For this episode of the Unique Views podcast, we had a special guest lined up. A guest who is directly responsible for changing the world as we know it. A guest who helped influence and alter the musical landscape. A guest who was directly responsible for bringing Beyoncé into existence.
I don't believe in throwing anyone under the bus. The Pod Squad is a three-person leaderless team, so we have nothing if we don't support one another. But someone whose name rhymes with Besha Ballahan totally dropped the ball, and we lost our guest. It's not her fault, really, except it's absolutely her fault. Don't worry, UV-ers—she's working tirelessly to get our special guest back!
What does any of this mean to our listeners? Well, nothing except that you got an extra week of Stephen A. Crockett Jr. and the Podcast Pips: The Root’s social-content producer, Danielle Young, and Senior Editor Yesha Callahan!
I don't want to give it all away, but your host-with-the-most, aka Mr. Steal Your Rent Check, is under the weather. I had to go to a place worse than both bin Laden's cave and Trump's house. I had to go to the dentist, which left Patti LaDanielle to run the show. She even sings the theme song!
With Yesha "I like meats" Callahan as her co-pilot, it didn’t take long for the jokes about me living with my mother to commence. The jokes move from living at home to the one room in your mama's house you couldn't go in, to not using the good china, to paper-plate holders, to natural hair, to brown M&M's being bad for women's uteruses (uteri?). Trust me, this was all done seamlessly, since we are professionals.
And while we would like to be a break from the seriousness of life, we can't avoid heavy topics entirely. So this week's look at the news starts with the tragic death of Korryn Gaines, the Baltimore mother who was shot and killed by police. Although the story is still unfolding, we take a hard look at the videotaped interactions the 23-year-old had with the police prior to her death. Because of some of the controversial statements Gaines made during a traffic stop, we debate ideologies around being Hotep vs. being woke.
After a brief break (which could be filled with ads from sponsors; yes, we are looking at you, Ford Motor Co.), we move to Malia Obama and "the three-second twerk heard round the world." We debate whether the first child has rhythm and if she got in trouble once she got home.
I wish the next segment was a joke, but unfortunately it's not: Charles Barkley has a new show on race relations. I do a stellar Barkley impersonation that Patti LaDanielle attempts to match. Yesha believes she sounds like Jesse Jackson. We all hope the worst for Mr. Barkley's show, except we don't.
We don't stop there, but I can't give you all the goods or else you won't listen to the show. Speaking of listeners (shameless plug to big-up the hard work we do to keep this show fresh and entertaining), last week's show was our biggest yet! We feel like we're on to something, and more importantly, the people, you people—and we don't mean this in a racist Trump way—like us! So after you listen to this week's show, hop on our Twitter page and follow us. We are going to do contests and giveaways. (We are never doing contests or giveaways, but all the big places with lots of followers say this.)
Also check back to see if Yesha gets our special guest back! Until then, here's the latest episode:
Stephen A. Crockett Jr. is a senior editor at The Root. Follow him on Twitter.