Hey everyone.

Welcome and thanks for joining us on the tightrope where as you know,

we have engaged in rich dialogue and try every episode, every week to keep our balance on ever tougher issues.

I'm Tricia Rose, and I'm here today with my dear friend and colleague, Dr. Cornel West,

and we have a big important announcement to make today, which is that we are no longer doing the

tightrope. This is our final episode.

And we want to talk about the show with you and say our best wishes and reflections.

But before we get into that, I want to ask Cornell how he's feeling in this moment,

as I always do.

Cornell, how are you feeling right now, my dear?

My dear sister, it is always a moment of unadulterated joy to be in your presence and to be in dialogue with you.

That has been the case now for over 13 consecutive months, that there is no objective measure that can keep track of the fun,

the wisdom, the insight, the laughter, sometimes the tears, sometimes the singing,

sometimes the moaning, and the groaning, all of those are priceless realities that we have shared over the time span of the tightrope. So that on the one hand, I say with the whispers,

it's a love thing, and it's been a love thing. And then I say with my Greek sister Sappho,

Greek sister of thousands of years ago,

where she say, oh, love is in some sense bittersweet.

And this is a bittersweet moment.

Even contemplate, let alone have to announce that we're bringing the tightrope to a

close. But how are you feeling, my dear sister? Well, I'm hanging on, brother. You know,

I'm hanging on every week. I do my best for that. And, you know, it is for sure a bittersweet

moment. You know, it's hard to believe that. And, you know, it is for sure a bittersweet moment. You know, it's hard to believe that,

...