POPS with Craig Melvin

Published Aug 22, 2022, 10:00 AM

Craig Melvin is an award-winning news anchor on NBC News’ “TODAY,” a co-host of 3rd Hour TODAY, an anchor on MSNBC Live, and a host of “Dateline.” His breaking news coverage and reporting appear across all NBC News and MSNBC platforms. Melvin walks us step by step on the road to getting, “the dream job…the gig” that he has now and the important lessons he learned from his Pops that helped shaped the man he has become.

Learn More: Pops: Learning To Be A Son And A Father

Connect: @CariChampion  @CraigMelvin

We got him into an inpatient facility. And keep in mind, at this point of you was sixties six, sixties seven, and we're not talking like weekend drinking. We're talking hard drinking for forty years. We sent him to this place in States Poor Georgia. I was not optimistic they do my camy therapy, so I'd slide out on the States Poor Georgia one day after the show. And as soon as I saw him, as soon as we hugged, I knew that he was different. And he hadn't he hadn't had a drink sense. What a beautiful way to describe a relationship with one's parent. Um, redemption, love, all the things. Craig Melvin, anchor of today's show, wrote this beautiful book, and I hope you guys enjoy it. Sit back, relaxed. He is our guest on Naked this week. Every champion and carry Champion is to be a champion of Champion and carry Champion and carry chapion the Champion and carry Champion and carry Champion RAI raiders and sports and entertaining connectd. We're gonna in the world with vulnerable considered. We come and remove the vail from entertainment elite. It's the difference between with it's real and with the public seas. So here's your favorite celebrities behind the scenes. It's refreshing up then the whole story specific life, all to rendevents to shape the person that you here. We gotta champion. They carry champion, They girl, you did it. It's the greatest in sports and entertainment connected with every champion. They carry champions to be a champion, the champion, they carry Champion. They girl, Chitty yout the champion, they carry champion and carry Champion. Raider Freider and sports and entertaining can Naked were here? Everybody, Welcome back to Naked. We're on a roll with our guests. This week we have today's show anchor Craig Melvin. I really enjoyed. I really enjoyed talking to him. I get into this in the podcast, but I met Craig when we were up and coming reporters at local news, and it's just wonderful to see where he is right now and how he has decided to contentionally take a path that allows him to speak to the world every morning and to your great stories and be open about his life and his family and I think it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. I asked him some tough questions about being a journalist, a black journalist, more specifically a black man in today's news world when everything seems so polarizing, when you get in these positions of power and they make you feel like you can't be yourself fully or you can't bring your full self to work and talk about your experiences. And I do believe George Floyd changed that for a lot of people such as myself, who have these platforms where you're afraid to be very open and honest. For me, it kep me all the way into the direction of speaking truth to power and for others. You use your big platform for good so people can see you and understand how you move and who you are. So Craig Melvin again third hour of the Today Show host but I see him all the time without Broker. He's on everything journalists to the core, A friend of a more importantly a husband and a father. His book really gets into tough dynamics between parent child, father son, mother daughter, if you will insert whatever family dynamic you want. And it was special because he talked about an addicted father who didn't go to rehab until he was sixty seven years old, and it's living his life the best life he can live right now, and that's hope for all of us. Right, without further ado, let's welcome in Craig Melvin to Naked Chepi and everybody listening to the podcast. Thank you so much for being faithful. I have to tell you a story about Craig. Craig and I. This is bananas, but it's how the world works. I remember Craig and I went to something called the Pointer Institute together. I was a local news reporter in anchor in West Palm And I don't remember you might have. Were you in North Carolina? Where were you South Carolina? You used the proper formal name. I just I called it anchor and reporter camp. Yeah, it's essentially what it was, right people and back. And I don't even know if it's even regarded like it used to be back, you know, since we're out of local news. It probably is. But that we met there in a class full of people, um and and and what I remember thinking about Craig was goss. He's so professional. This is the perfect news man. That's what I remember thinking. I also remember thinking God, he is so arrogant, you know, my nerves or everything. Uh, wow, this one was wrong. Uh, the first was correct. Talk to me, Um about your local news journey. That's interesting though, and in terms of how you've been able to move up the ladder, you know. So I started in comedy South Carolina. And when we met at Anchor Camp that's where I was working, and my news director at the time. Um, we're still friends and and and she said to me, Now she admits that she thought I was decent, but that I could be much better. So she sent me off the camp to to improve. UM and I. But I grew up. And so I grew up in Columbia. I want to called the high school and M and I started working on this TV station, w y S TV when I was a junior in high school. And I would go in and do these stories. I like, I worked where the producer and did stories and my teens and seatbelt safety and teens and smoking and teens and sex and like stories that try to appeal with teenagers. And they paid me twenty five dollars of stories. And I caught the bug. I just I caught the bug in high school and went off to college in South Carolina and steady government because I thought, for a hot minute, well maybe I could be a lawyer, or maybe I could do something in d C. And I tried to escape my fate, oh, only to have it chased me down. Junior year college and I went back to the same TV station in Columbia, South Carolina, w I S t V and U and I worked there that summer as a producer. And that was it. That that that that started for me. That was two thousand. That was two thousand when I was Yeah, and that's when I started, and I've been doing it during it ever since. Carrige Champion, just like you, I haven't see when I when I met you, you were at the station in West Paul, but you I think shortly thereafter you went to the Tennis channel. No, No, after I left West Palm, I went to Atlanta. I remember I got fired and rehired for Sam Mother Suka on the air. You remember that that fact when that was back when something like that would get you fired. Yeah, another year, could you imagine like I was? And I remember and then the internet. You know, it sounds like eighteen umteen years ago, but I remember they I'll never live this down. My life is over. And it was so funny, but no, you it was. It was a great class full of people. I remember that I love local news much like you, but I also thought I was gonna be an attorney. But you can't escape it when it's in you, right, If it's in you, you just can't escape it. And what a beautiful career you have had for those who don't know like local news is when you turn on your local news and you see your fake Mr John or whoever is your favorite person. And I remember my biggest dream was to be a local news reporter here in l A. But life had different, obviously circumstances for me. Did you realize that you would be? I mean, once you have this bug, what was the gig, because there's always a gig, the gig to get I wanted to be Barbara Watsons, that was the gig, you know. I wanted to be Diane Sawyer. The gig? What was the gig for you? As you're coming up through the ranks. If we're if we're, if we're being honest and naked, Um, it's it's this gig. This is uh, how I was gonna say, I would say, you've got the gig. It's what I think, you know, for me, I dreamed of doing the And you know, you have dreams, and I think from time to time you kind of you put them to the side. You're like, this isn't gonna happen. I can be happy doing this. I can be happy here. I went to d C for a few years. I could be happy working in DC forever. And and so sometimes you sort of forget your dream. Um, but I never forgot it. I it's this is I told people along the time. You know, I am blessed beyond nature, and it's not lost on me yet because I get to do what as a sixteen seventeen year old boy watching the Today's Show in Columbia, South Carolina. I get to do what I dreamed of doing as a teenager. And that, granted, you know, it took it took a long time. It didn't, you know, I think, But I don't think it took that long. I know for you, we're looking at it like it took a long time, and out of me to cut you off. But I also know for everybody who is listening, you could dream that dream. You can even at the job, but very few people are tailored to thrive in that environment. Meaning a morning show is a grind on your family and friends. But it's also a grind because it's you know, very competitive. You're competing with other morning shows. We won't mention any of those who were talking about it right now, but people have to be built to stay in the position in which you are. Our worker is built a different way. He's a he's a human, roker is and he is a robot. And at one point in time it was Katie Kuric and then you know, you know those we shall not mention. There's always, um, someone who is built for it. You could have the dream, you could taste the dream, but you're like living the dream because you're built for it. Don't you think, Well, I think you're very kind, you're very kind, you know, I don't. I don't think I'm I don't think. Maybe I am now to a certain extent, but I wasn't when I started. First of all, I'm glad you puted this out. The grind on your family after you smoke kids. Um, the crime is it's hard. It's also one of those jobs. There's not a lot of people who do it or who have done it, So there's not like there's not a manual, and there's not a lot of people that you can really ask like what it's like, because then they think you're coming for their job. So you kind of you learn as you go. And there's so much about the job that I didn't know that I've had to learn. But the shift is it's absolutely brutal. And I don't think a lot of folks understand, like it's you know, they see, oh, you know, you know on TV three hours in the morning, it looks like you're having fun, you're smiling, you're eating, you're interviewing with celebrities or politicians whoever. And that's that's that's not the job. I mean, that's that's the easiest part of the job. You know. The hard part of the job is doing the show and then hopping out a plane and then you know, flying to l a or flying to tomorrow's buffalo and you come back after being on the ground for a few hours and you get back up and you do the show again. Because part of the and they told they told me this early on of doing the show is being there, like you you have to be on the show so if you're not on the show, then you're either on vacation or something huge has happened. So there shooting the stories between the show. It's a grime. And I missed and I missed a lot, you know, I miss you know, I missed sporting events that my kids have, or I missed the ballet recitals or and that that really used to bother me a lot. In carson Dale and I had this conversation several years ago, and he he actually changed my perspective on it. He said, credible. Um, if you really think about it, everyone as a parent, everyone is sacrificing something. Most are sacrificing money. Um. Some sacrifice time, and some sacrifice other things. But everyone's making a sacrifice. You have to make peace with your sacrifice. And so I've made peace for the fact that you know, I'm not going to be at every event of my children have because I can't. Um. But we take fantastic vacations and when I am with them, I'm present. I try to keep this terrible thing out of sight, my my my smartphone. Um So, but I've made peace with the sacrifice. That makes sense. Well, everyone who has some sort of passion or some sort of um love. Uh, they know that they're sacrifice that comes with that, and so relationships with workships, everything like it makes perfect sense. And since you led me there, um, and you're talking about being a dad, you have this book out that is about your father and becoming a father and learning to be a father as you are, Pops. Let's talk about it for a second, because although it's father and son, I think it could be father and daughter absolutely, you know, because I felt a kindred spirit in a connection with you and your father's story. I'm not unfamiliar to my father's story. So tell everyone what the book is about. So the book is about it's about it's about several different things. It's about, um, the complicated relationship that most sons have with their fathers. It's about growing up in South Carolina. It's about addiction, it's about battling your demons. But it's also ultimately about resilience and love. And uh, you know, my dad was And it's funny because I just saw him two days ago. He was up here for this cherry golf tournament we did. And and even now my dad's you know, north to seven years old, he tells me. Now, all the time, every time we talk. I love you, I love you, I'm proud of you. I love you, I'm proud of you. But for the first you know, twenty one twenty two years of my life, those those were not um words that are heard a lot from my dad. And so as I got older, it started to develop this resentment towards my dad. Um. He was a recreational, casual drinker who over time became more than that. He drank a lot, you know, every day blackout, you know. And and so as I get older and I started to achieve, you know, some reasonable modicum of professional success, I started to resent I started it resented him. But I think more than just the resentment of my dad, it was this resentment towards his his inability to get this monkey office back. I did not have an enlightened view of addiction. I just saw it as as most people didn't probably still do to a certain extent. It was a weakness, was a weaknessaid he couldn't control. And so this went on for ye years and we were essentially estranged for a number of years. Um Then he got into a fender bender. But we got into Carson about five years ago. He's driving dropped. UM. He had retired from the post office after about forty years. He had no hobbies or interests, very few friends, in part because he also worked the third shift, not just the drinking. And he got into this fender bender. And I was I was working at the Today Show at the time, and and I had come I had started to do a number of I had done some stories on addiction, and the way that I viewed addiction it had changed. I knew what it was and and you know, as Oprah used to say, when we know better, we do better. And so I saw it as an opportunity and and we we rallied the family. We staged a professional intervention, and we got him into an impatient facility. And keep in mind, at this point, my dad is at that point, he was sixties six, sixties seven, and and we're not talking like weekend drinking. We're talking hard drinking for forty years. And we sent him to this place in States Porer, Georgia. I was not optimistic that it was going to work. And then I go down there at part of the program is UM you have to visit with with with your your your your children, and your spouse, while you're in the program, they come and see you in this new environment and you talk and you air grievances that you've been holding on too for like years. They do like cany therapy. So I slid out on the states Porer, Georgia one day after the show. And as soon as I saw him, as soon as we hugged, I knew, um, I knew that he was different. And he hadn't he hadn't had a drink since. And not only not only has he not had a drink, Carrie, he gave up cigarettes during COVID. The doctor told him that if he had another cigarette he might die. So the quit cigarettes, cold turkey, that'll do it for you. Well yeah, and not he but he has he has relationships now with his children and his grandchildren that he was totally incapable of having just five years ago. And so the book is about that. The book is about redemption. It's it's just but but I also, for me, it was cathartic. You know. I got to interview my dad for hours and asked him all the questions that I wanted to and we you know, we have these recordings and and it was just the first line in the book is and my father was born in a prison in West Virginia and we never talked about it until I sat down to write this book. And that's true, Like we never I sent first line. I was like, whoa, and if we've never talked about it in prison? What was going on? That was? That was very very naked of you. What I'm also hearing, though, Craig is, as you wrote this book, it helps you heal and forgive and lies that the compassion is is important and empathy is important because when you resent your parents, it's hard to let that go because there are things we think they owe us that they didn't give us that we are trying to figure out as adults because we didn't get it when we were children. Um, I had the same resentment for my family and my parents, both my parents actually, But once I started to forgive them, you start to understand more, you know. And I want to know now that you have this different perspective and you are now, Um, you have a better relationship clearly with your father. How do you see his good traits and his bad traits displayed in you as a dad? Oh? Oh, you're good at this scarage Champion I've done an interview one time just before this. Let's start with the bad, then we'll go to the good. Okay, baby, you think bad treats, you know you and you allude to this earlier. My dad were third shift. He or a third shift for all, but I think three years of his career as a mail clerk at the post office, and that's thirty six years and and that that's a brutal shift. I didn't find out until I sat down to write this book. He worked the third shift because you made a few extra books. And so he he didn't go to college. He was the youngest in the family that wentn't any money left for him to go to college, went to the military, and took this job at the post office as a mail clerk. And I'm not telling you anything. He wouldn't tell you if you were talking to him. It was a miserable it's a miserable job. He didn't enjoy it. Um he liked the people. But it was important to him even as a as a as a self described drum it was important for his kids to go to college and for his kids to be successful. It didn't happen for him in the way that he wanted, so he worked that third shift to make some extra money to give us since to college holidays week, and he picked up all the extra shifts for money. And I remember when I started my career early on in Columbia, South Carolina, I worked twelve hours, fourteen hours, sixteen hours. I did not say no. I worked up six days a week for for a long time. And I did it at the expense of relationships. I did it at the expense of at first my physical health and then to to a lesser extent, I think probably my mental health. Although we didn't talk about that back then. Um and I remember, and I remember I would I would say that some of my close close friends at the time, maybe you went to a better college, maybe you came from a better family, and maybe you were smarter, better looking, you weren't going to outwork me, that you wouldn't out worked me. And and I lived it, and I picked that up for my dad, and I used to wear that as a badge of honor. And as I get older, I realized that that probably that probably wasn't the best approach. The probably should have been a happy medium or happy your medium. That was a bad treat me, and I'll tell you something else I And I've talked to my therapist about this as well. You know, I went through a phase in in my twenties where I was out in Vegas, like every few months at a blackjack table or I had a bookie. I would bet on games, and um, I know, for a while, I was drinking more than I wanted to. And then I realized, Um, I haven't addictive personality. That that's and that's genetic um and and so that was something else that I had to wrestle with. That was something that I inherited, uh from my father. Those are the bad traits, those are the the good traits my dad and it's it's and people who don't know you just met him for the first time, it takes it takes a few minutes to adjust to him. He has a sense of humor that is dark and twisted. Um, but he's he's one of the funniest people that you'll ever meet. I'm not that funny, but I'd like to think that I have the ability to find humor in awkward situations. And I picked it up for my dad. I picked it up for my dad. And another trait that I've I've always enjoyed and granted. When I was younger, I probably didn't appreciate as much as I do now. My dad is is one of these people in the family, maybe the only person. Sometimes he doesn't get involved in a lot of drama. He's not He's aware of things that are happening. He doesn't get bogged down in a lot of the drama that consumes families. And for a long time I thought it was because he was indifferent, apathetic. Maybe no, he just realized that is he is. He says to me sometimes, like, you know, most people are are crazy, like you just got you gotta find the crazy you can deal with. Uh? And man, is that crazy? And I'm like, you know what those wise words? No wiser words, wise words, and he's And it's funny because when we would talk after rehab again, you know, he's in rehab for for weeks months, and I talked to him. Um, I think it was when I went down from my visit and said, Pops, how's it going. He said, Man, let me tell you I'm a drunk and I hadn't done right by a lot of my family. I tell you, sit in this place long enough you realize so bad. He proceeds because no one sounds crazy. Such is this you know that old saying. Um, you know you put all your problems on the table. Everyone puts their problems on the table. You're like, let me just take my little problems back because I don't know what it's true. I want your problems, but it's the longer you live. And so you know this. But my father's told me this. We're all broken. Everyone's broken. Some people are better at pretending that they're not. We're hiding them. But we're all broken. Everyone's broken. On the other side of the break, Craig dives a little deeper into things I think we all want to know. Do not miss it. You can fast forward through the commercial hit that thirty second fifteen second clip. Craig Melvin on the other side of the break, Every champion and carry champion is to be a champion, a champion and carry Chappion and carry Chappion, A champion and carry Chappion and carry Chappion sports and then the taming can make you work. Every Chappion and carry champion is to be a champion, a champion. They carry Chappi and they champion they carry champion, they carry chappion spots, and then the taming can make Hey, everybody, thank you for being patient. Here's more with Craig Melvin. I love this. I think this is, like you said, a story about many things, but above all, I think it's also just truly a love story. So I definitely encourage people to read it, because at the end of the day, as corny as it may sound, if we employed that and and we give that unconditionally, it changes all relationships and falling. Oh yes, we're good. Let me tell you I had to forgive him. I told him one time, like I told you, Craig was gonna interview me, y'all. Um. We had this one conversation over a birthday dinner and by this time probably um he and I. He came back into my life pretty happy. When I was eighteen and nineteen kind of went away, came back, um and then so like in my thirties late twenties, he was always around. But when I moved back to l A in twenty sixteen, we would just you know, have dinner and lunches in the whole nine and one day he was talking to me and I remember it like it was yesterday and he was explaining why he couldn't be around like you know, um, you know, and she sometimes int like me, but you're And I said, hold on. What we're not going to do is ever talk bad about the woman who raised me when you were not a round. And I said to him, so, let's just have this conversation. You chose the fast life. If you really wanted to see me or your other children, you could have went to court. You could have petitioned, you could have hired an attorney. You had enough money to do so. You know, you were a hustler. You could have figured. You could have figured it out if it was burning and important to you, because grown folks do we grown folks when I do. And I was like, and he said, you're right. I couldn't even finish. She was like, no, you're right, I am wrong. He was like, I chose my life. I was. He just went into this wonderful, beautiful speech and it was heartfelt, and then at the end he told me, I'm so glad you told me the truth, like he respected. It was hard for him to hear because no, one, no, you have children, you you don't want to have that conversation with your son or your daughter that you let them down in their big age, you know what I mean, and you chose something else beside to them. That's a hard thing to hear um and he helped and he took it like a chap all pun intended. So that is why I say, at the end of the day, your book is about love, because we have to be unconditional with it. Right, we give out expectation, We give it without anybody thinking anything else but knowing at the end of the day it's going to give us peace. It's just beautiful and so many different stories. Craig, I think this and I hate to even make this hard term because I have to. When I was having dinner with Chanel when she was in l a random She's so amazing. Let's just say that, Hey, I just pleasant and fun. And we we've gotten to this conversation about you know, black journalists and the roles that we play, especially after George Floyd, and how how we were able to speak from our own experiences as you write this book about your father who was a black man who grew up impoverished and worked this late shift. Life wasn't easy for him outside of just his own demons, how he lived in this out. I mean, I'm sure his stories are legendary of racism and how he had to maneuver. So here we are in this world and you have this big, beautiful job, and you find yourself being asked to talk about very personal things. Is there or was there any hesitation in your spirit about speaking your truth? Um, perhaps derailing where you are professional, taking away from your career, taking away from your status, or your viewers. Are the people who love you? There used to be no question, um, I would say, you know, I'm forty three. I don't think I was probably comfortable in my own skin until I was early mid thirties. Yeah, that's probably early mid thirties. And I think some of that was just immaturity. Some of it was the result of life experiences. And for me, a lot of my worldview, if you will, has been shaped and molded by a lot of the stories that I've covered, a lot of the people that I've had the opportunity to talk to an interview and spent time with. But no, I you know, now it sometimes to to a to not not I won't take my detriment, But every now and then I do have to. I have to catch myself and remind myself that, you know, wait, we'll wait a minute. Now. I need this job, and I need to be careful about what I say. Fortunately, I work in a place and I'm not you know, I'm not not just I'm not just saying this because you know, I'm I'm a happy employee. I remember, several years ago, this is before George Floyd, I was encouraged to be honest about how I felt about you know, we were talking about diversity in the workplace, or the lack thereof, and and the person I was having a conversation with, I think could sense that I was walking on eggshells, and they said, you know, we wait a minute, I'll just be clear. I want you to and and it ended up being a very refreshing conversation about at the time a tremendous lack of diversity and not just you know, and and our work in our little playground that is the Today's Show, but at the company in general. Um, and you know, since then, we've made some great strides. But I think a lot of people carry struggle with with how honest can I be? Should I be? Yeah? And it's you know, it's It's one of those things where how Rooke and I have had this conversation numerous times because one of the things I've always admired about him is his courage. And a lot of folks and you can people can google this. But years ago, you may recall there was a radio host who also had a TV show who referred to some women college basketball players who passed away up as not be headed hose. And what a lot of folks don't know is one of the people inside our company who led the charge to make that right was our who who wrote letters, who rallied other colleagues, who got on the phone, and and wanted to make sure that people understood inside the company and outside the company that that that was unacceptable. And and so I have gotten to a point now where I I see it as an obligation and so a lot of the stories that I do and a lot of the stories that I don't do, um are it comes from that place that makes sense, yeah, in my language. So, but but you don't realize, and you probably didn't happen within trobally didn happen until few years ago. You realize, Okay, I've got a little power. How how am I going to use that power? Am I going to use that power to negotiate, you know, the biggest contract I can get for myself? Or am I going to use that power two amplify certain voices and maybe even diminish others and promote causes that advanced the cause? And so but you mentioned George Floyd, I gotta be host me. That for me was sort of the turning points as a journalist. If if you this is my point, this is a conversation, and it's okay to say this for every black journalist or black and brown journalists more specifically even a black male as a journal that is it was life changing. And I'm just wanting to that specifically for a culture and a collective that has had to deal with that, and it had been very familiar with that, and that wasn't a foreign story. But it's just being televised so the world can see. And we're at a point where the world could see because no one out moves at home and see it changed you in what way? It changed me? I didn't fully appreciate the obligation that I had and and I and yeah, I say, up until that point, I was taking that obligation for granted, um, I was, you know, I would you know, I was doing hard news stories and I would you know, I do features in sports. But I didn't. I didn't necessarily always see the value and making sure that people that look like us, we're being portrayed in a way that made them human, you know, like it was and so and over the over the course of those weeks and months, and you know, I was in in in Minneapolis and in Houston that the funerals and the protests, and I covered all this stuff and it's set with me. It's it's it's set with me in a way that you know, I got on the phone and I was talking to bosses and trying to figure out how we could go about doing our jobs better and and and accurately reflecting not just the black experience in a more authentic way, but other experiences as well. And so but it but it was it was an awakening. It was an awakening as as not just a journalist, as a father, as a black man, and so anyway, it helped me tremendously and in some of the stories that we do now and I see it all the time, you know, she now I have this conversation because sometimes I'm not sure and I'm like this story that we're doing right now, this isn't on TV five years ago. This is no t V four years ago. Correct. The games that we're playing with my sports that we're in U c l A is satinga Alabama State first HBCU game. There it We're seeing it across every platform because there's a let me pay attention. Yes, ESPN is like, okay, I'll cover some HBCU games. I remember doing a story in twenty nine and someone said what is an HBCU to me at work when I was there, And now we're covering it. Now they're covering it another like crazy, right, we're watching it happen in real time. It's you know what? You know what I was gonna say to you? Oh, I don't want to be mean, but what maybe I do. I'm not for sure i'm gonna say to you because you get the face. But I'm looking worried. Yeah, No, I don't have anything about to say you at all, never would I, but I like how you you you listen with your face? Have you noticed everybody on TV since with their face? Like? What are you saying to me one fun little note that I didn't know about you. This is that, this is what I was gonna ask you. When do you pledge because you I'm That was shocking to me for some reason, that I pledged Kappa Sigmas, the fraternity. I pledged nineties seven. So I went to a college, Watford College, to small liberal Arts college and upstate South Carolina, and I had noted to that point in my life. My high school was probably seventy black, and that could be a conservative estimate. The white experience was new to me, and I hate to generalize the stereotype, but I think most people are saying what I'm talking about from in terms of college fraternities and sororities. But I also grew up my mother like she put stalin the shame, like she I there was there was no freedom in my house. There was no people are like, oh, like when you were in high school and you went to high school football games on Friday nights. I was like, I didn't go to high school football games on Friday nights. We were allowed to like go out. There was no like when when I people think I'm exaggerating, And sometimes when my mom's around. I have to tell I have to mom, is moms this true? Yeah? You all my friends to all their parents. And she overcompensated because my dad was was was was physically present, but absently so. Anyway, So I go off to college and in my in my freshman class, there were six black guys, six who who did not play a sport. Um that makes sense, yes, absolutely so most of the good except for the other six. And so I wanted to have a social life. And I got to college and I realized pretty quickly that the folks who are having the most fun on campus were in fraternities and sororities. And what I what I did not realize until a few weeks into the pledging process. In this particularly fraternity went for college, there had never been a black number. Yeah, And there was me and this other guy, Corey Porter, and the two of us we were pledged at the same time. And at one point we had a conversation. We're like, well, you know, is this the best thing? And keep in mind I came from a long lot of campus um uncle like grand Paul Margain, I mean just and so it led this like some awkwardness for a couple of months h and finally I was just like, you know what, I'm gonna be here for four years. And that was it. And and some of the some of the guys and some of my fraternity brothers from college, some of my best friends now hands down, hands down. By the way, though, one why said, I'm surprised you don't seem like you too, like, oh, I want to pledge. You seem like you'd be your own person, You'll follow me, do what I want to do. Right, That's how I feel like you would have been number but number two. You're absolutely right because at the end of the day, it is about the friendships you make, so if they are lifelong friends. And it was a great experience for you, I love you like it, I love it, I received it. It's it's funny because I you know, sometimes you're you're in the moment. At that point, I was eighteen and I didn't realize um like it was. It was a bigger deal for other people then it was for me. I was just looking to meet girls on the weekends and drink, you know, and I just that was that was experience, Yes, And I wanted to go with the place that was going to give me the greatest opportunity to do that. Yeah. Then all of a sudden it's like, oh, you made some history of the college. It's like, no, I didn't not to make any history. I just with the numbers said the greatest opportunity to do so. I mean, did your pledge No, I would. I thought about it, but I was like, I don't need nobody, but now that you, I will tell you my regrets and I not that there are. But it is an incredible sorority slash fraternity of people. It's a great networking system. People want to do things for you. I see it all the time with my girlfriends who are who are now some pledging as adults. It's that because that's become more popular too, where I don't know what the term is. Are they honorary or they make them when they are a full grown adults. Had a friend who was it's something and she said, A k A, Now I don't I'm missing that. I can see you as you would be an a kid. You think so oh am I giving you jack and jeel energy. I didn't. I felt like, of course she is, but I I feel like I'm right. The compliment, that's a compliment. It is, but I feel away. I feel like, no, I'm from the hood, not really, but yeah, no, I mean you you're not fully anyone, Carrie. It's not um No, but I didn't. I've been thinking about it though, and I have no no shade to aks a doubt. There's no shade to Jack and jail again. I just came from Martha's vineyard. I was very familiar and indoctrinated into the Jack, Jack and Joel lifestyle there. It's funny you mention Martha's bringing. My mother was today today is we're doing this one? My mother is going in two days? Are you going? No? I just saw mom. I can't vacation with mom for days. I just saw. I was with mom for a week in South Carolina two weeks ago, and she was up here for a long weekend. My MoMA not just taking a little break. Yeah, okay, I'll see you again. Yeah, she's going with the girls. But you know, it's like it's the Black Mecca. It was my first time. It was unbelievab. It was your first time. That's stunning, which is why I keep telling you I knew nothing about this Jack in this jail. It was my going, all right, Greg, I see much of your time. I know you have to go again. You have been a pleasure. I'm just very happy that I'm being allowed to see another side of you. Uh, the humanity part is important, So it's great. Well, you're very good at this. You should charge people to come on, because I feel like this is therapy. For the last forty five minutes, it was therapy for me. See me a bill, I write your check. You don't play with me. I know you've got that big Today Show money. I've got the right now. I know actually he's documented. He's gonna give me a million dollars. Guys. Thanks, Um. That was beautiful. And to be honest, I overrelate in every way with my father, with my mother. Addiction is a real thing. It's a disease, and if you don't understand that it's a disease, you don't have compassion. And that's what I love about this book, and what I love about what Craig talked about is that when he understood addiction and what it meant, he was able to see his father and other people in a different way. It also spoke to who he was what he needed to improve on. I'm telling you hold a mirror up to someone else. Really is a reflection of who you are. When you do certain things to people, there's a reason why. When you behave a certain way towards people, there's a reason why. And I'm all about the empathy and compassion. I never get it right, but I'm all about it. So please check out this book. Uh, salute to correct support him on the Today Show. And I say this in closing. I always like to do news and notes in the beginning, and I didn't really have much because I didn't really do much. Uh. The summer is coming to an end, and we are all trying to figure out how we get back to this work mode because we are still definitely in summer mode. I know I'm having a hard time, So do me a favor and definitely relax and enjoy yourself. You deserve it no matter what. Okay, enjoy the last few weeks of summer, keep supporting your girl and naked, and I'll talk to you all next week.

Naked Sports with Cari Champion

NAKED SPORTS lives at the intersection of sports, politics, and culture. It is a niche groundbreakin 
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