Welcome to another episode of Lurie Breaks It Down, a podcast where we dig deeply to connect the dots on the issues that shape our world.

I'm Lurie Daniel Favors, author, activist, attorney, and the host of the Lurie Daniel Favors show on Sirius XM's Urban View, Channel 126. If you like what you're about to hear, go ahead and give us five stars and then tell everybody that you know. And if you don't like it, just, child, keep it to yourself and pray our strength. Okay, thank you so much. Also, don't forget to check out my YouTube page, Lurie Daniel Favor's Media, where you should subscribe, like, and share, because then you'll get notified when I post videos from my show, which I do just about every single day and when I go live with my YouTube audience. So this Sunday, a lot of us are going to be in a spirit of celebration, celebrating the

fathers, the men in our lives who really contributed to who we are as people today. And I know that

that can be a very powerful, loving, amazing moment for a lot of us. And for others of us, it can be

a moment that's fraught with a lot of challenge and sadness as well. We have in our communities,

we run the gamut when it comes to our relationships with the people in our communities. And

our fathers are no different. And today I want you to take a listen to this conversation

that I had with Mayor Brandon Scott. Now, earlier this week at Sirius XM, we had a town hall.

And my show hosted a town hall called Black Men Matter.

And this was really a tribute to fathers on Father's Day,

even though not every person on the panel was a father.

It was really more about using Father's Day

as an opportunity to highlight the conversations and the interests

and the passions and the fears and the concerns that many black men in our community hold.

And for those of you who are curious, yes, you will get a chance to see that town hall.

It'll be on our YouTube page at some point next week.

However, what's really important for this conversation is a recognition that fathers don't just come in a singular form.

And sometimes the people who provide us father-like energy may not have any biological connection to us at all.

My father, for example, he and I had an interesting relationship. I think he tried his best to be a good dad.

But he was also limited by the very small level of capacity that he perceived for himself in many ways. And now that he's an

ancestor, and I engage in more communication with him as an ancestor because I incorporate ancestor

veneration in my personal spiritual practices, I feel like in some ways I'm able to walk in a spirit

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