Selective Ignorance: Ep. 47 | Nclecta Carry On's, Higher Education & a Piece of Chicken

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Selective Ignorance" Ep. 47 — Nclecta Carry On's, Higher Education & a Piece of Chicken

Podcast: Decisions, Decisions
Hosts: Mandii B, Ja, Jason J. Le, Journalism Jason
Date: January 20, 2026
Network: The Black Effect & iHeartPodcasts
Episode Theme:
A wide-ranging, unfiltered discussion on viral moments of the week—spanning fear and entitlement on a burning airplane, controversial economic advice from government officials, sports journalism ethics, the representation of Black talent in award spaces, HBCU turmoil, relationships and faith, and the anticipation surrounding J. Cole’s album release.

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into recent viral events and cultural debates, dissecting moments of "selective ignorance" in pop culture, politics, and personal lives. The hosts bring their signature mix of humor, candor, and honest critique, welcoming listeners to both "sit in your ignorance comfortably" and challenge the status quo.

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Notable Segments & Timestamps

1. Flight Emergency & Carry-On Entitlement — Ignorant Takes and Survival Priorities ([08:07]–[15:40])
2. Political Ignorance: Cheap Meals & Government Gaslighting ([15:40]–[20:24])
3. Journalism Ethics: Positivity vs. Accountability in Sports Pressers ([20:24]–[32:32])
4. Golden Globes Discussion — Celebrating & Critiquing Black Wins ([33:07]–[40:10])
5. Podcast Award Representation & Industry Gatekeeping ([40:10]–[55:52])
6. HBCU Chaos: Morris Brown Firing & Funding Games ([56:20]–[68:15])
7. Jehovah’s Witnesses & Viral Relationships (Kirsty and Desmond Scott Breakup) ([68:15]–[75:38])
8. Religion, Church Upbringings, & Cultural Experience ([75:38]–[81:46])
9. Celebrity Clowning: Cam Newton’s "Nclecta" & Black Men’s Media Representation ([81:46]–[96:14])
10. Hip-Hop Feuds: Jim Jones, 50 Cent & Podcast Power Moves ([96:14]–[104:28])
11. Music Hype: J. Cole’s New Project & Hip-Hop’s 2026 State ([104:28]–[121:38])

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Detailed Breakdown

1. Flight Emergency: The Great Carry-On Debate

[08:07]–[15:40]

• Viral Video: Passengers on an American Airlines flight evacuated with bags during an engine fire; online outrage followed.
• Mandii B: Questions whether airlines will actually reimburse valuables. "My ignorant thought was I'm grabbing my duffel bag… it's a Louis."
• Ja: Defends the instinct to grab personal items: "If the plane is about to land, you right, we got time… I'm not leaving my shit up there!"
• All: Joke about the lack of slide training for passengers, mocking the "headfirst" approach seen in the viral video.
• Notable Quote:
  • "Common sense is never that common." — Mandii B [00:41]
  • "There’s only one slide, so you can only go but so fast… while I’m waiting in line, I'm grabbing my bags." — Ja [14:10]

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2. Political Ignorance: "A Piece of Chicken, A Piece of Broccoli"

[15:40]–[20:24]

• Recap of News Clip: Secretary of Agriculture floats that Americans can eat "a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, and a tortilla" for $3 a meal.
• Hosts: Outrage at the suggestion and its insensitivity to economic hardship.
• Mandii B: Mocks use of "tortilla" as un-American in the policy context and highlights the impracticality for families.
• Ja: "Her recommendation is to spend three dollars and eat one piece of everything? Like, come on."
• Jason J. Le: Connects it to the wider problem of SNAP benefit cuts and rising cost of living.

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3. Sports Journalism: "Auntie Vibes" in the Press Room

[20:24]–[32:32]

• Viral Presser Clip: A local Black woman reporter offers encouragement to a losing NFL coach, sparking debate.
• Ja: Finds the reaction outsized, but notes it blurs lines between fandom and professionalism:
  • "If somebody went in a White House press briefing and did that, the left would complain about sucking up to Trump… but we celebrate this when it's the hometown team."
• Mandii B: Defends positivity in depressing spaces:
  • "Why can't we have positive or negative interactions in these rooms? There’s an audience for both."
• Group: Points to gender and race dynamics amplifying backlash:
  • "I also think the issue here is that it was a Black woman that did it." — Mandii B [28:38]

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4. Award Shows: Golden Globes Rant and Raves

[33:07]–[40:10]

• Celebration and Critique: Teyana Taylor’s win sparks joy but also internal critique within the Black community for the role’s nature.
• Mandii B: Dissects intra-community policing of representation and reactions:
  • "Are we ever happy? We get seen in these rooms, and y'all are still not happy." [35:56]
• Ja: Questions the double standard in rewarding "cinematic achievement" but criticizing content.

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5. Podcast Awards: White Dominance & Black Representation

[40:10]–[55:52]

• Observation: Golden Globes Podcast award nominees—all white. Hosts lament difficulty for Black shows to break through.
• Mandii B:
  • "My first thought was Joe Rogan... but maybe you have to pay to submit. Also, they’re not going to let a hoe [Call Her Daddy] win."
• Group Discussion: On criteria, advocacy, the need for advocacy and urban/Black categories:
  • "We need a Black Effect podcast awards." — Jason J. Le [55:57]
• Mentions: Higher Learning, Pod Save the People, The Read offered as examples of Black podcasts with strong cases.

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6. HBCU Crisis: Firing at Morris Brown & Political Funding

[56:20]–[68:15]

• Ja Reports: Sudden firing of Morris Brown’s president after massive recovery from near-closure—no explanation given.
• Insight: HBCU boards are often short-sighted and risk school stability and accreditation.
• Key Point: Federal policies link continued funding to graduates paying off student loans; if too many default, funding is lost.
• Ja:
  • "60% of HBCUs are at risk of losing access to federal loans... because so many students are defaulting." [65:41]
• Mandii B: Relates to saddling of students, especially minorities and women, with degrees now considered irrelevant.

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7. Relationships & Religion: Viral Jehovah’s Witness Divorce

[68:15]–[75:38]

• Who: Kirsty and Desmond Scott’s highly public breakup after being together since teens (Jehovah’s Witnesses).
• Mandii B: Explains the faith’s dating/marriage rules:
  • "Divorce is only allowed for adultery or death. No holidays, porn, or even remarriage unless it ended for adultery/death."
• Group: Laugh at the restrictiveness and performative break-up aftermath (haircut trope, etc.).

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8. Church Upbringings: Religion, Youth, and the Black Experience

[75:38]–[81:46]

• Hosts Share:
  • Ja never liked church, "just wanted to sleep in."
  • Mandii B did missionary work, became skeptical in high school/college after studying the Bible’s historical misuses.
  • Jason J. Le ties Sunday school to discovering hip hop.
• Mandii B: Suggests bringing on religious die-hards for future episodes.

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9. Clowning Cam Newton: "Nclecta" and Black Male Representation

[81:46]–[96:14]

• Viral Clip: Cam Newton invents the word "Nclecta" in an interview, gets gently corrected but doubles down.
• Mandii B:
  • "Are you not embarrassed?... The fact that this is still considered the high value man—yuck." [87:46]
• Ja:
  • "She looked like she was on a bad first date… but she's going to have fun since this is dumb." [88:15]
• Group: Laments that loud, sometimes ignorant masculine personalities get pedestaled in Black media; wants equal critique as is given to Black women’s portrayals.

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10. Hip-Hop Beef & Black Men in Media: Jim Jones, 50 Cent, and Podcasts

[96:14]–[104:28]

• Overview: Recent drama between Jim Jones and 50 Cent, plus the expansion of rappers into podcasting.
• Jason J. Le:
  • "Stop playing with Fif, man… he’s got time."
• Mandii B: Observes the ecosystem of podcast crews, production, and loyalty in the NY hip-hop world.
• Note: Hints at the complexity and legalese of IP rights in podcasting (Kevin Hart’s billion-dollar sale discussed).

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11. Music Corner: J. Cole’s Fall Off and Hip-Hop’s 2026 State

[104:28]–[121:38]

• JCole Album Anticipation: "The Fall Off" possibly his final project, with rumors of it being a double disc.
• Predictions:
  • Mandii B: Hopes for at least one no-features disc, potential Jay-Z feature.
  • Ja: "The narrative is going to be, 'He’s back to save hip hop!'... Fans can be insufferable."
• All: Discussion about "Big Three" (Cole, Drake, Kendrick), hopes for mature, narrative projects, and the meaning of real retirement in hip-hop.
• Notable Quote:
  • "Let’s be clear: I can be critical of Cole... I hated 'For Your Eyes Only'..." — Mandii B [111:03]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• "Selective ignorance is when we all have those moments—are you willing to educate yourself or not?" — Mandii B [00:41]
• "Whose fan club president snuck into the presser?… it was a little unprofessional." — Ja [22:47]
• "If you want positivity, go listen to the fan podcast of the Jacksonville Jaguars…" — Ja [32:01]
• "Awards shows… oftentimes you have to pay to be nominated." — Mandii B [41:13]
• "60% of HBCUs are at risk of losing their accreditation [funding]…" — Ja [65:41]
• "Common sense is never that common." — Mandii B [00:41]
• "Are you not embarrassed?" — Mandii B [85:00]
• "We need a Black Effect podcast awards." — Jason J. Le [55:57]

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Memorable Laughter & Running Jokes

• The "Nclecta" (eclectic) spelling fiasco and Cam Newton’s doubling down.
• Repeated slander of improper pronunciation of “Raleigh,” North Carolina (“Rallya”).
• Flaming of government suggestion for a $3 meal: “a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, a tortilla, and a single M&M.”
• Church trauma and how parents used to tell them to be quiet and not open the door for Jehovah’s Witnesses.
• Group’s fake motivational advice: “Just read!” in context of HBCU funding.

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:41] — Introduction & fear/entitlement on the burning plane
• [09:12] — Flight slide debate & compensation
• [15:40] — Cheap meals & economic nonsense
• [20:24] — Sports journalism, Auntie vibes, and press ethics
• [33:07] — Golden Globes, Teyana Taylor win, and Black community reactions
• [40:10] — Podcast award gatekeeping & absence of Black podcasts
• [56:20] — Morris Brown College firing, HBCU struggles
• [68:15] — Jehovah's Witness relationship rules & viral TikTok moment
• [81:46] — Cam Newton's "Nclecta" and Black men in media discussion
• [96:14] — Jim Jones vs. 50 Cent; hip-hop podcasts, IP rights
• [104:28] — J.Cole expectations, hip-hop's cultural moment

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Final Thoughts

This episode’s tone is irreverent, sharp-witted, and inviting. The roundtable is not afraid to blend humor with critique, calling out both mainstream and intra-community absurdity. The hosts challenge listeners to examine their own “selective ignorance,” especially as it relates to culture, politics, and identity.

The team ends by hyping up J. Cole’s new album while poking fun at the heated debates that always accompany hip-hop icons, promising to return for deeper dives—if the audience can handle it.

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Essential Listening For:

• Anyone who craves unfiltered cultural commentary
• Listeners seriously interested in Black media, pop culture, social justice, or podcast industry inside baseball
• Fans of witty, honest, and messy dialogue that mixes laughs with real substance

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Listen & Subscribe links:

• [Apple Podcasts]
• [Spotify]
• [iHeartRadio App]

Transcript

[Mandy B]

This is an I heart podcast, Guaranteed human. 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 note holds barred, a dual manifesto of sexual exploration in power written by yours truly and my co host of the Decisions Decisions podcast, Weezy. 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, welcome, welcome back to Selective Ignorance with your girl, Mandy B. This is the podcast where we proudly welcome, welcome the ignorance. And also welcome you to educate yourself or not. Because listen, we all have ignorant moments. And oh, before I piss y' all off, have you ever thought about what you would actually do if your flight had to make an emergency landing? Like, really thought about it? Because today I am. And we are reacting to a viral American Airlines emergency landing. And baby, the passengers, that's what they did. They pissed me off. And they had me thinking about fear, entitlement, survival, and why common sense is never that common. But also, y' all won't believe the questions I now want to ask every passenger on my flight. We're getting into it. And speaking of ignorance, my good sidekick Ja is bringing it right off the dome. And fresh out the gate, normal warm up, no warning. He has a selectively ignorant take as well. Well, maybe not so ignorant then. In this is America, we're getting into the Golden Globes. And also a message and possibly a dissertation from JA as well around Morris Brown and HBCUs. And then I will be giving a little lesson, believe it or not, on Jehovah's Witnesses practices. Not today. And this, of course, sparked by a very popular Internet couples breakup. Because the Internet never really just breaks up. It like digs deep. Okay, and then in Celebrity Save the Darnest things, Cam Newton invents new vocabulary.

[Ja]

It's my word.

[Mandy B]

And Jim Jones finds himself battling with 50 cents and the electric company.

[Ja]

It's 50.

[Mandy B]

That alone deserves a per circle with lidded candles, because how else are we going to see anything, you know? And then we're closing it out with a gift and a thought and some love for my favorite person who came with an announcement. This Week. J. Cole, who announced the fall off. And I'm really excited to get into that. Now we're getting into all of these things. So whether you're here to learn, laugh, judge, or just sit in your ignorance comfortably, welcome to selective ignorance. And why are y' all giggling?

[Jason J. Le]

It's not gonna end well.

[Mandy B]

I'm not doing it.

[Jason J. Le]

Yo, so Jai, real quick, when she came in the studio, right? I was just watching that.

[Ja]

Oh, I didn't meant.

[Mandy B]

I didn't.

[Jason J. Le]

I hate it. No, I was like, I hope she don't see what it is because the cold.

[Mandy B]

Well, I don't like that. There will be no cold slander.

[Jason J. Le]

Never. Never.

[Mandy B]

Jake.

[Ja]

I love Jermaine, but this is a funny ass pic. That's a funny ass thumb. Part of what we do.

[Jason J. Le]

We have to see everything from all angles, right?

[Ja]

That's.

[Jason J. Le]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

All right.

[Jason J. Le]

To see what's happening.

[Ja]

Impartiality in journalism.

[Mandy B]

Jesus. Well, guys, unfortunately I am joined by my super producers. We have OG Podcast legend, a king on the ones and twos, who is beautifully making sure y' all hear this audio. So again, if you're listening to this on audio, we are matching. If y' all are watching video.

[Ja]

I almost wore mine.

[Mandy B]

That would have been crazy. We are not going to cover your.

[Ja]

Yeah, I was like, please don't do that.

[Mandy B]

If y' all are listening to this on an audio platform, we have a king responsible for the lovely sound design and making sure y' all are able to hear it.

[Jason J. Le]

Stop telling people this.

[Journalism Jason]

No, that's a backhanded compliment, cuz. It's up. It's up audio. You know exactly who to get to listen.

[Mandy B]

I want to make sure y' all know if you can't hear us all or the levels are off.

[Jason J. Le]

Sorry, that's a delete.

[Ja]

Edit, Edit. Right, right here.

[Mandy B]

And then, of course, we are joined as well by journalism Jason in Jersey.

[Jason J. Le]

Journalism Jason in J.

[Journalism Jason]

It's always hard on Jersey.

[Jason J. Le]

Makes me real.

[Journalism Jason]

Jasmine Crockett defined Heavy on the jersey.

[Mandy B]

And then my new sidekick, y', all, my co host, the king of headlines, we have Jason J. Le.

[Ja]

No substitutes a piece of down and.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, welcome, guys. Yeah, we got it. We're going to make sure, like, while we like to have a good time and make sure we get all of our thoughts and opinions out, I know y' all are trying to go watch some football today, so. Oh, man, we not going to hold y' all here too long. And I know your ignorant take is about somewhat.

[Ja]

Somewhat about football.

[Mandy B]

Of football.

[Ja]

Somewhat about football.

[Mandy B]

Even though Guys, this is not a sports podcast. This is not a sports podcast. Not a sports podcast. Hold on.

[Jason J. Le]

According to your stories. I'm not snitching, cuz. You put it up there. You were just at the basketball game. You were.

[Mandy B]

So what you be going?

[Jason J. Le]

No, I'm just saying, I be at games.

[Mandy B]

I play games, I be at games.

[Jason J. Le]

What sports head.

[Mandy B]

Okay, let me tell you, her.

[Ja]

Her handle is literally full court pumps.

[Jason J. Le]

That's all right. Don't alienate.

[Mandy B]

Okay. However, however, however, let me tell you. So I probably shouldn't have took a shroom before going to the game last night. So. So Sunday, Saturday, y', all, I went to the Hawks Celtics game. And first off, my mind was going everywhere but the game. So I'm looking at the court, I fucking hated the jerseys. They like, if I'm watching the Celtics play, I need green somewhere on their goddamn jersey.

[Jason J. Le]

Unis, they put the.

[Mandy B]

Them niggas look like they was at a AAU tournament. I hated it. So the jerseys were like golden white. Hated them. And then you had the goddamn Hawks in a peach tree jersey that was black, no red, no yellow. So I hated that. Then I looked down on the field, and at one point, I look up at, you know, when they have all the names of the players, and I tell my homegirl, and I said, bitch, who is these niggas? I don't know. Not a goddamn. So the only person at one point between two lineups that I Knew was fucking C.J. mcCollum. And I was like, he just got traded there for Trey Young. And I'm like. Then I look on the court and I tapped. I tapped Crystal, my homegirl next to me, and I said, this is 50, 50, white and black. Like, look at all the crackers on the court. Like, I don't think I've ever seen so many white players on a court at one time. Like, normally, you got. You got the little Europeans, you got one or two out there, bro. I looked out there, there was like six of them.

[Ja]

Yeah, white basketball is back, bro. White basketball.

[Mandy B]

I'm like, damn, is the NBA turning into the Euro League?

[Ja]

Little bit.

[Mandy B]

And then I went up to look at the scoreboard. Oh, and it was like a 30 point lead. At one point it was 100 to 61. And so I decided that I wanted stuffed chicken from Ruth.

[Ja]

Chris, I was going to say, and.

[Mandy B]

I left because also on a shroom, I'm looking at everybody in there and I'm like, what is the temperature outside? There was snow on the forecast and whole coochie. Lips is out, going up inside, up and down.

[Ja]

Oh, yeah.

[Jason J. Le]

The way the girls dressed, they rebelling. They were like, it's not gonna be cold, bro.

[Mandy B]

I was like, this is. This is why Covid started, because bitches don't know how to dress at a basketball game. Like, I was like, am I old? Because I don't know nobody on the court, and I'm judging the girlies with their fallopian tubes hanging out their little skirts evolving. I was like, wow. Like, mind you, you're walking to and from your seat. We got damn chicken tenders and beers in these little ass skirts. I was like, oh, my God, y'. All.

[Ja]

I'm getting old trying to catch them one, man.

[Mandy B]

No, they was on.

[Journalism Jason]

They wanted. They want to get a little bit. That hair smear on their chest.

[Mandy B]

But no, I. I realized I need to watch more sports, because I was like, I don't know anybody on the.

[Jason J. Le]

100 points for you. You knew the trade. You didn't say. And she said it, like, straight up. Oh, yeah. Come naturally.

[Mandy B]

Like, I know what's going on in the news, like, of sport, right? Like, I know them. This is why I'm not betting, because I know them niggas like, flapping and not really putting up points because they got their cousins betting on them, and you know what I mean? So I know the news and what's happening, but. But, yeah, anyways, let's get into some ignorance. All right? So I have an ignorant take, an ignorant take I want all of us to join in on. And then Ja has his ignorant take up out the gate. So this is how we started, y', all. And we're leaning into the reaction of what we're seeing on the Internet, but one in particular, y'. All. A video came across my feed and landed in the group chat. An American Airlines flight had to take an emergency landing. I think one of the engines caught on fire. You see the plane on fire in the video. And what the video showcases is the people coming down the emergency slide, okay? And as I'm watching it, I'm like, okay. And then, as always, I went from the video to the comment section, and I realized how many people were upset they were calling for jail time.

[Ja]

They were pissed.

[Mandy B]

They were upset.

[Ja]

Pissed in there.

[Mandy B]

So the comments, y', all, and the outrage that I saw in the comments came from the amount of people who were going down the slide with carry ons and their. Their luggage that they had on the flight with them, right? And so, of course, we all know that when an Airplane or, Or when a flight attendant is giving you the spiel of what to do in case of an emergency. By the way, if you could find that on the Internet, I would love for you to insert here what a stewardess normally says. In case of an emergency, you got.

[Jason J. Le]

To pull the string this way.

[Ja]

Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right.

[Jason J. Le]

And this is wild ignorance for me.

[Mandy B]

That's wild. Wow.

[Ja]

I know.

[Jason J. Le]

Don't be listening. No.

[Ja]

At all.

[Mandy B]

So this is where my ignorant thought came, right?

[Ja]

Okay.

[Mandy B]

And so journalism, Jason, while I sit here and spew a couple of my ignorant thoughts around this video and the outrage, I would like you to see if there is anything that a passenger can file to be reimbursed with the things they do leave on the flight. Because hear me out. So I'm in my thoughts, right? And I'm like, hold on. Now you see what Trump is doing. I need to make sure I at least have what's on me. So I need my passport, I need my cell phone, I need that, like, let me get all my cards, my ID that gotta go with me. But I'm thinking of the duffel bag that I put in the overhead. It's a Louis duffel, first off. Then I have my MacBook Pro. I normally carry my shure mic. So I'm like, what if I leave? You know, so if I leave everything.

[Ja]

In the bin, my business is up there.

[Mandy B]

Is. But is Delta, is the airline going to reimburse me for my loss? I don't know. Jason. Does it say that you get reimbursed?

[Journalism Jason]

So there's some interesting information. So if, if, if you purchase additional insurance, you're good.

[Ja]

Of course you got to bid the.

[Journalism Jason]

Alliance, but that's effort, right? So if you don't.

[Jason J. Le]

We'Re gambling. Yeah.

[Journalism Jason]

Ex lines generally do not reimburse.

[Mandy B]

Wow.

[Journalism Jason]

Or damaged carry on bags because passengers are responsible for them. But they may be compensated for loss or damage. Checked bags, but carry on. It's, it's, it's a, it's an extension of you.

[Mandy B]

Okay, so let me got a solution. Okay, okay, wait, wait. So hear me out. So as I'm watching this and reading the outrage, my ignorant thought was I'm grabbing my duffel bag.

[Ja]

What?

[Mandy B]

Out of here, out of here. I literally was like, I heard her say, leave all your belongings because you gotta go. But no, I'm gonna grab it. Secondly, I looked at the gap between the going down the slide wasn't going fast enough for me. But hear me out. What? I also realized that flight attendants do not ask. You know how they ask you? At least the people sitting in the emergency seat.

[Ja]

Are you willing.

[Mandy B]

Are you willing to help and assist in case of an emergency? What? I realized they don't ask. And this video made me realize I might have to stand up and ask the plane myself. Has anyone ever been down a slide? Do you know how to slide?

[Ja]

Do you know how to slide properly?

[Mandy B]

Because there's a woman in this video who goes, head first, y', all. Down the slide and eats the concrete.

[Ja]

Goes head first down emergency slide. You say white water.

[Mandy B]

This is not wet and wild.

[Ja]

It's not a water park, my guy.

[Mandy B]

I don't even know if wet and wild is still out, but this ain't water mania. No, we aging ourselves now.

[Ja]

But a Caribbean cruise isn't a boat. This ain't nothing that you going to the tarmac.

[Mandy B]

You're literally about to eat the tarmac.

[Jason J. Le]

But there's a human element, right? It's pandemonium.

[Mandy B]

Here we go.

[Jason J. Le]

It's not like, okay, we doing anything in order. The only thing you're doing in order is trying to figure you're going to have thinking about those valuables.

[Ja]

I'm definitely thinking about those values.

[Mandy B]

I'm thinking about valuables.

[Jason J. Le]

And especially you don't even like, oh, yeah, can you put your laptop. If you're sitting in the front, put your laptop up and you can take it down.

[Ja]

Right.

[Jason J. Le]

30Ft in the air. 30,000ft in the air, Right? Yeah. So my solution is the personal bags. The. The p. The. They like, they're like half the size of a carry on.

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Jason J. Le]

The ones that go under the seat, take that. Put all your. Your lap, all your valuable, take that. Because at very least you could just grab it and go, all right, aing.

[Mandy B]

You're making this boring now. No, we don't want to think about how responsible.

[Journalism Jason]

Back to the ignorance.

[Mandy B]

I'm just saying my Louis Duffalo is up in the overhead.

[Ja]

My whole thing about it is put.

[Jason J. Le]

It in between your legs.

[Ja]

You could, yo. But yeah, so the plane. The plane is making an emergency landing, right? You know, the plane is making an emergency landing from 30, 000ft wherever, however high y' all are. Listen, if we're going, if the plane is about to land, you right, we got time. I got time.

[Mandy B]

We got time to actually grab that.

[Journalism Jason]

You right?

[Mandy B]

What, are we going down?

[Ja]

It could be, but I'll be the first one up. Y' all gotta have to beat me to it.

[Mandy B]

I was about actually, y' all back there with the smaller Seats, Mike. But you know, I sit up with the bigger seats and less people to fight, cuz I'm in at least first their comfort. And so where y'. All.

[Journalism Jason]

She said the eight of us.

[Ja]

The eight of us back there who should have just took Frontier instead of even getting your ass on this Delta climb. I didn't stop it, but, you know, but you got time. Like, there's only one slide, so you can only go. But so fast. So while I'm waiting in line to get down, it's like I'm grabbing my. Yeah, it don't take all day.

[Mandy B]

That's what I was thinking.

[Ja]

But like, no, I'm not leaving my up there. Y' all be mad if y' all want to.

[Journalism Jason]

Well, what left adults on a slide is crazy, though. I mean, like, when was the last time you. Ja. When was the last time you went down a slide?

[Ja]

I couldn't even tell you see what I'm saying? 30, 40 years, prices. I was on a slide. But like, face first is crazy.

[Mandy B]

No, Face first.

[Ja]

I don't know.

[Journalism Jason]

That was a wild technique.

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Jason J. Le]

To go with.

[Mandy B]

I'm not gonna lie. We gotta insert that. Y' all gotta see this woman who just. It pissed me off so bad. I, like, wanted her to not live.

[Ja]

Like you watch.

[Mandy B]

Like, that's how like, I was like this.

[Journalism Jason]

Was she thinking faster?

[Jason J. Le]

I think she was.

[Journalism Jason]

I can hold on to my stuff better.

[Mandy B]

No, because then she rolled. Then she rolled on the concrete. It was crazy. Now, another thing that came across my feed in this last week that pissed me off, but also I wanted. Jason, can you please pull up the clip? Y', all, there was a recent newscast that discussed not only the price of groceries, but a solution for our country.

[Ja]

This shit pissed me off somewhere in.

[Mandy B]

That what the solution could be. Can you go ahead and play the clip? This is Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture. Y', all.

[WRAL News Anchor]

I think the question you're asking, and it's a really important one, is while we're asking Americans to reconsider what they're eating, are we actually asking Americans, especially those who are living on the margins, are we asking them to spend more on their diet? And the answer to that is no. We've run over a thousand simulations. It can cost around $3ameal for a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli or tortilla and other thing. And so there is a way.

[Jason J. Le]

Have you ever seen football players, the.

[WRAL News Anchor]

Average American consumer money. You've done the analysis on that? Because that's one of the. One of the criticisms I heard from some, you know, nutrition folks who said, like, with the event you mentioned, oh.

[Mandy B]

All the protein saying, all right, well.

[WRAL News Anchor]

Steak, obviously it's expensive.

[Mandy B]

So are you asking people to spend.

[WRAL News Anchor]

More money with these new dietary guidelines than in the past? Do you say no? That's right. And the answer to that is absolutely no. Now, there are, as most things are coming down, there are a few outliers. Beef has been one of them, but ground beef is coming down.

[Mandy B]

I just. I just. Can I just say one thing that really pissed me off?

[Jason J. Le]

The whole thing.

[Mandy B]

The whole thing did. But in a country that is currently ran by a man who wants to put up a border, they're eating the dog. The fact that in their thousand simulations of what they could possibly come out and say, the fact that they leaned into saying a tortilla, which to me ain't really American. If you like, you could have said a piece of white bread, but where you gonna get. But the tortilla, bruh?

[Jason J. Le]

Right?

[Mandy B]

That is the Mexicans. The Mexicans be eating the tortillas. So I was like, y' all just sat here and told us to eat a piece of chicken, a piece of. A piece of broccoli. A piece of broccoli, by the way, a tortilla. And then they said a piece of one other item. And there's a. There's a chatgpt picture floating around of 1 mm. A single mm, a single M and M. Now, when I saw this, it pissed me off, because as we also know, in terms of households currently, you don't just have one person, right? So this idea that this meal is only $3, say you have a family of four, like, that's going up, that's per meal. There's still three meals a day. I was just like, what was really being considered in telling the country at this point to ration their foods in this way? And when I saw this, I was like, how do I have empathy for the nigglets that voted for this goddamn orange Cheeto?

[Ja]

It gets harder and harder.

[Mandy B]

It gets so hard. It gets harder and harder. We talked about Minnesota last last week and what's happening over there. To see this come across my feed. And this is what they're telling us to eat in order to be able to afford groceries, because groceries have gotten to such the rate that we can't stupid levels that we can't even afford it, mind you. We also have rent that no one is addressing, right? No one is addressing.

[Jason J. Le]

Car notes has gone up tremendously yet. What car notes?

[Mandy B]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Ja]

If you're trying to buy a new.

[Jason J. Le]

Car right now, that's fair too. With car notes. They, they, they, they're seeing that people defaulting on their loans, you know, at a high rate.

[Ja]

It's, it's fucked up out here. And for, for her, for her response or her recommendation for how to fix inflation or how to not be able to afford your meals is to spend three by, try to buy three dollar meals and eat one piece of everything. Like, come on.

[Mandy B]

But not only that, she said, yeah, steak, y' all can't afford that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So get, get the red meat out your diet, right? It ain't good for you anyway.

[Jason J. Le]

Another thing. And then you cutting SNAP benefits, right? You playing around with that. So what do you, those people in, in marginalized communities, what are they going to do?

[Mandy B]

I don't know.

[Ja]

It's a dirty game.

[Mandy B]

It's a, it's a real dirty game. I saw this, and I'm not sure if y' all saw it, but the fact that she had the nerve to get her white ass on national television and say this, because I think. Was that on cnn, if I'm not mistaken.

[Ja]

News Nation.

[Mandy B]

News Nation.

[Ja]

News Nation.

[Mandy B]

I'm, I just, you know, when they.

[Jason J. Le]

Panned away and they went back to the newsroom, I want to know what, what was going on.

[Ja]

With the camera.

[Mandy B]

Like, yo, yo, get the fuck. You got a piece of chicken I didn't know.

[Jason J. Le]

I just made up to Tia.

[Ja]

A piece of broccoli is the wild thing. That's the shit that pissed me off, bro. A piece of broccoli is like a piece, like one broccoli flavor.

[Mandy B]

No, no, no.

[Ja]

A piece of broccoli, like, that's supposed to be like, all right, man.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, Pretty, Pretty goddamn ridiculous. Ja. I would love to hear the ignorant take that you're bringing to the table this week. So the side.

[Ja]

I'm trying to figure out how to start this the right way. Right. So this week there was, I guess, a controversy over last weekend's NFL playoff game after the Jacksonville Jaguars lost their playoff game. There was a reporter in the room named Lynn Jones. And you know, she is a legitimate reporter and she was offering kind words to the coach about how good their season was and for him to stay positive, keep his head up and that kind of thing.

[Mandy B]

Do we want to play that clip?

[Ja]

Yeah, can you play the clip for us, Jason, just so we can hear.

[Journalism Jason]

What she, what she said and further context. He's a first year coach, too.

[Ja]

He's a first year coach. He Just got his job and he.

[Mandy B]

About to go to Orlando. Look at me knowing look at you.

[WRAL News Anchor]

You hold your head up.

[Mandy B]

All right? You guys have had a most magnificent season.

[Journalism Jason]

Thank you.

[Mandy B]

Did a great job out there today. So you just hold your head up.

[Journalism Jason]

Okay?

[Mandy B]

And ladies and gentlemen, Duvall, you the one. All right, Keep it going. We got another season. Okay, Appreciate. Take care. Much continued success to you and the entire team. Thank you, man duo.

[Ja]

Now, as I watch that in real time, I'll be honest with you, the first thing I did think was, oh, damn. Like that's a pretty heartwarming moment. Like she's trying to be nice to this man. Yeah, like she's trying to be nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Real auntie vibes, real warm, grandmothery energy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little pocket, pocketbook full of cameraman baby. Yeah.

[Mandy B]

Now she sound like me. Big mama, your arm. That's crazy. Cuz she's not. She's actually quite a thin woman.

[Ja]

Very small lady. But. So she's giving him, you know, props, making him feel better. And he seemed genuinely touched by her kind words. But in real time, my thoughts was, okay, that's dope. But like, whose fan club president got snuck into the depressor? Cuz it did sound a little crazy to me. It was a little too like I get hometown sport, I listen to the local hometown sports here, sports talk radio. And like, of course the hometown is going to be generous to the hometown team, but you do have to ask tough questions to your coaches, your players, whatever the case is. My problem is really less with what she said. My problem is the reaction to what she said because people acted like people who pointed out the fact that this is to some degree a little unprofessional. Now she just wanted to work for the Jacksonville Free Press. I understand that they're journalistic. Angle is to be like overly community.

[Journalism Jason]

It's a community.

[Ja]

It's community. It's a community of people. And so they are basically not a fan club. I don't want to reduce them to that. But they are very kind and generous to the home team. They want to feel like they want to say good things about the home team. They're not there to slander the home team. But when I look at the reaction to this, I see Matt Barnes going off on the reporters who kind of pushed back against how effusive she was with her praise. And one of those people was Jamel Hill. And in all honesty, like, Jamel is my homie. So like, I did feel the type of way that people were talking like this about several reporters, but about her specifically because she's a real journalist. She doesn't need me to defend her. But I just felt a type of way about how people was talking about this thing.

[Mandy B]

How was it Jamel, what was her response to that?

[Ja]

Jamel was kind of on the side of like. Yeah, like that's kind of weird. Essentially that like, why would a reporter. It's kind of. I think the tweet was. She responded to was someone calling that interview interaction awesome. And she was like, I don't know if awesome is the way the word I would use to describe it.

[Mandy B]

I mean we all describe things something differently. I'll say as someone who is credentialed media in the locker room, it's crazy. My very first time I was credentialed media with the Orlando Magic back in the 2010 season. And I remember Coach Tibbs going in there. They played the Bulls and Doc Rivers, I believe was the coach at the time, if I'm not mistaken. And to me it was always very interesting a the, at the amount of ways that people ask the same questions. Just question reworded.

[Ja]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mandy B]

But also if we think about the, the presser. Right. I couldn't fathom after losing or getting my ass whooped or, you know, having to go and sit in this room where people pretty much like ask you hard, pointed questions. It's not only.

[Journalism Jason]

It's not only about your failures.

[Mandy B]

Literally.

[Ja]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

And. And the idea that they have 81 games a season and this is something that at least. You know what I mean, the mental toll on it. I don't understand why we can't welcome positive and negative interactions with an oppressor when we do have platforms that push positivity. There's an audience for that. And then you have the hard pressing questions that people want to ask. But also, are we getting those answers?

[Ja]

I mean. No. You probably. Yeah. Most of the time you're going to get coach speaking. Yeah.

[Mandy B]

Sometimes you're going to get their media trained. Sure. Or you might get lucky and, and get a. On the mic like Marshawn Lynch. Yeah, but.

[Ja]

Or a coach that's so fed up that they can't hold themselves back from saying the truth because they're that angry.

[Mandy B]

Who, who's. Who's been truth tellers, impressors, coaches.

[Journalism Jason]

Get all the coaches you don't like. It's gonna be like.

[Ja]

Mike Tomlin sometimes will get on there and he'll just make it plain.

[Mandy B]

Mike Tomlin, who said peace.

[Jason J. Le]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

Yeah. After 19 years. By the way, I, I used to be a huge Steelers fan, so I, I, I'm sad to see him go.

[Journalism Jason]

Change the podcast.

[Mandy B]

It was funny. They, they just posted a picture of him at I guess one of his daughters, his daughter's, and, and someone in the comments was like, this looked like the first time Coach Holland had at least eight hours of sleep in the last year. Oh, yeah, because, yeah, that man be looking tired.

[Jason J. Le]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

But, but he also looks like if there were to ever be a Love and Basketball part two, he would have to play. He would have to play.

[Journalism Jason]

Y' all know, he'd be grown up Quincy.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, that is grown up Quincy. Have y' all never seen it? My top one is grown up.

[Ja]

I didn't even think about it till you said it. That's why I was like, wait, what?

[Mandy B]

Oh, no, they look, bro.

[Ja]

No, they do, they look alike. Yeah, they do have a certain.

[Mandy B]

So not Latham. Still gotta play. So not Latham.

[Ja]

Yeah, you still got. Yeah, but Mike Tyler playing grown person, he's funny as shit. I didn't even think about that too.

[Mandy B]

But yeah, to me, when I saw it, I was like, I didn't understand the outrage, why everyone was so mad. Like, I don't think there's anything wrong with having some bit of positivity in these rooms that end up being fucking hard for everybody.

[Ja]

But here's the thing about it, though. If you're a journalist, it's not really your job to. You can do whatever you want to do, I guess, but it's not really your job to be positive. Like, it doesn't have to be negative and like mean spirited either. But like, it's your job to ask questions and to not like, like in any other circumstance where let's say Josh Allen lost last night, lost a tough game, and Josh Allen has pressure on him because he's been getting his ass whooped by Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson for years now. Now both of them are in the playoffs. You still can't win the game. If somebody had gone in that press conference last night and started talking about Josh Allen, you're a great quarterback and you've done so much for the city of Buffalo, would nobody be like, oh, that's so sweet. They would be like, why is this reporter on Josh Allen's dick?

[Journalism Jason]

Okay, okay, but hold on. But Mandy, let me fill you in before you.

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Journalism Jason]

Because I know you're about go with half of the information. So again, the co, the coach.

[Mandy B]

The coach.

[Ja]

That's for saying journalist Jason, he's A first year journalism.

[Mandy B]

Jason from Jersey is a jerk.

[Journalism Jason]

No, because I know you're about to let it like you're about to fire.

[Mandy B]

Off on him, but no, no, no.

[Journalism Jason]

He's a first year coach. Yes, they want, they want 13 and 4 last year. They want 4 and 13.

[Ja]

Yes. They turned the whole season around. Yeah. She.

[Journalism Jason]

She's not a traditional sportsman reporter. She works for this community newspaper. It's a black newspaper.

[Ja]

Correct.

[Journalism Jason]

And you know when, when she responded after all this, like, fervor, she said, like, you know, when the team does good, the community does good. So, like, that's her position on it. And so. And obviously she's Auntie Vibes. He's a nice young man. He's probably younger than all of us, the coach.

[Ja]

Oh, yeah.

[Journalism Jason]

I mean, I mean, so that's kind of like the fuller content.

[Mandy B]

So something that you have all kind of pointed out, which I think is the elephant in the room.

[Jason J. Le]

What's that?

[Mandy B]

Is also that I think seeing the, the backlash and the outrage, you leaning into the Auntie Vibes of her, you saying if another reporter said this, they'd be like, get off your. I also think the issue here is that it was a woman that did it.

[Ja]

It was a black woman.

[Mandy B]

It was a black woman that did it.

[Journalism Jason]

Like, I, I think reporters were annoyed that, like, as if she took up.

[Ja]

A lot of time.

[Journalism Jason]

That. That was literally like 20 seconds. I think they were.

[Jason J. Le]

It was what she said.

[Journalism Jason]

We could have asked the question at that time.

[Ja]

In that time. Yeah. No, some of the. So to be clear, like, some of what the white reporters and Even like Pat McAfee who responded to this whole thing, like, some of what they were, Some of what they were doing was like, oh, not Pat, but like other reporters who were mad at. It was to your point. Yeah, we could have asked something else or this could have been a real question. Whatever, whatever. Again, my beef really isn't with what she said, but people acting disingenuous to the idea that if a journalist goes in there and that's what journalists do. The truth of the matter is, is that if you work for a major publication, you might lose your job for that or you might be. You might get a reprimand for that for being a little too fan oriented with how you're presenting.

[Mandy B]

It's weird that you said that. I came across an interview this week and I was like, that's journalism. There was a woman. Oh, my God, I can't remember the outlet, but basically she was interviewing Ben Affleck and Matt Damon on their new movie that's coming out, the Rip and the Rip on Netflix, and she sits in front of him. And literally her question is, your name was brought up on Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. Do you know Lisa Barlow?

[Jason J. Le]

And.

[Mandy B]

And reference just Real Housewives. And got an answer that as who else is going to ask Ben Affleck this question? So from a fan perspective of maybe housewives, she brought this question to journalism. And all I saw was, now, this is journalism. I said, I love this is journalism. We have to understand in terms of journalism, Jason and Jason, that the people that consume, again, you're going to have the people that want the same way we have left wing, right wing, the same way we have people that want to listen to positivity and people that want to listen to mess. Like, we have to understand as a journalist, everything that you ask don't mean everybody want to listen to it anyway. So there are people, maybe old aunties or other women that watch basketball that have a heart, like, to see that type of interaction happening in a president, that's cool. But I mean, said women go kitchen. Kitchen. Now, that's. That's what I. That's where I'm getting. I. I honestly, I don't think it's. That it was a woman. There was compassion, and there's no room for that on the field.

[Ja]

But it's like you but ask a question. Again, I don't want to make it about her because I'm not really tripping off of her, but she didn't really ask a question. She heaped praise on a person and there was no. That's. At least the. The Ben Affleck thing. At least she asked a question and someone could see, like, okay, that's cute. If you don't ask a question. This is just for me to, like, give you a ve. Verbal massage. Like, okay, that's gonna be a little weird. And that was my initial take on it, but I'm just surprised that people think that. I know that media is all mangled now. So people think that that part journalism and blogs, valid pods and everything is the same thing, and it's not really the same thing. So when. When they get on there and they start snapping about, oh, well, there's so much negativity, and why can't we just have one? Well, this isn't the. If you want to get positivity, go listen to the fan podcast of the Jacksonville Jaguars or whatever the case is. But I was just shocked that so many journalists and other people were just Completely dis not willing to acknowledge the fact that that's not how you can carry on. If somebody went in a White House press briefing and did we say, is.

[Journalism Jason]

That a good example?

[Ja]

But that's my point, though. That's what they do. And this first thing that a left wing outlet will say is, look at them over there sucking Trump's kneecaps. Look at them. Look at, look at, look at them. Look at them up there licking the bottom of his taint at these pressers. The bottom of his and not asking real questions. And so, like, I don't understand why all of us and I understand protect the black woman. Don't. Like, people were talking crazy about this lady, Lynn Jones, and like, she doesn't deserve to be talked crazy about and she didn't do anything.

[Journalism Jason]

I hear that sound.

[Jason J. Le]

Shout out to a king that was depressed.

[Mandy B]

Now his bottom fell off.

[Jason J. Le]

Yo.

[Ja]

Microphone tank got sensitive like o. But yeah, I was just kind of annoyed by the fact that people didn't want to acknowledge that that's not how. That's not how you can carry on your job every day as a journalist. And there's plenty of examples of people reacting the exact opposite to that same line of questioning or like their valid. So that's all I got for y'.

[Mandy B]

All. All right, well, I like it, I like it, I like it. Let's get into this. Is America really excited to get into to this part of the show. We are now about a week out from Golden Globes, so we were able to see all of the outrage that played out over the last week for the winners, the losers, the emotion and the host, Nikki Glaser, who I thought did an amazing, incredible job leaning into politics, making the room uncomfortable while also making the room laugh. Her joke called out. I really like the joke about Leonardo because I too agree. Would love to have been able to, you know, been considered for Leo. I'm too old now. I'm five years past five. You're right. Probably.

[Ja]

I was gonna say 15.

[Mandy B]

But yeah. Shout out to Nikki Glaser. Shout out to the winners. And I wanted to know specifically Yalls thoughts on the Golden Globes before we break this down just a little bit.

[Ja]

Teyana Taylor, superstar.

[Mandy B]

Agreed.

[Ja]

Tiana Taylor, Superstar. That's my frontline take on the Golden Globes. Teyana Taylor, Superstar.

[Mandy B]

Now, what I saw and what I like to dissect again is the outrage that comes from certain moments, right? You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. I saw a lot of people celebrating. Yes. But on the other side, questioning this win for Teyana Taylor because of the length of time she spent in the movie. And they also went as far as to compare this to Halle Berry's winning Monster Ball.

[Ja]

The nature of her role.

[Mandy B]

The nature of the role. And because it highlighted, well, not only the sexualization of it, but I'm just.

[Journalism Jason]

Saying, with the nature of the role.

[Mandy B]

And a negative stereotype, once again, on black women, mind you, I think that she beat out Ariana Grande and Wicked in the same category. So there was a lot of people that were like, how the fuck Ariana don't win this?

[Jason J. Le]

But not the darkies.

[Journalism Jason]

You said what?

[Jason J. Le]

Yeah, nothing. What I said, not the darky. It was.

[Mandy B]

It was.

[Ja]

It was just how they feel.

[Mandy B]

Listen, it was interesting to me to see the outrage specifically from our own community, because, of course, you had the. The intellects, I like to call them that deep dove into this while also at the same time being upset at the actual awards that sinners did win. So they complained about them not winning screenplay.

[Ja]

Right, Right.

[Mandy B]

But then we're like, oh, my God, they won an award that wasn't televised. Oh, my God, they won an award for best score. They won this award, but they didn't win. And I was just like, holy shit, this room is like, 85% quite. You know, in a year where I think that we excelled as black creatives in this space particularly. And seeing what everyone. I was like, damn, are we ever happy?

[Jason J. Le]

Nope.

[Mandy B]

Because it wasn't Variety who was going saying, like, oh, my God, like. And, you know, Variety has had so much to say about.

[Ja]

They're gonna be on their bullshit anyway.

[Mandy B]

It was us, where I'm just like, God damn. And then when the BET Awards comes around in July, y' all are like, oh, this is the only place we see it. But BET Awards don't mean anything. Like, why are we not being. And I'm like, we got seen in these rooms, and y' all are still not fucking happy.

[Jason J. Le]

Unsettled traumas.

[Mandy B]

And it's just like. But. But the. But the mental Olympics of them jumping hoops as to what makes them unhappy in this moment, in a moment that we could and should be celebrating.

[Ja]

Tiana. Yeah. I mean, my. My thing with it is that, like, I understood. So I watched one battle after. I didn't see it till I didn't see it in theater. I saw it maybe a month ago, maybe three weeks ago, and I didn't leave. I tried to stay away from some of the criticism so I wouldn't contain it. I saw that people felt like this is racist and all that kind of stuff. So that was already kind of on me. But I'm watch it, try to be fair about it. And yeah, I understood in those first 20, 30 minutes, whatever it is, why that could be seen as problematic. But ultimately, to me, the movie wasn't just that good. The way people are super excited about this film for me, I just left like, okay, it was cool, but I didn't feel blown away or feel any deep connection to it in the same way I felt with Sinners. At the same time, Centers isn't going to win all these awards. We just know that.

[Mandy B]

And they won. They did win, by the way. They won best score and they also won the category for cinematic and box office achievements.

[Ja]

Now I will say with that one, to me, that one is a little sus. Because that's a brand new category.

[Journalism Jason]

It's a brand new category. It's a strange.

[Ja]

It's a category.

[Mandy B]

Think about that one's solely just based on numbers then.

[Journalism Jason]

So here's the definition. It so it recognizes the year's most acclaimed, highest earning and or most viewed films that have garnered extensive global audience support and attained cinematic excellence.

[Mandy B]

Okay.

[Journalism Jason]

So to be eligible, you have to have grossed 150 million with at least 100 million of that in the U.S. there's only been. There's only been three winners of that film. So it's like Ryan Coogler's movie, I think Wicked and I forget the first one. So it's a really.

[Ja]

And my issue with that, even with their definition of it, is like, so if it's all of those things and it wins that what, what are you saying? That it isn't the best picture or the like, what is it? What would be the. Because to me, all the best pictures would check all those boxes that he just read off.

[Journalism Jason]

Yeah, it feels like an assurance type of thing. You know how like awards movies are like the, like, like the high art.

[Ja]

A certain kind of film gets.

[Journalism Jason]

Yeah. And this is like, oh, we can award the popular movies, right. And still remain like avant garde with our taste.

[Ja]

If the MCU puts out some Avengers flick that everyone loves and makes $10 trillion that we can't really deny with all the star power, we don't give it any award, then this is our chance that we can give y' all this and make it like we're not biased or that we don't. We're being fair to everyone, whatever that means. But yeah, okay, but the movie wasn't that great. But I'm happy that Teyana Taylor won this award because she did a really good job. Whether you people feel the type of way about her character or not, I guess is up for them to. To figure out within themselves. But I think she did an amazing job with what she was asked to do. My question always is, when people have these critiques of black characters, and ultimately it's hard to separate this black character from this black actress. What are you saying about the actress? Like, what is it. What is it when you have these hardcore critiques about Perfidia Beverly Hills and what she represented and being over sexualized? Are you saying that if it's this. If that character is this destructive, Are you saying that Teyana Taylor aided and abetted the destruction of the black community by playing his character? Like, what is the.

[Journalism Jason]

I don't.

[Ja]

I never know how they separated that. No one ever really explains it. They don't talk about that part of it. They just. They levy the critique on the art. And I'm like, well, if you're saying that, then was she wrong to take this role? Should she have not done it and stood on some principle and boycotted? Would that have made people happy that Paul Thomas Anderson wanted her to play this role of like, black sex hoe and she turned it down because she has his principle? And you would have made it like, I don't. I don't understand.

[Mandy B]

I don't understand the solution either. I don't understand the solution. Yeah, well, congratulations.

[Ja]

Congratulations, Congratulations.

[Mandy B]

And it should have just been congratulations, and y' all niggas should have stopped with your Twitter fingers.

[Ja]

Just be happy for the lady.

[Mandy B]

Just be happy for the goddamn woman. Now, in terms of being happy for women, I want to lean into my hypocrisy just a little bit.

[Ja]

Here we go.

[Mandy B]

So it's not right for us not to talk about the podcast winner.

[Jason J. Le]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

And so got on the phone. So, by the way, Amy Poehler's A Good Hang. Good Hang was the winner of this category. I want to talk about the other nominees that were also in this category. So you had the armchair expert call her daddy. Good Hang. Smart. Less. Oh, all of these were white. The Mel Robbins podcast. And up first from npr, white, white, white, white. Yes. All of these are white. I want to lean into also saying where in my mind, immediately, this is the first year that the Golden Globes is even acknowledging podcasts.

[Ja]

I.

[Mandy B]

My first thought would have been Joe Rogan, however. Right. Joe Rogan to me would have been, he's been number one for the Last.

[Ja]

Sure, sure. Eight, nine years on the charts.

[Mandy B]

But hear me out.

[Jason J. Le]

Mark Ruffalo would like to have a word.

[Mandy B]

So. So I had a few thoughts. My first thought was, okay, definitely thought Joe Rogan should have won this. However, if you guys are not familiar with how awards shows often work. Me and a king, we be talking about it in the group chat. You oftentimes have to pay to be nominated. You have to submit your. By the way, your payment does not guarantee a nominee either. So like for the Webby Awards. Webby Awards, I believe is 250 or 300 per submission. So per category. Right. And then Signal Awards is a little cheaper. Signal awards is like 150, 175. And there's more different podcast wars awards coming out. I know even iheart, you have to submit like what category? I don't think you have to pay. No, you just have to be an iHeart podcast.

[Jason J. Le]

Right. But I think how they go about vetting and pardon me if I'm not accurate in this, they send it out to. They do partners and people and they have.

[Journalism Jason]

And they have as a voting committee.

[Mandy B]

It's a voting committee.

[Jason J. Le]

Right. There is an order to do.

[Mandy B]

There's an order to.

[Jason J. Le]

Unlike some of the.

[Mandy B]

But go ahead and so maybe, possibly, possibly Joe Rogan did submit himself. Now, want to get into one more take on what the criteria was for this before I lean into my shit?

[Jason J. Le]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

So for the Golden Globes, a podcast did need to be original content, at least six episodes released between January 1 and September 30 of 2025, each being 30 plus minutes covering genres like narrative news and pop culture. And it had to be identified as the top 25 based on reach, finance and visibility from which the final nominees were selected, with judges, of course, considering quality, creativity, engagement and impact leading to these six finalists. Now, immediately I got happy that a woman won it because women are highly underrepresented in. Across podcasts in general. I know we talk about the caller daddies, which I actually think based on these nominees should have been the winner. But they're not going to let a hoe win. Never. Not on the first one. And that's where her content, you know, started.

[Ja]

Started from.

[Jason J. Le]

Right.

[Mandy B]

And so I actually would have liked Mel Robbins personally on this to win based on also her show kind of aiding and embedding, her becoming a New York Times bestseller.

[Jason J. Le]

Right.

[Mandy B]

That has not left the list since her book Let Them dropped. And so yeah, those are my thoughts.

[Jason J. Le]

And nobody in their community is complaining.

[Mandy B]

The. The white community of podcasts the White podcast. Here is my. My only critique on Amy Poehler winning this now.

[Journalism Jason]

Yes.

[Mandy B]

She has great guests that sit where she's a celebrity. Right. When I looked at her feed. This is a podcast that only has 45 episodes.

[Ja]

Yeah. Well, I was going to ask about. Even with the qualifications, when it says six, only six. Six in nine months. And you can win a Golden Globe.

[Mandy B]

And you can win a Golden Globe.

[Ja]

Unless it's a podcast, like serial or true crime or something where it's scripted and it's different. I can see that later.

[Journalism Jason]

The narrative.

[Mandy B]

I was shocked.

[WRAL News Anchor]

Fact.

[Mandy B]

But that no true crime made this, because true crime, believe it or not, y', all, is, I think, like, the number one category by far in podcasts. So the fact that there is no scripted true crime show that made this also, like, led me to be like, who's. Who's really.

[Ja]

Who's in this committee?

[Journalism Jason]

So the committee, it's the, it's the foreign Hollywood correspondence tradition. That. So, so historically, that's the structure behind the Golden Globes. And it's not even. A lot of people used to be like a hundred or less. And so then after. After. Controversy a few years ago, they expanded it. And so now there's some domestic reporting.

[Mandy B]

There's some domestic.

[Journalism Jason]

It's still not a very large pool. Like, this is not like the. The Oscar committee, where it's, like, really large. It's still a, you know, relatively small group. So it used to be 100. Less than 100.

[Ja]

Less than 100. Okay. Yeah.

[Journalism Jason]

Remember the Golden Globes.

[Jason J. Le]

Yes.

[Journalism Jason]

And then. And then remember the Golden Globes was knocked off a TV a few years ago because it was racist.

[Jason J. Le]

Yeah.

[Journalism Jason]

And so they, you know, they reconfigured and now there's. It's a larger voting pool, but it's still largely entertainment reporters, some foreign, some domestic. Not as big as, like, the Oscar voting committee.

[Jason J. Le]

Wow, look at this criteria. Right? Identified in the top 25 based on reach Finance.

[Journalism Jason]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Jason J. Le]

I was gonna say you have 46. So she's.

[Mandy B]

Because.

[Journalism Jason]

Because it's. It's entertainment reporters, and it's like how they look at movies and box office.

[Mandy B]

Okay, valid.

[Ja]

But it's also like, there's some steroids in that because, like, maybe y' all can speak to this better as far as, like, the. With the podcasting landscape when you talk about finance. Like, of course Amy Poehler is going to come out the gate as a celebrity with a high profile and have a high quality produced podcast and be able to get all of these, of course. Yes.

[Mandy B]

Right.

[Ja]

So I guess an advertiser and advertising. Yeah. And the whole thing. So I guess my question would be like, could there. Based off this criteria and kind of how white this thing is, could there be a sinners podcast that even cracks this list at any time? Like, how are they gonna justify. Only thing I can think of, you.

[Jason J. Le]

Know, before you get to the committee, there's advocacy, and I think the people who are advocating for her and other nominees, I think that's where the buck kind of stops there. Those are unseen hand.

[Mandy B]

I want to ask the group of us then, if there were to be a black podcast in this category, which one do you think would represent black podcasts the most? That would kind of usher us into continuously being nominated outside of black.

[Jason J. Le]

What's the criteria?

[Mandy B]

No, I mean, the same thing. Same thing, the same things. Which black podcast do you think would have been justified being nominated drink champs?

[Journalism Jason]

I know y' all are gonna say no, but it's drink champs based off.

[Jason J. Le]

These categories like that in the golden.

[Journalism Jason]

We're talking black. They have reach. They have reach. They have revenue.

[Jason J. Le]

They're gatekeeping, too. There's a gatekeeping element they're not gonna.

[Mandy B]

Have, by the way. Love, drink, chance.

[Jason J. Le]

And I'm not hating.

[Mandy B]

I don't even think they focus on audio.

[Jason J. Le]

I think. I don't think that they would acknowledge or recognize.

[Journalism Jason]

Good hang doesn't focus on audio, though.

[Mandy B]

Good hang has bad.

[Journalism Jason]

Good hang is. It's. It's a YouTube focused. Really?

[Mandy B]

It's not great.

[Ja]

The. The. The two.

[Journalism Jason]

I don't know. Great is. I guess. I don't know what your definition of great is, but. But they're very much. It's. It's a Spotify video podcast.

[Mandy B]

Video podcast focuses on YouTube. So you. But you say drink champs. What if you say they wouldn't want niggas like that in the room?

[Jason J. Le]

I'm just saying hip hop centric, you know, it is. I think, again, it go back to advocacy. They have to have people there advocating for.

[Mandy B]

But if you have. But if you have Amy Poehler, who sits with nothing but celebrities. Yeah, Nori does sit with celebrities.

[Ja]

Yeah, for sure. The two that I would say to me that represent like the Golden Globes, whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean, as far as, like, status and then not wanting certain niggas in there. 1. The first one I would probably say is, in my opinion, with Michelle Obama and her brother.

[Mandy B]

Okay, but how many episodes? And they got how many episodes right? Oh, yeah. They even have at Least six. Yeah.

[Ja]

Oh, yeah.

[Mandy B]

I love Michelle Obama.

[Jason J. Le]

Don't give you.

[Mandy B]

Does she even have six episodes?

[Ja]

I would think so. I mean her probably Six episodes.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, she had six episodes in the last eight years. Huh.

[Ja]

I heard pot is only two years old. Yeah.

[Journalism Jason]

Just the one with the brother.

[Ja]

Yeah, yeah, her brother. Yeah. I think it's two years old. Maybe it's just last year, but I thought they had been doing it for two years. I feel like they should have to.

[Journalism Jason]

Let you know this is, in my opinion, with Michelle Obama. And Craig Robinson.

[Ja]

And Craig Robinson.

[Jason J. Le]

Right.

[Mandy B]

Okay. Not gonna lie. It's hard to tell it say 47.

[Ja]

Yeah. I was gonna say they should have.

[Jason J. Le]

Been within the range of what that is.

[Ja]

I would say that one, first and foremost is probably the highest profile, profile wise one that I would say. The one that I would say that I think maybe is not necessarily hip hop centric, but it also might.

[Mandy B]

No. 74.

[Ja]

That also might crack with a Golden Globes type of thing would be higher Learning. Because they talked.

[Mandy B]

I'm not gonna lie. Higher learning was going to be mine. And it's on the Bill Simmons.

[Ja]

That's what I'm saying. It's on the ringer. They talk to a lot of politicians, high profile politicians. And Van and Lindsay and Rachel do a really good job at kind of providing information and breaking down and still being twice a week and they drop twice a week. So it's like to me, that is the type of podcast without a celebrity element like Michelle Obama that I would say should be perfectly viable for some of the stuff they talk about in this list of criteria.

[Mandy B]

And I was gonna go that, that way too. I was gonna say either higher learning or pod Save the people.

[Ja]

Yeah.

[Jason J. Le]

I mean, based on the criteria, the numbers and, and just pop culture relevance, the read.

[Mandy B]

Okay.

[Jason J. Le]

And they won awards. They've established themselves as award winners and.

[Mandy B]

They've been out 13 years now.

[Ja]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

And their numbers are crazy.

[Ja]

Oh, crazy.

[Jason J. Le]

They do six digits a week.

[Mandy B]

Oh, no, it's. It's crazy.

[Jason J. Le]

Decade plus.

[Journalism Jason]

It's crazy.

[Jason J. Le]

With no video.

[Mandy B]

With no video.

[Ja]

With no video.

[Mandy B]

With no video.

[Jason J. Le]

And barely any guests. Yeah, I remember they went a whole year.

[Mandy B]

No, the. The last guest that I've. I heard on the read was Tina Knowles.

[Jason J. Le]

That's what I'm saying. Like, and then before that I think.

[Ja]

It was lavar Burton.

[Mandy B]

And before that it was like Issa Ray.

[Journalism Jason]

Look at.

[Jason J. Le]

The devils. When they was on there one time.

[Mandy B]

You know. You know what?

[Journalism Jason]

So it's like the reason I still don't Think it's any of those again, this is the Golden Globes, the Celebrity Focus podcast. Every nominee is a celebrity with the exception of the NPR show. And the NPR is a big organization. So it's like as good as the read is, as good as higher learning is, they're not hosted by celebrities. I. I think there has to be something.

[Mandy B]

You don't think that the Bachelorette is a celebrity. You don't.

[Ja]

Mr. TMZ Slavery was a chance in the context.

[Journalism Jason]

In the context of Golden Globe.

[Mandy B]

And that's why I think.

[Jason J. Le]

And that's why I think advocacy comes into play. Somebody or a group of people coming to say, hey, we need to look at this now. Because these are the other things moving and shaking in the culture.

[Ja]

Well, that was going to be my question. If. If to Jason's point, if there used to be less than a hundred reporters, and I'm guessing that they're not doing like the Grammys. They do events all year long. So, like, where would be the opportunity to do that advocacy if the people who are voting or the organizing body isn't setting up situations for people to come in there and like, yeah, you're having a drink, but you're gonna glad hand somebody.

[Mandy B]

It's going to south by Southwest. It's going to pod people. It's going to even all of the conferences and things where the people are in the wrong.

[Jason J. Le]

You need to have these conversations.

[Journalism Jason]

Advocacy and Golden Globes.

[Ja]

No, that's the other part of it.

[Mandy B]

If y' all are watching this video, Jason's over there. Like.

[Ja]

You know, we was.

[Journalism Jason]

We were talking offline earlier in the week, and I was saying it's like with the podcast industry, it's so fragmented, right?

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Journalism Jason]

Sort of like the celebrity podcasting industry, which is like YouTube centric and video. There's like the black podcasting industry, then there's sort of like the indie public radio podcasting industry.

[Ja]

Right, right.

[Mandy B]

So you got the regular people that actually. Yeah.

[Journalism Jason]

Hobbyists. Yeah. So it's like, where. Who's awarding what? You know what I mean? And so it's like, what. What do you want from the Golden Globes in terms, like, to acknowledge different categories that aren't celebrity? Like, what do you really want from them? You know what I mean?

[Ja]

So it's like, is. Is. I don't know why I'm blanking our name. What's the call me, Daddy? Alex.

[Journalism Jason]

Alex Cooper.

[Ja]

Is she's considered a celebrity now?

[Mandy B]

Yeah, she is.

[Journalism Jason]

She's a celebrity. She's interesting. She. She's moved through the cycle, right. Like, she was, like, she was independent then, you know, started through Bar Bar, spun out. Then, you know, Spotify deal, Spotify bag. Now she's Sirius xm. So but now she's, you know, fully. She's a celebrity.

[Mandy B]

Got her own network, the Unwell Network, Hulu documentary. She.

[Ja]

So essentially we shouldn't set ourselves up to even be too concerned about cracking this category anytime soon because it sounds like is just like the system is already set up for what it's set up for.

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Journalism Jason]

So I have a question for you, John. You're going to start a podcast, right?

[Ja]

Yep.

[Journalism Jason]

What category is your podcast going to be in?

[Ja]

I think it would end up. It's going to be a culture podcast.

[Journalism Jason]

So. Okay, so society, Right. It's available because it's going to come to my point. So society and culture, top show stuff you should know.

[Mandy B]

Yep.

[Journalism Jason]

The Ezra Klein podcast, the Sean Ryan podcast. I've had it. Criminal, this American Life, the Determine Freakonomics, Sword and Scale and the Telepathy Tapes. That's the top 10, right.

[Mandy B]

Jesus.

[Ja]

And that's culture.

[Journalism Jason]

And that's culture.

[Mandy B]

But.

[Journalism Jason]

But who's culture? So.

[Mandy B]

Right.

[Journalism Jason]

And this is what I'm saying. This is what I was saying to Mandy. Right? Like, podcasting categories are largely defined by Apple. Right.

[Ja]

And right.

[Journalism Jason]

If we're talking about advocacy. A king. Right. It's like. Like they're defining that. So it's like where. Where does something like. Like Deontay Kyle's podcast fit in? Right? Like, because if you look at his.

[Mandy B]

We talked about. Yeah. I don't know.

[Journalism Jason]

Like, I would say us, but when I look at those other lines, I'm like, yo, we don't. We don't fit.

[Jason J. Le]

I hope so. It sounds like what I don't want to happen.

[Mandy B]

I'm not gonna lie. I want an urban category. Give us.

[Jason J. Le]

Okay, I wouldn't mind.

[Mandy B]

I know R B is.

[Jason J. Le]

I like the urban. And then you have the sub under the urban. Right. But I just don't want it to be, you know, and I'm not going to throw no entities under the bus, but where we have the black version of something, of something, and then five years in, it doesn't get the attention that. That it needs to continue. And then they just fall by the wayside and we don't have anything anymore.

[Mandy B]

Again, the hypocrisy is the same thing. Going back to how the. The Internet reacted to Teyana Taylor. Like, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. But. But we're in a place where we've had the BET Awards get shitted on our own community. Like, we have a place where, unfortunately, when we get to award our creatives, our community then is like, what? A white man? Don't acknowledge it, so it don't matter. And I think to me, we have to start respecting and celebrating our own, just within our own community and stop waiting for the white man to give us a bone.

[Jason J. Le]

So can I say something? Let me put it out there now. Cause if we're gonna do something like that, we might as well just say it.

[Journalism Jason]

It.

[Mandy B]

What?

[Jason J. Le]

So should we get. Should we have like, the Black Effect podcast awards?

[Mandy B]

Yeah, 100, baby.

[Jason J. Le]

The Black Effect podcast awards. And unbiased.

[Mandy B]

We.

[Jason J. Le]

For the culture. For the culture at large, too.

[Mandy B]

I don't know if we gonna edit that out, but we might need to just group chat that.

[Journalism Jason]

That's why he got that bag.

[Ja]

Here.

[Mandy B]

Hey. Hey, Charlotte, we talking to you now like Charlemagne. Now we're gonna go from entertainment to education. And this is America. And this is journalism JA on the scene. On the scene. Talk to us. What's happening with Morris Brown and the CAU here in Atlanta.

[Ja]

So out of nowhere this week, Morris Brown fired their president. And I want to make sure I say his name. I think it's Kevin James.

[Mandy B]

Y'. All. If y' all see the Dr. Kevin James open. Making the journalism.

[Ja]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mandy B]

I love it.

[Ja]

Big tabs. So, yeah. So more. Morris Brown fired their president, Dr. Kevin James. Today. It came out. Not today, this week. It came out of nowhere. He didn't expect it. No one else expected it. He had just had his annual review. It was a good review. Morris Brown is one of Atlanta's historic, iconic HBCUs, located near the AUC with Morehouse and Spelman and Clark. And they back in 2002, 2003, they lost accreditation because there was crazy financial mismanagement. Just they. They had gotten down where they only had like four students enrolled at the college. Like, the whole thing was a mess. The buildings were bad. Like, they had a lot of work to do. They lost their accreditation. Dr. Kevin James came in and over the course of 20 years, built the school back up, got their accreditation back. They were able to get federal funding again. The student enrollment had gotten up to like 550 or 540, something like that. So they were getting students back. They had money. Everything was kind of stable. He ran this thing, built it back up from the Ashes for two years and then almost 20 years, and out of nowhere, it got fired. By the board. So people who are Morris Brown alumni, students, people just in the community are shocked by this because it's like, damn, why did you fire this man? They still haven't presented a reason.

[Mandy B]

Oh, there's no reason.

[Ja]

There's no reason at all. They put out some statement basically saying, you know, he did a great job. We wish you well, peace. Don't let the doorknob hit you. And he's just like, I'm on the contract till 2029. They, they're out of, they're breaching my contract to fire me. They didn't give me a reason. My, my, my review was good. Morris Brown is about to be back up for an accreditation review soon. And he's like, y' all look crazy firing me when y' all are trying to get keep your accreditation.

[Mandy B]

Did they announce his replacement?

[Ja]

So a woman on the board is going to be the interim president in the meantime. Okay. But it's like y' all look unstable. The whole part of keeping your accreditation is looking like things are going right here that there's no turmoil and y' all have created this turmoil right at the point that you're supposed to basically get the bag again. So what the is going on? So I watched people react to this. I watched a, a video of a, a Instagram user. She's a doctor. She used to work on the board of an HBCU that she didn't want to mention to be for messy reasons.

[Mandy B]

Right.

[Ja]

But she was basically breaking down how the boards at these schools are short sighted and often lead to the downfall of school presidents. Many school presidents have gotten fired over the past five, six, seven years. And it's starting to kind of make HBCUs look unstable.

[Mandy B]

Unstable.

[Ja]

Right. And so there is this, I guess there's this push to try to get these boards to, to get on board and fly right. So that these schools can continue to grow and we can still have access to black education. Because without the federal funding, if schools keep getting, losing their accreditation, without federal funding, most of these schools can't afford to operate.

[Mandy B]

Right.

[Ja]

There's not going to be anybody in the communities to come save them. You're just going to see HBCUs go out of style. And so we don't want that. Yeah. And so there's a concern not while.

[Mandy B]

They'Re removing critical race theory out of.

[Jason J. Le]

Style, how much is the administration trickle down effect.

[Ja]

So this is the interesting part of it. So over the past couple of years, the, the and even some as well. In his first term, the Trump administration gave HBCUs a lot of money. There was a program that they did that was based like a one time gift grant of like $500 million that was supposed to get distributed across HBCUs. He did program called the Future act that was supposed to I think inject another 200 or 300 some million dollars to HBCU.

[Journalism Jason]

Right.

[Ja]

But he's doing that at the same time, to your point, while telling white schools, Harvard, Yale, threatening them with basically legal action if they don't get rid of dei. So it feels like what is happening is Trump is saying you go to your schools and stay out of these places of higher education, stay out of Harvard, stay out of Yale. You're not coming here, but you can go to your Morehouse, you can go to your little Spellman, whatever you want to go over there, but we'll give.

[Journalism Jason]

You the money to do it.

[Ja]

We'll give you, and we'll give you the money to do it. But don't come over here trying to mix up with, with our good white intellectual, pwi, salt of the earth white kids who are going to change America. The other shady part of it is the money that, that was like this money didn't come out of nowhere. Some of this money was earmarked for other things, specifically my, what they call minority serving schools, which are mostly Hispanic institutions. So colleges and universities around the United States that specifically enroll and speak to hispanicspanics students. And they took their money and gave it to us.

[Mandy B]

Oh, wow.

[Ja]

So now it sets up another dynamic of yeah, y' all got the bread, but now y' all can fight amongst each other about funding, how it gets used. Because we took the Hispanic people bread, give it to the black people, now y' all can argue amongst each other.

[Mandy B]

Oh wow.

[Ja]

And we'll shut down the DEI at Harvard.

[Mandy B]

So the real minority Report.

[Ja]

Yeah, so it goes deeper into a lot of things where there's a lot of questions that are being asked and, and I don't have any information on this specifically, but it, it, for me it begs the question of when you see these boards, who, who is on these boards and are some of these people compromised by some of this money that's flowing in or are they, are they saying, okay, well we got this bread from Trump and them. And so even though, thank you, Dr. Kevin James for being a great fundraiser and having resources and being able to talk people into giving us money, we don't need that no more. We got the bread from, from Orange Daddy. So priests, you go, you go over there and we can just run this ourselves. We don't need you no more. Who are those people on these boards who, again, may or may not be compromised? But I just think it begs the question, when you look at the larger picture of how some of this stuff is happening, you kind of have to follow the bread.

[Mandy B]

It's weird because we're talking about the money and funding that goes to the schools. And immediately, what I think is where we're at currently as a country where you have jobs telling you you're overqualified when you have certain degrees, you have a limited job market right now where there's really no jobs. And then you have Trump right now really affecting people's credit and everything in terms of paying back their student loans, while also saying that certain professional degrees are no longer professional degree degrees, nor do they qualify to take out certain federal loans because they're no longer professional degrees. And those, those specific professional degrees impacting, hello, minority women specifically, like, again, when we talked about the health care scope, while also people coming out and saying that bachelor's degrees don't really mean nothing. You don't really need it to get a job anymore because what they're trying to do is, oh, too much of you got degrees. So, like, there's a, there's an interesting thing happening right now with higher education in this country that, that for me, as a millennial with two degrees, now feels like, damn, I'm still sitting on this much student loans that has to be paid back, but also looking and realizing that I've been paying my student loans since 2018. Okay, I did take out them two years that they let us all be deferred. Since 2018, I've been paying back. Haven't even touched the principal.

[Ja]

I would say most of that is interest that you paid back.

[Mandy B]

A lot of it is just interest. And so it's this hamster will of constantly leaving the Americans in debt while also impacting their credit, while also telling us all that this, this hard work that we did and doing this thing for four consecutive years and sometimes more means nothing in the grand scheme of things. And it's, it's why, if you guys haven't listened yet, going back to the episode that we had with Dometi early on, talking about what the American dream actually looks like has us in the space of what is America right now? And again, in terms of higher education, how and why are we pushing it? What does support look like for HBCUs? What is the president right now doing with passing these bills that are heavily Impacting what it looks like for us to have continued education.

[Ja]

And that's the thing I brought up the Morris Brown thing. Just from the standpoint, there's a larger conversation at play about what's going on. So in some of the research I was doing, I found that this is HBCU news. Who published this article. I think this was back in. This was September last year.

[Mandy B]

Okay.

[Ja]

That 60% of HBCUs are at risk of losing their accreditation.

[Mandy B]

Jesus.

[Ja]

Part of the reason 60. I'm sorry. Not accreditation, their. Their access to federal loans.

[Mandy B]

Funding.

[Ja]

Funding.

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Ja]

Pell grants and all that kind of stuff. The reason that there are that many of them in trouble is because in order to qualify for those grants, a certain number of your students have to be actively paying them back.

[Mandy B]

Oh.

[Ja]

So you hit a number where if your student body has not default on their loans, you can lose your federal funding. Because I'm not gonna lie.

[Mandy B]

Yeah. X amount of.

[Ja]

I didn't know until I started reading about it. So. X amount. X amount of numbers. So.

[Mandy B]

And this is why people, you have.

[Ja]

To read and that's why you have to get this information.

[Jason J. Le]

Because.

[Ja]

Yeah. Because. Yeah. Shout out to Kaiser now. Y' all was dirty. We didn't get to that. Where's my camera?

[Jason J. Le]

Right here.

[Ja]

Y' all ain't for how y' all treated that, man. We'll talk about that.

[Jason J. Le]

We'll get to that.

[Mandy B]

We gotta get to it eventually.

[Ja]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

I mean the gonna be reading on stream for a while.

[Ja]

Yeah, we'll get there.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, we'll get there.

[Ja]

Maybe next week.

[Mandy B]

Maybe next week. Add that to the docket for now.

[Ja]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mandy B]

When we get in our. When we get in our new studio.

[Ja]

Yeah, yeah, that would be.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ja]

We'll christen that one with some.

[Mandy B]

We'll crisp on that with. With the streaming. The cat's not.

[Ja]

We're not going to forget about y'.

[WRAL News Anchor]

All.

[Ja]

We seen y'.

[Mandy B]

All.

[Ja]

So there is a thing called the cohort, the cohort default rate, which basically measures what that index number is for whether or not you're going to lose your accreditation or lose your access to these funds. So there's a one year trigger on this cohort default rate. If a school's most recent CDR, the cohort default rate is 40% or higher, it could lose access to direct loan programs almost immediately. Elite. So that's if 40% of your student body that is taking out loans, if they default, you lose access to this. There's also a three year trigger that if your three most recent CDRs are 30 or higher. So if 30 of your student body defaults on their loans for three consecutive years, you lose access to Pell Grants and direct loans for those people. So to your point, if the economy is up, up and don't have no bread and they have to take out a loan so they can go to school and they can't afford to go to a PWI and a public or private HBCU makes more sense for them.

[Mandy B]

The solution is a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli tortilla, and one.

[Ja]

And one other item.

[Mandy B]

And one other item in order for you to be able to.

[Journalism Jason]

That's how you get nominated for a Golden Globe podcast.

[Ja]

How you do it, you give them some fuck shit and some information. You go straight to the top to get you a little gold statue.

[Mandy B]

Now, now, now. I did. I want to thank you for being a journalist and. And bringing that in here. I didn't know a lot of these things, but also, it's J's polite way of saying all you got to do is read. It was out here. It was out here. You just got to read your husband. You know what I mean? Speaking of talking to your husband, Kirsty Scott will not be talking to her husband. Damn.

[Ja]

Damn. That was a crazy swerve.

[Jason J. Le]

Yeah, you see that? Yeah, she's good.

[Mandy B]

Crazy, crazy. Baby, I got a transition for you.

[Ja]

Okay, That's a Potter right there.

[Mandy B]

Call me a trans. Anyways, Kirsty Scott filed for divorce in the last week. That had the Internet going to a blaze. Now, y', all, Kirsty Scott and ex husband. Now, Desmond Scott met at the age of 14, married when she was 19 and he was 20. They are now divorcing after 12 years of marriage. And she filed. Here's a little bit of the details, too. He came out. It came out. And was made aware to us that he did ask to separate before she filed. And the knowledge that I wanted to bring to this was because a. First off, let me also share with y'. All. I do not give a. Hey, people, people, people. Divorce every day, break up every day.

[Ja]

Tough. You'll be all right.

[Mandy B]

Like I already told y', all, this idea that a marriage is supposed to last forever is a fact. Policy that y' all shouldn't be believing in anyways. But here we are. Sorry, Jason, who's married.

[Ja]

Yeah, I'm quiet.

[Mandy B]

I'm like, damn, I hope my wife.

[Jason J. Le]

The road he traveled, though, is kind of unorthodox.

[Ja]

Yeah, that's barbecues.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, you Gotta meet like Jason did in order to have longevity in this game. Anyways, what I found interesting about this whole thing is not only Desmond Scott, that kind of asking for a separation prior to Kirsty filing for divorce, but also was the fact that they are both Jehovah's Witnesses.

[Ja]

Have you heard the good news?

[Mandy B]

Listen. And now here's my ignorance again. I never really knew much about Jehovah's Witnesses. The only thing I grew up knowing is that they go door to door and they don't celebrate holidays. Right? That's all I knew.

[Ja]

They go to church on Saturday about.

[Mandy B]

This community, you know what I mean?

[Jason J. Le]

Never accepted the Watchtower or the like.

[Mandy B]

First off, I ain't want none of the pamphlets, okay?

[Jason J. Le]

You said not today.

[Mandy B]

Listen, my mama, listen, listen. All I remember is when they came to the door, my mama was like, shut up. Act like nobody's here. They'll go away. Like, we never even answered the door for them. Like, we. We wasn't trying to be bothered.

[Jason J. Le]

They wasn't trying to hear that shit.

[Mandy B]

We wasn't trying to be bothered.

[Ja]

You was ghosting. God, how you going ghost?

[Mandy B]

I don't know what. God, I don't know what that is.

[Jason J. Le]

You try to be quiet in the crib and you drop that spoon.

[Mandy B]

It was like, all right, turned out the tv, y'.

[Ja]

All.

[Mandy B]

Turn down the tv. Hey. All right. So I wanted to get into some things that not only came apparent to me through Tik Tok, but also did a little deep dive. My husband helped, of course, and, oh, man. I was befuddled at what I found out about how Jehovah's Witnesses live their lives. Now, outside of going door to door, going to church on Saturdays and not celebrating, no types of holidays.

[Ja]

No holiday whatsoever.

[Mandy B]

None. Not even the birthday. Okay. It was interesting to read how they go about their interpersonal relationships. Right. So they view that dating is for marriage. So nothing is casual or recreational. Dating should only also happen when both people are ready for marriage. Which to me was interesting because this clearly didn't happen if they've been together since 14.

[Ja]

Right.

[Mandy B]

But interesting.

[Ja]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

Early on in dating, there is a thing called chaperone dating. So it's strongly encouraged, especially for the younger members, where the parents chaperone these two people while they go on dates. Now, in terms of sexual conduct, there is not to be any sex before marriage. It is strictly forbidden. This includes intercourse, oral sex, and any other sexual activity. Pornography.

[Ja]

So meat beating is not allowed.

[Mandy B]

And ain't neither is pornography neither. Listen, well, you're supposed to listen. God knows.

[Ja]

God knows your heart and your dick.

[Mandy B]

Now, here's the interesting thing about marriage. Specifically, it, like many other religions, is viewed as a lifelong commitment. And divorce is only considered acceptable if adultery occurs, which clearly. No, no, no. Desmond said, I want out. She said, you ain't going nowhere. He said, let me go dive in some other so I could get out. He read the terms and conditions of Jehovah's Witnesses. He said, wait, what is it?

[Ja]

He said that user agreement popped up. He was like, not. No, no, no, no. Let me read before I accept.

[Mandy B]

By the way, I thought when you.

[Jason J. Le]

Take a vow, it says, to death do us part. That means if you fuck around, it's okay.

[Mandy B]

Well, you can no fuck around. Find out. We can get divorced now. Like, adultery allows breach of contract. Breach of contract of marriage. By the way, remarriage is also only allowed if the previous marriage ended due to adultery or death.

[Journalism Jason]

That was interesting.

[Ja]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

Is that not crazy?

[Ja]

Wait, so this thing, if we just break up because I don't like you no more.

[Mandy B]

And. And wait, wait. What's the. What's the term that most people use?

[Ja]

Irreconcilable differences.

[Mandy B]

You can't.

[Ja]

You can't get married again.

[Mandy B]

No.

[Journalism Jason]

You can break up, but y' all can't.

[Ja]

They.

[Jason J. Le]

They.

[Journalism Jason]

You don't.

[Ja]

There's nobody else for you.

[Journalism Jason]

That's.

[Ja]

You have to leave.

[Jason J. Le]

You have to stop being Jehovah's Witness. You have to just. Or leave Earth.

[Journalism Jason]

You have to leave.

[Mandy B]

Yeah. By the way, what. I'm interested as well. I'm not sure how many Saturdays they attended service, but when breaking up specifically due to sexual activity or adultery, it may often lead to disfellowshipping and being removed from the church. They're typically shunned, and they end up having not only limited access to the church, but often can be a reason for no contact from family or friends that are in faith. Now, clearly, y' all saw the video of that sucking face with a whole nother woman. Streets, baby.

[Ja]

That said street.

[Mandy B]

And then we saw her do the typical, let me chop my hair off thing. To me, she did do the big chop, bro. This is even very. I don't want to call it performative, but it's like we're in the metaverse of entertainment. Like everything that we think is supposed to happen in a movie is happening. Of course, we see him with the other lover, and she chops her hair off and says, well, I'm keeping the apartment. Same address again. I didn't care But I did find this as a really interesting moment to learn more about, you know, Jehovah. Jehovah's Witnesses.

[Journalism Jason]

So two. Two interesting Jehovah Witnesses tidbits. Yeah, they don't celebrate holidays, but the Jackson 5 still has the greatest holiday album ever.

[Mandy B]

Wait.

[Ja]

That'S funny.

[Mandy B]

Wait, were they Jehovah's Witnesses?

[Ja]

Hell, yeah.

[Journalism Jason]

So it was just bag hunting.

[Jason J. Le]

Do you have to be practicing even though you grew up in it?

[Ja]

You have to practice.

[Journalism Jason]

So the second tidbit, you should ask your brother Charlemagne, because Charlamagne grew up.

[Jason J. Le]

Oh, he did? Yeah.

[Ja]

He did say he grew up with Jehovah Witness.

[Jason J. Le]

Yeah, he converted to gods on Earth, right?

[Journalism Jason]

I think so. I don't know if he's.

[Ja]

I think.

[Journalism Jason]

I think. I think he's a reader. I think he's a reader. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

[Ja]

I don't know how any of that works. I don't know if. Have to take, like.

[Jason J. Le]

It's not like he absorbs the principle.

[Journalism Jason]

It's not like you have to marry a Jewish person.

[Ja]

Yeah, it's not like Islam, where you have to take like a 5% of Shahada or. I don't know what they do, but I don't think it's like that type of thing.

[Mandy B]

Oh, wow. Oh, wow.

[Journalism Jason]

But he talked. But he talks about on the radio a lot. He grew up. He grew up that way.

[Ja]

Yeah, he does talk about on the radio a lot.

[Mandy B]

Did y' all grow up in any religion here?

[Jason J. Le]

Christianity.

[Mandy B]

Regular Christianity. And why. Why do y', all, by the way? By the way? Hold on, I'm about to be petty. We decided to make our. We decided to make our day of recording on Sunday.

[Journalism Jason]

So I want to know, why don't.

[Mandy B]

Y' all go to church no more? Outside of the juicy skit.

[Jason J. Le]

You want to do this first?

[Ja]

Well, so I'll be honest with you. With me, I never liked church, okay? Even as a little kid, I didn't like church. I was. Now, granted, like, you're young, you. My thing was this little kid. I didn't want to get up on Sunday. Leave me alone. I want to sleep.

[Mandy B]

This is one of the two days I could sleep in.

[Ja]

Yeah, I sleep in and then I'm going to. Right. Like, the churches that I went to weren't like mega churches. How it is now? My version of church is like a old ass, crumbling building in the hood.

[Mandy B]

Oh, like in the centers?

[Ja]

Yeah, pretty much. More or less like old ass building in the hood somewhere. Old black ladies with big hats and colorful dresses and, like, preaching the Pulpit, the choir. Choir robes. Like, that's my version. That's what I know at church. And I was never really interested, any of that. Sometimes you hear some good singing, sometimes you hear a good message. But, like, I never really want to go to church. I believe in God wholeheartedly, but I was just never into church like that.

[Mandy B]

Yeah. I. I've shared this on my other podcast. So I actually used to be in a missionary, so went to. Not the sex position, guys.

[Jason J. Le]

I mean, you know the comment.

[Mandy B]

I was in mission. I was in missions. And every Wednesday I would go to church. Church. And I had a whole sash and used to get little like. Like. Like, kind of like how the Boy Scouts are.

[Jason J. Le]

You get a patch.

[Mandy B]

You get a patch for every. Every book of the Bible that you're able to go up in front of the class and recite.

[Ja]

Okay.

[Mandy B]

Like, there would be certain, you know, stories that I would have to go up there and recite verbatim.

[Ja]

And how old were you at this time?

[Mandy B]

This was middle school.

[Ja]

Okay, so this is 13. 12. 13.

[Mandy B]

Yep. 12. 13.

[Journalism Jason]

Okay.

[Mandy B]

Used to have a. Wear a skirt below my knee, like a white collared shirt.

[Ja]

She said that she discussed, like, below my knee.

[Mandy B]

Gross. And so did that. And it start. It probably high school was my first questioning of the church I remember going to. And we went to a church, like, we went on Sundays, baby. And my pastor ended up Pastor Clint Brown. I'm just gonna put it out there. He ended up going through a public divorce. And not only went through a public divorce, but at the time, he drove a Hummer to the church. And so he had. Oh, he bought that thing. Right. And so Clint Brown.

[Journalism Jason]

Is this Judah Ministries?

[Mandy B]

No, it was. It was. It was called. I think it was called. He's still out here. A white man that had soul. Okay.

[Jason J. Le]

Wow.

[Mandy B]

White man was Soul.

[Ja]

Oh, Michael McDonald.

[Mandy B]

Listen. And so started questioning church a little bit there, because I'm like, okay, so they can get divorced. And they can. And they Using these tithes and offerings to line their pockets. Okay. And then when I got to college, this wasn't until I was 24 years old, because I'm not traditional student. My first year, I took African American studies, right? And boy. Learning how much the Bible was quoted from masters. And just our country as a whole, amidst slavery and amidst the propaganda of it all. The propaganda of it all was like. Like, wait, y' all were slave owners and were Christians? Y' all were.

[Jason J. Le]

Well, it also used to say there's parts of the Bible that justify slavery because of what they identify was our lineage.

[Mandy B]

But that's my thing to know even that the Bible can have all these different interpretations.

[Jason J. Le]

Well, they.

[Mandy B]

And they interpret it in a nasty way.

[Ja]

In the worst way possible.

[Mandy B]

In the worst way possible. So I was just like. But yeah, I was like, I don't like it. I don't like it. I. I will say maybe this year I would like to have. You want to go to a couple episodes? I want to. I want to have some deeply spiritually rooted religious, like Die Hards here to really figure out, like, their minds.

[Ja]

Yeah, okay. I like that.

[Mandy B]

Like, I would like to do that.

[Jason J. Le]

I didn't like church, but I like Sunday school. Okay, interesting. And Sunday school was how I. How was my introduction to hip hop really? Because I could. It was a kid, he was older, and he snuck me a cd. At the time, the album was already out, but I. He was like, yo, listen to this. And it was Ice Cube, Death Certificate. That was the first album.

[Ja]

Wow. That was a crazy place to learn about.

[Mandy B]

Wait, wait, I'm thinking about. Wait, a CD or a tape or vinyl? Like, was it really a cd?

[Jason J. Le]

It was a cd.

[Journalism Jason]

She's trying to age check you. Trying to age check you on me.

[WRAL News Anchor]

How old are you?

[Ja]

72 years old.

[Mandy B]

You have.

[Jason J. Le]

He gave me a CD.

[Ja]

CD.

[Mandy B]

CD. Okay.

[Jason J. Le]

But it took. I had to. I had to hold that till I was able to. We didn't have them.

[Ja]

Where were you gonna play?

[Jason J. Le]

Also, Mondo, my brother's sister was already out the house.

[Ja]

Right.

[Jason J. Le]

So I'm. I'm. All the rules apply.

[Ja]

Yeah. They were able to break the.

[Jason J. Le]

So then I had to figure it out. So now I figured out. Let's find.

[Mandy B]

Where'd you figure out. Where was the first place you put that cd?

[Jason J. Le]

I had a. I bought a CD player.

[Mandy B]

Okay.

[Jason J. Le]

Allowance and shit.

[Ja]

Yeah.

[Jason J. Le]

A very bare bones joint. And after that changed my entire perspective about all the shit my parents shielded me from. I heard it.

[Ja]

I was like, oh, this is what's wrong.

[Jason J. Le]

If you ever listen to Death Certificate, it's a very societal driven, anti everything.

[Ja]

It's a scary way to learn about the world.

[Jason J. Le]

It's so truth, though. It's a very true telling CD from Ice Cube. And that was my opening portal to hip hop.

[Ja]

And I was like, wow.

[Jason J. Le]

So I credit Sunday school for that.

[Ja]

Wow.

[Jason J. Le]

But, like, going in the pulpit, you.

[Mandy B]

Gotta wait a suit.

[Ja]

And then. Yeah, I didn't want to get dressed. And every five second.

[Jason J. Le]

Stand up, sit down, stand up. That shit used to drive me starting off. And then Mom Is like, oh, yeah.

[Mandy B]

Mom, get your ass up. You get. Wake up.

[Jason J. Le]

Like, Damn, it's only 11. We just. We got to wait till 1 o', clock, 1:30, and then you got to talk to the people. Then you going to go eat something.

[Ja]

And then it's like a whole day.

[Mandy B]

It was a whole day.

[Jason J. Le]

And then school starts again the next day.

[Ja]

Right?

[Mandy B]

Ended. Ended. Well, let's get into the mess. Yes. If y' all don't mind, this is where we could just laugh at these. This is all I want to do. We're not laughing with y'. All. We are laughing at you.

[Ja]

We are mocking you.

[Mandy B]

Let's get into celebrity. Say the darnest things. Over the last week, we have all been laughing at Cam Newton, who sat across from Lady London in podcast Funky Friday. Now, you know what? I just. We have other men here. I want to know as a collective, were y' all not embarrassed? Were y' all embarrassed? It's like, was there any secondhand embarrassment to. To watching one of your brethren.

[Ja]

Right now?

[Jason J. Le]

He's part of y'.

[Mandy B]

All. He's y'. All. I actually want to remove him from the urban podcast late.

[Journalism Jason]

Actually.

[Mandy B]

I don't want to be associated.

[Journalism Jason]

No Golden Globe for you.

[Mandy B]

No. Done.

[Jason J. Le]

So you what.

[Mandy B]

What were yalls thoughts and the viral clips, by the way, there's two here. We. We have him inventing a word, and we have him talking about his astrology side. Do we want to play bold? Do we want to. How do we want to react to this? How do we want to take this topic head on? Because I want to laugh at this point, y'. All. We've been kind of serious talking about all the other topics.

[Ja]

Well, the. That. The thing with Cam that made me. That gave me the second hand and embarrassment was that he couldn't just. Just take what Lady London was telling them and just take the fact that you was wrong and let her give you some correction and let it do it. It was super easy. It was a layup. She wasn't even really coming at you. She was like, sparing you and with.

[Mandy B]

A smile on her.

[Ja]

Yeah. Like, you couldn't just take that. Yeah. Oh, that's word. I made up, like, defensiveness in doubling heavy on the end.

[Mandy B]

Yeah. Like talking about what he likes to do is sit across from bird brain that he feels like he can have got to moments on. Right. I think he genuinely believes he's one of the smartest people in the room and one of the smartest people in any conversation he has and wants to kind of Be still. Be the leader. He sees himself clearly. He mentions himself. But. But it was really interesting, too, because kind of going to what your topic was in this is America, he really tried to stump her in bringing up how much too she would probably prefer to go to a PWI over an hbcu. And I found him really drilling her in that notion to be really nasty.

[Ja]

Right?

[Mandy B]

Because it's like, what are you doing right now?

[Ja]

What's wrong with you, bro?

[Mandy B]

I do want to play the clip. As if y' all probably haven't heard it already, but if you're sitting at your desk, if you're riding in your car, I too, want you to laugh with us. Can we play the clip of him inventing the word? Eclecta, Enclecta, Enclecta. Describe your style in one word.

[Jason J. Le]

That's an adjective.

[Ja]

Can I use a word that I've already used?

[Mandy B]

Sure.

[Ja]

Say it again.

[Journalism Jason]

Say it again.

[Ja]

Well, the heavy on the N. Heavy.

[Mandy B]

There's no end in it.

[Ja]

No, no, no, no. It's my word.

[Mandy B]

Oh, let's unpack.

[Ja]

She is the goat.

[Mandy B]

Spell it for me.

[Jason J. Le]

N, C, L, E, C, T, A.

[Mandy B]

Okay, the incl.

[Ja]

Do you want to know what the N stand for? Easy, easy. Stop.

[Jason J. Le]

Am I right? And he gonna shake to that.

[Mandy B]

Okay, respectful. Are you not embarrassed? Okay, okay. We can stop it there.

[Jason J. Le]

But you know what?

[Mandy B]

Look at his face.

[Jason J. Le]

But I'mma keep it a thousand.

[Ja]

The.

[Mandy B]

The free.

[Ja]

Go ahead.

[Mandy B]

Ak.

[Jason J. Le]

It worked.

[Mandy B]

No, it didn't. It did. It did not work. When did it work?

[Jason J. Le]

Eclectic. The people got it out. They're gonna have merch on it now. I mean, it worked. But he's talking about it. Everyone's talking about it.

[Ja]

But here's the problem, though. In the same week that he makes up this dumbass word because he's too defensive and too afraid to let a.

[Mandy B]

Woman say my bad.

[Ja]

To say my bad is the same week that y' all ass niggas slaughtered Kai Sonat for trying to look up words and trying to know how to pronounce them correctly and what they mean. In the same week, in the same week, niggas showed themselves, and I'm just like, I can't.

[Mandy B]

Like.

[Ja]

Like, y' all are killing me. Please. Y' all are killing. You have to stop this.

[Jason J. Le]

They not gonna stop.

[Mandy B]

You're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[Ja]

There's no. Literally.

[Jason J. Le]

Do you know how many. We went to school with some of these people, right? Like, all the degenerates we got identify degenerates in elementary and high school. These are the people that's causing a. Causing a r kiss right now.

[Ja]

But it's like, yeah, I got.

[Mandy B]

You know what? To be fair is why I say it all the time in terms of people who can put violin strings behind their videos and form complete sentences. It's why. It's why America gawks at them like they're saying something. Val. Because there's such a lack in people understanding words. Now, y' all know, again, I'm probably hypocrite because y' all know I will make up a word like anybody else. Up in. Through. Up through here, sure. But eclectic in terms of even how we go about spelling things. If ever the. Anything in the English dictionary starts with the. The pronunciation of N, it's either in or en. And the fact that that went straight.

[Journalism Jason]

To N, spelled it and then said.

[Mandy B]

It.

[Jason J. Le]

Last week, but it was five minutes ago, right?

[Journalism Jason]

Was.

[Ja]

He was spelling it like he was using his finger to read a real word. Like going underneath the n C. Wait, wait, wait.

[Mandy B]

Can I also, no one is talking about either the fact that he literally said eclectic, and somehow when he went to spelling it, it ended with a.

[Ja]

The ick.

[Mandy B]

The I. Like, he said it with an ick, and it didn't even end with a ick in his spelling. He gave me the ick. That's what this did. It gave me the ick. And I was like, like. So the conversation that I ended up having with my friends here, because it was so hard as a woman to admit this, and when I got in the group chat and I asked all my friends, I said, the embarrassing part about this is that's a high value man. Savannah.

[Ja]

That's what. Yeah, that's what niggas would call. Yeah.

[Mandy B]

And so to see him talk, to see him not even know how to actually formulate a spelling of a word, but nor even have. Have an engaging enough conversation where we weren't all embarrassed for him. I was like, damn. But because of his looks, his wealth, his power, his Statham touchdowns, there was in every which way the fact that this is still considered the high value, man. I'm like, yuck.

[Ja]

I don't get that. I don't get that. The funny part about it is the whole way that played out is that like. Like, she looked like a woman on a bad first date who was like, I'm never calling this nigga again. No, no, no. I'm gonna have fun while I'm here. Cause this nigga's dumb. So at least I'm Gonna get some entertainment out of this situation.

[Mandy B]

What's the saying that they say you two may be be able to get compensation?

[Ja]

Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mandy B]

It felt like she should sue for like, for her mental health. Like. Like she had to sit there that.

[Ja]

Whole time and she was ready.

[Jason J. Le]

She was like, oh, this what we doing right now?

[Journalism Jason]

She was shot right now.

[Ja]

Like, oh, you a dumb nigga.

[Mandy B]

Oh, okay.

[Ja]

So let me get comfortable and just see, like, what are the depths of this stupidity that I'm about to hear right now.

[Mandy B]

And. And it's crazy because this was actually a visual representation of unfortunately, what it's like to go on dates and be a single woman and have to have constant conversations with men who, because they're men, perceive themselves to be more bright, more brilliant, more right leaders. This is what's leading it, by the way, if you haven't seen it yet. It was very interesting as well. He also got got last week. It didn't go as viral. But just would urge you guys to listen to his sit down with TD Jake. Very.

[Ja]

I don't think I saw that, Kim.

[Mandy B]

Of course, because that's not in our algorithm. Cuz we don't go to church. Cuz we in here.

[Ja]

All you want that double context.

[Mandy B]

Y' all want to see him also get banged out. Paused by a man. Yo. Hey. I mean, I'm just saying TD Jakes kind of put it to him anyway.

[Journalism Jason]

Yeah, not better put it to him.

[Jason J. Le]

Not better at all.

[Mandy B]

Now, there was one other thing that I found interesting and we talked about the podcast nominee and this is where my mind went in terms of not even high value, but how we place men in front of podcast mics or how we elevate our voices. Right? That the same way y' all are mad of Teyana Taylor playing a stereotype. I put Cam Newton in the category of hear me out. Shannon Sharpe, Stephen A. Smith, Gilbert Arenas. There's probably more.

[Journalism Jason]

But in terms of is that society and culture?

[Mandy B]

Yes, yes. Siding culture.

[Ja]

Society and culture.

[Mandy B]

Urban.

[Ja]

Urban.

[Mandy B]

Jesus Christ. In this landscape, I'm thinking of the voices that we pedestal. And often it is this over masculine kind of wrong. Really loud voice of a black man that unfortunately those get the money. It's why a Shannon Sharpe could have this huge blowout over a sexual harassment claim and still go on to make millions. It's why Stephen A. Smith can sit on an ESPN platform and get a Disney check worth millions and millions of dollars. Is why Gilbert Arenas. Well, where he made a horrible deal selling his IP over to DraftKings it's why he's been able to kind of create an ecosystem of his loud and abrasive voice. And when I see what Cam is doing. Cam is not only on Funky Friday with his podcast, he is a commentator.

[Ja]

First take right there with Stephen A.

[Mandy B]

Every like on. And so what. What is interesting is when we have these voices upset of the stereotypes that are being portrayed in acting, why we don't have the same uproar of what I perceive to be a negative stereotype of a black man constantly being pedestaled and platformed.

[Ja]

Well, for Steve Shannon Sharpe, I think is, is. Is one thing. I think the. Some of the difference with Shannon Sharp, I think he's able to still go forth because essentially his show is about like sports and foolishness.

[Mandy B]

Okay.

[Ja]

So although I can understand that point that you're making, I feel like he's not talking about anything important. Really. Like I feel like Shannon Sharpe's show is. Is all entertainment with Stephen A. Smith. I think Stephen A. Smith, his journey into this political talk, like, I don't think it's going well. Like all he's done since he's come in there is on black women and piss people off.

[Mandy B]

Okay.

[Ja]

I don't know, like maybe he's building a real. I know the right wingers are down with that shit, but all I see is Stephen a slant more than normal. Like it's one thing you think he has a bad sports take or whatever, but like the levels of slander that he's taking right now are different for him.

[Mandy B]

I would apply the same word that you just used for Shayna Sharp though. Foolishness. And to me it's all foolishness. And so to me, when we're talking about the six, seven, eight figure checks that are going to us, if we, if we're upset at the black woman for winning the ward, for being over sexualized. On the other hand, I don't understand how we're not as equally upset with the black man being pedestal and given all this money to continue pushing foolishness and stereotypes. I mean, Shannon Sharp sat across from Skip Bayless with a goddamn cognac and a goddamn black and Mild in his mouth, like looking like a goddamn coon. We have Stephen A. Smith who is literally bojangling and being a coon. And I do think that in terms of what, what Kim is kind of displaying is very. It's not the best representation of a black man. And so if we're going to be upset with how black women are represented in the entertainment space from an acting Standpoint, I just don't understand why black men aren't questioned to the same regard where they display themselves in the entertainment space as well.

[Jason J. Le]

Yeah, man.

[Journalism Jason]

I still have a question, Mandy.

[Mandy B]

Do you?

[Journalism Jason]

Because I feel like I, I, I hear the criticism, but I wonder if your issue is. Because it's not as loud, right? Because, like, the people who are criticizing Tiana Taylor presumably, are men. And the people who would criticize Stephen A. And Cam should be men. Would, would be men, but they're just not, they're not saying it with their whole chest the way they say it against Tiana Taylor.

[Mandy B]

To me, it's the hypocrisy. And, and my issue lies in with what this podcast is about, is what I'm seeing the outrages of, and it's me seeing the clear distinctions in one episode. Like, is laughing at this.

[Jason J. Le]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

But not really calling it out like.

[Jason J. Le]

It'S an issue, because maybe some of them are the same.

[Mandy B]

Oh, they are. And that's where I have an issue in terms of how black men are represented in entertainment. I hate that this is, that this foolishness is what gets platformed and what people perceive most black men to be.

[Ja]

Well, also part of it is, and this might be an unfortunate truth, but, like, even when we talk about people being platformed, like, Stephen A. Smith has an audience and that if he shows up anywhere on the Internet, that audience will probably follow him. There's people who are interested in what he has to say, whether they. Some people that hate watching him, some people agree clearly with some of the crazy shit he's saying. But, like, what? I don't know what you do to stop people from liking a. And participating.

[Mandy B]

I mean, you don't. Because Andrew Tate and Charlie Kirk both had audiences too. Yeah.

[Ja]

And I think so I think to some degree, like, I think there's, there should be criticism, and I think that, I think there is criticism for some of these individuals. But I also think that at some point, the uncomfortable truth of it is that in the age we live in right now, if you work for a major network or something like that, then I can see you saying, okay, don't have this person on cnn, msnbc, whatever, TV show, whatever. But when it comes to having an audience of people who want to hear what you got to say, there's literally nothing we can do about it. Because the ignorant are going to follow the ignorant that they want to hear. And people who agree with this red pill shit or with whatever the bad take is, like, they want to engage with the people that they fuck with. And I don't know what any of us can do about it to. To get them off of that, other than present better ideas and use our microphones to say that is more healthy for the community. Well, than maybe what they got going on.

[Mandy B]

On leaning into ignorance, leaning into the algorithm, leaning into us wanting to see black men represented better.

[Jason J. Le]

Amplify. Amplify those who. Who. Who are the bill. Well, no, I was going to say celebrate us.

[Mandy B]

No, I was going to add two more names. Then you got Jim Jones and 50 Cent. I was just going. Speaking of which, both. Both men have pretty much came out and said that they know how to keep people talking about them.

[Jason J. Le]

Prison and jail ain't the same, though.

[Mandy B]

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean by that?

[Jason J. Le]

You said that they both. They have said that.

[Mandy B]

Yes.

[Jason J. Le]

I think one applies it in a different way, and the other one is acting like he created the algorithm.

[Mandy B]

I actually want that on a shirt. Prison, jungle. Not the same thing. I'm sorry, that was. What the fuck?

[Jason J. Le]

AKA at least I spell it differently.

[Mandy B]

Nah, you said jail is spelled J, J, A, L, E. Prison is.

[Ja]

J.

[Journalism Jason]

A, Y, L. Heavy, heavy on the.

[Ja]

G. Heavy on the G. Heavy on.

[Mandy B]

The G. No, but I. I do want to know your thoughts then. Seeing. Seeing both of these New York black men carrying themselves. Wait, you.

[Journalism Jason]

You said that's a question for you?

[Mandy B]

Yeah. They represent, you know, actually two boroughs you don't represent. This is Queens and Harlem here. But how. How would you. What are your thoughts on. On what we're seeing with. With Jim Jones? We. We've seen him already go against Cam, but now we see Jim and the let's Rap about it podcast crew going against 50 and all the things that are coming.

[Jason J. Le]

It's entertainment.

[Mandy B]

Okay.

[Jason J. Le]

I think it's entertainment. I don't think it's nothing serious. I think maybe with Jim a little bit.

[Mandy B]

He.

[Jason J. Le]

You know, 50's a. Interesting. He's an interesting human being, man. And I. And I love how his mind works, but I think we have enough sample size over the, what, two decades now?

[Ja]

Yeah.

[Jason J. Le]

Stop playing with fif, man. He don't fif. Got time. All this stuff, small moves that he's making, no pun intended, you wouldn't think.

[Mandy B]

He had all this time.

[Jason J. Le]

I don't think when he has downtime, he embraces that shit.

[Mandy B]

Cause he's all they play.

[Jason J. Le]

And I do believe when he says, I'm not the problem, but when they engage with me, then I gotta participate. I believe that I'm Summarizing. But. But he got time. So, I mean, it's entertainment. You know, they have a studio. I don't know how he gets all this information about what's happening that part. There's more huge mold for him to be so on point with it in real time.

[Mandy B]

I mean, I'm not gonna hold you, though. Like, I've been to Jim's studio. Early on, I went to the first episode of the let's Rap about it pod before I knew it was gonna be a weekly thing. And there was easily 30 people in there. Like, he has a barber that shows up and cuts the guys before he got. But there's bottles. It's a production, but there's an audience. And who. I don't know if. Because you have the four guys on the pod, because you do have a production happening, who's all just inviting these people. And if any of them are really there, like, if everyone there is Jim's close person. You don't know. There was a lot of people up through there. Like, shit, I came with my homegirl that doesn't know anything.

[Jason J. Le]

You got four dudes who have crews, right?

[Mandy B]

Crews.

[Jason J. Le]

So. And they have.

[Mandy B]

And them crews. No crews.

[Ja]

Yeah.

[Jason J. Le]

So it's like you have four people each one, and then those four have. Plus twos. And then it becomes a whole thing.

[Mandy B]

Yeah. So, like, as much as, like, people. Like, there's a lot of people that go through there who often. I've been around Jim so much. He is a man of the people. And when I tell you, he will walk down the street, like, he constantly has people around him, people supporting him. Him. That is a man who New York is behind him. Literally.

[Jason J. Le]

Part of. Part of it.

[Mandy B]

What? Go ahead. We could cut it out later if you talking.

[Ja]

No, I'm not.

[Jason J. Le]

But you said New York.

[Mandy B]

Don't do that. Don't do that.

[Jason J. Le]

No, I just want to know.

[Mandy B]

Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that.

[Ja]

I didn't know that there was a.

[Mandy B]

No, no.

[Journalism Jason]

Look, he's just trying to separate Jim.

[Ja]

He said, is there a Mason Dixon line at like a.

[Jason J. Le]

New York is very division, mind you.

[Mandy B]

His studio is not even in Harlem. It's in the Bronx. It's in so bro. Baby. Oh, it's in so bro.

[Jason J. Le]

I think we got insert.

[Journalism Jason]

Jim's also from the Bronx. Jim was born in the Bronx.

[Mandy B]

So that's what. Okay, see? So don't do that. Don't do that, don't do that.

[Jason J. Le]

I don't know. I love everybody and he's sitting with two.

[Mandy B]

Brooklyn.

[Jason J. Le]

Yes, they are from Brooklyn.

[Mandy B]

He got two. I think.

[Journalism Jason]

I think.

[Ja]

I think the history.

[Journalism Jason]

The history of Jim and Cam is just so intertwined. And I'm sure Jim got people with him that are still Cam's people, and that's how. Like, that's how the video, you know?

[Jason J. Le]

But even look at the whole 50 cent dynamic, right? You have Cam and 50 had their issues, and then they. Over the. More recently they patched up, and now they're like, cool. You know what I mean?

[Mandy B]

Even the Jim and Dame thing for that to make light to the Internet again. This, like, this past week. Week for what?

[Journalism Jason]

Yeah, I. I also think, of course, the reality is, like, we're all taking it more serious than them than they are.

[Jason J. Le]

Whoever took the video initially, it seems like they were probably with Jim, with Tim, so something happened because that.

[Ja]

That angle has to be from that camera.

[Jason J. Le]

From that.

[Mandy B]

No, from that side.

[Ja]

Yeah.

[Jason J. Le]

How did this. How did that.

[Mandy B]

Oh, easy. People fall out every day. B.

[Jason J. Le]

And they.

[Mandy B]

People break up every day. We talk.

[Jason J. Le]

I got you.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason J. Le]

Here you go.

[Ja]

But I'm like, are you getting. Is that a paid gig?

[Mandy B]

No, but not only that.

[Ja]

Let's be very clear.

[Mandy B]

I don't know how many years ago that was, but he took up his Apple. Apple. Moving everything to the cloud. I just got the 17. My pictures from 2017 still in that bitch. So, like, with the cloud, like, you can literally go through your phone from eight years ago easily and have all of those videos and things and not even know it.

[Jason J. Le]

Somebody was tight, like, oh, I still.

[Ja]

Got this shit right here. Yeah. Hold up.

[Mandy B]

Listen.

[Jason J. Le]

Not fast facts crazy, but now. Shout out to all of those brothers. Shout out to all of them. Shout out to the rap. What's the name of the podcast? I didn't want to say the wrong thing.

[Mandy B]

Let's Rap About It.

[Jason J. Le]

Shout out to the let's Rap about it podcast.

[Mandy B]

We're gonna edit that Shout out, Shout out to more celebrities getting into the podcast space. To be honest with y', all, I'm really glad I know Jim as a creative, creative person. I think Mayno, he's had his own podcast he gets on with Angela Yee. I think Mayno is great on air. Yeah, My. My questioning concern would be the longevity of. Of Dave and Fab doing that. I don't think that they're as animated on the mic. I don't know how much of their own life they're willing to talk about or how honest they're willing to be on the Microphone. I do like, however, how they all got. And added the recording to it.

[Journalism Jason]

That's. That's their group chat, though. Like, remember during the pandemic, they was all, like, going.

[Mandy B]

They were going to Planet Fitness. Like, Brokies. I was so confused. Confused.

[Jason J. Le]

The lobby boys.

[Ja]

I didn't understand lobby boys.

[Mandy B]

Well, the lobby boys was Jim and Mayo, but I didn't understand.

[Jason J. Le]

Well, Fab used to come to the workout scenes.

[Journalism Jason]

The workouts. You see them at each other's birthday parties. Like, I think it's just an extension of doing it.

[Jason J. Le]

I love that they doing it. Shows camaraderie, shows brotherhood.

[Mandy B]

But Planet Fitness was my problem. The purple and yellow, like pizza.

[Journalism Jason]

She's like, I heard you.

[Mandy B]

I heard you. Like, I would have felt better if they went over there to the. To the park at the. The Yankee Stadium. Like jail.

[Journalism Jason]

During COVID That's why they want that.

[Mandy B]

No, no. Yo, that planet Fitness.

[Ja]

Hey, man, 25 pounds. Weighs 25 pounds there. It weighs 25 pounds in the street. Weigh 25 pounds.

[Mandy B]

I hated it.

[Ja]

Orange Theory or wherever you go.

[Mandy B]

I hated it.

[Journalism Jason]

You know, do you remember. Do you remember that clip of Jim talking about Pusha T that went around like, you're not top 50. So we recorded that. That's when I was doing the Rap Caviar podcast. And we recorded that outside of gyms, his gym that he has in Jersey. Okay.

[Ja]

And he.

[Journalism Jason]

It was like he had like, a little small office in there. And I was like, you got an office, B. But it was too small. We couldn't record out there. So then he ended up. It's perfectly fine for the business that he needs to do.

[Mandy B]

Sure.

[Jason J. Le]

Listen, this production, it further highlights people.

[Mandy B]

His.

[Jason J. Le]

His mind is always. His wheels always turning.

[Journalism Jason]

Busy dude.

[Ja]

But he.

[Journalism Jason]

You know, he does it. We pulled up his truck to. To the building, the WI fi, and we recorded it out of there. But he's a hustler. He keeps moving. He finds a way to make happen.

[Mandy B]

And he does. He does. Yeah.

[Journalism Jason]

That's his story.

[Mandy B]

He does. Well, we'll have to get into maybe on a bonus episode over on Patreon, the IPS that he has fumbled in us hoping that all of his business is in order, especially with this podcast, because 50 made claims that maybe everything he's producing in that building could be tied to the owner of the building. So I just hope everything he's protecting because he. He did lose some. Some ips. And we'll talk about that.

[Jason J. Le]

Look at Kevin Hart and his IP where he.

[Mandy B]

What I just heard he Sold his name.

[Jason J. Le]

He sold his name for 1 billion.

[Journalism Jason]

Name and image likeness.

[Mandy B]

He sold his name. That was so he said.

[Journalism Jason]

But he also sold it to also become an equity partner in the company. That.

[Jason J. Le]

So if they create the. The if his new line of cars, he's going to still get Jason.

[Mandy B]

Could you. Could you add that to the docket for next week? I'd love to. To get Jason.

[Jason J. Le]

His brand is. Is going to live 100 years plus now.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, I wanted to look into what that looks like.

[Jason J. Le]

All right.

[Mandy B]

And before we get out of here, y', all, JCole is coming.

[Ja]

Jermaine.

[Mandy B]

Jermaine Cole is coming February 6th, y'. All. He announced the release of the anticipated fall off, which allegedly, which I'm hoping not will be his last album. However, I'm really excited that it was teased that it could possibly be a two disc. He released his new track from disc two. Track two. And he could do no wrong in my eyes. Now he literally can do no wrong in my eyes. What I. What I'm hoping for and I want to just drop my predictions and what I'd like to see is of these two discs, one of them being still completely free of collaborations. Because that's what we're used to seeing from Colt. We're used to not seeing any extra people. Of course it is also being rumored that he does have some people have been named, enlisted as possible collabs. I hope that's on one disc. And then we still get like his. His OG style of just Colt of no features.

[Jason J. Le]

Right.

[Mandy B]

I want a no feature.

[Jason J. Le]

It depends on the side. If it's a conceptual, then I would assume those features tie into. It's not just about skill set. It's just about tying into whatever the narrative that he's trying to.

[Mandy B]

I mean if this is the fall off, I would. I mean and if we lean into features, I 100% believe we'll see 21 feature, black feature. I'm hoping. Cause the last one we got, I think was Mr. Nice Watch. I would like to see Jay at least give him a verse. If they're cool.

[Ja]

I have questions.

[Jason J. Le]

I would like to see it. But not if he's saying on the so called cancer.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, I don't think that was.

[Ja]

That struck me as very strange. That struck me as.

[Jason J. Le]

But he's been kind of leaning into there being some type of tension over the years.

[Mandy B]

Has he? Well, we know he don't really talk to nobody, but where have you gotten the exact like where you believe he's come out and hinted at Beef.

[Jason J. Le]

Outside of literally, I wouldn't say beef. I don't think it's beef.

[Journalism Jason]

You're specifically saying that it's cool.

[Jason J. Le]

I think he's alliance and I think it goes back to when he first got with Roc Nation.

[Ja]

This is just.

[Jason J. Le]

As a fan, I'm saying this. I don't. When. When he. When he talked. When the story is out about how in front of Drake he told him that he needs a record or he suggested that Drake gives him a hit record in front of him. That's kind of, you know, know.

[Ja]

It was. It was. There was like this regular J talk.

[Mandy B]

You don't become that emotional, bro. Like, in terms of being.

[Jason J. Le]

This is hip hop are.

[Ja]

But no, but in. In the. What was this POD series called? What was this?

[Mandy B]

Oh, I watched it.

[Ja]

I forget what he called it. But he talked about how, like that was embarrassing. Inevitable.

[Mandy B]

Inevitable.

[Ja]

He did talk about how that was a little. That moment was a little embarrassing for him because it was just like, damn.

[Jason J. Le]

Hold on to that.

[Ja]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That might. That might make you feel a certain. Especially because he talks about a lot of that time. He's talking about being insecure and trying to find a way to be secure as a person, as an artist. And so stuff like that might. Can stick with him. I don't know.

[Mandy B]

It's weird. But where. Where do you allow your insecurity at one moment in. In time, right. Of trying to go uphill with your career? At what time do you let your insecurity consume you and eat you up without getting over it?

[Ja]

Like, you have to get over it.

[Mandy B]

But what he got from JCole, not what he got from J. Cole, but he got. He was on.

[Jason J. Le]

On.

[Mandy B]

On hov's album. HOV definitely gave him. I want to say like two verses, maybe three. And then he even got a Beyonce feature. And we like to party. Like he got the. He got a rollout. Because if we think about it too, Rihanna was Roc Nation and also really wasn't put like much like Jay Z just might not be that.

[Jason J. Le]

I was gonna say maybe it could be playing into the concept of the record where he just telling it from a perspective at that moment. Cause he's going in reverse. Yeah. So when he says so he's not like he's calling him a so called crazy king. I mean, we don't. We gotta listen to the. When the product comes out.

[Mandy B]

Cannot wait. And can we do a whole episode on the jco? We absolutely can.

[Jason J. Le]

Only if.

[Mandy B]

Wait, wait, wait.

[Ja]

I got.

[Jason J. Le]

I got a caveat that I'm gonna present to you after.

[Mandy B]

Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, Jason. Because I didn't like the side.

[Journalism Jason]

Nope. No, I something I. I jcole is my man. I like J. Cole. J. Cole fans can be a little insufferable. Excuse. A whole episode is a lot.

[Mandy B]

Wait a second.

[Jason J. Le]

I was gonna say Jay. If we do that right. Mandy has to agree.

[Mandy B]

J. Cole, this is America.

[Jason J. Le]

Celebrities say she has to agree to also do the same thing for Aubrey's album and for Kendrick's album that's coming out this year.

[Mandy B]

But here's my thing too.

[Jason J. Le]

We ain't gonna have this light skinned bias.

[Mandy B]

No, no, no. Nothing very clear.

[Ja]

Let's be very shout out to Cole.

[Mandy B]

While I'm a Cole fan, I'm also very honest. The same way I am with Denzel. Right?

[Jason J. Le]

Yeah, yeah, sure. Oh, wait.

[Mandy B]

For your eyes only. What?

[Ja]

Like, basically they came out.

[Mandy B]

They came out the co like, okay. The same way I hate it.

[Jason J. Le]

Did you see when Spike Lee put out.

[Mandy B]

Damn. Wait, what?

[Jason J. Le]

When they said they was going to.

[Ja]

Do a showing of it of the.

[Jason J. Le]

Movie somewhere in Brooklyn. And then the comments was like, oh, no.

[Ja]

Why?

[Mandy B]

Okay, so here's the thing. The same way I can be critical of Denzel, who I put at a very high esteem and that I love as a fan and that I support. Mind you, I've already Washington.

[Ja]

Not Curry.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, yeah. Definitely not Denzel.

[Ja]

Some people might have heard it.

[Mandy B]

Our audience is very mature. They don't know who I thought about that before Curry. They think it's Steph.

[Journalism Jason]

They know y' all seen the that clip y' all seen.

[Mandy B]

But like, in terms of my honesty, right. For your eyes only hated it as a project. Probably his. My least favorite project from him. I like neighbors. Oh, 4 SE Drive is number number one. And then KOD. KOD, right. People like K. I don't know why they don't like kod.

[Jason J. Le]

I think again, go back. Everybody just be complaining about bro.

[Mandy B]

Oh my God, KOD is such a good album. And then of course, I mean, and then you have all his mixtapes, which I love, that are now on the ds.

[Ja]

Like Friday Night Lights is a classic.

[Mandy B]

Friday Night Lights, the warm up. Born center was his first album. Then sideline story.

[Journalism Jason]

Like Cole, but Cole is dope cola. My thing is like, I think Cole is very much like comes from like the classical element of hip hop. Puts out a warm up record, he's gonna roll it out. But I think fans that it's like the commentary about this record is like, oh, man, it's Amazing. In reverse. Who does that? He's back. He's back to save hip hop. And it's like, all right, man, let's.

[Jason J. Le]

Like, oh, yeah, he's.

[Journalism Jason]

He's one of the premier talents in hip hop. You can enjoy that without, like, you don't have to over like the context. Like, yo, he can do it himself. He can do it himself just fine, I think. And it's. And it's to a king's point, like, it's interesting. What's. What's his re. Entry point considering where he last left us?

[Mandy B]

Let me ask all of y'. All. With him even releasing this rewind of his life.

[Jason J. Le]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

Are you guys upset if there's no mention or response to him stepping out of the beef? Nah. Like, are you mad if there's no. If he doesn't mention.

[Jason J. Le]

Yeah. In Port Antonio.

[Ja]

Yeah. To me. Port Antonio.

[Jason J. Le]

To drink.

[Ja]

Like, I don't know.

[Mandy B]

But I'm saying for the project. We know that he's been working on this for 10 years, but does he. If he went all the way back to his childhood to even his death. Yeah, no, he went fast forward to his death. Is there a mention of the overall backlash that he received from something?

[Journalism Jason]

I think there's going to be.

[Jason J. Le]

I think he'll address.

[Ja]

Yeah.

[Journalism Jason]

I think it's gonna be a direct song. One verse about Kendrick.

[Mandy B]

Do you think we have a Drake or Kendrick feature? If he's been working on this for 10 years, do you think that there's.

[Jason J. Le]

A feature that there was a Kendrick and Drake feature that he removed not together, but different songs? Now that was. I don't know where it came from, but it was floating around.

[Ja]

That was a mall ism that he. That was a mall.

[Mandy B]

Don't do it.

[Ja]

Mall started that. And like, we'll never know if that was.

[Jason J. Le]

I'm standing clear.

[Ja]

Gonna come out there, whatever. I mean, my thing about, like, I do think there probably will be a mention of it somewhere. I would like to see. I would like to see both a Kendrick and a Drake feature separately on the album to see, like, could.

[Jason J. Le]

You know, it'll be dope. Remember we talked about the other day about if. If. If they were. What would. What would a Kendrick. Drake today, day after everything that happened. And I was like, damn, what if they did a record where they both explaining this with Drake. I mean, Drake with Cole is explaining. And they just going back and forth. But in rap form, but. But brotherly.

[Ja]

I think it's gonna be.

[Mandy B]

That could be.

[Journalism Jason]

It's gonna be something like that it's gonna be. I think it's gonna be something like that without their verses.

[Ja]

Like.

[Journalism Jason]

Like, look at the track he did. Like, he took a clip from the Internet, right?

[Jason J. Le]

Yes.

[Journalism Jason]

And he put him. I think it's gonna be something where it's like. Like some behind the scenes audio of him and Drake. Behind the scenes audio of him and Kendrick. I think it's gonna. I think it's gonna be a song. One verse is about Kendrick, one verse is about Drake, one verse would be about himself. Yeah. I don't. And I don't know, like, I don't have any insight, but I expect him to do something.

[Ja]

My thing about it is I don't. The only reason I say I don't expect it to go that in depth because I just don't know after Port Antonio, I don't know what other angles. Like, you said everything. Yeah. So for me it's kind of like, like, what are you gonna tell us that we don't already understand? I don't want to be convinced of anything. Don't do a song trying to convince me of anything. If you have some other perspective that we haven't considered or heard, maybe. But to me, like, the horse is.

[Mandy B]

Dead and like, well, and people keep beating the damn.

[Ja]

They're gonna beat the out of it. So it's like that.

[Jason J. Le]

There's a line in that song when he's saying he's the greatest and that's where people.

[Ja]

Yeah.

[Journalism Jason]

I mean, But if it's his last album. If it's his last album, I think there's gonna be some context of like the idea of like they all came up together. The story of like how they were all tight but not like. I. I think that's what.

[Ja]

Like that Try to put tie a bow on the lore of the big three.

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Ja]

And. And he's probably the only one that could do that. If there's gonna be that moment. He's probably the only one who could do it.

[Mandy B]

I will say, whether he does it or he does something like what we saw in Wale's album where Seinfeld, like.

[Ja]

Narrated, narrates the thing.

[Mandy B]

I would love some one of these discs to just have a flow of narration, like knowing that this is a project too that you let us all know you've been working on for 10 years. I would just love to be able to hear that. Cause we've. We've all. We. I guess I'm speaking from the royal we as a. As a Dreamville Stan as a Cole Stan. Like we've seen the growth in him as an artist. We've seen him become a father, a husband, build his label, sell his label. Like bring people up. Like it would just be really interesting to. And I'd like to see it narrated.

[Ja]

Well, the question, the record that he released to me left me with more questions than answers. To me, it's even a strange warm up release. Like I'm not even sure it's not a single. Like you're not looking for this record to be a smash. It's a storytelling song and you're telling us a story of doing the Nas thing. But it's like what do you is. I guess that's just to let us know that this is going to be a concept album.

[Jason J. Le]

I think he's reminding us of his skill set too. He's like, yo, I could.

[Ja]

I mean he was rapping, I mean.

[Mandy B]

But he's also mentioned. And maybe because he went to St. John's but he's. And has that Queen influence, the Queen's influence. He's mentioned Nas throughout his entire career for sure.

[Jason J. Le]

For sure.

[Ja]

I'm just surprised that this is the song. I'm surprised this is the first music that we hear from this album in this.

[Jason J. Le]

I mean you can't. I mean it's no longer the, you know, Ray Daniels talks about it.

[Mandy B]

Is that the beat. He talked about it that he signed with Jay. But like Nas is still his king. Like Nas is still his barometer. I don't think that he let Nas down. He said he ain't let hov down, he let Nas down.

[Jason J. Le]

Yeah. I think there's a part of Cole that's petty though.

[Mandy B]

Uh huh.

[Jason J. Le]

Me personally, I think he says certain things.

[Mandy B]

I mean all biracials have a little petty in their.

[Jason J. Le]

Especially the biracial rappers.

[Journalism Jason]

Make that a segment.

[Ja]

Biracial Angst by Mandy B.

[Journalism Jason]

No.

[Mandy B]

I identify as a black woman. I don't identify as. Thank you very much. Y' all aren't going to throw me into the mix of confusion.

[Jason J. Le]

Look, we. The fact that we get this 20, 26, you know, I know there's a narrative over hip. Hip hop is good, man.

[Ja]

Hip hop is great.

[Jason J. Le]

The, the music, the business of music has changed.

[Ja]

It's up.

[Jason J. Le]

I think that that overall is kind of in a weird. What are we doing now now, you know, but I'm excited for it, you.

[Ja]

Know, it's going to be a big year.

[Mandy B]

It's going to be a big year. And like I said, if you, if you a part of the Stand crew, like I Am the vinyl is a available for pre order Cold World. Make sure y' all get that. Make sure y' all help him get like astronomical numbers on this thing.

[Ja]

Oh, I think he's going to. I think he's going to do big numbers. I think this album is going to be very successful for one reason or another. It doesn't even have to be about.

[Jason J. Le]

Hit records, but I think it'll be part.

[Ja]

Of course you're calling this your last album. You're doing the Jay Z black album thing.

[Mandy B]

I also think in a. In a. In an era of streaming again, talking about how the business of music has changed. Dropping that double disc at a time where. And I know a lot of times Chris Brown is. Is criticized for dropping, you know, 30, 40 songs on one album. But I think this helps him streaming numbers wise, putting that much content.

[Ja]

Well, we'll see what kind of double disc it is because there's a double disc where you can do that, where you can put 40 songs.

[Mandy B]

It.

[Ja]

But it could be eight and eight. It could be five and five, it could be 10.

[Journalism Jason]

Yeah. Rocky's album just came out. And this too is only three songs, right?

[Mandy B]

Because it's Rocky.

[Ja]

Well, that's Rocky. I mean.

[Mandy B]

I mean, I'm not gonna lie.

[Journalism Jason]

Shout out to Rocky.

[Mandy B]

If. If Cole gives me two EPs, I'm gonna be pissed. 5 album. 5 songs is not an album.

[Jason J. Le]

But here's the thing. I wish how we packaging it now. Is it changed so it's like you could do anything. He's kind of.

[Ja]

I think if you look at Kendrick, if you look at Mr. Morale now, it was 10 and 10. Or is it 11 and 11, something like that. I think that's an acceptable number. If you're gonna do we have Manny.

[Journalism Jason]

What if he does 5 and 5 and the 10 are for the past 10 years.

[Mandy B]

Hold on. No, because I know this had a lot of songs.

[Jason J. Le]

When we dissect that, we're gonna have some stellar autard.

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Jason J. Le]

Water.

[Mandy B]

Yeah. No, I think. I think. How many songs was on this album? When I think of double disc. Don't judge me. I think of R. How do you by R. Kelly, leave me alone.

[Jason J. Le]

No, I want to know.

[Journalism Jason]

You think. You think of 20 plus if it's gonna be a double.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, I'm thinking of that.

[Jason J. Le]

How do you music like when you listen to. When this album comes out, are you going to be in the crib? But what's your. What's your thing?

[Mandy B]

No, no, no. For sure. I like to put it on Alexa. Alexa, play Not Alaska, but Alexa. I like to listen to it, listen to it in the house. I also like to do it in between errands.

[Jason J. Le]

Got it.

[Mandy B]

Like, and y' all know I don't drive, so I don't listen to things in the car. Really? For real? For real.

[Ja]

Yeah. I have that car listen.

[WRAL News Anchor]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

I don't. I don't do a car listen, but I do a house listen. And I do it while I'm putting my makeup on, while I'm cleaning. I like to see what it puts me into. And then, oh, my God, if the album goes to where I could play it with my homegirls too, while we getting ready. Like.

[Ja]

Right.

[Mandy B]

It gotta feel certain things now. I'm not gonna hold y'. All. Jcole is one of those artists that I do have to just enjoy solo. My friends don't get like, oh, yeah. My homegirls don't get cold.

[Ja]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right.

[Mandy B]

I be having to put them on cold.

[Ja]

You don't want them to yuck your young.

[Mandy B]

Yeah, don't. Don't do that. You know, they'll let me play Chef boy before, but no, that's how I like to. I. I'm excited. I. I do hope it's a lot of songs and I'm excited to see him on tour.

[Ja]

And I know that there's a lot of. We've talked about all the Going on around the album, but before all of that, I just want the album to be good.

[Journalism Jason]

Absolutely.

[Ja]

And Cole is a dope ass rapper. He's very capable of making great songs and saying things that are, like, thought provoking in some kind of way. Not. We're not talking about like, oh, he's changed my IQ because I. But just. I think he's very good at the message that he wants to communicate. And I just want the album to be good.

[Mandy B]

And I'm also curious. My last thought on it is with him finally dropping the fall off, Dreamville was sold to Live Nation. So I'd be curious to see if he has that presence still at the top of April in Raleigh, North Carolina, because with that going to Live Nation, I think.

[Ja]

Ralia. Ralia, Raleigh.

[Mandy B]

These niggas on mics piss me off, bro.

[Jason J. Le]

Listen, I don't. I don't. I think they're trolling. There's no way. There's no way they've.

[Journalism Jason]

He could.

[Jason J. Le]

You can't tell me he's never said the word Raleigh.

[Ja]

The right. I wish. I wish I could give the benefit of the doubt. I really wish I could.

[Mandy B]

You Know what? Real quick, Jason, can we. Can we get out of here, actually, to the lovely news station in Raleigh, North Carolina, that did that. That literally made this whole thing a. Because this is how powerful our black voice is.

[Jason J. Le]

Right?

[Ja]

How about that?

[Mandy B]

And so this is. This is where we do have to be also intentional about what the fuck we're putting on these microphones.

[Ja]

What we say.

[Mandy B]

What we say. Because this is how powerful our voices are. If you could find it. This is what I want to get out with y'. All. And before we leave out of here again, I want to make sure you guys know how you can support selective ignorance. And it's by subscribing to us on whatever platform you are listening to.

[Ja]

All of them.

[Mandy B]

You could. Whether it's Apple, whether it's Spotify, whether it's the I Heart podcast app. As you know, we are a Black Effect podcast. We are also posting full videos of our Tuesday episodes right over on the Patreon. And if you want to enjoy everything, both audio and video in its entirety for both the Tuesday and Friday drops, head over to patreon.com backslash with Mandy be because we're about to be dropping a whole bunch of bonus content over there that goes beyond selective ignorance. But before we get out of here. Ja. Where can the people follow you?

[Ja]

You can find me on the Instagram Mr. Hip Hop Obama. Although I've considered changing. I've cons. I've considered Breaking news alert. Breaking news alert. I've considered.

[Journalism Jason]

That's been a brand for a while.

[Ja]

Yeah, it's been a brand for a long time. And people love that name. Every time I say to somebody, they either laugh or they giggle. They'd be like, oh, that's crazy. But part of me has been like, do I. And stepping into, like, your own voice. My own voice. Like, do you want to be in.

[Mandy B]

The shadow of another black man?

[Ja]

No.

[Mandy B]

But Obama is Obama.

[Ja]

There's only one Obama. There's only one Obama. Yeah, so I've been. I've been playing with that. I haven't come to a conclusion yet, but I'll figure it out. But for right now, you can find me on the Instagram @misterhiphopobama. On Threads. Same thing. And you can look at my Twitter page, but I don't be on there, so.

[Mandy B]

Oh, yeah, you be on threads.

[Ja]

Yeah.

[Mandy B]

You don't hit me in the group chat like, hey, are you. You should start posting these.

[Ja]

Go to the threads where the engagement. The engagement is booming on.

[Mandy B]

All right. And as y' all know we got the OG podcast, legendary king. We got journalism Jason. We're signing out and y' all before. We're gonna play the clip after this. But this has been another episode of selective ignorance, baby. Where curiosity lives, controversy thrives, and conversations matter. See you on Friday and next week. Hi.

[Ja]

From WRAL News headquarters in Raleigh. Raleigh, your number one source for local news. WRL news coverage you can count on.

[WRAL News Anchor]

Good morning, everyone. We're here to get your Friday started.

[Mandy B]

A lot happening.

[WRAL News Anchor]

I'm Renee Chu.

[Mandy B]

And I'm Chris Lovinger.

[Ja]

Thank you so much for watching WRL News. Raleigh is number one news source for all your traffic weather and we're looking.

[WRAL News Anchor]

At a much better chance of poor rain. It looks like we could see scattered showers during the day Saturday, especially in Raleigh. It looks like Durham also could see.

[Mandy B]

I'm Elizabeth Holmes.

[WRAL News Anchor]

It is now 101030 on this Friday morning and we are taking a live look from Raleigh. Durham Airport, cloudy right now. There's also some work going on on Terminal 2.

[Mandy B]

We're here at RDU this morning where.

[WRAL News Anchor]

They just kicked off a major construction project going to span over several years.

[Mandy B]

This is going to be huge for.

[WRAL News Anchor]

The entire Raleigh Durham area.

[Ja]

Busy morning here in the traffic center. We look live at North Hills. Of course, you're in Raleigh and we're.

[Mandy B]

Having a good time.

[WRAL News Anchor]

Happening now in the WRL Live Center. We're following a breaking news situation out of Rallya. We're working to confirm new information from sources and we're looking at all of our cameras across the area.

[Mandy B]

Fayetteville, this one in Rallya, a little.

[WRAL News Anchor]

Bit of cloud cover over Raleigh.

[Mandy B]

Yeah.

[Ja]

Looking at our rain totals into this weekend, up to a quarter of an inch in Raleigh.

[Jason J. Le]

And so Grant, say it right.

[Ja]

Sorry. Rally into this weekend. Hey, just wanted to say thank you to Chade Ochocinko Jensen about what he could kind of corrected us with when Raleigh. We didn't realize we were saying Rallyah incorrectly by saying Raleigh. So from now on, we'll be saying Rallyah. Nah, I'm just kidding, Chad. Come on down to Raleigh. Eat some barbecue.

[Mandy B]

Selective Ignorance, a production of the Black Effect podcast network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Journalism Jason]

Thanks for tuning in to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B. Selective Ignorance, its executive producer, produced by Mandy B. And it's a full Court media studio production with lead producers Jason Rodriguez, that's me, and Aaron A. King Howard. Now do us a favor and rate subscribe comment and share wherever you get your favorite podcast. And be sure to follow Selective Ignorance on Instagram at Selective underscore ignorant. And of course, if you're not following our host, Mandy B. Make sure you're following her at Old Court Pumps. Now if you want the full video experience of Selective Ignorance, make sure you subscribe to the Patreon. It's patreon.com SelectiveIgnorance.

[Mandy B]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.