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It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

Welcome to The Takeaway. I'm Melissa Harris-Perry.

Now, we've been telling you for a few weeks that we're coming to the end of the road here at The Takeaway.

On Friday, June 2nd, we will broadcast our final

episode. And as we head into these last days, we're taking the time to pause and show a little

gratitude for the extraordinary team of producers who make the takeaway every day.

Up first, our senior producer, Shanta Covington. Hi, my name is Monica. I'd say

Shanta has charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent. This is Ryan Wilde. I'm a producer here. I would say

she's our rock, rock solid. She does the job of at least three people. She never complains about it. She's always putting others on the team first. Has the most relentless work ethic I've ever encountered. And she's all of that, but not at all overbearing or micromanaging. She trusts us to do

her thing. As you just heard from some of the members of team takeaway, Shanta Covington is no

ordinary person or producer. A proud Afro-Latina of Panamanian descent and Long Island upbringing,

Shanta is simply astonishing.

Brave and talented, kind and hilarious, relentless, and brilliant.

To keep it all the way real, Shanta exists in a class and a category all her own.

Hi, this is Mary Steffenhagen.

If I had to describe Shanta as a leader in five words or less, I'd say she is magic.

I don't know how she finds the time to do all of the work that she does for the show

because she's basically three people at once.

And if she's stressed about it, you'd never know.

...