As a well known African proverb says, a child who is not embraced by his village will burn it down to feel its warmth. This proverb underscores the essential need for children to feel accepted and valued by their community. This week's guest philanthropist, former University of Maryland football player and visionary founder of the Pinkett Foundation, Damien Pinkett, is a prime example of what happens when a child
is embraced by his village. In this episode, Damien and I continue the conversation surrounding men's mental health, while the Pinkett Foundation is pioneering efforts to provide resources and support for those in need, particularly within marginalized communities. Or Mutual Love for nineties R and B and Akaian, Selfish, and so much more. As I listen to Damien's story, his journey reminded me of a powerful truth I realized last year. Or true happiness often lies in reconnecting with the
passions we cherished as children. Similar to the other inspiring men we've spoken to this month, Damien is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, and provides insight into the unwavering support he has received from several fraternity brothers throughout his adult life. Damien's story supports my belief that true value is not found in material possessions, but in the challenges we overcome and the positive impact we have
on the world. Damien embodies the paradox of a life lived in high definition, seamlessly transitioning from being the franchise player on the field to a key player in philanthropy and the medical field, addressing the un finish business of those who came before him, proving that we can uplift and empower our communities through philanthropy without needing to be the martyr per usual. This episode will definitely inspire you and make you laugh. So grab your tea, coffee, or a glass
of wine and let's talk the Tings. Hello everyone, Welcome back to another episode of Let's Talk the Things, where we discuss personal growth, travel, music and wellness while encouraging you to live fearlessly and fabulously. I am your host, Ash and this week we are Talking the Things with philanthropist and the visionary founder of the Pinkett Foundation, Damien Pinket. Hi, Damien, how are you? I'm doing? I love that intro? Why? Thank you
very much. You know, I'm trying to put Oprah out of business. No, thanks so much for coming to talk the things with me. So when we have guests, I like to start the episode with our listener's favorite segment to kind of break the ice. And it's called that no sound safe, which translated to English means that does not sound safe. For in this case, that doesn't sound like a good idea. Right, So for this segment, I'm going to read social media post or comments that listeners sent in.
And if you think it sounds crazy or like a little bit concerning, then you would respond that no sound safe. If you want to try some patuas or you can just say that doesn't sound like a good idea and explain why. And then if you agree, same thing, say you agree and again explain why makes sense? All right? All right? So the first one, somebody said evil can pretend to be good and kind, but good and kind people cannot pretend to be evil. So when you see evil behavior
in someone, believe it that is who they really are. I can agree with that, I can agree with it. I think at the end of the day, everybody deserves grace and mercy because not everybody's perfect, only person perfect. I'm a Christian soul. Jesus would be my north stuff for that. But when you have I guess just evil characteristics and your actions are evil, you gotta believe what you're seeing and what people are saying. Obviously,
pray for them. We absolutely, absolutely, And I think that a lot of times, especially if you're a kind hearted person, like you want to see the best in people. But I think there's a difference between when somebody's maybe like having a bad day or even a bad week, versus their character. You know, absolutely, yeah, for sure, I agree with that. Okay, So the next one, the person said, my god,
some people are just not okay. The person said, I'm a tend but my hairline holds me back from approaching women that don't sound say oh we got confident. Man, you can't work. I don't know if they're gonna be able to see me obviously have a hair full of locks. But you know, yeah from a ball brothers or follow the challenge brothers. You know, just have confidence with who you are. Great advice, I agree, I agree, And this day and age, you know, everyone has something right.
Nobody's perfect, money is perfect, Nobody in this place is perfect. We're not looking at myself. Everyone has something that the other person may not like. So yeah, you have to you know, still have confidence absolutely, and you didn't always have dreads. The Damien I remember had a low cut, so you know both sides right the waves. Yeah, it's been in a few years now. Oh my gosh, that's crazy. Wow, crazy time flies by. Okay, the next one, the person said,
no matter how wrong she is, if she's short, forgive her. After all, she's just a baby. Oh goodness. Instagram quote a Twitter quote something for the short Queen's out. Yeah, that's how they try to get you though. They try to get you with the sweet, innocent Sure you know it can't harm you, No, watch out for them. Excuse me as somebody that is standing at five too. I don't know how I feel about that, Damien. The average hype for women's five five in America,
so you're not too far off. Five two is not that bad, not too short. Yeah, I like to say, you know, I'm not that short, but people think I'm very short, and I don't. I don't know. I guess because I know that I think about it. Most of my friends are like my height or shorter, so maybe that's why it
seems normal to me. But usually, like if I'm around people that maybe have always worn heels around and then they see me in like sandals, They're like, oh my god, like you're so short, and I'm just like, geez, I'm not that short. You do wear heels, though you do wear heels, so it's like you can I do. I know you're gonna lose some inches. Yeah, yeah, no, that's true. But I still think I kind of agree with you that that know so uns safe
because you can't let the innocence like fool you. You know, absolutely trust the big button a smile. You can't trust the you know. Just that's funny. That is hilarious. Okay, the next one. Let's see. I can't stand when people say you didn't answer my text, but I saw you on Instagram. I don't care if I was on the news. I'm gonna reply when I reply. That doesn't sound safe. I'm a big advocate
for healthy communication. Yes, I agree. If sometimes you just got to tell that person, hey, look, you're not you know, a priority like that or or not, or you got to take the hint that you're not somebody's priority. To point of why they aren't you back or anything, and that's fair too, But I like healthy communication when it comes to you
know, availability, things of that nature. It's like, okay, yeah, what's going on with Absolutely, And I think a lot of times people talk about this when it comes to like man and woman or any type of
romantic relationship. But I think it can also go for friendships, right because you have some friendships where the person is maybe really needy or they think because they called you and they need you right this moment, that you have the capacity to be you know, there for them in that moment, and maybe you don't, you know, but you should still communicate for sure. Absolutely.
I think with friendship is it's a little bit different. I think romantic relationship because everything is so new in that realm, I think it can be a little different. I think friendship you kind of understand who this person is for more than a couple of months. Yeah, you know how they are or what they would need. And I think platonic friendship, I think in general you probably have healthier boundaries. So that's you should to that community.
Yeah you should, right, Yeah, No, definitely, Okay, a couple more somebody said being a baby must be scary. Imagine falling asleep at home and then waking up in TJ Max. I agree, I agree. Next time you know your target target I'm like, where do people get these things? But it's so true. Knocked out. Have you ever like in the car and like went to sleep and next time you know you're there?
Yes? Yes, Oh my gosh. That happens so often, especially when you're like super tired mm hmm, you know, or when you're even like even when I'm traveling. As you know, I travel a lot, and sometimes I'll be so tired and then i feel like we just took off and then I'm hearing we're about to land. I'm like so confused. Those those are the best flights. Those are the best flights. Yes, for sure, you cannot be able to sleep on flights really as like, okay,
give me the asle see and and I'm knocked out. Okay. Second to last one, the person said, I dated a man who I knew was out of my league, but I chose to start a relationship with him anyway. He eventually lost respect for me and spent most of the relationship trying to destroy my self esteem. That sounds all bad, not so safe at all at all? Out of your league? One? What is that? Why is that a thing? And then why was he destroying or trying to destroy
your self esteem? That means you were of his league in the first place. Yeah, it's all bad. Yeah, I don't wish that all buddy. Yeah, and there those are a lot of a lot of good questions that you asked that. Yeah, it would be I guess would help us make like a better assessment. Does that mean he doesn't have money? Is it like a superficial thing? Or its character the type of person he is. I think those are factors that could really make you do some like introspection.
You know, I've read that question as she thought he was above her. Oh that's how you read it. Interesting, Yeah, if I was, if I if I as a man, and if I want to say I was dating somebody out of my league, people would think like behnest, Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, and then he tried to destroy her self esteem? Yeah? Yeah, interesting, it's not good. Yeah, that sounds safe at all. Okay, And then the final one, someone said, somebody needs to have an in host R and B nights
where we all where we sing all night and have drinks. Yes, and I would love the host that. Yes. So, oh my gosh, do you love R and B like I love R and B? Of course, shout out to my boy baby J. He's doing a wine and slow jams July thirteenth. Oh, this is getting bigger and bigger every year, so I'm looking forward to that. Some of my friends from med school are coming down, so we're gonna have a good time. But the house party
R and B. I would love to host that. I'd be right and especially like nineties R and B, like you know, Soul for Real, Candy Rain, that's my favorite song. Stop it right now. Don't let me test you know, because I will test you on the lyrics. No, don't test me. I got you because I could, but you know it was it was a song played yeah in a good part of my life. Yes, And did you do like dance routines? I did that.
I'm a holy snow Okay, got you. But what about like your friends like in the neighborhood, You guys didn't do like talent shows in school and stuff. We were outside riding bikes, jumping on, playing basketball, football. We were outside we didn't even get on video games until you were like ten twelve, you know. Oh yeah, yeah, the video games for sure. But like even though you were outside, not even a little running man running place. No, there's no music when you run. But that's
true. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Okay, I'll let you slide. As long as you're on the nineties R and B trained, then it's safe. That was fun. But now let's really talk the things. So, as you know, June is men mental health Awareness month, so I would love it if you could share why you think bringing awareness to men's mental health is so important. But before we do that, I think it's important to get to know who you are. So who is Damien Pinkett?
And specifically, I want you to answer without stating your name, what you do, or where you are from. So who are you without any of the labels that have been placed upon you? I am first and foremost a child of God. I am an adultee ah, I am a friend. I am honest, I'm kind, I'm calm, cool, collected, or however they say that, I think I'm a pretty chill person in general.
I love that. Love that, And how do you think you being an adoptee has affected your ability and we'll talk about it a little bit more, but your ability to and your desire to kind of give back to underserved and marginalized communities. Absolutely. I think being adopted. I know everybody has their own story, particularly with adoption, so it's never once I fit all, it's all. But I believe my story is pretty amazing and it kind of created who I am as a person. I know love because I'm adopted.
I've seen the love of my parents. I was their choice, right, so they picked me, and I think that really stuck with me throughout my life. Granted so much from the Pinkets, it I would be to not give back. I remember when I first started the Pinkin Foundation, my health nonprofit. I talked to my dad. He's, oh, I could always see you doing this, Like when you were young, you used to clean up parts and you just wanted a safe place and a clean place for your
friends to play. So I get that my parents absolutely. I've just seen my parents give some back to the community and to their family, the ones who the family really leans on it in times of trouble, whether people are passing away as we get older, Yeah, yeah. So I think my roots are strong in terms of community service, public health because of my parents. So yeah, I think being a doctor, I know where it could have been given my my birthing story, which it's interesting I kind of find
out. I found out more a couple of years ago when I turned thirty. Oh wow, first story. So yeah, it could have went to went left. I could have had a different life. But why am And I love the positive way that you look at it, that you were a choice, right. I don't think I've ever heard anyone look at it or say it like that, which I think is so beautiful because it's true. You know, I think a lot of times when people talk about family, like the go to quote or saying is like, you know, you don't
get to choose your family, but your family chose you. And I think that's such a beautiful way to look at that. Yeah. And then also you talked about how your dad mentioned that or said to you or reminded you, I should say, because you obviously lived it, but that you used to like to clean up parks and stuff like that, And it just makes me think of how much like as we get older, especially in our thirties, it's like you're going back to who you were as a child, and
that's really where like our happiness life. I think that's a very profound statement because I think it's very true, and I'm getting close and closer to that every day. It's all right, what made me happy when I was like ten twelve, even like fourteen fifteen. It's like that childhood in us is sparking and it's been reinvented. I think in our college years and early twenties,
we were grinding, grinding, grinding. I think now that we're a little bit more, you know, some of us are more blessed to be able to reflect a little bit and kind of go back to our root. That's so true, and you know, it's just it's such a good feeling because you look back and you realize that you kind of I don't even want to say lost yourself, because I do believe that you have to go through things to become who you're destined to be. I think, you know,
there's no such thing as something bad happening to you. I think everything happens for you. And that's just so that I choose to look at life, because, like you, I believe in God, and I believe that God lets everything happen for a reason, even if we don't understand it in the moment. And I just for me, I know, like I realized you change as you get older because you're surrounded by people that are telling you no, right. And when I say no, I don't necessarily mean in the
literal sense. But for example, you know, when you're maybe in I don't know, third or fourth grade, and somebody asks you what do you want to be and you say, oh, I want to be an astronaut and a basketball player and a carpenter. Nobody goes, what the hell, like you can't be all those things. They're just like, oh my gosh, yes, that's so great, Oh gosh, tell everyone what you want to be. But then when you're eighteen and you go to your parents and
you're like, you know what, I'm really good. I'm really good at painting. Like I really think I could paint. I could be a painter, and I can study. Your parents or your family or your friends might be like what you want to paint? Like what the hell are you going to do with painting? You know? So it's just so interesting how like being an adult is kind of trying to survive adulthood, but also not lose who you were as a child when you had so much freedom just to be
yourself, you know. Yep, Yeah, that's a great perspective. Well, speaking of the foundation, before I get started on that, I should say back to the first question, why do you think it's important to bring
awareness to men's mental health? I think in general, when it comes to men's mental health, Black men's mental health specifically, I think it allows us to be seen a lot of the times in America where typically typecast as people who hardened or aggressive, but you know that comes from not seeing somebody. So when it comes to emotional health health, allowing us the latitude to think
and live and breathe and be without judgment, I think it's important. If we're considered to be leaders of our families and patriarchs of community and that quote unquote typical you know, strong nuclear family. Yeah, then we have to be strong all the time. And it seems seems like we don't necessarily have
emotions, but we do. So when it comes to certain things that are happening in the community with men, suicide happening at higher rates, and things of that nature, it's because we don't necessarily have the outlet sometimes, So
I think that's why mental health manage. Definitely. And do you think it has something to do with the fact that black boys are looked at as adults at a younger age than their counterparts, So it's like they don't really have such a large span of time to be looked at as like a boy. Like what makes somebody look at, you know, a five year old black boy and say, oh my gosh, she's so cute, and then in
five years they're afreed, you know what I mean? Like, do you think that has something to do with winging on the mental health of particularly black men. Absolutely, I think we have to grow up a little bit earlier than other communities. But it kind of just Also I talked about the nuclear family that it does relate to that in terms of eighty percent of our children not being born in a two parent household, so you grew up a little
bit earlier. Who's in poverty, it's not the majority, it's black and brown folks. When you when you're growing up in poverty, you gotta you gotta work a little harder, you gotta, you know, kind of build yourself up and to get out of that situation you looked at as a you know, somebody that needs to help, you know, sooner. Not everybody the chance to just be boys, you know, yeah, yeah, gotta get that job, help with the with the family, you know, at
younger rates. But I think there's a lot of things that kids have to do. Then we're not fully developed as kids, but we're being made to make adult decisions and it's unfortunate. Back to your foundation, as I mentioned also in the introduction, you have your own foundation, the Pinkett Foundation, and you spoke about this a little bit, and it focuses on improving public health within underrepresentative and underrepresented, sorry and marginalized communities, which I think is
so amazing. And although your foundation supports men and women, focusing on men for this episode, how do you think intersecting identities such as race, which we kind of talked about to a little bit, maybe sexuality or disability influence men's experiences of mental health and their access to get support. Okay, so when it comes to intersectionality in men in general, first and foremost, we have to understand that there is intersectionality. I don't think I think sometimes men
are kind of grouped together, especially in black men. My nonprofits for black and brown people the African diasporas, so that's who I focus. But you have to think there are people who are mixed race, there are people who are in the LGBTQIA community, there are people who don't identify as anything, right, and then we have to think about age and things of that nature.
So you might be talking to nineteen year old about mental health, but the eighty year old might be dealing with depression as well, right, So it kind of all needs to be talked about in general. So what I do with my nonprofit, yes, it's open to everyone, so but being open to everyone means I got to be open to everyone, right, including men. So what I do is work with different routs organizations and just try
to have that community engagement. So through different programs that I do, we just try to make it, you know, as fun as possible where people can come in and just talk and be themselves. My background is pedietary, so when I was up in New York and pedietary school, I kind of learned a lot about foot health. It's all about foot the inkle surgery up there. But in terms of diabetic patients a lot of our homeless community,
and that's a part of my story as well. My birth mother was on this, so it's like a lot of things kind of got hide the end to me without me knowing. People would donate coats every winter, right, but you only need one heavy coat for the winter. You need a different pair of socks every day, especially for you talk about your foot, So we're talking about people who are don't have that access to care. There might
be fissures in their feed or cracks or their their poor wound healing. New socks are good and they're the least donated item and the most needed item in different homeless shelters throughout America. I'm in now. So we just did a drive in the winter for in Ward eight, Ward eight and seven really at different shelters including New York Avenue Men's Shelter. So just being able to do that and then posting events on on like physical health of our of our brothers
too. Heart health is a big thing, cholesterol, hyperden stuff, walking group, things of that nature. So we got physical health, how healthy are we as people? And then we have to think about the access to health as well, So definitely do a better job at that as a country really for sure? For sure. And have you noticed any disparities in mental health awareness and resources based on factors like race or like you said, socio
economic status. Oh, absolutely, absolutely, I think that's that's kind of the main thing. You look across any health statistic, Black people in general are not going to be at the top of those, regardless of race socio economic status. So that's already a mapped in thing. Right. There was a study. It was with black women, but regardless of economic status, black women had a higher maternal mentality rate. I'm actually doing any lie that's
focusing on the work. But and it affects men too, because what happens when you know, a mother passes away during childbirth? Yeah, the father of more as a single parent in that regard. So we're helping them raise diapers for fathers in need as well as families in need as well. So yeah, it's a it's a big thing. And then we got to think about say that one more time, I said, and then we have to think about you know, poverty levels. Black Americans live in a poverty level
more than any other group, almost had two times. Then you have to think about the prison population. Black people make up fifty percent of the prison population. There's over forty percent of people in the foster care system. So, and these are just all things that have to do with me. My mother was my birth mother. She was in the DC jail. So these are some things that I've had a passion without knowing the birth story, right.
But yeah, and I think, you know, it's so interesting to me how God works, right, Like, you didn't even know you were on a path that had so much to do with you know, your birth story. And I think, like like I said, as we get older, we realized that everything that we thought in life was a mistake or why did this happen? Or maybe I should have done something else. You come to realize you were on the right path all along, even if you didn't
know it, you know. Yeah, So I think that's that's so beautiful that you found that out a couple of years ago when you got more information on your birth story and you started to connect the dots. And it must be such a good feeling knowing that it sounds like you're right where you're supposed to be. Yeah. I like that perspective too. That for sure, when I first moved to New York where I lived at Column I would go
to the door and they would have everything locked up. Then I went to a different stores a Dwayne Read I believe in like the Upper east Side, nothing was locked up at all. So it's like, all right, how are we living? How are we being perceived to it? And it's like does that take a toll? I know it takes a toll on our mental health. I gotta I gotta all somebody so I can get this deodorant,
Like, how do you how's that gonna make me? You know, growing up versus being able to freely go in and yeah, So it's very commoluted. It's very convoluted. Yeah, because if you think about it, that that's gonna tell let's say a young boy that whoever owns this store doesn't trust him. You know, that's how it's gonna be received. And that has
to affect the mental health of young men, particularly young black men. And it's interesting because being from somewhere like Jamaica, our motto is out of many one people. There's a lot of persons of different races in the country. You know, in my family, I grew up with persons of Chinese, Indian descent, white whatever. However, the majority of the country is of African descent, right, so business owners are women, black women, black
men. The other day, I saw this young black boy that opened up his own school in his neighborhood. He was helping kids with homework and he just started his own school to help, you know, kids that don't have
access to certain things. And so it's not until I got older, and by older I mean probably like two or three years ago, that I realized how positively that's affected me and my family members that are my age that we saw that growing up, So it wasn't so odd to see like, oh, there's a black person that's the CEO of this company, okay, And it makes me think, no, what that does to your psyche growing up not seeing that, you know what I mean, Like, I never really
thought about it before, but now I'm realizing, Like, don't get me wrong, everywhere has its problems, and even though that is the case, there's still problems in Jamaica, right. But I think just when you talk about that store situation and things being locked up and to get a deodorant you have to ask for a key. It's just like It's making me think what does that do to a young person's mind, Like, what message does that send to them? It definitely sends a message of I have to ask,
I gotta need I need permission to do this. When I was around my friends in college, they were just like, just do it, like, oh I can. I don't need to ask somebody to be able to do certain certain things, you know. So, yeah, I think it does something. It does something. Can I quantify or qualify it? I don't know. I think that'd be a great study to look at for sure, if it hasn't already been done right right, No, definitely definitely. And
you mentioned college and I had Oz, who's your fraternity brother. I had him on here and we were talking about how, you know, in college, you go to this place and you're surrounded by so many different types of people, Right, how did you use your brotherhood to kind of help with your mental health? Because when you're in college, you're not just there to study, right, Like, you're going through trying to figure out what you want to do in life and also have a social life. So how do
you think that being part of that brotherhood positively affected your mental health? I think It's great first foremost out File fraternity incorporated with the first black Greek letter organization ever in a in collegiate setting found at Cornell, you know, Ivy League school that we weren't allowed to be another fraternity, so we you know, started our own, particularly at the University of Maryland College Park, the
Iotazeta chapter. I think just being surrounded by people who thought like me and had had a vision for life like me too. I crossed when I was seventeen, so I was young. I couldn't vote. There was a discrepancy because there was everybody in Alpha has to be able to vote. I wasn't holding though. We had a question around two thousand and ten when when I
was going through if I if I could finish or not. But you know, they allowed me to because there was certain historical members like doctor Martin Luther King, who was of a younger age too when he became an Alpha. Oh wohoa, so you're in good company. I'm a great company. But yeah, so just being around the brothers and some of my best friends, you know, growing up, like I said, I was seventeen, I was the baby still, you know, Oh my gosh, I can't believe
you were seventeen. That's crazy. Yeah yeah, wow wow wow wow.
No, that's that's amazing. And is there or can you think of a time and maybe it was recently or maybe back when you were in school, was there a particular brother who supported you and gave you guidance like when you really needed it the most, Because we talked about how you know, it's not just while you're in school, but OZ even talked about the brother from like nineteen ninety five that reached out to him and still reaches out to him
to check to see how he's doing, which I think is so amazing. Yeah. Absolutely so. When I first got to campus, Mark Conway, who is a city council member in Baltimore City now, which is awesome. Need to see him thrive politically. He was president of the NAACP chapter at University of Maryland. So he's somebody who I've always held close. My dean Eric Brady, he's a lawyer. He's always looking out and checking in with me. I got some brother eighties Byron, awesome brother. He played football
at Maryland and for the Miami Dolphins. I played football at Maryland, so there's a connection there as well. Doctor Hector, not doctor Melvin Ego, Joseph Thomas, all those people always giving me advice in terms of medicine. And I got some younger brothers who are in medicine as well, whether it's dentistry or internal medicine that nature. But yeah, we got people from over dj he's a Somali a like one of my best friends, Maurice. He's
going to law school. So we keep each other. Just we reached back and we reach up. And Rohan Rasheen like, yeah, these are some great brothers. Yeah, Reggie, I've so many of the name, but I think all of them always looked out for me, especially older brothers because I was young. I always going to have them as big brothers. And the people who crossed after me, some of them are older than me, even though I crossed maybe like three, four or five years before them,
maybe born in the same year because you were so young. Yeah, so I have I have that perspective and access to a lot of people in generations really love. I think, yeah, they always if I need a question, I talked to like Micah, like my line brother, he's just got his d D last year, Like Joshua Paris has seen mo Nick like just doing it beautiful. It's definitely amazing. All right. So for our last segment, I'm going to ask you. I'm gonna honor the jewels and ask
you seven questions. Okay, So they're gonna be like quick questions, meaning you don't have to give long responses. So you can give one word or you can give a sentence. And I only say that because I don't want people to feel like they have to give detailed responses. But if you want to, you can feel free to do. So, okay, I'm gonna give us some detailed responses. Okay, no problem, it's this is your episode, so whatever you want to do, it's fine by me. Okay.
So okay, so the first question, what does happiness mean to you? Happiness? Happiness means to me the state of being content. And I say that in a way that's biblically sound. So a lot of people know Philippians for thirteen, I can do all things through crisis strengthens me. That's one of my favorite Bible verses. A lot of people don't understand that the context I told you'all weren't gonna be short. No, that's fine, it's your world. You know, I'm just here. That's fine. A lot
of people don't understand the context of that that chapter is. It talks about contentment really like if God a lot, if God gives me a little, what can I do with that? And will I be happy with either? Or so, if I only have X amount of things in my life, cannot be happy with that. If I have X times x amount of things in my life, cannot be happy with that. I think that's what means.
Am I content? Or can I be content? I love that in the state of currently obviously, I think ambition is great and you're wanting to do more and give more. I think that's amazing. Can I be content where I am right now? I love that. I think that's how beautiful answer. Okay, next question, If you could have dinner with anyone living or deceased, who would you choose? And why? Just one person? Just one person is the one person you have to choose, So make a
good choice. Oh, my my grandfather comes to mind, Richard allen Brand. Yeah, he passed away when I was in college, and unfortunately I missed his funeral. And like I said, I was young in college. So I think now at this time. I would love to just have a conversation with him and pick his mind. He's also my fraternity brother as well. Oh wow, yeah we didn't. We didn't get a chance to really talk about that as he was older when he passed. But his wife,
my grandmother, she's still with us. She's ninety four, so what Yeah, she talked about him every day. She misses him. So yeah, I would love to sit down conversation with I call him pop Pop. I love that amazing. Okay. Next question, it's also, as you know, Caribbean American Heritage Month, so I have to ask, what is your favorite Caribbean food? I said Caribbean, but I really wanted to say Jamaican, but I'm trying to be increasing. You know you heard I can't sell
fish, but damn man, I'm impressed. You know the teaing's them there, Damion sewfish is my favorite food of all time. Like, I would eat it all day every day if I could see then yes, you did it. That was the right answer. Mm hmmm, I'm just yeah. Okay. Next question, what is your favorite food pairing with wine? Mm? Okay, so I like wine. I hope my best friend DJ, who is the Somalia. I talked about food Cabernet like red cats. I'm
a player with a with a medium steak. If I'm doing a white wine, sam block is my favorite, I'm gonna do some type of fish. Salmon's the easy answer, the same as what if you never had like a red blend with like pizza. It's great, interesting, it's good. So I will tell you My alcohol tolerance is in the basement. I have a very low tolerance for any type of alcohol. However, I have no you know what. I don't like beer. I think it tastes very bitter.
I'm more of a rare nephew kind of woman. But it's literally like one drink and I'm done. That's it. I could give you some pounds so you can be you know, have a higher tolerance, but no. So here's the thing. I was never really into wine like that. Like I was just the person that I have wine when I go out for like a birthday dinner or something, and I just order whatever is like not too sweet
but not too dry. Right. But then I had my lovely guest who is now a friend of mine, Bannery, who is the public relations the director of public relations I'm sorry for wine enthusiasts. I had her as a guest earlier this year, and she invited me to sip Off South America and there were like seventy vendors and you had to like go around and do tastings. And I was so nervous because I thought I was gonna drop down because after like two tastings, I already felt the room was like tilting, you
know. But it was so it was so like interesting and it was so fun and to see how you know, people are so into wines and they know these things and they know, like the guy's telling me, oh, this is from this climate, and I'm like, sounds great, sir, but I'll just take some of the whites. I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm just gonna smile and pretend, you know. But it's so like, I think it's great. Like for example, what you mentioned
what DJ does and you know him being like a black man. She was even telling me, you don't see a lot of that, you know. So I think that's so amazing that even in that setting, I saw a good amount of black and brown people and they were so knowledgeable about these wines and like you know, the guy saying, oh, well, you might taste this in this and I'm just thinking, oh, this tastes good,
you know, just on like a very basic level. But being around her and her putting me in that environment really opened my eyes to like wine pairings. And we were even talking about wine pairings with Caribbean food, you know, and that being something that persons don't really talk about as much. I've seen a lot on like Indian food and like you said, maybe pizza and fried chicken, but I don't really see a lot when it comes to Caribbean
food. So she sent me some articles and I even had a sponsorship from the McBride sisters and paired it with like some escavich fish. And yeah, so I am not DJ. I'm not quite there, but yeah, I'm building up my tolerance. Trying to take it from the basement is amazing. Okay, three more questions. The next question is if you want an all
expense paid luxury vacation on a yacht. I'm talking like Big jay Z, big pimpin yacht, although we don't condone pimping, but you know what I mean, big yacht right throughout the Caribbean, and you can only bring. You can only bring Damien. Five people? Who are you bringing? Hum? Five people? I have a only five special lady in my life. She's coming, Okay, Okay, I'm just glad you said her first. I just wanted to put that all there. I'm just glad you said her
first. Five people. Hm hmmm. I would bring my parents too, okay, okay, so that's three parents, Aaron Jackson, who was my best man, that's my we call we call each other cousins. But okay, but that's like family, and his wife I'll bring Okay, okay, nice. Nice. Normally people panic, but you did pretty good. You seem like you had it. You know, you thought it all really quickly. So that's good. I had. I had a picture where we're going. We're going to church, We're going to Haiti. Yeah. I love
that. Love that. Okay. So I tried this new thing, and I'm going to see how long it lies asked. But I'm allowing my guests to ask me anything they want to ask me, since you don't get to ask any question. Okay, how many questions do I do? I did five or six? This would be the sixth one, So you have one more after this question. Okay, what is your biggest inspiration that speaks to your purpose? Mmm, I would have to say the what would be a quote, but the who would be who the quote is from. Does that
make sense? That can't be who? You gotta be what I need to hear. Okay, so I'll stick with the what. Then I'll stick with the what. So the what is a quote that my Well, it's not a quote something that my grandmother said to me all the time before she passed away, for my entire life. You can you Yeah, that's true. I'll give it. I'll say that is a quote and it's don't let anyone take your freedom, and it really supports who I am and it really was
the foundation for me even starting this podcast. So that's funny that you asked me that. I think that when I was younger, I didn't quite know what she meant. Like, when I was really really young, I used to think she meant it in a literal sense, and I would just think, oh, gosh, like I'm free, grandma, Like no one's gonna take me. Like I'm like, I'm a free person. I can move
around, you know. But then as I got older, like let's say when I went to college, she would say, you know, don't get into any arguments with friends or over a guy or anything like that, because you don't want them to take your literal freedom, meaning to get you into a situation where you could go to or you know, you could get hurt. But most importantly, as I got older, she reminded me not to
let anyone take my mental freedom. And I think that's the most important because when you are a kind person, you tend to project your kindness onto other people. And a lot of times you can put yourself in a situation where you see that this person or this situation is not good. Right, Like you see that someone or some job or something is showing you like this is not good. But you think, well, if they just could you know, know this, or get this piece of information or feel this love,
that maybe that could change, you know. And what you don't realize is that takes away your peace right, which is essentially part of your freedom. And it always makes me feel really proud that throughout any thing that I've been through, I've always leaned on that and I've never allowed anyone to take away my peace of mind. And I think that by doing this podcast, and
people have told me that, which really warms my heart. That it gives people an outlet to kind of talk about themselves, talk through things, you know, and not alone in life and like stuff that they go through, which means a lot to me. So I know that's kind of like a roundabout way of answering it, but hopefully that answered your question. I identify with that quote so much, both in the literal sense and the figurative says, like, for me, a big thing that I always aligned with is
I can't have anybody lying on my name. I'm so like, no, don't do that, Don't say I did something I didn't do. Don't accuse me of something. That's like one of the biggest pet pies for me. But in terms of literal freedom too, if we're talking about mental health, being black in America, being a black man in America, it doesn't matter how much money you have, you're going to be considered a black man period, right, Absolutely, No one in ten black men are going to be
incarcerated by the time they're thirty two. Like that's a lot of people. Yeah, And that was one thing I said, I never want to go to jail, you know, especially for something I did not do literal freedom, but also, yeah, don't take my mind. Yeah, I want to be able to think. I want to be able to move how I
want to move and honor the people who want to going to honor. So I love that if you think about it, and my mom actually says this all the time, your mind is so important because it's with you twenty four to seven. It's the only thing that with you, like all the time, you know. And so I remember being younger and being like, you know, I'm I'm doing good in school, Like you should be happy I'm not out there doing bad things. And my mom would be like, that's
what you're supposed to do. You're not doing me any favors because if you do something wrong or you do something quote unquote bad, you have to live with that, not me. And at the time I was just thinking like, well, that didn't go over how I thought it was supposed to go. But like as I got older, I thought like, she's so right. You know, when you do something in life and you think I was telling this to somebody the other day, People do things and think that they're
getting away with it, right. But there's a saying in Jamaica. God doesn't sleep right. So you might think you're getting away with it, or you might think you can do something really bad and you know you got away with it like nobody saw it, or you know, you won the lottery the next time day, or you got that job you always wanted and you thought, well, you know what, I did that, but whatever, like I'm moving on, it happened. But trust me, eventually you will
reap what you saw, and that can be in many different ways. And you can't do things in life and just think that you can live, you know, freely and you don't have to. I guess I don't want to say pay because that sounds a little rough, but like you, you can't do things to others and not reap what you saw, yep, you know. And I just think that's really it's really important for just everyone to remember to not let anyone take your peace of mind. It's literally all that you
have. And I think until you have gone through something where it's been taken from you or tried to be taken, you don't really realize how valuable it is. Right because if you've never been through anything that has attempted to take your freedom, then you think, oh please, like you know, nobody can take my freedom from me, or no one can say anything to me or whatever until you're in it, and then you're like, oh my god, like how you know, Deborah Cox, how did we get here?
Okay? And the final question, if you could give your eighteen year old self one piece of advice, and yes, Damien, just one, what would you say? Oh man eighteen so, oh gosh eighteen. I was a sophomore in college. I was on the football team. I had pledged our Yeah. The first thing that comes to mind is don't do it. Oh my god, it okay, do it? Like I was happy with who I was in my path, especially like living for God, so I would I would have say don't do it. But obviously life, life,
and everything happens for a reason. So I think I wouldn't be who I am today if I didn't do some of the things that I did. But I would just say, you know, keep God first, So that I think that would be the one. Keep God first and everything I do, don't stray away from Him, lean not on my own understanding, in all my ways, acknowledge Him would be the advice I would give to that eighteen year old version of me who I felt like from you know, going to
church. I fell away from the Bible at that particular time in INSIGHT's gonna be twenty So yeah, I wasn't even thinking, you know, about God and my relationship which Jesus that at eighteen, Yeah, eighteen sophomore year. Yeah, man, madness and badness combination. But you know what, like you said, that had to happen, right, because if that didn't happen, you wouldn't have had the epiphany like, okay, wait, I need to like run it back, you know. M hm. So not a
mistake, just a lesson. I was gonna do the jay Z quote, but it just came away from me. I have to get better at these rap lyrics. I didn't need to college either. I was a little late to jay Z, but you know, I just used for my launch or or for the event I'm doing the Castle nice. Well, if you need somebody to step in as a rapper, I am available. Right, We're gonna have some some different music. There's something gonna be some instrumentals maybe that
you can rap. Okay, you know it's gonna it's gonna sound a little like the Queen's English. But I will do my best not to embarrass you. I promise you good. You're good. Well, Damien, I'm so sad. But that concludes the episode, and I want to thank you again for coming to talk the things with me. And I think that the work that you do for underserved and marginalized communities or just in general is admirable and inspiring. Problem thank you for having me. I'm definitely honored that you even
thought about me. Of course, the health, equality, those are kind of the things that I focus on, and I think that's kind of my life purpose in terms of being a voice for the people who don't have one. I love that. I love that. And before we go, is there anything that you want to share with the audience, perhaps any events that you have coming up, or where they can find your foundation or donate or anything like that. Yeah. So the pink and Foundation dot org is the
website, The Pinkinfoundation dot org. Backslash donate is how you can donate. I'm on I guess zel at info at the Pinkin Foundation dot org for donations, but Instagram you will find me at the Pinkin Foundation. So it's pink Foundation everything it's not a lot of pinkets. We're all related. Uh so that's cool. But the big thing that's happening is we're doing an event actually on my birthday, July nineteenth, down at the It's my birthday. It's
gonna be fun Smith Center Healing for the Arts. They're they're really doing it in the community. And I found this organization via an artist. He goes by kid and Noble on Instagram, and it was during Women's History Month where he was a photography so photographer. So we had a gallery of just black women all over the place. So I fell in love with the space. I fell in love with Ms Lisa over there, who is the executive director, and I was like, yeah, we have to work together. So
July nineteenth, it's called a Night at the Art exhibit. An artist, a local artist named Courtney. She's gonna have her work up. We're gonna have jazz there, We're gonna have dj there, j candle making, and just a chance for philanthropy as well to raise some money for the center and returnal mentality and collecting diapers. So it's free. It is a free thing for everybody, but I am asking that people do bring diapers so we can give to people in DC who need it. So it's gonna be good,
it's gonna be fun. I'm getting a little sponsorship, so I just got one to email that right before this, I got one from Coca Cola's gonna be sponsoring. Oh that's amazing, thank you. Gallo a wine company. They're gonna be sponsoring some wines as well. So if you know uh in Cua Champaign, that's be a gallow. If you know a pothic, that's gallow. If you know barefoot, that's gallow. So they're gonna be donating some wines. So it's gonna be a good night. It's gonna be my
better be a good night. You know it has to be. And look how selfless he is. Ladies and gentlemen. You're having an event like that on your birthday. That's amazing. Thank you,