This week on Small Doses, I wanted to take a moment first before we get into the replay

of this episode to just acknowledge the reality of the violence that continues to permeate our

communities and the importance of understanding where we are in the world right now, especially

in America and the reality that there is a toxicity at play that was always, I think,

here to a certain extent, but that is being conjured. It's being wielded and it's being administered

out to the people on a daily basis by not only the administration, but by the way we're operating

on social media, but by the way journalism is now money-based, profit-based, and all of it plays

into each other. All of it, all of it ends up playing into each other and into the way we interact

as people and regard other living things. This week we lost Nipsey Hussle, an MC, an entrepreneur,

a creative, a father, a husband, a son, a homeboy, etc, etc, etc. Like so many others, he was

gunned down for no real reason and he was only 33 years old. You all know that I am friendly

with his lady, Lauren Lundin, and that's why I wanted to replay this episode's side effects of dating

an artist. In this episode we had Lauren on and she talked candidly about just her experiences

being with Lil Wayne, being with Nip, more so about Nip because they were together very publicly.

We recently saw their beautifully carried out GQ photo shoot in the power couples issue and

their humorous exchange as couples in the GQ couples quiz. And you know in this episode

Lauren speaks honestly and kindly and finally just about the uniqueness of being with somebody like

Nip who was a visionary and somebody who was very clear and rooted in their purpose, very clear and

sure in who they were but also where they came from and where they were going and not just on a

singular level but on a community level where we all could be going. He had a lot of messaging

about economic education amongst black folks about identity education amongst black folks,

about unity, about community specifically about brothers and the reality of how often brothers

...