The Breakfast Club Rewind

from you on the Breakfast Club. Hello, who's this? Dude? What charm? What dja? Envy? What up? Brothers King? How are you doing? My brother? What up? Charlom Peace King? How are you on Blessed Black and Holly Favor? How are you? Brother? Brother? My first time on Breakerence Club. Bro, I just want to get it off my chest. Man. I just want to say, have a great up. Fourth to July. Everybody to faith and don't let the fireworks turn the good play? Okay, thank you brother, that's real. Hello?

Who's this? This curving out of Houston? Whatever? Brother? Or what's going on? Good morning? As a good morning? How are you? I'm doing fine. Good morn morning, brother, Good morning, Charlot Mane of Guard Peace King. How are you doing, black man? I'm doing all right. I'm cup to celebrate back beautiful black queen. All right, shout her out? What's your name? I want to celebrate ices Keller right here, all the youth and take this my beautiful black queen.

You know were to to celebrate teen years in July, and I just want to celebrate, hug and thank God for making me the happiest man alive. Yes, I love to hear it. The happiest man alive. Okay, thank you brother. Hey' getting off your chests? Yeah, I ain't got nothing to get off my chest? Really, man, I was serious. I was watching to ride Along yesterday and I squere, I said, Charlot man On, there you did like a cop. I wasn't right along playing a cop. People you know had

a nice little cameo. I walk out right before Ice Cuban, Kevin Hart. They come behind me. Yeah, I three, no, man, man, I love what I'll do. Man, listen to y'all every morning when I get off work. Man, keep it up. Thank you, brother? Hello, who's this? Yo's your boy? Clutch coming from Dade County. What's up, brother? I wanted to give a beautiful shout out to my beautiful co workers, dad be camping, Miss John said her birthday coming up on the damn a teeth, and to my beautiful future fiance.

I'm a proposed, I asked all her birthday on the seventeen. Okay, okay, all right, all right, proud of you man? Is it a surprise? Because if it was, no, no, no sh work right now, show listen to radio, stay shape because she'll get fired. But you know what when her friends and family members tells her they they ain't go to that, shout out all the numbers on lock. Ain't gonna do that? All right? Stop cursingsing a oh, I apologize. I have a good one. Hello, who's this? Yeah? It was at

least from naptown. Then what's up? Brother? Get it off your chests? Well I want to get off my chest. Well as I got a question. So I ended up behind a motorcycle and had some something needs to be sick. I ain't giving you no money for your goddamn motorcycle. We ain don't even have don't even put your cash out out there that I see where it's going no listen,

no listen, listen, listen. So I mean it's kind of I'm kind of heated, like trying to keep my coob because like it was some money I was saving up for my first day and it was either vacation or get my bike fixed. So like, okay, I'm go ahead and get my bite fixed. So apparently all the stuff that the dude said he did, he didn't do all

of it. So he gave me out of like like damn there two thousand and I think it to a different mechanic and he said, you know, well this tick like this piece is not new, this and this and this. So I'm just warning, like what do I do at this point? Like soon? Did anything I can do? Can't you soon? Can't? You? Can't you get one of these? They got attorneys their handle business like this, Do you

have a contract when you signed it? This here? Like what do you have some type anything like I get like in voices and stuff, but not well, I guess not really necessarily a contract. If you if you I to you that he was gonna do some work and he didn't do the work, I'm sure that there's some legal action to be taken. Have you looked at it? Have you looked at the reviews for his company too,

to see what other people are saying? Uh? Yeah. I mean I didn't really speak too much the negativ because I mean I'm normally a person kind of stick up about that. So I did some research, and I mean it seemed legit, okay, And there's a better business bureau too that you can also do there, that's what it's called. There you go okay. But I would let him know. I would be like, look, this is what you did

not do. And I like to put things in writing, so I would send, I would call, and I would send an email detailing what he did wrong, what should have been done, what wasn't done, and also let him know that you do plan to take action. Good luck, brother, Get it off your chests eight hundred five eight five one on five one. If you need to vent, hit this something now. Was the breakfast club? Good morning, the

breakfast Club. There's power one the breakfast club and ya allain the God I'm telling I'm telling her, what's you doing? Call of ya? This is your time to get it off your chest, whether you're mad or blessed. Eight hundred five eight five one five one. We want to hear from you on the Breakfast club. Hello, who's this? You know the dominated from ball Dominie from dude. What's up? Brother? Want to good morning? Good morning, y'all? Want to get off my chest? You'll shut up to my wife, man,

she'd be busting her ass all we all cooking? Man? Hold y'all. Follow on Instagram stud d A on the Score, Perdie Brown on the Score show. Okay, why she busting her ass cooking this week? You know she's a personal show private show. Okay, let's correct. Congratulate her man, appreciate appreciate it, y'all. A good morning? All right? Brother? Hello? Who's this? Hey? Good morning? Um, This is Clay calling from North Carolina. Clay, good morning. Get her off your chest? Yes,

I wouldn't really like to thank y'all. Well, first of all, I like to thank good morning, DJ Envy, good morning Charlotte Magne and God, and good morning Miss ye Peace, my guy, how are you? I'm doing great less than highly favored, but I would but I would like to say thank you to you guys, because you guys don't really know the impact of what you guys say and UM on the way people listen to you, because I just recently bought a house. Um here and UM, every

morning I used to listen to you guys. And when DJ Envy used to talk um about buying the house, I used to listen. I just told everybody in the car, shut up, shut up, shut up. I need to hear this and everything. And I never took one of your classes, but I used to listen. And one thing that you used to say about that credit, you got to get that credit right, you know. And UM, I recently bought a house back in October, and UM, I'm so happy.

I'm so happy. Well, congratulations, congratulations. We try to do, man, We try to and heard things that we learned outside of this world. We try to, you know, make sure that we teach our people and try to explain to our people. We don't know all the answers all the time, but we just try to point people in the right direction. Brother, But you guys really got to impact and this. Um, you know a lot of a lot of these young

girls are really listening to y'all. You know what I'm saying you so, UM, just keep doing and shall and I me personally, I thank you we appreciate you. Love brother now shout to um. You know, July thirty, first season, and I are doing a seminar in New York to Jacob Javis Center where we're gonna be talking about real estate and breaking down you know, how to get into it starting from credit repair, and we're actually gonna do something special. We gotta a bunch of brothers coming through.

I know the brothers from e y Ella be stopping through and we got a credit repair and and we're gonna be talking about hard money loans and conventional lenders. And also I know the brothers from e y Ella doing a invest fest again this year in Georgia. So if you can't make it out to the Jacob Javison a July thirty first make sure you make it out there. And these are just you know, ways where you could

learn the game, learn the business. Uh. I like what eyl is doing because they're doing something similar to what we're doing where we're not trying to charge people three four or five thousand and ten thousand dollars. Because I always say, if you're go, if you got that much money to spend on a course or a class, I'd rather you just buy the house. So we're really both of us just trying to teach our community how to do it, how to build generations well. And Investfest is

August fifth through the seventh and Atlanta. I'm actually gonna be there, okay as well, so salute to salute the eyl. So definitely get your tickets. Jacob Javison A July thirty first, uh and uh. Or you can, like I said, invest FSTs in Atlanta, get it off your chest eight hundred five eight five one h five one if you need to hit or something, and you can hit me in my um my link in my buyer because I'm gonna be at Investfests as well, so either or you could

check you sneaky link? What means sounded you can't hit me? You can't hit me. I got my link in my bio. You're gonna be with me, So what do you mean sneaky link? You a little sneaky link. Shut up, man, It's the Breakfast Club. Come on, get it off your chest, the Breakfast Club. Step up power one O five one the Breakfast Club. Your morning's will never be the same morning. Everybody is DJ Envy Angela Yee, Charlomagne the guy. We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in

the building, yes, indeed from Bell and we have Jabari Banks. Well, you're what's going on? How are you feeling, my brother? I'm great man how y'all man Less Black and Holly Favor. Yeah, exactly, Blessed to be here, blessed to be with y'all. This is incredible, that's right. Congratul on the successive bell As thus far. Did you feel a lot of pressure having to play such an iconic, iconic role, Yeah, definitely, definitely

the pressure. But you know, many talks with Will, many talks with Morten Cooper, our creator, and you know, they just reminded me to just be be me, you know, bring myself to the role. And you know, it's exactly what Will was doing when he was being the fresh friends in the nineties, you know what I mean. He was trying to be nobody else. That's what I had to do. How did you get into acting? I got into acting in high school and I sort of, you know,

it was just like dollying around. And then I went to college for it because my mom needed me to go to college, and I was like, I'll go to college for acting. And then I'm from Philly and I from Maryland. Yeah, and uh West Philadelphia boy and race. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy because I live I lived in West Philly with my uncle Phil. His name is James. Listen, listen.

His name is James James Brogan, right, Okay, but we called him Phil because he lived in Philly and I lived with him for a long time, and so that's why you know, Uncle Phil's real name was James James. A lot of instances within the show, not just me, with everybody in the cast, you know what I mean, that kind of like intertwined them with the story. But yeah, yeah, I went to school in Philly at University of the Arts,

and then I fell in love with it. Then, so did you tell people that story like growing up being from Philly and having an uncle named No, it didn't. It didn't make sense. I mean, it didn't look a register, you know what I mean. Like I wasn't really tripping off of it until every thing clicked and then it was like, oh wow, like every part of my life has sort of led up to this. You know why

you were a fresh Prince fan? I'm assuming Yeah, okay, all right, now, according to the Philly Voice dot com, the director, Morgan Cooper Heat had a twenty five thousand dollar budget to do a feature film teaser for bell Air with with different actors. So how did that turn into this is gonna be a show. Well, so basically, you know, Morgan put the trailer out, you know, just out of love and out of a pure place, you

know what I mean. He was just like, I love the Fresh Friends, I want to see this, I want to tell the story that I want to tell, you know. Uh, and he just he took that and he put it on YouTube. And I think within the first day Will's company, Westbrook, they hit him up and you know, they were like, we want to, you know, talk with you and develop

this thing. And you know, I think a couple of weeks after that, he was sitting with Will and he was talking about, you know, where we want to take this story and uh, you know, years down the line here we are totally different tone though totally different tones. Break that down. Break down if people haven't seen this show, the differences between what we seen as a kid fresh

prince of bel Air. Yeah, well, you know, bel Lair twenty twenty two version is a dramatic retelling of the Fresh Prince of bel Lair, the quintessential nineties sitcom, and uh, you know, it's all the characters that we know and love, but basically we get to dive deep into who they are and the actual stories that are going on in their lives, and uh, you know, it's a it's a modern day retelling of the Fresh Prince of bel Air basically, and um, and when you think of the story, you know,

our our showrunner TJ. Brady, he said it perfectly. He was like, we all know the story of the Joker, you know what I mean. But when we see jan Kie Phoenix do what he was doing, it was like, did you really think about it? You know what I mean? And so like we get to see the story, we get to see how Will ends up in bell Lair, and it's gonna be super exciting for like old fans and new fans and man, it's it's been crazy to love around the project. Did you were you afraid to

turn something that? I guess what's so happy? So I would call it bright. I'll call Fresh Prince of bel Air bright? Would you were you afraid to turn something like that? Dark? Nah? I wasn't afraid of it, um because when I had seen Milk Morgan's trailer, I was like, oh, I get it, I get it, and I'm I was like watch that, you know what I mean. And so I think it's I think it's important because it's a

reflection of our world, you know what I mean? And I think, you know, it's it's important to see that. How hands on was Will Smith during the taping and all that, I always say that it was it was great that he wasn't because he really gave us. He really left the our retelling and our creation of these characters to our own volition, you know what I mean, And so that allowed us to create these, you know, characters that ourselves are in, you know what I mean.

He didn't have this thumb on it, hella, you know what I mean. And so I feel like that's what I appreciated about him. But you know, he definitely gave us a lot of tips. What about the other characters, Carlton and all of any of them coming on and said or yeah, we have to, we have to. We had a few talks with the original cast, so it was definitely a blessing to to get their blessing them to see that that torch passed, you know what I mean.

I always wonder to you know, if and I would love to add world is but maybe he told you. I wonder what he had played that character differently now because you know, oh he's older now and he always said that back then he was he would pretending to be somebody he wasn't, right. I wonder what he played that approach that character different? Definitely. Yeah, I feel you know, like when he when he was, you know, doing the

Fresh Friends thing, he had no acting shops at all. Yeah, you know what I mean, and so he was just kind of up there just trying to figure it out. And uh, I definitely think knowing what he knows now, it definitely would have been different, but it wouldn't have been as raw. So you got, you got acting shops, so you weren't doing what willcames, but he said Will used to be saying everybody. It was a little different

for me. It was a little different for me because I was a theater actor and so this is my first time being in front of a camera, in front of a forty person you know, camera crew, and uh, and so that was definitely a learning curve for sure. How did this go to? You? Just? You know, I just sent to him my audition, you know, with I had, I had a manager, had an agent that I got through a showcase, and uh, you know, they sent me the call. They were like, Yo, there's this show called

bell Air and for this character Will. And I was like, hold on Bellaire Will. And I saw the call and I was like, okay, okay, I could do this. I knew it was me. I just had to prove to everybody else. But I thought that they wanted like a big name, you know what I mean. I thought that they wanted somebody who was recognizable to everybody else. And so I was like, I don't know how I'm gonna get this role, but you know what I mean, I just had to surrender to the whole process. And uh.

And so I sent him my call and uh and a couple of a couple of weeks down the line. What did you have to do on that first tape? Do you remember? Yeah, it was a couple It was a couple of scenes. No I have to wrap, no, no, I just uh, I just uh it was it was a couple of scenes. It was actually a scene with Lebron in it. Lebron was supposed to be in the first episode, you know it was you know, budgeting, you know, well, he was supposed to be playing with it the people

you're playing ball against. No, no, no, no, he was to be at the Bellair party. Was like, Yo, that's Lebron, you know what I mean. So I didn't seeing Lebron was in it um and I mean as as soon as I read the scenes when I first got the script, I was like, oh, this show has something to say. All right, we have more with Jabari Banks, he plays Will Smith in the new series Bella. We'll talk to them some morest to Breakfast Club. Good morning the Breakfast Club.

Oh wait, Yati and Charlemagne, the Guard's top time on the phone called eight hundred five eight five, one oh five. Want to join it to the discussion with the breakfast Club. Talk about it more than everybody's dj enjy Angela, yee. Charlomagne the guy we are the breakfast Club. Now, if he's just joining us, we're talking about some of the fattest things you've done. I'm not gonna lie bro that pizza slice with that shrimp fried rice on it got

me like, damn, I bet you that's amazing. And if you like roll the pizza up like it's a like a pizza roll like you put the shrin and rolling. Oh lord, Hello, who's this? Hey? This is all as well, man, I'm all the time fail you pizza as well? Oh man, Man, I did the fattest thing ever last night. I want the food line got me a box with the ice cream Snickers. I wouldn't got me a box of the ice cream clown Dyke. And then I topped it off with a diet root bear. You island, How why do

you get the diet root bed? He might as just go all the way in. I got about the stake of our laugh. I thought I had it. I was in Charlemagne, his hand on her most corner that come out. You went to picking whiggily. We went picking whiggily. Food line. Oh I love food line. Listen back in the day

when man getting up. If you had like two dollars and you go in the food line, you can get you a box of Lord Debbie old meal cream pies and one of them big three liters soldiers for ninety nine cents, the generic brand now not no name brand. Now the food line brand. My goodness. Yeah, some dude, I did something fat I was thinking about all man, I got to call y'all back. So I was the originator right of the song. Girl. You know it's true to y'all. Boy Kevin Liles, that's how he got on

when y'all had that, tell them why you're mad? I'm gonna share that with y'all. You wrote to believe in nilly song. Yeah, I'm from Baltimore. The Baltimore New Marks come out and I relocated to South Carolina. On the credits to say, Kevin Liles, Kevin ain write that song. Kevin a speech, Kevin just took the song that ran from Baltimore, got on with depth jam. Come on, I'm here to share it this morning. I mean, it don't matter. He won. Kevin, what's your name? King? All as well?

All as well? Well, don't sound like it, but I appreciate you. King. Here, I got my trucking company and you go, okay, you living got one of the biggest houses in months corner. Come out where you live at the Month's Corner. I'm an old fifty two man down there from ww Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly when you got the biggest houses of monks colder. I ain't mad at you, bro, know exactly where you had off old fifty two. Well, congratulations all as well. Salute

to you King, Salute to y'all. Y'all keep up the good work. Man, y'all, keep it cool on the stool and keep us laughing in the morning. Come out. That's right, And remember happiness is subjective, you know what I'm saying. Like you know, people always want to put a dollar out the happiness or you know what you're doing in life. Whatever you're doing in life that makes you happy and you're making a living, you're successful. Hello, who's this successful

and happy? There you go? Hello, who's this listen? Jasmine? Good morning, Jasmine, good morning. We'll talking about some of the fattest things you've done. I don't need to make sure this is a judge free zone zone always, so I rememb Virginia. Me and my friend put it like this. We drove from to put it in perspective, Norfolk State to VCU to get a to go to a ladies restaurant that went viral for baby shower plates. Baby shower plates?

What are you talking about? She went vibra. We have found her on We found her on Facebook and she went viral because she was selling baby shower place. It's like at the beginning of COVID. Oh, so you want to go find that food? When I want to go find that food. We drove from Norfolk State up to DCU. We couldn't even go sit down in the restaurant. We had to sit our fat hell in the Car's the food was worth it, though, absolutely not. I could have I could have made that. But listen, you had you

had a great experience with your friends. It was a memory, you know, it was memory. That's right. And that's what that's what that's what it's about. It's about food, fellow ship and and fringe. That's what food is for. That's right, that's right, that's right. Thank you. Hello. Who's this? It's fresh Fresh with up man. We're talking about some real fat boy inch this morning. Man, what's the fattest thing

you've done? I ain't gonna lie, bro, I'm only like one thing, but everybody who knows me can't be fat, fat spirit, fattened spirit. I ain't gonna lie like the fat the fatten thing, real bro. Everybody said I'm really like probably sick a two fish because I do everything fat. Bro. Last we got I ate some old meal because I don't want to wait on it to cool. I put it in the priest for about five minute. I don't see nothing wrong that with pizza though, Yeah you do

that with Yeah, pizza be too hot. I just putting it. I putting a little fridge for about my mouth. All right, So what about this, I'm microwave my icebreak. Now, that's just that's just stupid. Now. Now I do microwave it a little bit if it's too hard. Now, when you put that spoon in there, yeah, yeah, yeah, I do that now, Mica, I do that. No, I do that because you want your eyes. I like, you gotta want it to be soft. You want that spoon to just

go right through it. Yeah. I don't microwave it though. I just put it on the counter for a little while. I don't microwave it, man, I give about fifteen get there, okay, okay, okay, well thank you? All right? All right? Man, So now y'll feel fat, y'all hungry like I am. The food is amazing, bro. The moral of the story is, you know, I think you diet is a bank account, and good food choice is a good good investment. And it doesn't sound like y'all making good investments like I was talking about,

we just random things. It sounds like there's some of y'all regular everyday die all right, to just make sure you're making uh, you know, good food choices, to make good investments, that's all. But man, food is life. Well. I love food so much, absolutely, Lord have mercy. We all fat, we all trans fat, bro, and we just need to accept it. Don't nobody really like eating healthy? No? No, healthy could be delicious, that's not true. Sure it definitely

taste like yeah, I don't sure it. Take the man jest. Juices for life. Those are amazing. It's like dessert. They're good, taste good, like mangoes. Oh my god, I love a good juicy mango. If all this stuff we really love to eat was healthy, like if there was if Chrispy Cream donuts kept us alive, guess we'd be eating this morning right now for me. If Chick fil A's what gave us muscles, guess what we'd be eating this morning? Remember what I used to eat every morning to pill?

And I love spinas with guylic yem all right, well the Breakfast Club, Good morning, the Breakfast Club Morning. Everybody is DJ Envy Angel Yee, Charlomagne the guy. We are to Breakfast Club. We got a special guests in the building any time talk Royalty. Where'd you get that? Who wrote that? I love my mom for sending that in thank you? She listens to the Breakfast Club. Good morning, mama, good morning, was all how are you? I'm wonderful? How about yourself? And blessed black? And I love that. I

am feeling the same way. Absolutely absolutely good to see you. Thank you. This is my first time in your studio. I know it's aulation overload. Yeah, we did zoom so I'm I wanted those people because it's the clean, latest thing, stories behind everything. That's right. Oh yeah, DJ and V you and your wife are going to be on my show soon. I can't wait. We're excited. I love this. There's a lot of alcohol, but you don't what oh oh oh you do have the puffy Send me a

monogram vodka? I never opened it. You guys have one? Yeah? I think you have one too. Yeah, so yeah, if has your name on it, you know you kind of got to I guess you're not supposed to drink those. I didn't drink it. I just left it there. It's it's for a prop like y'all, but it's cute. How was it for you doing the show during a pandemic without an audience? Oh, it's terrible. It was terrible. I know.

I had Seth Meyers on the show the other day and he said he enjoyed it because it allowed him to connect more with viewers in the way he didn't expect. I think the first half of it, I said, just think, God, we're on air, like we're on air because we would be canceled otherwise, so we have a chance to stay on. And then when we went back in and had to go back out this last round when Amar, I'm a journalist,

and I'm a journalist, I should know better. But that second wave in December, I had to go back into my home and do the show and it was miserable and I realized, and you all know this, and Charlottage, especially with your shows, it is having an audience is It's like the team commandments. It's one of the rules of daytime. You have to have an audience. I my

first time even attending a daytime talk show. I went to Temple University and I came to see Haraldo rivera wow in person, way back when he had a talk show, and it just it's a part of the energy. So yeah, it was rough. I did not like it. I wonder when you went to go see Haraldo back in the day, does that when the bug hit you? Did you totally

not know the show? Like people throwing chairs? No, no, no. I was a college student at Temple and they, you know, they would always recruit young audiences to come in and we were here. Two of my best friends are from Brooklyn and I went to Temple, and so we just did what college kids do. You come to New York, You hang out in Times Square, You got free tickets to go to a show, and it happened to be Horaldo rivera'z. So when did you get the bug? When did you see yourself? When did I get the bug?

When did I get the bug? Well? Um, I would I was born. If I if you ask me what I would be doing right now other than this, I jokingly say blackjack dealer. But I don't even have to play cards. I didn't have a well, I don't even have to play cards. I can't play spades, and I'm from the South. I'm embarrassing. I don't I am I don't know how to play dominoes. I'm an embarrassed. Can you at least I don't play board games? Went to a board game? What is it a card game? I

don't play cards. I don't. I was never one of those people. I don't. I don't play monopoly. I think I do. What did y'all do in college, though, because that's a lot of good stuff. But we played spades, we played cards, not me. You didn't go to class. I did not. Not a lot of what was going on to Temple House music party. We used to hang out at Pen a lot the Pen parties and Mittenhall parties. But no, I never played cards, so I don't even

know we got on that one. But yes, i'd say blackjack dealer, but no, I never had a backup plant. This was always what I wanted to do. I think early on Johnny Carson's show was something that was in the background. But I quickly realized I wasn't a white guy and named Jimmy or James, and so that Late Night World throughout my entire career was really just a

white guy into our Sineo. And I think I think maybe seeing our Sineo obviously Rolanda, obviously Oprah Phil Donahue, but they all had different Do you remember Rolando Watch people forget how important she was in the marketplace. So it was there wasn't a moment. It was just I felt like I didn't have a choice. It was that I was this was what I was going to do, and I didn't know it was gonna be a talk show. I knew I was going to be a journalist. I

love writing, I love reporting. The talk show thing happened, as you know, because I got fired, and so I had to figure out how as I going to get back into TV and not feel as owned as I had previously. If you hadn't have gotten fired from the Today Show, do you think you'd ever gotten into daytime talk? No, because in daytime talk any shows, you know, that's just with y'all show people. It's almost like the Rocky syndrome.

People need to root for you, and in talk show world, they need to root for you, they need to feel a connection with you. And so while I did have a great run, I feel at the Today Show and even before that in Chicago for ten years because I was recruited to come to the Today's Show after being on air in Chicago. But uh no, because you have to have an arc every you know, it's it's like a superhero. You need like I had the ultimate nemesis in the person that they selected, even though I never

met her and never crossed path. Whether you have that justaposition. Clearly I watch a lot of superhero things, but you have so you have a juxtaposition of a villain, You have your story, your origin story. So what was my origin stories? I got fired and as a black woman, being forty eight years old and being fired, that hit a nerve with people. What is she going to do? How does she come back? And that gave me opportunities

to get in rooms. But if I'm being honest with you, and I always will be, Harvey Weinstein got me in rooms that I was never going to be able to get in. He was the most important person in Hollywood and he decided he wanted to produce a talk show with me, and so people started taking meetings to hear the pitch because of Harvey Weinstein, and then midstream, Harvey was accused of rape, and which I learned over a

text message. Someone anonymously text me and said, there's an accusation of the R word, and I was like, our word? What does that mean? And then it all what happens there? Because he helped you with your career? No, he helped me get meetings. I helped me with my career, helped you get meetings. But on the other end, he's, you know, accused of sexually terrifying all to the place. So do you just step back and say, look, I'm the mind of my business. I don't know, and he's helped put

me into I didn't know what to say. It was like an emotional grenade. I had never been in a room along with him. So the first part was thank god right then the second part was wait a minut due the people who came with me in a room, did they know? And is that why they didn't leave me in the room? So there were these many, many questions, and then, I'll be honest, came the moment where I was worried about my own survival and then I felt guilty.

Not It wasn't that I didn't care. I would never say that, But there was a moment where you think my career, Oh my god, what happens to me? I don't have a job. Now I've been in the room with him. Now I'm tied and linked to him, and this show will never get off the ground because of the people we were pitching too were white males of his level, if you will, who were not necessarily open to an idea of a talk show with me black woman, because there hadn't been one, right, Wendy had the longest

running talk show outside of Oprah. There've been here and there, But if you look at the long list of daytime talk shows, just largely white men and women who these syndicators believe could appeal to quote unquote mainstream. And so even though the best who had ever done it and the most successful in daytime was a black woman after you didn't have children, she knocked off all of the

stereotypes of what's relatable. So now I'm linked to him, I'm worried about my own survival, I am my backup plan, I am thinking this, I'm screwed. And then I had to take a step back and say to myself, what about these women who are making these allegations? And I know just like with Bill Cosby, who spoke at my graduation, who I replaced on the board of trustees at Temple University. Even if you don't believe all of them, if you half half and then half that half, you have at

least one or two. Yeah, and if there's one, that's one too many. And that's how I looked at it. So I had to take a step back. In the minute that I started thinking about what it must be like for them, It's like the floodgates open my confidence. I said, I'm going back in these rooms. I'm going to rewrite letters to all of these people and say you let me in the room with him. Now, let me in the room by myself, and let me pitch myself.

And so some of them said yes, some said no. As the spiritual woman that had to like, really psychologically, that's God working in a really mysterious way, right, It wasn't so mysterious. I actually felt like it was a clear sign that, you know, Lena Horn had a quote that was in this book Stormy Weather, and I have a great obsession with Lena Horne. She said something about white men getting you in rooms that you can't get yourself in and that's how she felt at the time,

and ultimately that's not true. People will let you in the room. I think you have to just keep beating down the door over and over. You. We are all in this business that we know. You walk in and you're instantly stereotype, You're instantly assumed to be something. Yes. And so I wrote back notes and I'd learned how also to tell people. I definitely channeled fifty cent a couple of times in I became no longer afraid to

brag on myself. Yeah, you know, you have your own merit and you deserved it, but we shrink it down. I mean we all do, but women we especially do in these meetings. And so then you defer to laughing at jokes that aren't funny, or your presentation changes a lot. And so I said, I'm thirty years in this business.

I'm going to run my resume down. And I really did channel every hip hop artist that you mail that you can imagine, and I specifically zeroed in on men because they get a pass at saying some of the things that women can. And I went in very, very hot. I was like, this is who I am, and this is what I did and if I have to explain myself. And I'm sure that was a turn off to some people, but other people received it with the intention of I don't stand up for myself who is and that's how

I've played it. I always wondered about daytime television, like, even though Oprah should be the bar right black woman who defied every stereotype, weird name, some would say, you know, looks everything, why didn't they continue to look for more of that instead of just going cookie cutter like they did. I don't understand it. It is something that I goodness it is they wanted daytime I believe not they Some

people want it daytime to be white. It's like, for I call it the Fort Green Centrome, and it's that you have this neighborhood and for it to be of value, some people believe that it has to be white. And so as a result, even though the audience is largely all women of all different backgrounds, our show is almost fifty fifty fifty percent African American, Latino Asian, fifty percent white. So we have this beautiful diversity just straight down the

middle of this show. And though we have to happen to have one of the highest income earning daytime shows. So these are people, mostly women who buy, who have huge purchasing power. But there will be people who say, fifty percent African American, that's not the audience we want. And you know they still say that. You know that there is still the conversation, and I have it all the time. I've had people call in and say, oh, well, why is this Why do they have so many urban

guests this week? And then you have other people who claim I don't, which is obviously not true. But it's a fascinating thing and I think it still remains part of television. I don't want to get into this whole thing, but listen when I when I grew up watching TV, it was almost more diverse than it is now. You know Martin in Living Color. I mean the list of you go through some of the breakout shows and television, the fresh prints and on and on, Oh my god,

Damon Wayne's show, Bill dil hugely show. I mean, we go to Bill Cosby and Oprah, but there was a We just had guy Torreon for their documentary about Fat Tuesdays, and they talked about this night that was created because TV executives would not go to Compton to hear comedians.

So they brought the comedians to the Sunset Strip, and almost every show you watched during the nineties and two thousands was because of a black comic performing on that night and being seen by executives who would never have gone to Compton to hear them. So it's fascinating. But I think, you know, I think it's a valuable landscape. That's why every year you see more shows launched, because there's money in daytime, but it's not always seen as

a value when that money is coming from us. Sadly, yeah, because we saw a Nick Cannon show only six months and then they canceled it rather quickly, and we were saying up here, we feel like he really didn't get a fair shake. And what's what do you define as a fair shake? Like not enough time to really layer make a mark and established. It feels like you need a little bit more time than six months. What do

you think? No, I think that he is brilliant and he is one of the best interviewers I have ever sat in the room with. I think the show wasn't him. I don't know what the show was, but it wasn't him, And I think that's I think they needed a reset, but it was too late. But I also think he got an incredible chance because he came in after a scandal that would have broken most people. I would not have gotten on TV had I said the comments about whatever he said, which he apologized for and he deserved

forgiveness for, and he deserved to be on air. I believe that was a big chance. A lot of people would not have been able to get back on air, and I think that may have taken him off of who he is. Right, could you come in with such pressure? You've now just said this thing, You've apologized, but you know people are swirling and they're looking for you to fail. And so I didn't always see like the Nick that I love on that particular show. Could you beat that

on daytime? No? Because what you said, how do he want you to k did a Middle America? I think he could. He's got Nick Cannon is one of the most successful people in entertainment bar none. I mean think about all of the shows, so he has a huge fan base. I think coming in under that pressure was never going to change, right. He was coming in with a cloud of people thinking, oh right, he got a shot, Look what he said, Look what he did. And then I feel, you know, his personal life, which he was

so honest and open about, was used against him. I mean, why he has, you know, kids or whatever. It was these storylines that became overshadowing of his talent, and he's so talented. No, that's true, because it's like you can't even really get into discussions about the show because you gotta dig to all the exactly and so all the articles became about his personal life, not about he had Jamie Fox on. They had this amazing segment. I'm a TV junkie. I watch everybody's show. I listened, so I

never watched him as competition. I watched as a fan. But I feel like people didn't talk about the content. So I don't know how that was ever going to change, That's what I mean. So if you give him another year, another six months, were they going to be able to change what people were talking about, sadly, which was his personal life and he owned it, he smiled about whatever. Well, I don't. I just I thought, why aren't we talking about his interviews or his content? And so that's what

I mean by it. I don't know if a year would have changed that. But if anybody's going to be back on TV with sixty thou shows on TV, right, he still is. He's got more shows and more millions than I'll ever have. This Tamin Hall feel like a successful talk show. Hosha. Yeah, okay, I do, I do? I do? What talking about you? Man? That's an interesting question.

Why do you ask me that? Um? Just because it's like, you know you, You came in and then everybody's like, oh, we don't know if it's gonna last, But then you got another season. Now you got renewed for two. So now you breathe aside relief and like, okay, no, but if everything was end now, you'd feel successful if every think we're to end now? How do I guess? How

do you define success? What is success? Right? So? I think for me, success is, yeah, I did something to your point that people didn't think could be done, and now we're about to go on our fourth and fifth season. I don't know how I listen. I was a success the day that I was born. My mother beat the odds. She was a nineteen year old single mom with no husband. My grandfather brought me home with a second grade education.

He could not read. So I was a success when I the day I came out of my mother's body because no one expected her to be able to be a great mom as a teenager, this country girl who then moved to a bigger city. So I don't measure it by the talk show. I really don't. I know that sounds all. I Oh, I don't. I do not. I don't, because you you know, you'll define yourself by it. There's a book that I recall, a Path of Light, and it says are you what your card says beneath it?

So right now, whoever's listening, you all take out your occupation. Are you still you? And I had to, very early on in my life measure my life by that because none of the people who I raised even had a business card to have a title underneath it, so they didn't measure themselves. So I wasn't raised to measure myself by that. So and even doing things you're passionate about, like your new show on Court TV, someone they knew, Yeah, that has to feel good because that's something that you

really wanted to do. Yeah. Right, Because then now so that going back to your question, you know, the success, the success is being able to choose your projects right and choose the things you want to do. So now I do have that option. So Court TV came to me and they said, we want to do a show someone they knew, and we would like for you to do it. I did a crime show called Deadline Crime for six seasons, including when I was pregnant with Moses, and I couldn't do it anymore because it was just

I was an emotional wreck. And you talk a lot about mental health. Imagine reading a script about, you know, a mother being murdered and I'm pregnant and I hadn't told anybody, and I'm thinking, can I baby here this way? Is he going to have anxiety? Like what am I doing? And so I said, once I finished that last season, I would never do it again. But I miss talking to people and giving them an opportunity to be comforted and giving them a chance to tell what happened to them.

And this show is fascinating to me because the common denominator is someone they knew. I mean, the crime show I did before was random crimes across the country, which were all compelling, but this is right now, someone in this room could snap, and these aren't like people who who you're looking at, I'm not looking at Wait a minute, it's the guy back there with the cap on. No. But we talked about crime, especially in New York, of randomness.

You know, somebody jumping out of an alley, or someone following you home, or a fender bender, and two people get into it. But these are people that were brought into the lives of the victim through no fault of the victim. And it tells you a lot about greed, envy, jealousy, passion,

displaced passion, and what can happen. So the common thread is, and I always tell people this show is not meant to scare you, but it is to say that there someone in your sphere, in your universe who could turn into a different person, who could go from the friend to a murderer. And that's what these stories are about. It's it's amazing and we see it all the time on the news about you know a guy who works

in the building where you live and he's a superintendent. No, no, these are people in their world like for women one and for women are the victims of a domestic violence crime and are saul that person is in their life so it's not the guy who's you know, the door guy or the guy who parked the car who suddenly gets fascinated with These are like intimate individuals in the lives of these people, and you wonder what drives someone.

You know, remember that movie Sleeping with the Internet. If you're lying in bed with someone and you believe that they love you, in with the same mouth and voice that they say I love you, they can say I hate you, right, And that's what's so fascinating. So this show, um really is it's it's a head trip because you do wonder how did that person go from being we use that phrase ride or die. They go from being

your ride or die two wanting you to die. And it's crazy because I watched them like on the weekends, the shows on Me and the wife cleaning or whatever we're doing, and this you always want. It's just so interesting they are. And I can't watch them at night. I watch all it's like watching a horror movie. So I do it all before, Like my son wakes up at five third am and I will turn on the TV and my huse was like turning two, go I'm gonna watch this, and I will binge it like six am,

seven am. They're so interesting. But from a human nature perspective, I mean we're all by what we do. Um, we're kind of the kind of like an archaeologist. We're studying human behavior. So like, for example, when I walked in this room, I could see you studying me, and I was studying you. I start to look at body and language. I hug Angela, but I didn't hug you. I get you.

And then you watch how people respond. No, no, you're watching how people bod I could even tell when my answer went too long because I can see it in your eyes, Charlomagne, so you can I can see it. No, you got your body shifted, so you know. And you we all are like little investigators, right, and so these shows turn you into investigators because you're wondering, Hey, how do I avoid being a victim? Be? Could I prosecute this? See?

How would I investigate it? Which is also why I wrote my crime book I'm a Crime series Jordan Manning as the Wicked Watch. I'm actually fifteen chapters into the follow up to that and that book, like this show all inspired by human nature and I'm no professional. Let this, I'm a journalist who doesn't talk show. But I am deeply fascinated by how people can take someone else's life,

especially someone they love. Especially you know, when you talk about human behavior, the only reason all of us are safe every day is because of human behavior, because we make a choice not to go crazy on somebody. Yes, I could you be pushed to it? Right? Could you be put wash to a point of no return? I think I could. You could never felt like I wanted to. You know, somebody told me one time that, and I

totally disagree with this. But I've had a woman say on my podcast that if a man doesn't ever feel like he wants to kill you, he doesn't love you. Well that's a lie. Um no, And I was like, that's not true. What I mean by that is not passionate love. When I had my son, they talk about the Mama bear thing. I didn't know that was real

until I had my son. I could have. We were walking one day and we lived in the city and this man was just demonstrative walking and my baby was just learning to walk, and he nearly knocked him over. I saw stars, I saw I mean, it was one of those moments like Oprah's to be brought oper and color pro was like, hold my baby. I was like, I was ready to kill this man and I had I turned and before and I'm like cursing, and my husband's like, what is this? And it was a rage

from the bottom of my feet. I can't believe I'm admitting this to the top of my head that I could have. I could see that I could. When's the last time you wanted to kill somebody? As never that was just a one time. Don't try to see this is what you do. Don't you try to make me man like Kamala Harrison will not fall for this nonsense. Not gonna yard. I gotta have Nick Cannon mad at me, like stam All said, he didn't even that is not

what I said. So let me clear that up. I said that too many people weren't distracted by things that didn't matter, which were Nick's great interviews. Angela said, don't try to screw me with him, So no, I, um no, Honestly, it was only when I had my baby that it was this mama bear. When they tell you don't get any middle of a bear cub and the mama bear, I understood and understand that snap because I never felt that away and it doesn't please. On top of that,

I got six. You know, it doesn't go. You feel like you're on guard constantly. I'm ready to do it. Really, I'm ready to kill somebody with my kids. Yeah, I'm not like, could you because we see so many stories all the time, but people doing things and kids, I'm like, and you know, we are the wishing wishing Nigga Wood type of people. I wish mother. And that's okay, you said, I won't say it, but that's how I feel with

my son. I feel like about your husband, do you feel like, No, he's growing, he's fifty three, but if somebody did something in him, you wouldn't be like, I'm gonna kill that person. Oh no, we were getting going though. It's my husband's different matter. I hop of course, of course, this funny story. I was once engaged to a man, uh and we went on vacation together and we parasled and we were out in the ocean and Cosamelo somewhere this is many years ago, and the parasel snapped, I

can't swim. I flew into the ocean. He was still on the boat. I called off the wedding absolutely, that's a true story. The guy on the boat, who didn't even speak English, was like swimming, Hey did it move? He was a lifeguard growing up, so I may have told him much. He goes, sume me, now what. I'm just trying to look at all sides. Should say. Last weekend, I think it was Miami fiance fell in the ocean. The guy jumped in after her. Chop was the plan

the boat that was very sad. I'm going that would happened. I'm just saying likes not and all they did was through the life rap for her and got her. But he died for love. Yeah, but he should have let the people on the boat do they No? I after I didn't speak to him. We flew all the way back and I said this is not gonna work. And what was his explanation? I listen, I did not. I did not. I did not. I was so upset and so disappointed. He froze, you know, black planted was She

was like, don't freeze. Maybe he froze. Well we'll never know married, somebody'll never not that worked. But no, what I know? So, first of all, the parasel, I was terrified it was gonna come down over my head, but it fell behind me. I had a life jacket on. I can't swem. So now I'm thinking two things. Thank god the parasell did not. Then I'm like, Jaws is gonna eat my legs because I'm in the deepest part

of the ocean. He might be thinking that too. He was, so you were like, I can't but lay it in jump there. You're like, wait a minute, what if there's jaws? Um no, my legs are dangling, and how far is the boat? They had to turn around because I flew it snapped and I flew out and pow hit the water.

It's like submit, I could have died. And then they flew back around, came back and then I realized I wasn't gonna go under, and I locked eyes with him and I was like doging battle for he didn't even try to explain himself, and you know, it's so long go but whatever he said wasn't suffice, and it wasn't It wasn't enough because I remember getting on that boat and I was like, this man will never ever b is like world Star. I'm trying. Yeah, you've been taking lessons, right,

I've been. I still can't you can't you should come in, Well, my son can swim. I'm still learning. Isn't that terrible? Your son can swim and you're like love building people up? Isn't that terrible? What cap? That's how I feel when little kids be swimming circles around me and I'm like, why can I Still He's a part of my motivation,

going back to that Mama bear. So when when we got our got our kid, when I had him and he's I said, okay, we have this pool, and you know, we do so many stories and it is so important. And I did a report on you know, there's this whole study on why people of color don't swim and it has nothing to do with an inability to swim. Um. It was a fascinating study from USA Swim that basically said two things. Um, when they asked young black girls, it was about our hair. Um, it was about her hair.

But more important than that, because that was a very small percentage. You don't want to put your child in a situation where you can't save them. So so many black parents and parents of color can't swim. And so you say, I know you can swim, but I need to be able to save my baby. And so as a result, it has nothing to do with like a lack of swimming programs. You know a lot of people pointed to pools closing and areas. It had nothing to

do with that. It was I cannot bring myself to put my baby in a position where they would be harmed, and I can't going back to Mama Bear, Daddy Bear, can't go in and save them. So that's been a part of it. So when I had Moses, I was like, I cannot possibly be here and not be able to launch into the first class I took. They taught me diving. So they would put these things and they said first class was diving. Well, no diving and retrieving because they said,

we won't call it anything. We'll say a piece of something falls on and so we would never use that, you know that visual And so they were five or something. I needed it though, right, So they would put it in and I dive, and they taught me how, like you know, your instinct is when you would dive in, you hold your breath, so you're panicking and something is underwater, go you dive in, Well, you're gonna run out of air. So they taught me how to push the air out

going in so that I could go in. And so it was intense and it was terrifying. But going back to what you will do for love, that was one of the things. I respect you breaking that off door because it's like you can't really do those vows sickness and in health and all. You respect me now because you first were defending him and you said he could have been killed by random him? What I though, because you can't. You can't would confidence say those vows knowing

that you almost let your woman drown? Or I couldn't be confident in hearing him? What about my perspective? He could probably have said them, because I'm sure now I got to go find him on Facebook and I'll ask him why didn't he jump in? But have you ever been at a crossroad? I met your wife too. I met Charlomagne's beautiful wife at the Tyler Perry studio. Is there any have you been in a moment or cross road where you had to say I gotta jump it?

Was there ever a confrontation with a god looking at her? Already Na not yet hopefully never too old now to be doing? Yeah? You got kids? Push ups? You ready? How old is Moses. Moses will be three in April. Three in April. When you when you're teaching one thing about swimming, just remember sometimes it doesn't matter that he can swim, but if kids are around him and grab him, even though if you could swim, so they teach you.

If that's the case, tell Moses to go down under the water because when you go, okay, my heart is racing. Now you got my heart racing. I know. That's that's why I tease the kids swimming. And the reason I didn't never know how to swim is and queens. We didn't have swimming pool. Do you swim now? Swim to swim team? Oh your word? Yeah, So I took that even with the Beijing and your bid you still jump in the shut up? Is that that that's not being okay?

But it's just the kids are young, like six seven months, I put them in the water. That's what we did. So that when he learning all my kids how to swim, great, see that's good. We did that with Moses. We started at he was a few weeks old. And actually I saw a gather union as a friend and I saw a copy in the one and I was like, Okay, look at her, she's doing it. I'm showing my infant these pictures like that, and she is a phenomenal swimmer,

and I wanted him in the water. But it is truly one of those intimidating things, even still for me. But it is so important and there are so many misnomers about why black people don't swim in it. Just when I got involved with this organization, USA Swimming started studying, it was after I think it was three and I don't want to quote it wrong, but there was an incident in Louisiana where there was a sandbar and the children fell in and they drowned, and as adults were

going out to save them, they were drowning. It's like three generations of a black family died. This was about ten years ago. I did the story. It was devastating, and nobody in the family and so the others were forced to stand at the shore and it was just like it blew my mind. It blew my mind, and it was that was also a part of the catalyst for me wanting to help them get the message out about this swim But you can come over, We'll help you. I know, I gotta learn how to swim? You do?

How old are you? Uh? It's too old to not know how to swim. I should have never been a Disney World. I never saw The Lion King either. I saw the play, the Broadway play The Lion King. What okay? You judge me for not playing uno kidding? I have seen the Broadway play though I know that movie. You've never seen the movie. And I've been Disney Work, Disneyland. I've been at Disneyland in California, never disney World in Orlando. Why don't you guys take her for her birthday? No,

thank you. I will go with you love in Disney World. No, we will not. No, we will not do that because there are a lot of kids in that water and everything else there. It is, you know what, It's very very fun. It is truly magical, and you have to get that iconic picture where you're right in the middle and it's behind. Do you have any nieces, their nephews or anything. I have a lot of younger cousins. You

got you should do a family trip. It's expensive. I think I would go with my friends at this point now and my kids. I have three guid children. You know you should go I know you give great financial advice. Just it is expensive. I will start it is GOTTLANDA. She's already set it up. So when I go there next she's like, we're gonna go. It's it's it's a lot. You want to get the fast pass, you want to get a tour, you want to and then it's gonna it's a lot. Well, how to go next month? Am

I too old to be a Disney child? No? Listen, do you know that Disney is the number one destination for couples to honeymoon? I could never honey that's too much. And they have the whole Disney wedding collection like people, you know, like they had the Gucci Disney collaboration. They have people go and they design beautiful gowns inspired by the princesses. Yes, is that a worst? Yeah? My oldest daughter cheerleading. So they have the leaving competition there every April. No,

it is, it is, It is truly you there. I'll let you know you're gonna make it there. You're like, you're gonna Mars with Big David. Got make it there? See, I'm gonna you could go to Morrow. You own like half of Brooklyn. I read every time about you buying another house another town. You should get on playing tonight and and fly right back, should just fly right there and go. You know what fascinated me? You had some of the a couple of the women from Tenders wind

there on this terrifying. Yes, that was terrifying to me. But I feel like people didn't have a lot of sympathy for them. They didn't. People don't have sympathy for We do a lot of shows on UM this type of crime, this type of fraud that takes place, and we did one season, I think this season one or two of our show a woman she was a CIA spy and a man swindled her out of over a million dollars and people had no sympathy for her, and I don't. It breaks my heart and I try to

explain it. Folks. Cons are good because they're cons. And when people say, oh, that wouldn't have ever happened to me, like, yes, that's what they do. It's like that's there. They spend their entire day trying to figure out how to get you to get you don't think you could do it. I watched Raw Food and Wine. I think you've never felt taken it. That was Rob Vegan. I saw that way. You've never felt taken advantage of ever in in a romantic sit Remember you bought the fake leather jacket jacket.

I bought a fake leather jacket, but that was two hundred dollars. You bought a fake It was on a train, but that's the beginning. It wasn't even on the train. But he put the fire against the leather and told me leather doesn't but you, okay, look at under stand out crazy. That's else. I bought a leather jacket with a guy with a flame torch, gave me a test. It was a great story. It is a great story. Was but that's what that's how it starts. There's only

two hundred dollars to fifty. That's a lot of a lot of money. And I felt that you buy seven jacket my whole life. But two fifty is the beginning. So if he first of all, two fifties a lot of money. Again, to buy a jacket on a subway with a flame, with a flame torch, fifty dollars, I could see two fifties a lot. So you bust some fake sneaked Look what you just said, he said it was real and that's what you got got and you can wear a fake less? Shut up? Do you do?

You do? You die? Don't do nothing to you? You got us die? You know? Don't try to spink? Are you a pitch person for them? No? Ok, he's not mentioned it three times, but like any name I mentioned three times, he gets him. Do you have a No? People always ask about your skin. Everyone always talking about beautiful. They have a dermatologist, doctor sandy, but it's beautiful. I don't use tammer. Have you ever been swindows? Have I ever been swindled? Like swing or anything? He's talking about

the flames like, no, have yes? Fake? I've never bought anything fake? But you get Oh. I can't tell the story no, because it involves the legal stuff now because I I don't know that much. I didn't lose it. I got it back. But how much did they take before you got it back? Uh? They I had deposited five thousand dollars wow, and and then uh because of her service related to my child. And then the service turned out not to be legitimate. And then I had to go and get it back, get it back. And

he could have butt twenty Lesack. I, I'm like, I hate being engaging, but it did get legal, so I can't get should be watching like you really, I now I want my money back. Um, But it's you know, with the dating thing, it's about getting someone when they're vulnerable, and love makes us so vulnerable going back and man, I don't want to make this a thematic show. The love of your child, the lack of love with the guy didn't jump in to save me any of these things.

It's it's love and they zero in on it. I had the ten Swindler women on and to your point, you think, like at the point they're asking for oh, my check didn't come in. If you front me this, I'll give it back, they just nibble away. At the same time they're love bombing them. They're showering them with gifts, and in that case, he was buying gifts with the money from other women. So you're thinking, oh, he just took me on a four thousand dollars you know, dinner,

so he's got to have the money. I'm on a private jet. He'll give it back. But yeah, it is a huge problem, and think about it. These are the people who come on TV do you know how many others that you know who stay silent, right, and who don't tell how they've been taking advantage of It's crazy, but I see how it can. Thank god has ever happened, But I see how it can. Yeah, why don't that? I saw how it could happen because he was definitely doing a lot of things. He's fulling up in a Lamborghini.

You don't think he has stolen it, and he's taking them on trips on private plane, and then you're believing that his life is in danger because people are acting. Well, that's when he lost charity, got beat up and he's too much. We always remember when they start adding on like so that they say they're the tells with a lie, and so obviously you watch the eyes. If the eyes go down and go up, they're different tells. When people start adding on too much detail, right, that's when you

know simple they keep keep your lie simple. If you ever. I hate to give you this advice, but when doing a crime show, and I do, I view a lot of interrogation video and looking even with my new show at you know, we have a one guy, we have his interrogation video and I was sitting there the whole time. I'm like, please stop. He just kept going. And you know they say, talk yourself into a lie. He just keep your lie first. I'll always commit the crime by yourself.

Never because if you're gonna do any with anybody, they're gonna tell every crime. What else should we do? Angela, don't do it at Disney, the cameras everywhere. No, I do a crime show. So again going back to a charlottage and say, you study people. And one of the things I always tell people everybody, you get caught when you do it with somebody else. If you're going to rob the bank, just leave the car out front and don't take anyone because they're going to tell on you.

That's the first thing. The second thing is keep it simple, stupid. Keep it simple, stupid. Do not go into the interrogation room believing that you can trick them. You cannot trick those investigators. It's all they do all day long is hear people lie. It's just like I know, you know, when people are lying in an interview I do. I interview people and I'm like, this is not a true story, or this is a TV version of the story. They know, right. I want to ask you something because you use this

word a couple of times throughout the interview journalism? Do you think there are still such things as objective journalism? Are as everything? It was never objective, It was never objective. How can it be? We're humans, We go home to our lives. We go home. So you're telling me it's like when you know, going back to my show, um, when they say to the jury strike what you just heard?

How do you how I possible? So we go in with our biases, we go in with our beliefs, we go in with our perspective, and how you extract that would make you one of the most incredible people ever. And that would be Jesus, because I don't think it's possible. And now you can try to suppress some of it.

But going back to you know, the book that I wrote, and when we talked about missing black and brow people pick white blonde women to leave for a reason, that's not that's a bias, because you'll believe that the audience values that life more or will not turn it from that story. That's the reason why people I was on a couple of shows and people, well, why do you think this continues to happen? We know the answer. Why So then why does that happen? Because people have biases.

They see that looks like my daughter, That could be my kid, she looks just like my daughter's friend. Oh my gosh, that could happen in my neighborhood. Reporters are just people. It's impossible. And I know a lot of my colleagues will greatly disagree with me and may not be happy with me saying that I've been in newsrooms for thirty years. I'm in the newsroom with people, not robots,

and you hear and see every day. And that doesn't mean it's a negative, right, because sometimes your perspective and bias can help. But there's no way, there's no So how do you trust any of these networks CNN, MSNBC, Fox, because it's all opinion based. How do I know that it is giving me the facts as they know them. You don't. I mean, you're asking me a beginning of time question that this is. I mean, journalism didn't start with MSNBC. I know people believe that, but it did not.

I mean the history of journalism, muckraking. You know, look at we even talk about dirty politics. I won't bore you but take a second and look at the Thomas Jefferson attacks. I mean, just it is, It's incredible. So I feel like, not to oversimplify, but just even Alexander Hamilton and everyone loves Hamilton, when I bring that up, that was a dirty politics. I mean, this isn't new journalism being used to demean Look at some of the

people love cartoons, you know, political cartoons. You've seen some of the political cartoons of Irish people, Italian people, black people. We talk a lot about how we were made to look in political cartoons. These exaggerated, you know, monstrous ways. This is part of the political agenda since people could pick up a pin in a paper without words. So the idea that CNN, MSNBC or fix started this is ridiculous.

And the idea that human beings who come in from very different worlds and sometimes the people they're reporting on. I just saw a whole conversation about monetizing journalism. We know people you and I in journalism who make sixty million dollars. What are you going to do to keep that sixty million dollars? Chet You're not. You're gonna do what you need to do. You're gonna go on TV and say some crazy things if that's what you're paying

to say. Anything that's monetized is corrupt. Anything that's monetized is tainted. And when you make millions of millions of dollars as a journalist, which I hope too, it's going to impact you. It is, And that's a lie when people say that it doesn't. You make eight million dollars a year. What are you going to do to keep making that eight million? First of all, why why? And I say that knowing again that I want all of us to have eight to twenty to thirty million dollars contracts?

But why if you're not a war correspondent, right because those people are putting it in on the line. What you see out of Ukraine is incredible reporting that I don't and I couldn't ever do. But I do think that that's not though to say that there aren't honest journalists, I think most journalists are honest. Honest and bias are two different things. So what is a journalist because I feel like all of them are bias? Oh, what is

a journalist? It's somebody who reports what they see and what they hear, and that's what we're supposed to be doing. Now what is opinion? That's different. But a journalist. I just did a interview with Cheek and Coody. They did the documentary. It's phenomenal. It's phenomenal documentary. They are journalists to me. They picked up a camera and they journaled and chronicled the rise of Kanye West into what he is now, which I believe is a genius. So they

follow that. That's journalism to me. Anybody can pick up their phone and the citizen reporters. Half of the crimes against black people related to police are because one person, George Floyd, she picked up the camera. You know what I mean that she's a journalist. She's also brave and a transformational person in this conversation of police brutality. But at the end of the day, she was a journalist.

She picked up that phone and chronicled what she saw in an unbiased way, but then turned it over from the perspective of being black and knowing that that could have been her too. So I think anyone can be a journalist. Opinion is very different, and that's you know, after seven PM or whatever, I feel like everything is opinion based. Now, No, I don't think that's true. I don't think there's a clear difference I feel between what happens from nine until five or whatever, and then after

five I think I think. I think so that's part of why representation matters so much, because we do have our own biases that we bring with us. Like you said, but you want people that also have a similar experience because the way they tell the story is different. Well, I think if someone is from the outside that maybe

doesn't understand cultural things. Well, I think it's a complicated answer because I just had somebody on recently who said, you know, well, as a white guy, I was in over my skis to talk about George Floyd, and I said, wait, but you can't view it that way either, because I don't need to walk in your shoes to tell you that it's wrong. So, for example, I'm a kid from you know, Texas, rural Texas. The only Jewish person I knew growing up was Jesus. Right when I first learned

about the Holocaust. I think it was in the fifth grade. My teacher didn't have to tell me that was wrong. My teacher didn't have to say, oh my God, I didn't need to be Jewish practice the faith, practice, the culture, go to a sad or dinner or any of that. I knew what I saw on there was wrong, So I don't personally need to walk a white colleague through

why George Floyd was wrong. And you can't let people off the hook by saying, oh, well, no, I think you still responsibility to report and know when something's wrong. But I also feel like somebody that can relate to something more when I watched that type of reporting, Yes, it's important to have absolutely like if you have somebody who's from say they're talking about our mayor Eric Adams, and you have somebody that's from here that as opposed

to somebody that's from Texas. Yeah, yeah, I agree, it is a little bit. It is absolutely different. I think though, what what what happens though, is people didn't use it as an excuse not to know right. Right. So I'm a reporter from Texas. It was my job to learn New York. It was my job to learn Flatbush or Crown Heights. It was my job. So I can't go into my newsroom and say, oh, I'm from Texas, So I'm bowing out. And when it comes to race and gender, I watch a lot of people bow out and use

that as an excuse. Well, I'm not a woman, so I'll never know. Well, you know, a woman, I'm not glad, so I'm in over my ski. So I really am gonna I can't talk about that because I don't know. You're a human, You're a human, You're a human, and so I just I am always careful of when people talk about you know that, because they use it as an excuse for them not to know. Our diversity is

important in the room for exactly what you said. It sometimes is used against us in the sense that it lets people off the hook for them not to learn. That's why guy loves seeing the conversations where they have panels and different people, different perspectives can talk about the same Well, that's why this show works. I mean, that's why you're a hugely successful show because you come in, you bring your perspective, DJ and you guys bring your perspective.

And that's why a show like this And I'm not just saying it because I'm here as a guest, this is what one day. People might not agree with something you say, they like what he says in back. That's why the view was such a hugely popular show that and that's why everyone tried to do panel shows. The key though, you have to have the right component and you have the ability and agency to speak up just as much as they do, which makes the show compelling.

You're not just the woman they're representing us. You're a strong voice representing us. Williams last week, I was it important for you to do that? Wendy has done something. There are there's a morgue of dead daytime careers, you know where people Yeah, I can tell you listen to rappers. You and the morgue of dead daytime meaning that was like Court TV slash rappers leaving. I'm taking dre My God bird man. I'm gonna take this flap though. What I said no, because I really it's not the kind

of show I would have done. I'm gonna be very honest. But she did it so brilliantly and did it for over a decade, and when people would say, oh she was this, she was. Nobody should be feeling sorry for Howard Stern. No, a list celebrities still go on his show despite things that he said, and he's the king of media, and I would hear people say I don't want to go on Wendy, but they would go on his show. And I thought, this is a double standard.

She is doing the shocking style of performance, which is exactly what he did. But she was somehow penalized in the eyes of some people. But she stayed on for thirteen years. She survived. Google how many failed daytime shows happened while she was on doing more with less. It was a chair and a woman who was an excellent performer in that style of television, and she deserves that

that acknowledgement. I mean, I'm getting out hot now. Maybe be bad because I just feel like people like I said, to listen, there are a lot of things that I did not agree with, and they're the Whitney Houston think. It still bugs me to this day. Um, and there

are a lot of other things. But that's said. I felt there was an unfair level unfair, a level of unfairness directed at her style when a comparable peer who did a similar show was still seen as a list what do you what do you think she'd be next? For us? She'd do it. I've been hearing about the view. Maybe I don't know. I don't know because I don't know what it is right. I mean, she was on with t J. Holmes. I commented only because she came out on with t J. Holmes and and talk with

him on Good Morning America. I don't know. I don't know. I you know, I I've only met her a couple of times, and I'm the last time I saw her, we were in Philadelphia and she was at the train depot with some friends. I guess they were her team, some members of her team, and you know, she was like, I look terrible right now, you know, don't look mind, And she started telling me about the the thyroid and whatnot. And I, you know, I don't know. It breaks my heart.

It breaks my heart, it really does. And I don't know her as well as you do, Um, but it does. And I'm I don't know, I don't everybody knows you were close with friends. Do you feel like his legacy is being represented correctly? Well? I think he had a choice to map out a better plan, and he chose not to map out a better plan. And he's very the smartest human being I've ever met. Second and Nick Cannon. Don't try to about Nick Cannon. Um, it's brilliant. And

I'm kidding. I said Nick Cannon was second friend. No, he thought out everything, every detail, and I cannot imagine that it did not once cross his mind that he did not have a plan for what happens. So I guess I choose to assume that he didn't care what was going to happen. Well, maybe sometimes you don't know the end is coming. You think you have time. That's all he talked about. Was then, really, no, the afterlife?

What is that like? Yeah? No, he he talked about a lot that this is not the end game place, right, that there is a much more for us to know spiritually and to be connected to spiritually. I don't think he was as tied to these things as we believe, and that's why he left these things for others to deal with. I don't believe he was as tied to it as people thought. With the show, someone they knew, there was a personal incident that kind of made you

gravitate towards this series as well. Right, Yes, we've talked a little bit about it before. Um My sister was murdered in an unsolved crime and the person of interest, um, the only person of interest was someone in her life. And so that goes back to what we were talking about, UM, who amongst you could turn into somebody that you don't recognize, and so I don't. I was not there on the night that she lost her life, but it was very

much aware over our years. My sister was extremely beautiful, UM, so vibrant and fun like she know how to player, who know UM and just like the really a life of the party kind of person. But UM, she had in her past had some very violent relationships and it

wasn't just one. And so what I started to talk about more than the night that she lost her life with things that I was present too, and I was there when things happened to her that were horrifying, and it did make me wonder about safety as a woman and all of those things. Oh yeah, yeah. What's what's your experience been like, you know, hosting the Tamarin Holshi, What's been the biggest challenge? Oh? Standing standing up for yourself,

you know. I mean we all have shows that we had ideas that we want to do and then people start coming in the room, they try to change you or change how you handle the show or what I think that I'm I'm happy that I have the show now in that my back was against the wall when I started it, so I navigate more strategically and more confidently. What I mean by that is, sometimes people don't agree with decisions that are made. I stand up for myself.

I'm not going to shrink down, and I'm not going to I went into rooms with people and fought for this show to be on TV, so I'm not going to lean out of that for anybody. But I'm always open to ideas. But the hardest part, really, other than a global pandemic, has been just expectations, right, um, expectations of myself and what I have of my staff. And when you talk about double standards, when you boss up in that way, oh my gosh, you're all types of

it's crazy. I read things. It's an ongoing joke now with me and my team. I walk in, I go, am I scary as they say, I am there. I learned by the second season. I just learned that it was a template, right, this is what they do. It's like, Okay, now the show is popular, she's out there. What are we gonna say? Difficult, angry? This that toxic blah blah blah. And don't get me wrong, to someone working as hard as we do may be their definition of toxic. I

don't know. So I would never tell someone how to feel, and if that's how you feel, I always listen to the staff. I'm there to have the conversation. But if you believe that we're going to give our audience a product that is beneath them, we're not doing that. I mean we call our audience the tam Fam. I work every day to make sure that when a guest like you come, I said, Charlemagne's coming out, I don't want people just to think that he is a shock jock

or whatever their perception. He has layers. He's a husband, he's a dad. That's why we brought you on on the show that you were on, because I said in a room and said, he's not one dimensional. I don't want him on for two minutes to come on and talk about some headline that he said this about somebody and got into it or somebody. No, I want the

audience to know him. You know, people still come up to me now and talk to me about that episode episode about mental health people, I mean random people an airport. I saw you want tammeron hall talking about mental health. Well, that's interesting. Because I actually had and i'll take you

behind the scene. I had not a clash, but I had to sit down a producer and say, this is what we're doing with him, because it was important to show you as the multidimensional human being that you are not Oh this guy on the radio that I may or may not have heard of. You are internationally famous. This show is internationally known. But that said, everybody don't know you. So you got to take them through the journey.

And so for me, that was important. Now, that might have been a hard segment for that producer because it took more time, but it paid off and they loved the segment, and I was happy. You love the segment and the audience resonated. So you know nothing. You don't get to do something easy and just expect there to be rewards. You got, I know, you got to know the man who would have jumped in the ocean for me. You know how to swim. Now, so you don't know you think you would take you to get We just

don't know. Why don't you said something earlier, fools and we'll punk him, like, what's that show? You said something earlier that made me think because you said it was something about loving fear, and I was like, well, what if fear overpowers love? I think it's better to be feared. What I'm saying in that moment, you could love this person. Quit trying to make excuse saying. It's just like, we need to hear both sides. You need to hear an

objective journalists, an opinion journalist. What other what could he tell you? I was terrified that jumping in as a trained lifeguard to save her, he didn't even have to go reach for me. Maybe just peddle around me and say, babe, it's gonna be okay. You're they're gonna pull you out. What if you threw a rope? Rope, go get your If it throws a rope, okay, I'm gonna wrap it around my waistingle pull in, no damn it before you leave.

I had one more question, because if you know you're looking at your wife, I'm not looking at my watch my husband. Call um. So what do you do when somebody tells you there's a guest coming on and they don't want to talk about a certain topic, right right? Do you? Oh? I think about that? I do, because, for example, some guests don't like talking about Exus and naring the current relationship. I agree with that. I would never have DJ in beyond about another relationship because he's

not his wife is there. I always tell people like they'll have a we'll have a guest on and they'll say, let's ask about you know the man she dated three years ago that happened to be famous or whatever, And I said, but she's not with him. Now. Imagine going to a dinner party and I ask you in front of your new guy about the guy three times back. That's rude. And so I feel like there's got to be some decency for me, right, And I don't want anybody to feel ambushed. I mean, we had Andrew gillam on.

I mean that was a top one, and people were mad that I didn't say, well, are you gay? And I'm like, why did I need to ask that question? That wasn't He told me what he wanted me to know, right, And I can still do a thoughtful interview. There are certain things that I'm happy we didn't talk about here because it's just I'm not afraid of any answer. But we know we live in a clickbait world, right, and so you both are going to be guests on my

show very soon. I could have my team dig up all kinds of well once I read on the Shade Room and I saw this, and dada, what purpose does that serve any of us? So for me, I want you to feel safe. I want you to feel that there's grace and mistakes. That's why I said with Nick Cannon being able to get back on air, he deserved that shot. I want to interview Kanye West. I don't agree with some of the incoming traffic that's coming his way. I think people deserve grace. I think they deserve space.

But that said, when you have a high profile individual, they should be prepared to answer tough question. Yeah, I thought you gave Andrew a lot of grace and I liked how you handled that because it didn't feel exploitive. And that's what I don't want to do right. And even when people and you guys do a great job, when folks come in here and they're in the midst of a scandal, they should be prepared. Oprah says, you

cannot tell me what to ask you. You are in charge of how you answer, and so I always come in knowing that people might ask me something that I'm not like I don't fully talk about Prince for a lot of reasons, but I don't. But I'm always prepared for it, so they should be prepared. We're big kids, We're on a big stage. You got a big stage, and if you want to stand on that stage, you got to be ready for the questions. And so that's how I approached the show. Some people have been nasty

about it, and I just decline their appearance. I just say, we can't. We can negotiate. And some people will say, oh, I can't talk about it for legal reasons. I know when they're not telling the truth about that, and I'll say, okay, well what about this. But if there's a hard knowing, it's important to the audience to know, and I would rather pass. And I have said, come back when you're

ready to talk. Okay, And congratulations on everything too, myst seasons and new show Sunday Nights, Sunday nights, UM and TV Sport TV. I'm super excited about that, the Tamerin Hall Show, the book. But again, thank you guys. As my first time, I was a little bit nervous, really not scared, nervous because none of you would jump in the water to say, man, I knew that I can't smell yo. Well I'm happy because now I called Night one one and be like, there's gonna be a number.

We're in the middle of Mexico and the ocean. All I can do angel I love you. You're gonna be on my show soon. DJ Envy Charlamagne come back anytime. Thank you so much, and please do not start any static with me and Nick Cannon. I have nothing to do with that. Whatever comes to this will this. All I can do is ask the questions. Camer give me my bag back, Lebron James. I'm the Breakfast Club, the

Breakfast Club. Your mornings will never be the same. He's going the summer with the best audio entertainment from Audible. Listen to best selling audiobooks like Me and My Wife's book Real Life for Real Love, originals and podcasts, as well as motivation, wellness programs and the Lads, tech and business ideas all the one apt sign up for thirty days free at audible dot com. Slash Breakfast Club Charlemaine say that gang don't get out. The shape name you

are you Donkey today does not discriminate. I might not have the song of today. But I got to don't get that. So if you ever feel I need to be a donkey man, hit it with the breakfast club bitch, Please don't give today today? Wow, don't hear? The day goes to John F. Kennedy Middle School in Connecticut, in particular, a teacher name Bree Wharton. She's the district's health and physical education coordinator, and superintendent Christopher Dreesick I think I'm

for nothing his last name right now. I have extreme love for public school team, just dropping the clues bombs for all the public school teams shot down because my mother has been a public school teacher in South Carolina for as long as I've been alive, and I understand the impact that public school teachers have on kids. And I know how hard that job is because you have to truly love it because it's not like to pay as your incentive. I mean, you have to really care

for these kids in their well being. Lesson plans, assignments, all of these things teachers come up with the educate kids. We appreciate you dropping another clul's bomb for teachers man, public school teachers. We know it's not easy and in this era of social media, video games, all types of things just pulling at these kids attention, cutting through to these children and creating things that can actually appeal to

these kids is tough. So I'm not judging, okay, but as a parent of a middle schooler, I would be concerned about this lesson plan that came out of JFK Middle School. I'm holding it in my hand right now, okay, And the title is Pizza in Consent. Okay. Basically, kids at JFK Middle School in Connecticut were instructed to use pizza as a metaphor for sex and ask to site

their favorite toppings. For example, cheese was for kissing and olives were forgiving oral Basically, they compared ordering a pizza to receiving consent. I guess I can't make this kind of stuff up. Listen to Eric Sanzi, director of outreach for Parents Defending Education. She did an interview with ABC

seven KATV to describe the assignment. The assignment started out with a sentence that said, yes, pizza can be a metaphor for sex, and then it went on to explain that just like when friends have to agree on pizza toppings when they're sharing a pizza, that people need to agree on what they're willing to do and not do in terms of consent, and so they decided to have the students list their sexual likes and dislikes and then

draw them on a pizza as pizza toppings. Now, again, these are eighth graders, and it's important to keep in mind under fifteen percent of eighth graders have had sex. So they're being asked very personal questions on a topic that many of them are totally inexperienced with and likely uncomfortable talking about in school. This is middle school. How many topics do you think I've had them on pizza

in middle school? Now? I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I enjoy a great conspiracy theory, and Pizza Gate was a great conspiracy theory. You remember pizza Gate, don't you? Had a false allegation that the Clinton's used the comic Ping Pong pizza restaurant and Washington, DC is a front for a pedophile sex ring in the back room was supposedly used for kidnapping and kidnapping and trafficking children. Okay, Now, of course all of this was proven to be false,

but it made a lot of noise, all right. The owner of Ping Pong and his staff received death threats. People protested outside of the restaurant. A guy actually went in the restaurant and fired a gun at an employee. See these fake stories be having real world consequences. Okay, people believe these conspiracy theories, and when you promote these false and reckless conspiracy theories, bad things happen. I'm saying all that to say JFK Middle School in Connecticut has

done nothing but contributed to that conspiracy theory. I don't even know if Pizza Gate is still a thing, but this right here is going to resurrect it. All right. Listen, My daughter is in a grade she's thirteen. These kids are watching shows like Euphoria. These kids have social media. These kids talk amongst each other. Do you remember when you were thirteen, twelve, eleven, whatever age we were in middle school, we was already talking about sex in the

real way. So I can only imagine with all our access these kids have now what their conversations are like. So you don't need stunch like this. Just talk to the kids. Okay, let's talk to them, all right, listen, let me let me reach out some of this. This is why they use the metaphor for sex, they say. When you order your pizza with friends, everyone checks in about each other's preferences. Some people might be vegan, some people might be gluten free. Others might love pineapple while

others prefer pepperoni. Some might not like pizza at all. If you're a vegetarian but your friend is a meat lover, sharing a pizza is gonna bring up a lot of issues. You don't know who you can share your pizza with unless you ask, Okay, didn't they say the same goals with sex? No? What are he talking about the metaphor? To make no s the correlation makes no sense. You have to check in with your partners and ask for their preferences. Your partner might be comfortable with one sexual

activity but not another. Maybe your partners only want to be touched a certain way, or maybe your partners prefer to use certain language, or maybe they don't want to have sex at all. You'll never know your wants, desires, and you'll never know if your wants, desires, and boundaries are compatible with theirs unless you ask. No, I don't want y'all asking my daughter about any of that? And once again, furthermore, how many toppings do you think these

kids have had in middle school? Middle school? I would hope these kids are virgins. Okay, just playing cheese pizzas matter of fact, No cheese, no tomato, sauce, just raw dough. You know that hasn't even been putting up in yet. All right. Amanda, who is a parent from that school district, took to social media to express her discuss with the assignment. Let's listen to Amanda. Just last week, a school assignment and JFK label pizza in content were sent out for students.

What's pizza got to do with it? You wonder we can use pizza as a metaphor for sex. Those are the first two lines of this assignment, which are centered around established consent and boundaries, except for page two, where it takes it one step further in states. Now that you know the metaphor for sex, let's explore your preference, draw and color your favorite type of pizza. Mirror these

preferences in relation to sex. Here are some examples, like cheese equals kissing, dislikes olives equals giving oral Since one has become acceptable for a teacher to ask a student what their sexual wants desires and boundaries are Maybe our board members would like to answer this assignment and share their thoughts, just like our eighth grade students were requested to do. Now, of course, the school is currently backtracking. Superintendent Christopher Dreesy says it was a mistake and the

assignment had been inadvertently sent to the students. Basically, they are claiming they sent the pizza to the wronghouse, okay, he said. While the assignment was inappropriate, there was no hidden agenda. He said while addressing the parents, there was no secret cabal to indoctrinate kids on something. Let me tell you, man, if you know you have to explain that there's no secret cabal to indoctrinate kids. If a school superintendent has to explain that, all right, then my

kids might be in the wrong school, all right. An explanation like that is just I don't know, man. I just feel like this assignment is prompting kids to become sexually active before their time. And what does pizza have to do with consent? I still don't even know that, all right. Choosing what to put on your pizza when you are ordering with a group, it's hard enough by itself. Now, you're trying to make it a metaphor for sex, and even after it's been explained, I still don't know what

any of this has to do with consent. All right, Just talk to these kids. They're young adults. Speak to them as such. I promise they can handle it. But pizza as a metaphor for consent, they cannot. And what's the topic for antal? Please give John F. Kennedy Middle School in Connecticut the bigga. See huh, my kids ain't eating pizza no more. That's what you got out of that. That's what you got out of that. Out of it as you got out of that all day long. Jesus Christ.

The Breakfast Club, Kylie one O five one, The Breakfast Club. Your mornings will never be the same morning everybody is DJ Envy Angela shown them and the guy we are the Breakfast Club. You got a special guest in the building, Ricky Lake, the Legend, the legend. You're too kind, Good morning, Nice to see you. Ah well, funny you should mentioned that I'm doing a new show where I'm doing a podcast with my old show called Raised by Everybody. Ricky, Yeah,

what do you think? I think that's a great idea. I'm I just realized what the concept is just now when you said it, because I just thought it was gonna be. You know, you're doing a podcast, you know, talking about current events, but you're reliving the show. Yeah, we're gonna go back in time and break down these episodes because you know, lemon on a Media is an

amazing podcast company. These women are badasses, and they approached me, and you know, I've been asked to do a podcast, as everyone has over the years, and I was like, oh no, we to Abby Epstein, my partner, and I want to talk about it, my filmmaking partner. I'm so happy she's here. But no, this concept something about you know, first of all, it's a thirty This year's thirty years that I did the pilot of The Ricky Lations. So I was twenty three years old when I did the pilot.

I'm now fifty three, so you know, it was really interesting to me. I think what we were able to do back then. I didn't think of it at the time is groundbreaking. But the issues we were able to cover the way we treated gay people, the way we treated mixed race couples, the way we treat you know, it was just we covered a lot of bases, and I think it'll be really interesting to go back with the lens of now where we are now, Have we

made progress? Have we gone backwards? And we're going to have a co host that's gen Z, that's probably you know, someone who's non binary, is certainly a person of color and who didn't grow up with me, and kind of tell the story and bring back old guests, old experts, and I think it'll be a lot of fun. You know what I love about shows like Rickey Lake, even Donna Hue back in the day, even early Oprah, y'all sat down with people you had differences with. You sat

down people you may not have agreed with. Nowadays, if you do that, they'll call you problematic. Yeah, I don't understand that. I don't either, I mean, and that's why I'm glad I don't have the show that I had back then. Now it just feels like you're walking on eggshells. No matter what you do, you're gonna piss someone off. And Yeah, I just think it's it's gonna be a cool experiment. I mean, I think we're all nostalgic for that time, the nineties and I'm up for it. No,

I'd love to see you and you'll do that. I would love to see that. I'd love to see anything. Before we didn't ask one question, how are you? I'm amazing the best me I have ever been, you know, which is like I did that show and my name was on the rug and I didn't really have a sense of who I was. And I think in making these documentaries that I've been making with that be for more than fifteen years, I've really come into a place of like knowing my voice and what I believe in

and what I stand for. And I've now, you know, gone dark. I lost my partner five years ago to my olarn suicide, but I've now five years later, met the man of my dreams and I just got married two months ago. I'm congress. I live in my best life. Thank you so much. How are you happy? I'm so good.

I'm so happy to be with this woman. We just had our double feature premiere last night and we watched this movie we made fourteen years ago in the same theater that it premiered in at the IFC Center, Business of Being Born, and we just both sat there with my son who's now fifteen who was born in the movie Wow, and like we had chills the whole time, you know, because we were watching this going I can't believe that we made this in two thousand and eight.

It still holds up. It was powerful. If from the beginning, before you guys met what made you start the Rickey Lake Show? You were only twenty four years old? What's said? What made you think this is what I want to do? You want to the honest truth. Absolutely, it was the job that came along. Honestly, I had been a guest.

I don't you guys are younger than me, but I well, I'm fifty three and I was I did Okay, I did Hairspray when I was eighteen, and Ian David Letterman was a big fan of John Waters, and so he would have me on over and over again, kind of like Sandra Bernhard back then. And it was from those appearances that they thought of me. They were this guy garth Ans here. It was a kind of media whiz. He wanted to do a younger show because he looked at Oprah and Donahue and they were skewing over fifty five.

So they wanted to do something to skew towards younger women, primarily women eighteen to thirty four, eighteen to forty nine. So they went on a search and I was one of a hundred women at that time. I went and flirted with three gay guys. I didn't know they were gay, but I just brought out my skills and they gave me the pilot and I was like so broke. At that time, I was living in a poolhouse in the valley north of Victory, if anybody knows where that is.

No one spoke English, and I know, I was kind of couldn't get my agent to call me back. And I got this opportunity. I was like, all right, I'll do it. Five thousand dollars. I needed my rent paid for a year, and I'll do it for that. Luckily, we renegotiated and it turned into this phenomenon and it wasn't a calculated move. Every step of my career, including the business of being born, is never coming from a place of like seeing the big picture. It's really about,

all right, that sounds good, I could do it. So I think I have this confidence in me and also this like naivete, you know, and it's worked out. You got five thou Well, yeah, yeah, I did. But the first season, so then my agent did get involved and they packaged the show first, No, the pilot, the pilot was initially that was my opening bid was I'll do it for five thousand dollars. And then the first year, you know, at my salary, I don't remember what it was.

But at the end of the first year the show was such a huge success. This is nineteen ninety three, they gave me a bonus of a half million dollars. Wow. Really, yes, a lot of money in ninety three. A lot of that was a lot of money for real, Like I was broke. I my house was for clothes at that time. Yeah, I was needing that money. And it was you know that show it was I mean, it was just my life. Like I didn't have the concept, like I'm twenty four

years old. I don't even know who I am, you know who, like the audacity to get on that stage and moderate these panels. But I think looking back at it, I was I was the perfect kind of person for that role because I was a good listener. You know. It was very fourth coming about my own you know, hardshifts. I'm curious I'm so fascinated by people. I don't judge people, and so I think you're so real. You're so real.

Anybody who meets Ricky, any of my friends, but anyone wh meets Ricky in five minutes, they go that woman has the biggest heart. She's just so real. Like you don't meet a lot of celebrities that are like that, anti celebrity quality, And I think that's really what worked on that show. The show was a party, you know. It was just like you know, the people that came to our show, they waited months and months and months to get tickets back then, and you know, it was

always surprising. I mean, it was a little formulaic. I have to admit, like I knew, you know, I knew from the names I could tell, Okay, this is a black story. The first guests. The first guests were always the most outrageous, you know, and then we'd have the white story and then we you know, we'd balance it out. But I feel like we we did do a lot of good, like we you know, we we definitely saw people and many times that they're worst, but I feel

like I treated everyone equally. I treated everyone with compassion, and it was a good time. Did you said something earlier that was interesting? You said, um, you know, you said a lot right about what women had to go through because you're obviously talented. But you said you had to flirt with the executives. Kid, I didn't. I don't think it was a prerequisite. It was just my It was my m o. I mean wa, I wasn't even like I was, you know, very like heavy set, and

I you know, wore a big flower hat probably. I mean I didn't have a really a game. I didn't have any game back then, but I knew how to be charming and appealing and it worked. It worked in my favor. But um, yeah, that's the only game I know. I was going to ask, how did you guys me business? How was that so funny? You tell them? Okay, So I was directing a show. Do you remember the show The Vagina Monologues. Yeah? Yeah, do you remember that? That was also like started in the in the They made

an HBO. Yeah, it filded a special, but it was a play off Broadway ran for a really long time. Um, and so originally we had three actresses that would rotate every two weeks. So every two weeks, three celebrities would come in and I would put them into the play. And Ricky came in one week, and like I said, she's so real, you know, like most of these celebrities, you know what I mean, I don't really want to get drinks with them after. I just want to do

my job and go home. And then Ricky and I rode the bus home together and she just had me on the floor, like she just had me at hello. And so we met and then I guess this was like years later. We met in like ninety nine or two thousand. I got pregnant with my second son, and then I was wanting a home birth, like I was getting educated about my options, and so I was telling her and she's like, you're crazy, You're crazy, You're crazy. And then I got to vote. Nine to eleven was

a huge turning point for me. Where I was living downtown and I, you know, I thought we were going to die. I watched the second plane hit the building, and I in that moment of being on the roof of my building with my four year old and I had a two month old at the time, I said, I'm leaving if I get out of this, you know, alive, I'm leaving New York. I'm leaving this job, and I'm leaving this man. And I moved to LA It took a year and a half. I had to finish my contract.

I didn't end up quitting my show per se, but I ended I didn't renew my contract that back then, and I wanted to start a new life. And that's when I started soul searching about where I what I wanted to do, where I can make a difference. And we made the business of being born. But you know, I had her come out. I said, you got to come out and see my fast house in Brentwood. Yeah,

and see my new life. Yeah. I'd like basically stopped at her new house on my way back to lax miss my flight because we started talking and I had made one documentary at that point about violence against women, and I knew how to roughly make a documentary. And she was like, I have this idea for this project. It's about midwiffery and home birth. And I was like, this does not sound commercial, this does not sound like a like a hot seller. I had no idea what

a midwife was. And then she whipped out her little video care for my nine hour home birth video on my little you know, cam quarter and I gave it to her and I said, here, I hadn't even watched it. I gave it to her and gave her a couple of books, and she came back and she goes, I

think we can make a documentary. And then the magic of this film it took three half years to make because she got pregnant two years into making of the film, and then her story, her dramatic story of her birth, is in the yes to the end of the film. That was intense last night when we were watching it again and Ricky's there with her new husband, Ross, who's never seen the movie. I'm there with my son who's born in the movie, who's never seen the movie. My

ex is sitting in front of me. It was like and he shot the movie, and it was really intense. But yeah, so we both we both give birth essentially in that movie. So it's a really rare kind of documentary where it's a personal piece about the filmmakers and then it's also like a very political piece and it's still so relevant to come out, oh three and a half years, oh, because that's how long they make this one. That we just released last night. The Business would Be

of birth Control took seven years? Seven how long? We started it in twenty fifteen because twenty fifteen, first of all, you guys, nobody wants to give you any money to talk about and especially if you're like, oh, we want to talk about women's health. Uh, yeah, we want to talk about like how crappy the birth control pill is. Yeah, I don't think I want to fund that. I mean it's controversial. Um, there's no celebrity in it, and big

Pharma has their hands on everything. So for us to get into sort of mainstream media, there's all this backlash. You know, Yeah, you're not Jesse coach. Jesse's I know, friend of the your show, and she's she's heavily in our film, she's in the movie. We love her, but like this message, it's like Netflix, HBO, They're not going to make this movie with us. There's no way with what we want to say in the business of birth control,

There's no way. So, you know, you start in twenty fifteen, you do a Kickstarter, you get a little chunk of money, you make a sizzle reel, you know, you just it's like and then we did this movie weed the people in twenty eighteen, so we had like another movie in the middle of the movie that's about cannabis. Yeah, that's about cannabis and children with cancer. And then so yeah,

just it takes a while. And also because like when you're making these films, these films take so much work, right, but they're also your side hustle in a way, like nobody's paying you, you know at the time, so you're just like working on them when you can. Yeah, they're just like passion project or passion there for sure, they always come out at the right time. Like I think the business of birth control releasing now, like this is the moment for it. Yeah, especially with women's you know,

reproductive rights, you know, being script away. Everybody's gop people. So yeah, so what is the business of birth control? We well, what in the same way did you ever see the business of being born? No, I haven't. I urge you too, because it's really you know, we take a hard look at what birth, you know, the birthing world, the medical system when it comes to birth, and the same thing we look at the pill, the history of

the pill, the racist piece of it. Did you know that they tested you tell they tested the drug the Pill, initially on black and brown women in Puerto Ricoh. Yeah, I mean I think that at the end of the day, it's sort of like you can equate the business of birth control to in a way, the opiate epidemic. You know, it's really profits over people. Um, it's the way, you know, we know women's bodies have been co opted and controlled and exploited for years. So, like Ricky was saying, the

film covers a lot of grounds. It's truly mind blowing. I think people sit there for ninety minutes and they're like, I didn't know any of this shit, Like I literally didn't know anything in your movie. So one thing is we look at some of the products that are out there, like maneuver ring that's had a lot a lot of women die on it, and you never hear about any of it. You never hear about any of it because

you get gag orders when you accept settlements. So when the drug company settles with all these victims, they're then not allowed to do any promotion. So the stories in our film are the families who wouldn't settle, They didn't take the money because they want to change the labeling on these products. They don't want other girls to die.

So we tell that story. And then, like Ricky was saying, you know, we look back in time over the way birth control has been tied into eugenics, the way that it's always been used to you know, weaponize basically against communities of color. How obstetrics was literally founded on slavery in Africa, the pill was tested on women in Puerto Rico, and on and on and on. And then we also look at in a positive way. You know, we look at this new generation that does not want to take

the pill that their grandmothers took. Um. They're woke, they're ecological, they don't want to put you know, hormones, yeah, and acrin disruptors in their body. And so if the pharmaceutical companies aren't going to come along with like healthier options, they're going to make them up. You know, we're going to invent them. So you look at all these cool femtech entrepreneurs. And in a way, I think, you know, the younger generation, it's like they're they're kind of a

do it yourself generation. They're not going to rely on these big companies. And so, you know, we look at all the innovation that's happening, which is super cool. Didn't explore any of Margaret Sanger Oh yeah, okay, ok oh yeah, and that happened during the making the film. It happened during the film, which was interesting. Yeah, so we originally I remember, like Gloria Steinham's on early cut, and you know, everyone was worried about that Margaret sang her legacy, like, oh,

you're going to take her down. I think we're really fair to her in the movie. But then at the end of the movie, we show an update about how Plan Parenthood New York City took her name off the clinic, so you know that it's not so like they Plan parent finally had to come out and say, you know, let's be transparent, like we cannot be identified with our founder.

So again, that's why I think the timing of the movie was so good, because I think having that conversation about Margaret sang Her five years ago it happened like we would have gotten a lot of pushback. Yeah, my wife doesn't like brok control. That's why I get a vasectomina because we just had a four of dogs. She's six months old. Yeah, and it's like, yeah, she's refused to get back on broke control because it makes us sick. She hates it. Yeah, it's awful, Like all the options

are terrible. And you go out there and talk to anybody and they will tell you their birth control ernie, and they'll tell you every product they used and how depressed it made them, or how they lost their sex drive, or how they got In my case, I mean, I had hair loss. I don't know if you know, I was stealing my hair is pretty much it came back. But well that's part of it. I think it's a lot of things. I was putting extensions in my hair, I was coloring my hair. I was stressed about my hair.

I have androw genetic alopecia, which is the you know, genetic hair loss over years. Yeah, it was all above, but definitely mess with your hormones. Think about it, you know. And it's like what we say in the film, it's like sometimes now these kids are getting put on twelve thirteen years old for acne, for cramps, you know, like

you'll see with your daughters. It's like you you got to make these decisions right when you have like a thirteen year old, fourteen year old that's like, oh, but my period cramps are so bad, and then the doctor saying, well, just put her on the pill. That'll take care of everything. That's how they treat everything, and um, and that's that's not going to cut it. That's not gonna cut it for the new generation. So I think it's like, you know,

two things. One is, they're a lot of things that people are getting put on the pill four that have nothing to do with birth control, right, acne, fiooids, pcos right. So we need actual treatments for these conditions. We need studies, yeah, on women studies, Yeah. And then you know, we need to be more educated about the menstrual cycle so that there's other ways to intervene and relieve cramps or whatever

the issues are. Because what's happening is these girls are going on at like twelve, thirteen, fourteen, they're not really you know, they're hormones, they're not really developing. They're on something that's cut like basically putting them into menopause at thirteen, and they're not, and they're staying on it. Then they stay on it for maybe ten twenty years. I mean this drugs were not designed or FDA approved to be on for twenty interviews. Did you know that when you're

on these drugs it changes your pheromones? Yes, changes who you're attracted to. They do this T shirt test that was out of what's Sweden or something Scotland, so it's actually your so your pheromones. You know, it's like how you you can smell out attraction, right, So you know how if you like have sex with certain people, you like their smell, you don't like their smell, right, that smell is actually giving your body information about their DNA.

It's actually telling you whether you're going to make healthy offspring with that person who. And when you go on these birth control products, it takes that like animal sense offline, so you can't smell anymore. So they say, like for women, the line is you're going to be attracted to someone who's more like brother than other, so you're attracted to more maybe kind of feminine men. You know, men that

aren't don't have that kind of opposite polarity. And so you hear this a lot anecdotally, right that women either go like are with a partner, decide they need some protection, go on the pill. Suddenly they're not attracted anymore, or the opposite, the opposite. When they go off to family Plan, they suddenly are not into their guy, are you're about to make YouTube conspiracy thing? YouTube conspiracy? So that can't even help you. It canna make you change. You do

what gin do you like as well? No? No? Oh okay? Condition? So how did you get your hair back healthy? So I you okay? So I think it's a lot of things. Like I said, I don't stress anymore. I mean when I shaved my head in grand fashion the turn of twenty twenty, I mean I did it in a way like can you curse on this show? Okay? I said, fuck it? Like I was so done with struggling about

my hair. It was my deep dark secret. Every time I looked in the Mira could see my scalp, and it just it just drove me crazy, and the extensions were pulling. I'm sure many of your much of your audience knows what that's like. It's just it's just it was painful. And it was because I was a public figure, and because I'm so outspoken and honest and authentic. I this was this piece of myself that I was hiding, and I just decided, all right, I'm gonna rock a

bald head. You know, I don't know how it's gonna look. My friends were telling me, don't worry, you can do. You're gonna be able to pull it off. And I just did it and gave up. And then I came into finding this product that I'm now an ambassador of. I've never taken an endorsement in my thirty plus year career. It's called her Clinic and it's a shampoo and extract and something about the fermentation. I can't explain it, but it's non toxic and it's helped my care to be

as healthy as as it can be. Now you know where I'm going next. Were you offended by Chris rocks joke towards Jada Pink? I mean I was more offended by his actions. It's like it's by Will Smith's actions. I mean, like I used to say on my old show, violence is never the answer, and the fact that it went to that extreme, I mean, nothing, nothing that comes

out of anyone's mouth justifies a physical altercation. But I also did feel for Jada in that moment because I would hate to be the butt of that joke if someone were. And that was one of my fears when I did shave my head like I didn't, I didn't know what the reaction would be and I couldn't think that far ahead. But I was so scared of people making fun of me or is calling me names. So I definitely definitely struck a nerve for me because I

think women's suffering with that condition. Um, it's not funny if you yeah, no, no, I think there's a lot to the story. I mean, we're all speculating, but I think there was a history with them and the oscars. So I don't know. I mean I saw this morning that her her reaction to the slap. After the slap, she sort of smiled. I mean, we don't know, but I know for me personally, definitely a joke about a woman's hair loss is not is not funny. How have

you been doing mentally? Because we talk about a lot of the things, right, we talk about your husband at tickets life and the hair loss and everything that you've been going to. How have you been doing and how have you been coping? Well? Now, I mean now I'm literally in the happiest place in my entire life, which says a lot because I've been a really happy person. I've had a blessed you know, abundant life and career. Um, my kids are great. I mean that's really the start.

It's like you're only as happy as your least happy child. And both my kids and my four step children are all great right now. And my my new husband is just a dream. So I you know, I feel like I've been given a second lease on life, you know, after losing Christian. I mean I never thought I could be as low as that. I mean that the level of despair I had to be literally physically picked up off the floor. And I remember, I mean this was

just five years ago. I would force myself. I had a dog, and I would force myself to walk outside at the beach and smile at the sun and find gratitude, find something to be grateful for. And I you know, there were dark, dark days. I never thought I'd be in a place of peace and happiness. And I really am, like I just like I said when we first started, it's like I feel like I'm the best me that I've ever been. I really know myself, I really love myself.

I've you know, through this journey of shaving my head, and that was a badass move and I came out of it. Okay, you know, so, like all of it is a journey. I'm fifty three, and I guess when you turn fifty you kind of get a sense of who you who you are, and also you don't care what people think as much. Yeah, I don't really care what people think of me. I know my side of the street is clean. I'm a good person and I

appreciate every day. So to answer your question, I'm great, how do how does one allowed himselves the love again and be loved after something like that. I've always felt that I've been like deserving of love, you know. I think I chose partners um that either were physically a certain way so I felt better about myself. I chose partners that needed me that so I saw my value in that they needed fixing or they needed taken care of.

I mean, this is the first time in my entire life, and I've had many this my third marriage where I'm with someone who's my equal, who brings as much to the to the to the relationship as I bring. And that I think comes down to like self self worth and self love. There was there any guilt, because I'm sure people will say to you, oh, five years, that wasn't long with who would they to say that, Oh yeah, it was a long five years. It was a long

five years. And I don't care what anybody has to say, Like I I and I continue to honor this, this man that I lost, I mean, he was he was my greatest teacher to this day, he's my greatest teacher. Christian Evans was so special and so ill and I didn't even know what bipolar was when when I got with him. I'd never experienced it. I you know, he told me when we met. He's like, oh, I was diagnosed by polar and I was like, oh yeah, and I'm a control freak. We all have our things, you know.

I didn't understand what a manic episode was. And so you know, with Kanye, I mean like I really, I really, I just I just know that to be the loved one going through that and you know, losing Christian the way I did. I mean, for me, the trauma was the episode, the first episode versus the suicide, because seeing your loved one change on a dime and become so destructive and so like just someone I didn't recognize. But you know, I've done a lot of work in these

five years. And I think also with Ross my my husband. Now, I mean it's like I deserve him, you know, it's really like I know my value and I I really just I called him in, you know, I manifested him and I you know, just just I yeah, I relish this time in my life, in this relationship you've lived. You've lived all the big pop culture stories of the

pastor like literally I have. I mean, it's all so sort of it resonates, you know, I mean the oscars, Like you know, I was going on Monday, I did a promotional for this hair company that I've been working with, and there's the night before that that happened with the joke. You know, it's just yeah, it feels like my life. My life is a movie. It really, it really is

so true. You have lived them all. And also you know, she she speaks about them like she's gone to give talks on mental health and yes, and I think that that's um, you know, it's I think just being a witness to what she went through with Christian. You know, that kind of bipolarity. It is so tricky. It is so tricky because it doesn't present as an illness like it sometimes presents first as if the persons actually do great, because you don't realize that they're ascending toward that that mania,

you know. So it's it's you can't intervene, you can't tell somebody, oh I think you're a little you know, it's it's it was. It was an impossible situation. It was like you guys did everything, tried everything, therapy, drugs. I mean, I just that's what's super frustrating to everybody dealing with the resources to have the money. And I tried to save him. I saved him twice and I

couldn't save him a third time. And you know, yeah, I'm the fixer, you know, I'm someone that like really does like like you know, create like you know, and I couldn't And it was really really hard to come to terms with that. I'd love to hear some of those practices you talked about. You know, I'm big on

mental health and mindfulness. And I heard you say you you manifested you know Ross, Like, what are some of the things you do on a daily I mean, I know on a daily I was going to mention ayahuasca. Do you not do that on the daily? I want to. I can't not on a daily but I can't wait to do it. It's calling me. They they they don't do until it's calling you, exactly. It has to be a calling.

And the time I did it, I did it with Christian and I did it because he was doing it and I didn't want him to do it without me. That is not the reason to do it. And it was a horrible experience. But I've done it now about fourteen times over a period of last ten years, and don't know, well, it's it's a it's awful. It's going to hell and back. It's literally going to the darkest, darkest I mean, oh my gosh. And every time it

has been so different. I did it back at Abiza, I did it, did it in northern California, I did into Panga. I've done it all over and you know, my my mostly my intention. You have to send an intention, and my intention to do it was letting go and and and I did it once after Christian passed twice after Christian passed away. And you get these messages, you get these downloads, and you you see God, I mean you you see God. It is one time in particular that that I was with Christian. I was up in

northern California under the redwoods, and we were outside. It was during the day. It was the only time I ever did it in daylight, and I remember just being on the ground like praying, rent bowing and and I could literally see and feel the Earth's heartbeat in my hands pulsating and it. Oh you got, I mean, I have just just talking about it brings you back. I mean, it's it's medicine. They say you do ten years of therapy in one night of ayahuasca, and I think that's

remember the plant. That was the time the plant told you let him go. Yes, I'd have to let him go. You have to let him go. I mean I've had so Yeah, it's been I mean, I'm not called to do it again right now, but I certainly it's it's very powerful medicine. I've also done combo. I've done that twice. I've done I mean, I'm like a secret combo is the frog poison. No, it's not the five m Ao d MT. It's what they burn your skin, that the top lay of your skin, and they put the medicine

in and it does a scan. It's supposedly be the strongest natural antibiotic and it can heal you from so many different ailments. So I've done. I mean, I'm like a seeker. I'm I'm curious and I'm always up for growth. So I'm trying to think of the other things I've done. But if I oh, Burning Man, I started going to Burnie what's burning Man? But you're Burnie Man Fields like White Freaknick. It is for everyone. It is Bernie man Is. I can't say a festival is not a festival. It

is a city, the huge place over a week. You have never heard of burning. I have all my friends to burn the best place in the world. I'm going I'm bringing. Oh my goodness, you need to google it. My friend. It's it's I know, Bob and Bernik and yeah, I mean, it's it's. It's It's a place where you go and you are in that moment. You are present, you are free, you engage with people. It's a it's a city. There's no exchange of currency or anything. You bring gifts, but you give gifts um and you don't

do it for anything other than giving you. You know, it's people are are at their highest vibe at Burnie Man but it's a place where they call drugs medicines. That's all you need to know. You do, you do not. They have AA meetings on the player. You do not have to do anything you don't want to do. But it's like magic happens on the play aff I don't know. I guess I'm sounding too. I'm gonna go one day. My homie Andrew Showld goals all the time. He was like, you got to call me to burn a man when

I'm gonna go on. If you're called to do it, I urge you to go. Haven't been play. I'm let me just tell you the PLA has a lot more fun. Yeah, I know the PLI is burning man. They call it that the desert the land. Yeah, you did twelve seasons at a Rickey Lake, well eleven, and then I went back and did a new version of the show that only ran for one year. But I won the Emmy that year, and you said you walked away from it. I did the first show. I just couldn't renew. Yeah,

I mean it kind of run its course. Nine to eleven had happened. I just I wanted to get out of New York. I was going through a divorce. I mean, it just it just kind of fell apart. I mean, you know, Maury just ended his show. I mean I feel like I could have had a run like that. I'm personnel. No no, no, no no. I love Maury, but I I yeah, eleven years was enough for the first show. The second show, I wanted to do more of a Donnie Who type show, and that was my concept.

I wanted to be the elevated content, more provocative and thought provoking. And it didn't turn out to be that. Well. Difference between the first run in the second run, say you want to end one was successful. I don't know the first one. I mean, I think the timing of the first one and being in New York at that time was magic. You know. The second one, I was in bed with the wrong company. I think the executive that was in charge of my production we had different visions.

You know, he wanted a different type of show than I wanted to do, and I, you know, goes back to making the business of being born with Abby. I kind of have a sense of who I am in a way that I didn't back then. And uh yeah, so it was just you know, in bed, you did some good shows though you really did. We did. We did.

I actually did a show on suicide, which is so interesting because I didn't have I didn't have a his like I didn't know that at the time, but I was called to do it and I fought so hard. He said it was never gonna rate. It was never gonna and I felt like we needed to do it, and it was one of the shows I'm really proud of. How difficult is it for any person to have a successful daytime talk show, Oh my god, I think it's

near impossible. I mean, in the time that I did my show eleven years and we used to go to the Nappy Convention every year and there'd be you know, a dozen half a dozen news shows come and go and they you know, they'd last for, you know, not very long. I think it's a rare talent, Like it's like, I don't think it's something that was taught to me. I think it was like a natural fit, you know, for me. It's a unique relationship I think that you have with the world more than being an actor on

a TV show. I feel like because Ricky was in everybody's living room and people ran home from school at three o'clock, every day to watch Ricky Lake, watch Ricky Lake. Like literally, you know, I can see just from traveling the world with her, Like We'll be in some hotel lobby in Australia and like, you know, like ten gay men will come up to her like sobbing, you know, and say, oh my god, you validated us and you

don't know what you meant, and you know what. And I think they have a different relationship with her, just because the nature of that show. It's like it's like she was the perspective of the audience, you know what I mean, Like she was she was sort of your

lens into this like world of madness. So it's it's interesting to see I've never really seen um, I've never really seen anybody where it's kind of like her fans appreciate her and a like yesterday we're walking down the street and people are screaming her name down the street in New York. That's Ricky, Like I saw you on

Wendy Williams this morning, Hi Ricky, Hi Ricky. Like she just feels approachable, more approachable in that way, because I think we lose sense of how many people grew up on her, like it was one of the original absolute formats. And I think the nineties celebrity actually meant something in the room. Yes, doesn't anybody You can lick the bottom of a told foot now and TikTok's about you know what I'm saying, Like, celebrity meant something in the nineties.

And it feels like everyone or a lot of people have an agenda, Like it's like it's where there's cello product or push some you know, And I guess in a way, we are pushing art, but our thing is to help women, you know, Like yeah, you know, but yeah, celebrity has changed. I agree, And and just the tone that like like I don't know how you guys do it. I don't know if you ever like second guess what you're about to say for fear of like like backlash

or something. But I feel like I was able to say, you know, I didn't have to like censor myself before I say it, and can Yeah, we've been canceled a million times. I mean we've been doing it for twelve years, so things have changed over has it shifted in these twelve years. So it's things that they try to go back and cancel us for. Yeah, yeah, you know, it's just that's the way it's part to me. Yeah, because

nobody wants to have the conversation about how culture shifted. Yeah, it's kind of hard to hold people accountable for things they said, yeah in public forums ten years ago, fifteen

years ago culture exactly. I felt like that last night when we watch both our movies back to back back, you know, and we're watching this movie we made fourteen years ago, and I'm a little nervous watching it, you know, just for that reason, because you're sitting there like, oh, did we have enough people of color in the movie? Oh god, we just said something about Britney spears in the movie. Little you know, things that like today might

not fly. You know. I was gonna ask. We always talk about the Mount Rushmore of things, route much more Mount Rushmore of comedians. What should Mount Rushmore of talk show hosts? Okay, Oprah for sure, Oprah, Donna Hue. I loved Donnie back in the day. I loved Darcineo. I watched him. Oh can we do Late Night too? Can talk? Oh? Sorry, okay, okay, daytime? Let me think. Oh my god, throw some names at me and I'll tell you what I think of him um oprah Don was a good start. Yeah, I mean

Sally Sally um oh. Monte Montell is a good guy to show with him. Yeah. Yeah, I mean there's more, There's more of what I'm like. There were so many. Come on, you just did that reunion on Tamarin. Who was there? Oh that was Rolando was there and Montell was there. Yeah when Tamara Tamara was up here like last week and she said your name and Rolanda And I was like, I mean, you know quote I didn't. I didn't think of Rolando, hadn't heard the name in a wild I liked. I mean, Tempest bled Zoe had

a show, Carney Wilson had a show. I mean, yeah, everyone successful. No, I don't think so. I think they only ran for a year. Queen Latina, Yeah, I mean yesterday I went and did the Wendy Williams Show without Wendy Williams. But it was in my old studio, so like I hadn't been back there in like fifteen years, sixteen years or something like that. I think Montell's old studio. Yeah. Uh, Monte Maury was there too, the twenty six Street studios. But yeah, it's all just like it just feels like

these chapters in my life. And now with this new podcast, I'm gonna do. I get to go back, right, I think it'll be good. Yeah, I wonder what the Raised by Ricky podcast? What did he make you miss most about doing the Ricky Lakes Show? The money money, so, I mean it was funny money. I didn't even like like getting a bonus of a half million dollars. Come on, come on, it's like the budget of our entire documentary. It was just it was crazy. I'm okay, yes, I'm

I'm just fine, thank you, But believe me. Crypto crypto, but that's not crazy. I don't think I got in I relatively early twenty seventeen. You got an early early super well, Mamma went big. You know, my guy calls me his you know bitcoin wife, you know, counting my bitcoin. No like a nine cow, it's a it's a My guy was an it was an ex devout Mormon, so he brings up these these Mormons. Anyway, anyway, it's you Will. I did, okay, I did not do like like I

love Rosie O'donnald too. Rosie's a great, great, great friend of mine and a great talk show host. Um, yeah, I don't have like the money that these other people have. But I'm also I saw Jim Carrey did an interview yesterday. He's retiring. He's like and he said he has enough. And that's how I feel. I don't come from a place of the work I do is not about the money I make now, it's really about putting out good work. Well,

we appreciate you guys for joining us. Thank you so much. Well, I do want to ask one more question that two more. Do talk show host reach out to you to get tips now? And if they did, I'll tell you. Rosie and Ellen both called me before they went and did their shows because they wanted to know what the schedule was like, how it worked. Um, not late like no, not of late. I've been off the air. I haven't

done my show in so long. But but I feel like I do have some good pointers, and I would say the main thing is to be a good listener. That's you know, I think that's what I was best at, is reacting to what I was seeing. You know, I didn't wear an IFB and that's something they fought me on every year. They just wanted, you know, the control room and the priests wanted to have access to me, and I didn't want to add anyone ever putting anything

in my mouth, you know. So I would have Q cards if they needed me, but I refused to have an IFP. So I just I just love that, Yes, that show. Back then, I didn't really know who I was, but um, but I was in the moment and present and tried to be kind and tried to have some fun and do some good. Quite a taste for water. Yeah, how does Ricky Lake want to be remembered? My goodness?

Um has a good time. I'm a good time I am when Yeah, I mean want you know, I want my legacy, Like it makes me happiest when people recognize me and know my work from the work I do with Abby, the Business of Being Born. These documentaries I believe are changing the world, making the world a better place, and they're the most personal projects and they take a lot of work, a lot of effort. And I'm really proud of you. You have shifted some culture. Who we

have we have. Thank you so much, Thank you so much. What can the documentaries be seeing? Yes, we're streaming. You can pre order now at the Business of Birth Control dot com. We're self releasing it, so I don't have a big studio behind us. You just go to the Business of Birthcontrol dot com and it's going to be streaming April Lafe and the Ricky Lake Raids by Ricky podcast starting October twenty twenty two, available everywhere you listen

to podcast. Yeah, exactly. All right, Well, thank you Breakfast Club, thank you Ricky Lake, thank you having your morning. Everybody is DJ Envy, angela Ye, Charlomagne, the Dad, we are the Breakfast Club. You got a positive note for the people. My positive note comes from mister Don Miguel Ruise, who I love. He's an author I love, author to Four Agreements, Fifth Agreements, Mastery of Self, a bunch of great titles. But he has a quote where he says, deaf is

not the biggest fear we have. Our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive, the risk to be alive and express what we really are. Go live today, people, Breakfast Club is finish it. Y'alld up.