Tony Hawk: Radicalizing a Generation

Vic sits down with Lena Waithe, the Emmy-winning writer and creator of hit Showtime series "The Chi." They start with defining what it means to make honest art and the difference between hurting someone and harming them. They also discuss their shared love of history, which helped them realize that patriarchy shapes everyone, and the lessons they learned from Martin and Malcolm about agreeing with an adversary quickly. Vic talks about playing Jamal on The Chi and trade stories about the city that raised them. Follow @vicmensa · @lenawaithe Guest: Lena Waithe (00:00) Cold open (01:26) Making honest art (05:45) Coming out and the TV version (12:12) Ghana, colonialism and "no gay people in Africa" (16:36) Patriarchy and who it serves (23:08) Books, King and Malcolm (37:23) Chicago and telling the human story (43:09) Jamal and the cell (55:09) Childless by choice (57:37) Vipassana Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vic sits down with streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker, and the first order of business is getting Hasan to disavow himself. From there they get into why "radical" says more about the system than the person it gets pinned on, free speech and how the government treats its critics, Tucker Carlson and the grifter gang, Gaza and the right to resist, and a Mount Rushmore of failed Trump staffers. Then Hasan breaks down socialism in plain English, from Norway's oil fund to Nkrumah's Ghana, opens up about body dysmorphia and finally learning to dunk, and walks through what he saw in Cuba under the blockade. Follow @vicmensa · @hasandpiker Guest: Hasan Piker (00:00) Cold open (01:07) Disavowing Hasan Piker (05:25) Free speech and the government's critics (08:27) Iran and the false seesaw (12:27) Tucker Carlson and the grifter gang (13:37) Gaza and the right to resist (21:07) Mount Rushmore of failed Trump staffers (26:58) Socialism in plain English (36:00) Body dysmorphia and learning to dunk (44:37) Cuba and the blockade Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Six days before the midterms, Vic sits down with Tennessee state Representative Justin J. Pearson, the Memphis organizer now running for Congress. They start with Angela Davis and the idea that every revolution meets a counterrevolution. Then they get into the fight over Memphis’s congressional district, Elon Musk’s data centers in Black neighborhoods, the Black church as a base for political power, and why Justin says what this country is short on is not resources but political courage. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3rd. 📱 Follow @vicmensa · @justinjpearson 🎤 Guest: Justin J. Pearson This episode includes a conversation about suicide. If you're struggling, you're not alone. In the US, call or text 988 anytime. (00:00) Angela Davis and the counterrevolution (04:49) How Tennessee split up Memphis (08:57) "Willing to die for this" (18:18) Zohran, Bowdoin and social reproduction (23:50) Elon Musk's data centers in Memphis (33:36) Knocking on Juicy J's door (35:54) The church and the story of Joseph (44:38) Hair as resistance (49:33) Tyre Nichols and funding the people (01:05:32) Getting big money out of politics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vic Mensa trades sets on the bench with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan doctor running to become the first Muslim elected to the United States Senate, then takes it inside for a conversation about faith as accountability and the roots of Islamophobia. They talk Arab, Muslim and Black solidarity in Detroit, what it means to speak plainly about Palestine and why Abdul sees American health care as a racket. It all comes back to one question: what would we build if we treated all our kids like all our kids? 📱 Follow @vicmensa · @abdulelsayed 🎤 Guest: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (00:00) Let’s put some plates on (03:27) “A terrorist to the Senate” (06:29) Faith as accountability (11:25) The DNA of Islamophobia (17:13) Henry Ford, Arab Detroit and Motown (20:25) Arab, Muslim and Black solidarity (29:22) Palestine and the price of speaking up (34:35) Top five Detroit artists (37:24) The health care racket (45:51) Getting money out of politics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vic Mensa sits down with Grammy-Award winning rapper, activist and entrepreneur Killer Mike inside Chairman Fred Hampton's childhood home, the Hampton House. They get into the Black Panther Party's legacy, Cuba and Haiti, growing up with police in the family, Cop City, and the "move like a capitalist" line that turned Mike into a meme. Mike breaks down what "by any means necessary" means to him, from his great-grandparents' farm in Tuskegee to his relationship with Governor Brian Kemp, and lays out a plan to fund the movement one small donation at a time, starting with the Hampton House. Donate to save the Hampton House: https://donorbox.org/save-the-hampton-house Follow @vicmensa · @killermike (00:00) Cold open (00:38) Inside Fred Hampton's childhood home (02:24) The Panthers, free breakfast and education (05:08) Cuba, Haiti and the cost of sanctions (07:15) Always prepared (09:13) Cops in the family, Red Dogs on the block (16:18) Cop City and the battles worth fighting (22:18) Same oppressor: Black America and the diaspora (28:25) "Move like a capitalist" (38:38) Jared Ball and the trillion-dollar myth (45:16) Tulsa, Rosewood and organizing the South (48:57) From sharecroppers to landowners (54:30) Brian Kemp and staying in the room (1:03:01) A million people, ten dollars a month (1:05:19) A revolutionary act every day Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vic Mensa hosts legendary guest and pro skater, Tony Hawk. They deep dive into skating culture, and Vic shares how much Tony Hawk's Pro Skater meant to him as a kid. They talk about the business behind being a pro skater, the iconic tricks, the love, the haters and even Tony Hawk's direct connection to music, and how much Black people love him. 📱 Follow @vicmensa · @tonyhawk 🎤 Guest: Tony Hawk (00:00) Cold open (00:55) Rage Against the Machine and the Pro Skater soundtrack (04:04) Virgil, Pharrell and skating on the South Side (09:01) Dead Kennedys, Police Truck and Gang of Four (16:51) Skate videos and the Bones Brigade (25:10) Learning kickflips alone (30:25) Building skateparks from Navajo Nation to Ghana (36:37) An outcast in an outcast world (43:03) The 900 and what failure teaches (54:34) Rodney Mullen or Nietzsche Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Imagine getting so high and thinking… I am the internet. Vic Mensa sits down and takes us through the Innanet Tape era, circa 2013. The who, the what and the whys of how this project was created, friendships gained and lost, and what doors creating this work of art opened for him as an artist. Now, in 2026, The Innanet Tapes will be released on DSPs and streaming everywhere, on September 30th. Check it out. 📱 Follow @vicmensa (00:00) Cold open (00:32) Kids These Days and the breakup (04:59) Do or die: the first solo project (08:48) The Chicago blueprint: Common, Kanye and Lupe (11:13) Independent then and now (12:56) The cover art (14:27) Finally on streaming (16:57) Why orange? (17:57) Reading the liner notes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vic sits down with Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Durand Bernarr to talk about the cost of being loved by the public, why Durand is letting go of labels and the queer genius behind Black church music. The two also perform their collaboration "Homesick," off Durand's album Bernarr. Follow @vicmensa · @durandbernarr Guest: Durand Bernarr (00:00) Cold open and live performance (04:26) Grateful and still unhappy: fame and personal space (09:41) Not hating, just not your target audience (13:35) Mango Butter and being everything at once (16:42) Mr. Brady and homophobia in the Black community (20:28) Ghana and the colonizer in the mind (22:29) The queer genius of the Black church (24:58) Prince, D'Angelo, Michael and the R&B lean (30:29) Sugar Family, three personalities and 20 years in (37:46) Real success and asking before you hug Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vic sits down with Van Lathan Jr., Oscar-winning producer, CNN panelist, and co-host of Higher Learning, for a conversation about politics, culture and the true cost of freedom. At its heart is an honest reckoning with the Black experience: the price of "earning your humanity" through talent and how one word flattens a whole world of culture, whether you're standing in Chicago, Ghana, or South Africa. 📱 Follow @vicmensa · @vanlathan 🎤 Guest: Van Lathan Jr. (00:00) Cold open (01:13) Van Jones, Palestine and the price of the invitation (12:13) Reparations, Coates and the white liberals (19:33) The Matrix was a documentary (26:56) Kamala, the aunties and who the party serves (34:46) Whose dead bodies matter (44:15) Get Rich or Die Tryin' and the violence that raised us (01:02:28) Black here, Black in Ghana, Black in South Africa (01:19:23) Boxing, Spike Lee and Mo' Better Blues (01:56:20) TMZ, the headlines and the cost of being watched Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"What is your concept of God?" Vic welcomes Grammy Award-winning rapper and friend, Rapsody, to the show. They get into her album 'God Gotta Afro and Gold Hoops' and the trip to Ghana that inspired it. They also touch on the mental health of Black men, misogyny, and the Black female MC experience. Two of the sharpest pens in the game, giving each other their flowers. 📱 Follow @vicmensa · @rapsody 🎤 Guest: Rapsody (00:00) Cold open: Africa on the map, and who's really poor (01:32) "What is your concept of God?" — the meaning behind God Gotta Afro and Gold Hoops (06:38) The Ghana trip: blue hour, colonial radio and bleaching cream (12:09) The women who raised her and Black women as the standard of beauty (14:51) Nikki Giovanni, James Baldwin and where Black men go to cry (23:17) Stand Tall, sexuality and hip-hop's woman-hating problem (32:33) The "female MC" label and the hardest rappers (39:25) Why Lauryn Hill walked away (42:50) Pinterest boards, colorism and The Wiz-inspired video (52:32) Stubborn faith, the slave castles and giving each other flowers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices