The

The Welcome to Media Roots Radio. This is Abby Martin.

And this is Robbie Martin. It's nice to have you back, Abby, after a long little vacation.

But you're not back for good yet. Explain.

Right. I mean, for people who don't know yet, I'm sure they do if they listen to this show,

I've been on maternity leave since the beginning of June, and I will still be on maternity leave throughout the summer.

I wanted to take a break, and it's kind of a very bittersweet thing to say that as I'm

celebrating life at home with the birth of my child, I wanted to come on to give a special

media roots tribute to my friend and colleague Michael

Jamal Brooks and commemorate the loss of a friend. So it's a really hard time, even though

something really great has happened in my personal life. This year has been really rough. And

with the shocking passing of Michael Brooks,

I felt like I had to come back to give my own personal tribute to his life, his work, his legacy,

and just kind of talk about who he was as a person to me and to so many others with you, Robbie.

Yeah. I mean, for me, it was absolutely shocking.

I've, sadly, I learned about it happening while I was live streaming.

And I think I found out before you did, Abby, like a couple minutes before.

And I, and I texted Mom during the live stream and I said please

tell Abby and I was just I still can't process it as I'm sitting here talking to you. It still doesn't

feel real. I'm sure it's like that for a lot of people. For someone to pass away suddenly at 36 years old

is it's devastating beyond belief.

It's the saddest, I mean, it's the most tragic form of someone dying.

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