such? But I mean, I create it on the go for each person. But there's so much introspection like baked in side by side thought work where it's just like asking, leading questions and thought exercises
that that I don't have a particular framework. I just know that it's very helpful. But it's cool that she's come up with one, So I want to I want to learn more.
Oh yeah, I'll get all there for information together and I'll send it over to you.
Now do we agree, ba fam that we got more value out of that boost then the sole the only boost. I mean, we love, we love a new black king being born into the world, but didn't.
Mm hmmmm, you know, go and spin to keep spinning it.
We learned a lot. Also, congratulations to your brother and sister. And yeah, I want another baby. It's really sick. It's sickening, yan Ellie. I want you to go last because I know yours is going to be happy.
Yeah, and I'm going to do a break, all right, go for it.
I'm going to do a break, Like I said, I was in Atlanta recently and one of the stories that I haven't really talked about, but it's been in the news, especially because she's from Atlanta, is Adrianna Smith, which fam If you've heard this name, maybe it sounds familiar to you. This has been an ongoing story in the news for months because this poor woman who's in her thirties was declared brain dead. And a lot of people start the story by talking about the fact that she which is true.
She has been declared brain dead but kept on kept on life support because the reproductive laws were over or if Rover Wade was overturned, and in Georgia, almost immediately it triggered a new piece of legislation that reduced the window for abortion to like six weeks. And I believe she was nine weeks pregnant when she became brain dead. But I was reading and what happened last week is that the baby was delivered, and the baby was delivered prematurely.
It was like one point something pounds. We don't know if he's going to survive. They gave him a name of Chance, And there's so much wrong with that story in so many ways, And I just as a mother there's it's it's heartbreaking that she wasn't able to, you know, fulfill that part of her life. She already had a son as well, it's heartbreaking that he's left without a mom.
But the part of her story that really was getting to me as I read more about her was that what actually caused her to become brain dead declared brain dead, is that she went to the hospital with severe headaches
and they pretty much brushed it off. Now, if you've been pregnant and you've gone to the hospital as a pregnant person, and there's actually jokes about this, like in pop culture, in like on medical TV shows that I've seen, where it's like, okay, incoming patient to the er, they're pregnant, kick them up to labor and delivery. I myself had cracked a rib from being really sick. I cracked a rib from coughing when I was pregnant with my second baby.
And there's nothing you can do for a pregnant lady with a cracked rib. I can't get an X ray, there's no painkillers I can take. It's like, but they'll like immediately kick you up to LL and D before really looking at you. And I don't even think in this case she was actually kicked to L and D. She was just given really nothing. They were like, you're fine,
go home, take some til and all. Well, it turns out she had several brain clots, blood clots in her brain, and so she suffered a stroke and her poor husband woke up to her in the throes of you know, having one of these blood clots that ruptured, and that's how she ended up on life support in the first place.
And we talk a lot about we talk a lot about reproductive rights and how women of color are going to become or largely will become the victims of the lack of reproductive health care access in the weight in the wake of Robi Wade being overturned. But I also just think it underlines just in general, in healthcare, women and women of color especially are not always taken seriously and are you know, and that we are required. It requires so much of us to like advocate and push
for the care that we deserve. And sometimes you're just tired of fighting and sometimes you don't want to have to do that for yourself. And it's not fair and it's not right, but it's just so heartbreaking that she tried to do the right thing and advocate for herself, and it wasn't enough, and she was still sent home, and then her body was used as if it were a machine, as if it was you know, as if she was less than human, just because some old white dudes decided for her, decided.
For her, not her husband, not her mother, not her son, not her family, not.
Her husband who already had to grieve his wife and his now son without his mother, but now has to worry for the life of his newborn son, who may or may not make it because he was kept alive in a woman's body who was dead, effectively dead. So my heart just goes out to Adriana Smith and her family. I also want to someone had asked me to, you know, what happened into the medical bills? Who pays who pays the medical bills for keeping this woman alive for months
and months and now her newborn? And I don't know. I don't know what the answer to that is. But if it's not the State of Georgia, or I don't know, I don't know, if it's not her family's insurance, even insurance has its limits, you know, So if they have a gofund me or they have any other way you can support the family. I'll post that in the show notes. We'll look it up. But I just wanted to. Yeah, I hope. I just hope she's resting in peace now. I hope that she gets to go in peace.
Fine, right, And I would definitely support that GoFundMe girl, I would. And if anybody listening, if you haven't heard the episode that Mandy did with doctor u J. Blackstock from the She's the author of the book called Legacy, which is about bias in healthcare, specifically against communities of color and more specifically black communities. That episode was so good, Mandy, like so good, and that book is so good. But I love that you had doctor ujay on because she's amazing.
I recommend that for this specific topic. It was very powerful.
Thank you. Yeah. So I'm just sending love to you, Adriana. I hope you're resting in peace, and to your family. I mean, I know that their trauma continues on, but you know that is the world we are in, right And as I start to cry, I will let you on, Ellie, Now bring us back up, bring us up, uplift us.
I'll make a connection in terms of why this matters the most to me. Last year, in twenty twenty four, the state of California passed a law that required financial literacy to be taught as a semester, standalone, dedicated course for all high school students before they graduate. So it's
a graduation requirement in the state of California. And I was over the moon because California is the state that has the largest population in the United States, so the largest state by population and the largest percentage of Latinos
in the US that live in one particular state. Now the second largest state by population is Texas, which has the largest population of Black Americans, almost four million in one state, which is Texas, and so about fourteen percent of the population in the state of Texas is black. And now Texas on Saturday, June twenty first, officially got the law signed by the governor. So it is not just passed the legislature, not the Senators and representative passed
the bill because that's what had happened before. But so many times the bill passes and it sits on the governor's desk for weeks and weeks and weeks it gets ignored or the governor would pick it up and like veto it if they don't like it. But in this case, it was passed and signed into law on Saturday, June twenty first, which means it is officially now a requirement
for high school graduation. It goes into effect officially on in the fall of twenty twenty six, So this school year twenty twenty five to twenty two twenty six, the teachers are going to take this year to train, to plan, the school districts are going to start making decisions about what curriculum they're going to use, how they're going to rearrange the master schedule to make sure every student takes
the class. And then starting in the twenty twenty six twenty twenty seven school year, every single text in high school kid that's in a public high school is guaranteed access to an eighteen week long course dedicated to personal financial literacy, all the things that we all wish we had learned when we was in high school. So it
was a huge win. I mean, just based on the stats, there's like we were at sixty five percent of students in the US guaranteed access with the twenty eight states that were already that had already passed this law, and with Texas, it's now seventy five percent of students in the US have guaranteed access.
And this is the legislation that y'all wrote.
Then, basically, this is the legislation that we drafts. Start push incredible and shout out to testified. There's videos on my instagrament testifying, but the shoutout for shore goes to Representative Lindagar's and Representative Ken King, who are the two House the House representative. So Linda Garcia is a Democrat and Ken King is a Republican, and so it was a bipartisan effort, which means it doesn't matter if you're
a Republican or Democrat. Everyone agreed on both sides that this was so important and that's why it was so successful with so many, so many votes in support of it. So it's official. If you live in Texas, spread the word and if you see the news, share it far and wide, because we need everybody to know that this is an official change that happened, that it was signed by the governor, and this is real, and no more
denying or making it an elective. It has to be required in every single high school amazing.
So you're doing a little victory lap when you go see Beyonce.
Girl, it's a two for it. I'm going to see Beyonce. But I'm also like, this is Texas. We won, Yes, we did it. It was a long fight, and there were so many things along the way that made me think we were not going to win, that it wasn't going to happen. There were so many hot political issues like anding THHC product sales in the state of Texas and a school funding bill getting the Ten Commandments posted
in public school. There was so much. There was so much going on in Texas that was like distract It was distracting people, I think from this bill that actually is such a good thing. And we're over here fighting about whether the Ten Commandment should be posted up in the school. Students might not even say that, let's focus, let's focus on what they're you know. So I'm so glad it wasn't so much distraction to the point where it kind of washed this bill off to the side.
This one really did make it to the end, which it's very very hard to get a bill signed into law. So I'm really really proud of Texas and I'm so honored to have gotten to be a part of that fight and to be able to tell the story. And now now I'm like, Okay, which state is going to be number thirty, number twenty nine? Yes, we got a couple more twenty one more states to go. Who's going to be number thirty?
I'm cross? Is everything right? So now that Texas is like the biggest one, it's like it doesn't become easier to then convince more states.
Absolutely, because you have really big states like New York who haven't who has not done it yet, Illinois, who has not done it yet. And when they see big states like California, Texas, Florida have already done it, they see, oh there's no excuse, Oh we're too big to do that, No, because there's precedent, like you said, So hopefully this definitely makes the fight a little easier as we move forward.
I'm so glad you went last. Congratulations, Thank you, and as you and the work you're doing is so impactful. It already was, but it's just a lot of times you don't get a chance to like see the impact. But your work is, yeah, I mean it really, it actually happens, and there's a lot of people working to pass legislation that's so needed that don't get to celebrate that, so and don't it doesn't get past, you know, the filibusters and the bullshit. So just really excited for y'all.
Yes, a little bit of the buss and all the and all the madness going on.
There's M's be helpful.
She is be real helpful over there.
Well, it's so nice to be with y'all again. Have you back at the brown tape? Yeah, Nellie, have so much fun in Houston. I can't be following you're I g I'm gonna put my notifications on for your stuff. Yeah, so the algorithm I'm gonna tag you so you can't. And Chris, So, how many more sessions do you have before you have your life plan all laid out?
Oh? You know, I got homework now, but one more and I actually have my whole I figured out. I'm sure it all.
Answers come, sure, But that's really exciting. I'm proud of you too.
Oh, thank you. And before we go, I wanted to know I sent you in you Nellie the link. I did find that there is a go fund go fund me for Adriana's family and because they were responsible for the medical bills, I.
Will be clicking that.
Yep, wonderful. Thank you. You're such a good on air correspondent with the easy back checking access, that's what I need video production often.
You can come on. This is only when I ask a question, that's all you're gonna go.
Oh man, I'm like that. Whenever I try to Google, I'm like that snl s get the ego, what is her name? Where she does like the cutting the steak at the steakhouse, and I'm just like trying to google. Gosh, hard to google. But now that's funny. Okay, ba Fam, thank y'all so much for listening. If you want to be in the live audience, nobody showed up to my live audience party, y'all. It's almost as if time ever.
Yeah, it can be last can be last minute.
Girl, that's my first time I got the invite out. This is a success. Okay. Also, I hate a new ad then, but that's that's aside the point. Go to Patreon check out the Branda Vision Patreon, ba Fam, you go and join for free. But if you want to be live in the studio with us and get other fun perks, check out how you can become a paid Patreon paid BA fan for only five bucks a month. I mean, talk about great value and and what else
do I have to say? Go be well, take care of your loved ones, Go touch grass, hug somebody, check it on somebody and yeah sending love, light, warmth. We'll get through it somehow. It's gonna be so funny. All right, Viba fam until next time, okay, va fam. Thank you so much for listening to this week's show. I want to shout out to our production team, Courtney, our editor, Carla, our fearless leader for idea to launch productions. I want to shout out my assistant Lauda Escalante and Cameron McNair
for helping me put the show together. It is not a one person project, as much as I have tried to make it so these past ten years, I need help, y'all, and thank goodness I've been able to put this team around me to support me on this journey and to y'all bea fam. I love you so so so so much. Please rate, review, subscribe, make sure you're sign up to the newsletter to get all the latest updates on upcoming episodes.
Our ten year anniversary celebrations to come, and until next time, talk to you soon via bye.