Selective Ignorance: Ep. 42 | 2025 Year End Wrap Up (Sort Of) Part. 1 feat. Deante Kyle, JoJo Alonzo & Jason "Jah" Lee

Summary

Podcast Summary: Selective Ignorance: Ep. 42 | 2025 Year End Wrap Up (Sort Of) Part 1

Podcast: Decisions, Decisions – Selective Ignorance
Hosts: Mandy B and WeezyWTF
Guests: Deante Kyle, JoJo Alonzo, Jason "Jah" Lee
Release Date: December 16, 2025
Network: The Black Effect and iHeartPodcasts

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Overview

This lively episode of "Selective Ignorance" serves as a 2025 year-in-review reflection. Mandy B, joined by JoJo Alonso, Jason "Jah" Lee, and special guest Deante Kyle, breaks down the social, cultural, and political upheavals that defined the year. Topics span from the tumultuous political landscape under the new presidential administration, the evolving role of Black leadership and celebrity influence, the AI revolution, and complex conversations about identity, labor, and survival in America.

The episode balances critique, humor, and vulnerability as each contributor unpacks both personal and collective experiences, always with a candid approach.

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Key Discussion Topics and Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Farewelling 2025

• The hosts and guests reflect on their personal highs and lows of the year, the sense of surviving and sometimes thriving despite societal chaos.
• Mandy mentions the “hot Cheeto” (clearly referencing Trump) returning to office, and Diddy being one of the most talked-about artists for all the wrong reasons (03:00–04:00).

Notable Quote

• JoJo Alonzo: "The best year of my life. Of my life! You hear me?" (05:51)

2. Politics as Pop Culture & Community Division

• Politics has become embedded in pop culture, with celebrities openly supporting political candidates and issues.
• The guests discuss the Trump administration’s first 100 days ("Project 2025"), policy impacts on communities of color, and divisive tactics—especially the creation and deepening of in-group/out-group identities among Black, Hispanic, and POC communities (10:32–13:00, 19:55–26:00).

Notable Moments/Quotes

• Mandy B: "I've never seen politics be so taken in and discussed amongst everybody...it's now literally a talking point that also makes things a little bit testy." (19:35)
• JoJo Alonso: "Don't try to lump all people of color in together when, like, everybody has individual struggle." (11:53)

3. Language, Labels, and Generational Shifts

• Spirited discussion of new terminology (e.g., neurodivergence, “bastard,” “POC”), their impact, and reactions to changes in language usage.
• The group explores changing family structures, ethnic stereotypes, and how the administration weaponized identity politics (06:24–10:31).

Quotes

• JoJo Alonso: "All these cultures have some semblance of anti-Blackness, like it's prevalent." (12:03)
• Mandy B: "Brown ain't POC, ain't brown Black. Like there's a separation there too." (11:46)

4. Corporate Performative Allyship & Regressive Backlash

• The pandemic period’s “corporate humanity” is critiqued as performative, followed by retrenchment on diversity, inclusion, and labor protections (13:42–16:00).
• Target and other brands’ financial woes exemplify consumer backlash and the power dynamics of “white flight” when Black customers gain visibility (17:10–18:20).

Quote

• JoJo Alonso: "You don't realize what that is. It's like everything else. It's white flight. When Black people start getting money and we stopped going to Walmart and we now in Target, that make white people pivot." (18:02)

5. Black Celebrity, Leadership, and Martyrs

• Are celebrities true community leaders or performative "tap dancers"? The group talks about the optics of star support for Trump, the manipulation of celebrity figures by both right and left, and the rise of figures like Charlie Kirk as conservative martyrs (24:00–28:00).
• Discussion on the lack of similarly "amplified" Black voices, obstacles to funding for independent Black media, and the risk-averse behavior of Black elites (31:14–33:44).

Quotes

• JoJo Alonso: "These niggas ain't our leaders. These niggas are tap dancers for all intents and purposes. They go against your people for the money." (24:47)
• Lynae: "For whatever reason there is this hesitancy to invest in Black media. People will invest a lot of things for the Black consumption, for Black demographics, but Black media is not one of them." (31:12)

6. Pop Culture: Diddy, Bad Bunny, and the Power of Perception

• The Diddy documentary leads to heavy debates over accountability, complicity, and the culture of silence/protection around power (40:11–48:14).
• Discussion on Bad Bunny headlining the 2026 Super Bowl reveals ignorance about Puerto Rico’s status and racism within “Trump’s America.” Guests analyze how alliance or outrage is both performative and often based on incomplete information (36:01–37:40).

Notable Quote

• Mandy B: "It was very hard for me to have empathy for everybody there. The idea of becoming a victim only when you’re done wrong again...as long as someone gives you what you think you deserve...you’re okay with all the bullshit." (42:54)

7. AI, Labor, and Technological Disruption

• Spirited discussion about AI’s impact—job loss, environmental costs, and the digital divide (57:11–61:06).
• Data centers’ heavy water usage sparks particular concern; the group riffs humorously on Mandy’s desire to get a sex robot while others bemoan resources being sacrificed for technological "progress." (57:59–62:39)

Quotes

• JoJo Alonso: "If it comes at the cost of our drinking water, I'm not with it." (58:18)
• Lynae: "These data centers are only in those places because they're getting a kickback from the local government to be there." (59:59)

8. Individualism vs. Community: Survival and Solidarity

• The hosts and guests repeatedly circle back to the tension between self-preservation and collective action—especially for marginalized people in a hostile or indifferent America (63:05–68:43).
• Discussion includes the normalization of "getting it however you can," the barriers to true entrepreneurship, and the importance of trades and skilled labor in the AI era.

Quotes

• Lynae: "At a certain point, you have to stop selling out for money...but some niggas ain't." (34:07)
• JoJo Alonso: "People care more about how they look than getting money...but it's a byproduct of us not being honest about the history of this country." (51:03)

9. Coping with Overwhelm & Picking Your Battles

• The exhaustion of caring about every societal problem is a recurring theme. The need to “work your spot”—advocate for the issue(s) closest to you—is presented as an antidote to burnout.
• Humor and camaraderie offer moments of levity amidst the bleakness of 2025 (63:00–72:00).

Quotes

• Mandy B: "It's hard to care about everything, right? And I think that that's what this year has done for me more than anything. Like, I have to pick and choose." (63:18)
• Lynae: "Don't feel like you have...it's not on you to solve every single ill." (71:59)

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Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• 05:51 – JoJo Alonso on 2025: "The best year of my life!"
• 07:46 – Mandy B asks about the language/labels of neurodivergence.
• 14:27 – JoJo analyzes how the pandemic revealed class/commonality, only to be followed by division along gender, race, and orientation.
• 31:12 – Lynae on investment in Black media: "People will invest a lot of things for the Black consumption...but Black media is not one of them."
• 42:54 – Mandy B’s challenging take on the Diddy doc: "It was very hard for me to have empathy...the idea of becoming a victim only when you’re done wrong again."
• 58:18 – JoJo Alonso's key concern on AI: "If it comes at the cost of our drinking water, I'm not with it."

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Closing Segment

The episode concludes with guests acknowledging both the difficulty of the current moment and the necessity of choosing where to put their energy. They prepare listeners for a lighter follow-up episode focused on music, film, and pop culture of 2025.

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Key Takeaways

• 2025 was a year defined by deepening divides: racial, generational, political, and economic—much of which has been intensified by the policies, personalities, and amplification of digital culture.
• Celebrity endorsements and media narratives have become fundamental (and often manipulated) parts of the political machine—while true Black voices remain underfunded and often marginalized.
• The ongoing technological boom (AI, automation) is presented as a double-edged sword: increased convenience at steep social and environmental costs.
• Finding personal agency means choosing where to focus your advocacy, recognizing you can’t do it all, and refusing toxic individualism when collective action is possible.
• Humor, resilience, and frank dialogue remain central to surviving—and resisting—the chaos.

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Listen for More

Look out for Part 2, where the crew shifts gears to dive into music, movies, and television, promising a mix of humor and critical takes on the year’s pop culture.

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For ad-free, full-length content, check out their Patreon at patreon.com/selectiveignorance, or catch highlights on their YouTube channel.

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Instagram: @SelectiveIgnorant
Host: @fullcourtpumps (Mandy B)

Transcript

[Jason Rodriguez]

This is an Iheart podcast.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

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[Jojo Alonso]

Today, the holidays are already in full swing. The lights are up. You got good people, good food and good vibes and there to help eat things. That energy going. It's striped Winter Spice Cranberry with that crisp cranberry flavor with a smooth winter spice twist. It's the drink that livens up game nights, gift exchanges, or just catching up in the kitchen with a burst of holiday flavor. It's a seasonal favorite, but it's only here for a limited time, so grab it while you can. Sprite Winter Spice Cranberry Sprite Obey your thirst.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

So let me get this straight. Your company has data here, there and.

[Mandy B]

Everywhere, but your AI can't use the.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Data because it's here, there and everywhere?

[Lynae]

Seems like something's missing.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Every business has unique data.

[Mandy B]

IBM helps your AI access your data wherever it lives.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

To change how you do business. Let's create Smile to Business. IBM.

[Sophie Cunningham]

This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something. Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity? They may be happening to you without you knowing. If anyone has ever said you snore loudly, or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability and concentration issues, it may be due to osa. OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation. Learn more at. Don't sleep on OSA.com this information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

[Unrivaled Basketball Announcer]

Season 2 of Unrivaled Basketball is here and the Talent is unreal. Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plumb, Brianna Stewart and more are back to redefine the game. Unrivaled basketball season two, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5th on TNT, TruTV and HBO. Max.

[Mandy B]

Hey, guys. Welcome to another episode of Selective Ignorance. However, before we get to this week's episode, I want to remind you guys to purchase my book, no Holds Barred, a dual manifesto of sexual exploration and power. So feel free to go to your local bookstores, preferably queer owned, black owned or woman owned, to support them, but also just click the button on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles or wherever you read your books. Again, that is no Holds Barred, a dual manifesto of sexual exploration and power written by yours truly and my co host of the Decisions Decisions podcast, Wheezy. Make sure y' all get that. Now let's get to this week's episode. This is Mandy B. Welcome to Selective Ignorance, a production of the Black Effect podcast network and iHeartRadio. Welcome back, Y', all to another episode of Selective Ignorance, a very special episode because, baby, we are Talking about the 2025 year end wrap up Crazy, crazy, crazy. The year that the hot Cheeto entered office. The year that I took over. And of course, of course, the number one hip hop artist in the world this year was Diddy. Can you believe it? That's right. Everybody was talking about Diddy this year for all of the wrong things.

[Lynae]

Why won't you party with me for your birthday, man?

[Mandy B]

We're getting into the documentary. We're getting into the trial.

[Jojo Alonso]

He told me to take me shopping.

[Mandy B]

We're getting into the first hundred days of our new president, even though a lot of us don't want to consider him our president.

[Jojo Alonso]

Nope.

[Mandy B]

He is Project 2025. Was it a spoof? Not really. We may actually be going through those pages and we're going to talk about that along with Kendrick at the super bowl, amongst other things. Welcome, y'.

[Jason Rodriguez]

All.

[Mandy B]

I am not joined by my super producers today. Instead, I am joined by some very special friends and some opinionated, I guess, personalities.

[Jojo Alonso]

There you go.

[Mandy B]

We have my guy, Jason Lee, AKA J. Ja, AKA Not Hollywood Unlocked Jason Lee.

[Jojo Alonso]

Accept no substitutes, period.

[Mandy B]

We are also joined by someone you may very well know, the other gentleman. I'm saving the best for last, which is the woman, which is different, but we do things differently. Over here. I have Deontay Kyle from the Grits and Eggs podcast. And listen, he is in everyone's algorithm, on everyone's timeline, saying literally, literally, I don't know what Type of things. He got over with Zuckerberg and Facebook, but he is. That algorithm is picking him up. Okay. And then we have my girl, Jojo Alonso. Y' all may hear her on the Batl or broken play show over on Black Effect. So we hear y'.

[Jojo Alonso]

All.

[Mandy B]

We are getting tequila today, so by the second hour or by the second episode of this show, y' all are gonna get. Y' all are gonna get true form Mandy, and maybe true form Ja. Jojo and Deontay believe that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'm really excited. We're gonna talk 2025.

[Lynae]

Yeah.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

You know, I guess. Real quick, how did everyone enjoy their 2025? Was this a year to enjoy, my.

[Jojo Alonso]

Nigga, the best year of my life.

[Mandy B]

Okay, okay.

[Jojo Alonso]

Of my life. You hear me?

[Mandy B]

I'm not mad at that. I'm not mad at that.

[Jason Rodriguez]

That's good.

[Jojo Alonso]

My shit turned the fuck up.

[Lynae]

That's a beautiful thing, man. Like, congratulations to you.

[Jojo Alonso]

For real.

[Lynae]

Like, you deserve that. We see you working hard out here.

[Mandy B]

Absolutely.

[Lynae]

I woke up with a spirit of gratitude this morning. I just feel like I'm happy to be here with y'.

[Jason Rodriguez]

All.

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Lynae]

Doing this. I'm happy that we all healthy and we still here doing what we love to do.

[Jojo Alonso]

Like, that's just Me, too. Hell, yeah.

[Mandy B]

I'm. I'm. I'm trying to switch it because I woke up in a good mood this morning.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Yeah, it's going. It's going better. It's going better.

[Jojo Alonso]

It's not a bad day. It's just a bad mo.

[Mandy B]

It's funny because the. The audience, like, they all know. Even, like, when I'm on tour, like, and we do meet and greets, they be like, bitch, we on time. When we was doing our book stops. Oh, no, no, no. They know. Like, the probably worst thing with me is timing, mind you. I just talked about on my bonus episode, I also am in this phase of realizing I might be neurodivergent. So there's a lot of, like, let's.

[Jojo Alonso]

Let a doctor do over.

[Jason Rodriguez]

No, wait, wait, wait.

[Mandy B]

We can't.

[Jason Rodriguez]

You said you might be. What?

[Mandy B]

What? Neurod. Divergent.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Which is, you know, how.

[Mandy B]

Like, to me, I think in the last five years, we done introduced a.

[Jojo Alonso]

Whole lot of new words, basically calling ourselves autistic. She just basically saying the.

[Mandy B]

Okay, no, no, no, no. I don't think I'm that far on the spectrum of autism spectrum. I'm somewhere on it.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I feel like I am, too.

[Mandy B]

See, I think all of us, it's Special.

[Jojo Alonso]

It's an autistic spec.

[Lynae]

It's special. There's levels.

[Mandy B]

Is it. My son is on the neurodivergent is autism.

[Jojo Alonso]

That's. That's the, that's the implied. You know what I'm saying? Thing is. Well, yeah, that's what it is because it's a spectrum. They say neurodivergent, so it's neurodivergent. Neurotypical. So they don't make people feel like. Because people kind of. There's a stigma behind autism.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, I want. I know. I want us to normalize that for me.

[Jason Rodriguez]

And we see it in a lot more lately.

[Mandy B]

No, a whole lot. Like, I mean, our president is, you know, like we have.

[Jojo Alonso]

Our president is what?

[Mandy B]

Neurodivergent.

[Jojo Alonso]

Oh, that nigga's old and white. He's just old and white and racist.

[Mandy B]

And racist.

[Jojo Alonso]

Racist. Dementia.

[Mandy B]

Narcissist. But I know that N word. We gotta. They want us to stop using. So we can't. We can't think people narcissists.

[Jojo Alonso]

But when it's a very apparent narcissist.

[Lynae]

You know, it is what it is. But that's the thing about words, right? In 2025, I feel like that was the thing. Like people taking words and like bastardizing them to the point where people think that they don't mean nothing.

[Mandy B]

Even that. Are we allowed to say bastard anymore?

[Lynae]

Is bastard not a thing no more?

[Jason Rodriguez]

It's like by calling somebody an actual bastard, like you mean it like you don't take care of your kids.

[Lynae]

Yeah, yeah. Not.

[Jojo Alonso]

You know what though? Like textbook defin a bastard. Just mean that you was born out of wedlock, right? True. It's a lot bastard in the world, right? Yeah.

[Mandy B]

Oh, I was about to say right here, right here, my mom and dad never married.

[Jojo Alonso]

Shout out.

[Mandy B]

And yet here we are.

[Jojo Alonso]

Shout out to my folks. You know what I'm saying? Holding me down. You know what I'm saying? No bastards over here.

[Lynae]

I got me feeling like the kid over here.

[Mandy B]

Oh, that's why you grew up in a two parent household. Yeah, I love that for you.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I did too. But it wasn't.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah, it just wasn't marriage. And I'mma say this, you know what I'm saying? Around like 9, 10 years old, shit started getting different in this bitch.

[Mandy B]

Okay.

[Jojo Alonso]

When your parents start hating each other, that shit sucks.

[Mandy B]

Oh, damn.

[Jojo Alonso]

It's like, damn, you in beef. You in the war zone all the time. It's like it's only peace when it's only one parent home. When they Both there. It's like tension in that bitch.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Nah, I grew up in a two parent household. It was straight.

[Jojo Alonso]

You feel me?

[Jason Rodriguez]

You see, like when we grew up, we found out like whatever else was going on, but at the time, we ain't no shit.

[Jojo Alonso]

You feel me?

[Jason Rodriguez]

Well, maybe. Cause I was just younger, I wasn't paying attention. So sisters, my older sisters probably was.

[Jojo Alonso]

Like, nah, I ain't going to hold you. When they told us they was getting a divorce, I was like, thank God.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Like, I think, okay, you didn't go the opposite way, right?

[Jojo Alonso]

We've had enough.

[Mandy B]

It becomes a lot. It becomes a lot.

[Lynae]

I feel like a huxtable kid over here. Like, like I don't have no. Like my parents, they thought I was an Oreo when I was in elementary school because I had my mom. My mom was a lawyer, my dad was a PhD. Like they thought that they was.

[Jojo Alonso]

We was in the suburbs.

[Lynae]

And yeah, I'm old.

[Mandy B]

I'm old and here I go.

[Lynae]

Oreo, Yeah. N. Don't even have that no more.

[Mandy B]

And I'm. I'm on the spectrum where y' all wouldn't believe my white was on food stamps. So that's when we got. Well, we'll get into.

[Jojo Alonso]

And you was in Florida.

[Lynae]

You always got to have an asterisk as to everything.

[Jojo Alonso]

Like you came from a Florida white. You know what I'm saying?

[Mandy B]

No, no, no.

[Lynae]

Hey, that's a crazy white.

[Mandy B]

A Florida white is.

[Jojo Alonso]

That's what I'm saying. Your mind is a Florida white.

[Lynae]

Crazy white.

[Mandy B]

Oh, see what I mean?

[Jojo Alonso]

Okay. All right, now that's what I think.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Of when I think Florida white.

[Mandy B]

See what I mean? This is crazy.

[Jojo Alonso]

Okay, hold on, hold on. Let's talk about your. Did you have a driveway?

[Mandy B]

Yes, I did have a driveway. I had a driveway.

[Jojo Alonso]

All right, we good.

[Mandy B]

I had a driveway.

[Jojo Alonso]

We back winning.

[Mandy B]

That is on you. It's crazy because I've leaned so much into the last couple weeks on stereotypes. But to me, this year, because of the administration that's in the office. Boy, have stereotypes been like highlighted, like stereotypes between us as black people? We saw that happen with SNAP benefits. We've seen also the espanols. All of them have been.

[Jojo Alonso]

I thought we already.

[Mandy B]

I'm just saying, apparently espanols. You know what's crazy? And I want to say that because we'll get into the first hundred days of the Trump administration and when I bring the espanols up, there was two things that to me stuck out.

[Lynae]

That's a crazy transition.

[Mandy B]

I'm Saying this year, it was one of two things that I saw. And maybe again, because Florida, right, you had the Hispanics that leaned heavily into championing their vote for Trump. And then you had the others that were like, dealing with ice. And so what we saw is even our community be like, well, y' all voted for the nigga, so we don't really have the empathy that maybe we should. But we also saw the separation between all brown. Like, brown ain't poc. Ain't brown black. Like there's a separation there too.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah, I don't deal with that POC shit.

[Mandy B]

I'm not a fan of it either. I'm not a fan of it.

[Jojo Alonso]

Don't try to lump all people of color in together when, like, everybody has.

[Lynae]

Individual struggle, individual situations, but it's that too.

[Jojo Alonso]

But then even just being a black American, like all these cultures have some semblance of anti blackness, like it's prevalent. You know what I'm saying? Like a Florida Cuban. They don't give a fuck about nothing. That's. That's like white. That's like, man, that's MAGA 2.0 period.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Dominicans.

[Mandy B]

Oh, no, the Dominican.

[Jojo Alonso]

I know black. I mean, I know black.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I'm talking about black as hell. But they ain't black.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah, that is a Sammy Sosa, you know what I'm saying? Like, the nigga Sammy Sosa went reverse.

[Lynae]

First one, he turned his shooter inside out. Like Sammy Sosa was on some shit.

[Mandy B]

I think for me, that's what this year shined light on more than anything was. It started separating so many of us, like, not even by color, but also by sexuality. With. They said, oh, pandemic over. No more. No more pride flags going up. They said, oh, pandemic over. We don't care about. About black lives anymore. Oh, it's pandemic over. Women's rights. Let's go ahead and take all of those away. I just feel like during the height of the pandemic, there was some sense of humanity. It was maybe because so many people lost their lives and things like that.

[Jason Rodriguez]

The thing about it, people were helpful. People were like trying to help other people.

[Mandy B]

Well, not only that, they lie. Hold on. Let's also get into the workers, the essential workers that now, because majority of black women having those positions, we're now gonna take away that from being professional degrees, which means you're not gonna be able to get the money to even do these jobs anymore. Like this year to me has been the year where I was like, world peace, us uniting, anything Fuck it. We'll never see it in our lifetime.

[Lynae]

I don't like with the pandemic.

[Jojo Alonso]

It was.

[Lynae]

It's two sides of that, right? I think people in communities were trying to help each other, but all of that dei, all of the flags, all of that stuff, like, that's all corporate humanity. Like people were trying to make a couple dollars. Like, the whole world has stopped and nobody was out spending money like that. Nobody. Unless you was here in Atlanta buying hookah. But, like, you know what I'm saying? But. But for the most part, like, the world has stopped. People wasn't making money. But these companies know that. If you're not making no money, who is the one customer base? Who is the one demographic you could run to to appease, to get some money, to spend some money? Some niggas. You could try to throw niggas a bone. You can try to put BLM out there. You can try to act like you care about these things that we care about. Get a couple dollars. And now the time is over. And now we back to our regular.

[Jojo Alonso]

I think my perspective on that is that with everybody having to sit down and people being at home, that everybody just figured out they was all a part of the same class all at once. So then you conflating a lot of different issues at once, but we all sitting down and we still. So you see something like a George Floyd happen, it's magnified by the fact that motherfuckers ain't in the rat race all day, right? And then they start sitting and watching the impact hit a little harder. And then TikTok growing in popularity gets to a point where people are everyday people and they relating to one another over this app that's not based on celebrity status or monetary value. So I think the big thing is like, yeah, you know, maybe from corporations, it was beneficial to, like, act like, act like you put on it. But I think also it's a pendulum thing, too. The only way to swing that pendulum back from us realizing we are part of the same class is to separate us at every turn, every other turn. Gender, race, the sexual orientation, all of these different things. Especially, like, we get back to misogyny, we getting back heavy on that. And that's patriarchy.

[Mandy B]

We get into all of it because.

[Jojo Alonso]

The voice, the loudest voices, were the most downtrodden people in society during the pandemic. The swing back into the direction of, like, white supremacists and straight white men is. That was the MO. It's like, oh, we're losing our country and woo do whoop whoop and we don't matter. Oh, the hardest thing to be is a white man right now. It's like, nigga, shut up.

[Lynae]

That's the craziest they ever tried to play. Like the fact that they try to.

[Jojo Alonso]

Try to play the victim is crazy.

[Lynae]

Try to try to play the victim them as a, as a white person in general, but definitely a white man.

[Jojo Alonso]

Like, like got a show called Mad Men where like your whole is to.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Literally wipe all of like the history, black history. Because we seen that, that he took away. Like you can't get into the park for free on Martin Luther King Day.

[Mandy B]

He, he just did. He just did that.

[Jason Rodriguez]

His birthday and all this.

[Mandy B]

But it's not only him we have to talk about too. Just how many Republicans are like one votes in the last primaries midterms. Where even in Florida they took away critical race theory. You can't say gay in Florida. And there's certain other states, other red states that are following those. I think Texas may have also done it as well. And these are huge states when it comes to presidential elections. And so when you have pretty much. I think also he went into the Smithsonian and decided to take, take things that he was like, nope, I don't think this happened.

[Lynae]

Try to remove Jackie Robinson.

[Jojo Alonso]

I think the bigger thing too is just the comfort. The largest voter base which is white people. White in a majority of the country. But I think also he's a businessman. His biggest consumer base in the country is white people.

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Jojo Alonso]

And they gonna spend their bread if they feel like everything is going in their favor. Like white people gonna, like you could just tell them like everything good, you back on top. But yo, this new Starbucks cup. Look at this shit. And niggas is lining up. Like it's a lot of obedience that come with feeling superior. Yeah. And the consumer, like they just feverish consum when feel like the country is against us. That's when we start getting into boycotts. That's when we start getting in. They gotta make sure that they biggest consumer base isn't in alignment with these boycotts.

[Mandy B]

So I will say we saw that happen with Target.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I was about to say that Target black people was like, okay, well fuck being at Target. I mean it was a couple people still in there, you know what I'm saying? Like when that happened, sales dropped.

[Mandy B]

Oh yeah, they've lost billions.

[Jojo Alonso]

You see what I'm saying?

[Lynae]

Every quarter. Yeah, every quarter it got ugly for Target to the point where their CEO had to be replaced. And like it was a mess over there. And it's still a mess over there.

[Jojo Alonso]

It's gonna be a mess. Because the thing is, is like, you don't realize what that is. It's like everything else. It's white flight. When black people start getting money and we stopped going to Walmart and we now in Target, that make white people pivot and go to other places and shit like that too. But also it's like, motherfuckers, niggas gonna spend that bread if they got that.

[Mandy B]

Why y' all supposed to.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Well, why are white people so scared of black people? Like, God damn.

[Mandy B]

I mean, it's.

[Jojo Alonso]

You gotta think I don't want to.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Or I gotta go somewhere.

[Jojo Alonso]

But it's also understanding that like, the only way that they can see the world is the way they see the world, right? So it don't make sense to them that we wouldn't retaliate. Right? But niggas really just at the end of the day want to be left alone.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Straight up.

[Mandy B]

That's it.

[Jojo Alonso]

Like, if you leave me or the fuck alone, it was not going to be no problem. Leave me out your thoughts, Leave me out your conversations. Leave me out your legislation, nigga.

[Jason Rodriguez]

But that's the thing.

[Jojo Alonso]

Put my books back in the. They have to be centered, you know what I'm saying? They don't know what that's like.

[Mandy B]

Here's the thing then. I'd like to know Yalls thoughts because at the top of the year, however, we also saw a lot of our people of our culture kind of align during the inauguration. You had Snoop Dogg there, you had Nelly. We have Wayne that has heavily supported Trump for getting him off. We see Nicki Minaj was just as well at the United nations speaking in support of Trump. What does it look like, however, though, for our big named people to align now? Especially because politics has essentially become a part of pop culture. I've never in my life, and I don't know if it's just because I'm finally getting older. I've never seen politics be so taken in and discussed amongst everybody, like, even the younger generation, our generation, the ones like it's now literally a talking point that also makes things a little bit testy. But what are our thoughts about the black, our community that are heavily supporting also Trump because he got three more years.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Peace to the planet. Charlamagne, Tha God here now, you know, the end of the year is when, like a lot of business owners, I really lock in, all right, this is the time to set the foundation for next year. You Got new ideas, new product drops new goals. And when I'm building anything meaningful, I need the right tools. That's why I always tell folks, especially black entrepreneurs and small black owned businesses, shopify is the move, okay? We use it at the Black Effect Podcast network and I've seen firsthand how it helps creators and business owners who grow with confidence. Entrepreneurship is very important to me, okay? There's nothing wrong with working for people. There's nothing wrong with partnering people. But you should strive to own your own as well. And Shopify can help others grow into entrepreneurs. It's like having a whole team behind you. Your chief of staff, your personal assistant, your co founder, all in one platform. Whether you're running a side hustle or a full storefront selling locally or worldwide, Shopify takes all the guesswork out. Shopify brings everything into one place. You can sell on your website, on social media, and even in the real world. Like some of our partners at our Black Effect Festival coming up in April. Wherever your people are, Shopify makes sure your business can meet them where they're at. Plus, you got Shopify Sidekick and their AI tools. Total game changers. I love how it's like having an assistant giving you insights, content, ideas, edits. Shopify has got your next move covered. So let me ask you this. If you're ready to take the next step in your life, whether it's merch, products or anything in between, get on shopify.com BEN. That's shopify.com BEN and make it happen. It is time to stop putting off your future and start your new role as your own boss today.

[Lynae]

Woo. What a vibe we've got, y'.

[Jason Rodriguez]

All.

[Lynae]

As always, it's classic HBCU energy. Nonstop action. The band is rocking and the crowd lit. Chants echoing, drums beating, everybody showing that school pride.

[Big Lone]

Moments like this.

[Lynae]

Yeah, they call for an ice cold Coca Cola. Crisp and refreshing. That's a game changer right there.

[Jojo Alonso]

Mmm.

[Lynae]

Yeah, that taste always hit the right note. Just like the band at halftime. Passionate fans, school colors everywhere. And an ice cold Coca Cola. That's a winning combo. No matter the place, no matter the moment, everybody knows fan work is thirsty work. So grab a Coca Cola and keep that HBCU pride going.

[Big Lone]

What's up, y'?

[Jojo Alonso]

All?

[Big Lone]

This is big Lone from It's Up There podcast. In this powerful episode, we're breaking down the danger of silence and how way too many of us are taught to protect the vibe instead of protecting ourselves. We spend more time researching cars, microphones, sneakers than we will researching on how to protect our bodies and our partners. If you have an honest conversation, one uncomfortable minute can save you a lifetime of regret. The CDC says nearly one in five people carry an STI and most don't even know it. Real intimate isn't built in the dark. It's built in the disclosure. Condoms testing transparency. Those aren't passion killers. They're peace builders. It's too much risk in our silence. Speak up. You can listen to this special episode of It's Up There podcast with Lone, brought to you by Healthy Sexual from Gilead sciences on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.

[Unrivaled Basketball Announcer]

Season two of unrivaled basketball is here and the talent is unreal. The best women's players on the planet are running it back with even bigger moments and bigger stakes. Don't miss as Paige Becker, Snafeeza Collier, Kelsey Plumb, Brianna Stewart and more. Take the court and redefine the game. This isn't your regular season. This is unrivaled where the pace is faster, the energy is higher and every action athlete shines. Unrivaled basketball season two, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy Tips off January 5th on TNT, TruTV and HBO.

[Mandy B]

Max Hey, Ryan Reynolds here wishing you a very happy half off holiday because right now Mint Mobile is offering you the gift of 50% off unlimited. To be clear, that's half the price.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Not half the service.

[Mandy B]

Mint is still premium unlimited wireless for a great price. So that means half day.

[Lynae]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment.

[Unrivaled Basketball Announcer]

Of 45 for a 3 month plan equivalent to 15 per month required new customer offer for first 3 months only.

[Mandy B]

Speed slow after 35 gigabytes of networks.

[Unrivaled Basketball Announcer]

Busy, taxes and fees extra.

[Jason Rodriguez]

See mint mobile.com My thing is is support who the you want to support.

[Mandy B]

Okay.

[Jason Rodriguez]

If that's what you gonna do, then that's what you're doing. Like that's not affecting me. Just because I see you supporting them like it's already happened. He's already there. Like okay, being upset that you supporting him. Like what is me gonna be upset at what you got going on? Gonna do anything for me? Like he's already there. So I mean I don't like I ain't saying like I go for this shit but it's just like I'm not gonna let somebody else influence me my thoughts or like you get what I'm saying, it doesn't affect me. Like that's you, that's your life. You deal with that.

[Mandy B]

Interesting.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Dealing with that.

[Mandy B]

Okay.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I mean we're all dealing with.

[Mandy B]

I do feel like we're all affected, though.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I think we all affected by friends. I'm talking about them supporting it. It's just kind of like, yeah, I.

[Jojo Alonso]

Think there has to be a thing. Like we probably the only community that feel like we have leadership and celebrity. Like, these niggas ain't our leaders. These niggas are like, these niggas are tap dancers for all intents and purposes. They didn't entertain. If you go take the bag from a man that you know is vehemently against your people, then you go against your people for the money. But it's about money for these niggas, right? Yeah. And like you said, he already in office. They probably don't feel like they doing nothing wrong because at the end of the day, they can deal with our backlash online as long as their pockets is lined. And they'll let him trot them out because that gives the illusion that black people support Trump when they know the big consensus is that black people not fucking with it. And the polls say the same thing. But you trot some niggas out and then it look like compliance across the board. That's what they try to deem our leaders.

[Mandy B]

But it's weird because, okay, yeah, cool. Maybe celebrities shouldn't be made our leaders. But I want to get into what white people are making celebrities and now martyrs. And we saw Charlie Kirk, who was a 32 year old white man that was talking on the Internet.

[Lynae]

Essentially he was a podcast.

[Mandy B]

He was essentially, essentially he was a personality with opinions. And he's now become a martyr. He's now people speaking out against him have lost their jobs this year. I think that was one of the wildest moments of this year to visibly witness because there was, I mean, literally visibly. We had to see it on film, but also just the aftermath of it. And what happened?

[Lynae]

Well, they tried to convince us that he wasn't who he was. Like all the quotes that came out of all the shit that he said that was offensive to black people, gay people, whoever else, they try to convince us that, oh, you took it out of context. You took it out of context. The context don't make it no better. If you go back and you watch a full Charlie Kirk show, a full Charlie Kirk podcast, he's gonna say all kind of wild and try to justify it. He's just a racist. Like, there's no reason.

[Jojo Alonso]

He's a white supremacist. Right. I said and to.

[Mandy B]

And to make that a martyr is crazy in this country.

[Jojo Alonso]

You white supremacy, you got killed by another white.

[Lynae]

Like, it didn't have nothing to do with it.

[Jojo Alonso]

That's all business, bro.

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Jason Rodriguez]

And then honestly, I didn't know anything about this guy. And the reason why is because if he was talking about supporting Trump and bashing black people and all that, I don't really like, I don't really indulge in that type of shit.

[Mandy B]

The only time I saw him was on the Jubilee roundtable the day he died.

[Lynae]

I got texts from a bunch of people that was like, who the fuck is Charlie Kurt? Like that name didn't ring bells outside.

[Mandy B]

Not for us.

[Lynae]

Yeah, I'm saying outside of the white conservative, you know, Christian nationalist community, they were tapped in, but nobody, most of the other people. He wasn't a figure that you would see. He wasn't a, a kaisanat of racist white people.

[Jojo Alonso]

Like, I paid attention because that's the type of. I pay attention.

[Lynae]

Yeah, I see, right.

[Jojo Alonso]

Like I look at niggas that has opposing views, but also like I be, what the fuck these?

[Lynae]

What the fuck y' all on?

[Mandy B]

I want, I wanted to ask, I.

[Jojo Alonso]

Want to see what these racist is talking about.

[Mandy B]

I wanted to ask you, do we have any black voices as strong in our community as Charlie Kirks was?

[Jojo Alonso]

No. Yes and no. Right?

[Mandy B]

Okay.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yes, in the sense of it's who we deem that to be. And there's a multitude of black voices, right?

[Mandy B]

Yes.

[Jojo Alonso]

No, because he was supported by lobbyists. So Turning Point usa, they get money from Palantir. That's Israel money. So like basically he getting backed by people that want to push that narrative and propaganda.

[Lynae]

And they started that early.

[Jojo Alonso]

They started that early.

[Lynae]

He was 18, 19.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah. And the thing is this is not the most educated person. It's a community college dropout, but at the same time it's a narrative culture war. That's what they trying to win. I think anybody that want to understand Charlie Kirk and what he represented and how it affected politics, you should watch this video by fdigma FD signifier. You watched that video by Eric FD signifier about Charlie Kirk and a cult of magazine. You'll understand everything about it. It's a two hour video, but it really do like give you all the insights you need because it's also just.

[Mandy B]

The way that though our community then receives or consumes information. Because why do we like if I think of the voices that are really loud in our community, I also feel like so many people are against their thoughts. So like you have the Candace Owens you have the Dr. Umars, which to me is a character.

[Lynae]

They're characters we don't have.

[Mandy B]

We create caricature.

[Jojo Alonso]

It's amplified voices that we can put into certain boxes. Like Dr. Umayer for all intents and purposes is a hotel nigga. Candace Owens is a coon. You feel me, right? These are things that we comfortable with talking about radical thought for real. Like how you say, like everywhere you go you can't stop seeing my face is because like honestly from what people say to me is like this is a actual free thought and radical thought, right? But like for me, for me to be on a Charlie Kirk type level, it would take like the back end, like funding and somebody to funnel money into it. Because it's bigger than just content and creating content. It's also about permeating or being in certain spaces, like college campuses, right? If you have a formulated debate mindset and you have your talking point set in stone, you concreting this, you got your counterpoints and everything. Like this is a show for you and you going and talking to 18, 19 year olds that haven't even fully established their thoughts yet, but their interest is being piqued by classes they're taking. So they're very passionate about it, but they're not well versed in like what they opinion is or how they really feel about it. Of course he going to eat them alive in a debate, but these are also children. Anytime you see him debate any adults and anybody with any credentials they wipe.

[Lynae]

The floor with, he has a dumb look on his face like he debated.

[Jojo Alonso]

I had the third row gums, you ever seen that?

[Mandy B]

Third row gums is crazy.

[Jojo Alonso]

You ever seen like that upper deck gums that niggas have when they have little teeth?

[Lynae]

They go way up in here.

[Jojo Alonso]

You can't trust people that look like that.

[Lynae]

But to your point though, and like my good sister Jamel Hill talks about this shit a lot and people always ask her this question and she's been talking about this for years, that for whatever reason there is this hesitancy to invest in black media. People will invest a lot of things for the black consumption, for black demographics, but black media is not one of them.

[Jojo Alonso]

Because they don't want us to tell our own stories.

[Mandy B]

But not only that, let's be very clear. When we tell our own stories, like if we think about maybe and maybe there's a lack of wanting to hear from radical voices because if we again look at the bigger voices within our space, we have the Stephen A. Smiths, which is Crazy caricature again. Going back to Candace owens, going to Dr. Umar, going to. I mean we, we platformed for years. Charleston white. Like we have these.

[Lynae]

But that's the problem though is that the Charlie Kirk became a thing because a rich white man looked at him, noticed something and said, hey, come here, I got something for you. You gonna build this shit up.

[Jason Rodriguez]

He got on because he doesn't like black people. And it's a lot of racist out here and they wanna put it behind him. Like, yeah, you're racist. Tell the whole world that. So are we.

[Lynae]

But that's the thing though. But a rich white man had to empower him to, to give him some bread to make it up. I guess my thing about it is like even without, you know, present company non glazing, like all these niggas run.

[Jojo Alonso]

Around here got money.

[Lynae]

Like, I don't know what your business situation is, but like why, why wouldn't a give Deontay Kyle $100,000, $200,000 to help build his voice? Why wouldn't somebody come and give Lynae 200, $300,000 and build her voice up? If you recognize these people have motion, you recognize these people are expressing thoughts that the community is taken to. Why wouldn't Tyler Perry, why wouldn't Jay Z, why wouldn't. I mean, Will Packer is doing his part to some degree, but like why aren't some of these people who have this bread and this opportunity wanting to invest in black media and build those voices up?

[Jojo Alonso]

Because they benefit from the same politics that's against us.

[Mandy B]

Oh, there you go.

[Jojo Alonso]

They benefit from right wing politics. They're Republicans. At the end of the day, they may be quiet Republicans.

[Mandy B]

That part. Yeah, that part.

[Jojo Alonso]

It's like quiet luxury, right? Like you don't see the brand name, but it cost $5,000. A lot of money, right? So it may not say maga, but.

[Lynae]

It'S maybe, but it's still. Yeah, but it's. But the tag on it is 100% MAGA. Cashmere on the back of the sack.

[Jojo Alonso]

Like the thing is, if I'm rich, I want the same tax benefits. I want the same X, Y and Z. Also, no matter how rich you are, you still are in bed with billionaire corporations. These niggas are the niggas that pay Charlie Kurtz. If they pay a nigga like me, they could risk their connections, they could risk they business, they could sabotage money and they never gonna play with their money.

[Lynae]

And that's the problem. Like I fell out with a homie during the first Trump campaign. Because. Not even. Because to your point, like, okay, if you're gonna. First off, I thought he was kind.

[Jojo Alonso]

Of a coward about it, because he.

[Lynae]

Was one of them quiet maggots who was like, oh, we having conversations. And he like, you know, you gotta be careful of the people who gonna vote for Trump. That's not gonna say they gonna vote for Trump. And the whole time he's talking about himself.

[Mandy B]

Of course. Of course.

[Lynae]

But when it comes down to it, it's like, bro, at a certain point, you have to stop selling out for money. Especially if you. I understand people are in survival mode, and some people feel like I gotta do what I gotta do to make sure my family is taking care of me.

[Mandy B]

And I think that's the hard part. We are. We've quietly been in a recession for.

[Lynae]

A few years now, but some niggas ain't.

[Mandy B]

But that's what I'm saying. A lot of people are in survival mode, which does exactly what it's supposed to do, which is what the government. It brings us into the individualism that a lot of us are like. It's kind of what we saw during. When Kaepernick was taking a knee, There was football players that said, hey, I got a family to feed. I know this is a bigger picture here, but I ain't getting involved.

[Jojo Alonso]

But I'm on this.

[Mandy B]

And it's kind of what we're seeing now. People really only care about themselves. I mean, y' all know I'm talking about myself right now. I mean, we're really like, that's.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Everybody needs to be worried about themselves, but.

[Mandy B]

But they're not. Because I want to go into. Also Super Bowl. Kendrick Lamar performed. It's funny because Deontay was like, who won that again?

[Lynae]

Kendrick.

[Mandy B]

Kendrick. But what we saw was also the announcement of Bad Bunny being named the super bowl performer for 2026. And, baby, that. That was probably one of. Probably one of the most ignorant moments and embarrassing moments of 2025 as a country. Yeah, that was crazy, because people were not even realizing that Puerto Rico was a part of the US Of A. They was mad at the Espanols.

[Jojo Alonso]

Okay, but the thing is, is, like, then they like.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Well, as an espanol, I don't really. I don't get offended by that.

[Mandy B]

Why did I not know you was.

[Jojo Alonso]

Where you from?

[Mandy B]

Where you from? Oh, okay. Yeah, okay, okay. Look, she said pp, I guess then.

[Jojo Alonso]

Big P's nigga.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jason Rodriguez]

When she said it, I didn't, like, get offended by it. Like, I didn't get offended.

[Mandy B]

Okay. So then I did. I guess I want to know, then your thoughts on. During that moment of Bad Bunny being announced, what were your thoughts on just the outrage around, period. What I'm gonna be.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I'm talking about, first of all, I'm going to the game and I'm gonna be Puerto Rican. Flagged out.

[Mandy B]

She said, I'm pushing P. Yeah.

[Jason Rodriguez]

So that's my first initial thought. And then when I seen everybody talking about it, then I'm like, are dumb because, you know is in the United States because they said, oh, ICE is going to be at the game waiting for people to.

[Jojo Alonso]

To what? Send them back to America? Yeah, no, deadass.

[Lynae]

California is 40% Hispanic.

[Jojo Alonso]

But you also. Go ahead.

[Jason Rodriguez]

One more thing, too, is because, I mean, I don't like the fact that Puerto Rico is now a part of the United States. I don't like that shit. I don't like that. But I think that this is like, a big moment for Puerto Rico. So it's like, I was proud as well. But yeah, people mad, though.

[Jojo Alonso]

Niggas fuck that. N F with that shit.

[Mandy B]

They fuck with what shit? Puerto Rican bitches. I know. No, wait a second. Cause what I mean.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yes, but.

[Mandy B]

However.

[Jojo Alonso]

But point being. Oh, but niggas was fucking with the fact that Bad Bunny got selected, too. N wasn't mad about that. We not mad. We weren't mad. But my thing is the point I was going to make.

[Lynae]

50% of Andy was mad.

[Mandy B]

Yo, chill. No, no, no, no. I liked it. I was like. I said, I gotta start learning, you know, I'm so bad. I done lived in the Bronx, in Orlando. There's no reason why I don't know more Spanish. But I'm here for Bad Bunny doing the performance.

[Lynae]

They gonna be.

[Jojo Alonso]

I love shit like that, though. Cause you just realize, like, how many people that support this N is idiots.

[Mandy B]

No, they're all. They're idiots.

[Jojo Alonso]

It's literally like, can you even be upset with dumb people? There's no point.

[Mandy B]

To me, what I found interesting is not only the allegiance to Trump from just the idiot standpoint of it or the illiteracy of it all. I think it's interesting that he led heavily with Christian values, and we saw him literally tell everyone. Yeah, I don't even think I'm going to heaven, y'. All. Like, there's been very little movement there.

[Jojo Alonso]

I love the, like, playing in a nigga face. You know what I'm saying? He playing in their face, and it's like, they don't they're none the wiser.

[Lynae]

From the very beginning, I always. My analogy for Trump was like, the nigga in the alley in a long trench coat that open that shit up. He got a trench coat full of Rolexes. Like, yo, come get you a watch. Come get you a watch. I know you want something nice for your wife, like, and people eat that shit up. I'm like, but that's. I guess, just a.

[Jojo Alonso]

He's a real New Yorker, though. Like, through and through. Like, the real white. Like, he's like a white New Yorker.

[Mandy B]

The white trash.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah, But New Yorker. You got to think about this, too, though. If you know his history, every business that he's ever started and owned and operated failed, Went bankrupt.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, failed.

[Jojo Alonso]

And so now the business of America has gone bankrupt. And this is kind of like, in a lot. This is what he do. He knows how to ruin a business, nigga. And the business of America is in the shitter. But, Nick.

[Lynae]

But America is so, like, they so on the dick of capitalism that you don't even have to really have the bread. You just have to fake like you got the bread. You just have to present the image of, I'm rich, I'm successful, I'm white. What else you need to know? Or you ask anything you sell in.

[Mandy B]

Africa, and here goes.

[Jojo Alonso]

That's like that Danish. Y' all heard about that? The Danish. The nigga that was, like, acting like he was Danish royalty. Oh, shit. It was 40 out of all that bread. Yeah. And she didn't do no background check on that. And they was like, you ain't do no background check. Cause he was white, cuz. If you said he was Nigerian and royalty, you would have been doing it.

[Lynae]

Have been all through the Google.

[Mandy B]

Oh, no, them the number one.

[Jojo Alonso]

I'm.

[Mandy B]

I'm checking the scams there.

[Jojo Alonso]

Sorry. Yeah. I'm saying Nigeria, first of all, why you making money if you royalty, nigga? Why are you emailing me? Right?

[Mandy B]

If you like that part?

[Jojo Alonso]

Like, you don't got niggas for this. Yeah, yeah.

[Jason Rodriguez]

You know, coming to America type shit.

[Mandy B]

However I want to. I want to. I want to bring in the. I want to bring in the hypocrisy of it and lean it into pop culture a little bit. Because we did also see the support from our community heavily and still for a billionaire, for Diddy.

[Lynae]

Oh, that's. But that's just niggas being. That's just niggas dick riding.

[Mandy B]

What's the difference? What's the difference?

[Jojo Alonso]

Wait, you mean, like, I don't think, overwhelming support. But, like, niggas do be on some, like, hotel, like, trying to take our black kings down. That ain't no king.

[Mandy B]

No.

[Lynae]

Like, why. Why is that the best?

[Jojo Alonso]

That nigga's not a black king. That is a rapist and a sex trafficker and a. And he be dancing in faces.

[Mandy B]

See the dancing? He like to play in people's faces.

[Jojo Alonso]

He be playing in faces.

[Mandy B]

He be playing in faces.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Well, I don't. It's not all the way. But what I think one of the things is, is, like, sometimes, like, black people really don't give a fuck what somebody else did to. To somebody else. Like, what you do to me. Like, I like your music. I fuck with you. I don't care what you.

[Lynae]

I don't care what you did to nobody else.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I don't care what you did with nobody else. A lot of people feel like that. Like, if it don't affect them, it just don't affect them. I think that that's fucked up, but that's just how certain people look and shit.

[Jojo Alonso]

That's that individuality over community shit. But also, like, where your morals at, bro? I'm not supporting a nigga that's a sex trafficker, bro.

[Mandy B]

I think. I think it's. I think it's interesting, though, because for. For years we've known him to do bad business. Right?

[Jason Rodriguez]

Right.

[Mandy B]

I mean, it's weird because not to put blame on the generation before us, but it was interesting to see all the things he did fucked up. Like, I never know he killed nine people in that gym. Like, when I saw the.

[Lynae]

Yeah, City College was a real.

[Mandy B]

When I. When I saw. When I saw the documentary. But it's the same thing, right? We knew that R. Kelly was out here pissing on bitches, and he still was able to have a career after. Like, we've known so many things that are, again, I guess making. Making celebrities our leaders, we kind of just let them do it because what we want to be them. We aspire to make them what they do.

[Lynae]

Like, but that's the biggest problem.

[Jojo Alonso]

That good. Like, they're great songs, but they ain't that good.

[Mandy B]

I agree. They're not.

[Jojo Alonso]

And also this Diddy, every time some people died, he came up.

[Mandy B]

What were yalls thoughts of the. Of the documentary?

[Jason Rodriguez]

So I didn't get to watch the full documentary yet because I got to be in a. I want to be locked in. But I'm gonna be honest. Like, what he went down for, he deserved, but I'd rather see him go down for killing Pac. God damn it.

[Lynae]

Well, that's the thing.

[Mandy B]

Now my mama called me and was like, diddy really have something to do with Pac and Biggie's mind? You, she white. She calling me, asking me about Pac and Biggie's death having something to do with Diddy.

[Jojo Alonso]

I said, real white shit.

[Mandy B]

That is crazy. Don't do that. I was like, mom, time to hang up. For me, I'll be honest. I'll be honest. My thought of it and this. I don't know, y' all probably not.

[Jojo Alonso]

Gonna like my thought.

[Mandy B]

Cause it was like. It was very hard for me to have empathy for everybody there. And it reminds me of the place that we're in right now in 2025. It seemed like as long as everybody got paid their money, they probably wouldn't have had anything to say. And so for me, the idea of becoming a victim only when you're done wrong again, as long as someone gives you what you think you deserve or you're owed, you're okay with all the bullshit that goes on around you.

[Lynae]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

So you. What I saw was people turning a blind eye to him abusing Cassie. Allegedly, he shot someone in a room. And this nigga still decided to work on the album. A lot of people saw that he.

[Jojo Alonso]

Was drugging and crazy.

[Mandy B]

No, it was nuts. Yeah, it was insane.

[Jojo Alonso]

Talking about some. I thought I hit the gunshot.

[Lynae]

We saw that. I was like, duh, bruh.

[Mandy B]

No. And then the fact that he also said, I got drugged, woke up, and my ass was sore, but I still kept working on the album. But I only got upset when my motherfucking check didn't clear. Now you got something to say to me?

[Jojo Alonso]

Not even captain's back door blown out.

[Lynae]

Was not enough would stop you from.

[Mandy B]

First of all, not only that, all of this is happening with you, but you also are going to the strip club and becoming a madam, a male madam to bring back bitches to the house.

[Jojo Alonso]

And they drugging them.

[Lynae]

They said, n put a hat on me to let them know that I am. I am the bitch getter and bring me the hoes because I got the bad boy hat on.

[Jojo Alonso]

Listen, the other thing is, like, even. Even 30 minutes into the documentary, they saying the nigga had drugged a girl, raped a girl, recorded it.

[Mandy B]

Yep.

[Jojo Alonso]

And was playing a tape. Playing a tape type party.

[Mandy B]

At parties. At parties.

[Jojo Alonso]

And first of all, if I walk into the party and it's porn, a plan, I'm out.

[Mandy B]

Like, what are we talking about? What are we talking about?

[Jojo Alonso]

He ass niggas in Here doing, bro, why we acting like this isn't playing, but can I.

[Mandy B]

And I talked about the idolization of criminals and gangsters because allegedly this was something that Alpo did.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah. And Alpo. And another thing, Alpo's a corny nigga for that type.

[Mandy B]

It's corny, it's corny. It was bad. But I think that that's.

[Jojo Alonso]

But niggas let you get away with anything when you got.

[Mandy B]

When you got money. Or for a lot of those early days, he was an intern doing that. So he just had. He allowed people access to the best parties. He was a fucking party promoter.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I think not only money, I think power. I think a lot of times, n get. A lot of times, and this is gonna sound so fucking crazy, but a lot of times niggas get scared. When a nigga got power and a nigga got money, that's number one. Number two, a lot of niggas will basically do whatever the fuck if it. If it's worth saving their family.

[Mandy B]

I think that's the thing. Everyone. Everyone has a price tag. And so it's unfortunate though that we now have to tow with our human minds the toe between having empathy for a victim, but also knowing that they were a part of the problem. As long as they were being paid, they were going to be quiet. And so it sucks.

[Jojo Alonso]

All your money got blood on it, bro.

[Mandy B]

All of it.

[Jojo Alonso]

Like he. I'm going to tell you something about that nigga. That nigga had a keen eye for a bitch ass nigga.

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Jojo Alonso]

He knew what it was.

[Lynae]

Yeah.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

And I'm telling you, everybody around him.

[Jojo Alonso]

Was that if that nigga played with me like that, it would have been. I would have been in prison still.

[Mandy B]

Let's be honest, even the guy that has 75% a bad boy look with a bad.

[Lynae]

You gotta do it.

[Jojo Alonso]

Show me.

[Lynae]

Show me with a bat.

[Jojo Alonso]

You gave me 25% of the company up front.

[Lynae]

Oh, yeah.

[Jojo Alonso]

Then and once the company is hella successful and my 25% is definitely in the millions now you like, oh, I need the 25 back because I got something to do.

[Lynae]

And let's be.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I'm say this though. I. I've been in certain situations to where it's like I had to make a decision based off of me being scared, right?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Sure.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Like now do I want empathy from a motherfucker? No. But at the same time, I do feel like the person manipulated me, scared me into making the decision because I was fearful.

[Lynae]

No, intimidation is a real thing and it happens to a Lot of people in various type of circumstances. But to be clear about that 25%, not only did he give the nigga the 25% up front, the reason he did it is because he didn't want to pay out.

[Mandy B]

Didn't want to pay out.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah, he was from college, so the.

[Lynae]

Whole thing was slime from the very, very beginning.

[Jojo Alonso]

That nigga's a slime.

[Lynae]

It was slime from the top. So it's like.

[Jojo Alonso]

But you gotta have bring more than.

[Lynae]

A bat, a bat in the office. Like, that's not gonna get it done.

[Mandy B]

It was. It. It was a. It was a good watch, but I'd.

[Lynae]

Have slapped the shit out that nigga. And we've been rumbling in that office.

[Mandy B]

Even as he was working and they were moving up the ladder. The fact that he said he walked into the office and Diddy was getting head by somebody and just pretty much wanted him to see that. Like, to me, there was just so many ways.

[Jojo Alonso]

I think I played a lot of.

[Mandy B]

My bro, a lot. But to me, the fact that. But the fact that people were getting their checks, they turned a blind eye. And so it was really hard for me to watch and sit here and be like, oh, so as long as you kept getting this money, you probably wouldn't be in this doc right now.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Okay, so let me ask you this. So say somebody did step out and say something and nothing happened. Damn. What.

[Mandy B]

What do you mean by that?

[Jason Rodriguez]

I mean, like, they stand up and be like, yo, like, this nigga's weird.

[Mandy B]

You leave, you get another job. To me, if you really have an issue morally with everything that's going on around you, mind you, to me, if you see a bitch getting raped, you see people getting drugged, you're going to get people and bring people to. You're just. You're an accomplice at this point. And so to me, when shit hits the fan and Diddy's like, you're fired on some Trump shit. You're fired then. And now you want to have tears. I don't.

[Jason Rodriguez]

What is that person's like? You're saying, like, the person sees some bullshit. Oh, you walk in on him getting hit. You're saying like.

[Lynae]

And there's no consequence.

[Mandy B]

To me. That's the thing, though. If there's. If there's a price for you to be a bad person. I'm sorry, I don't have empathy when that. When that person decides to stop paying you and now you're the victim. No, you partook in a lot of those things. And I think Again, that's what we're seeing. That's what we're seeing right now in 2025. I think that there is a lot of people in this, like, right now, where we're at, where, again, people are out fending for themselves. There's a lot of questionable ways in which people are showing up for a dollar, for a dime, for a look for some power, for a promotion, that it's like, bro, when shit don't go your way, you don't get to come here and cry wolf and be the victim.

[Jojo Alonso]

But it's the same thing white people do with Trump. It's like, okay, as long as he victimizing everybody else, it's cool. But hold on. What you mean?

[Mandy B]

Hold on? What do you mean? It's affecting me now.

[Jojo Alonso]

Now it's affecting me with Trump people.

[Lynae]

They. People that love Trump, that are MAGA down to their dirty drawers, they're not MAGA because of what Trump is going to do for them. They're MAGA because what Trump is going to do to somebody else.

[Jojo Alonso]

That's.

[Lynae]

That's the whole thing. They're not there for like, help me make this cheaper, help me make this more affordable, help me with my health care. That's not the whole point that he said, we going to kick out these Mexicans. Yeah, fuck them up.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah, but like, who's going to run your farm? Dumbass, right?

[Lynae]

You done lost the farm, but they don't care about it.

[Mandy B]

I'll be honest. And not even trying to make this a hot take. I think it's interesting with. I have friends, I have a lot of people that I know. We talk about farms. Who's gonna clean your house? Who gonna do these jobs? There's a lot of Americans right now with no jobs that will not do those jobs. And I'm confused as to where we've gotten to the place where we want the money, we need the money, Rent's not going down. Even the fact that two adult households ain't really making way, but yet there's still certain jobs that people aren't willing to do or willing to take.

[Lynae]

Well, that's the other topic, historically, because.

[Mandy B]

Of the stereotype that we have.

[Jojo Alonso]

So they're okay with prisoners doing the job, they're okay with immigrants doing the job because it's slave labor to them. Working a farm, any type of agriculture, where you got a real sweat of your brow. If you're not doing it with a machine, that's slave labor. But that's what it has been historically.

[Lynae]

And the crazy part about it is they've tricked, they've devalued the idea of work ethic while also telling you have to work hard.

[Jojo Alonso]

I'm the help.

[Lynae]

Yeah. Right, Right.

[Jojo Alonso]

And what has that been? You're the lowest of the low. So some people don't care about like. No, but people care more about how they look than getting money. Right.

[Mandy B]

100%.

[Jojo Alonso]

And that's a. It's a fucked up. But it's a byproduct of this whole shit. And it's also a byproduct of us not being honest about the history of this country and trying to, like, cover it up.

[Mandy B]

But. But that's. And that's the hard part about where we're going. That's being removed from. From history. From history as we speak.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

As we're literally existing. So I don't know. It's interesting because we do have about again, three more years. Unfortunately, with that, it's not necessarily true.

[Jojo Alonso]

I mean, niggas waning, son N check.

[Lynae]

Out every day, B. Yeah.

[Jojo Alonso]

N die every day, B. And I'm telling you, the shit not looking good. You can see. Because the thing is, think about how demanding that job is. Right.

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Jojo Alonso]

It's very taxing on the mind because you gotta have so many tabs open all the time.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

That ain't.

[Jojo Alonso]

If you already old and you already like in cognitive decline, that's gonna exacerbate that. That's what happened to Joe Biden. It's just too stressful. That shit eats your brain.

[Lynae]

And what's happening to the American people is that we've talked about a million. Everybody is out here. We're just trying to make it to the next day, pay your bills. And they just did a poll recently of people under 30 years old, and 28% of the respondents replied that they believe that political violence is okay in the right situation. Oh, and that's where we are in America, is that people like, at a certain point, you can take, you can take, you can take, you can strip people of all this shit at some point. You talking about earlier? The pendulum. The pendulum swings back the other way. And sometimes it's gonna swing back in a way that you're not really ready for.

[Mandy B]

I think it's interesting because I don't know how many people have gotten to travel abroad this year, but I remember I was living in Singapore in 2016. Well, 2015, 2016. So when he was running for president before he even got elected. And the rest of the world is laughing at us. The rest of the World thinks that this is. This place is a fucking joke.

[Jojo Alonso]

What a matchup we got, y'. All. This is that classic HBCU vibe.

[Lynae]

Non stop action.

[Jojo Alonso]

The band is rocking and the crowd lit. Chance echoing drum beat Everybody showing that school pride. A game like this, yeah, it calls for an ice cold Coca Cola. Ah, crisp and refreshing. That's a game changer right there. Yeah, that taste always hits the right note. Just like the band at halftime. And just like that, we're back at it. Passionate fans, school colors everywhere. And in ice cold Coca Cola. That's a winning combo. No matter the sport, no matter the yard. Everybody knows fan work is thirsty work. So grab a Coca Cola and keep that HBCU pride going.

[Big Lone]

What's up? It's big long from it's up there podcast. On this episode, we're unpacking the difference between toxic love and a real bond. How so many of us were taught to survive love instead of experiencing it. A lot of men think being solid means being silent. I'm good. I got it. That's the script we memorize before we even know ourselves. Because somewhere along the line, expression got labeled weakness. So now we perform composure while we're falling apart. You'll share your body, but not a conversation. And that's not intimacy. But what if being a man really means you care enough to communicate? Real love isn't loud. It's consistent. It's the small things. The small check ins, the shared accountability, the honesty that feels awkward but keeps everyone safe. Stop confusing numbness with dependability. We gotta break the cycle and break the pattern. This special episode of It's Up There podcast with loan brought to you by Healthy Sexual from Gilead sciences on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.

[Unrivaled Basketball Announcer]

Season two of unrivaled basketball is here and the talent is unreal. The best women's players on the planet are running it back with even bigger moments and bigger stakes. Don't miss as Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plumb, Brianna Stewart and more take the court and redefine the game. This isn't your regular season. This is unrivaled, where the pace is faster, the energy is is higher, and every athlete shines. Unrivaled basketball season two, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5th on TNT, TruTV and HBO.

[Sophie Cunningham]

Max, this is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something. Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity? They may be happening to you without you knowing. If anyone has ever said you snored loudly. Or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to osa. OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation. Learn more at don'tsleep on OSA.com this information is provided by Lilly A Medicine company.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Hey, audiobook lovers. This week on the podcast I'm sitting down with musician, producer, and walking encyclopedia Questlove. We're talking about Mark Ronson's memoir, Night how to be a DJ in 90s New York City. All right, like we talked about before, Mark Ronson found sanctuary in the DJ booth. What's a tool or piece of equipment in the studio or on stage that gives you the most control?

[Lynae]

So I have two microphones on stage. We have the microphone that you hear as the audience. Then we have a second microphone in which we communicate with each other.

[Jojo Alonso]

Other.

[Lynae]

I feel like that second microphone kind of saved all of our friendships. No band likes each other after 20 years or 25 years. Like the Beatles broke up in seven and a half years, and we're going on 35.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Listen to Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club on the iHeartradio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Mandy B]

Now, I do want to talk about it because we talked politically, but we are. I also believe in what we're witnessing this year more than ever is the fact that we are amidst a technological revolution. So I want to talk about AI. Well, I want to talk about. To me, that's what the conversation has leaned heavily into, because we've seen the decline and end of so many jobs, jobs that came about from the pandemic, but jobs that have also now been taken away because of technology advancements. We see AI coming about. I mean, I said probably every episode, and y' all can make fun of me. ChatGPT is my husband. I know Deontay is not here for that.

[Lynae]

Think about it. ChatGPT could be your husband, but you're gonna end up in a. You're gonna end up on a Lifetime movie because your husband want to kill you, me, everybody else.

[Mandy B]

You think AI will want to kill us? By the way, shout out to super producer A. Keith.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Thank you. Don't go too far and get like that little fucking robot.

[Mandy B]

Oh, I put my down payment already.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Let's just. Let's just say, Theo, look, hold on.

[Mandy B]

I'm getting Leo anything.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Anything that the want to do to do to us. They can do it right now. Don't think just they. This AI.

[Jojo Alonso]

Well, that's not my issue with AI. My issue with AI, what is your resources.

[Mandy B]

Okay.

[Jojo Alonso]

Consumes not. It does in a way. In a way. I think any tool, if used properly is beneficial. Right?

[Mandy B]

Sure.

[Jojo Alonso]

But I think if it comes at the cost of our drinking water. I'm not with it.

[Lynae]

Then it's. Yeah, it's a rat.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Comes with. To what?

[Jojo Alonso]

At the cost of our drinking water. Like that's the main resource that it uses is our drinking water, the pure water.

[Lynae]

These data centers.

[Jojo Alonso]

They're setting up data centers around big bodies of fresh water. Billions full of computers.

[Lynae]

Yeah. Billions of gallons of water. Because these computers run all day long.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Wait, hold on.

[Jojo Alonso]

Oh, you didn't know? Yeah, yeah.

[Jason Rodriguez]

That is the dumbest shit. Wait, because why.

[Lynae]

Because the computer is. It's computers.

[Jojo Alonso]

These data centers, they have to cool it.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Okay, so what is the. So what now we're gonna be drinking AI water?

[Jojo Alonso]

No, the water's gonna be.

[Mandy B]

We're not gonna have water.

[Lynae]

You're not gonna have it.

[Jojo Alonso]

Well anybody.

[Mandy B]

We're gonna be out here drinking nasty ass Dasani.

[Jojo Alonso]

No, the thing is that there is no plan.

[Lynae]

Crunchy ass.

[Jojo Alonso]

The plan is to make money.

[Lynae]

Yeah, that's it.

[Jojo Alonso]

As they use more energy, they use more drinking water. And for whatever reason, the computers can't. Like there's no other soluble water. Like it can't use salt water because that would destroy the structure of the computer. Right. So it needs. The same water that we drink is the water it needs to cool its computers. And the more we run out of water, the more of an impact it has on the environment. The higher your light bill is going to get, the higher your energy bill.

[Mandy B]

Is going to get all of that higher.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yes. I mean, that's because the data centers.

[Jason Rodriguez]

My shit been higher and I.

[Jojo Alonso]

We.

[Mandy B]

We are don't pay water bill, nigga.

[Jojo Alonso]

Everything we're paying cost. We. We pay the cost for other people. First of all, we lose resources and we spend the money to provide the loss of our resources.

[Lynae]

Right. Because those. Those same companies that build those data centers are only in those places because they're getting a kickback from the local government to be there.

[Mandy B]

I do. I do feel like there will be a solution for this. There. There will be a solution.

[Lynae]

I don't.

[Mandy B]

I mean, the same way if we think about what the automobile industry, right, with the exhaust now we have, you know, hybrid cars.

[Jojo Alonso]

And so all these things are understood. We should be on Solar power universally 100% but the thing is, is that people in these big oil, Big oil, Big gas operate like cartel. You gotta understand, like, you wanna know who really operate like a cartel? Trump Plastic. Oh, people that are in plastic, people that are in water, like Nestle, they operate like cartels. So the thing is, the nigga from Nestle said water isn't a human right. Actually, water isn't a human right.

[Lynae]

And they sell water.

[Jojo Alonso]

But how is it not a human right? And it's literally a part of our human function.

[Mandy B]

Well, and that's the thing, I think, too, when we talk about and on a global scale, it's why we have Trump that's still trying to play nice with so many countries, because we're in need of so many natural resources from other countries that we don't create here.

[Lynae]

Nothing here.

[Jojo Alonso]

Oh, y' all want to do it?

[Lynae]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mandy B]

By the way, y', all, this is where it gets a little rowdy. I mean, if we have ready, we're gonna get into music and movies and all the things in our next episode. But I do want to round out.

[Jojo Alonso]

With final thoughts on ChatGPT. All the AI, any source AI, any of that shit. All them.

[Mandy B]

I actually plan to put a trap on my knee, so I plan to actually AI soon.

[Jojo Alonso]

You gonna what?

[Mandy B]

I'm gonna put a strap on my Neo. I'm getting the robot. I'm sorry, y'.

[Jojo Alonso]

All.

[Mandy B]

I am here for the advancements happening. I know. It's. It's pos. People are ruining the country. Like, people are ruining the world.

[Jojo Alonso]

And now I have like, hey, don't. You don't have to make.

[Mandy B]

So here we go.

[Lynae]

I mean, you heard it here first. Mandy is gonna mortgage our drinking water. She's trying to get a nut.

[Jojo Alonso]

Okay.

[Lynae]

And you gonna have dirty water.

[Mandy B]

That's crazy. That is not.

[Lynae]

That's what's gonna.

[Jojo Alonso]

I support the AI, Mandy. Onlyfans that.

[Mandy B]

I did not say that. That's what we said.

[Jojo Alonso]

For the first 90 days, this will be only. I'm gonna be managing this shit.

[Mandy B]

What you giving?

[Jojo Alonso]

We gonna bring. We gonna have Neo gang bangs. I'm gonna put a VR headset on her. It's gonna be live. I think all the drinking water that's gonna be wasted in commission of this. We gonna be rich as shit, though. So. So it's all good. We'll get our own water reserve. We be good. We'll own water. You know what I'm saying? And Mandy will be getting slutted out by robots.

[Mandy B]

Oh, my God. Shut up. I think for me, it's. And I mean, maybe I.

[Jojo Alonso]

She's a woman of the future, clearly. Think about this.

[Mandy B]

Can we. Can we die? But also, I mean, I think it's difficult again, when we sit here and talk about all of the problems we're facing. I don't know, a part of me just feels like it's.

[Lynae]

It's bleak out here.

[Mandy B]

It's.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah, it gets a little knocked.

[Lynae]

Yeah, it's bleak out here.

[Jojo Alonso]

At some point, it's like, it does get to a level where it's like, even with me, where I'm just like, damn, why do I. Why I care? Why? Right? Why? But then. But then after you calm down, he's like, okay, you should care about that.

[Mandy B]

I mean, but there's reasons to care. But I just. Oop, well, dang. I just can't care about, like, it's hard to care about everything, right?

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mandy B]

And I think that that's what this year has done for me more than anything. Like, I have to pick and choose. Like. Like, there's just so much. I mean, clearly, there's women's rights, there's Black Lives Matter, there's our fucking. What's the word? With everything happening right now. Climate control, there's the growth of technology, there's people needing to eat. But, like, even. Even when it came to, like, SNAP benefits being like, it's. It wasn't just. Of course, our black community, like, they tried to make believe with all that bullshit.

[Jojo Alonso]

And that's another thing they use with AI is like, it's older.

[Mandy B]

They. The. The AI is enforcing very bad stereotypes.

[Jojo Alonso]

Well, not gonna lie, the. The creators and the people who operated are racist. So there you go.

[Mandy B]

I will say for me, AI just.

[Jojo Alonso]

Being a fucking loser like that.

[Mandy B]

No, it was.

[Jojo Alonso]

Imagine having one of the most technologically advanced supercomputers to be like, I'm gonna make black people look bad with this. Yeah, yeah, Niggas are fucking losers.

[Mandy B]

No, literally.

[Jojo Alonso]

And I hope the robot turn around and kill you.

[Lynae]

Did billions of dollars of research and development just so they can call you nigger. Yeah, like in binary code like that, bro. Like, oh, you just said it. You don't need that.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I didn't get to say, like, 2025 for me, but 2025 made me, like, realize, number one, motherfuckers need to work for themselves. You gotta figure it out and get church bread.

[Jojo Alonso]

Church.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Because my.

[Mandy B]

I think that is. I think that's an easy statement to make. I will say, I think majority of people are workers.

[Jason Rodriguez]

No, no, no, That's a fact.

[Mandy B]

Like that.

[Jason Rodriguez]

But you're not.

[Mandy B]

But yeah, you can't.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I'm saying, though, you're not hearing what I'm saying, like whatever it is, because they can't. People are losing their jobs.

[Mandy B]

I get that.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I know what you're saying. But you got to figure. What I'm saying is it's too many ways out here to make money.

[Mandy B]

Sounds good. That's another thing. That sounds good.

[Jason Rodriguez]

No, it is.

[Lynae]

Well, that's the thing.

[Jason Rodriguez]

But that, but other ways you figure out how to make money and you got to figure that. And I'm not saying that everybody needs to do that, but I feel like that would be your best bet.

[Mandy B]

But if people could, they would. A lot of people, let's be very clear. Like. But a lot of people. Between the fact that, I don't know, I was.

[Jason Rodriguez]

It takes too much work.

[Mandy B]

But it's not even.

[Lynae]

But that's where the scams come in. That's where the easy route comes in. That's where the cutting corners comes in. Because people are doing that, but they're not.

[Mandy B]

But also, but also that's what they're doing. They're making it harder to do that.

[Lynae]

Yeah, yeah, they're making it harder to do that.

[Mandy B]

So to me, the idea that just go out there and make money, start your own business, like, I think that's probably the worst thing that we could just be telling people to do.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I didn't say start your own business.

[Mandy B]

But get your own money. Go get money however you can.

[Lynae]

That's the date ology.

[Mandy B]

If people, if people could, they would. I think, I think the fact too that in terms of when we go into what's being taken away from us, when we talk about the budgets in the Department of Education, when we talk about the budgets in, in the medical field, when we talk about like health care not being affordable for so many people, you also are at a place where people are, are not reaching above sixth grade reading levels. So when we talk about when they become adults, we're talking about illiteracy rates rising. We're talking about the fact that people are being misinformed. To me, even AI has done heavily that this year. The fact that I have to go under the comments or make sure AI is working to tell me that it's AI, like in terms of how we're all even gathering information. We're gathering it from our phones, we're not even watching the news anymore. We're going to the blogs. And so unfortunately that's how we're concerned.

[Lynae]

Why you had to.

[Jojo Alonso]

The blog.

[Mandy B]

The blogs.

[Lynae]

The blogs. Like, why the hand. What was that? That was like the Leonardo DiCaprio like, oh, this nigga. Yeah.

[Jojo Alonso]

Like, God damn you.

[Mandy B]

Are you. You listen. You blog era. Jah. Okay, I am. And so I think the way that we even consume the information and how we're having to fact check what we're consuming, a lot of people don't. They see it and they go with it. Facebook is. Is. Is. That's all it is.

[Jojo Alonso]

I think that there's a lot of people in this country and everybody's gonna have the thing that matters to them. And that's why I feel like you advocate and work your spot. Work the spot that you care about. Yeah. And. Cause one person caring about everything, being informed versus being an advocate is two different things. I'm informed of a lot of things. I advocate for certain. Right. You know what I mean? So I think even to your point, what you advocating for is like some. Some form of independence outside of corporate. Because you see what it is like, the more people that lose jobs, the more jobs that AI take and the tougher the administration gets with funding what's classified.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Don't want to. They don't want you to make no money.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, well, they're trying to bring, like, the thing about AI and what is going to eventually happen is that you're gonna have a bunch of niggas working for data centers in company towns, driving cars owned by the data center, living in housing subsidized by the big brother. Go right back to the rail yard. Sorry to bother you.

[Lynae]

That's what it's gonna turn into. It's gonna turn into sorry to bother you.

[Jojo Alonso]

The thing is, is that I understand exactly what both of y' all are saying because it is not easy to find out how to make your own money. But there needs to be some urgency towards figuring out what your spot is and how you could work your spot and figure out some sort of stream of income where you're not solely dependent on a company for your income because they're never gonna give you enough.

[Jason Rodriguez]

No.

[Jojo Alonso]

So you have to figure out something for yourself. Also, I understand where you at. Where it's like, look, entrepreneurship ain't easy. Also, finding a way to make money that's actually substantial, it ain't easy. You know?

[Mandy B]

And then when you do figure it out, right? Like we have so many people that monetized off TikTok and YouTube, guess what they do? They. They. They push the goal post and now bank On. Exactly. And now the. And now these companies are like, oh, no, we're gonna push the goalpost. You need more views. You need more. Actually now you have to pay us to even push your content. So you have to pay for ads. We're gonna lower the CPM per view. Like, so it sounds good, but in hindsight, these corporations that we're still expecting.

[Jojo Alonso]

Monetization, they're gonna find a way back.

[Jason Rodriguez]

To what I said, nigga.

[Mandy B]

Podcasting. We went from being able to have one podcast a week. Now gotta drop 3, 4, 5 at Patreon. Do live shows.

[Jason Rodriguez]

The stuff that like that is needed and people don't have. But it goes back to what you said. People don't want to do the slave work, but we need somebody on that farm and is. Is needed.

[Jojo Alonso]

This is why I advocate. This is why I say I advocate for every. Some certain things. I advocate for trades. If you got a skilled trade, can't take that away from you.

[Mandy B]

I agree.

[Jojo Alonso]

Right. And the thing is, is like we live in a certain area now. Where to your point? Like being a farmhand, it really ain't nothing to be ashamed of. It is actually a sign of independence. But the stigma of it being such a lower class job. Well, so is the trash man, but the trash man make more than the teacher. You dig what I'm saying?

[Lynae]

Well, that's the problem. Niggas have to decide at some point do you want to be stable or do you want to be sexy?

[Mandy B]

And I think that that's.

[Lynae]

Niggas want to be sexy.

[Jojo Alonso]

Be a sexy trash man, my nigga.

[Lynae]

It be the sexiest trash. Yeah, you can. You could, you could. I don't know what the. What the protocol is, but I bet you could be a trash man and be a viral content creator.

[Mandy B]

You can't keep them arms. I know them arms is strong. Yeah, you picking up them bags? You picking up them bags? Let me see your arms. Go to work.

[Lynae]

You could be on live, hanging off the side of the truck, everything.

[Mandy B]

Hell yeah. Throwing that bag, figuring out.

[Lynae]

Figuring out whatever it is. But I mean, but ultimately, like got.

[Jojo Alonso]

A fan over here. Get dirty, brother.

[Mandy B]

Listen, I love a man in a uniform. Get dirty.

[Jojo Alonso]

Get dirty. Wear your little form. Subscribe Chat. GPT only fans shut the. Hosted by Mandy and what's the name? Neo. Andy Neo. It's gonna be me in there with the VR headset and like, his name is Neo. And Neo is already like, listen, these aren't low, okay? The. The apple has a bite taken out of it on your Mac. For a reason. These niggas ain't low, son.

[Mandy B]

Oh, what?

[Jojo Alonso]

Where are you named Neo?

[Lynae]

That was some real third eye shit.

[Jojo Alonso]

The nigga name is Neo, son.

[Lynae]

I drop a couple.

[Jojo Alonso]

Who is Neo right now?

[Lynae]

Who got a Kuf?

[Jojo Alonso]

The lead of the Matrix? These niggas ain't. These niggas ain't low, son.

[Mandy B]

That was the bite of the apple, meat.

[Lynae]

The bite of the apple.

[Jojo Alonso]

It was the beginning of industrial technological revolution. Garden of Eden, you know what? Spread of information. That's the whole thing about the Garden of Eden.

[Lynae]

But I do want to say something to your point, though, is that.

[Jojo Alonso]

You know what I'm saying. I don't want to go too. I literally am one of those niggas.

[Mandy B]

Hey, cj, I saw that. And put a koofie on his head, please.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah, I want some Kufy real quick. Because we was kings, nigga. Remember that.

[Lynae]

But to your point, though, I get that for a lot of people, it is overwhelming to see so much shit going on and feeling like you have to care about everything, invest in everything, but it's like everybody has a part to play.

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Lynae]

And so I would just want to encourage people to. Even if you are feeling overwhelmed, like, don't feel like you have. It's not on you to solve every.

[Jojo Alonso]

Single ill. Oh, I know.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Say this.

[Lynae]

It's just about you to do your part that you know that you can do to contribute to the betterment, be net positive. Y' all don't understand in this life.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I get it. We all need to come together. We do.

[Jojo Alonso]

That's real.

[Jason Rodriguez]

But y' all not understanding that, like, there's a lot of people out there that got they own shit going on.

[Mandy B]

How.

[Jason Rodriguez]

I know people are dying and 100%.

[Lynae]

It makes it hard to come together when you trying to survive yourself.

[Mandy B]

And that's where we're at.

[Jason Rodriguez]

And so it's like when we. When us as people, we over here dealing with this over there, it take a lot of energy, not including, like, the emotional, the physical. Like, you got. You got to go through a lot of people got kids, people got marriages, people got sick parents.

[Jojo Alonso]

Individual lives that people leave are heavy enough.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Yes. It's like.

[Jojo Alonso]

And we supposed to use entertainment as escapism and then turn this shit into, like, trauma. Trauma, nigga. Like, I hate this shit.

[Jason Rodriguez]

That's why I said I watch that shit because I got other shit going on.

[Jojo Alonso]

And I'mma keep it real, bro. Like, when you got problems with N, and N is trying. You could put the phone down and get busy. With N. Stop recording that shit. Ooh, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Stop recording. You don't gotta punch the racist out on camera. They gonna know what happened. And also, like, in fighting with niggas online. Stop doing that. All right?

[Mandy B]

Stop doing it.

[Jojo Alonso]

Stop doing that, bro.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, I don't fight with nobody online.

[Jojo Alonso]

Stop that nigga online for it, bro. DM the nigga drop the low. Get it shaken.

[Mandy B]

I know that's right. Deontay do that.

[Jason Rodriguez]

Who doing it?

[Mandy B]

I mean, I. I don't. I don't know.

[Jason Rodriguez]

No, I'm saying where I'm not doing it.

[Mandy B]

You know, we just have opinions. Anyways, guys, this was part one. Make sure you tune in Friday, part two. We're lightening the mood, y'. All. We are talking.

[Jojo Alonso]

No, we not.

[Mandy B]

Oh, this was deep.

[Jojo Alonso]

This was deeper.

[Mandy B]

Wait, we gonna be more woke with music, movies, film, television. That's what we about to get woke.

[Jojo Alonso]

I'm finna break down the unseen scenes.

[Lynae]

The reposado boxes.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah, it's crazy. The unspoken decisions, y'.

[Mandy B]

All. Y' all make sure y' all tune in Friday Part 2.

[Jojo Alonso]

It sound like the.

[Lynae]

The hard spin off.

[Mandy B]

It's gonna be JoJo, Ja, Deontay and myself. We are talking all things 2025, music, television, film. And I guess we're gonna make y' all think y'. All. Y' all really some thinkers in here. God damn, this is deep.

[Jojo Alonso]

Now we can have fun.

[Mandy B]

Okay, let's have fun. We got the tequila going out.

[Jojo Alonso]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

So y' all again, stay tuned. If you want to see the full video, make sure you check out the YouTube channel. It's YouTube.com withmandyb. Also, if you want the ad free version of the video and audio, head on over to patreon. That's patreon.com backslash selectiveignorance. And yeah, y' all getting two really good episodes today. And again, see y' all on Friday for part two. Bye. Selective Ignorance, a production of the Black Effect Podcast network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks for tuning in to Selective Ignorance of Mandy B. Selective Ignorance is executive produced by Mandy B. And it's a full Court media studio production with lead producers Jason Rodriguez. That's me. And Aaron A.

[Jojo Alonso]

King Howard.

[Mandy B]

Now do us a favor and rate, subscribe, comment, comment, and share wherever you get your favorite podcast. And be sure to follow Selective Ignorance on Instagram @SelectiveIgnorant. And of course, if you're not following our host, Mandy B. Make sure you're following her at full court pumps. Now. If you want the full video experience of Selective Ignorance, make sure you subscribe to the Patreon. It's patreon.com selective ignorance. It's your girl, Mandy B. And you just checked out my new podcast podcast Selective Ignorance. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you head on over and hit that subscribe button. And check out Selective Ignorance every Tuesday and every Friday wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.

[Big Lone]

Now streaming it's the new limited series.

[Jojo Alonso]

Little Disasters Happy Families, Perfect Marriage. What happened?

[Mandy B]

Social services have been called in. I've known you for 10. How could you make that call?

[Jojo Alonso]

These rich families Concealing things seems to Come Naturally. Starring Diane Kruger.

[Mandy B]

You can't take out children and Joe Joyner. Parents can do some terrible things in moments of frustration.

[Jojo Alonso]

Little Disasters all episodes now streaming on Paramount.

[Unrivaled Basketball Announcer]

Season 2 of unrivaled basketball is here and the talent is unreal. The best women's players on the planet are running it back with even bigger moments and bigger stakes. Don't miss as Paige Becker, Snafeeza Collier, Kelsey Plumb, Brianna Stewart and more take the court and redefine the game. This isn't your regular season. This is unrivaled, where the pace is faster, the energy is higher and every athlete shines. Unrivaled basketball season two, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy Tips off January 5th on TNT, TruTV and HBO Max.

[Jojo Alonso]

Amazon Five Star Theater presents Real Customer Reviews performed by Ed Helms. Tonight's review Tactical Jacket I was living a simple life. Didn't get out much. Then I bought this jacket and everything changed. Women came flocking to me from lands domestic and foreign on the 245 day sailboat voyage home. I was attacked by a shark. I knew it was the jacket he was after giving up the jacket in exchange for my life. 5 stars Amazon Customer 69 Shop the perfect gift this holiday on Amazon Thursday.

[Lynae]

Night Football is on and it's only on Prime Video.

[Jojo Alonso]

Brilliant.

[Mandy B]

Just brilliant.

[Lynae]

This week the west coast action heats up when the Rams meet the Seahawks in a huge divisional showdown. Coverage begins at 7pm Eastern with football's best party TNA app tonight presented by Verizon. And don't miss the Broncos and Chiefs on Christmas night. It's Thursday Night Football only on Prime Video. Not a Prime member, Not a problem. Simply sign up for a 30 day free trial. Restrictions apply. See Amazon.com Amazon prime for details.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

This is Julian Edelman from Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jewels. Sunday mornings, I've got my game day ritual, coffee, Lucky socks, and now new Morning Uncrustable Sandwiches.

[Big Lone]

It's all about that 12 gram protein boost with the new Uncrustables Bright Eyed Berry or Up and Apple flavors.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Bright Eye Berries got a feisty receiver.

[Jojo Alonso]

Energy up an apple.

[Big Lone]

Your classic Do it all tight end.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Soft, pillowy, packed with protein and easy enough for Gronk to grab from the freezer.

[Big Lone]

Whether you're on the couch, driving to the tailgate or heading to the locker.

[Jojo Alonso]

Room, New Morning Uncrustable Sandwiches are the MVP of snacks.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Your new Sunday kickoff ritual starts here with New Morning Uncrustable sandwiches. Packed with 12 grams of protein.

[Jason Rodriguez]

This is an I heart podcast.

[Mandy B]

Guaranteed human.