SPEAKER_01: 0:05

The views shared in this episode represent Kelly and Kendra, not our mama, partner, church, job, or sponsor. Oh shoot, what? I left my water in the kitchen. I'll be right back. Okay. No, I didn't. I left it on my bookshelf. Child, just oh, it was on my bookshelf crashed away. Um, so yeah, I stopped at Marshall's because we're redoing the bedroom, and there are these like woven uh framed pictures I've been looking at, and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna go ahead and get them because I don't really want anything really bright. Like, you know, I like bright art, but that's not really for the bedroom. So I went ahead and got those because we're gonna finish, hopefully, finish this whole project this weekend. Because my house and my room have been a mess for three weeks.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00

Oh, while you've been getting it all built out.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03

Yeah, like I it's come it's a completely new room, new bed, new dresser, new everything. Where are we where we where are we going with this? Hey, let's do it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:33

Let's get this party started. Um, first of all, thank you to everyone who has been listening to season two of the pod.

SPEAKER_01: 1:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 1:44

Appreciate you. We hope that you will continue to listen, like, subscribe, all the things um in your favorite podcast at drop an offering. Drop an offering, yes. Um, we we are trying not to move to a subscriber-based platform, but the coins are coining. So maybe we appreciate the love offerings and the likes and the subscribes also help with our analytics to hopefully bring in some resources. So we're letting you know. Um, we're thinking about what that means for season three. So wanted to say that. Um so thank you, thank you. What else do we want to say to the listeners?

SPEAKER_01: 2:35

We appreciate what you've listened to so far, but just to reiterate, please go back and and check out what you missed. We had a lot of great conversations, a lot of evergreen conversations too. Some of them are super topical and you know, current or fairy, but most of them are, you know, continue to be for such a time as this. And so please go back and listen and let us know what you think and drop us a note and on our socials um and join the conversation because sometimes we get comments, especially like in our IG um posts, and that might be something we can bring in the pod to the next episode. So please feel free to engage with us. Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 3:14

And if you have text us something amazing about the podcast, it would be great if you would put it on our socials. Um, you know, we are tell the world. We are in a in a fight with uh brother Mark, but uh we will continue to put the content out and we will be doing more content, so stay tuned for that. Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 3:37

And for the people, there are certain people who prefer certain platforms. So for instance, right now, YouTube is audio only, but YouTube is there. Yeah. So if that's your jam, go to YouTube. If if if your jam is Spotify, there we're there. I mean, you know, we would love to get to the point where it's a self-controlled platform that y'all can come to and we don't have to deal with all the things, but right now, this is how we get it. So whatever works for you, yeah, you know, go there.

SPEAKER_02: 4:01

Yep. And we want to hear what you think about the content. So this year, you know, we've been bringing in some folks about who we feel can really bring some expertise into the conversation around womanism. And, you know, that may not be your jam. So we we definitely want to hear from the listeners um what you're thinking about the conversations, what are the conversations bringing up for you as you think about where you are in your grappling with what's happening in pop culture, what's happening in the world, what's happening in your sister circle. So, yeah, let us know.

SPEAKER_00: 4:37

Indeed.

SPEAKER_02: 4:39

Awesome. Indeed. So speaking of sister circles, um, let's let's get into it a little bit right now. Um it's a pretty dark time for black women right now. Was it 300,000 layoffs?

SPEAKER_01: 4:56

Yes, 300,000 layoffs. And and and though it still feels like a number or a statistic, you know, it's very palpable for me. You know, a lot of times you things happen in history and you're there for it, and you watch it from afar and it feels like, oh, this thing is happening, but like I'm learning about it from the news. But for me, it's been far more palpable. It's in the group chat. You know, I know people um within my circles, colleagues, uh, associates who are, you know, wrestling with this, and these are very accomplished people. I mean, people from all backgrounds, right? Of all different levels and different career uh career trajectories, but people who have been used to, despite all the um the adversity, have been winning, you know, they've been on the winning team and they're struggling right now.

SPEAKER_02: 5:41

Yeah. Um, yeah, I mean, I have some colleagues who've been laid off. I have some colleagues, clients who've been laid off. I also have some colleagues who've been looking, and um actually one was texting with me the other day, and her resume was one of 900 for one position. So when you think about just not just new people on the market, but people who've been on the market because industries are changing, they haven't been making a lot of big hires while they're going through their transition. So that means more and more people are in the pipeline. So just sending a lot of love to the black women um and in your sister circles who may be going through that right now.

SPEAKER_01: 6:25

Absolutely. And this is why more than ever, as I get older, I have never been like a big network-y type person, even though I've always worked in careers where that was kind of like par for the course. Um, but like as somebody who works in a corporate job where a lot of people I get a lot, a lot of reach out on LinkedIn and personal people who I may have met in passing or a cousin of a friend, to the point where it's like I I've actually had to stop responding to most of them because I just can't, it's the sheer volume of it, is just not tenable for me. But why it's really important to like build networks authentically throughout, even when you don't need them, when you think you don't need them, because it's sometimes strange people who like I barely have said hello to are like now reaching out. And for some sometimes, if they're qualified and I feel like they might be good for the role, I'll try to push it through. But just the reality is that like when they say it's who you know and networks, at times like this, it really is. Because when they're trying to parse to those 900 uh resumes, take it from someone who works on a people team, the first thing you're gonna say is, hey, if anybody has any referrals, let us know. And they're gonna look at those referrals. Doesn't mean they're not looking at everybody else, doesn't mean that people are not coming out of that pool. But you know, building networks is not for not, it's not about being fake, but you know, it's it's really about building an ecosystem that's gonna undergird all that you're trying to do in life throughout the rest of your life. It doesn't mean it's not inauthentic, yeah, it's just part, it's part of the work. Yeah. So the work is happening even when you think you don't need it, and we can't get cushy uncomfortable no matter who we are. So this just reinforces that.

SPEAKER_02: 7:58

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because I, you know, most of my clients are black women, and I know we struggle with this idea like we don't want to be fake. And learning how to network is really trying to find what are the things we have in common, right? Whether that's personally or professionally, that allow us to have authentic relationship-building opportunities. And I when black women can think about it from that perspective, it definitely makes it more easeful, even if we're I'm an introvert. I hate going to networking events or places where it's gonna be a lot of people that I don't know their energy, I don't know, quite frankly, in this moment, I don't know their political affiliation, I don't know who they know, right? So I'm I'm walking into something that I don't have enough information to feel comfortable. And my coach's wish for me when we first started working together was that at a networking event, I wouldn't be standing in a corner because if I don't know someone in that room, that's likely what I'm doing. And I have learned how to network as an introvert. I've learned how to walk up to people and be like, oh, hey, I love your shoes because I really do, or whatever. It doesn't have to be which where do you work?

SPEAKER_01: 9:20

Right. So it's not about what you need in the moment, like you're like trying to get something from somebody. Like, for instance, I joined briefly, I was a member of the of Chief, the professional women's organization, and we had like a local chief chapter in Pittsburgh, and the first woman I've ever met in person from our local chapter, she just authentically good at it, a white woman, authentically good at networking. And if she sees, if she meets a woman who's professional, she's bringing them into the fold. And she does it so effortless, effortlessly. And so what she does is she creates these other smaller moments. Like she had us go out to the suburbs to like a pasta making class, and we made fresh pasta. So things that like, okay, it's eight women with two bottles of wine, as opposed to always having to be like if it's a big room with 300 people and everybody's talking loud, like sometimes I get overstimulated. But she creates these moments and I've watched her do it. And so I've I've you know grown really you know fond of that that way of moving. And I've met so other so many other cool women from the things, the the things she's cultivated of all backgrounds, and it feels very authentic. But then when there's been a position open and one of those women have called me and said, Hey, my husband's looking for this, I'm more likely because we've built a rapport and and it was it was not intended for that purpose. But it's just you know and so I so I really have been big on encouraging younger, younger women in particular, older women too. But when people come in for advice, I'm like, you gotta figure out what works to your point, Kelly, what works for you. It doesn't have to be everybody's not gonna go into a room and start talking to everybody, but like, you know, find what works for you. I've I've noticed another woman here in Pittsburgh has started a um a club for black women to learn, but not just black women, but primarily black women to learn how to play golf. And at first I was like, yeah, no, I'm not trying to do that. You know, that's like old boy network. But first of all, they're having fun. But also it is it it helps cultivate a skill, and then it's more like they go to the golf course, they see colleagues, they see, and now it's a whole thing. And so I'm really proud of the work that she's able to do. Um, I think it's called Hit Like a Girl or something like that. Um, so shout out, um, shout out to them for that. Yeah. Amazing.

SPEAKER_02: 11:32

It's interesting. Um, I know a lot of black women follow Dr. Raquel Martin on Instagram. And she had a post the other day talking about everyone's always like saying, Oh, you need to make new friends, and how we oversimplify what that experience like is for people. Um, and so we're gonna put it in the show notes because I thought it was a really interesting perspective for people who don't have a sister circle right now. Like you we believe you can create a circle sister circle. We want every black woman to have that. Um, so if this is a helpful video, definitely let us know. Um, and if you don't have a sister circle, maybe some of the things she puts in that video will help you to begin to cultivate one for yourself.

SPEAKER_01: 12:21

So yeah. I was gonna say I found uh it is indeed hit like a girl. Um, shout out to Juanita, and so we will put that in the show notes for folks if they're interested. It even though it's Pittsburgh based, um, I'm sure that she shares resources.

SPEAKER_02: 13:17

Awesome. Yeah, I love that. Anything else on the sister circles?

SPEAKER_01: 13:22

I mean, I think we talked, we we went to Sister Circle to talk about obviously what's happening with black women in the workforce, but I think a lot more and more like big picture, I know we always talk about on this pod about the group chat, right? Um, but like those group chats have become more important. But I I find that a lot of us because we're so busy in the muck and mire of what's going on, have kind of withdrawn a little bit from the group chat because we're just trying to get by.

SPEAKER_03: 13:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 13:49

Um, and so I'm I'm trying to uh maybe make a declaration for myself and hopefully encourage other people that those communities with other black women are gonna be what will help to sustain us in addition to our own creativity, in addition to the self-sustaining things we need to do every day. Yeah. But like if if if the group chat got us through the pandemic, yeah, um, and so we need we can't abandon those those practices as tough as it is. I know life is life, life be life in. But we gotta, even if we say, you know what, on Fridays, I'm checking the WhatsApp to see. Yeah, we're gonna be. Or on Fridays, I'm checking the text because life be life be passed us by. For instance, we one of my good friends, I have not spoken to her in a couple of weeks. Okay. And her birthday is on on Monday. Okay. And if I got to go chase her down, get on the the the the the train to go chase her down, I will. Okay. It's been a it's been some time. You know who you are. You know who you are, friend.

SPEAKER_02: 14:45

That's okay. Kendra had to snatch me too, because hey, I I I too have been snatched. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 14:52

So I I get it.

SPEAKER_02: 14:53

I woke up and I had a hundred text messages, and I'm because I I be working and I'm I have my phone on Do Not Disturb, and I'm like, oh, I'll get to that later. Oh, I'll get to that later. Because I don't have messages come to my my watch nor my computer. My messages only come to my phone. And so I just I'd be so behind. Yesterday I was catching up in a WhatsApp with our college friends from from months ago.

SPEAKER_01: 15:18

Talk about happy anniversary. The anniversary is in August.

SPEAKER_02: 15:22

So I uh I I don't know like how much of it is like just over and I I don't feel over with, so I don't I don't want to adapt to other people's words. But just like this this season, even in my business, just feel so hectic. Yeah, and you know, I have time limits, so I'm not on Instagram all day. I'm not I don't like Facebook, so I try not to be on there set to post so my mama can see where I am. Um, but you know, just getting consumed in other things. And so how do we pull ourselves out? Just like you know, I don't think it's any better than doom scrolling, right? Um, we all need breaks, we all need points of connection, and how do we set some intentionality? So um I had uh I had set a goal last quarter um to check in with my mom once a week, right? I haven't lived at home since I was 16. So me and my mom can go for a second and not necessarily talk to each other, not because we're mad or anything like that. She's much better about saying, hey, I haven't heard from you. Hey, I called you, what's happening? Um, but I think, you know, it not being home for so long has made it so, you know, I have to really put a lot of intention in maintaining regular contact with my family members, who I love dearly and who we have a beautiful relationship.

SPEAKER_01: 16:46

So yeah, that changed for me when I moved back to Pittsburgh. When I lived in New York, I could go a couple of weeks sometimes without speaking to my people. Yeah. But ever since I've been back and I live around the corner from mother, if I don't talk call her within 24 hours, she acts like she said, I'll call her on a Tuesday morning. Well, you ain't called me in 24 hours. Ma'am, I'm calling you now. Would you like me to hang up? I love it so much.

SPEAKER_02: 17:06

Listen, if my mom will move to Houston, she can see me every day.

SPEAKER_01: 17:11

Well, we we gonna we're gonna we we still working on that.

SPEAKER_02: 17:14

I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_01: 17:15

But but but I want to I know yeah, that's another ho, that's another topic.

SPEAKER_02: 17:19

It is another topic, another topic.

SPEAKER_01: 17:21

Mama Mel, it's time to come to Houston. Look at that good lights. What I was gonna say about what you were saying also is I think there's a bit of, even though we're not overwhelmed or like we're not burnt out yet, I think there's a level of survivor's guilt in this moment for when there's it's feast of famine, where there's some of us who are trying to keep the lights on and get back to work, and some of us have an abundance of work and we're like, let's get to it while we got it. Yeah, yeah. I know that's me. Like, I've been definitely me. Yeah, I've been given more responsibilities at work, and everybody's like, oh, are they doing this and they're doing that? I was like, listen, I'm gonna look out for myself. I'm not gonna let them play me. You know, I have an executive coach and we're working through it, but I'm seizing this moment because the more value I build in my role. And by the way, it's things that I care about and like to do. Yeah, um, but the more value I build in my world, the more valuable I am to them, and the more, you know, I'm ensuring my future.

SPEAKER_02: 18:12

Yeah, and black women, we this is a pattern, right? This is this is what we do. Even in my business, I said in this season, I'm gonna take on more work than I would typically take on because people are now finding out those budgets that they thought were gonna expand for next year, they're not expanding. People are cutting professional development from entry-level and mid-level staff, right? Bringing everything in-house and automated or whatever they're doing, right? Go talk to AI and let AI be a coach or whatever. And so I have to think about how do I future proof my business because I'm a two-way mousehole, right? And so I I do think that that is a pattern, and I'm trying to manage that. Um, but it's it is a struggle.

SPEAKER_01: 19:00

Listen, I just paid my first professional, um, my first coaching bill. Because before that, I was in a program that my company paid for. And before that, I was in cheat. You know, I was getting resources, but now the rubber has meet has met the road and I'm I'm writing checks for my professional development. This is a new thing. So I get it. I totally get it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 19:21

So yeah, hang in there, y'all. Sending a lot of love to the sister circles.

SPEAKER_01: 19:28

Speaking of sister circles, and and third spaces and and sacred spaces. We talked about this in a recent episode. Um, and I it it's it's sitting with me more, is that I miss a community of faith. Yeah. You know, I miss having that. Um and but I don't miss it enough to just go back to what I'm used to because I'm not trying to get put out. And I and I also don't want my spirit to be vacuum. Now I'm I'm not expecting to be in a space where I'm a hundred percent aligned with everything that somebody, you know, thinks and does. I'm not looking for utopia, but I am looking for like a life-affirming space where I can, you know, be okay be comfortable in my questioning and um, but just you know, sing a hymn.

SPEAKER_00: 20:21

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 20:22

Re read a book together. I don't know, open the Bible, you know, ask some ask some tough questions, you know, get get me through the week. I am looking for a life affirming space like that. So I just had to say that because yeah, it's been on my heart this week.

SPEAKER_02: 20:38

Yeah, I mean, um we are trying on the platform to start to follow progressive faith community so that hopefully you all will start to get exposed to some of those content, you know, places of worship, or you know, there's a place here in Houston. They don't really call themselves a church, they do like meditation and an encouraging word, or they may have an art show and a discussion. Um, but it, you know, it it is a place of spiritual community that people really, really value here.

SPEAKER_01: 21:12

Yeah, what's that place in um is it Durham, North Carolina? It's an artist space, but it's like a it's like a church.

unknown: 21:19

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01: 21:20

Um I'm about to look it up and put it in the show notes, but I always think about oh, North Star Church of the Arts. Oh. Uh North Star provides holistic support for marginalized artists and a community space for healing, connection, and cross-cultural understanding.

SPEAKER_02: 21:34

Awesome. We'll put that in the show notes, y'all.

SPEAKER_01: 21:37

Yeah, like things like this. It doesn't have to be this, but just the opportunities uh for people to convene and to come together. And I love that it's under this idea of the church, but the church, just like we always talk about when we went to the concert to to a renaissance, and how we was like, oh my God, this feels like what church feels like now. We can't share that with everybody, and that's really the thing that the hump that we have to get over is that not everybody's gonna understand that journey on our spiritual quest, and we have to find the the like-minded people who are open to it and be cool with that and be okay that some cousins and some aunties and even mamas gonna think that you have lost your ever-loving mind and you are on a you know, you're a heretic, heretic, what do you call them? Heretic, yeah, heretic. So that's the that's the that's the T. So for instance, one of my co-workers, I was like, you know, because some people think um people think that uh the sacred beauty products is demonic. And they was like, I mean, me too.

SPEAKER_02: 22:37

I was like, Lord I mean, she's either gonna be in the Illuminati or is she over here putting you in a cult.

SPEAKER_01: 22:48

And I'm and I and I'm not judging anybody on their journey. I'm not judging the you know the raptureists. I mean, maybe I am, but what I am gonna say is I want y'all to be as afraid of and think that white supremacy is as demonic as y'all do freaking, yeah, freaking the the the leave-in condition about sacred. That's all I'm asking.

SPEAKER_02: 23:10

Can we can we talk about the rapture? Because you know I grew up in a church that believed in the rapture. Oh, oh, I remember seeing left behind as kids. All the parent children, they should be the one getting going to hell.

SPEAKER_01: 23:26

Now, now the church that I grew up with as a as a like the church I grew up with, like my mom and them, that wasn't talked about as much in that church. But I remember back in the day at my grandpa's church when we were younger and being at Vic uh at junior church and them talking about left behind and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 23:42

Listen, Jack, when my husband, uh y'all, when my husband and I uh was early married, he was like, I'm never gonna die. I'm gonna be raptured. I said, Is that is that my supposedly my guarantee? My guarantee.

SPEAKER_01: 23:57

My God today.

SPEAKER_02: 23:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 23:59

Matter of fact, let me look up left behind in case people wonder what the reference, but child, that used to scare the living day like that.

SPEAKER_02: 24:09

Am I the only one, kid?

SPEAKER_01: 24:13

Baby.

SPEAKER_00: 24:14

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01: 24:16

Left behind is a 2000 Christian apocalyptic thriller film.

SPEAKER_00: 24:21

Not apocalyptic.

SPEAKER_01: 24:22

Jesus, my God. One of the uh I don't even know which one is the right one, so but we'll put it in the show notes.

SPEAKER_02: 24:30

One of the white priests that I follow, y'all, did a great um video on where this theology around the um the rapture came from. So we'll put the the video in the show notes.

SPEAKER_01: 24:44

But I think I saw that.

SPEAKER_02: 24:46

I have been just sitting with the fact that people that I love really believe this to be true. And how do I hold the tension of that and not ridicule this belief that they have? Like it is really it's complicated.

SPEAKER_01: 25:08

Listen, one of the um one of the the influencers that I used to follow a little bit on YouTube, I she was well known, Shameless Maya, I think her name is. Okay. Um Christian. Um, I believe she's originally from Canada. Okay. But she moved to Sweden or something, or something. And she married a younger man, they got married, had a baby. And I didn't watch the whole thing because it was painful for me to watch, but she was on YouTube crying, talking about how she had been deceived. And I'm like, what is she talking about? Did her husband leave or something? But then I saw people in the notes talking about, oh, she's talking about the rapture because she thought it was this week too. And I was like, I'm I was like, I'm building the empathy and compassion I need to watch the video because right now I just I can't do it and keep my whatever. Yeah. But I was like, wow, and she has such a platform, and I want us to, you know, I really want us to um I I do I I don't have no intentions of going back to school. I just paid my student lows off at the age of almost 50. So, but it's times like these when I really wish that I went to theological seminary.

SPEAKER_02: 26:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 26:21

Um I remember being at a woman's um retreat with my church and a bunch of women getting up and crying, talking about going to the theological seminary and how it broke them down because they had professors who they like clearly weren't believers, and they found that so upsetting. And and they kept saying it made me question they were it was almost like they wanted me to question what I believe, and I want to be like, yes, that's the point. But to them, it was like an assault on their spirit, their spirit and their Christianity, and like they were it was so fear-based, and I'm like, oh, this is a somewhat innocent innocuous version of what we're experiencing as like people having a really hard time of letting go, you know, that cognitive dissonance of like, if I, if I if I if I look at this too long, yeah, I may change my mind a little bit.

SPEAKER_02: 27:16

And um at that point, people are like, you know, nuanced, right? People who say, you know, they don't want their children hanging around, you know, people who are different than them, who don't believe what they believe, um, who don't believe homosexuality is a sin, who whatever, right? And so they isolate, right? I think that's very different than saying making some intentional choices about the type of people you hang around, um, than completely isolating your family because you don't want them to be corrupted. Um, I think we I believe in raising children to think critically, and that includes asking questions about their faith, right? Or choosing to not have a faith. Because that is what feels aligned and right to them. Um period.

SPEAKER_01: 28:12

Perfect example. We have people who are gun-loving people, and we have people who have guns because they realize that we live in a violent country. A lot of the gun-loving people will have their kids learning how to use a gun at eight or ten and feel that they have the logical or they can connect the dots enough for their children not to have them just going out being violent and shooting people that they'll know a time and a place for it. But will not do the same thing for a book. Yep. Will not do the same thing, you know, for a gathering, and and I find that unbelievable. Yeah. You know, um I agree. Yeah, and I think that that to me is what we're wrestling with is like why ideology is so dangerous.

SPEAKER_02: 28:54

Yeah, because ideology doesn't have to be rational, right? I live in a state where my my governor is led by ideology. So even if something doesn't make fiscal sense, let alone moral or political sense, but even if it doesn't make fiscal sense, he, as someone whose party believes in fiscal conservatism, will vote against the thing that would save us money or generate revenue. And it is wild to watch, but it's also why you can't like you can't use logic with ideologues, people who believe in ideology like that. You just it doesn't work because they do not care about what the science says, what the math says.

SPEAKER_01: 29:36

Yep. Indeed. And this is why, as much as I've been decluttering my house, I have decided I am not getting rid of one book. Because if I leave here with nothing, I might have a I might have a library of books. Because they know telling what they're gonna do with these internets. Yeah. Um, yeah, that's so that's so real. It's like I don't know if you read that um Heather uh McGee's book, The Some of Us. So in the Some of Us, she talks about how um that talks about basically how racism really impacts all of us, including racists. And she shows all these like really on the ground simple. She's a policy wonk, she's highly, you know, uh highly uh graduate and all this stuff. And so she really breaks it down in that like it is basically built off the premise of like the whole sum of our parts or whatever. Okay. Um but like racism, white supremacy, and late stage capitalism is hustling backwards for like 99% of us. And then actually, the sum of us, for the sum of us, all of these things are bad. Um and basically the math uh the math of racism is illogical and actually is causing us all harm. And she showed examples of all of it in the book. It's a really good book. It was out a few years ago, and it's it's particularly um timely for this moment right now. But I always I I I have to fight the urge to go on Facebook because that's where a lot of the people I know who I grew up with who are have turned out to be mag adjacent are like you know all of this is messing you up too. But you when the rubber's gonna hit the road, you know, you see what's happening with the soybean farmers and stuff. Yeah, yeah. Wait till they tell these people they ain't got no social security.

SPEAKER_02: 31:20

Listen, listen, Linda, listen.

SPEAKER_01: 31:25

Because them soybean farmers are 50 be tied.

SPEAKER_02: 31:29

But we have seen this country time and time again vote against their self-interest to make sure black people remember their place. So yeah, it's gonna be a hard time. You know, I just talked to my husband about how much cash we have on hand. I'm about to buy me a vegetable tower. I'm not gonna be out there planting in the dirt, but I can plant in the tower because I'm not paying no more money than what I'm paying right now for no for no vegetables. It don't make no sense.

SPEAKER_01: 32:04

Yeah, that's why, you know, I'm like more and more Greg's way of living. I'm like, oh man, I might have to get on board. Oh, here's the book. It's called The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. It was 2021.

SPEAKER_02: 32:17

We added it to our bookshop, so we will share the notes in the show. Show notes. I mean the link in the show notes.

SPEAKER_01: 32:25

Yeah, she also apparently, which I don't remember, I think I might have listened to an early episode. I don't know if it still exists, but she in 2022 created a podcast to kind of expand on her book. So we'll find that as well.

SPEAKER_02: 32:36

Awesome. I love it, I love it.

SPEAKER_01: 32:40

Oh, I know one thing that we talk about for such a time as this. We said we was gonna talk about you know, just in a group chat.

SPEAKER_02: 32:49

What was it? Bodega bag okay, y'all. I am a thousand percent addicted to this album. Every morning. She is giving me my life and my timeline back.

SPEAKER_01: 33:09

Yeah, why was I in the um Dagon gym this morning getting my life when that came on? I so I first of all I had my training. She's like, what should we listen to? So much new music has come out, Doja Cat. First, we started listening to Mariah Care. I was like, I love Mariah, but this ain't gonna make me want to like pump pump the pump some iron. I said, put on Cardi B. And I said, watch till Bodega Betty come out. Come on. Bodega Betty come. I got up and I was like, ah, ah, it took me right back to New York. It took me back to the good days.

SPEAKER_02: 33:42

I mean, she said, like, this is a Bronx album. And it and it and it absolutely is.

SPEAKER_01: 33:49

But I gotta I'm gonna go to Genius.com I gotta go to genius.com so I can pull up some of my favorite lyrics from this album. Um because the petty pattiness of it all.

SPEAKER_02: 34:04

I love it.

SPEAKER_01: 34:05

Um, but what's the song where she was like uh my favorite song? Uh what's your favorite song?

SPEAKER_02: 34:14

Um no, I have a lot. I can't say that. I have several favorites right now.

SPEAKER_01: 34:19

Oh, uh oh, uh outside. Where she said the hook is where she be like, outside ninjas love an outside B. But be mad when they get some outside. And she said verse one, well, let's go wrong for wrong. Let's go lick for lick. If I can't handle that, let me see you handle this. Do you how you do me, that you won't speak again. Favorite player from your favorite team, he and my DM. I'm so small and tiny. He's so big and tall. Might let him dunk on something. Like he dunked the ball.

SPEAKER_02: 34:58

Oh, yeah. Oh my god. I love pretty and petty. That one's that one is a good one. I like Dead with Summer Walker. Of course, I like safe. Man of your word, though. Man of your word.

SPEAKER_01: 35:14

Yes. Man of your word is dope too. Let me let me pull up my favorite lyric from there. Um this is crazy.

SPEAKER_02: 35:21

I am enjoying uh the Lizzo song.

SPEAKER_01: 35:24

Um, with the four non-blondes um sample.

SPEAKER_02: 35:27

Mm-hmm. So that's pretty cute.

SPEAKER_01: 35:30

From that sample, four nine blondes interpolation, or whatever you call it. What's going on?

SPEAKER_00: 35:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 35:36

Yeah, I'm um, you know, my thing with Cardi is like, you don't like her, great. But in a world of fakes.

SPEAKER_02: 35:45

She ain't fat.

SPEAKER_01: 35:46

There's no there's no one more authentic.

SPEAKER_02: 35:48

No.

SPEAKER_01: 35:49

Like, when she got on that stand and said, listen, there was this was there was no physical altercation. And he said, Did you call her fat? She said, No, I called her a B. And it's like, he's like, Do you think that she's that? He's like, she's like, well, you know, she looked like she could secure a building. You know, I appreciate that. And so then when she came outside and the the reporter came for her and she threw a pen, and they were like, Well, wait. Basically what she was saying is, if I was going to hit somebody, I would have done it in public and showed you that I hit. But in this case, it was just verbal, it was a verbal altercation. It was not physical. I believe everything that she says. They asked her why she keeps getting liposuction and stuff. She's like, I'm not getting liposuction to get skinny, um, to get skinny. I'm already skinny. I'm getting liposuction because I like to look thick. But she said, but I also take my time because I like life too. I don't want to die.

SPEAKER_00: 36:45

Listen.

SPEAKER_01: 36:46

I love that for her. So, you know, whatever you think about how she cares, what does what she does in a world where I don't know, I I never know what to, you know, get from me, but I know what I'm giving her, and I love it. And she's also like super sweetheart.

SPEAKER_02: 37:01

She is. And I I feel really disappointed at the women who've been popping off about her being pregnant. What what what hope be improved with whoever of how many children got to do with you in your house.

SPEAKER_01: 37:16

And them kids be so loved, they got a whole Dominican and Trinidad in a family loving up on them. They got they got her, they got Hennessy, they got her mama, they got her aunties, and they they are those the type of kids who are growing up with their cousins.

SPEAKER_02: 37:30

Yeah. I love hearing her say that in one of the interviews that she's she's still scared of her parents.

SPEAKER_01: 37:36

Yeah, she was scared to tell them.

SPEAKER_02: 37:38

Yeah, I'm like, I don't play with my mama. My mama's like, excuse me, I don't care how old you are.

SPEAKER_01: 37:44

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 37:45

Get your life. Right, yeah, right. I I I like that for sure.

unknown: 37:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 37:50

Um the millennial girls strike again.

SPEAKER_02: 37:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm I'm like, you want to talk about Mariah and her um and Anderson possessed? Vision of love dreams being back.

SPEAKER_01: 38:03

What were you the one that said Mariah starting wearing her hair, her hair curly again?

SPEAKER_02: 38:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 38:10

I hadn't even been paying attention and now I can't unsee it. Now every time I see her, I just start laughing.

SPEAKER_02: 38:14

I said, okay, curls. Listen, when I saw Mariah's curls were back, I was like, why would anyone convince her to not have these beautiful curls out? I know.

SPEAKER_01: 38:25

And she and she's been using that pattern beauty or something because the curls is popping.

SPEAKER_02: 38:29

I was like, and she don't have to worry about doing her hair. Somebody can do it for her.

SPEAKER_01: 38:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 38:34

I'm curious if if Moreau encouraged her. Because Monroe be keeping her her curls out.

SPEAKER_01: 38:41

What's interesting to me is a lot of people have been talking about how Mariah seems sedated to a certain extent. But I feel like she, whatever she's, you know, whatever she's contending with in terms of her mental health, I feel like she's in her like, listen, I'm almost 60 years old. Yeah. And contrary to popular belief and what Tommy Matolan tried to show you, I'm blacky, black, black, black. And all the people behind the scenes been knew that.

SPEAKER_02: 39:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 39:13

But y'all gonna learn that today.

SPEAKER_02: 39:14

They gave you a product with not her. And when she got free from that, man, she's been herself the whole time.

SPEAKER_01: 39:22

And she getting freer. Like even her.

SPEAKER_02: 39:24

As every black woman over the edge of 50 is, right?

SPEAKER_01: 39:28

Even her talking about Nick Cannon recently, she was basically saying he's a narcissist. Um, you know, before, you know, she did she she she yeah, she plays coy well. She plays like like Petty Diva, like I'm not gonna say nothing well, but she doesn't necessarily always like share things. And so I feel like she, I know she just had that book that she did with my my Michaela Angela Davis a couple years ago. But I think she's more in the space of like um just showing up more as who she wants to be.

SPEAKER_02: 39:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 39:59

She don't have nothing to lose now.

SPEAKER_02: 40:00

She doesn't. And she recently lost her mom and her sister, right?

SPEAKER_01: 40:05

Oh, I didn't even know she lost both of them.

SPEAKER_02: 40:06

So I think that was last year or so. So yeah. She ran through some things.

SPEAKER_01: 40:11

The tables turn when things like that happen.

SPEAKER_02: 40:12

And then for her to work with Anderson Pack, who just, you know, you think Anderson's the one who brought them girls, back.

SPEAKER_01: 40:19

Yeah. You know, Anderson is one of my favorite artists of the last 15 years. Um, you know, he got a little youthful man energy. So sometimes I'm like, oh God, grow up. But I think he is growing up. Um, but me, but his music is undeniable.

unknown: 40:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 40:36

And I think regardless of what people think of the music, I haven't listened to the whole album yet. I think he's given her permission. He's made up space for her to say, girl, you can do what you want. You can Mariah Carey. Yeah. Right? Like, you wanna you want a little do a little RB thing? Like, come on, let's do it. What you want, what you want? You know?

SPEAKER_02: 40:56

Listen, that shoe album was one of my favorites of her.

SPEAKER_01: 40:59

Hello, I was just about to say Honey 2.0. Yes. Now, I'm not gonna say this is Honey 2.0 because I didn't listen to it and I don't think it's Honey 2.0. I think it's whatever it is now, but that same spirit, right? Yeah. Um, and yeah, you know, she even she mentioned something in an interview about how, you know, Anderson was like, you know, do you, you know, like and it was really like encouraging her and supporting her. Um, and not just because she's a legend, but because, you know, he saw, you know, he had believed in her. So I'm I'm happy for her. Um, I'm happy for I know Lizzo's about to put out some new music. Um, she seems to be in a good headspace. I know people have come for her because she's lost weight, but she she should not have to explain her body to people. And she seems to be in a good headspace, she's been reflective. Yeah. I think we talked about this on the episode with Dr. Lawrence, how she's been reflective of like how she had to comport herself and what she had been through and what that means, and you know how she had to like adjust to start him.

SPEAKER_02: 42:02

And when we change and grow and our circumstances change, that can change how people relate.

SPEAKER_01: 42:07

Everybody don't grow with you. You can't what they say, you can't take everybody with you.

SPEAKER_02: 42:12

You cannot. And that sometimes us trying to bring people with us is what is our downfall.

SPEAKER_01: 42:18

Listen, we always always can we can always talk about, I mean, and he meant for good, but remember the story, even though it's not everything's not about money, yeah. About MC Hammer.

SPEAKER_03: 42:27

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01: 42:28

You know what I mean? I remember that was always the story as he was trying to take everybody with him, and everybody can't go.

SPEAKER_02: 42:33

Everybody can't go.

SPEAKER_01: 42:36

And even if you do take them, you have to take them on terms that work for you. But I find a lot of people take them, want to be want you to take them on their terms.

SPEAKER_02: 42:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 42:44

Yeah, not yours.

SPEAKER_02: 42:45

So I feel that.

SPEAKER_01: 42:48

What else is popular, populating and craculating?

SPEAKER_02: 42:51

Um, shout out to Win with Black Women. Uh yeah for continuing to organize us and keep the opportunities for us to connect alive. I do hope y'all go back to uh not publishing on YouTube.

SPEAKER_03: 43:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 43:07

Sometimes I feel like it's just too many ops listening in. Now I'm bringing my cardi out. Too many ops listening into our conversations, and I'm tired.

SPEAKER_01: 43:18

So yeah, I do miss when it was a little bit more insular, but I get like we want to be accessible.

SPEAKER_02: 43:24

We do. But it's expensive, right? The more seats you add to Zoom, like now you're giving them way too much money. So I mean, I get it, but man, it was it was really nice when it was approached.

SPEAKER_01: 43:38

Yeah. My dream is that at some point the there's a platform that like the community kind of robust, similar to like the Exodus Summit, something like that.

SPEAKER_02: 43:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 43:48

Um, where people can have profiles and you can know what people are doing and be more like that. I mean, it's great, you know. I do love that it like creates platforms for people to have access to, you know, people, black women doing great work and all parts of in politics and cultural work and all that stuff. But I think some of the tough conversations that we need to have, you can't really have in front of everybody.

SPEAKER_02: 44:11

Yeah. That's what we're struggling with, y'all, even in terms of Instagram, right? Like people want to have these conversations, but there's an amount of safety we know people need to be open, sometimes from family, sometimes from work. Um, so yeah, I think all of the folks who are in a creative space are are or in a space where you're sharing on some really thoughtful topics that could provide for rich discussion. We're we're all thinking about this.

SPEAKER_01: 44:45

Baby, everybody, some things are for the groove chat, and some things are for the book club, and some things are for the dinner party, and some things are for just the late night. Not even on your phone.

SPEAKER_02: 44:57

Yes, not even on your phone, not even on your phone.

SPEAKER_01: 45:00

Some stuff is for that that third space with no Wi-Fi.

SPEAKER_02: 45:05

Yes, yes, yeah. I think more of us need to uh put our post in a note and give it give it some time to sit. Because when we come back to it, we see sometimes we just either saying too much, popping off on things that really aren't necessary. I find myself now sometimes I'll like a post, and then I'm like, why did I like this post? I don't even care enough about this for this to end up in my news feed, and I'm going back and unfighting.

SPEAKER_01: 45:33

I've done that too. I did that last night. I'm like, wait a minute. I'm just liking to be liking. I don't even gel with this like that. Yep. So yeah. I um, you know, it's great when I see people at galas and all the other events, but like I need more in-person, just like even with my girls, of like, you know, that's what what what was so great about Martha's Vineyard is having the house and like just sometimes just eating and chilling and talking stuff. And even in the car, the ride, you know. It like stuff that we take for we used to take for granted as young people is like our luxuries now. A road trip is a luxury, a night home with friends is another is a luxury.

SPEAKER_02: 46:10

Yep. A girls' weekend.

SPEAKER_01: 46:11

A girls' weekend is a luxury. But you know what, Kelly? Yes, we have girls' weekend out the past year. I've seen you a lot, I've seen you more the past year than I've seen it since we were young.

SPEAKER_02: 46:20

I love it.

unknown: 46:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 46:22

Yeah, I was like, damn, I've seen Kelly. I just saw Kelly in Martha's Vineyard. I saw Kelly in Houston, I saw Kelly in LA, I saw Kelly in San Francisco in the Berg.

SPEAKER_02: 46:32

And we're getting ready for a couple more, so it's gonna be nice. Awesome. You ready for your birthday?

SPEAKER_01: 46:40

I am. I'm just I'm trying to be patient. So my invitation is is I went digital because we didn't want to spend$3,000 on invitations. It's all set up. One of my hotel um blocks is set up on here. But the other hotel is bougie, and I have to give them some sort of deposit. And I have to check my email to see if they sent me the link. But basically, I'm just waiting to add that other link to the invitation and send them out. But I think I'm gonna just start sending them out to local people because they're not getting a hotel anyway.

SPEAKER_02: 47:09

Y'all know these type of problems. I love this for us.

SPEAKER_01: 47:16

Child, I love my um my party planner, but she can scare me sometimes because she because she comes up with these like really cool ideas, and I'm like, oh, this is gonna cost me. She's like, oh, what if we got an engraver to come in and do this and this? I'm like, not like at a fundraiser. I'm like, that sounds great, but also let me check. Now I I had my tasting last week, and I'm like, I told her, I said, the only I do not I no host bar when it comes to food and beverage. You should always have more than enough food and beverage. I want premium liquor, I want, you know, if otherwise, how do you have people coming if you're gonna be cheap? Right? Like, that ain't gonna work.

SPEAKER_02: 47:54

Don't talk about my people right now.

SPEAKER_01: 47:56

But she's bringing in, she's bringing in other furniture and hosts and entertainers, and so uh next year, much trips I'm taking, I'm gonna be on points because this party is about to cost me a fortune.

SPEAKER_02: 48:11

All goodness though. But how many times does one turn 50? A good reminder, like we do deserve joy, we deserve pleasure. Um, and so many of us, and I uh meet, you know I'm guilty of it. I will do for other people before I will do for myself, right? I'll spend money on other people before I'll spend money on myself. And in this season of my life, um one, I've put a boundary and said this house will be a house of peace. So if you can't be peaceful, you can't be in my house, period. Um, and then the other is I'm like learning how to play again, how to understand, you know, as a former church girl, I I don't know what pleasure is. And I think that's one thing I love about Cardi. Like, she is fine and and clear in her sexuality, and she doesn't give a damn, nor should she, right? But so many of us are moving through the world with all of these, you know, messages that we see, receive, stereotypes that we've heard and been told, and we don't even realize we still bound. We are still bound, and what we're doing is projecting onto somebody who is not our job, right? And I I've been watching us do that as black women the last week, and it's been a like I said, it's been disappointing.

SPEAKER_01: 49:32

Yeah, I was, I remember it made me think of I I don't want to call her out specifically, but um a minister um was teaching Bible study for women, a couple, maybe when I first moved back to Pittsburgh, and she was saying, telling people not to watch Scandal and all these shows that were hot at that time. And she's like, Because, you know, it will make you feel a certain kind of way. And then she started going on and talking about how she used to be a hoe. And I was like, just because you used to be a hoe, don't mean that I watch scandal and want to go be a hoe. So if that's your thing, if you need to step away from the table of scandal, yeah, more power to you. But as for me and my house, we're watching scandal. That ain't my thing. How do you gonna be a bubble? So tell me not to watch scandal because you was a hoe. Right? So yeah, we know I see a lot of that, even I see a lot of that, you know, and to a more extreme. Yeah. Now, and and at the end of the day, all of this is blasphemous because people think that just because you say the name of Jesus, that it's okay. Even though folks is being hateful and stuff, that's all blasphemous. You're using the name of the Lord in vain. So we're gonna talk about it. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it. If you want to you want to talk Jesus, I can talk Jesus. I may not be y'all's kind of Christian, but I know a man from Galilee.

SPEAKER_00: 50:58

I know a man from Galilee.

SPEAKER_01: 51:02

So let's go. Speaking of theological seminary, I ran into, I feel like God just be putting people on my path. I ran into a woman who's a little younger than me. She's friends, you know, my friend Will Fagan's. I know I met him, met her to them. She's from Pittsburgh originally, but she's we both lived in New York at the same time. She lived in Harlem. She's now married. Well, she's doing, I want to say, is she getting her MDV or something like that? At Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. And it's like um low residency, so she does online, and then she comes in once a month. I just happened to run into her um in the lobby of the hotel next to my job because there's a I was at happy hour there. And she's in seminary, and um, I would love to bring her onto the pod. Okay. She I asked her, she told me what she was working on, and she says she's doing work around art, theology, and culture in South Korea, Ethiopia, and Ghana. So I'm just putting that out there in the universe in case she hears this episode, because I told her to start listening to the pod.

SPEAKER_00: 52:09

I love it.

SPEAKER_01: 52:10

Um, but like, well, I the reason why I know it felt like a non-sequitur, the re why the reason why I brought it in is that like people think that if you are in a faith space, that you're supposed to just say Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And what I think bringing these conversations in is like pop culture, art, uh, travel, all these things are part of how we live and that like the full this woman, this work is about the fullness of our lives and not just about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. You know, Jesus is at the center of every of everything, but we are fully realized human beings.

SPEAKER_02: 52:48

Like you were seeing you're saying, Where's your ass?

unknown: 52:53

Come back.

SPEAKER_01: 52:56

Oh, I gotta do like Cardi.

SPEAKER_00: 53:03

I love you so much.

SPEAKER_01: 53:05

So what else? What else? What's the what what's the what what's the word? What are we leaving, what are we going into this new week with? Oh, it's almost October of 2025.

SPEAKER_02: 53:14

I mean, I'm hoping to go into the week with new spiritual practices. So I'm working on my altoid pocket altar.

SPEAKER_01: 53:25

What did I do with my little prayer box?

SPEAKER_02: 53:27

And I have some uh some oil in here, some holy oil, and I it's holy because I said it is. Lots of water.

SPEAKER_01: 53:38

So when I was so when I was cleaning out my my side table by my bed, I found my prayer box and it came with like a little, it came with like a little notepad and a pencil that like if you're it says, when you when your head starts to worry and your mind just can't rest, put your prayers down on paper and let God do the rest. But I'm gonna switch it up and make it a little bit more blasphemous like yours and put little crystals and things and stuff in it. Not a blasphemous. So, but but um but so you know, I feel like I mean, what are the chances that you start making these altar things and I go in my thing and I find this? And I hadn't even opened it, like the plastic, I had to take the plastic off the pen, the pencil, and the oh well.

SPEAKER_02: 54:20

I love it. Well, here we go. To be even more blasphemous, I I got some of my ideas for my pocket altar off the Wiccan Reddit. So the white wicken. The what Reddit? The Wiccan.

SPEAKER_01: 54:32

Oh, oh Lord, you're trying to get us put out.

SPEAKER_02: 54:35

The white the white magic um leaders and practitioners um also make pocket altars. So it's mostly Catholic people and the Wiccans. So it's been really interesting because I was like, oh, I used to believe that Wiccans are going to hell, and here I am on a Reddit page getting guidance on building my pocket altar. Um, there's a great video, we'll put a link to the chat of a woman who's talking about using pocket altars for like if you want to do some ancestor rituals or if you're prepping for a job and you want it to be like your, you know, kind of your North Star and things that encourage you. There's so many ways you can use them, but it was just interesting that I those are the two extremes of people exploring pocket uh altars on the internet.

SPEAKER_01: 55:25

And to that point, people that are afraid of ritual, because actually the reason why people are upset about Beyoncé's product is because it's called a ritual. A ritual is a practice, a practice, yes. So so so your Christian rights, the things that you do as a Christian should be rich should be ritualistic in that sense in that sense, but I digress. But people who get upset about you know these types of like ancestor veneration, all that stuff, don't know Bible, because all that stuff is right in the word. And then these be the same people that be shouting and stuff. I'm like, what do you think that what do you think all this is? It's all connected. Yeah. So you made me think of these things that we purchased from that place. Oh yeah. Yeah, so um I hadn't really gotten into them. But these are the realist oracle. Did I get this from there or did I get this from um kin folk in Houston?

SPEAKER_02: 56:16

I don't know, but I um oh, you mean you're talking about um Kendra books. Kendra stories.

SPEAKER_01: 56:23

Kendra stories, yeah. No, I got it from I got it from LA. But this book, this looks like something you could have got from Kendra Stories, too. I think I've um but yeah, it's I had to buy it because the author is called Kendra Austin, and it says The Realist Oracle Finding Magic in the Mundane. 53 authentic cards and guidebook.

SPEAKER_02: 56:41

I love it. I have one too. Black women. Yeah, mine is um uh I have a deck too, and I have I'm building a little oscillator in my bedroom, and that's where my my my deck is. I'll we'll put the links though.

SPEAKER_01: 56:54

We'll put the links, and then I'll also, because I will I will pull out the scriptures for the people who want to be holy and don't understand, you know, how go ahead with the theology. And listen, I am no seminarian, but I I read a few I read a thing or two.

SPEAKER_02: 57:09

I love it.

SPEAKER_01: 57:09

Um anyway.

SPEAKER_02: 57:11

So what are what are our takeaways for today before we say goodbye to the people?

SPEAKER_01: 57:16

Nothing is by accident. So, like I said, you talk about your little altar, and then me finding this, and at the same time, me being in a space where I'm like looking for spiritual practices, and like just a reminder that sometimes what you're looking for is right under your nose. Um, and if we but if we let go of what it's supposed to look like, right? Because we think it's supposed to look like the National Baptist hymnal. We think it's supposed to look like a certain kind of pew with certain kind of people and a certain kind of hat. And that building spiritual practices and rituals is something I'm really gonna be going into the week thinking about, and it has I it starts with me. Yeah, it starts with me.

SPEAKER_02: 57:54

Yeah. Um, I think mine is that um this is like a season to be free. I'm thinking about Hardy, I'm thinking about Mariah. Um that the things that constrained us, held us back, had us bound, as the church people would say. Um, I think those are like moving away. And this is a season of of freedom. Um, I'm also thinking politically, like, you know, my my thinking is if if this they're gonna burn this shit to the ground, then we get to choose what we want to build back. And how do we use this time to prepare um and build something new? We know what was here didn't work for the most of us. So let's use our creativity, our imagination, uh, learning from our ancestors who fought for liberation about what we're gonna put in its place. So yeah, time to be free.

SPEAKER_01: 58:54

I love that. And I feel like, you know, just like you said, it's a hard time for a black woman. I also feel a great sense of opportunity that comes with it. But we've gotta like, like Dr. Greg Carr says, stay on our square.

SPEAKER_00: 59:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 59:06

Um, but Q, Denise, Nisi Williams, free.

SPEAKER_00: 59:11

Yeah, that's the song.

SPEAKER_01: 59:12

I'm gonna put it in the show notes.

SPEAKER_00: 59:14

And I just want to be free. Free.

SPEAKER_02: 59:24

Yes. All right, all right. That is our kill. You two love you. See y'all soon.