1167: Charlamagne Tha God | Get Honest or Die Lying

This episode is sponsored in part by Vital Proteins.

Let's face it, once you hit 30, things start changing, start to feel a little different.

Turns out your body's natural collagen production, key for healthy hair, skin, nails, bones, and joints, drops about 1% per year after 30.

Vital Proteins helps tackle that very issue.

They are the number one collagen peptide brand in the U.S., and their ingredients are backed by science.

Think about that.

Helping you feel and look your best.

It's unflavored, which means you can easily mix it into just about anything personally.

I actually toss it in my coffee.

I know that sounds weird, but it doesn't taste like anything.

It just, if it's not simple, it's not happening for me and just goes right in.

They've even got these convenient stick packs for when you're traveling or running around this summer.

Bottom line, if you want to stay active, look good, keep doing the things you love, give vital proteins a shot.

It's an effortless addition to your routine.

And the key is, of course, consistency.

Get 20% off by going to vitalproteins.com, entering our promo code Jordan at checkout.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Experience the joy of bonding.

The Disney Baby Playlist offers low-stimulation nursery rhymes, instrumentals, and Disney favorites perfect for tummy time, car rides, and playtime.

Just say, Alexa, play the Disney Baby playlist on Amazon Music.

That's Alexa.

Play the Disney Baby playlist on Amazon Music to listen.

Coming up next on the Jordan Harbinger Show, when you go from the ambitious part, that's the first part, to the success part, that's when you 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.

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 want to tell your friends about the show, and I always appreciate it when you do that, I suggest our episode 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 jordanharbinger.com slash 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-voiced co-host, 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 jordanharbinger.com slash Gabe, G-A-B-E.

Submissions have already been trickling in, and we've been watching them 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 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 going to love it.

Today on 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 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 this 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 7-Eleven 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 charlemagne had arrived to studio because this homeless guy was yelling into the phone charlemagne the god is here charlemagne the guy charlemagne 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 started losing his mind that Charlemagne the 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 going to 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 because you have some experience with with him.

How can a black dude be a white supremacist?

I don't get it.

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 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 coons 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 out of your way 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 Champs, 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 because he had fentanyl in his system and stuff like that.

So, for you to go out of your way to be a black white supremacist is actually insane.

It's almost like he's like

an Oreo supremacist.

Is that what you would call that?

What would you call that?

It's just strange.

I shouldn't laugh, but I guess it's just so ridiculous.

Like, it's so over the top, and yet it's not even meant as a joke.

Like, it's not like he's tongue-in-cheek with it.

He's totally serious.

But you shouldn't take it personal because Connie is one of those people that's tried everything to offend folks.

I mean, literally, he's been anti-Semitic.

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.

Literally, the very next week, I sucked my cousin's dick till I was 14.

Like, so you're just trying on gay now?

Your 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.

No healthy person does, though.

And it's interesting because you talk a lot about therapy and one of our last shows was all about therapy and mental health.

This is a guy who either doesn't understand or craves it so much that he doesn't care.

He just goes, negative attention, easier to get.

I get more of it.

I'm going to do that.

Like most of 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 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 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.

Like, you know, I saw him complaining about being 51, 50 one 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 what you're doing now is you're projecting 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 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 f with people, how mentally ill are you really?

You're right.

I'm not a doctor.

I don't know much about it.

5150, for those who don't know, is what, like involuntarily committed, basically like a psych hold.

They call people on you and they come lock you up.

But like I said, I'm not trying to diagnose them.

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 f ⁇ with people.

And you could be consciously and intentionally choosing to go get some healing.

It's probably a hell of a lot harder to go, I got to look in the mirror every day with a therapist for an hour and get to the bottom 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.

I'm good.

It's easier.

To me, it's way easier to go get help, go get on your healing journey, than it is to constantly come up with new ways to garner attention.

Yeah, I don't know where you go after I sucked 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.

It makes no sense.

Like, some African Americans, they hate Jews or whatever.

And I'm used to that.

I've met a lot of, when I worked at 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, I guess, racism, anti-Semitism.

Well, you know what's interesting?

My father was a Jehovah's Witness, and, you know, he got into Islam and 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 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 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 Michael Mex 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, the 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.

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 Louis Farrakhan gets a lot of flack because if you listen to the honorable minister Louis Farrakhan, which I have been for my whole life, the honorable minister Louis Farrakhan calls out 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 aren't 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 mosque all the time and build with the honorable minister Louis Farrakhan.

I never understood.

I don't know a lot of the teachings.

I'm glad to hear you say this because I thought it was surprising because 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.

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 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 to do.

Like it doesn't work.

And then I ran into those like, what are they called?

Like black humanitarian

lights.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was next level because 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, never mind.

I thought we were going to, but you know,

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.

I'm serious.

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.

Like if one black person robs you, that don't mean all black people are robbers, right?

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 and I have to get you.

Like, and I really do not like the broad generalization, 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, are 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.

Yeah, it's weird.

I never understood it.

I think a lot of Jews agree.

Our numbers are small.

We can, if you want to join the club, you should come join the club, man, but probably don't be like

some jazz 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 practice unity and group operation.

I used to live in a Jewish neighborhood in New Jersey, and it was so peaceful on Saturday.

It was so peaceful.

There's just certain things I disrespect.

I like observing other cultures and seeing how other people move.

And you cannot make me believe that a whole group of people are terrible just because of a narrative.

Because 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 it.

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.

I think that is one of the greatest false narratives about the Nation of Islam that.

they hate Jewish people.

I'm telling you, it's the exact opposite.

This was like 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.

So it was just one place.

It's definitely a social media thing, right?

But it's like I've been to the mosque 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.

study Jewish people.

They pool their resources.

They practice unity and group operation.

They operate as a community.

Literally, the Nation of Islam was modeled off of that.

Yeah.

I mean, look, as long as it's not like a dog whistle for Jews control the world, fine.

Because 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 a secret network, you know?

We had Jonathan Griebler at the head of ADL on the Breakfast Club a couple of times, and we had those conversations.

Like, yeah, where does the narrative come that Jews control Hollywood?

There is history behind that, right?

But it's because nobody wanted to be in Hollywood.

Like, literally, Jewish people went out to California and established this industry that nobody wanted to be a a part of.

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 wicked Jewish puppet men.

Like, it's like, all right, come on, man.

It is definitely a breach 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 against certain religions in those areas at that time to lend money for interest.

And the Jews were like, oh, we'll do it because there's a gap in the market.

And then it 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 remember the first time I heard that story and I was like, so you're upset because they did good business.

Yeah.

Exactly.

What?

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 realized all the reason I didn't like Jews was 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.

Yo, do you know, I got in, I'm not going to say trouble because it wasn't in no real trouble, but there was a backlash about maybe like five.

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 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?

And they just kicked her door and shot her.

It was Breonna Taylor, and there was another case that was going on.

It might have been the brother that was running through the neighborhood.

I don't remember.

But I was on the radio and I said, man, I mean, because Nick Hanna 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.

Talking about the police.

I know.

I find that also completely insane.

You know, there's all of these different Jewish outlets and they were like, Charlemagne the God is anti-Semitic propaganda, you know, saying the Jews have power.

And I'm like, that was a compliment.

I wasn't saying that to be 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.

It's hard to disagree with that.

Look, there's people who believe all cops are bastards or whatever.

The saying is, if these people are out there murdering people in disproportionate numbers, we all need the power to get people who are 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.

That's why I said it wasn't really anything that there was any backlash over.

It was just like, wait a minute.

But also, that's how me and Jonathan started talking.

Because me and Jonathan, I'm like, you got to explain to me why this is bad.

What did I step in?

And did I really step in?

Yeah.

But he explained it.

He was like, you know, that reinforces a lot of negative tropes about Jewish people.

I just don't like generalizations, man, because 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.

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 drinking their beer.

And if somebody came down the road with like one of the big pickup trucks with the Confederate flag, both of them, Jim Bo was white and my dad was black both of them would be like look at them crackers right

you know what i'm saying so so it was like it never was about anything other than the environment that we were in 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 was a gay black man named Haji Jenkins in Charleston, South Carolina, right?

And me and Haji would be together together all of the time, you know, because 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 want to help you get to that next level.

They're white.

They're Jewish.

They're black men.

They're black women.

It doesn't matter.

I like energy, you know?

What's your energy like?

If me and your energy mesh, if me and your energy click, we good.

Any narratives or stereotypes or generalizations?

I'm not with that.

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

You write about it a lot.

I always got to 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're in 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.

Yeah, my dad would say, if you don't change your lifestyle, you're going to 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 were people really dying around me.

And there was people that I used to look up to that was literally broke sitting under the tree.

So I'm like, oh, dad ain't generalizing.

This shit is literally happening.

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 because I know she's an author, but I can't remember.

Isn't that your Goddess Me, Margaret?

Yes, Judy Bloom is the greatest young adult author ever.

The only person that's even close to me is Beverly Clearly.

Oh, yeah.

But Judy Bloom wrote, Are You There, Goddess Me, Margaret.

She wrote Blubber.

She wrote Forever.

She wrote Superfudge.

Superfudge.

That's right.

I remember reading that.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.

Judy has written so many fantastic books.

One of my favorite Judy Bloom book is 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 four books to get a free pizza.

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 grow up in our echo chambers.

And so we only kind of like stick to the things that are in that box.

And she would 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 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.

That's what I'm into, Jordan.

Like, 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 an autographed copy of Are You Dare, Goddess Me, Margaret.

And I thought it was my team with me.

I was like, come on, everybody, she didn't sign this.

Like, because it's two autographed copies.

And then the movie came out, or the movie was coming out, and they were having a screening for it in New York.

And they was like, hey, Judy, would you like for you to come see her?

I'm like, why are y'all fucking with me?

And they were like, no, right.

We want you to come see.

Judy wants you to come see her.

So I went and I met Judy and, 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 had dinner, me and my wife with her and her husband.

And we've, you know, I went down to the premiere in Key West of Are You There, Goddess Me, Margaret.

We communicate.

Like I, you know, we did when Simon Schuster had their 100th centennial event, me and Judy did an event together on stage.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So it's just like we have a relationship.

It's unexpected.

I don't think a lot of people would see like middle-aged black dude hip-hop show.

And it's like, yeah.

And I love Judy Bloom.

She's a great.

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 want to bring Iggy's House to like the big screen or something.

Like, have you ever read Iggy's House?

Iggy's House was like her first book.

And, you know, she asked me all the time, she's like, you don't think this book could be taken wrong now in 2025?

I'm like, no.

I don't even know what that's about.

What does she worry 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 because they wanted it to be a surprise.

And it was a black family.

And 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 out of here with your white savior complex like it's just a real like judy was so ahead of her time

oh my god yeah she was so ahead of her time because you know winnie was woke right she was what you would call a woke you know, liberal person, like railing against her father.

And because her father had racist, I don't want to say he was completely racist, but he had racist tendencies.

He had a little sprinkle of racism.

He 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's been a pleasure to be able to build a relationship with her and call her a friend.

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 growing up?

It's interesting that you asked that question because of who I am now.

You know, I created that character, Charlemagne, the God, to protect Lenard because Lenard was the person dealing with all the social anxiety and, you know, the bouts of depression.

Lenard 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?

Because he wasn't the tough guy.

And it got to a point where it's like, yo, if you can't beat them, join them.

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 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 him, join him.

And 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 these 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.

Yeah, yeah.

The alter ego is blending in with the real identity or whatever.

It's like Smart Hulk.

It's when Bruce Banner and the Hulk finally combine.

Last time we hung out 2021, you told me you were getting rid of Twitter and other social media.

That was episode 171, which is kind of funny because 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 doing it.

That was Twitter negativity.

Whatever Twitter evolved into, I don't want either one of them.

Right.

And it's like, I knew back then, even before it was an 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.

Yeah, by choice.

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

And there'd be people saying, man, I was wishing you'd 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.

You're literally just parroting what you see people on social 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 at the University of Chicago yesterday with 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,

what is broken in the media ecosystem?

Because 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.

Somebody might take me just saying.

Something about Jews, whatever.

You know what I'm saying?

But 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 30-second clip or a minute clip or a two-minute clip.

You got to go challenge yourself to watch the whole context of the conversation.

That's like a part-time job, right?

So, you might as well avoid the whole thing.

If you're going to have to do an hour of fact-checking to make sure this thing someone sent you is real, would you rather have that be a part-time job, or would you rather just be lazy and do a half-assed job?

I would just avoid it altogether.

Like, I don't even want the drama.

I don't want the little clip or the big clip.

I just want to play Legos with my kids or something.

By the way, 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 on a 45-second clip.

You hate his whole life

because of a 45-second or a minute-long clip.

So the media ecosystem isn't broken the way we consume content is.

Since I don't want to end up broke under a tree, I need need you to support the fine products and services that support this show.

We'll be right back.

To you, my darling.

No, to you.

The roses were living the dream.

More champagne for me, peace.

Until it all came crashing down.

He got fired by it.

From the director of Meet the Parents.

You're a failure.

Women don't like that.

If you need a shoulder or an inner thigh to lean on,

on August 29th, I just want the house.

We want everything.

Wow.

Stop.

Yes.

And see the roses.

These people.

The roses.

Rated Rated R.

Under 17, 9 Minute Without Parent.

In Theaters Everywhere, August 29th.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game?

Well, with a Name Your Price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills.

Try it at Progressive.com.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.

Price and coverage match limited by state law.

Not available in all states.

Buying a car in Carvana was so easy.

I was able to finance it through them.

I just.

Whoa, wait.

You mean finance?

Yeah, finance.

Got pre-qualified for a Carvana auto loan, entered my terms, and shot from thousands of great car options all within my budget.

That's cool, but financing through Carvana was so easy.

Financed.

Done.

And I get to pick up my car from their Carvana vending machine tomorrow.

Financed.

Right, that's what they said.

You can spend time trying to pronounce financing, or you can actually finance and buy your car today on Carvana.

Financing subject to credit approval.

Additional terms and conditions may apply.

If you're wondering how I managed to book all these great authors, thinkers, creators every single week, it is because of my network, the circle of people I know, like, and trust.

I'm teaching you how to build the same thing for free over at sixminutenetworking.com.

I know what you're thinking.

I network fine.

I don't need this.

Maybe that's true, but I just got done teaching this to the three letter agencies that keep us all safe around here.

And I feel like they got a bunch of value out of it.

In fact, they told me they did.

So maybe you can learn a thing or two.

And the course, by the way, it's very easy.

It's non-cringe.

It's not awkward.

It's not cheesy.

It's just practical stuff that'll make you a better connector, a better colleague, a better peer at work, personal, whatever it is.

And six minutes a day is all it takes.

Many of the guests on the show already subscribe and contribute to the course.

Come on and join us.

You'll be in smart company where you belong.

You can find the course again, it's free over at sixminutenetworking.com.

All right, now back to Charlemagne the God.

When I interviewed Kobe a long time ago, about two, three months before he passed away, I'd asked him what kind of music he likes.

And I thought it would be funny if you 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 going to bite on that.

And people were like,

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 because he has daughters.

He did have Taylor Swift in his car because he has daughters and he loves Taylor Swift.

It was so wholesome, honestly.

People want to find the negative part of this wholesome clip of Kobe talking up Taylor and how she's a legend and a killer.

He's 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 because it got like 28 million views on tick tock i had to stop reading the comments because i started to hate myself these people hated me 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 like we talk for a living like yeah like there's so many things people can take out of context you know what it is i ignore tick tock my team doesn't make social media clips that are like for viral appeal i think other people do it to 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?

Because they want that.

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 at all.

Yeah.

They're out there.

I just, you have to look for them.

And I'm like, why am I going to do that to myself?

You wouldn't do that to yourself.

It's really a choice.

It is a choice.

Like, 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 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.

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 where you do have like this community where it's like you and the people you actually follow.

And most of the people that follow you, if they're following you, it's because they like you, right?

Except for the psychos, but yeah.

Except for the psychos.

You can block those people.

Those people are insane.

That's a form of insanity.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting 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,

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 so weird to me.

I don't think I consume anything from anybody that I don't like.

I don't know why you would do that.

Hey, the algorithm.

People like to be outraged.

They definitely do.

But guess what?

The algorithm don't know the difference, Joe.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, literally, if you start trending right now, it's probably somebody who don't like you taking a clip out of context.

But the people who do like you will be defending you.

Like, you got to listen to the whole pod, you idiot.

And it just creates this tsunami on social media.

The algorithm don't know.

Algorithm just knows Jordan Harbinger has been mentioned 10,000 times in the last 25 minutes.

What do you think of Taylor Swift?

I don't.

I'm not.

I don't mean that.

I don't.

I did a social experiment about Taylor one time when I was on the Brewery and Idiots podcast with my guy, Andrew Schultz.

I did a social experiment where we were debating debating about who was bigger, Beyonce or Taylor Swift.

And 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.

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 because somebody's going to still take that clip.

and post it online and run with it.

Guess what they did, George?

They took that clip and posted it online and ran with it.

Charlamagne of God says that Beyonce can't go out in public because of the Michael Jackson law.

I literally told y'all I was lying.

That's one of my favorite books is Brian Holiday.

Trust me, I'm lying.

Like, I say that all the time.

You should believe me even when I'm lying.

Yeah.

Because I know 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 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.

The book you're talking about is my new book, Get Honest to Die Line, Why Small Talk Sucks.

And I think, you know, it goes back to what we were talking about.

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 want to believe.

That's where the 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.

And intelligent human beings, wise human beings, 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 charlemagne have you been working out i like your jean jacket oh your head is so shiny like whatever like bro what do you want yeah yeah don't hit me with all the fluff and everything that's right let's get right to it we know what we're here for what do you want well you probably don'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 as you get to the bottom of the three paragraphs, it's like, my new book on financial management for people who live in Canada would be a great fit.

And it's like, no, just start with that.

And I'll delete this early.

And I won't be mad at you for pitching because, you know, shoot your shot.

That's right.

But now I'm mad at you because I had to read three paragraphs about my show of you trying to butter me up with chat GPD.

You don't have to die here.

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?

Like the shallow version.

Yeah.

Because they don't really care.

They don't care.

Because either hit them with this, either tell them exactly what's really going on.

Yeah.

You haven't touched it.

Oh, I love that.

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.

You didn't know.

You actually didn't want to know at all because now you're just forced to actually listen to me.

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 we hadn't been no human contact.

Like you'd go to the store.

Remember when all of 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 be 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, 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 because that's exactly what small talk is.

It's just bullshit.

Let's just get to the meat of the conversation.

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.

Is that real conversation?

Yeah.

That book is literally designed for people who don't know what the larger conversation is they want to talk about.

Because I really do feel like we live in a world where we make micros macros.

Like, man, the week we're recording this, there's been more conversation about can 100 men beat a gorilla.

Why do I keep seeing this?

Why do I keep seeing that?

I don't get it.

There's just been more conversation around can 100 men beat a gorilla than it has been about a president saying they don't know whether they should have to uphold the Constitution.

Yeah.

You understand what I'm saying?

Like, we don't know how to discuss macro issues.

That's a good thing.

If 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 or could impact us as a society.

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 going to get drafted?

That's scary.

But those are things that we should be talking about.

I agree with you.

Yeah.

Because the same vigor that we use to have those conversations on social media, we should be having to, you know, I guess protect the Constitution.

Probably a good idea.

You know?

Yeah.

Right?

To protect democracy.

Like, and I'm not even saying it on like no Democrat Republican.

No, just as a person who wants rights

at some point in their country.

That's it.

That literally, as far as I knew my whole life, that piece of paper was what what made America America.

Yeah.

So if people are just wiping their 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 going to ignore it.

That scares me.

That freaks me out, man.

Hey, man, you know what?

I hate.

I watch all the networks, right?

Oh, that's.

My biggest problem is I'm curious.

Yeah.

Like, that's my biggest issue.

I'm curious.

So I watch everything.

I watch Fox.

I watch CNN.

I watch MSNBC.

I watch Young Turks.

I watch PVD.

I 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.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I've seen this like on 60 Minutes where they'll just throw the question in and be like, does Donald Trump have to uphold the Constitution?

Yes, he's the president of the United States of America.

You know that.

Why are you even asking this?

Can Donald Trump run for a third term?

You know he can't.

But guess what?

The average person doesn't.

Yeah.

So the average person.

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 and seeing me in the street and telling me I don't know what the f ⁇ I'm talking about.

You can run for a third term as president.

That's crazy to me.

I learned that in like sixth 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.

That's what it is.

One line 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 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 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.

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 because I've got kids, try new hobbies, make new friends.

But man, you got to 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 because it's like vulnerable and other people are busy.

What's wrong being vulnerable?

Nothing, but it's not how we're raised.

It's something you got to 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 do think it's natural.

And the reason I'll 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 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.

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 going to run into people, but I'm not just hanging out.

I'm leaving the station.

I'm getting in my car.

I'm going home.

I know that me and my wife are going to work out.

I'm going to be around my kids.

I'm going to 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 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, especially if you have trimmed the fat and you're intentional.

about where you go, who you share space with.

I think it sounds like we're kind of saying the same thing.

I'm just saying you got to put energy into it.

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 going to get lonely if I don't pay attention to this.

And if it's organic and if it's meant to be, it'd be effortless.

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 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.

I can absolutely relate to that.

You're almost 47?

I'll be 47, June 29th.

Wow.

Oh, wow.

Happy birthday.

And that's coming right up.

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 old?

I do feel older.

Man, it's still crazy.

I feel so mature, but then so immature at the same time.

I can relate, man.

I get it.

You know what I mean?

Because at this age, like, you know, and that's why I like, you know, kicking the shit with like my guys like Andrew Schultz and my homegirls who really just understand that life is about laughing.

Even in the most serious of 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 part of it, I think.

Yeah.

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 were kids 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 oh that's got to make me feel old you know what i'm saying like wow she's driving to answer your question do i feel older yes i feel more mature but i feel more immature too yeah i can relate it's hard to explain but it's definitely i think it's definitely because of the kids because before i had kids my kids are young five and three i definitely was like i'm not really an adult yet and then i had kids and i was like 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 if you wanted to screw up your life.

Like now you got kids.

You don't have the option of screwing up anymore.

And I think, you know, because thank God, all praise is due 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.

You don't really have those stresses.

So literally, a lot of your stress only comes from having 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 don't have those types of stressors, it's easy to really explore who you are.

And who I am at the core is a very immature mother.

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 that space.

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 going to give myself a heart attack.

You know that stress causes heart attacks, right?

You always seemed cool as a cucumber.

You're kind of, you're fooling everyone, I suppose.

I don't know if it's fooling or if I had a little bit of sociopathic tendency.

Really?

Yeah.

You know, growing up, my favorite superhero was Wolverine.

Like, I got a tattoo of 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 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 Wolverine's 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 Wolverine's 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 out of my control bother me.

And, you know, the serenity prayer, right?

Like God grabbed me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Like, I always felt like I just stay focused.

Whatever bad is happening to me in my life in this moment, was 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 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 that moment, I'm going to deal with it.

Yeah.

Now, I might break down when I'm alone.

You know, whatever's happening to me in that moment, I'm going to 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 would just be having these panic attacks.

I didn't know what they were.

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 Eminem rapped about on lose yourself.

Palms are sweaty, your knees weak, arms spaghetti, like, you know, and then you got that crazy heartbeat.

And you're like, you're taking deep breaths, you're pulling over to the gas station to drink water.

You're like, God, if I'm, you know, about to have a heart attack, please just let me get to the hospital.

And so you go to the doctor, and the doctor told me the same thing.

He's always told me, like, your heart is fine.

You got an athlete's heart.

And 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's like, anxiety.

He 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 what you 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 going to 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 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 got to 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 office.

I see.

So, when I ended up getting fired for that fourth time, I had all these years of back pay that I was able to get.

So,

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 than 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 bouts of depression are still there.

So it turns out the money didn't fix any of that.

Turns out this 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 my father had a a lot of bad habits and he had a lot of 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 comedian who shall remain neighbors who told me one time that all superheroes one day test out their superpowers because 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.

got a New York Times best-selling 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 to 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 want to 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 going to 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.

And, 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 about therapy all the time.

They still don't in a lot of ways.

They don't.

Really?

Yeah.

Who complains about it?

I mean, not your friends.

Nobody that matters.

Nobody that matters.

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, 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 on my arm as well, too.

So it's because I thought I was going to make it being a rapper.

Oh, I thought maybe you added it later, like, all right, take this turn into a mic.

Now, I got Wolverine holding a mic because 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 was successful, especially when you're black, were usually in entertainment or athletics.

So I thought I was going to 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 that changed my life, not rap, because I sucked.

And then the healing power was 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, the 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 and just our communities.

Now for a word from our sponsors, including Kanye's Nazi T-shirt Emporium.

We'll be right back.

Hi, I'm William Googe, a Vuria Collaborate and professional ultra runner from the UK.

I love to tackle endurance runs around the world, including a 55-day, 3,064-mile run across the US.

So I know a thing or two about performance wear.

My go-to daily short is the core short from Vuri.

It's perfect for my daily run in the gym, strength training, or even when I'm taking a day off, relaxing, doing some stretching, and recovering the best way I can.

Check them out by visiting viewery.com/slash William.

That's V-U-O-R-I dot com slash William.

where new customers can receive 20% off their first order, plus enjoy free shipping in the US on orders over $75 and free returns.

Exclusions apply, visit Visit the website for full terms and conditions.

The Care Credit credit card lets me pay over time for just about anything my dog needs, from food to vet care.

But, but what if, hypothetically speaking, I got a bird?

No, a horse.

Well, I've got good news for my hypothetical self.

Care Credit is accepted at more than 270,000 locations and works for, wait for it, all animals.

And the even better part is, it also works for me.

I can use it for spa trips, dental treatments, and more.

Care Credit offers flexible financing for all my hypothetical animals and hypothetical me.

Visit CareCredit.com to apply and find a location near you, subject to credit approval.

Limit 20 gallons.

Restrictions apply.

Visit fuelrewards.com/slash join 25 for more information.

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 this show possible.

All of the deals, discount codes, and ways to support the show are searchable and clickable over at jordanharbinger.com/slash deals.

If you can't remember the name of a sponsor, you can't find the code, email me, jordan at 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 prioritized, is deprioritized in the black community.

Like, you've told me that a hundred times.

And you've said, and 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 especially in the black community.

That's all we're dealing with.

Like, we talked about Kanye at the beginning of the day.

Oh, yeah, that's right.

That's getting it.

All you're doing is trauma dumping.

That's true.

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 got to be real with a person and tell them, man, brother, I hope you heal because this don't got nothing to do with me.

And I'm the person that'll tell them 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.

And some people don't even know that they're dealing with.

BS.

They really don't know.

It's pushed way down.

They've suppressed it so much.

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 bouncing depression, but then you go to therapy and you start peeling back all them layers and you like, oh,

I thought I love my dad.

I hate him.

You know what I mean?

But 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 got to tell their story.

2018, man, week of Thanksgiving.

I'm home in Moss Corner, South Carolina.

My dad calls me.

He just read my second book, which was called Shook One, Anxiet 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 with my dad, completed suicide.

And so he was like, Yo, your cousin completed suicide.

And I read your book.

I just wanted 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 because 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 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 transitionally, because you never know nowadays, is I just want to have that relationship and I want to learn more about my parents.

Because because 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 because 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.

I see, you know?

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.

If you can pass on generational trauma, then you should definitely be able to pass on generational blessings.

Yeah, you would hope 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?

Because 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 kids' role model.

I don't think you're overthinking it, but you know, it is nuanced.

That's why, you know, in the chapter, you know, I talk about it.

And I end every chapter by saying, let's discuss because I want to just open up the conversation.

I'm not saying I'm right, I'm 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 an age where they're mature enough and emotionally intelligent enough to understand the nuances of what gangster rap is?

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, f your mama, you know, rob your granddad.

It is really that, right?

We do celebrate the drug culture and, you know, we do 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 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 and 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, if you're being honest, you've got to say a lot of it is a death style.

But there is rappers that have influenced me so positively, whether it's the Chuck D's or the Killer Mics or the Wu-Tang clans, you know what I mean?

Even the people that you think are gangster, like the TIs and the GZs, if you actually listen to their records, 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?

I 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.

And 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 dumping and not even trauma dumping because they didn't even really live that shit.

They're just doing it because it's profitable and they see it working for somebody else.

So they're just making these murder, murder, kill, kill, slang dope records, but you never actually did that.

Yeah, 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 got to weed out of this culture.

That's the vanilla ice method.

Yeah, absolutely.

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

Most hosts, they don't prep at all, and 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 talk in one of your early books put yourself on podcasting is like the peak of that but i mean it's sort of easy for me to say because 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 most i almost feel like podcasters get rewarded for not prepping and just saying the dumbest shit that comes into their brain but 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 got to go out of 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.

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 enragement.

So people literally make money off you being enraged.

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.

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, or I'm just extremely entertained.

And the people who are the great ones are the ones that can do both.

I love listening to The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart.

I love listening to podcasts like the 85 South show.

I love listening to like the Pivot podcast.

Oh, wait, it's two Pivots.

You're talking about one with Kara.

You're talking about Karas Wisher.

I was a little surprised.

I was like, Kara Swish a fan?

I like Kara, too.

I've been on that part.

I like Kara and Scott, but I was talking about Ryan Clark and

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 you're going to be intellectually stimulated.

Like my guy, Andrew Schultz, with flagrant, like him and Akash and Mark Gaganon and Alex,

they're funny, but yo, they can sit there and kick it with Pete Booty drugs for two and a half hours.

And it can be some really good gems in there.

You know, they can sit there with Trump for a couple of hours and it's entertaining, but it's also some gyms in there because they're challenging Trump.

You know, but you got to watch the whole interview.

You know that.

You know, if you just watch the clips, you think they're laughing and joking.

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 got to be some guidelines, Jordan.

I'm a guy who has to deal with FCC rules and regulations 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 going to be operating as some sort of news network, because there actually are news networks on there now, whether it's the Midas Touch, whether it's the Young Turks, whether it's the PBDs, 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.

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 the truck, 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.

It's bad for bad for society.

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 you have to lean into your ego for good.

Like, ego can be good, ego can be bad, but 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 hit 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 that 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 of trauma that you haven't dealt with, because success, money doesn't change you.

It just amplifies whatever you already know.

You are already scary.

So if you already are a hurt mother,

you're just going to be more of a hurt motherfucker, right?

And so then if you don't deal with that ego, if you don't read books like Ryan Holiday Ego is the enemy, 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.

Because 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 the Breakfast Club starts.

Yeah.

Might have been even December of 2022, but I remember exactly where I was.

I was sitting in a chair in my old house and I was sitting upstairs and I literally just got hit with worthiness.

I literally got hit with a sense of worthy.

And 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 T.D.

Jakes one time in his public, so I don't mind saying it.

And he said to me,

Even if you don't think you're worthy, just know that God knows you're worthy.

And 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.

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 I didn't just even professionally, I am.

a husband to this beautiful wife and a father to these beautiful kids because God feels like I'm worthy worthy to be that for them.

It just all clicked for me in that moment.

And I have not dealt with imposter syndrome since then.

But also it's because I also feel like 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 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 Alliance, when I'm able to provide scholarships for HBCU students.

I'm able to provide jobs because, you know, me and my wife invested in crystals franchises.

What's that?

The hamburger spot down south.

Oh, okay, okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think I've seen that.

But it's not even just that.

It's like the Black Effect Podcast Network or, 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 exactly what God wants me to do.

So therefore, I don't have no imposter syndrome from that because 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?

Man, thank you for being so open.

Joy this podcast.

Thank you, brother.

I love doing this pod, man.

We can't go so long without doing it.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

I love it.

I 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, like the most appropriate one.

And I'm too dumb to hide it.

Yeah.

I mean, that's just the reality of the situation.

I'm too dumb to cover it up.

What else would I have to talk about?

Yeah.

Thank you, Jordan.

Thank you.

Here's a trailer of our interview with Moby, iconic musician and producer.

producer.

This was a super real conversation about creativity, fame, mental health, money, and what really makes 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.

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 to Miles Davis.

And I wanted to stop the show and patiently explain to the movie stars and the beautiful people that they'd made a mistake.

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 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 had lost my record deal.

And I was making this one last album.

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.

It was so humiliating.

I wouldn't trade any of it.

For more from Moby, including how he bounced back from a 400 drink per month booze habit, check out episode 196 of the Jordan Harbinger Show.

I always love talking to Charlemagne.

This is like his third time on the show.

Smart dude, deep thinker, and funny.

And I think y'all have 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 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, BetterHelp is one of our main sponsors, betterhelp.com slash Jordan.

So if you are looking to reveal things so you can heal him, definitely support the sponsors that support the show, including BetterHelp.

All things Charlemagne the God will be in the show notes at jordanharbinger.com.

Advertisers, deals, and discount codes, ways to support the show, all at jordanharbinger.com slash deals.

Please consider supporting those who support this show.

Also, our newsletter, We Bit Wiser, is very practical, very specific, something that'll have an immediate impact on your decisions and psychology, your relationships in under two minutes.

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.

JordanHarbinger.com slash news is where you can find it.

Don't forget about six-minute networking as well over at sixminutenetworking.com.

I'm at Jordan Harbinger on Twitter and Instagram.

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn.

And this show is created in association with Podcast One.

My team is Jen Harbinger, Jace Sanderson, Robert Fogarty, Tadas Sedlowskis, Ian Baird, and Gabriel Mizrahi.

Remember, we rise by lifting others.

The fee for the show is you share it with friends when you find something useful or interesting.

The greatest compliment you can give us is to share the show with those you care about.

So if you know somebody who's interested in the topics we discuss here today, success, career, connecting more deeply, getting rid of small talk, definitely share this episode with them.

Or maybe they're just just a Charlemagne fan.

Go ahead and share it.

In the meantime, I hope you apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you learn.

And we'll see you next time.

Dad,

how do you make a happy egg?

Well, it starts with a happy hen,

happy egg, happy crack, happy flip, happy poach, happy whip, happy hen, happy egg, happy sizzle, happy brunch, Happy Him,

Happy Egg.

And you can make eggs a mazillion ways, but that orange yoke is how you know it's happy.

Happy.

Egg.

Looking for a mortgage, credit card, or auto loan?

Then you should know your FICO score.

Did you know 90% of top lenders use FICO scores?

Visit myfico.com/slash free today to get your FICO score for free.

My FICO makes it easy to understand your credit with FICO scores, credit reports, and alerts.

Visit myfico.com/slash free.

That's myfico.com/slash free.

Or download the MyFICO app and discover the score lenders use most.

That's myfico.com/slash free.