Welcome to another. that it's gonna be okay.

Welcome to another episode of the Bakari Sellers podcast. Today we have one of the wittiest, smartest people that I've interviewed on this show.

That might be a low bar, I'm not sure. But I want to bring on my brother

who is an author. I take my coffee black Tyler Merritt. How are you man?

Man, I'm good, bro. I'm so glad to talk to you. We have so many mutual friends, man. It's about time. I mean, we got to do this in person sooner rather. I actually want to move my show to being across from each other so we can drink beer and have

fellowship and be able to get down together. Look, we start my show the same way each episode,

which means we try to get our guests to walk us through the

arc of their career so you're a comedian and actor and an activist talk us through

the arc of your career from your first gigs at the Finnish College, the work you do now with the Tyler Merit Project.

Man, long story short, I've always been that kid, man, that wanted to do something bigger. I was just watching this video, this viral video, this kid dancing at a new new addition concert. I don't know if you see this, I'll send it to you. It's like this little kid who is like dancing to if it isn't love and I remember being like eight man just wanting to do something more and between

starting out rapping as a kid to kind of like survive in the ghettos of Las Vegas to discovering musical theater on accident to starting a rock dam again on accident which brought me to Nashville, Tennessee, working as a youth minister, doing stand-up, putting all those things together and building a community of proximity of so many different types of people, when it came time to talk about real issues that people need to hear about like black people dying and what it's like to be a black person in America, I had suddenly built this, this core of experience to make something special which birth into the Tyler Merr project which combines all of those things

together man. So let's talk about your new book I take my coffee black reflections on

two pot musical theater faith in being black in America.

Unpacked the title for me because that title is of epic proportions.

Why did you choose?

Man, in the book we cover,

listen, I didn't want to write another

how to be an anti-racist only because people that are writing those books are so good at it, right?

But what I'm good at is bringing...

You're being generous.

I'm just saying, when you take really big subjects and try to humanize them.

That's what I do.

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