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My guest today is a sensational performer, a trailblazer in the arts, and a leader of our generation.
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Miss Peppermint was the first openly trans contestant on RuPaul's drag race.
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She was the first trans person to originate a role on Broadway for Head Over Heels.
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And she's been on the At 100 list twice, once in 2018 and another time this year, leading the artist section.
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She has a documentary that's been on the festival circuit that won the pride at Fire Island Festival called A Deeper Love, which has been following her for decades, since before she was on Drag Race to the star that she is today.
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We had such a great conversation and really sorted out the chaos that is this moment in history that we're living through.
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Come on in, it's open with Miss Peppermint.
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Peppermint, tell me about this tea.
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Oh my god.
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I've never seen such a gorgeous tea.
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I'm telling you.
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Darling, when I tell you I bring the tea, I bring the tea, darling.
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Yes, this is a obviously deep blue vanilla mint tea.
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Wow.
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It's a custom blend.
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I partnered with a fabulous tea company called Moody Tea Companies, which provides uh different teas that are intended to impact your mood, you know, relaxing, make you feel good, all these different things.
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And so I partnered with them to develop transcendence, peppermint transcendence, which is uh an herbal tea, caffeine-free.
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And uh, you know, it's great for your for your spirit and mind and body and soul.
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That's what I think, especially mint tea.
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It has a lot of, you know, really wonderful benefits.
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Aside from that, the best thing about it is a portion from every sale goes to Advocates for Trans Equality, which is an advocacy organization national in the country that helps the trans community with a whole myriad of things.
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Um, I was really grateful to rely on them for help with help assistance with name change, ID documents, getting birth certificates.
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The real shit the stuff we really need right now.
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Right, right, right.
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And in addition to that, they're also doing a voting initiative and things like that.
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So they have a lot of different things that they do.
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Uh so yeah.
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So pour me a pour me a cup.
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Let me uh pour you some.
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I'll be mother and pour the tea.
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I've learned all this tea lingo lately.
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Is that it?
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The mother?
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The mother pours the tea.
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She has the tea.
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Oh my god, this is seriously stunning.
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Yeah, what makes it blue is the butterfly pea flour, which is the naturally occurring blue.
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Heaven! Yeah.
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Uh, and in the ingredients.
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Oh wow.
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It's so good.
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I'm obsessed.
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Mother, thank you.
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You brought the tea.
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Yes, darling.
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So it has butterfly pea flour, Roy Bush, which I like to call Roy Bush, mint and vanilla.
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Wow, it's such a good blend.
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Oh my goodness.
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Transcendence by peppermint.
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That's right.
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So people can, it's I it's on my um, people can Google it, but it's also on my like social media.
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They can just go and get a get a get a little.
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There's uh collectors containers and different things, but they can see it all on there.
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Congratulations.
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This is so great.
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I would say if your tea is not supporting the trans community, then it's probably transphobic.
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Agreed.
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I agree.
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Oh my gosh, I love that.
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That's a binary I can get down with.
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Yeah.
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Oh my gosh.
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How's your day going?
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What what how's the how's the past couple weeks?
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How's your new year, new Jewish new year fall?
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What's going on?
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I'm feeling pretty good.
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You know, I mean, I'm feeling energized.
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I'm feeling like I know the mission.
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Yeah.
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You know what I mean?
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And I'm ready.
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Yeah.
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Uh, and I think I was fretting over the you I guess the evolution for me has been over the like since the pandemic, I guess it's a good benchmark.
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Yeah.
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Where I've been feeling like, God, you know, like I really was preparing for like life as business as usual.
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Uh you know what I mean?
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Totally.
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I do.
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Whatever that's gonna be, that's my list.
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This is what it is, these are the goals.
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Yep.
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We all are working in the same direction.
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Yeah, working to be able to take care of our parents comfortably for real.
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Exactly.
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Hello.
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Yeah.
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And then that all kind of got jostled, and you know, for many reasons, um, that really kind of asked me, caused me to really do a lot of self-reflection, which I'm fine with doing self-reflection.
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I do that, I feel I'm happy to do it.
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Yeah.
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Uh, but like in terms of like having to reflect on things that I never thought I'd have to reflect on, I guess.
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Like what?
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Genocide.
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Yeah.
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Never thought I have to reflect on that.
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I never thought I'd have to reflect on that.
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Oh my god.
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And you know what?
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Oh, good.
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I need to reflect on it.
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I'm sure I'm a human being.
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We should be reflecting on what that means.
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And yeah, not Oh, that's so funny.
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I mean, it's not funny, but it's so funny because it's so insane that it's like in our could I have a little more tea?
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Yeah, oh my god.
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We're at this inflection point in so many ways, but our humanity is at such an inflection point.
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You know, the people who are um rank human beings in a value system and put themselves at the top and then hoard wealth and hoard what this world uh says is power, which is money.
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They have a mixing board, like a producer's mixing board dials of how to control a population.
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And this is how it's been for whatever, 10,000 years that humans have been organizing society this way.
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Food security, being able to stay with your family or be separated, um, clean water, clean air, education, all that shit.
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And it's the same ingredients, just different societies throughout history.
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Yeah.
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And the the dials can be turned to a genocide.
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You take bring all the dials down, all the food security down, all the shelter down, all this.
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You put the bombing up, the rape up, the all the shit up.
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Yeah.
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And that's what a genocide is when you turn the dials to that.
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And in the United States, what I see the way the our society has been built for the past 400 years is a double genocidal framework.
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One is to Native Americans, one is to black people.
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Yeah.
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And we are living inside this genocidal framework.
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Yeah.
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Now, you know, we're okay.
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I'm just, it's like and, you know, I think a lot of us now know, I know, you know, you and I know this, but I think it's coming into, you know, mainstream consciousness that working class white people or people who've gotten themselves in proximity to whiteness are, you know, led to believe that they're not living in this genocidal framework.
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Now that the now that we have a tech oligarchy in place, the veil is lifting.
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And we're realizing, wait a second, I don't have my fucking basic needs met.
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I can't afford groceries.
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I can't afford gas.
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I can't get from A to B to get to work to pay for this.
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I can't pay for my parents, whatever.
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And it goes from genocide to human rights, is the spectrum, and we've slid back, back, back, back, back to genocide.
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And now trans people are this new face of genocide, are the new target.
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And, you know, when we talk about genocide, we always think of the Holocaust against Jews because it is such a crazy example of so much murder in such a little bit.
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Very well documented.
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That's right.
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Yeah.
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Because the Nazis documented it themselves.
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They wrote it down.
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Absolutely psychotic.
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They were proud.
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They were so proud of their organization.
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Insane.
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But it's so well documented, that's right.
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And in the Holocaust, six million Jews died, but six million non-Jews were also murdered.
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Because genocide doesn't just kill its target, it's it's just a ruse to control people generally.
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And it's like the extreme, like you said, it the fact that there's a dial on their mixing board that they can go to.
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They've gone to it.
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We've used it, they've used it, it's been used so many times.
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And the the framework that I part of my adjustment that I personally had is understanding.
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I mean, I remember maybe the first, I don't remember the first moment I heard the word genocide, but I remember being extremely uncomfortable just with the word and the use of the word in my presence.
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And because it I was like, I can't even fathom thousands or hundreds or millions or however many people being killed on purpose by someone.
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And that like really shook my, you know.
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I remember being shaken to my core, like even having to fathom that.
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This was years ago.
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And are you saying in reference to the Holocaust?
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We in reference to the Holocaust, which is the only term, the only time I'd ever really, I think, heard the term really used.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And I think for a lot of people, they probably share that experience because it's obviously so well documented.
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It's the first example that a lot of people can think of.
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But I do think that we at the same time, so many people who are in America know that there were millions of natives here, indigenous people that were here, and now they're not.
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Right.
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And the only language that I hear people to use to describe that is Thanksgiving.
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And it's like, oh my God.
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Oh no.
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That is a fucking genocide, y'all.
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Right.
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That was a genocide.
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That was a genocide, and it was, and maybe there's an intentional genocide and not.
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Maybe somebody can accidentally or like plausible deniability say, oh, the dial's up.
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Yeah.
00:10:27.279 --> 00:10:36.000
But like the impact is these people are now living in abject poverty, in they've got their own sovereign nations.
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I mean, the the the crumbs that they've been given, that indigenous folks that are here have been given, which mirrors the experience of indigenous folks that have been colonized all over the world.
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Right.
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And the same thing with African folks who've been brought here, black Americans who are now here.
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That's right.
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It's a continual genocide.
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And genocide is exactly right.
00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:09.759
They keeps them from achieving self-determination, political power, financial uh uh stability and freedom and independence.
00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:22.799
Yep and keeps them from gaining any type of control in where they are, and keeps them from being used as a tool that's useful to those people at the top who are hoarding all the wealth and the money and all the the resources.
00:11:23.039 --> 00:11:23.200
Right.
00:11:23.679 --> 00:11:34.399
And so, yeah, there's multiple genocides happening, and our country happens to be seated in a position that people in this country have benefited from that genocide.
00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:57.039
And I think what I would love for people to do, what I've done is really try to make a paradigm shift and realize that you know, maybe having that new phone is contributing in a very, very, very small way to that, just enough to wake my consciousness up and know that these people are suffering every single time we get a new something, or every single time we expand, or whatever it is that our country's doing.
00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:00.799
You're speaking specifically about the DR, right?
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The Democratic Republic of Congo.
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Suffering from the cobalt mines, which is where the products are have the mining.
00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:08.240
Exactly.
00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:09.840
But before that, it was the fucking diamonds.
00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:17.039
Diamonds are like supposedly this, like, you know, worth so much, but they weren't at the turn of the century.
00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:18.240
Like they weren't.
00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:19.840
Like diamonds were just another fucking rock.
00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:20.799
Right, right, right.
00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:26.720
That was like turned into a thing because they found this wealth and they're the of diamonds, and they're like, we can make this into a thing.
00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:27.840
So they had to create an industry.
00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:28.799
A story about it.
00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:29.600
A story about it.
00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:30.240
Right, right.
00:12:30.559 --> 00:12:39.919
And that meant that people had to be in practically enslaved and genocided in order to create that industry and support that industry.
00:12:40.159 --> 00:12:44.159
And so, yeah, there's I yeah, so yes, I agree.
00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:56.320
You know, and like I because I think also like um the real-time nature of Israel's genocide against Palestine, the real-time nature, seeing it on your phone and being told it's not a genocide is driving people absolutely fucking insane.
00:12:57.759 --> 00:13:10.320
But I also think that for um white people and white people who um aren't Jewish and haven't like I was exposed to uh education about genocide so early in Hebrew school, about Holocaust, too early, to be honest.
00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:14.399
It was like a little a little scary for like seven-year-olds.
00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:26.559
It's crazy, but I I get why, because they were afraid it's gonna happen again, you know, and and it is in many ways, and right now, you know, to black Americans and Native Americans and Palestinians.
00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:39.840
Um but I think also like for um for a lot of white people, they are able to look at this genocide that's happening in Palestine by the Israeli government and distance themselves from it by calling it out.
00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:56.799
But it's hard for people, for white people in America to look and see the genocide happening here against black Americans because we are so, we are so, myself included, as a white American, so embedded in this fabric, this twisted layer fabric.
00:13:57.039 --> 00:14:02.080
And it's it's like hard to say, you know, it's hard to step up and say, I've I've benefited from being a white person.
00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:08.159
I've benefited from the color of my skin that has been said as a construct that I deserve safety or security.
00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:14.639
But it's like the the the sooner we connect the genocides, remove ourselves.
00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:17.600
It's a system that's like above and beyond us.
00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:19.440
It's not a personal thing, right?
00:14:19.919 --> 00:14:28.080
It's like it really is a system that is utilized by people in power to do whatever it is that they need to do.
00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:45.840
And it usually means get keeping the people at bay, keeping them from being able to uprise, and then also expanding, getting more land, getting more money, getting more power, and really ensuring that the chapter or the story that they want the world, the country, whatever it is to go in, goes in that direction.
00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:46.240
Right.
00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:57.519
And I like I'm I'm hopeful that people in our country will start to understand that genocide does have a definition, and I hear some of you say it's complicated, it's a legal definition, it's very specific, blah, blah, blah.
00:14:57.759 --> 00:14:59.360
But A, that's on purpose.
00:14:59.600 --> 00:15:02.639
But there are all there are multiple types of genocides.
00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:04.480
There are certainly has been more than one.
00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:09.279
You know, I think if you ask the average person on the street, they'd say the only genocide that's ever happened is a Holocaust network.
00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:11.440
And anything else is just terrible.
00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:20.320
But that's really selling, that's really divorce, that's doing something to your, whoever says that, to you, to that person's humanity.
00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:30.000
And I, you know, I my good friend Laverne Cox talks about Brene Brown, and I think it's Brene Brown's quote that says, Um, you know, when you dehumanize me, you're dehumanizing yourself.
00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:37.519
In order to even understand how to dehumanize and harm someone, you have to be okay with dehumanization, period.
00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:38.080
That's right.
00:15:38.240 --> 00:15:41.360
And then when you do that, you're screwing over your own humanity.
00:15:41.759 --> 00:15:42.879
That's exactly right in the window.
00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:44.399
You, you like put your heart.
00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:48.879
I think of um in Forrest Gump, how he like runs and the braces break apart off his legs.
00:15:49.120 --> 00:15:49.519
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:15:49.759 --> 00:15:54.240
You know, like he his that character's legs were like bursting to get free from that brace.
00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:57.120
You put your heart in a brace and limit yourself, you know?
00:15:57.200 --> 00:16:04.559
And this is why I've been starting to like talk about genocidal frameworks so that it doesn't make it this thing of like this thing that happened, the legal definition.
00:16:04.639 --> 00:16:06.399
You're absolutely right that that's on fucking purpose.
00:16:06.559 --> 00:16:08.320
Because it's like, I'm not in fucking court.
00:16:08.480 --> 00:16:09.360
My heart is beating.
00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:10.240
My heart is beating.
00:16:10.399 --> 00:16:11.919
I'm a human being and I know what I see.
00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:12.480
That's right.
00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:29.519
And I I really think I know it's like hard for white Americans who have compassion and have real faith and values to sometimes reflect in this way because it's it is so unimaginable, unimaginably, infinitely disgusting and foul what's happened in this country.
00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:35.440
We're not supposed to be thinking about these terms because it's we're not it's not supposed to be happening.
00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:35.679
Right.
00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:36.639
That's what I think.
00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:38.240
Right, right, right, right.
00:16:38.399 --> 00:16:39.519
It's like a bit much.
00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:39.759
Yeah.
00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:40.879
It's a bit fucking much.
00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:41.440
It's a lot.
00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:43.200
Yeah, yeah, it's a lot, exactly.
00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:53.120
And like I think um, you know, but the the sooner we connect these genocidal frameworks, the sooner we connect our dehumanization, we can connect our humanity.
00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:55.679
And we are so, we are like so close.
00:16:55.840 --> 00:17:04.480
Our global consciousness is so close to making those connections and demanding that everybody gets their basic human rights served.
00:17:04.880 --> 00:17:06.240
Served the moment they're born.
00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:08.720
You you deserve for being the mirror.
00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:10.880
And it's like, don't I sound like Christian as fuck?
00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:18.880
The moment you're born, the miracle of that person deserves food that is clean and healthy, water that is clean and healthy, air that is clean and healthy.
00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:24.079
No bombing, no raping, no sexual uh, you know, uh abuse.
00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:25.279
You deserve safety.
00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:27.039
You deserve healthy, safe touch.
00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:36.079
Every single human being, every single human being, that person who is pregnant deserves their basic needs met.
00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:44.799
And if somebody needs to get an abortion, I'm just saying this because I was just saying the miracle of a baby, if that person needs to get an abortion to have their basic needs met, they they need to have that met because they are a human being.
00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:47.599
Yeah, they are the human being who's alive in the world.
00:17:48.079 --> 00:18:28.880
I the one of the things I want to go back to something you said, um, with regards to connecting the frameworks of the of genocide just as a notion, because the I I in I've had plenty of opportunity to like look through and as I've been kind of trying to wrap my head around what is genocide, uh Raphael Lennon, who coined the term genocide back before the Holocaust, but during that time, uh, was working with, and I'm I need to fly over this because I don't have all the details, but uh I they went in one ear and out the other because I think I had to memorize the script or something.
00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:34.079
Um and so he But I actually I I I thought I am not educated about this.
00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:45.359
I thought it was in in like the Nuremberg trials post-Holocaust or saying it's pre-Holocaust that's he was working on, he was it was the all of the the system came together post-Holocaust.
00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:46.079
Got it.
00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:52.720
Pre-Holocaust, there were already, I mean, pre-Holocaust meaning during the Holocaust, like during that 10-year span.
00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:53.599
Got you, gotcha.
00:18:53.759 --> 00:18:59.839
They're like, I th I was I wasn't there, but I believe they were like, we have to figure out what's going on.
00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:04.319
Because at the same time, industry was starting, um, journalism was starting to happen.
00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:08.720
International journalism was TV and film, like specifically from the Nazis documentation.
00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:09.759
Exactly.
00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:23.680
And so uh but at the same time, like uh also right beforehand, there was a um uh a huge reaction uh in Belgium to what King Leopold had done in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:29.599
I literally just learned about King Leopold causing a genocide like Adolf Hitler, but we don't know about it because the people that he killed were black.
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:31.200
Exactly precisely.
00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:49.359
However, at the time, the there was a reaction locally and journalists in Belgium and journalists, local journalists were starting to write about it, and the stories were starting to so that's how we know about it because they wrote about it, and it was moderately documented, not as much not as well as the Holocaust, obviously.
00:19:49.680 --> 00:20:21.920
So there was a need as as empire as this new as technology started to I think I believe that as technology started to aid empire, because there's always been empire, but technology was taking advance, and suddenly we had planes and telephones, you know what I mean, yeah, and all these different things, cameras and all that stuff was starting to aid in not only genocide and murder and and pillaging and all that, but also the communication about those things and the recording and the document documenting of those things.
00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:34.400
Um so then Raphael Lemkin and other scholars started saying, okay, we have to start this is this is happening more than once in more than one place, and we start have to start thinking about that.
00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:42.880
Um apparently he was working with people, the the what I imagined to be the very, very precursor to what eventually ended up being the UN.
00:20:43.920 --> 00:20:48.000
Working with international bodies and other people to say, okay, what's going on there?
00:20:48.160 --> 00:20:49.839
That's okay, this is looking like this.
00:20:50.559 --> 00:20:55.519
And he's he was working with people in the United States who were aiding him in setting this up.
00:20:57.440 --> 00:20:59.759
Which eventually became the Genocide Convention.
00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:13.920
Apparently, whoever was in the United States, I think it was the president at the time, was he was like, Yeah, basically, all these people getting killed at once, that's he was coining the term, it's terrible.
00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:18.960
So we gotta go around and look at other countries and see whose countries had killed a bunch of people at once.
00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:21.920
And that's when the United States was like, actually, you know, we're good.
00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:23.440
We're good, you're on your own.
00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:23.920
Wow.
00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:42.640
Because at that point, what was happening to black people at the time and what had recently, just 30 years before, you know, like this is early 1900s, so like less than a hundred years beforehand, uh, what happened to black people, and then obviously the Native Americans, they would have been on record.
00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:42.960
Right.
00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:47.039
There would have been a that then we wouldn't have been saying it's just Thanksgiving.
00:21:47.359 --> 00:21:47.519
Right.
00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:50.720
It would have been a completely different thing and would have been on record.
00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:53.039
And I and I think that's where we went wrong.
00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:54.319
Yeah, you know, yeah.
00:21:54.559 --> 00:21:59.839
And it also like we couldn't have been the saviors to the Jews with the Nazis, but like we were doing it too.
00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:10.799
They apparently they learned the Nazis learned what to do from the way that white people treated the white white white supremacy structures treated black people in this country.
00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:11.359
That's right.
00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:13.759
Like um, you know that's always left out.
00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:15.440
It was called the ghetto.
00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:20.400
Jews being like ghettoized before they were then shipped on trains to the camps.
00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:21.359
The ghetto.
00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:23.359
They learned this from the United States.
00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:23.839
Yeah.
00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:28.000
And that was not only genocide, but it was apartheid in our country.
00:22:28.160 --> 00:22:28.319
Right.
00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:29.920
You know, we call it Jim Crow.
00:22:30.079 --> 00:22:30.240
Right.
00:22:30.400 --> 00:22:34.880
But it, I mean, what and that we're for reference, but it it's apartheid in the country.
00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:35.519
That's right.
00:22:35.599 --> 00:22:39.519
And you know what I like just learned from um Bria Baker's Rooted?
00:22:39.839 --> 00:22:46.240
It's about the United States legacy of land theft of black people's land in this country.
00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:47.519
Industrially.
00:22:47.759 --> 00:22:54.079
And I I like just learned last year about the great migration is apartheid.
00:22:54.160 --> 00:22:56.559
It's it's um displacement.
00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:05.119
We go, oh, black people in the south, aren't they so lucky that they got to move to these awesome northern cities for industry and for opportunity?
00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:11.119
But they were forced out because they were being murdered just by neighbors and white mobs, murdered.
00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:14.240
And it's not a great migration.
00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:15.519
It was a fucking escape.
00:23:16.160 --> 00:23:17.119
It was a Holocaust.
00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:18.720
It was escaping Holocaust.
00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:19.759
It's crazy.
00:23:20.079 --> 00:23:43.440
And then when they got to the north, essentially they were corralled into over the next 50 years into ghettos, and then had highways literally built through and around, and then redlined so that you so that contained the voting power, it can contain the economic power, and it literally can put them, created fences by roads.
00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:51.519
And not to be a fucking Biden head, once again, but Pete Buttigieg was the head of this like department actually dismantling those highways.
00:23:51.839 --> 00:23:52.160
Wow.
00:23:52.480 --> 00:24:04.319
To make communities be able to reach each other and to have a flow of different kinds of people, you know, uh yes, black and white and different socioeconomic status, but just think about it as communities being able to connect.
00:24:04.720 --> 00:24:05.279
And that's it.
00:24:05.680 --> 00:24:10.559
As human beings, that's what's necessary in order for all of them to really prosper.
00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:20.559
But in order for somebody to be mega, mega, mega, mega, mega, mega, mega, mega rich and powerful, somebody has to be mega, mega, mega, mega, mega, mega, mega, mega poor and powerless.
00:24:21.039 --> 00:24:23.680
The crazy thing though, I just don't understand.
00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:26.640
If you have one billion dollars, you can't even feel it.
00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:28.559
You can't even feel it.
00:24:29.359 --> 00:24:32.400
So, like, I I I guess it's the cruelty, right?
00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:33.759
It is about the cruelty.
00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:36.640
I'm trying to think of it's cruel losers.
00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:39.519
Losers meaning they just wake up and feel deprived.
00:24:39.759 --> 00:24:41.759
There's just holes in the pail.
00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:44.240
You you go down to the water, you fill it up with water.
00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:48.400
By the time you get it back up to your blanket, it's empty because there's holes in the pail.
00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:50.079
And I just, I don't know.
00:24:50.240 --> 00:24:54.319
I I think that money actually causes deprivation.
00:24:54.720 --> 00:24:56.559
When you look at these people, I'm sorry.
00:24:56.720 --> 00:25:17.839
I mean, you know, not to talk about their looks, but like you can judge whether you think somebody's healthy or if they're right, they're right, just by looking and seeing how they act and behave and and save for all the lists of things that we hear about what they're them and their companies are doing to the pay the planet, the resources, the people, uh, even their customers and their employees.
00:25:18.079 --> 00:25:30.319
Aside from all those things, when you just see these guys, these billionaires, in an interview, they're talking like looking, looking, sounding crazy.
00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:33.279
I'm like, what are you talking about?
00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:34.559
And it's right in the eyes.
00:25:34.799 --> 00:25:35.440
Yeah, it's in the eyes.
00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:41.359
It's like you see that they are not well, they have secrets that they think are interesting, but they're just actually disgusting.
00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:43.920
Disgusting.
00:25:44.160 --> 00:25:48.400
This fucking Epstein class is is just disgusting.
00:25:48.640 --> 00:25:56.160
And we're in this moment, we're like, women, we we no longer accept being raped.
00:25:56.400 --> 00:25:57.759
We do not accept it.
00:25:57.839 --> 00:25:59.279
And it's wild concept.
00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:03.119
It it happens and it's happening, but it is unacceptable.
00:26:03.279 --> 00:26:05.119
And they told us that Me Too had gone too far.
00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:05.839
I mean, think about it.
00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:06.640
Me Too had gone too far.
00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:07.039
We got to be able to do it.
00:26:07.680 --> 00:26:08.640
It didn't go far away.
00:26:08.799 --> 00:26:09.200
It was a year.
00:26:09.519 --> 00:26:10.559
One loser.
00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:13.759
Harvey Weinstein, we got one and they're like, that's enough.
00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:14.960
One monster.
00:26:15.200 --> 00:26:20.640
It's everywhere, this sexual violence, everywhere, at every scale, and we're exhausted by it.
00:26:20.799 --> 00:26:22.319
And we can change it.
00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:22.799
We can.
00:26:23.039 --> 00:26:23.759
It's possible.
00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:37.119
There have been civilizations throughout history, not in modern times, that have existed in, of course, there's always been war, there's always been murder, there's always been rape, there's always been harm.
00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:40.000
Yeah, there's always been individuals that have done things like this.
00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:53.279
And there maybe there always will be, but there are these systems that are in place that allow like nations to proliferate and grow and take over other land.
00:26:53.359 --> 00:27:03.200
And they use all these tools: rape, murder, extortion, violence, family separation, family separation, fucking people's food, fucking people's water, fucking people's air.
00:27:04.559 --> 00:27:07.279
And I guess, like you said, it's not containable.
00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:08.640
It's not containable.
00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:24.799
Even half the things I learned, half of the stuff that I learned in school as a kid is just nice, friendly terms for genocide, rape, murder, theft, land theft, bombing, war, whatever, apartheid.
00:27:24.880 --> 00:27:25.920
Jim fucking crow?
00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:27.039
That sounds nice.
00:27:27.279 --> 00:27:27.920
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:27:28.160 --> 00:27:29.200
He sounds like a good guy.
00:27:30.240 --> 00:27:30.559
Yeah.
00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:32.079
It's apartheid.
00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:39.119
And he's as Americans, we we are distanced from over there.
00:27:39.279 --> 00:27:40.319
It's real genocide in Palestine.
00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:42.799
But we don't have the framework to really examine.
00:27:43.519 --> 00:27:43.920
So sorry.
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:44.480
Oh my God.
00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:46.160
Spilling the tea.
00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:50.799
But the thing is, like, it's it's so ubiquitous.
00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:52.480
It is so fucking everywhere.
00:27:52.640 --> 00:27:58.079
And I really turn to Brene Brown too for my shame as a white person for not having known about the system earlier.
00:27:58.240 --> 00:28:02.880
But it is, it is incumbent upon white people buying into it to make it last.
00:28:03.119 --> 00:28:08.880
It is incumbent upon white people being seduced by the idea of being superior to keep the system in place.
00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:11.680
But it's just, it's just like it's losing steam.
00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:14.880
We're getting to a point like where it's not even working because it's turning.
00:28:15.039 --> 00:28:22.640
Well, there's they say that every single time uh um when an empire starts to fall, then it turns all the things, all bad stuff it does on other people.
00:28:22.720 --> 00:28:24.480
It turns that on its own people.
00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:28.400
And that seems like what I think that seems like what's happening.
00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:30.720
Thank you, mother, for this tea.
00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:34.720
I this is like the most gorgeous tea I've ever seen.
00:28:34.960 --> 00:28:38.160
I cannot believe the color.
00:28:38.400 --> 00:28:39.759
I cannot believe it.
00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:41.680
Peppermint's transcendence.
00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:42.079
Yes.
00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:43.920
Oh my god, how gorgeous.
00:28:44.079 --> 00:28:49.119
Actually, I would love to turn to the history of trans wisdom in humanity.
00:28:49.440 --> 00:28:50.319
Let's talk about it.
00:28:50.559 --> 00:29:01.440
You know, it's like, of course, of course, trans people have become the face of um the next genocide in the United States because the empire of the United States is crumbling currently.
00:29:01.839 --> 00:29:12.160
The Lemkin Institute, who are the people that's the institute that coined the term genocide after the Holocaust, are the ones who are saying that we are in stages of genocide against trans people in the United States.
00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:13.759
They have officially named that.
00:29:14.160 --> 00:29:14.559
Recently.
00:29:14.799 --> 00:29:16.000
Recently, the past year.
00:29:16.319 --> 00:29:16.559
Wow.
00:29:16.640 --> 00:29:36.559
Yes, there is an erasure and and uh deletion and you know, uh, uh, a destruction of trans people, whether that be actual killing or um imprisoning, uh, or making trans people uh put their dead names on their fucking license and they can't drive because their license is revoked or whatever.
00:29:36.720 --> 00:29:38.880
Um wait, let me say one thing.
00:29:39.039 --> 00:29:51.119
And I I want I I I don't know how I'm gonna feel about saying this, but I want people, there's been so much um disagreance and bickering over the term genocide with regards to Palestine.
00:29:51.359 --> 00:30:04.559
And there have been a lot of people who would be otherwise liberal in my experience that I would say, okay, they're you liberal except for um that's a the term, you know, progressive except for Palestine that we've heard that people say.
00:30:04.799 --> 00:30:05.440
Oh, I didn't hear that.
00:30:05.680 --> 00:30:06.559
Um wow.
00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:23.039
But but but own but sort of stonewalling and saying that they basically the only genocide that they that can be acknowledged is the Holocaust disallows even those progressive people from acknowledging the genocide that's happening against trans people and other people.
00:30:23.279 --> 00:30:23.519
Right.
00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:27.359
You know, if it stops them from uh acknowledging other genocides.
00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:29.680
And if we don't acknowledge them, we can't do anything about them.
00:30:29.920 --> 00:30:34.480
And this is why I mean, this is why I'm like genocidal framework genocidal framework.
00:30:34.559 --> 00:30:36.799
Like, don't tell me that it's not within the framework.
00:30:37.119 --> 00:30:39.200
It is progressive acceptance Palestine person.
00:30:39.920 --> 00:30:41.920
Which by the way, I um Dr.
00:30:42.160 --> 00:31:00.960
UC Osai is my friend in Texas who um is a pelvic floor uh specialist and and doctor and urologist, who I was talking to after I did a show, and she um she's black and lives in Texas, and she was, and we were with uh white ladies from Austin uh after the show, just all kind of talking.
00:31:01.039 --> 00:31:05.680
And she was we were talking about liberal and progressive areas, and she said liberal, not progressive.
00:31:05.920 --> 00:31:08.640
And I was like, okay, that is that white liberal.
00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:13.759
Like, I I look like this and I act like this and I talk like this, so I'm liberal, but you're not progressive.
00:31:13.920 --> 00:31:18.480
So progressive except uh progressive except for Palestine doesn't even sit with me because I'm like, that's a liberal.
00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:19.839
Yeah, that's a liberalitarian.
00:31:20.319 --> 00:31:32.720
You want to live in New York, you want to actually be around people and have a proximity to blackness and brownness and transness, but you actually don't want to buck the system that you're benefiting from to make sure these people's basic human rights are met.
00:31:32.960 --> 00:31:44.400
I don't think it's morally um um it's it doesn't connect morally to because being progressive is about a moral connection to to humanity, in my opinion.
00:31:44.720 --> 00:31:44.960
That's right.
00:31:45.039 --> 00:31:46.880
And I think also oh uh I cut you off, sorry.
00:31:46.960 --> 00:31:53.440
No, and I I just don't think you can if you're gonna do deny, oh, that's forget those rapes or forget those genocide.
00:31:53.599 --> 00:31:55.440
Like then what then what's the connection?
00:31:55.839 --> 00:31:59.279
But I'm also realizing it's like a bit facetious, progressive except for Palestine.
00:31:59.359 --> 00:32:01.680
Like they don't even really mean it, the people calling those people acting like that.
00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:02.480
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:32:02.559 --> 00:32:03.119
It's facetious.
00:32:03.440 --> 00:32:04.480
I just caught up in the joke.
00:32:04.640 --> 00:32:17.440
Anyway, but it's it's because of the wisdom, the sacred wisdom that trans people carry, that they're being targeted because trans people can actually point out in three ways.
00:32:17.599 --> 00:32:18.160
I'll tell you.
00:32:18.480 --> 00:32:18.720
Go ahead.
00:32:19.039 --> 00:32:19.200
Go ahead.
00:32:19.279 --> 00:32:19.839
No, you go ahead.
00:32:20.079 --> 00:32:36.960
Uh, in an in a literal way, because of the experience, especially in modern times of trans people and maybe even historically, uh, living beyond the binary, but certainly in Western society, places that have been colonized, they've used the gender binary.
00:32:37.119 --> 00:32:43.680
Going to places that are uh, you know, indigenous, whether they're in Africa, wherever they are in the global south.
00:32:43.839 --> 00:32:48.960
And these are places that have religions, cultures, traditions that that are outside of binary.
00:32:49.119 --> 00:32:52.240
They have genders uh that are more than one, they have different things.
00:32:52.480 --> 00:32:54.400
Wherever they are, there's different things.
00:32:54.480 --> 00:32:55.839
You people can look it up.
00:32:56.079 --> 00:33:07.359
And in those um uh cultures, trans people or what we would understand to be trans people, non-binary people, people that live that are gender expansive are in those systems as well.
00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:07.920
Yep.
00:33:08.240 --> 00:33:12.400
Living, thriving, accepted, like any other member of the community, yeah.
00:33:12.640 --> 00:33:13.440
Everybody has their place.
00:33:13.519 --> 00:33:13.680
Yeah.
00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:18.079
In a Western colonial framework, that cannot exist.
00:33:18.160 --> 00:33:18.400
Yep.
00:33:18.559 --> 00:33:22.319
And in order to control people, you have to be able to fit them into these binaries.
00:33:22.400 --> 00:33:22.480
Yeah.
00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:23.119
That's right.
00:33:23.279 --> 00:33:25.279
So trans people do not fit into that.
00:33:25.359 --> 00:33:25.599
Yep.
00:33:25.839 --> 00:33:32.079
Uh trans people inspire everybody else to be like, just like queer people inspire people.
00:33:32.240 --> 00:33:33.599
Oh, I can live outside the binary.
00:33:33.680 --> 00:33:38.079
I don't have to be male or female or gay or I don't have to just be straight, like heterosexual.
00:33:38.160 --> 00:33:39.519
Like I can be like different things.
00:33:39.599 --> 00:33:39.759
Yeah.
00:33:39.920 --> 00:33:42.319
And that shows people that there's a possibility for humanity.
00:33:42.480 --> 00:33:42.799
That's right.
00:33:42.960 --> 00:33:45.599
And so trans people have literally done that.
00:33:45.759 --> 00:34:09.039
Um, but they've also uh, I think, in in modern times under this administration, symbolically done that because to be a trans person who decides to uh you know navigate their own transition and interface with the different like governmental systems to get your name changed, to get your birth certificate changed.
00:34:09.679 --> 00:34:14.079
Why they they do not want people changing their birth certificates.
00:34:14.159 --> 00:34:14.800
Do you know what I mean?
00:34:14.880 --> 00:34:20.960
Because then they can say that that says how you were born, you can change something about that.
00:34:21.119 --> 00:34:29.039
And that goes against a caste system because a caste system relies on you being born a slave, being born lower class.
00:34:29.280 --> 00:34:29.920
You can never change.
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:35.360
I don't care if you're black in this country and you exist in the past 200 years, you can get all you can read all the books you want.
00:34:35.440 --> 00:34:39.119
You were born black, which means you are below and you can't change that.
00:34:39.280 --> 00:34:43.679
But trans people defy that, and we sh and we've we've done that throughout history.
00:34:43.760 --> 00:35:06.639
Yeah, and so we are the number, not the only, but we are a very, very good type of bullseye to hit because modern-day trans people in the in the states who have gone about their their transition, both medically and then sort of like um uh and paperwork-wise, um, have have navigated all these systems and say, no, there's a different way.
00:35:06.719 --> 00:35:12.079
You can change your name, your birth certificate, your genders, how you look, you go blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:35:12.320 --> 00:35:13.440
You can do all these different things.
00:35:13.519 --> 00:35:26.239
And they've connect we've connected all these systems that have of government and of medicine and of industry that have existed and served to subjugate or harm people.
00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:34.719
We had to utilize those tools to get what we want to produce the outcome that we want to and then be accepted.
00:35:34.880 --> 00:35:35.039
Yes.
00:35:35.280 --> 00:35:39.280
And yes, and you know, like we haven't, we're not we don't, we didn't make ourselves into pariahs.
00:35:39.440 --> 00:35:41.760
We're just we're normal people walking around the street working at the job.
00:35:41.920 --> 00:35:45.199
If we hire a trans person, they're gonna show up to work and do the same thing that anybody else does.
00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:45.440
Yeah.
00:35:45.599 --> 00:35:49.039
And then and then we show people you don't have to live within these binaries.
00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:49.920
You can be free.
00:35:50.239 --> 00:35:52.880
Can I sit in this two in two ways?
00:35:53.119 --> 00:36:00.559
One is the binary is a tool of oppression because Gloria Steinem said, we are linked, not ranked.
00:36:00.719 --> 00:36:05.760
When you have a binary, you get to then say black, white, white's on top, black's on bottom.
00:36:05.840 --> 00:36:07.840
Man, woman, man's on top, woman's on bottom.
00:36:07.920 --> 00:36:08.480
Whatever the fuck.
00:36:08.559 --> 00:36:10.800
Straight, gay, straight's on top, gays on bottom.
00:36:10.960 --> 00:36:11.440
Everybody knows.
00:36:11.840 --> 00:36:12.960
Especially for the Republicans.
00:36:18.960 --> 00:36:23.519
Oh my God, are they the gayest population you've ever seen in your life?
00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:24.639
It's like a joke.
00:36:24.800 --> 00:36:26.880
Oh my God, it's such a sick joke.
00:36:27.039 --> 00:36:29.519
Um, but they're, you know.
00:36:30.079 --> 00:36:36.000
Um, so I think that people don't realize while it feels comforting, I think it feels comforting to have organization.
00:36:36.079 --> 00:36:39.199
Yeah, but this is a tool of oppression.
00:36:39.280 --> 00:36:41.119
This is a tool of dehumanization.
00:36:41.280 --> 00:36:51.119
And the other thing I wanted to say is oh, you were saying that trans people have navigated these systems um to uh transcended these systems, Peppermint's transcendence tea.
00:36:51.280 --> 00:37:08.000
Um, trans people have navigated these systems to transcend the dehumanizing uh, you know, operationalism of them to live their lives in their truest humanity, subverted the point of it to be dehumanizing, to actually be like, well, I got through it and now I'm fully fucking free and can be who I am.
00:37:08.159 --> 00:37:15.360
Um, but what struck me about it is only in the Western colonial structure, because that's only where they fit in the world.
00:37:15.519 --> 00:37:16.400
That's only we had to.
00:37:16.639 --> 00:37:18.320
Otherwise, they're just living their warm around lives.
00:37:18.480 --> 00:37:20.960
Yeah, just in the world, living their lives.
00:37:21.119 --> 00:37:26.960
I mean, it's uh it takes a lot of fucking organization to corral people and torture them slowly, quickly.
00:37:27.119 --> 00:37:29.119
It's it has to become their life's work.
00:37:29.280 --> 00:37:29.599
That's right.
00:37:29.920 --> 00:37:30.719
Other people are doing that.
00:37:30.960 --> 00:37:32.159
And you can tell that's what it is.
00:37:32.400 --> 00:37:32.880
That's right.
00:37:33.119 --> 00:37:37.280
Because otherwise, they'd be living their own lives, enjoying them.
00:37:37.599 --> 00:37:48.639
These people at the very top who have the most money in the world, so much money that it's not even money anymore, they're not even enjoying their own lives because they're spending their entire lives destroying everybody else.
00:37:48.800 --> 00:37:51.679
It is not humanity, it is not pleasure.
00:37:52.079 --> 00:37:53.519
That is not what pleasure is.
00:37:53.760 --> 00:37:57.519
Pleasure is creative, pleasure adds and contributes and expands.
00:37:57.760 --> 00:38:00.400
And it identifies pleasure itself identifies with other people.
00:38:00.559 --> 00:38:06.079
Like it's like, oh, we're having fun, we're all enjoying, we're connected, and it has a connectedness.
00:38:06.159 --> 00:38:10.159
And I maybe the billionaires feel like they're doing that with each other, but I don't even think so.
00:38:10.320 --> 00:38:13.599
Because they are participating in a system that they're in competition with each other.
00:38:13.760 --> 00:38:14.079
That's right.
00:38:14.159 --> 00:38:17.679
And they will sell each other up the river in a minute to take over.
00:38:17.840 --> 00:38:30.480
And that's the thing that's so wild to me about capitalism is that like we are seeing, you know, people, companies who used to do good and do all these different things, and we're like, okay, yay, capitalism, okay, fine.
00:38:30.639 --> 00:38:40.880
But like, how sick is it that like a company will like raise your prices, make the product it used to be the product used to be this big, the price used to be something you could afford.
00:38:41.280 --> 00:38:42.960
Now the price, I can't even afford it.
00:38:43.039 --> 00:38:53.519
I'm gonna have to take out a loan, and the thing we get is this big, and then that when that company's done, all it does is sell itself, it whores itself out and gets taken over.
00:38:53.599 --> 00:39:02.079
And now it's a bigger company that does even worse because now it's not like a makeup or a food company that like it's not a chef making it, it's like probably some AI thing now.
00:39:02.159 --> 00:39:08.800
Yeah, and it's like these companies are just becoming conglomerates, and they're just they sell, they sell everything they can sell.
00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:14.719
Capitalism sells everything it can sell, and then it and then sells itself until there's nothing left.
00:39:14.800 --> 00:39:16.079
Well, it's not sustainable.
00:39:16.320 --> 00:39:17.280
It's such a joke.
00:39:17.440 --> 00:39:22.320
I'm also like, doesn't anybody want to go to the office, go to the factory, say hi, take a lunch break?
00:39:22.400 --> 00:39:23.440
Like, yeah, you know what I mean?
00:39:23.519 --> 00:39:26.079
Like, I I wish my daughter was still interested in Mr.
00:39:26.159 --> 00:39:27.519
Rogers because I love Mr.
00:39:27.599 --> 00:39:30.000
Rogers, and watching it just like soothes me.
00:39:30.159 --> 00:39:34.239
He goes, visits people in factories, and they have jobs that they are proud to show him.
00:39:34.320 --> 00:39:43.840
And they show how a product's made one of these like rocking horses, and they show them every step of the way, and you put a dowel in the in the rocking piece, all whatever the fuck it is.
00:39:44.079 --> 00:39:47.360
And um, it's just it's just crazy.
00:39:47.519 --> 00:39:50.159
But like it's we are middle-aged millennials.
00:39:50.239 --> 00:40:03.599
This is what it means to be a middle-aged millennial is to navigate these systems and share the information and hold on a little bit to the past of what was in like the 70s before you know, uh billionaires started to be literally invented.
00:40:03.760 --> 00:40:04.559
It wasn't even a thing.
00:40:04.639 --> 00:40:14.320
Yeah, it's just a rigging of the system, it's just a cheat code before billionaires were invented, and whatever the fuck the future holds, like we're gonna be the bridge for that, I believe.
00:40:14.639 --> 00:40:15.840
And that's what it feels to be.
00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:20.400
I think it means in this era to really be alive, to be living.
00:40:20.639 --> 00:40:31.360
Like, I what not talking about any of these things and pretending it doesn't exist and just going to work and clocking in and watching the new reality show on Netflix, nothing wrong with that.
00:40:31.760 --> 00:40:44.320
But like there's that's I remember thinking in 2020 how like early 2020, early pandemic, and we were all stuck inside, and everybody was talking about Tiger King.
00:40:44.559 --> 00:40:51.119
And I remember thinking, Whoa, my life this can't be what we're gonna get out of this.
00:40:51.599 --> 00:40:59.599
Like, we're in this thing where everybody on a planet is like experiencing something collectively, and we're connected, and the only thing we're talking about is Tiger King.
00:40:59.679 --> 00:41:01.360
And this was very early.
00:41:01.519 --> 00:41:08.559
Then obviously, Black Lives Matter, you know, people were inspired, and then people were having conversations and there was more reflection.
00:41:08.639 --> 00:41:19.360
But I remember thinking, I feeling hungry for a type of connection and a type of evolution about like we can use this moment to like really go forward and do something more than what we're doing.
00:41:19.519 --> 00:41:22.400
Yeah, and so I think I'm still in that mindset.
00:41:22.639 --> 00:41:23.599
Yeah, me too.
00:41:23.760 --> 00:41:28.239
I I um some days I get down and but every day I get up.
00:41:28.320 --> 00:41:28.960
You know what I mean?
00:41:29.039 --> 00:41:35.119
Like every day I get up, and it's like I get sad because I I I fucking feel, you know what I mean?
00:41:35.199 --> 00:41:41.840
I feel and I think about all the suffering that just doesn't need to be, but it is just something about being a human being that likes.
00:41:41.920 --> 00:41:49.840
I mean, suffering's suffering is a part of being a human being, yeah, but this needless suffering, the ca the needless causing of it really bums me out, man.
00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:50.239
Yeah.
00:41:50.400 --> 00:41:51.360
What do you do to unplug?
00:41:51.760 --> 00:41:57.199
Because you are such an engaged person, and I've seen you get increasingly political, activated, and locked the fuck in.
00:41:57.280 --> 00:41:58.719
But what do you do to tune out?
00:41:59.039 --> 00:42:02.960
Girl, I love to have a nice mint chocolate chip ice cream.
00:42:03.360 --> 00:42:06.239
If you can fucking get ice cream these days, because it's not really ice cream anymore.
00:42:06.320 --> 00:42:07.440
It's now frozen dairy dessert.
00:42:07.519 --> 00:42:11.440
No, it's not even ice cream, they're putting things in it that aren't even real.
00:42:11.679 --> 00:42:12.000
What?
00:42:12.239 --> 00:42:24.320
So, like, even some of my favorite brands, some popular brands from Pennsylvania, uh, are now like if they have, I don't know, 20 flavors in the freezer at the grocery store, maybe two of them.
00:42:25.119 --> 00:42:29.440
A lot of vanillas are still ice cream, but gnarly, dude.
00:42:29.599 --> 00:42:32.400
They're they're like this is like youhoo, which is like chocolate drink.
00:42:32.480 --> 00:42:32.559
Yeah.
00:42:32.719 --> 00:42:33.119
You know what I mean?
00:42:33.360 --> 00:42:33.519
Exactly.
00:42:33.679 --> 00:42:34.559
Tell me chocolate milk.
00:42:34.719 --> 00:42:39.199
I'm not even knocking it because I like enjoyed it plenty when I was a kid, but damn, I don't know what the fuck that is.
00:42:39.519 --> 00:42:40.719
I want it to be ice cream.
00:42:40.960 --> 00:42:41.519
Me too.
00:42:42.159 --> 00:42:43.280
Why can't it be ice cream?
00:42:43.440 --> 00:42:44.480
I wish it could.
00:42:44.800 --> 00:42:45.599
That's so still.
00:42:45.920 --> 00:42:46.320
It was.
00:42:46.559 --> 00:42:46.800
Yeah.
00:42:47.039 --> 00:42:48.480
You got it, you tricked us into it.
00:42:48.800 --> 00:42:49.599
Five minutes ago.
00:42:49.679 --> 00:42:50.000
It was.
00:42:50.159 --> 00:42:51.280
Five fucking minutes ago.
00:42:51.440 --> 00:42:52.480
Okay, that's gnarly.
00:42:52.639 --> 00:42:54.400
But I I love uh ice cream and horror movies.
00:42:54.480 --> 00:42:54.880
That's my.
00:42:55.280 --> 00:42:56.880
Ooh, Jesus, what's your latest?
00:42:57.119 --> 00:42:57.519
Ooh.
00:42:57.760 --> 00:43:00.079
I well, of course I did go and see obsession.
00:43:00.159 --> 00:43:09.199
I'm still like on like in a um uh marvel at uh um sinners.
00:43:09.679 --> 00:43:11.199
Because I just thought it was so brilliant.
00:43:11.280 --> 00:43:16.480
It gave it gave me things I didn't like multiple things I didn't even know I needed.
00:43:16.639 --> 00:43:18.960
It gave me some scare and some woo, that's scary.
00:43:19.199 --> 00:43:19.440
Uh-huh.
00:43:19.599 --> 00:43:26.159
But it also gave me some obviously great acting and great performances, but it also gave us like some beautifully done history.
00:43:26.239 --> 00:43:26.559
Oh, yeah.
00:43:26.639 --> 00:43:27.760
That was just like shit.
00:43:28.000 --> 00:43:28.639
Woo! Yeah.
00:43:29.199 --> 00:43:31.119
And all shown, nothing told.
00:43:31.280 --> 00:43:32.960
Like exactly.
00:43:33.199 --> 00:43:33.599
Holy shit.
00:43:33.679 --> 00:43:34.079
It was perfect.
00:43:34.239 --> 00:43:34.880
It was brilliant.
00:43:34.960 --> 00:43:36.719
I I can't, I loved it.
00:43:36.800 --> 00:43:36.960
Yep.
00:43:37.199 --> 00:43:39.440
So so that was my latest, like, do you rewatch?
00:43:40.320 --> 00:43:40.559
I will.
00:43:40.719 --> 00:43:43.440
Yeah, I girl, I saw that movie probably like eight times.
00:43:43.599 --> 00:43:44.320
Wow, wow.
00:43:44.559 --> 00:43:45.280
I was extra.
00:43:45.519 --> 00:43:46.079
Do you watch it?
00:43:46.159 --> 00:43:48.400
Do you watch horror movies and then go to sleep?
00:43:48.639 --> 00:43:49.519
Every night.
00:43:50.559 --> 00:43:51.920
Are you a good sleeper?
00:43:52.880 --> 00:43:54.320
No, I'm a light sleeper.
00:43:54.639 --> 00:43:57.760
If I wake up, if like a fly lands in the window, I'm like, what was that?
00:43:57.840 --> 00:43:58.000
Yeah.
00:43:58.320 --> 00:43:59.760
But I'm I don't usually get scared.
00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:01.360
It doesn't scare me.
00:44:01.519 --> 00:44:05.760
I think maybe once every 100 nights, I'll have a nightmare.
00:44:05.840 --> 00:44:09.360
Like maybe once or twice a year, I'll have an unexplained nightmare.
00:44:09.440 --> 00:44:09.679
Uh-huh.
00:44:09.840 --> 00:44:10.719
I'm like, whoa.
00:44:10.960 --> 00:44:11.199
Yeah.
00:44:11.440 --> 00:44:17.599
So, okay, just a few things I wanted to name is that you finished three seasons of Survival of the Thickest.
00:44:18.960 --> 00:44:20.159
Congratulations.
00:44:20.400 --> 00:44:30.880
You were part of, I mean, a history-making television show created by Michelle Buttot, starring Michelle Butteau, our sweet girl, just delicious Michelle.
00:44:31.039 --> 00:44:33.440
Um, and you were part of this entire series.
00:44:33.679 --> 00:44:34.400
The whole series.
00:44:34.559 --> 00:44:35.119
Congratulations.
00:44:35.679 --> 00:44:37.280
I've ever been a part of a whole series.
00:44:37.360 --> 00:44:37.760
Yeah.
00:44:37.920 --> 00:44:40.639
Uh that had more than one uh season.
00:44:40.880 --> 00:44:43.119
And I, it was great, thank you.
00:44:43.280 --> 00:44:44.079
Like I loved it.
00:44:44.239 --> 00:44:46.159
Obviously, love Michelle, love work with her.
00:44:46.320 --> 00:44:48.000
I love the atmosphere that she created.
00:44:48.079 --> 00:44:52.239
It was really inclusive and women-led, which was so great.
00:44:52.400 --> 00:44:52.559
Yeah.
00:44:52.880 --> 00:44:54.480
And I just loved the show.
00:44:54.639 --> 00:45:14.480
I love that we were able to uh have especially in the third season, which obviously had a lot to wrap up, talking about like fertility and including my character in that in a one in a scene that was involved in a conversation about fertility and bodily autonomy, because those things like intersect like no other.
00:45:15.119 --> 00:45:17.119
And and I just it felt great.
00:45:17.199 --> 00:45:17.679
So I loved it.
00:45:17.840 --> 00:45:18.559
Now I got the bug.
00:45:18.639 --> 00:45:19.440
I'm ready to.
00:45:19.599 --> 00:45:24.400
I mean, I would like more productions to be happening.
00:45:24.559 --> 00:45:25.360
I know in general.
00:45:25.760 --> 00:45:27.280
TV and film is in a tough state right now.
00:45:27.440 --> 00:45:29.519
Yeah, so I guess it's it's back to theater, hopefully.
00:45:30.079 --> 00:45:33.280
Well, you made history starring in head over heels on Broadway.
00:45:33.599 --> 00:45:34.400
Darling, darling.
00:45:34.639 --> 00:45:35.440
Is that what I saw you in?
00:45:35.760 --> 00:45:36.159
Yes, girl.
00:45:36.239 --> 00:45:36.480
Yes.
00:45:37.440 --> 00:45:37.920
In 2018.
00:45:39.039 --> 00:45:39.440
That's right.
00:45:39.519 --> 00:45:40.079
Oh my god.
00:45:40.239 --> 00:45:41.760
And you were really shining on stage.
00:45:41.840 --> 00:45:43.280
Are you interested in doing Broadway again?
00:45:43.519 --> 00:45:45.119
Yes, absolutely I mean, absolutely.
00:45:45.360 --> 00:45:53.039
Although I'm a little like, I got a little spoiled because doing head over heels was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.
00:45:53.519 --> 00:46:01.440
Originating a role and being in an original production of something is like, oh my god, there's there's no blueprint beforehand to look at and reference.
00:46:01.599 --> 00:46:02.320
There's no reference.
00:46:02.559 --> 00:46:05.679
It's like we're doing the work, and that's what it's gonna be.
00:46:05.840 --> 00:46:06.079
Yeah.
00:46:06.960 --> 00:46:15.360
And then like the whole that on top of staging the production and teching it and all those things and with the previews, it was just like, I was like, oh my god, get me out of here.
00:46:15.599 --> 00:46:17.199
But we did it, it was great, I loved it.
00:46:17.920 --> 00:46:19.679
It was something I'll never forget.
00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:38.480
Uh but now I'm a little bit of a sun-house because I'm like, well, so many of my friends have gone on to do Broadway shows, which have been there to celebrate, and I've been so excited to go and see them uh take over a role that like I, you know, loved listening to or looking at when I was younger.
00:46:38.719 --> 00:46:40.880
But now I'm like, I want to originate only.
00:46:41.119 --> 00:46:41.679
Oh, really?
00:46:42.079 --> 00:46:47.039
Wait, wait, when you did Broadway, was that was this an original, was it the first time it had ever been done on Broadway?
00:46:47.199 --> 00:46:49.519
It had it was the first time it had ever been done on Broadway.
00:46:49.599 --> 00:46:49.760
Yeah.
00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:51.039
So you originated.
00:46:51.199 --> 00:46:51.519
Okay.
00:46:51.760 --> 00:46:52.880
You did, copy that.
00:46:53.280 --> 00:46:55.280
You know, what was it done as a play before?
00:46:55.360 --> 00:46:55.599
I don't know.
00:46:55.840 --> 00:46:57.679
No, it was um Good Night and Good Luck was a movie.
00:46:57.840 --> 00:47:06.800
It was a film, and that was you originated, so then that's very different because going and doing like, oh hey, will you do you know, such and such a play?
00:47:06.960 --> 00:47:07.519
Yeah, whatever.
00:47:07.920 --> 00:47:10.880
Uh, here's the script, you're in it for two weeks, you know, we'll have one rehearsal.
00:47:11.039 --> 00:47:12.320
Like it's just a different experience.
00:47:12.480 --> 00:47:13.199
Right, right.
00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:16.079
So anyway, but that's really interesting.
00:47:16.159 --> 00:47:16.320
Yeah.
00:47:16.480 --> 00:47:18.320
So you prefer, you would prefer to originate.
00:47:19.199 --> 00:47:24.880
You can really put the work is really there, and it's like, okay, we can do and whatever it's gonna be.
00:47:25.119 --> 00:47:28.960
And it really connects you to the legacy of the work.
00:47:29.119 --> 00:47:29.280
Right.
00:47:29.599 --> 00:47:39.519
Because then for the few years after Head Over Heels, I was getting calls from high school directors and people, and they were like, We wanna do this show.
00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:48.320
We're looking for they were looking for black, trans, queer people to create the role that I originated, and they were looking for them.
00:47:48.480 --> 00:47:48.719
Wow.
00:47:49.199 --> 00:47:55.840
Like, I've never heard of anybody looking to h hire or enlist or whatever.
00:47:56.000 --> 00:47:56.239
Yeah.
00:47:56.880 --> 00:47:57.920
Somebody like me.
00:47:58.400 --> 00:48:00.400
For young people too, that's like incredible.
00:48:00.880 --> 00:48:02.960
So I was like, this is what it needs to be.
00:48:03.199 --> 00:48:04.079
That's cool.
00:48:04.320 --> 00:48:09.360
Um, okay, I'm like sort of like running through your like incredible portfolio right now, your living portfolio.
00:48:09.440 --> 00:48:11.519
But tell me uh about a deeper love.
00:48:12.000 --> 00:48:13.039
I did oh my gosh.
00:48:13.199 --> 00:48:17.599
So, yeah, we have a uh a film that just released last year called A Deeper Love.
00:48:17.679 --> 00:48:21.119
It's a documentary that follows my story.
00:48:21.360 --> 00:48:25.199
Um, and it's in the uh film festival circuit right now.
00:48:25.679 --> 00:48:29.280
It's just at the end of the film festival circuit, but it's gotten a really great response.
00:48:29.599 --> 00:48:31.039
You won the award at Pride at Fire Island.
00:48:31.440 --> 00:48:32.079
Yeah, we did.
00:48:32.239 --> 00:48:33.039
I can't believe it.
00:48:33.199 --> 00:48:37.039
We won the award for best document feature documentary.
00:48:37.199 --> 00:48:40.400
Uh the award is like mammoth.
00:48:40.559 --> 00:48:43.280
It's so heavy, and I love, I was like, oh my god, y'all, y'all spent money on this.
00:48:43.679 --> 00:48:45.519
I love a hefty hefty package.
00:48:45.840 --> 00:48:46.239
Charlene.
00:48:46.400 --> 00:48:46.480
Wow.
00:48:46.880 --> 00:48:47.360
Hello.
00:48:48.000 --> 00:48:50.559
Um, so I'm really I'm I'm proud of it.
00:48:50.880 --> 00:48:52.559
I can't take credit for it.
00:48:52.639 --> 00:48:55.519
It's the Yeah, tell me about what it like, how it came together.
00:48:55.840 --> 00:49:07.039
Uh a very good friend of mine, Oriel Payer, who uh was here in New York and we were uh he was I think it's just going to my shows, my drag shows right in the early 2000s.
00:49:07.599 --> 00:49:12.559
And I I think one day I realized he had a camera.
00:49:12.719 --> 00:49:15.119
And I was like, oh my god, will you film a video of mine?
00:49:15.280 --> 00:49:16.320
Will you help me edit?
00:49:16.480 --> 00:49:18.800
And so we've been working really, really closely together.
00:49:18.880 --> 00:49:20.239
I'm gonna keep being Mother Darling.
00:49:20.559 --> 00:49:22.000
Um thank you for my team.
00:49:22.719 --> 00:49:27.119
Uh we kept working together on various video projects and things over the years.
00:49:27.360 --> 00:49:31.199
And then one day I said, you know, I I'm transitioning.
00:49:31.599 --> 00:49:45.360
Uh, you know, like I was really on my focus on my medical transition, focus on and I knew that I was also at the same time having a lot of like professional moments and things to celebrate, accolades and performances and blah blah blah blah.
00:49:45.599 --> 00:49:49.519
And I was like, I never record those, like they're just gonna disappear.
00:49:49.679 --> 00:49:49.840
Right.
00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:50.960
It's like I gotta start.
00:49:51.039 --> 00:49:51.599
Can we record?
00:49:51.679 --> 00:49:53.679
So I was like, can you record some of my shows and come with me?
00:49:53.840 --> 00:49:55.840
One thing led to another and turned into a documentary.
00:49:56.000 --> 00:49:56.320
Wow.
00:49:56.480 --> 00:49:58.079
And that was before I did drag race.
00:49:58.159 --> 00:50:05.280
So like what and then we had to stop obviously filming, and then it took a whole nother direction.
00:50:05.440 --> 00:50:06.559
Wow after drag race.
00:50:06.719 --> 00:50:07.519
Just look at the draw.
00:50:07.679 --> 00:50:08.719
Oh my god, Peppermint.
00:50:08.800 --> 00:50:13.199
I still like uh think about your double reveal all the time.
00:50:13.360 --> 00:50:18.239
The double wig reveal and then the fucking dress letting it down and spinning.
00:50:18.320 --> 00:50:21.519
Like, I don't it'll never, it'll never leave my mind.
00:50:21.599 --> 00:50:22.480
And you know what's so funny?
00:50:22.559 --> 00:50:26.719
We just started um showing our daughter drag race and she's just obsessed.
00:50:26.800 --> 00:50:35.920
And it's like so funny how not funny, I mean it's sick, how conservatives twist um drag performance as something that's dangerous for kids when it's like, no, kids love it.
00:50:36.480 --> 00:50:40.239
And it like lets them be free and twirl and sparkly.
00:50:40.320 --> 00:50:43.360
Boy or girl, it's not a it's not a sexual thing, it's not anything.
00:50:44.079 --> 00:50:46.800
And um, she wants everybody's everything.
00:50:46.960 --> 00:50:49.679
She wants their dress, she wants their wig, she wants their this, she wants their that.
00:50:49.920 --> 00:50:52.719
Um but she's gonna die when we get to your season.
00:50:52.880 --> 00:50:54.880
Oh my god, it was just incredible.
00:50:55.119 --> 00:50:55.920
How'd you think of it?
00:50:56.159 --> 00:50:56.559
I loved it.
00:50:56.639 --> 00:50:59.039
I mean, it was really No, how'd you think of that double reveal?
00:50:59.440 --> 00:50:59.840
Oh, oh.
00:50:59.920 --> 00:51:01.440
Um Had you ever done it before?
00:51:01.679 --> 00:51:04.480
Um, no, because the platinum, it was shocking.
00:51:04.719 --> 00:51:05.920
Girl, it was wild.
00:51:06.159 --> 00:51:19.199
I wanted to do a okay, so the dress was designed for by Angel Alaya Kotor uh for for a different song for uh Christina Aguilera's fighter.
00:51:19.360 --> 00:51:19.519
Okay.
00:51:19.679 --> 00:51:25.440
So I was like, okay, I need to do something that feels like the a fighter, battle, soldier kind of thing.
00:51:25.519 --> 00:51:27.280
And I was like, oh, let's do like a Roman style dress.
00:51:27.360 --> 00:51:32.400
So, like, that's what the more than that, like it needs to do something.
00:51:32.480 --> 00:51:35.199
I'm not just to be bouncing around in this thing, let's do a reveal.
00:51:35.360 --> 00:51:38.239
And we'd never seen anything like that every the show before.
00:51:38.559 --> 00:51:39.599
So I was like, let's do this.
00:51:39.760 --> 00:51:45.119
And I was like, okay, it's real simple to like have on a cloak and then take it off and then you have a bikini.
00:51:45.199 --> 00:51:45.519
Uh-huh.
00:51:45.760 --> 00:51:46.719
We've seen that before.
00:51:46.880 --> 00:51:47.360
Yep.
00:51:47.599 --> 00:51:51.119
I was like, let's do a short dress and then it turns into a gown.
00:51:51.360 --> 00:51:51.920
Incredible.
00:51:52.079 --> 00:51:58.000
And so, like, we engineered it and thought about it, and we figured it out, and it was like trial and error.
00:51:58.159 --> 00:52:01.119
And then I'd never actually put on the dress until that time.
00:52:01.840 --> 00:52:02.639
You're kidding me.
00:52:05.119 --> 00:52:07.119
And I was, they were like, Okay, you're on for the thing.
00:52:07.199 --> 00:52:09.039
And I was like, Okay, well, here's the dress.
00:52:09.280 --> 00:52:09.840
Here we go.
00:52:09.920 --> 00:52:17.760
And I had my assistant trying to help do a couple things, and one of the latches didn't work, like it was it needed to be fitted again, but we didn't have time.
00:52:18.159 --> 00:52:19.360
So we safety pinned.
00:52:19.440 --> 00:52:23.440
So in the season or during that performance, I put my hand behind my back.
00:52:23.519 --> 00:52:27.440
I'm undoing the safety pin because there was no other way to do it.
00:52:27.840 --> 00:52:29.840
And so I was like, okay, I gotta do the safety pin.
00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:35.199
So I did it and I got it out, luckily, and then was able to do it and did the hair at the same time, and it worked.
00:52:35.360 --> 00:52:37.519
And I'm it's unforgettable.
00:52:37.760 --> 00:52:39.119
It is unforgettable.
00:52:39.440 --> 00:52:44.480
I went to go see recently on Broadway again, um, Titanic that who just closed.
00:52:44.719 --> 00:52:45.039
Us too.
00:52:45.119 --> 00:52:46.480
And we also brought our five-year-old.
00:52:46.719 --> 00:52:47.119
Yep.
00:52:47.280 --> 00:52:49.119
And they have the drag race moment in there.
00:52:49.280 --> 00:52:49.360
Yes.
00:52:50.400 --> 00:52:56.239
Girl, did you know that that I'm not sure when you saw it, but the blue dress, it's my dress.
00:52:56.480 --> 00:53:00.239
They, if you go back and look, they do they do the reveal.
00:53:00.400 --> 00:53:04.400
It's the same Roman skirt thing.
00:53:05.280 --> 00:53:07.599
It's it's my wow dress.
00:53:07.840 --> 00:53:08.800
And I was like, oh my god.
00:53:08.880 --> 00:53:17.760
And they recently, like, um, before they closed, uh, I guess they like revised the costumes a bit and they tweaked it, and they tweaked it, made it even more like my dress.
00:53:17.920 --> 00:53:18.159
Wow.
00:53:18.400 --> 00:53:19.920
I was like, okay, now it's undeniable.
00:53:20.079 --> 00:53:20.480
Yeah, yeah.
00:53:20.800 --> 00:53:21.440
I mean, which I live.
00:53:21.599 --> 00:53:21.920
I live for.
00:53:22.079 --> 00:53:23.440
I was like, yeah.
00:53:23.760 --> 00:53:30.960
Um, we were, I like hadn't seen it, and uh, my brother was like, my brother Ellie Glazer was like, I implore you.
00:53:31.119 --> 00:53:33.519
He did not know how to tell me like more aggressively.
00:53:33.679 --> 00:53:35.840
He's like, you have to see it before it closes.
00:53:36.000 --> 00:53:41.039
And I I've just been touring so much, I didn't want to be like, bye, baby, I'm leaving again, whatever.
00:53:41.280 --> 00:53:44.800
So we brought our five-year-old, we were dying.
00:53:45.280 --> 00:53:47.119
It's like dying, wild thing.
00:53:47.519 --> 00:53:48.800
Wild and so funny.
00:53:49.039 --> 00:53:54.159
It was so funny, and she loved it because honestly, because we had primed her on drag race, she was like ready for it.
00:53:54.239 --> 00:53:54.800
Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:53:55.119 --> 00:53:57.920
Oh my god, Tina Turner as an iceberg.
00:53:58.639 --> 00:54:03.039
You guys! We were dying, we were just fucking dying.
00:54:03.360 --> 00:54:08.719
Um, okay, finally, Peppermint, congratulations on your second time winning out 100.
00:54:08.800 --> 00:54:10.559
And you're leading the artist section this time.
00:54:10.639 --> 00:54:14.400
The first time was in 2018, which is when, right, when you were doing head over heels.
00:54:14.639 --> 00:54:15.519
I don't remember a thing.
00:54:15.679 --> 00:54:15.920
Right.
00:54:16.159 --> 00:54:18.400
Um, how does it feel now at this point in your career?
00:54:18.639 --> 00:54:20.079
You've been fucking in it.
00:54:20.239 --> 00:54:20.880
How does it feel?
00:54:21.119 --> 00:54:21.760
It feels great.
00:54:21.840 --> 00:54:30.800
It feels it feels great to be recognized for what you do, especially, you know, like I used to fret and bite my nails thinking the people aren't gonna understand me.
00:54:31.039 --> 00:54:38.079
Like as a queer person of color and blah blah blah, like it's I know I'm not like the everybody's company anyway.
00:54:38.320 --> 00:54:45.119
And then being somebody who's like, I love acting, I love singing, I love dancing, I love performance, I also love politics.
00:54:45.199 --> 00:54:47.280
Like, how do these things all fit together?
00:54:47.599 --> 00:54:53.360
Um, I I ten years ago, there wasn't a lane to do that.
00:54:53.519 --> 00:54:53.679
Yep.
00:54:53.840 --> 00:54:54.719
Like, yep, yep, yep.
00:54:55.119 --> 00:55:01.360
I remember when we were kids, it was like people when they were when JLo came out with an album, people were like, you know what I mean?
00:55:01.440 --> 00:55:02.320
Like no, what do you mean?
00:55:02.800 --> 00:55:05.119
You know, people were like, You're gonna you're a dancer.
00:55:05.760 --> 00:55:06.480
Oh, right, right, right.
00:55:06.639 --> 00:55:12.559
And they're like, she's a multi- once they decided to embrace her or whatever, they're like, She's a multi-hyphenite, yeah, whatever.
00:55:14.400 --> 00:55:14.880
Yes, yes, yes.
00:55:15.280 --> 00:55:19.039
We used to be like J Looking on an album, people would like make fun of that.
00:55:19.360 --> 00:55:20.320
Totally, totally, totally.
00:55:20.559 --> 00:55:21.199
And vice versa.
00:55:21.280 --> 00:55:24.960
If you were a singer trying to act, it'd be like, oh god, this is gonna go.
00:55:25.039 --> 00:55:25.280
Uh-huh.
00:55:25.440 --> 00:55:28.320
And so now that's like part of the course, it's normal.
00:55:28.480 --> 00:55:29.679
And so I'm grateful for that.
00:55:29.760 --> 00:55:38.000
And so um, I've grown more into that, yeah, since the last time I was honored and named as one of the M300.
00:55:38.239 --> 00:55:40.239
And so, um Congratulations on it.
00:55:40.400 --> 00:55:47.440
It's so nice to have, you know, it's like it's just you, it's I'm so glad that you have these like sort of milestones to look at, you know.
00:55:47.679 --> 00:55:48.000
Thank you.
00:55:48.239 --> 00:55:50.000
2018, 2026.
00:55:50.079 --> 00:55:50.880
That's eight years.
00:55:50.960 --> 00:55:53.039
Um, because I'm really good at simple math.
00:55:53.599 --> 00:55:56.559
And, you know, to look at what's happened the past eight years.
00:55:56.800 --> 00:56:08.960
And, you know, like you said, like it's it really does feel like it's only gonna get more and more um accepted and then embraced to be political, yeah, as an artist.
00:56:09.199 --> 00:56:12.880
Yeah, and you can see what just happened with Ed Shear.
00:56:13.119 --> 00:56:14.800
I'm laughing because it's so laughable.
00:56:15.039 --> 00:56:18.079
It that was an inflection point in the culture where it's like, this isn't cool.
00:56:18.320 --> 00:56:22.480
If you can't say genocide sucks, it's not cool.
00:56:22.800 --> 00:56:23.360
I'm sorry.
00:56:23.440 --> 00:56:23.519
Yeah.
00:56:23.760 --> 00:56:24.239
What else?
00:56:24.320 --> 00:56:46.800
What then music, art, art, and I, and I consider myself an artist, not because I'm a great painter, not because I'm some fabulous singer or any of that, because I am, I will not not speak truth to what's happening to other people around me and what's happening.
00:56:47.280 --> 00:56:49.440
I have to do we I we have to find a way to do that.
00:56:49.519 --> 00:56:56.559
And I try to find a way to do that in a way that's creative or palatable or like you know, interesting or memorable or whatever it's gonna be.
00:56:56.639 --> 00:56:57.599
And I think that's the art.
00:56:57.760 --> 00:56:58.000
Yep.
00:56:58.079 --> 00:56:59.360
And agreed, agreed, agreed, agreed.
00:57:00.159 --> 00:57:00.800
What are you singing about?
00:57:00.880 --> 00:57:02.960
I don't what you're singing about nothing.
00:57:03.119 --> 00:57:03.360
Yep.
00:57:03.519 --> 00:57:07.760
If you're not singing about what's going on around you, what are you doing?
00:57:07.920 --> 00:57:10.159
And that's when you can be replaced by AI.
00:57:11.119 --> 00:57:11.760
Boom.
00:57:12.559 --> 00:57:14.559
I've got a song about nothing.
00:57:14.719 --> 00:57:15.519
I feel nothing.
00:57:16.079 --> 00:57:16.320
No, man.
00:57:16.719 --> 00:57:18.079
Don't you love nothing?
00:57:18.400 --> 00:57:19.039
Oh my gosh.
00:57:19.280 --> 00:57:23.280
And and I really think that was this big turning point for the general public.
00:57:23.440 --> 00:57:24.800
You know, he had to cancel shows.
00:57:25.039 --> 00:57:27.599
I feel for him, where I'm like, you you didn't know.
00:57:27.840 --> 00:57:31.119
You didn't know, and and you are now the turning point.
00:57:31.360 --> 00:57:32.079
How did you not know?
00:57:32.480 --> 00:57:35.199
Who who he didn't know Malcolm Moore was gonna be on that show?
00:57:35.440 --> 00:57:36.559
I was crazy.
00:57:36.960 --> 00:57:41.039
And it it's and I'm just like, this, he was he was the turning point at Jiren.
00:57:41.119 --> 00:57:42.639
He became the turning point.
00:57:43.039 --> 00:57:46.320
It was it's undeniable, it was real, and now we're not doing that.
00:57:46.880 --> 00:57:47.679
We cannot go back.
00:57:47.920 --> 00:57:52.559
I mean, it's it's building and it's building, and I'm so excited about how political you've gotten.
00:57:52.639 --> 00:57:55.519
It's really um exciting to be in this conversation together.
00:57:55.679 --> 00:57:56.960
Look at this fucking conversation.
00:57:57.119 --> 00:57:59.519
We cannot not talk about what the fuck is happening.
00:57:59.760 --> 00:58:01.039
It's true, it's true.
00:58:01.280 --> 00:58:02.960
Um, thank you so much for joining me today.
00:58:03.039 --> 00:58:10.400
What an enlivening, hopeful, momentous, like there's momentum building in this conversation, in this movement.
00:58:10.480 --> 00:58:19.280
And Peppermint's Transcendence Tea, I can't tell you, I cannot describe to you how delicious and like gorgeous this tea is to hold in my hand.
00:58:19.440 --> 00:58:22.480
You have to buy a bag of it yourself.
00:58:22.639 --> 00:58:24.239
Thank you so much for joining me today, Peppermint.
00:58:24.400 --> 00:58:24.719
Well, thank you.
00:58:24.800 --> 00:58:40.480
And I want to give you your flowers because I was able to, when you started Generator Collective back during the pandemic, I was able to, you were providing a really good example of an artist who's able to be politically engaged and just be and tell the truth.
00:58:40.559 --> 00:58:41.360
And so thank you for that.
00:58:41.599 --> 00:58:42.320
Oh, it's my pleasure.
00:58:42.480 --> 00:58:42.960
Thank you so much.
00:58:43.119 --> 00:58:57.519
It is so my pleasure to be part of the human rights movement that I didn't really have access to or know about um before, honestly, embarrassingly, since Trump was elected, that was me as the body I move through this world in.
00:58:57.679 --> 00:59:00.079
That was my like waking up.
00:59:00.320 --> 00:59:06.880
And um, it's it's not only exciting and powerful to be part of it, but it like actually is fun.
00:59:07.119 --> 00:59:08.320
It's fun and hot and cool.
00:59:08.480 --> 00:59:10.320
So it's really fun to be doing it with you.
00:59:10.880 --> 00:59:11.760
Cheers, mother.
00:59:14.800 --> 00:59:16.480
Thank you so much for joining us today.
00:59:16.639 --> 00:59:18.159
God damn, I needed that conversation.
00:59:18.239 --> 00:59:22.880
Thank you, Peppermint, for joining us and Peppermint's Transcendence Tea, Bamoody Teas.
00:59:23.119 --> 00:59:23.599
Yes.
00:59:23.760 --> 00:59:27.199
Um, I want to thank my producer today, David Rooklyn.
00:59:27.280 --> 00:59:29.039
I want to thank the Brain Trust of producers.
00:59:29.119 --> 00:59:32.639
That's Madeline Kim, Glennis Mahar, Kelsey Kylie, and Anica Carlson.
00:59:32.880 --> 00:59:40.159
Thank you to our editor, Tova Liebowitz, as well as Raymond Ventura for the opening uh musical sting and these beautiful graphics.
00:59:40.320 --> 00:59:45.920
I want to thank Don Hur for the outro music and the people who made this podcast look and sound so beautiful.
00:59:46.000 --> 00:59:48.800
That's Nicole Moffin, Kevin Deming, and Lexa Krebs.
00:59:49.039 --> 00:59:52.400
If you like this show, like and subscribe, comment, get into it.
00:59:52.480 --> 00:59:55.039
It really makes a difference if we're able to make this show.
00:59:55.199 --> 00:59:58.239
Um, this is a human made production, humans only, baby.
00:59:58.320 --> 01:00:00.960
It's a Star Pix production, and we are so proud of that.
01:00:01.039 --> 01:00:04.400
Uh, thank you so much, and looking forward to seeing you next time.