I truly was like, no, white people don't split the pole neither, but apply these motherfuckers are splitting the poles white. They're holding hands and then if a pole comes, letting hand go and read joining hands. That's how that works in their culture. Yeah, no, we don't do that around here. We're grabbing hands going around that pole. My crop chips in your man bears are racist money stuff. You can't tell me. Yep, yep, yep. There it is. There it is.
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another phenomenal episode of My Mama Told Me, the podcast where we dive deep, deep into the pockets of black expiracy theories and we finally work to prove that Mr Cheeks is his father's name. You could just call him Cheeves, you know, you could just call him regular old Cheeks. You can lose the formalities with old Mr Cheeks, just call him Cheeks. I'm your host, Lankston Kerman. I'm happy to be here. It's
a goddamn holiday season. It's it's it's the time of of love and giving and also still toxic conspiracy theories, and that is what we're spreading here today. And my guest today she's She's a joy. She is a person I imagine who spreads both cheer and toxicity all in a in a warm in a warm bubble. You know, just a sweet because a fruitcake of of cheering toxicity.
She's fantastic. You know her from some great shows from south Side Now on HBO Max Season two is available and she is one of the breakout stars of that show. She also has been seen Sherman Showcase, where you know one of their most classic, most classic bits came out of what was its dropping lover For Jesus goddamn a hit. If they played it in the club, we'd all go on. You know her, you love her? Please give it up for my guest, Missouri Salahudine. What I've done, what's going on?
Thank you for having me. I'm hell exciting, man. I was jealous and everybody get a nature and I was like, what is excited? Is your turn to Let's let's get messy, let's get toxic, let's do the whole thing. You came with, uh an exciting one that I'm told you had. You already had it in the bag. You were ready to go as soon as you were asked. And this one's exciting because I think, like some of them once we've done in the past. It is not quite conspiracy theory.
It borders on superstition. But I imagine that those have similar qualities depending on how you interpret them. But I won't I won't delay this anymore. You said, my mama told me it's bad luck to split poles. Yes, if you split a pole, it is bad luck. And I also have the remedy to reverse that bad luck. Immediately after you split that pole. I do it every single time. Okay, well before you give us the remedy, because we don't even know what the fun this, this bad luck is
coming from yet. Don't don't jump the gun here, Zuri. We got work to do, all right. That tell me where this comes from? For you? Is this something you believe? There's something you've always believed to tell me everything. Well,
here's the thing I've I've always been extremely cautionary. Right, So, as a child, when you hear certain things, you know, usually if you don't listen to what you're told, you get like a spanking or something like, at least from where I was from, you get a spanking or you get a time out, right, So you don't even want to find out what happens when you don't listen. So I actually would never know if it's bad luck because I immediately follow instructions on what to do if I
split said whole. But yeah, so apparently like if you split a pole, it's really bad luck. And it's it's a superstition, I'm assuming, but it's just something that I've always heard. It's something that is so prevalent I feel in the and sub black community culture now, like a lot of people if you split a pole, like like, what the hell is wrong with you? You know what I mean? Yeah, so I I love what you're saying.
There's two things that stand out to me in particular, and I'll start with the first thing is I did not know that you you see yourself as a very cautious person, that you're you're a which isn't to say
that I don't think you're cautious. I don't know, but I that's not what I would have presumed in the time that we've spent together, that you're like a nervous Oh no, this kind of person nervous just very aware, okay, very awere minds be everywhere I be seeing maybe, and feel free to tell me if this is off base. But there are a lot of y'all. There's a you got a big family, there's a how many of y'all
are there? All right? So if we break it down, my mother and father were together for almost thirty years, so they had six kids, and then my dad the divorced and my dad got remarried and he had two more kids. Yeah, so eight eight total kids that and you were the baby of the original You're the baby, which means that I imagine you saw the error in so many of your siblings ways that maybe that's where that caution sort of kicked in. Absolutely when you see it,
people get their ass You like, whoa brother? I don't want none of that smoke. So differently, yeah, yeah, you know, I don't put myself out there, but I'm very very cautious. That's how I'm gonna say. Sure, you saw enough as whip been flying, You're like, your girl ain't gotta go through that fair enough, so so that at least introduces
a type of caution. Here's the other part that stands out to me that frankly, it wasn't until I was doing the research on this bad boy, that I really I didn't realize that this is a primarily black superstition. That's that was revelatory. So my question then is where do you think that comes from? Why is this a particularly black conspiracy theory? Slavery? I feel like from slavery, Like, yeah, but that that was a white a minute, that's how they get that's how they get you. Sure you're you're
not wrong? Right? That absolutely it probably comes from slavery. But are you are you saying like that there's a specific thing in slavery work? Was there a master who was like pole man? He beat the ship out of you if you if you walk to certain ways, damn poles again, Oh, don't go buy old pole master. He's no, this is what I think. Now, this is I'm coming. It's completely up. Okay, I love that. That's honestly what
we're here for. Imagine if you are trying to escape slavery, right, and there's a buddy system, right, you don't want to break that chain. You don't want to break that chain. So like say, if there's a barrier or something, you gotta go around it together because if you split up. Oh I like that, that's a good answer. You know, uh, in family, in family feud, when they go good, that's right. The bell then survey says, you know, I want to get I want to give you the full Steve Harvey
treatment because that was a good answer. So you're saying that this is sort of like encouraging us in a now metaphorical way, to stay united in our efforts towards a certain goal or towards our freedom, our functionality, whatever it may be. Well, when you put it like that, yeah sounds really good. That's exactly what I mean. Yeah, that's what I meant the whole time. Absolutely, you amire reader present. You didn't have to repeat that exactly what
I said. Yeah, okay, that makes sense. So so this pole represents an obstruction that might keep us from being united, and therefore we don't split the poll because I would be bad luck. Okay, I like. I like where we're heading with this bad boy. So you're saying, let's let's go back a little bit. You're saying that you're a very cautio this person who rarely, if ever has has split a pole. Have you ever split a pole in
your life? I think I'm pretty sure I used to do it as a kid for fun without even thinking of it. Yeah, it was something that I would hear like as a child, like don't split a pole. We always hear that. And then this one day I was like I believe. I was in a bus stop with a friend and this random black man out of nowhere was like, oh, that's right. You don't want to get that far. You don't get that far. No, no, we're there now. You can remedy. It's the remedy. I want
to hear about this remedy. Right, So this random black man, it's like, you know, you shouldn't split poles, but if you do, immediately say immediately say bread and butter. And that's the fix. So anytime, and I don't not only do I do it, like if I can do it, but if I see anybody else do it, I'll say it for them because I don't want them to have bad luck. You're out here like a bread and butter vigilant. Hell, yes, you're bread and butter batman. You just running through. I'm
saved everybody from their own bad luck. Okay, And do you do you feel like you have any evidence of of that salvation working or or vice versa of people having split poles in front of you before you knew about this bread and butter remedy and the bad luck kicking in. Have you seen bad luck and it worked for anybody? Um? No. But here's the thing why I say this, because I always say bread and butter, so
that saves people. You feel what I'm saying. So so you're saying, you're saying it's so much that there's no chance for the bad luck to find its way. Not on my watch, not on my watch. If I've ever seen anybody's like my sister, she's an asshole. I love her,
though she knows that I have this superstition. So if we're walking together, she will not only split the pole, she'll do circles around it and the whole time in my mind and my bread and butter bred and buddy, motherfucker you read so Yeah, I mean, honestly, it's it's one of those like I do it so much now it's I don't even think about it. I just I see you happen and I'm going brandmother. Uh, let's let me ask you this question, because this is this is
a conspiracy theory. You clearly hold her superstition. You clearly hold do you feel that because you're saying your sister ain't bought in on this, clear she thinks she doesn't believe in it all. Are other members of your family bought in? Are in this? Are you completely alone in this? I think I'm completely alone. I feel like I spent the most time as a child with our grandmother, right, and so a lot of superstitions and the conspiracy theories that I've grown to know as a kid, like I
learned through her. So you know, all of my other siblings, they were in school, and they were well, they were mostly in school. They live in their lives or whatever the case, so a lot of the fears they had already grown out of. So I was like I was still stuck with them. So of course it's not gonna affect her the way it affects me, because I'm the last one. I have a different view from her. But even though one doesn't mean much to her, and it's never like I don't think she counts bad luck. I
don't think she pays attention to that. I don't think any of my siblings like, damn I did that, Damn I funked up. That's bad luck. Like I'm I would be more of the person and like, damn, yeah, Glass, that's me, you know what I mean. It's my I am the oldest of five, and I think i'm further. There is a bigger separation between me and my youngest siblings than even you and your family. And there's a big gap for y'all. But like, my youngest sibling is
twenty three years younger than I am. Okay, so it's you know, it's a pretty massive gap. And similar to you, my youngest sister, her best friend was our grandmother and sort of remains to our grandmother. She just spent ship tons of time hanging out with our grandmother, and because of that, she's just a little old lady who you know what I mean, Like she'd just be saying little old ladyship that that truly none of us ever adopted,
you know what I mean. Like the other day we were talking about liz though, like my sister was like, yeah, I used to like Lizzo, but she don't. She can take her clothes off too much for my taste. And it's like, bitch, you're a lazy Why why is this your personality? I'm very judgment so as a child as well, so I agree with her. Like, no, no, I love Liz. I actually see one of my role mothers. But we all love Lizzo. That's not the point. My sister talks
weird and I'm concerned. Well, let me tell you something. That granny intuition is gonna is gonna keep her safe, honestly, like a lot of I could have gotten to a lot of heinous ship as a kid, but because I spent a lot of time when my grandmother watching stories and stuff. You know, you your your attention focuses on different things. You have a lot of a lot more discernment. You spend time with your elders versus like just kicking it with your friends or something like that. So I
agree with her. I was I was a very judgmental eleven year old. I I how and I see each other. I think y'all would have vibed. I think y'all would have found found some stuff to to rock with each other. On that said, you're getting these sort of like superstitious qualities from your grandmother. It was your grandmother especially superstitious. Was she like constantly walking around and and telling y'all to be wary of various you know, trickery out in
the world. No, we were just really rumbunctious. So she she was like to go get a switch. It wasn't not more superstitious, just more like I said what I said. If it didn't happen, I'm gonna thread to you, but I'm not gonna hit you. I'm a thread like that. So that's why I say I'm very cautious. I got you. I always teeter on the line of death. You feel what I'm saying, but I never go too far right. You knew how to how to stir Granny up, but you didn't upset her enough that she felt like she
had to pull that switch back. And and absolutely my grandmother she was. She was dope to sale. She was an amazing She's very funny, very intuitive, but not like oh don't do that, baby like not like that. She wasn't that right. No, I think I similarly have never experienced that grandmother like that. Wasn't a grandma. I had of like, oh my precious child, And I was like I had a cigarette smoking in the tupockets, just had opinions on the stuff, And you had to be like
a grandma. I guess I don't know. I ain't read that one. Feel you on that my grandmother was okay, So Grandma at least is introducing this idea to you or introducing this sense of caution maybe sure, are you then spreading the good word to your peers? Are you Are you then going out in the world and being like, hey, y'all, hot, hot, take here, stay away from splitting poles. Or is this so ingrained in in the community you're already in that
you don't even need to spread this as news. It just this understood because I'm gonna go with be right. But also everybody not ready for the truth. You know, sometimes when you see who times when you speak what you know, people look at you like you crazy. Yeah, So you'll keep certain things to yourself and you just continue to bless them or pray for them in silence, and you say bread and butter when you see them slippos. You don't have to tell everybody because they don't need
to know. I got you. This bread and butter is for those who want to be bread and had heard and for those who don't. The good luck, best of luck. Absolutely, just you know, hopefully I'm around when you s the pole, because if now you've flucked. I got you. Let me ask you this question because I know a little bit about your family. I know you guys grew up in a in a or at least at a time. We're in a pretty Muslim household, right, Like you guys had
a Muslim upbringing. How does superstition connect or doesn't connect to religion and religious practices? Do you think that they can coincide or is it like jetting up against it and you gotta like do your superstition under the bed when nobody's looking your prayers out in front when everybody is I think, okay, so we did. We were raised in an Islamic home, right, but then once my my parents divorced, it was kind of like the religion kind of went with the marriage, right. So for me that
was six right. So anything that I learned from the religion from six and before, maybe there will be some sort of a connection, maybe sure, But after that I feel that just came from more worldly experiences, less less about religion. And if it is connected to any religion, it's gonna be Christianity because everything comes from Christianity. Apparently. Yeah, well listen again, and we don't we rarely use this twice.
But that's how they get you, because everything coming from Christianity, particularly in this country, feels like part of the way that like the weapons are created or at least the level of control c needed for people. You keep people in line by making sure that everything comes from Christianity and or is connected back to Christianity. Absolutely, So any of the you didn't do this if you don't do that in the because I don't. I don't. I don't
know the Bible like that. But if you know, there's a lot of dudes and don't in there, I'm sure I know that part. And like, if you don't do the dudes, you'll ask grass, thus conspiracies, thus split im polls. Yeah, and then what's fascinating, And I'm glad you brought this up because I do think I don't think that many people do know the Bible right, like not in a way that they at least pretend to or position themselves too.
And so it does become this weird game of like everybody's individual interpretations of very specific chapters or documents or quote as opposed to a full measured understanding of like the entire book and its intentions and even the entire book is a crazy concept because it's not like it was written by like one dude, now, lady, it was like curated by eighteen different people and then written by a hundred different people when they compacted all of that together,
and one dude was like, YO, call that ship King James, and then we were off to the races. See what I'm saying you you you know more than that. Oh, I just threw our random names. I don't know. Is James a person? I think so? I think so. I think there's a there's a King James somewhere in the streets in history. So yeah, I mean, I think it's a challenging game that we're playing, right of Like, I
guess it's not even that challenging there. There shouldn't be that much challenge in mixing religion and superstition because they all have a quality of just whatever is available, take it, leave it, who cares. I think that was my hardest thing about like growing up in religion was the fact that my father would always tell us like, it's it's your own interpretation. That's why it's important for you to read it so you can have your own connection with
God or or whomever. I'm like, it's it's kind of also in a in a weird way like the internet, because I hear people saying like, you can go on the internet to find anything to back up whatever your agenda is. Yes, you know what I mean. Pastors go in the Bible and use passages to get you to pay their money. Yeah, right, yeah, So it's just yeah, I don't know. I'm yeah, yeah, no, I think that's fair, and I think in a in a in a beautiful way,
what you're saying is we all have an agenda. So your agenda can be an agenda doesn't have to be a bad word per se. It it can be a word of of support and and love and spreading as it as it was intended a good word. But there are also people who have a negative agenda, and we we only can see that employed after it's it's being employed if we have the knowledge to go back and
read these things and research these things. So it's it's an odd game we're all playing of like figuring out, Okay, does this is this splitting the pole actually bad luck? Or is this like somebody trying to trick me into behaving a certain way just so that they can reclaim their power over me or the world or whatever it is. Damn, look at you bringing that full You are good exactly, wasn't hey? They packed me the big bucks and my big bucks, I mean almost nothing to bake these connections.
So you know, I do my best. I do my best to bring it all full circle. Well, kudos to you because you just you just didn't. I was like, I was up there and then you brought me back. All right, Well we're back and we'll be back with more surry s and more, my mama told me. And we are back. Yeah, we're back here with mores, suri solo, dame more. My mama told me. We're still talking about this superstition that if you split the pole, your black
ass is gonna have bad luck. And and who knows if it's real or if this is something fictitious that an evil person cooked up. We're figuring it out. Do you Are you a particularly superstitious person across the board? Are you like, hell yeah, I'm bought in on black cats, mirrors broken, all that stuff. Or is it limited to just splo to two pole splitting? All right, listen, when I was in the sixth grade, okay, I was looking outside of my window and I've seen a black cat. Okay,
it's just a random black cat. That same day, I went to school and got into my first fight ever. Isn't that crazy? Well, let me ask you this, were you about to fight that day anyway? And I was not, had no intentions on fighting any black child. This black cat didn't know him. Well, your ass was was already cracking your knuckles and putting on you on your cheeks. Let me tell you how I'm prepared I was for this fight. I did not bring any of asoline to school.
I did not bring any extra hair ties, none of those things. I literally looked out the window was like, huh a black cat. And then when I when the rest of my day and went on like just and didn't think twice of it. And then the next thing I know, I'm getting into the fight with a girl. So it's like, no, I think it's just putting poles and black cats. Oh that's where you limited. And this I imagine black cat justified by the fact that this girl wanted to fight you after you saw this black cat.
And then the pull sweating because your grandmother gave you this information. Well, here's the thing as far as the black cat goes, right, don't, I don't. I don't want to just discriminate against all black cats, because that's not what we're doing here. Now. I thought you were doing racist catch ship, but no, go ahead. I think that that was more of a coincidence because I've seen black cats since then and nothing bad happened, obviously, But I
was just saying that was a coincidence. That was a coincidence that like I had looked out the window and I was like huh and then boom there I am beating girls up. Just damn Okay, so you want to fight, so it can't be that bad. It gave me that bad luck. Now, if you got stocked and jumped and had no didn't get no hits, then maybe black cats justified. But it's not like black cats do you a favor? The security girl asked my MoMA, like, hell, yo, who teacher,
what are you doing less in the backyard? And you have to be like yeah, kind of yeah, kinda no. But I think honestly, for me, really truly, all just a side. It's just poles. I don't I'm not like I got you. You're not uh super superstitious. Well, let's let's dig into some of this research and maybe this will make you feel more justified in your decision to be superstitious with the pole. Maybe it won't. We'll we'll find out. But like many superstitions, this one apparently takes
many forms. Right that that it isn't just what we've talked about, but there are some other elements that live in it. But I read some who believe that by splitting the pole, and this is interesting because it kind of connects to what you were saying about the slavery of it all, or at least the the the connection of it all is that there are some who believe that by splitting the pole, you are severing the connection
with another person. That like, uh that that when you walk with a person, you are sharing your spirit, your your energy with that person. And then by splitting an object, by allowing something to come in the middle of you, you are severing that connection and that is why you get bad luck. Specifically, they say the bad luck is transferred to the younger person in that pair, right or in that group, because they say that the younger person, in being severed in that group is losing the wisdom
of the older person walking beside them. So you're cut off from that wisdom and therefore you are facing bad luck. Mm hmm. You know I've been told that I was psychic before. Now this is just I'm just gonna throw you on a loop here. Oh, I had no idea when I said what I said about and you look it up and boom bout plow. They must have been reading my mind or something. Yeah, these articles that were written well before you said it must have been reading
your mind. I was feeding them ship. What is the ESP? Uh? Yeah, I got you. So so let's let's go even further into your ESP because almost all of the articles that I read talk about the solution to splitting a pole being the phrase bread and butter. You absolutely almost everything I read said that if you split a pole, you are meant to to say bread and butter. And that got me asking the question, why the fuck are we saying bread and butter in relation to split poles. It's
a very dumb thing to say theoretically about splitting poles. Now, before I tell you what I found, I'm curious to know, and this will be a good test of your ESP. What do you think the reason is for saying bread and butter. Okay, now when I I'm gonna I'm gonna now call that man a prophet, that man, that random man on the corner, sure, because oh this was like I had been like six seven grade, right, So who the hell knew that they were putting this information on
the internet all the way back then? Not him? That man didn't even probably have a cell phone. We felt the prophet James still, yeah, that's his name, Prophet James off of and Western. Now as far as bread and butter goes, all right, boom, here we go. I'm at the break it down. So if it if it came from slavery, right, what did slaves have to eat? Like, I'm just saying, what was something that they had the most access to? Perhaps bread? Bread? Yeah, no, they had bread.
I don't know if they had butter. They were probably the ones we probably invented butter. Okay, I'm just saying they gave us the cattle of like here, motherfucker, figure it out. And so he was like all right then and then we fingured it out. Okay, I like where you're going. I like what you're doing. I don't know if we have been but I probably made that up,
but I'm just saying. Unfortunately, what I'll tell you is that your esp seems to be glitching a little bit because that's not quite the answer that I found bread and butter. But but I like where you were headed. The concept of saying bread and butter derives from the difficulty of separating butter from bread once it's been spread, right, So so you can't unbuttered bread, you can't scrape butter
off of it. And so by saying bread and butter, you re established the connection that you would have had with that person had that pole not split. Y'all. Yeah, see proper Jenny z that's he was. He had quick information for you. He had to get on that buzz. That makes sense because you can't you can't ring out and render the butter. Not at all, Okay, I can learn something. So Interestingly, a lot of the online discussions seemed to suggest that this is especially and as we
mentioned a black superstition, which I didn't realize. I thought white devils enjoyed the superstition too, and and I was wondering, like, Okay, why specifically do we think black people are so into this? And you Zuri once again we're correct that early nineteenth century is basically the placement of the origins of this and it's slavery and racism, and particularly it was again sort of like a a metaphorical much in the way that that so much of our language and and our
history is written through like these odd metaphors. It was slaves encouraging each other to stay connected with one another, not necessarily in the in the don't get lost kind of way, but omotional connection. And splitting the pole was a metaphorical, uh, sort of like breaking of that connectivity. I love that seat. You bring stuff to the table and bam, it turns out to be gold. Yeah, and in a in a nice way, it seems like the pole.
I can't imagine that slaves started by being like, don't split a pole, right, But they probably started by being like, hey, don't split that corn stock or that right, yeah, some goofy slave ship. And now you know, I ain't have nothing, don't split that hard slave clothing. But now we kind of free black people can can come up with new things to to encourage each other to stay connected. And the pole became our contemporary interpretation of their old logic.
Mm hmmm. Hmm okay. So one of the things that got me excited about all of this, or one of the things that I found especially interesting is sort of like this, this idea of of contemporary conspiracy theories born of superstition, right, that superstition seems to be born of people trying to make logic from the illogical. So, if you are a slave, you're facing down something that truly
is illogical. You are being told you are not human human beings when you know fully that you are human beings, and you didn't even belong in this space in the first place, and you're being told that by a bunch of people who brought you here but also pretend like they don't want you here. It's a fucking wild concept. And so one of the ways that you remain human and remain logical in this is to to create logic
where logic doesn't exist absolutely. So that then took me into the ways and this we already sort of touched on this, but it got me interested in in uh. At least, I found it interesting to think about how many of our religious practices could easily be labeled as superstition or even conspiracy theory if they weren't so broadly accepted.
Do you know what I mean? Well, please, well, you know, like, uh, for example, in some religious practices, we we drink the blood of Jesus and we eat the bread which is his body. That is, that is a metaphor that has sort of been passed down from generation or generation. And if it weren't for the fact that millions upon millions of people agree to take part in this, it truly
would just be superstition. It would just be conspiracy theory to have like eight people in a room eating some wafers and calling it body when in fact it probably you know, because we've spread it so much, and because it's been intentionally spread so much, we accepted as something more substantial than that. Yeah, I think personally, what I
feel is that comes from just wanting to be safe. Right, So a lot of the superstitions and conspiracies come from just trying to literally not die, not die at death that was not natural or was an accident. Right. And so you you have again, like slavery, these people who are telling you what you what you just mentioned about, you're not a human being and you're gonna do what the fun I tell you to do, or I'm gonna
kill you. So you you come up with these different survival methods to to to avoid that, and and in a weird way, they catch on because it makes sense for the masses to stay the masses. And that's that's the part I think I'm especially interested in. Right. I agree with you that these practices are about safety. You said it yourself that the splitting of the poll is really about you wanting to to be you were you were, where you're You're cautious in these spaces, and so it's
just a way of keeping yourself protected and safe. And that is not dissimilar from the reasons that we pray and we talk to a god who isn't physically there, but we believe is there. That all makes sense, But then the question becomes, what is the intention on the part of the people who are spreading these things and why do they do they want them spread? So the splitting of the poll, we now understand, is coming from a community that wants to keep other members of that
community safe. But the praying to a god that could just be colonialism, right, That could just be a bunch of white people being like, if we can get them to get on their knees. When we tell them to get on their knees and pray for what we tell them to pray for, then we have their ear, we have their their power, and we can control them for
generations to come. Yeah, that's true. I think that part for me is really tricky because you a lot of Christian, a lot of people in religion, right, they don't believe
that they're being controlled. It's almost like if you if you save, you buy somebody something right, and you're like, hey, this is specifically for you to do this right, But then they take it and they're like, oh my god, yeah you're talking about I'm doing it for this, this, this, this, and then they're successful because they created their own interpretation
from this. So that's I feel like that's why a lot of people don't even feel like they're being controlled, because they think that they are in control with what they've been given. Yes, yeah, yeah, no, I completely agree. I think I think the the idea of and it's it's funny because we're we're talking about these very nebulous words,
right like control and freedom and all these things. They don't actually mean anything unless you add a level of subjectivity to it that that I have an interpretation of what freedom is which may not be your interpretation of
what freedom is. And the same is true for all of these religious beliefs, these superstitions, these conspiracy theories, that you go, well, if I just do this, then I'm free, and someone else might be like, yeah, but nah, and I'm going to add my own little flavor to it, and then I'll create my freedom, which actually requires you to be trapped, but I'll be free. And that's it's just all very complicated because we're none of it is objective enough to let us all just be as as
loose and and at liberty as we would love. Yeah, I mean I personally, I think it's all a state of arned, like you're as free as you believe you are, mm hmm. And I like that, I do think in a nice way. That is what what is comforting about religion, conspiracy theory, superstition is that it is about your own state of mind more than it is about like your measurement out in the world. That as long as I am talking to God in my head, then I'm talking
to God. It doesn't matter if the world can prove that God exists or prove that splitting these poles causes bad luck or whatever it is. Yeah, there's absolutely no proof of it. But let me tell you something. I've never gotten bad. Let me splind the pole. But and you're beating bitches up at school, so you're doing great.
That was a one time. It didn't happen again. One of the things that I decided to do sort of thinking about a lot of these conversations and and sort of like this subject in general, is I wanted to read an article about the connection between superstition and religion, right, And one of the things they said they said is that there was actually like a very deep connection in superstition and religion in colonial America, like in in America
back when the Pilgrims were kicking around here. Right. One of the things that they talked about is the fact that in many ways, religious practices are really just superstitions that have been confirmed. Right, It's just superstition that they've they've managed to actually prove to some extent, versus superstition which remains a little more unproven out in the world. I Mean, here's the thing. I feel like it's one of those things where you had to be there to
see it. Yeah, and seeing it's how you know, I many usually talking about millions, like a thousands, like how far back, like colonial Americans? Like actually, in my mind I was thinking of like the origin of the Bible, right, but but in the in in that in essence, I just feel like it's the greatest example I would probably
be able to use. It's like the news, like the media, So you tripping fall, we talk about this, They talked about this sometime side you're tripping fall, and then it spirals into this a tragedy has struck in this neighborhood. It's like, and think it really just tripped and failed, but you all talking about thirty people die. You feel what I'm saying to me, conspiracy It's just a horrible
game of telephone, how it is. It's just like you you're telling someone one thing to try to prevent them, and then they go and share, thinking that they're helping someone else, and you're really just spreading bullshit. Yeah, and I think that's a that's a good articulation of what I also think conspiracy theory can be. I think what makes it more interesting is you play telephone as a kid.
Obviously you're aware of the game. But what makes telephone interesting is somebody is making a choice at some point in the game to change the word they have to be because it's not a question of being able to hear it. It's a question of what you wanted the word to be or what you wanted the response from that word to become. So somebody whispers the word like tuberculosis and uh, you decide that like, you're gonna change
it to torque on theosis. And now all of a sudden, it's a different conversation when it makes it all the way to the end of the line. And that starts with one individual. It starts with one person deciding to interpret a thing in front of them. The tricky thing about the world is that there's not there's never an end of the line. Yes, I like that, Yeah, yeah, I think that's a good way. It's a haunting way
of going to break. But I think you're right. I think it really made me feel scared and sad when you when you said it. But I do think there's a very dark truth of that that there is no end of the line, because there's always people being born, there's always more people, and there's always more people to misinterpret or or reinterpret the things in front of us. And we really just have to be responsible for ourselves and and do our best to feel happy and healthy
and whole no matter what. The telephone game happens to be full circle? Did that work? Did we make it all the way back? Hell? Yeah, dog, all right, we're gonna get out of here. We'll take another break. We'll be back when more is very solid O day and more, my mama told me. And we are back. Yeah, we're back here with more Zuri Solo Dean More. My mama told me. We're still talking about them. Goddamn superstitions, those those conspiracy theory splitting polls. Black people don't do it.
White people go crazy. That's that's what I say, split away white people. Well, what harm could it could it do to you? Better cut it out. Let's play games, Zury. We this is this is a fun game that I cooked up especially for your episode. It's a new game called Stupid Stitious. You're stupid was nine plus ten You're stupid, That's what I'm calling it. I think I said stupid stititions at one point to you, but we'll go with
stupid stitious. What I will do zuri is. I'm going to introduce to you a number of superstitions from around the world, some some very worldly international superstitions. What I would love for you to do is just give your takes on whether or not you think these things are are legit, if there's any legitimacy to them, if you would if you personally plan to adopt them into your own practices. I just want your takes cool. So let's start with a fun one. The first one comes from Syria.
In Syria, apparently they banned yo yo's in three over fear that they would cause a drought. Your thoughts, all right, let me just unpractice, take your time. The logics all there, there's no there's no rush Syria. It's already hot. And uh some about this motion right here perhaps causes the shift in the wind. Okay, Thus I had nothing after that. I don't know. I mean maybe if they think like everybody and see area has a yo yo and they're all do a miss, they're working up with the wind,
which works up with like the irrigation. Yeah, you know, maybe, I don't know. I you know, it makes me think that maybe much like what we were talking about, it just was a in n three yo yo's were new and and maybe they were facing They probably weren't new, but they probably were new earth than they are today, and maybe they were facing down a nasty drought and they were like you knew, yo yo niggas are sucking up our chances at a good rain, and I we ain't.
We we can't risk it. We have to be cautious to get rid of the yo yo's and maybe we'll be Okay, Yeah, that one, I'm gonna go ahead and call it a superstition. Yeah, that's a stupid stition for you. I respect that choice. Okay, here's here's a different one that I'm interested to hear your thoughts on whistling indoors. Apparently whistling while you work maybe an issue in Lithuania, where it is forbidden to whistle indoors. They do not
let you whistle indoors and Lithuania. Okay, all right, Lithuania, yep, I see a len Okay, oh sorry, sorry, before you go crazy on this, let me I I need to finish the last piece that I this is my mistake. But the reason they don't want you whistling indoors is because they believe the noise will summon demons. Have you ever heard that one whistle tune to go the do do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do do do? You never heard that. I've never heard what you're trying
to do in my life. Probably have you seen Bigelow? Okay, you remember when the killer was whistling that too? It was extremely demonic. Yes, I want to agree with Lithuania. That's that they're whistling summons the devil. Okay, So whistling in general for you feels eerie and and scary and demonic, and you're not You prefer not to have that happening because I can't do it, and I am no, no, no, I am of God. And so there's a reason clearly
why I can't listen. The Lord wouldn't curse you with no whistlings, and the rest of us we're going to hell. I don't do the door. Okay, Well, Lithuania, you're bought in, you you. It sounds like you'll do well in Lithuania. You will not do as well in Syria. But that's okay. I got to have my yo yo. You've got to
have you yo yo. Okay, here's another one. In Mexico, they believe that it is bad luck to place two mirrors opposite each other, that the infinite reflections that are created by these two, these two mirrors facing each other open a doorway to the devil. M M. I've actually heard that before, or um, not not that it was Mexican, but like facing two mirrors like this together. Yeah, yeah, I've heard that before that it creates like a portal for spirits to like trends like coming in and out.
I got you so and when you heard that, you were like, okay, cool, never doing that, or you were like, no, I'm about to put some mirrors next to each other and see what happens. Well, honestly, okay, do you remember, like they probably still have these in some bathrooms, like in the bathrooms where you have like the little cabinets and it has like the three different mirridors. I used to put the motherfucker's together and put my head in. Yeah, your face in. Yeah, you can see you all the
way down the way, pretty sexty. This is the three sixty situation of my head. So yeah, Mexico, yeah, Mexico lost, and no devil's back here. That's why I give myself a haircut in eighth grade. See what I'm saying. Okay, I talked about haircuts. Here's a fun one. In India. Apparently they believe that you should not get a haircut on a Tuesday or it will cause bad luck. Well, saying is how my other hair comes from India. All Right, I'm gonna go ahead. I'm gonna go ahead and agree.
I wanna sunk up the flop. So god, you you're like, if that's what the Indian people believe, then then I support their work and I'm not in the product in the mail and the instructions read don't do this. I'm gonna go ahead and listen to right. Let me ask you this about this Tuesday ship. Are you worried that some of the hair that you've gotten from India might
be Tuesday as hair and therefore less quality. Now, if you know anything about the hair that they do sell, most of it is from natural ritual, So I highly doubt it was cut on a Tuesday. How really got it? Damn? Yeah, I got you. So they they're doing something a little more substantial in the cutting and therefore probably not doing it on the one day a week that you ain't supposed to do that. Ship. It's a sacred thing. Why would you? Yeah, alright, respect, Okay, last one, This is
the last one I'll hit you with. In Spain, apparently, instead of kissing someone at midnight to celebrate the new year, they are encouraged to eat twelve grapes one after the other for good luck. You eat grapes on the new year for good luck? Um, I mean we black eyed peas? Why we If we could have black eyed peas, they
can have grapes. I don't. I don't see anything wrong with that, okay, because I don't get the black eyed peas things, all right, nor do I all right, so you're just like, look, if there's a version that exists for us, then then there's probably a version that exists for other people. And apparently grapes the black eyed pas is a one for one between black Americans and Spanish kissers, I guess, or people out in the world. Great, all right, well, Zuri,
we did it. We the episode is over. We nailed it. Could you tell the people at home where they can find you on what cool ship you have going on? Yeah? You can find me on Instagram and Twitter and TikTok and snapchat all z u R I underscore l u V Suri loves Yeah. And then like you know of coming Surman Showcase Season two is coming out, so I'll be looking for that. Hey, look out for Sherman Showcase.
Follow Zuri online and as always you can follow me A Lanks and Kerman and uh, feel free to subscribe to the podcast right comments, do that bullshit that that you're supposed to do to support this, this goddamn ship show so that we can keep the party going. Uh And and if you want to send us drips, you can send them to my Mama pod at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you, not just drops, your conspiracy theories, your opinions, your hate speech. Send it
all to my mama pot at gmail dot com. Otherwise, by bitch by y'all, my crop chips in your pans as are racist. Also asty money, very turney stuff. I can't tell me