1167: Charlamagne Tha God | Get Honest or Die Lying

1167: Charlamagne Tha God | Get Honest or Die Lying

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Jordan Harbinger: Coming up next on The Jordan Harbinger Show.

Charlamagne Tha God: [00:00:00] When you go from the ambitious part, that's the first part to the success part. That's when you really start to see what kind of demon ego can be. Especially if you have a wounded ego, especially if you've got a lot of trauma that you haven't dealt with, because success money doesn't change you, it just amplifies whatever you already are.

Jordan Harbinger: Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger. On The Jordan Harbinger Show, we decode the stories, secrets and skills of the world's most fascinating people and turn their wisdom into practical advice that you can use to impact your own life and those around you. Our mission is to help you become a better informed, more critical thinker through long form conversations with a variety of amazing folks.

From spies to CEOs, athletes, authors, thinkers, performers, even the occasional mafia enforcer, gold smuggler, national security advisor, or legendary Hollywood actor. If you're new to the show or you wanna tell your friends about the show, and I always appreciate it when you do that, I suggest our episode [00:01:00] starter packs.

These are collections of our favorite episodes on topics like persuasion and negotiation, psychology and geopolitics, disinformation, China, North Korea, crime, and cults and more. That'll help new listeners get a taste of everything we do here on the show. Just visit Jordan harbinger.com/start or search for us in your Spotify app to get started.

Real quick before we dive in, Gabriel, if you're listening, skip ahead at least one minute. I'm serious. Once again, don't listen to the next minute. All right, so Gabriel Mizrahi, our Velvet Voice co-host, uh, unlike my voice right now, something's going on, is heading off on a new adventure abroad. Don't worry, he's not leaving the show, but we are putting together a surprise video montage to send him off in style.

Big thanks to Amanda for the idea. If Gabriel has ever made you laugh, think or feel seen, record a short video 30 seconds or less and well hopefully much less. Upload it to Jordan harbinger.com/gabe. GABE. Submissions have already been trickling in and we've been watching 'em behind the scenes. Some are super touching, others are totally hilarious.

Shout out to the listeners who dog popped a balloon on camera. That was pretty cool. We can't wait to stitch [00:02:00] them together. And surprise Gabe. And remember, this is a secret. No tagging, no spoilers. Thank you for helping us pull this off. You all seriously rock and he's gonna love it today on the show, Charlemagne, the God is back.

Now this is funny. I was doing this one live in person in New York, I should say, and, and there's a studio in Manhattan that I use. There's a few, and this one happened to have a vacant property on the ground floor. So there's this homeless guy who sleeps in the doorway, and I'd been in the studio every day for a week.

For most days, and this guy was always in the doorway and he was always asleep. I never saw him awake at all. And I'm on my way back to the studio. I went to seven 11 to get a protein shake, hashtag meathead phase. And this homeless guy is awake, standing up and he's on a phone. I guess he has a cell phone.

And I knew that Charlamagne had arrived to studio because this homeless guy was yelling into the phone. Charlamagne, the God is here. Charlamagne the guy. Charlamagne, the God is here. That's how I knew he made it to studio because there was some talk about he might have to cancel. There's a family thing going on.

The studio wasn't cancelable, so I found out half a block away because that homeless guy [00:03:00] started losing his mind that Charlemagne tha God was in studio. And indeed we had a great conversation. It was a hell of a lot of fun. I really enjoyed talking to this guy. I know you'll enjoy this conversation as well.

It's all about success, career, mental health, rapport with others relationships, and we dive into some pop culture stuff, as it were. I think it's a really fun and interesting conversation that is not full of small talk and I think you'll enjoy it as well. Now here we go with Charlemagne. The God

you start the new book talking about Kanye. I'm gonna guess you're a little bit sick of this guy by now. I think a lot of people are sick of this guy by now. You're the one person that I feel like I can ask this 'cause you have some experience with him. How can a black dude be a white supremacist? I don't get it.

Charlamagne Tha God: You asking me? I have no idea either. I think that's one of the most confusing things that we've ever witnessed. Think about it like this. It's so confusing that the only time we ever even saw that premise was on Dave Chappelle when he did Clayton Bigsby and when Aaron Magruder did the [00:04:00] boondocks with Uncle Ruckus.

So it was done in satire. So to like to see it really play out in real life to the extremes. Like, I mean don't get me wrong, you've always had what people call Koons or Sambos, right? But for him to be walking around with a KKK uniform on and it's all black or like the White Lives Matter shirt, you're only doing that to agitate people who are screaming Black Lives Matter.

So you go outta your way. Yeah. To piss off the black community and to say things that you know will cause the black community to get in an uproar. Like, you know, when he was on Drink Champ and he was talking about George Floyd and he was repeating all of the right wing conservative talking points about how they feel George Floyd passed away 'cause he had fentanyl in his system and stuff like that.

So for you to go outta your way to be a black, white supremacist. It's actually insane. It is actually insane. It's almost like he's like a, like an Oreo supremacist. Is that what you would call that? What would you call that?

Jordan Harbinger: It's just strange. I shouldn't laugh, but I guess it's just so ridiculous. Like it's so over the top [00:05:00] and yet it's not even as meant as a joke.

Like it's not like he's tongue in cheek with it. He's totally serious. But

Charlamagne Tha God: you shouldn't take it personal. 'cause Kanye's one of those people that's tried everything to offend folks. Yeah. I mean he's literally, he's been antisemitic. Yeah, he's been a black, white supremacist. I've never seen somebody crave attention the way that he has.

This guy literally went from my mom, God bless the dead, was a lesbian one week that didn't get the pop he wanted. So. Hey, guess what y'all, I sucked my cousin's dick till I was 14. The next, literally the very next week I sucked my cousin's dick till I was 14. Like so you, you're just trying on gay now.

You're cos gay now. Like literally just because you're looking for a certain level of attention. I don't want that. I don't ever want to get to the point where I'm craving attention that much.

Jordan Harbinger: No healthy person does though. And I, it's interesting 'cause you talk a lot about therapy and one of our live shows is all about therapy and mental health.

This is a guy who either doesn't understand or is craves it so much that he doesn't care. He just goes negative attention, easier to get. I get more of it. I'm gonna do that. Like most of [00:06:00] us. Positive attention. I'm a little uncomfortable with it, but it's okay. Negative attention. I avoid that because that's what normal people do and he's just like, nah, I don't care.

You

Charlamagne Tha God: know? Man, it's hard for me to have empathy for Kanye and I'll tell you why, because I've heard him talk about his perceived struggles with mental health before, but then he plays hokey pokey with it. He'll tell you, oh, I'm, I got bipolar, or I'm dealing with depression. Right? But then he'll no, I'm not.

You're aware. First of all, you're aware that something may be going on and you have every single resource. You have access to the best resources to get the help that you claim you needed at one point. Yeah, you could hire the best therapist in the world. The best. The best. Like, you know, I saw him complaining about being 51 51 time by the Kardashian Jenners.

I don't know if that was true or not, but even if it's not to that extreme, you can go get some type of healing if you want it. You're choosing not to, and you're, what you're doing now is you're projecting [00:07:00] whatever hurt and trauma you have onto everybody else. It's hard for me to feel sorry for a person like that, because in a lot of ways, and I'm not here to diagnose nobody, but it's just in a lot of ways, I'm like, if you're that self-aware and you're that strategic and methodical about how you choose to fuck with people, how mentally.

Still are you really?

Jordan Harbinger: You're right. I'm not a doctor. I don't know much. About a 51 50 for those who don't know his what? Like involuntarily committed. Basically like a psych hold. They call people on you and they come lock you up. Yeah, but

Charlamagne Tha God: like I said, I'm not trying to diagnose him. Yeah, of course. If that brother needs some help, I really truly hope he gets it.

But it's hard for me to have any type of empathy when I've heard him talk about his mental health struggles, but he's not actually going out there to do the work. To try to get better. Like you're choosing. Yeah. You're consciously choosing, intentionally choosing to fuck with people. Yeah. When you could be consciously and intentionally choosing to go get some healing,

Jordan Harbinger: it's probably a hell of a lot harder to go.

I gotta look in the mirror every day with a therapist for an hour and get to the bottom [00:08:00] of all my trauma. It's probably harder to do that than to be like, you know what? I can get my publicist to make this blow up and then I can deal with the fallout of that and I can ignore the fallout of that. And I can blame my ex-wife for this.

That's right.

Charlamagne Tha God: I'm good. It's easier to me. It's way easier to go get help, go get on your healing journey. And it is to constantly come up with new ways to garner attention. Yeah. I don't know where you go after I suck my cousin's dick until I was 14 years old. I don't even understand the context of what he was trying to say.

Like it's just strange.

Jordan Harbinger: It makes no sense. Like some African Americans, they, they hate Jews or whatever. And I'm used to that. I've met a lot of, when I worked in Detroit, there was these Nation of Islam guys or something like that, and they kept telling me how much they hated Jews. And I was like, you know, my mom's Jewish.

And they're like, well that makes you a Jew. And then they treated me different. I didn't like it. That was like my first experience with uh, I guess racism, antisemitism.

Charlamagne Tha God: Well, you know what's interesting? My father was a Jehovah Witness and you know, he got into Islam in the nation. So I've been around the nation literally my whole life.

You know, one of the first books that my dad gave me was the autobiography of Malcolm X. I love that book because it shows that Malcolm little [00:09:00] can evolve to be someone like Malcolm X. And the thing I love about the nation is they have always taken those of us who have submitted to the worst in us and made us raise up and submit to the best of us.

A lot of people submit to the devil in them, but the nation Islam makes you submit to the God in them. And one thing that I've always loved, because the autobiography of Malcolm X led me to read message to the black man by the honorable Elijah Muhammad, who I think is just one of the greatest humans to ever walk the face of the earth just because of the community he built called the Nation to Islam.

But you know what? Honorable Elijah Muhammad would always say, learn from Jewish people, study Jewish people. They practice unity and group operation. So I didn't grow up with the hate Jew thing. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know where that came from. And I think that's a narrative that I know for a fact a lot of people in the nation do not carry.

And I think the Honorable Minister Lewis Farrakhan gets a lot of flack because if you listen to the Honorable Minister Lewis Farrakhan, which I have been for my whole life, the Honorable Minister Lewis Farrakhan calls out [00:10:00] everybody. He's not saying all Jewish people are bad, just like he doesn't say all black people are bad.

He calls out the people in the black community, he feels are holding us back and he calls out people in the Jewish community who he feels are holding progress back rabbis and people come to the the Moss all the time and you know, build with the Honorable Minister Lewis Farrakhan.

Jordan Harbinger: I never understood, I don't know a lot of the teachings that, I'm glad to hear you say this 'cause I thought it was surprising 'cause I'm not super Jewish, but you always grow up hearing that we are like really closely related as Semitic people.

And I know that's different with Nation of Islam, but it doesn't matter. So it was surprising and also I didn't understand what that was based on. I, of course I didn't know anything about the Arab Israeli conflict when I was 17 years old. So it was very odd and I remember like. They wouldn't let their wives talk to me.

And then even though we worked together, it was like this weird thing where I had to talk to them. Yeah. They were like, my wife's not allowed to talk to you. And I was like, all right. So like I had to talk to them to tell their wife something and my boss ended up being like, this is a huge [00:11:00] pain in the ass.

I was a manager at one point and like, he needs to be able to tell you what to do. You can't be like telling her husband who's not at the same site or whatever to tell you to do like it doesn't work. And then I ran into those like, what are they called? Like black humor, Israeli Israelites. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was next level. 'cause I was like, oh hey, this is cool. You guys are Jews. And they were like, this is not cool buddy. Like I was like, oh

Charlamagne Tha God: nevermind. I thought we were gonna but you know, flight over over here with this. It's interesting with that too, because I feel like a lot of individuals feel that if we say, Hey, we're the real Jewish people, then all of the great things that Jewish people have been able to accomplish.

Automatically, magically just gets transferred to you because like I really, I'm scared. I really think that's people's mentality. That's interesting. I think that's where a lot of folks' frustration comes into play. But this is what I always say, man. It's like, don't generalize a whole group of people because you might have had a bad experience or have a false narrative of one person.

Yeah. Like if one black person robs you mm-hmm. That don't mean all black people. That's true. Are robbers. Right. Right. [00:12:00] You know what I'm saying? If you had one bad experience with a Jewish person, that don't mean all Jewish people are evil. Yeah. And I'll to get you like, and I, I really do not like the broad generalizations, but that right there is something I've thought about.

I really feel like a lot of black people feel like, Hey, if we are the real Jews or the real black Israelites, we should have the benefits that Jewish people have. I really think they think it's just some like magical transfer.

Jordan Harbinger: Yeah, it's weird. I never understood it. I think a lot of Jews agree. Our numbers are small.

We can, if you wanna join the club, we should come join the club, man. But probably don't be like, that's what I love though, huge assholes

Charlamagne Tha God: about everything. I'll be the first to tell you when I look at the number of Jewish people in this country and what Jewish people have been able to accomplish, it's inspiring to me.

I don't know what to tell folks. You know? Like I believe what the honorable Elijah Muhammad said, study Jewish people. They practiced unity and group operation. I used to live in a Jewish neighborhood in New Jersey and it was so peaceful on Saturday. That's right. It was so peaceful. It's just certain things I just respect.

I like observing other cultures and seeing how other [00:13:00] people move and you cannot make me believe that a whole group of people are terrible just because of a a, a narrative.

Jordan Harbinger: I wouldn't want nobody to look at black people like that. For sure. That does make a lot of sense. Whenever I talk about this on my show, it's pretty rare.

I mean, I've done it like once or twice. I'll get a lot of show fans who are from the Nation of Islam, they're from the Nation of Islam. They'll be like, I don't even know if I believe you. Or they'll be like, this is rare. And I've heard that so many times that I believe it because those people have no incentive to lie to me.

I mean, but they're tweeting at me or something. I know they don't.

Charlamagne Tha God: I think that is one of the greatest false narratives about the Nation of Islam, that they hate Jewish people. Yeah. I'm telling you, it's the exact opposite. This was like

Jordan Harbinger: one chapter in Detroit that was just spreading that stuff for sure.

Because I met all those folks and they really all had the same narrative, but they all went to the same, I guess, mosque or whatever. Yeah. So it was just one

Charlamagne Tha God: place. It's a definitely a social media thing, right? Yeah. But it's like, I've been to the mall several times. I never heard that. I go back to what I was always originally taught, the honorable Elijah Muhammad said, learn from Jewish people.

Mm-hmm. Study Jewish people. They pool their [00:14:00] resources. They practice unity and group operation. They operate as a community. Literally the Nation of Islam was modeled off of that.

Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. I mean, look, as long as it's not like a dog whistle for Jews control the world. Fine. 'cause sometimes people use it as like a little code.

Like Yeah. See they do group operations and it's like, oh, that's good. Or it's like they group operations. Huh? They're all secret network. You know, like we had

Charlamagne Tha God: Jonathan GRE the head of a DL on the breakfast couple a couple of times and we, we had those conversations like, yeah, where does the narrative comes that Jews control Hollywood.

Yeah. There is history behind that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. But it's because nobody wanted to be in Hollywood. Yeah. Like literally Jewish people went out to California and established this industry that nobody wanted to be a part of. Yeah. But as far as. They're controlling the media and they're controlling all of the images that people see and you know, all the negative narratives about everybody are because of these witched, Jewish puppet man.

Like it's like,

Jordan Harbinger: all right, come on, man. It is definitely a bridge too far. I mean, a lot of cultures, I can only really speak for the Jewish part that I know about, but. One of the reasons Jews became bankers was because it was [00:15:00] against certain religions in those areas at that time to lend money for interest.

And the Jews were like, oh, we'll do it. That true, because there's a gap in the market. And then it was like, oh, look at them loaning money predatorily. And it's like, you're the one borrowing it. It's against your religion. You need us to do this Or like look at their international trade. Yeah, because you won't let us have other jobs.

I

Charlamagne Tha God: remember the first time I heard that story and I was like, so you're upset 'cause they did good business.

Crosstalk: Yes, exactly. Like

Jordan Harbinger: what? Yeah, that's kind of just, it's just strange to me, man. I had a buddy who was kind of anti-Semitic for a while and then he stopped and I said, what made you change your mind?

And he said, I realize all the reason I didn't like Jews was all the reasons that you should actually just admire Jews. Like they do good business. They operate as a group. He's like all these things that made me angry, I realized were like, I should probably be doing that.

Charlamagne Tha God: Yo, do you know I got in, I'm not gonna say trouble.

'cause it wasn't in no real trouble. Yeah. But there was a, there was a backlash about maybe like fight, it was whenever Nick Cannon had got into his situation. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember. You know, he got let go from wilding out for a [00:16:00] brief moment. And I remember I was on Breakfast Club and I said, man, this was around the time of Breonna Taylor.

She was the one who got shot by the police while sleeping with her boyfriend, right? Yeah, yeah. They just kicked her door down and shot,

Jordan Harbinger: shot her.

Charlamagne Tha God: It was Breonna Taylor. And there was another case that was going on. It might've been the brother, uh, that was running through the neighborhood. I don't remember.

But um, I was on the radio and I said, man, I mean Tuck 'cause Nick Hannah got fired like quick. Yeah. And I remember saying, man, this just proves how much. Power Jewish people have, and I can't wait until we get that kind of power, meaning black people because we can't even get the people who kill us fired.

Right. Talking about the police officers, I know

Jordan Harbinger: that's, I find that also completely insane.

Charlamagne Tha God: You know, it was all of these different Jewish outlets and they were like, Charlamagne to God is anti-Semitic propaganda. You know, and the saying, the Jews had power. I'm like, that was a compliment. I can, I wasn't trying, I wasn't, I wasn't saying that to sold nobody.

I was saying that I cannot wait until we can have that kind of power to where we can get the people who kill us fired.

Jordan Harbinger: It's hard to disagree with that. Look, there's [00:17:00] people who believe all cops are bastards or whatever that the saying is, if these people are out there murdering people in disproportionate numbers, we all need the power to get people who are abusing authority fired.

Just that it's very hard to do if you are African American right now. Like that's the way it is. So I understand what you're saying. I feel like they spun that deliberately to get clicks. That's some bullshit.

Charlamagne Tha God: That's why I say it wasn't really anything that like Yeah, yeah. There was any backlash over, it was just like, wait a minute.

And, but I also, that's how me and Jonathan started talking. Yeah. Because me and Jonathan, I'm like, yo, you gotta explain to me why this is

Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. Bad. What did I step in and did I really step in?

Charlamagne Tha God: Yeah. But he, he, he, he explained it. He was like, you know, that reinforces a lot of negative tropes about, you know, Jewish people.

I just don't like generalizations, man. Yeah. 'cause I'm a person who has had the beauty of growing up around a lot of different individuals growing up in Monks Corner, South Carolina. I grew up on a dirt road. I. And all my friends on the left were black. And then my first white friend who's still my friend to this day, Thomas Evans and his family was on the right.

And my dad and Thomas would literally be outside [00:18:00] drinking their beer. And if, uh, somebody came down the road, like one of the big pickup trucks, the confederate flag, both of them, Jimbo was white and my dad was black. Both of 'em would be like, look at him, crackers. Right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So, so it was like, it never was about anything other than the environment that we were in.

Yeah. It was a class thing. Yeah. Man, I've had the luxury and I guess the privilege of like having so many different people help me throughout my life. Yeah. You know, the first person who ever hired me in radio literally gave me a paying job with a gay black man named Haji Jenkins in Charleston, South Carolina.

Right. And me and Haji would be together all of the time, you know? 'cause I was in the promotion department, he was the head of promotions. I didn't care. He was gay. If you grow in the business, the people that you meet, who see things in you that you may not see in yourself and wanna help you get to that next level.

Crosstalk: Yeah.

Charlamagne Tha God: They're white, they're Jewish, they're black men. They're black women. It doesn't matter. I, I like energy, you know? Yeah, yeah. What's your energy like if me and your energy mesh? If me and your energy click, we good. [00:19:00] Any narratives or stereotypes or generalizations? I'm not with that.

Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. I mean, look, that has served you super well throughout your whole career.

You write about it a lot. I, I always gotta laugh when I hear Monk's Corner because one, it sounds like a fake place. Like who's, why do they call it that? And then also, you, you, in your, one of your books or one of your shows you did with me, you talk about how people would end up under the tree. And I was like, oh, that's a metaphor.

And you're like, no, they literally are sitting under a tree.

Charlamagne Tha God: Yeah. My dad would say, if you don't change your lifestyle, you gonna end up in jail. Dead or broke, sitting under the tree. Yeah. And those are things that I saw early on that made me realize like, oh, my dad is right. There was people around me that was really going to jail.

I went to jail myself. There was people really dying around me. Mm-hmm. And there was people that I used to look up to that was literally broke sitting under the tree. So I'm like, oh, that ain't generalizing. No, this shit is, can literally happen.

Jordan Harbinger: Right. This is real. Absolutely real. Potential consequence. I know you're a huge Judy Bloom fan, which people might be like, what?

Tell us who that is. 'cause I know she's a author, but I can't remember. Isn't that Judy? [00:20:00] Dear god, goddess me, Margaret. Yes.

Charlamagne Tha God: Judy Bloom is the greatest young adult author ever. The only person that's even close to me is, uh, Beverly, clearly. Oh yeah, yeah. Um, but Judy Bloom wrote, are you there, goddess? Me, Margaret?

She wrote Blubber. She wrote forever. She wrote, um, super Fudge. Super

Jordan Harbinger: Fudge. That's right. I remember

Charlamagne Tha God: reading that. Tales of a Fourth Grade. Nothing. Yeah. Like Judy has written so many fantastic books. One of my favorite Judy Bloom book is, uh, Iggy's House. But the reason I got into Judy Bloom is because my mother was an English teacher in South Carolina, and so we also had to book your program.

So you had to read full books to get a free pizza. Yeah. You get your four stars and you know you can get your pizza. And so I used to run through books and the best advice my mom ever gave me that stuck with me, even past literature was when she said, read things that don't pertain to you. 'cause we all tend to do that, right?

Like, we all grow up in our bubbles. We all grew up in our echo chambers. And so we only kind of like stick to the things that are in that box. And she would [00:21:00] always tell me, read things that don't pertain to me. So that's what made me get outside of my box to not only communicate with other people who don't come from the same environment I come from, or who may not be the same color I am, or gender, whatever.

And so I started reading Beverly Clearly and Judy Bloom. Yeah. Because when I would be in the library, the opposite of me was these little white girls and these little white boys that was on these books. And so I would read everything. And the thing that made me fall in love with Judy Bloom was her storytelling ability.

What I'm into Jordan. Yeah. Like I, I like storytelling. That's the reason I love hip hop. That's the reason I love country music. That's the reason I love movies. Like I love books because of the storytelling aspect. You know, I have sang Judy Bloom's praises for as long as I can remember, to the point where one Christmas she sent me and my daughter a autographed copy of all you there.

God, it's me, Margaret. And I thought it was my team fucking with me. Yeah, yeah. I was like, come on everybody. She didn't sign this like, because it's two autographed copies. And then the movie came out, well, the movie was coming out and they were having a screening for it in New York, and they was like, Hey, Judy would like for you to come see her.

I'm like, [00:22:00] why y'all fucking with me? And they were like, no, we right. We want you to come see. Judy wants you to come see her. So I went and I met Judy and uh, you know, I met her lovely husband and her son, and it's just like we've developed a relationship since then. I've flown down to Key West a couple of times, and, you know, had dinner, me and my wife with, you know, her and her husband.

And we've, um, you know, I went down to the premier in Key West of all You There, God, us, me, Margaret. Wow. We communicate, like I, you know, we did the, uh, when Simon Chua had their hundredth centennial event, me and Judy did an event together on stage and Oh wow. Yeah. So it's just like we

Jordan Harbinger: have a, a relationship.

It's unexpected. I don't think a lot of people would see like middle aged black dude hip hop show and is like, yeah, I love Judy Bloom and Beverly Love Judy Bloom. Yeah, she's a great,

Charlamagne Tha God: but I look at Judy Bloom the same way I look at Jay-Z, I look at Judy Bloom the same way I look at Killer Mike Scarface.

She's just a great storyteller. I'm telling you, my favorite Judy Bloom book is Iggy's House. I wanna bring Iggy's House to like the big screen or something. Like, if you ever read Iggy's House, Iggy's House was like her first book. And you know, she asked me all the time, she, you don't think this book is [00:23:00] could be taken wrong now in 2025?

I'm like, no, I don't even know what that's about. What, what is she worried about? Iggy's House was about a young girl named Winnie who lived in a neighborhood in Michigan and her best friend's name was Iggy, but Iggy moved. And so the neighborhood was anticipating who was going to be moving in this new house.

Iggy's family never told anybody 'cause they wanted to be a surprise and it was a black family. So this black family moves into this neighborhood and they are experiencing a lot of racism from a lot of people in the neighborhood. And Iggy is like the white ally before there was white allyship. Like she's like, she's the person who was like standing up for this family and supporting this family.

And then she had the people, one of the brothers in the family was like, get outta here with your white savior complex. Like it's just a real, wow. Judy was so ahead of her time. Before her time. Yeah. Oh my god. Yeah. She was so ahead of her time. Because you know Winnie was woke, right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. She was what you would call a aw woke, you know, [00:24:00] liberal person, like railing against her father and 'cause her father had racist.

I don't wanna say he was completely racist, but he had racist tendencies. Mm-hmm. He had a little sprinkle of racism. You don't have a problem living in the neighborhood, but y'all stay over here. So I love Iggy's House. I think it's a fantastic book, but yes, I love Judy. Man. It is been a pleasure to be able to build a relationship with her and call her a friend.

Jordan Harbinger: I know you had social anxiety when you were a kid, and I guess a lot of people probably don't see how that is possible because of who you are now. What did that look like when you were a grown up? It's interesting that

Charlamagne Tha God: you have that question because of who I am now. Yeah. You know, I created that character Charlamagne the God, to protect Lenar, because Lenar was the person dealing with all the social anxiety and you know, the bouts of depression.

NAR was the person who was just trying to fit in when he was in sixth, seventh grade because he was tired of getting bullied by his older cousins, right? Mm-hmm. Because he wasn't the tough guy, and it got to a point where it's like, yo, if you can't beat him, join him. It literally was like a villain origin story.

Like they used to bully me so much. My glasses used to always fall off, and one day the glasses [00:25:00] just fell and hit the ground and just broke. And so I just squinted my way through thug life, right? I was like, you know what? If I can't beat them, join them. So the character that was created when I was 17 was what I wanted people to see me as.

So if I created this character, it'll distract you from the guy with these anxiety and he's bouts of depression and these insecurities, you know what I mean? And so what has been one of the great joys of my life in recent years is allowing Lenard, who's gone on this journey, this healing journey since 2016, going to therapy and plant-based medicines and doing all of these different things to fix a lot of that unhealed trauma.

It's been a pleasure to watch that person and Charlemagne actually meet each other.

Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. Yeah. Your the alter ego is blending in with the real identity or whatever. Yeah. It's like Smart Hulk. It's when Bruce

Charlamagne Tha God: Banner and the Hulk, yeah. Yeah. Finally combined.

Jordan Harbinger: Last time we hung out 2021, you told me you were getting rid of Twitter and other social media, but that was episode 1 71, which is kind of funny 'cause [00:26:00] this is probably like 1,371 or something.

See Instagram here and there. But yeah, I get on Instagram, I don't do Twitter at all. Yeah. I ain't do Twitter. That was pure negativity.

Charlamagne Tha God: Whatever Twitter evolved into. Yeah. I don't want either one of them. Right? Yeah. And it's like I knew back then, even before it was a Elon Musk and he opened the floodgates.

It just wasn't good for my mental health because I just feel like nobody should have access to that much opinion about them. That's a good point. I always say we're in verbally abusive relationships with our smartphones. By choice.

Jordan Harbinger: Yeah, by choice.

Charlamagne Tha God: I would literally get on social media and tweet out, thank you, God for blessed me with another day of life.

And there'd be people saying, man, I was wishing you die. I was praying you die. I'm like, Jesus Christ, why am I, you know, subjecting myself to that. And you know, another thing too, as a media personality, it became such an echo chamber and you would be talking to people and you would be like, you got that from Twitter?

That's not even your original thought on the situation. You don't even really feel like that. I see. You're literally just parroting what you see people on social [00:27:00] media say. I don't want people to tell me what to think. I don't want people to tell me what to believe. I was at the University of Chicago yesterday with, uh, David Axelrod, and I was talking to the students and I told him this.

One of them guys asked me a very brilliant question. He said, um, what is broken in the media ecosystem? 'cause he felt like the media ecosystem is broken because these clips and everything are creating these narratives. And I go, the media ecosystem isn't broken at all. The way we consume content is because a two minute clip of Jordan and Charlemagne can go viral.

Yeah. Somebody might take me just saying something

Jordan Harbinger: about Jews,

Charlamagne Tha God: whatever j You know what I'm saying? Somebody could take that one little clip. Sure. 10 seconds. Put it online. And I'm like, I didn't even say that. So you as a person have to challenge yourself. When you get a 32nd clip or a minute clip or a two minute clip, you gotta go challenge yourself to watch the whole context.

Yeah, yeah. Of the conversation. That's like

Jordan Harbinger: a part-time job, right? So you might as well avoid the whole thing if you're gonna have to do an hour of fact checking to make sure this thing someone sent you [00:28:00] is real. Would you rather

Charlamagne Tha God: have that be a part-time job? Or would you rather just be lazy and do a half-ass job?

I would just

Jordan Harbinger: avoid it altogether. Like, I don't even want the drum, I don't want the little clip or the big clip. I just wanna play Legos with my kids or something. And so, by the way,

Charlamagne Tha God: that's a good way to handle it, but most people don't. They see that little clip and then they form a whole narrative about it.

They form a whole opinion around it. And now people hate Charlamagne or they hate Jordan because of a 30, 45 second clip. I don't like that guy. Based off a 45 second clip. Oh man, you hate his whole life. That's right. Because that's right of a 45 second or a minute long clip. So the media ecosystem isn't broken.

The way we consume content is.

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You can find the course again, it's free over@sixminutenetworking.com. Alright, now back to Charlemagne. The God, [00:32:00] when I interviewed Kobe a long time ago, about two, three months before he passed away, I. I'd asked him what kind of music he likes and I thought it would be funny if he had a Taylor Swift CD in your car and he goes, oh, I love Taylor Swift.

That went viral. But people were looking at me like, oh, he must not like Taylor Swift. He was making fun of Taylor Swift. He thought Kobe was gonna bite on that. And people were like, oh God. They came after me. It was like Jordan. He tried to shit. Talk Taylor Swift. I didn't even think about that. I just thought it would be funny if Kobe Bryant had Taylor Swift in his car.

'cause he has daughters. He did have Taylor Swift in his car 'cause he has daughters and he loves Taylor Swift. It was so wholesome, honestly. People wanted to find the negative part of this wholesome clip of Kobe talking up Taylor and how she's a legend and killer. He called her a killer and that went viral and people were like, this Jordan Guy sucks.

I got so much hate from that. And I had a little glimpse into being like an actual famous person for like two seconds. 'cause it got like 28 million views on TikTok. I had to stop reading the comments 'cause I'd started to hate myself. These people hated me.

Charlamagne Tha God: I'm actually surprised that don't happen to you more because of the fact that you've had this huge platform for so long, so long and like we talk for a living like Yeah, [00:33:00] more like there's so many things people can take outta context.

Jordan Harbinger: You know what it is? I ignore TikTok. My team doesn't make social media clips that are like for viral appeal. I think other people do it. I don't even know how they make money doing it, but they'll do it. But then they don't tag me in it, right? 'cause they want the, they don't say like, oh, Jordan Harbinger did that.

They're like, this is motivational Instagram under hyphen ig. So the comments that are negative about me are on accounts that I never see. Yeah, they're out there. I just, you have to look for 'em. And I'm like, why am I gonna do that to myself? You, you wouldn't do that to yourself. It's really a choice. It is a choice.

Yeah. Like

Charlamagne Tha God: I, I, I literally, you can be riding in a car or be at home. Let me go on YouTube and see what they're saying about me. I can guarantee you they ain't saying nothing good. Like they ain't saying a motherfucking thing good about you. So why would you go Yeah. Subject yourself to that level of abuse.

For what? And by the way, show me the place where people are actually saying positive things about a person on social media. Yeah. Like those moments are so few and far between. That's the reason I like Instagram. You can mute words and block certain words and you curate your content to [00:34:00] where you do have like this community mm-hmm.

Where it's like you and the people you actually follow. And most of the people that follow you if they're following you is because they like you. Right? Yeah. Except for the psychos, but yeah, except for the psychos. Then you could block those people. Those people are insane. That's a form of insanity. Yeah.

Insanity is doing the same. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So why are you following me every day? Why are you leaving comments if you don't like what I do? But you know, there was a theory back in the day, um, Howard Stern, they said either twice or three times the people when it came to his ratings, the people who didn't like him listened three times as much than the people who actually did.

That's

Jordan Harbinger: so weird to me. I don't think I consume anything from anybody that I don't like. I dunno why you would do that. A the algorithm people like to

Charlamagne Tha God: be

Jordan Harbinger: outraged

Charlamagne Tha God: or

Jordan Harbinger: they pissed. Definitely

Charlamagne Tha God: do, but guess what? The algorithm don't know the difference, Jordan. Yeah. But like literally, if you start trending right now, it's probably somebody who don't like you taking a clip outta contact.

But the people who do like you will be defending you. Like you gotta listed the whole pod, you idiot. Right? And then it just creates this tsunami on social media algorithm. Don't know [00:35:00] algorithm just knows Jordan Harbinger been mentioned 10,000 times in the last 25 minutes.

Jordan Harbinger: What do you think of Taylor Swift?

Charlamagne Tha God: I don't, I'm be honest with you. I don't mean I, I don't, I did a social experiment about Taylor one time. Okay. When I was on a, the Bur I podcast with my guy Andrew Schultz. I did a social experiment while I, we were debating about who was bigger. Beyonce, r Taylor Swift. I made up this whole lie called the Michael Jackson law, where I said, Beyonce's so big, she can't even go eat at restaurants in public because it'll cause like a stampede or whatever.

A stampede and a riot. I see. And she'll get charged for that. And I go, but I'm lying. And I want y'all to know that I'm lying, but it doesn't matter that I'm lying. 'cause somebody's gonna still take that clip and post it online and run with it. Guess what they did? Joy. They took that clip and posted it online and ran with it.

Charlemagne, God says that Beyonce can't go out in public 'cause of the Michael Jackson law. I literally told y'all I was lying. That's one. One of my favorite books is Brian Holiday. Trust me, I'm lying like I'm I say that all the time. You should believe me, even when I'm lying. Yeah. Because I know [00:36:00] nobody cares about the truth when the lie is more entertaining.

It's true. Yeah. People don't care about the truth, period. Nowadays. They just want to be

Jordan Harbinger: entertained. Oh, I hate that. You wrote in the book, we sink to the lowest common denominator. We avoid the big questions by filling our minds with fluff, nonsense that delays action and learning. That's pretty insightful.

Tell me what you mean by this.

Charlamagne Tha God: The book you're talking about is my new book. Yeah. Get Honest. The Die Line. Why Small Talk Sucks And I think, you know, it goes back to what we were talking about. Yeah. Like digging for the truth is hard. Actually searching for facts is hard. Having your opinion or narrative challenged by truth and facts is hard because there is comfort in, you know, what you wanna believe.

That's what it's saying. Ignorance is bliss comes from if you don't know, you can just remain happy. And that thing that you don't know will keep you happy. But then when somebody challenges you or tells you the truth and makes you change your mind, now you questioning yourself. But you shouldn't, like you're a human being.

Yeah. And intelligent human beings, wise human beings, [00:37:00] they have no problem changing their mind when presented with new information. So I think, you know, people have a hard time dealing with the reality of situations. That's another reason I hate small talk, because you know, you might come up to me and.

You have a goal, you have an intention with the conversation you actually want to have with me. But you start taking me down this other timeline of nonsense charlamagne. I love, have you been working out? I like your jean jacket. Oh, your head is so shiny. Like whatever it like. Like bro, what do you want?

JHS Clip: Yeah,

Charlamagne Tha God: yeah. Don't hit me with all the fluff and everything. That's right. Let's get right to it. We know

Jordan Harbinger: what we're here for. What do you want? Well, you probably didn't even see these, but I get these pictures that are like clearly written by AI where they're like, I loved your latest episode on Charlemagne.

The God Get Honest or Die Lying. And then there's a paragraph of shit. And I'm like, what are you selling me? And then if you get to the bottom of the three paragraphs, it's like my new book on financial management for uh, people who live in Canada would be a great fit. And it's like, no, just start with that and we'll, I'll delete this early and I won't be mad [00:38:00] at you for pitching 'cause you know, shoot your shot.

That's right. But now I'm mad at you. 'cause I had to read three paragraphs about my show of you trying to butter me up with chat. GPD, you don't have to get this outta here,

Charlamagne Tha God: you don't have to do that. And another thing is like. Small talk is also when somebody come up to you and be like, so Jordan, how are you?

Jordan Harbinger: Like the shallow version. Yeah,

Charlamagne Tha God: I'm sorry. Because they don't really care.

Jordan Harbinger: They don't care

Charlamagne Tha God: because either hit 'em with this either tell 'em exactly what's really going on. Yeah. I If you having a puff up, I that. Oh, I love that.

Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. I just had a vasectomy. My left nut is super swollen and affected. It barely fits in these joggers, dude.

Exactly. Okay. I just wanted to know what you Yeah. Like

Charlamagne Tha God: you, you didn't know. You actually didn't want to know at all because now you're just forced to actually listen to me. Yeah. And so I felt like this since COVID and I think COVID taught us this a little bit. Don't ask people how they're doing if you're not ready for a real answer.

Yeah, yeah. I like that because COVID was the moment where everybody had to be still. COVID is the moment where a lot of us felt very alone. COVID is the moment where a lot of us looked in the mirror and didn't necessarily like what we saw. So if you ask somebody how they are. Most people couldn't wait to tell you because Yeah, we hadn't been no [00:39:00] human contact.

That's right. Like you, you'd go to the store, remember when all us was going to the store at certain hours with the mask on and you would see somebody and you'd be talking six feet away and like, how are you? You couldn't wait to tell that person what you were really feeling. That's right. Because we didn't have no human contact.

Yo, all of that stuff, man, is just like, yo, be intentional with what you want to say to people. You know what I mean? Like, like have a goal. Like don't just come to me, bullshitting me. 'cause that's exactly what small talk is. It's just bullshit. Let's just get to the meat of the conversation.

Jordan Harbinger: You mentioned some categories of small talk.

Maybe I'm confused, but you say small talk about God, small talk about dreams, small talk about our kids, but those are real topics. But I guess what you're saying is don't come at it in a fluffy way. Those are real topics. Go deep immediately. Let's have real conversation. Yeah. That book is

Charlamagne Tha God: literally designed for people who don't know what the larger conversation is they want to talk about.

'cause I really do feel like we live in a world where we make micros, macros. Man, the week we're recording this, there's been more [00:40:00] conversation about can a hundred men beat a gorilla? Why do I keep seeing this?

Jordan Harbinger: Why do I keep

Charlamagne Tha God: seeing

Jordan Harbinger: that? I don't get it.

Charlamagne Tha God: There's just been more conversation around can a hundred men beat a gorilla than it has been about a president saying they don't know whether they, they should have to uphold the constitution.

Yeah. You understand what I'm saying? Yeah. Like we don't know how to discuss macro issues. That's a good point. We really make micros macros, and it is so strange to me, and I don't know if it's because I go back to what I said earlier. People are trying to avoid the reality. I think that's it. It's much easier to talk about can a hundred men beat a monkey than it is to talk about issues that are really impacting us as a society.

Could impact us as a society.

Jordan Harbinger: That's a good point. It's less scary to talk about could a hundred men beat a gorilla than it is to be like, Hey, do you think if we go to war, your kids are gonna get drafted?

Charlamagne Tha God: That's scary. Right.

Jordan Harbinger: But those are

Charlamagne Tha God: things that we should be talking about. I agree with you. Yeah.

Because the same vigor that we use that have those conversations on social media, we should be having to, you know, [00:41:00] I guess protect the constitution, probably a good idea, you know? Yeah, right. To protect democracy. Yeah. Like, and I'm not even saying it on like, no Democrat, Republican thing. No. Just

Jordan Harbinger: as a person who wants rights, that's it.

At some point in the country. That's it. That's that.

Charlamagne Tha God: Literally, as far as I knew my whole life, that piece of paper was what made America, America,

Jordan Harbinger: yeah.

Charlamagne Tha God: So if

Jordan Harbinger: yeah,

Charlamagne Tha God: people are just

Jordan Harbinger: wiping they ass with that piece of paper, then what are we now, I remember learning that, that was like the immutable document that was bulletproof, and now it's like, maybe we're just gonna ignore it.

That scares me. That freaks me out, man. And, and man, you know what I hate? I

Charlamagne Tha God: watch all the networks. Right? That's, oh, that's my biggest problem is I'm curious. Yeah. Like, I, I like, that's my biggest, biggest issue. I'm curious. I watch everything. I watch Fox, I watch CNN, I watch M-S-N-B-C, I watch Young Turks. I watch PBDI watch all of the different platforms, right?

CNN pisses me off the most. Why is that? Even though I love it, it's so entertaining. But they ask answers.

Jordan Harbinger: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen this like on 60 Minutes where they'll, they'll just throw the question and like, and be like, does Donald

Charlamagne Tha God: Trump have to uphold the constitution? Yes. He's the president of the United States [00:42:00] of America.

You know that? Why are you even asking this? Can Donald Trump run for third term? Third term? What? You know, he can't. But guess what? The average person does it.

Jordan Harbinger: Yeah.

Charlamagne Tha God: So the average, oh, that's a good point. The average person is watching CNN and watching y'all debate something that actually has an answer.

But being that they're watching you debate it now, they don't know. Now they're questioning it. Now they're calling the radio station. Yeah. Or seeing me in the street and telling me, I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. You can run for a third term as president.

Jordan Harbinger: That's crazy to me. I learned that in like SIS grade.

Now I get why you got a security guard. You got people being telling you stupid shit all day. Choke that guy out and let me eat my lunch. Yes. That's what it's online. Hit me hard from the book. I really feel this. You said our lives get smaller and smaller. As we get older, our lives get smaller

Charlamagne Tha God: and smaller as we get older.

Because you know, if you're doing this life thing right, you really start to realize what's important. You stop being a people pleaser and you stop just trying to have a whole bunch of people around you just to make yourself feel [00:43:00] better. Like you know who you can really trust. You know who you really love.

Like you're very cognizant of who makes your energy go up and who makes your energy go down. And those people who make your energy go down, you really try to stay away from them. Your circle gets so small that it becomes a dot.

Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. A little bit of a prison. I think. I know you put some thought into this for me, like my social circle will get smaller and I'm constantly fighting routine, but I don't feel like my whole life has gotten smaller just 'cause I've got kids trying new hobbies, make new friends.

But man, you gotta really put energy into that. Or I don't know about you. Making friends as a middle aged man is not easy. It's hard to go up to somebody and be like, Hey, that was a fun conversation. We should hang out again. 'cause it's like vulnerable and other people are busy. What's wrong? Being vulnerable?

Nothing. But it's not how we are raised. It's something you gotta put energy into kind of to swim upstream and make it a habit. I don't think it's natural for most guys our age. Do you? Yes, I

Charlamagne Tha God: do think it's natural. And the, the reason I tell you why I think it's natural. I think it's natural because you know when you make your circle smaller intentionally, the universe [00:44:00] naturally, God naturally brings people around you that should be around you.

I truly believe that I'm aware of who I'm sharing space with. I'm intentional about who I'm sharing space with. I wake up in the morning, I go to Breakfast Club. I'm intentional about who that space is. Sure. I know who all of those people are in that room. These are people that I choose to be around. I like having them around the energy that isn't good for us.

We try to eliminate, I'm not just out and about. Like of course when you're going out and about in your everyday life, you're gonna run into people. But I'm not just hanging out. Mm-hmm. I'm leaving the station. I'm getting in my car, I'm going home. I know that me and my wife gonna work out. I'm gonna be around my kids.

I'm gonna be around my family, and any place I choose to go, I pay attention to the people that I meet. In those moments I'm talking about, it could be the person sitting next to me on the plane being that person of sharing space, whatever period of time. And if it's meant for us to have a conversation and that might turn into something else.

Then it naturally [00:45:00] will, but you have to be aware of the spaces that you're in and know that everybody you're meeting, you're probably meeting for a reason. Yeah. Especially if you have trimmed the fat and you're intentional about where you go, who

Jordan Harbinger: you share space with. I think it sounds like we're kind of saying the same thing.

I'm just saying you gotta put energy into it. I, I personally have to put energy into it because my default nature was just to maybe not pay attention to that, but as I got older, I was like, this is gonna get lonely if I don't pay attention to this. Yeah.

Charlamagne Tha God: And, and if it's organic and if it's meant to be Yeah.

It'd be effortless. Yeah. It won't feel like you're spending no energy, like the relationships that you have that you feel like, God damn, you pulling teeth or you spending a lot of energy to try to connect and make happen, that's probably not the relationship for you. Yeah, you're right. We don't pay attention to our energy enough, Jordan.

Like I am very aware and cognizant of who and what makes my energy go up and who and what makes my energy go down and the things that make my energy go down. I don't have time for at 46, almost 47 years old. Yeah.

Jordan Harbinger: I can absolutely relate to that. You're almost 47? I'll

Charlamagne Tha God: be 47. June 29th.

Jordan Harbinger: Wow. Oh wow. Happy birthday.

And that's coming right up? Yeah. [00:46:00] Yeah. Nice. Do you feel old? I don't feel old. I'm 45. Well, I feel old. Do you feel older or do you just feel more accomplished? Like do you feel I do feel older,

Charlamagne Tha God: man. It's too crazy. I feel so mature, but then so immature at the same time. I, I can relate man. I get it. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Because, because at this age, like, you know, and that's why I like, you know, kicking the shit with like my guy like Andrew Schultz and my homegirls who really just understand that life is about laughing. Even in the most serious in situations like me and my wife, it's like the older we get, the more immature we get.

I don't know, because we got kids and we like, that's

Jordan Harbinger: part of it I think. Yeah.

Charlamagne Tha God: I don't know what it is, but just like the older I get, the more mature, I get more responsibilities we have that make us feel like adults. But I feel very immature. Me and my wife say that all the time. We was just having that conversation like, yo, we really, adults.

We've been together since we was kids. Yeah. We've been together for 27 years. Like, yo, we're really adults. We got four kids. Like my oldest daughter is doing college visits now.

Jordan Harbinger: Oh. That's gotta make you feel old.

Charlamagne Tha God: You know what I'm [00:47:00] saying? Yeah. Wow. She's driving. To answer your question, do I feel older? Yes.

I feel more mature, but I feel more immature too.

Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. I can relate. I, it's hard to explain, but it's definitely be, I think it's definitely because of kids. 'cause before I had kids, my kids are young, five and three. I definitely was like, I'm not real an adult yet. And then I had kids and I was like, Nope.

This is the final frontier of like, you have the ultimate responsibility now. Yeah. You don't just have a mortgage which you could shrug off and if you wanted to screw up your life, like now you got kids, you don't have the option of screwing up anymore.

Charlamagne Tha God: And I think, you know, because thank God all praises do to God for having success.

When you have success and you don't have to worry about certain things like, you know, certain things are taken care of, like bills and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. You don't really have those stressors. So literally a lot of your stress only comes from having to deal with other people and their problems.

That's a good point. Because you've created these boundaries and protected your peace in a way to where you're good, but then people will always try to make their problems your problem. I think that when you [00:48:00] don't have those type of stressors, it's easy to really explore like who you are and who I am at the core is a very immature motherfucker.

You know what I'm saying? Who just likes to laugh, who has a very dark sense of humor, who really doesn't probably take as much things serious as I should, and it's actually fun to be in a face. That's really

Jordan Harbinger: funny. Actually, on that note, you mentioned in the book that your anxiety is so bad. You said, I'm wearing a heart monitor right now.

While you were writing the book, I don't know if you're still doing that because I'm convinced I'm gonna give myself a heart attack. You know that stress causes heart attacks, right? You always seem cruel as a cucumber. You're kind of, you're fooling everyone, I suppose. I

Charlamagne Tha God: don't know if it's fooling or if I had a little bit of sociopathic tendencies really.

Yeah. You know, growing up my favorite superhero was Wolverine. Like, I got a tattoo with Wolverine on my arm when I was like 18, 19, when like tattoos in South Carolina were illegal. And the thing I used to always like about they were illegal, I didn't know. Oh yeah, it's crazy. They were illegal back then, back in that day.

And it's like, I got that tattoo because I always liked Wolverines [00:49:00] loner mentality, but he could be a part of a team if he wanted to. And I liked his healing powers. And I always thought to myself like, man, that would be so cool. Like, I know what really, uh, healing powers are physical, but it would be so cool if just like emotionally and mentally you could just heal from everything that bothered you.

And I conditioned myself when I was very young to just not let things outta my control bother me. And, you know, the serenity prayer, right? Like God grabbing the serenity to accept things I cannot change courage to change things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Like I always felt like I just stayed focused.

Whatever bad is happening to me in my life in this moment is just part of a process. Right. That process is just helping me become who I'm supposed to be. I've always kind of had that mentality of like, things aren't as bad as they seem to be, or things aren't happening to you. They're happening for you.

Like I've always bought into all of that. So when you say, I'm just cool as a cucumber, it's like whatever's going on in [00:50:00] that moment, I'm gonna deal with it. Yeah. Now, I might break down when I'm alone. Right. You know, whatever's happening to me in that moment, I'm gonna deal with it. Man. When I was young, my anxiety used to be so bad that I would go hide in the woods for no reason.

I guess not for no reason, but yeah, to be alone, right. To get away from stress, I, I would just be having these panic attacks. Geez. I didn't know what they were. I didn't, I didn't know what a panic attack was until 2010 and I had gotten fired from radio for the fourth time. I was back living at home with my mother in Monks Corner, South Carolina.

I was like 31, 32. My daughter was like one or two years old. And I was collecting unemployment checks. Oh damn. And I was driving down I 26 in South Carolina and you just get that feeling. Everything Emine MRA about don't lose yourself, palms are sweaty, your knees weak, arms spaghetti like you know. And then you got that crazy heartbeat and you like, yeah, you taking deep breaths, you're pulling over to the gas station to drink water.

You like, God, if I'm, you know about to have a [00:51:00] heart attack, please just lemme get to the hospital. And so you go to the doctor and the doctor told me the same thing. He is always told me like, your heart is fine. You got an athlete's heart. He literally said that to me. You got an athlete's heart. But then he said to me, he was like, you suffer from anxiety.

I'm like, what is that? And he is like anxiety. He probably says, it sounds like what you were describing was a panic attack. I'm like, I don't know what that is. And he was like, are you stressed out about anything? I'm like, hell yeah. Whatcha talking about, I'm back living at home with my mom and I got fired four times.

You know, I'm collecting unemployment checks. I don't know what I'm gonna do next with my life. I was up here in New York working with Wendy Williams and I had my own morning show in Philly. Now I'm back at home living with my mom. So I didn't know what was going on in my life at the time. So in my mind I'm like, okay, so all I gotta do is get another job, get back in position, everything will be fine.

Breakfast Club comes December, 2010. We start Breakfast Club later that year. Literally the last week I collect an unemployment check. I start on breakfast clubs next week. Literally I had a year of unemployment because I've been fired four times and I had too much pride. My ego wouldn't allow me to go down to the unemployment [00:52:00] office.

I see. So when I ended up getting fired for that fourth time, I had all of these years of back pay that I was able to get. Wow. So I was getting like, I was getting like $1,100 a week for like a whole, whole year. And literally that last week, I ended up on breakfast clubs the next week. But fast forward from 2010 to 2016, I'm having more success.

I've ever experienced in my whole life, more money than I've ever made in my whole life, and guess what? I'm not happy. Guess what? The bounce of depression are still there. So it turns out the money didn't fix any of that. Turns out the success didn't fix any of that, right? I had to do a lot of internal work.

I just didn't like who I was. I didn't like who I was. I had a lot of unhealed trauma that I didn't deal with. I was becoming my father, and I love my father. I'm not sitting there acting like I don't love my father, but I, my father had a lot of bad habits and he had a lot of, um, things that I didn't like, especially the way he treated my mom in regards to infidelity.

And I was becoming that. I'm the hip hop radio star, right? I remember there was a superstar [00:53:00] comedian who shall remain nameless, who told me one time that all superheroes one day test out their superpowers. You've never been this version of yourself. I see. So I never had been that version of Charlemagne who's getting write-ups in Rolling Stone Magazine, who's making appearances on television.

You got a New York Times bestselling book. It's like, okay. I had never been that version of myself. You partaking in the lifestyle in a lot of ways. And I knew that lifestyle was ultimately going cause me to lose my marriage and cause me to lose the greatest things to me, which is my wife and my kids. So I had to go do some internal work as a man to say, I don't wanna be that and whatever it costs me in the future.

Meaning like, you know, whatever this new version of me that I pray emerges from this work that I'm gonna do, whatever it costs me, I'm willing to let it go. And that's exactly what I did. I went out there and I did that work. You know, there was a lot of people who didn't like the change. They didn't like this new version.

They didn't like me talking [00:54:00] about therapy all the time. They still don't in a lot of ways. They don't really, yeah.

Jordan Harbinger: Who, who complains about it?

Charlamagne Tha God: I mean, not your friends. Nobody that matters. Nobody that matters. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Nobody that matters. Because what I'm doing now is actually my life's work.

What I'm doing now actually gives me purpose, you know? And now I know why I got this Wolverine tattoo on my arm when I was 18 years old. Now I know why. I loved Wolverine's Healing Power because, and Wolverine is holding a microphone in his hand. Oh, that's cool. On my arm as well too. So it's because I thought I was going to make it being a rapper.

Jordan Harbinger: Oh, I thought maybe you added it later. Like, all right, take this turn into a

Charlamagne Tha God: mic. No, I got Wolverine Hole in a mic. 'cause I thought. I was going to make it as a rapper. 'cause when you young and you know, you growing up in the environment that I grew up in, the people you saw that were successful, especially when you're black, were usually in entertainment, are athletics.

So I thought I was gonna be a rapper because that's how everybody was getting out of the hood at that point. And so I got Wolverine holding a mic in his hand, but turned out it was these kind of microphones that I'm talking to now. Mm-hmm That changed my life. Not rap. 'cause I sucked. And then the healing power was, [00:55:00] I put myself on a healing journey, started talking about that healing journey, which allowed other people to feel free enough to go on their own healing journeys as well.

So I feel like my life work now, especially with my organization, my nonprofit to Mental Wealth Alliance, my job is to help people, especially black people, black men in particular, get on their healing journey so we can show up and be the best version of ourselves for our wives and our sisters. And our daughters and our friends and family.

Mm-hmm. And just our

Jordan Harbinger: communities. Period. Now for a word from our sponsors, including Kanye's Nazi t-shirt Emporium. We'll be right back.

This episode is sponsored in part by the defender. You ever meet somebody and instantly know they've been places that calm and chaos? I've driven through a storm and found the sunrise kind of energy. That's the defender in vehicle form. It's not just a car, it's a statement. And nod to the ones who don't wait around for life to hand them an adventure.

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This is it. The defender's ready when you are. To learn more, visit destination defender usa.com. This episode is sponsored in part by Airbnb. A while back, Jen and I decided to become Airbnb hosts, not just guests, but full on hosts. And hosting actually ended up being a really cool, surprisingly meaningful experience.

We actually designed our home in the Silicon Valley Bay area with a separate guest suite and private entrance. And that idea came from staying in so many great Airbnbs ourselves and thinking, Hey, we could do this too, maybe do it even better. And we didn't go over the top with it, but we made it comfy and added thoughtful little touches, stuff we'd want if we were staying there.

Like a little snacks, couple bottles of water, sometimes even sample products from our show sponsors, which is kind of funny. We, we also left a local guide with our favorite coffee shops, noodle spots, hidden Gem Pizza Place, you know, stuff you're not gonna find on a TripAdvisor or whatever. One of the best parts of hosting is honestly, the people.

We've had amazing guests over the years. One [00:57:00] woman came from China on a long-term contract job. She was so sweet, super respectful. Later, even helped us track down some stuff we wanted from China. So kind of a cool global connection there. If you've ever thought about hosting, I say try it, find out more at airbnb.com/host.

This episode is sponsored in part by Audible. People always ask me how I managed to get through so much content, especially since I prep for every interview. I'm talking two to three books a week, and it's all thanks to Audible. I've got Audible in my ears while I'm getting my 10,000 steps in running errands, even doing stuff around the house.

I don't mess with physical books anymore at all. Audible's, just way more efficient. I listen on two or even three X speed, which lets me cover a lot of ground without sacrificing quality. Right now, I'm listening to Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy. She's got this really down to earth way of talking about parenting that is not preachy.

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Visit audible.com/jhs or text JHS to 500 500. That's audible.com/jhs or text JHS to 500 500.

Jordan Harbinger: If you like this episode of the show, I invite you to do what other smart and considerate listeners do, which is take a moment and support the amazing sponsors who make the show possible. All of the deals, discount codes, and ways to support the show are searchable and clickable over at Jordan harbinger.com/deals.

If you can't remember the name of a sponsor, you can't find the code, email meJordan@jordanharbinger.com. We're happy to surface codes for you. Yeah, it's that important that you support those who support the show. Now for the rest of my conversation with Charlemagne, the God, remember you said multiple times to me in different conversations that mental health is not [00:59:00] prioritized, is deprioritized in the black community like you.

You've told me that a hundred times and you've said in this, I love this line. You said, I knew I had to deal with my trauma, or my trauma would deal with me, and I'm wondering how you see that show up. With people, the trauma, dealing with them. Maybe even. Even, especially in the black community. That's all we're dealing with.

Yeah. Like

Charlamagne Tha God: we talked about Kanye at the beginning of this. Oh yeah, that's right. That's a good example. That's all I'm doing is trauma dumping.

Jordan Harbinger: That's true.

Charlamagne Tha God: That's all people do. People project their pain onto others, hurt people. Hurt people, heal people help other people heal. Like it's really just that simple.

Like I can be having a conversation with somebody, black, white, green, Puerto Rican, Asian, whatever it is. I can be having a conversation with them and know, oh, this don't got nothing to do with me. This person is just projecting all of their bullshit and all their unhealed trauma that they haven't dealt with onto me.

I can hear a person talking through their wounds. I can hear people talking through the filter of their unhealed trauma in those moments. You really gotta be real with a person and tell 'em, man, brother, I hope you heal. 'cause this don't [01:00:00] got nothing to do with me. And I'm the person that'll tell 'em that.

Like, look, I know that this don't have nothing to do with me. So whatever it is that you're going through, whatever it is that you're dealing with, I really hope. You heal from it because I don't think it's fair to go around projecting your bullshit onto other people. Yeah. And some people don't even know that they're dealing with bs.

They really don't know that's That's pushed way down. Yeah. They've suppressed it so much. And there was so many things that I was dealing with that I didn't know I was dealing with. I thought it was just anxiety and bout the depression. But then you go to therapy and you start peeling back all them layers.

Yeah. And you like, oh, I thought I loved my dad. I hate him. You know what I mean? Yeah. But no, I actually really don't hate him. I just hate that he used to discipline me for things that he never taught me. I hate that we didn't necessarily have the relationship that I wanted growing up, but it's because he had his own issues.

And that was the beauty of me starting to tell my story. Because when I started to tell my story, it helped other people to tell their story. And that's why I always say, in order to eradicate the stigma around mental health, everybody gotta tell their story. 2018, [01:01:00] man. Week of Thanksgiving, I'm home in Mons Corner, South Carolina.

My dad calls me. He just read my second book, which was called Shook One, anxiety Playing Tricks on Me, which is literally just everything I was learning about myself in therapy. And I got clinical correlations from my man, Dr. Ish major in there to talk about those experiences, to give the clinical aspect of those experiences I'm talking about.

My dad says to me, yo, I read your book. And it was the same week that my cousin who used to do a lot of odd jobs where my dad completed suicide. And so he was like, yo, your cousin completed suicide. And I read your book and I just want you to know that I was going to therapy two and three times a week and I was on 10 to 12 different medications throughout my life and I tried to commit suicide 30 plus years ago, but I didn't because of you and your older sister.

And I'm like, damn. And so that allowed me. To give my dad so much grace 'cause I'm like, yo, he's just a man who was dealing with his own issues and he was just trying to figure it out as well. So he couldn't necessarily be [01:02:00] the father for me that he wanted to be because he wasn't even being the man that he needed to be for himself.

That allowed me to give him so much grace, man. And I have not thought anything negative about him since then. What I want to do, and I pray that I get to do this before, you know, either one of us transition. Mm-hmm. Because you never know nowadays is I just want to have that relationship and I wanna learn more about my parents.

'cause your parents had a life before they were your parents. And like me and my dad just had a good conversation a couple weeks ago and I just learned so much and it helped me connect certain dots that's going on in my life. 'cause I'm like, oh, that's why I like this place, or that's why I gravitate towards these people because this is kind of like things my dad passed on Ancestry.

Right. But I didn't realize it.

Jordan Harbinger: I

Charlamagne Tha God: see. You know? Huh.

Jordan Harbinger: That's a huge awareness, especially getting that awareness for yourself and then having your own kids and break the cycle and don't pass that stuff along to your own kids. Yeah, if, if you can pass on generational trauma, then you should definitely be able to pass on generational blessings.

You would. Yeah. You would hope. [01:03:00] So. You mentioned this a little bit, you touched on this a little bit earlier. One of the first kinds of small talk you mentioned in the book is you mentioned hip hop rappers talking about gangster stuff that they would never do in real life. What do you think of the influence on young guys and young girls actually from that the hip hop community has?

'cause from an outside perspective, it does seem dangerous to have role models that are like violence, drugs, crime hoes and bitches, and you're just like, I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking it, but I'm like, I don't know. I wouldn't want that to be my kid's role model.

Charlamagne Tha God: I don't think you're overthinking it, but you know, it is nuanced.

That's why, you know, in the, in the chapter, you know, I talk about it and um, I end every chapter by saying, let's discuss. 'cause I wanna just open up the conversation. I'm not saying I'm right, I saying I'm wrong. Let's just open up the conversation. And so I think it is something to question, but. I will say for every negative influence that hip hop has given me, it's given me the positive influence as well.

But how many people are open to that level of balance? How many people even get to that point where they get to a age where they're mature enough and emotionally intelligent enough to understand the nuances of [01:04:00] what gangster rap is? Yeah. Like don't get me wrong, there's some of it that's just, there is no socially redeeming value to it.

It is kill you, fuck your mama, you know, Rob your granddad. It is really that, right? We do celebrate the drug culture and you know, we do, um, glorify the gang culture and a lot of the music, but man, I think that people really are attracted to the entrepreneurial aspect of hip hop. And like I said earlier, when you are growing up in a certain environment, the only way out the hood it feels is to express yourself on these microphones.

Like that is a talent that a large generation of people had and they expressed it in some great music did come out of it, but I think it is a fair conversation to have about. Is this a lifestyle or a death style? And I think that in a lot of ways it is. If you're being honest, you gotta say a lot of it is a death style.

But there is rappers that have influenced me so positively, whether it's the Chuck Ds or the Killer Mikes, or the Wu-Tang Clans, you know what I mean? Even the people that you think are gangster, like the tis and the [01:05:00] Jeezy's, if you actually listen to their records. Mm-hmm. These guys come from certain environments and the art reflects the reality of their environment.

That's what they say. Art reflects life. So you can't be mad at these individuals for talking about the things that are going on in their community. The problem I have with it is when you have these people who see the gangsters profiting, right? Or see people profiting off of a life that they really did live an environment they really did come from.

But if you listen to their music, they're not necessarily glorifying it. They're just telling you what happened. They're also telling you the consequences of it. That's why Jay-Z was so dope. Jay-Z had a song, you know, it was all good just a week ago. You know, one week you balling, next week you getting hit with a RICO charge because those are the consequences of that lifestyle.

People that paint that whole picture and its totality. Those are the great artists. The ones who are just trauma dumping and not even trauma dumping because they didn't even really live that shit. I see. They're just doing it because it's profitable and they see it working for somebody else, [01:06:00] so they're just making these murder, murder, kill, kill slang, dope records.

But you never actually did that. Oh yeah. You're just doing that because it's the hot thing to do at the moment. Those are the people that I feel like, you know, we gotta weed out of this culture.

Jordan Harbinger: That's the vanilla ice method.

Charlamagne Tha God: Yeah, absolutely.

Jordan Harbinger: I love what you said about the lack of preparation in podcasting.

Most hosts, they don't prep at all and it, it drives me nuts. It creates noise. It's something we have a lot of already. I love the upside of podcasting though, man. No gatekeepers. You talking one of your early books, put yourself on. Yeah. Podcasting's like the peak of that. But I mean, it's sort of easy for me to say, 'cause you and I, we rise above the noise a little bit.

We're not trying to start something right now. But I love that you said that because Mo, I almost feel like podcasters get rewarded for not prepping and just saying the dumbest shit that comes into their brain.

Charlamagne Tha God: Well that's our fault once again. Yeah. It goes back to what is the consumer doing? Like when I talked about earlier about how you gotta go outta your way to make sure you're watching the whole context of something.

It's the same thing with what you choose to consume and share. [01:07:00] Because somebody can get on a podcast and white women are better than black women, or black women are better than whatever it is. And people will just take that clip and throw it online. And I say this all the time, there is an economy that has been created and that economy is engagement through en arrangement.

So people literally make money off you being enraged.

Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. Yeah.

Charlamagne Tha God: They know that shit is stupid, but they don't care. They just want to get y'all going back and forth, arguing with each other, debating with each other online, spending two or three days discussing or debating something that don't even make no motherfucking sense.

Yeah. They know that those are the type of podcasters I don't necessarily like, I like podcasters who I listen to and actually learn something. I'm just extremely entertained and the people who are the great ones are the ones that can do both. Mm-hmm. I love listening to the Weekly Show with John Stewart.

Oh yeah. Yeah. I love listening to podcasts like the 85 South Show. You know, I love listening [01:08:00] to like the Pivot, you know, podcast with Ryan Clark and Fred. No, that p Oh wait, it's two pivots. You're talking about one with K, you're talking about Kara Swer. I was a little surprised. I was

Jordan Harbinger: like, Kara Swisher fan.

Charlamagne Tha God: I like Karao. I've been on, I've been on that part. I, I like Kara and Scott, but I was talking about, uh, Ryan Clark and um Okay. Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder. Only because these people are entertaining, but also the things they talk about have so much socially redeeming value. Yeah. You know, like that, like you're gonna be intellectually stimulated.

Like my guy Andrew Schultz with flagrant like him and Akash and Mark Ganon and Alex. It's funny, like they're funny, but yo, they can sit there and kick it with Pete Buttigieg for two and a half hours. Yeah. And it can be some really good gems in there. You know, they can sit there with Trump for a couple hours and.

It's entertaining, but it's also some gems in there because they're challenging Trump. You know, you if, but you gotta watch the whole interview. You know that, you know, if you just watch the clips, you'd think they're laughing and joking and keep, but if you watch the interview you're like, they are challenging Trump on some things.

Yeah. The beauty of podcasting is the people who take it serious. And I do think that there's gotta be some guidelines. Jordan, I'm a guy who has to deal with FCC [01:09:00] rules and regulations. Right? Yeah. Every morning. I feel like with the way the podcasting industry is, everybody else should have to deal with that too.

YouTube should have to deal with that. If YouTube is gonna be operating as some sort of news network. 'cause there actually are news networks on there now, whether it's the mid touch, whether it's the Young Turks, whether it's the PPDs, these people are operating as news networks. They are, yeah. They should have to deal with the same FCC rules and regulations that we do.

Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. I tend to agree. I mean, I know we have to do it when we do ads. You know, we can't pretend that we didn't get money for something. That's right. But I love free speech, but telling people blatant falsehoods to piss them off and make them make, let's say a bad medical decision is just beyond the pale is bad for as bad society.

I agree. We mentioned Ryan Holiday, who's a good friend of mine. Love Ryan. Love that guy. Super smart dude and a good person. You've had some large personal ego battles and you touched on this a little bit before, but you mentioned a concept called ego strength that I'd love to discuss. Tell me what that is.

Ego strength is when

Charlamagne Tha God: you have to lean into your ego for good. Like ego can be good, ego can be bad, but [01:10:00] sometimes you have to have just a tad bit of the right ego. I think ego is a problem when it's a wounded ego. I think what we see a lot of times when, I hate to go back to Kanye, but I think a lot of that is wounded ego.

I think that you know, the ego, that was good, like when you read ego is the enemy. The thing I like about ego is the enemy. Ego is the enemy is broken up into three parts. It's that level of ego that fuels your confidence, that lets you know you have a talent and you feel like that talent can help you get to that next level of life.

Nobody can tell you. You're not talented. Nobody can tell you that what you're doing isn't the right thing to do. You just believe in yourself that much. That good ego propels you to that next level, which helps you to get success. But when you go from the ambitious part, that's the first part to the success part.

That's when you really start to see what kind of demon ego can be, especially if you have a wounded ego, especially if you've got a lot [01:11:00] of trauma that you haven't dealt with. Because success money doesn't change you. It just amplifies whatever you already are. Yeah. Are already, yeah. Scary. So if you already are hurt my, you just gonna be more of a hurt mother, right?

And so then if you don't deal with that ego, if you don't read books like Ryan Holiday, ego is saying to me, and you don't learn from other people whose ego has destroyed them, that talent will take you where your character can't sustain you. And then that's when the third part comes, right? It's ambition, success, and then it's the failure.

'cause the failure can come because you didn't get your ego tamed because you didn't heal the wounds that exist in that ego. And that is what causes people to ultimately crash and burn. It's tough and I can relate. You ever still get imposter syndrome? I don't anymore. No. And I'll tell you, when I got to a place of worthy, I got to a place of worthy December of 2021.

Wow. Okay. So 11 years after [01:12:00] the Breakfast Club starts. Yeah, it might have been even December of 2022. But I, I remember exactly where I was. I was sitting in a chair, uh, in my old house and I was sitting upstairs in, I literally just got hit with worthiness. I literally got hit with a sense of worthy and, and man, a sense of worthy is something that I had been dealing with for a long time because of imposter syndrome.

I had a great conversation with Bishop TD Jakes one time, and it's public so I don't mind saying it. And he said to me, um, even if you don't think you're worthy, just know that God knows your word. Then we had some other conversations, you know, around imposter syndrome and why some of us have imposter syndrome.

It literally just hit me in that moment, huh? I'm like, yo, thank you. God, I'm in this position that I'm in because this is the position that God wants me to be in. And not just even professionally, I am a husband to this beautiful wife and a father to these beautiful kids. 'cause God feels like I'm worthy to be that for them.

It just all clicked for me in that moment and I have not [01:13:00] dealt with imposter syndrome since then. But also it's because I also feel like I, I'm walking in my purpose too, Jordan. I'm walking in my purpose, like I'm not just doing radio and doing TV and the podcast and the books and getting into the film world just for my, my own ego.

Like I'm really of service. I really, truly feel like that. I feel like, you know, the work I do with the mental Wealth alliances are when I'm able to. Provide scholarships for HBCU students. I'm be able to provide jobs because, you know, me and my wife invested in Crystal's, franchises, like our But All, what's that?

The hamburger spot down south. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I've seen that. So, but it's not even just that. It's like I, the Black Effect podcast network, uh, you know, the company me and Kevin Hart have, we're able to employ people and provide jobs. So not only am I doing what I feel like I'm supposed to be doing, walking in my purpose, helping people heal because I'm telling my story about healing, but also I'm able to provide opportunity and jobs for folks who may not necessarily get those opportunities anywhere else.

So I feel like I'm really walking in my purpose and I'm doing [01:14:00] exactly what God wants me to do. So therefore, I don't have no imposter syndrome from that 'cause I'm doing what I know God wants me to do. So if you're in the place that God wants you to be, how could you ever feel like an imposter?

Jordan Harbinger: Man. Thank you for being so open.

Charlamagne Tha God: Thank you, brother. I always, I love doing this pod, man. We can't go so long without doing it.

Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. I appreciate that. I love it. I think it's admirable. You wear a lot of this stuff on your sleeve and you're open about it. It'd be easier for you in some ways if you hit it all, but you don't choose that easy road because I think you know that the best road is the one that you're taking.

Yeah. Like the, the most appropriate one.

Charlamagne Tha God: And I'm too dumb to hide it. Yeah, I get that. I mean, that's the reality of the situation. I'm too dumb to cover it up. I don't have, what else would I have to talk about?

Jordan Harbinger: Yeah. Thank you, Jordan. Thank you. Here's a trailer of our interview with Moby Iconic musician and producer.

This was a super real conversation about creativity, fame, mental health, money, and what really makes [01:15:00] people happy and fulfilled. Moby was really open with this one, and even if you're not a fan of the music, I guarantee you will dig this episode.

JHS Clip: I grew up in arguably the wealthiest town in the United States, Darien, Connecticut, but my mom and I were on food stamps and welfare.

My first punk rock show was to an audience of one dog, and my first electronic music show was Two Miles Davis, and I wanted to stop the

Jordan Harbinger: show and patiently explain to the movie stars and the beautiful people that they'd made a mistake. I. They were celebrating me, but I was a nothing. I was a kid from Connecticut who wore secondhand clothes in the front seat of his mom's car while she cried and tried to figure out where she could borrow money to buy groceries.

Now it was 1999. I was an insecure has been, but we kept playing and the celebrities kept dancing and

JHS Clip: cheering. The weird thing is things started to go wrong. When I stopped feeling that way in 1999, I thought that my career had ended. Yeah, my mom had died of cancer. I was battling substance abuse problems.

I was battling panic attacks. I'd [01:16:00] lost my record deal and I was making this one last album, and I was like, okay, I'll make this album. I'll put it out. I'll move back to Connecticut. I'll get a job teaching philosophy at some community college. And then all of a sudden the world embraced me. I handled fame and wealth, really disastrously.

I was so humiliating. I wouldn't trade

Jordan Harbinger: any of it. For more for Moby, including how he bounced back from a 400 drink per month booze habit. Check out episode 1 96 of the Jordan Harbinger Show. I always love talking to Charlemagne. This is like his third time on the show. Smart dude. Deep thinker. I. And funny, and I think y'all probably noticed that by now.

There was something he said offline after the show that I thought was quite insightful. He said, when you're poor and you're living at home and you aren't on an upward trajectory, you have a reason to be depressed that you can point to. But if you think you have it all and you're supposed to be happy, like you're wealthy and you're famous, [01:17:00] or whatever it is, but then you're still not happy.

That is a lot more alarming and you can't heal what you don't reveal. So he's a big, big proponent of therapy, as you know, better, help's one of our main sponsors, better help.com/jordan. So if you are looking to reveal things so you can heal him, definitely support the sponsors that support the show, including Better Help All Things Charlamagne Tha God will be in the show notes@jordanharbinger.com.

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We write it almost every Wednesday. If you haven't signed up yet, I invite you to come check it out. It's a great companion to the show. A lot of you hit reply and talk to me. I really enjoy that. Jordan harbinger.com/news is where you can find it. Don't forget about six Minute Networking as well over@sixminutenetworking.com.

I'm at Jordan Harbinger on Twitter and Instagram. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn in this show. It's created an [01:18:00] association with PodcastOne. My team is Jen Harbinger, Jase Sanderson, Robert Fogarty, Tadas Sidlauskas, Ian Baird, and Gabriel Mizrahi. Remember, we rise by lifting others. The fee for the show is you share it with friends.

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