Right?

Yes, that was me.

The sound that you just heard was me taking a deep breath.

And I hope that everyone in America, especially black and brown people, but especially black people, have allowed themselves today to take a deep breath.

We're about to put our thinking caps on.

This is the Higher Learning podcast.

I am Van Laithen.

I'm Rachel Lindsay.

You were Rachel Lindsay.

Now, if you listen to the way that Rachel said that, she almost

sighed her name. If you guys, she almost sighed. It was almost a breathe out. And it feels as if

before we even get into any other of the multitude of things that we'll be talking about today,

not just, you know, today, but in the life of this podcast, why does it feel like,

to me, your spirit is a little strained today?

There's a lot going on right now that is affecting our community.

And I honestly, Van, I had to, and I hate this because this is our first episode.

This is our, the introduction for higher learning, the people are getting to see what our show is about.

And because our show is about the culture, how do we not, how are we not tired right now?

How are you not sad and how do you not feel heavy with everything that is going on and is affecting us right now?

You said that you had to take a breath.

I had to take a sip.

Okay.

...