Skip to content
What Now? With Trevor NoahWhat Now? With Trevor Noah

Between The Seasons: Stories From A South African Childhood - What Now? with Trevor Noah Podcast

As we gear up for our new season launch on September 18, we’re taking a trip down memory lane with some of our favorite stories from Trevor’s childhood in South Africa. If you haven't already.... Subscribe to the channel here http://bit.ly/SubscribeTrevorNoah Or follow the podcast on your other favorite platforms... Spotify - https://bit.ly/WhatNowOnSpotify Apple Podcasts - https://bit.ly/WhatNowOnApplePodcasts More episodes... Idris Elba Walks Into an Abu Dhabi Hotel Room! - https://youtu.be/HFBU8q1LcLg If I Ruled The World: Creating Chaos with Anele & Sizwe! - https://youtu.be/A0QqzipH8-s Jon Stewart – One of My Favorite People https://youtu.be/44uC12g9ZVk If I Ruled the World: Tressie McMillan Cottom Throws Down https://youtu.be/ZFngOX10N_w Esther Perel – One of My Favorite People https://youtu.be/ss1zseYy7J8 The Perfect Algorithm for Finding Love? with Christian Rudder https://youtu.be/6c3haFx35u8 The Anxious Generation with Jonathan Haidt https://youtu.be/Ey4XhHqnkuQ Meet Derek Fordjour – One of My Favorite People https://youtu.be/5cs3aIXF6ug Neuro-Spicy: Discussing ADHD with Dr. Kristin Carothers https://youtu.be/SkDvqvpxKBY If I Ruled The World: Careful What You Think https://youtu.be/4R-VayY9J9w Meet Eugene Khoza – One of My Favorite People https://youtu.be/GhlhkbAtN1g Is Elon Musk the Ultimate Scam Artist? with Max Chafkin https://youtu.be/nGMcyJG5If0 The Problem With Men, with Scott Galloway https://youtu.be/_i11gj-iq1I American Amnesia with Tressie McMillan Cottom https://youtu.be/bOT53IY6tJg The Reality of Fiction with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie https://youtu.be/yfNbrC3HJpU Christiana Gave Birth (Again)! https://youtu.be/ER-EZnyjSJM Human-Kind or Human Evil with Rutger Bregman https://youtu.be/vhg2RLXUovs Meet Khaya Dlanga – One of My Favorite People https://youtu.be/qEJV3t1m_Y4 The Second Coming of Halle Berry https://youtu.be/hW7Mld_WksU RIP… D.E.I. with Ruha Benjamin https://youtu.be/1VRCfuKEGdo No One Told Trevor He Was Hosting the Grammys https://youtu.be/bNEJVTNU8N8 Wringing in the New Year https://youtu.be/Ge_0YMwfTes Is Marques Brownlee the Most Powerful Man in Tech? https://youtu.be/pNDidttHP9M?si=5GDvs3sbehGH5ZZm Why Are All Bosses Idiots? with Simon Sinek https://youtu.be/BooPVxoRmEY?si=IV5bDRKpJj2Z1WHV How To Be The Most Healed Guy with Neal Brennan https://youtu.be/InNbGfVVtJk?si=rKM8EcfC-bGcWEsk If You Ruled the World: Listener Grab Bag https://youtu.be/lRBA74Yd6eo Love on a Timeline with Esther Perel https://youtu.be/wXoi2mcS79c Tight Values, Loose Ideas with Malcolm Gladwell https://youtu.be/0nzREiczBaA?si=FpCq7CQIg8wavN89 What’s In An Accent with Lupita Nyong’o https://youtu.be/OncAEu9sfD8?si=CEM-ZAFKABE9agLx For Kids or Anyone Who’s Ever Been a Kid https://youtu.be/iv3CMDfKM5w?si=_e0aLFDiHBxPutCB Have We Missed The Message? with Ta-Nehisi Coates https://youtu.be/IPbD9PZ5FP4?si=6Jo16ww9qDqjPFIF Kevin Hart Gets the Bubble Guts! https://youtu.be/LxWiLYHEdYI?si=DQfQxsE_qbQU18gc Doctor Roger Federer Will See You Now https://youtu.be/0foth8r3Zbg?si=jLLMfq9DE90rLAZn Welcome To The Julia Louis-Dreyfus Brain Museum https://youtu.be/gIM1aQ9KS1o?si=z6pYIWwtEOfjqspB Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Kicks Off The Podcast! https://youtu.be/gPmBuZbnn0g?si=R2jJLxG5cb-BwF03 Jessica Alba Is Standing in Her Power! https://youtu.be/zY9KZyJ1EiI?si=qGolN-Ga4PI3C-5a Making Bureaucracies Sexier with Yuval Noah Harari https://youtu.be/jO8ZLWYg71M?si=Ihm6QzZEnueJJWr1 Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias and the Art of Mentoring https://youtu.be/_ZeEiE42kNk?si=UNc9HE9NnyQbSVs6 Tripping Past Your Ego with Michael Pollan https://youtu.be/RMXu7Fn_bZc?si=fujRFMjoW0gwtMLu Why AI Won’t Destroy Us with Microsoft’s Brad Smith https://youtu.be/N5qEv-0fyQ4?si=YqEp8HUM5TCvVoZi Sam Altman Speaks Out About What Happened at OpenAI https://youtu.be/dVTxt5K8YZo?si=tNjKcPxtZuj6crVd There’s No I In Trevor Noah https://youtu.be/NZYnFYmn1Q0?si=5mYwzWfs83XoXhLO The Ozempic Obsession with Jia Tolentino https://youtu.be/ZR9QASRetRc?si=FmhMdLFmYKAOtxP8 #TrevorNoah #WhatNowPodcast #BetweenTheSeasons #StoriesFromASouthAfricanChildhood

Trevor Noahhost
Aug 28, 202526mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:000:02

    Intro

    1. SP

      [upbeat music]

  2. 0:021:08

    Township prayer as social ritual and “power move”

    1. SP

      Before the new season begins, we return to where Trevor's story was first written: South Africa. In the laughter and struggles of childhood lie the roots of who he became. These are the tales we gather now. [upbeat music] Our journey begins where Trevor's family always began: with prayer. In the townships, prayer was more than faith. It was identity, a reminder of where you belong.

    2. SP

      This is the awkward part, how, how you start a conversation.

    3. SP

      It's the worst part of every conversation.

    4. SP

      Yeah, it's the worst part.

    5. SP

      Why don't we start with a prayer?

    6. SP

      The guy-

    7. SP

      This is, this is actually why our grandmothers started meetings with prayers.

    8. SP

      Oh, yeah. To cut the awkwardness.

    9. SP

      Because that was not... Yeah, 'cause it's to cut the awkwardness, 'cause now you're gonna... You can't just come together and be like, "Your son has a drug problem, and your husband is cheating." If you start with a prayer, then it opens it up.

    10. SP

      But it was also a township power move because everyone here will know whose house this is.

    11. SP

      [laughs]

    12. SP

      'Cause you can't lead a prayer at-

    13. SP

      You can't lead a prayer at somebody else's house.

    14. SP

      No.

  3. 1:081:52

    “God, it’s me”: announcing your name and address in prayer

    1. SP

      When you pray, when you pray in a South African household, right?

    2. SP

      Mm.

    3. SP

      First of all, like, I don't, I don't know if your grandmother did this. My grandmother used to give her address, and she used to give, like, where she's from and her name and everything.

    4. SP

      No, my grandma never did that.

    5. SP

      No, really. My mo- my grandmother would do that.

    6. SP

      Yes, yeah.

    7. SP

      She'd be like, "My name is Francis Noah." And then she'd be like, "La, la, la."

    8. SP

      Location.

    9. SP

      "62- 6236 Orlando East."

    10. SP

      Sends, sends what location.

    11. SP

      Yeah. S- you, who you are, where you're from, whatever. And I remember I asked her once, I was like, "Why are you doing this?" And then she was like, "Why do I assume..."

    12. SP

      She knows where I am.

    13. SP

      She's like... Yeah. She said, "I..." She said, "Trevor, I, I must just assume that God is always listening to me." She's like, "Oh, yeah, yeah. That's not fair."

    14. SP

      Oh.

    15. SP

      And if you think about it, most South African, like, prayer in general-

    16. SP

      Mm

    17. SP

      ... I think is very, like, considerate of God. It's very much like we know that you're doing stuff, and we know that, like... You know what I mean?

  4. 1:523:25

    Missionaries, religion, and the logic of colonization

    1. SP

      Yeah, but I need to... I, I think because of missionaries, we never as Black people thought that God is with us. God was brought to us.

    2. SP

      Huh.

    3. SP

      So we always have to identify ourselves and also, uh, separate ourselves from the non-believers.

    4. SP

      It's funny. Now that you say the missionary thing-

    5. SP

      Yeah

    6. SP

      ... I actually think a lot of that was real.

    7. SP

      Mm.

    8. SP

      Is that, like... 'Cause think... I, I always think about this. I go, like, imagine being a Black person anywhere on the continent.

    9. SP

      Mm.

    10. SP

      Right? These people come with religion, right? And then they tell you that the reason things are going bad in your life is because you don't have-

    11. SP

      Religion

    12. SP

      ... this, this God in particular. 'Cause there was religion.

    13. SP

      Okay.

    14. SP

      There were different religions all over the continent, all over South America, all over these places.

    15. SP

      Mm.

    16. SP

      They would force, um, y- you know, the, the native people, they would force them to buy goods from them that nobody else wanted to buy-

    17. SP

      Mm

    18. SP

      ... at predetermined prices. They would say they would do the work of, like, donkeys and mules and, and all of that stuff. But the main thing was they also came in with religion. So everywhere in the world I can see this, this, this vibe where people have come in with religion saying to you, "Hey, all these bad things that are happening to you are because you don't worship God."

    19. SP

      Mm.

    20. SP

      And then it must have been weird because the natives are like, "You, you are the bad thing that's happening to us." They're like-

    21. SP

      Mm

    22. SP

      ... "Yes, exactly."

    23. SP

      But-

    24. SP

      "If you had prayed..."

    25. SP

      "... and you have penicillin." [laughs]

    26. SP

      [laughs] This wouldn't be happening to you.

    27. SP

      But I thought you didn't need penicillin 'cause you can pray. Hey. Shh.

    28. SP

      [laughs] And this is-

    29. SP

      Trevor, go put on clothes.

    30. SP

      [laughs]

  5. 3:255:10

    A mind “moving to its own rhythm”: the missing shoes and backpack story

    1. SP

      Trevor's mind moved to its own rhythm. Some saw disorder, yet it was a gift, a gift that once left him shoeless on the side of the road on his way home.

    2. SP

      My record with my mom, the, the story that she keeps bringing up is one day I came home from school. I had no backpack, and I had no shoes.

    3. SP

      [laughs] Come on.

    4. SP

      And then my mom said to me... And my cousin always tells the story as well because he says-

    5. SP

      [laughs]

    6. SP

      ... that day I got one of the all-time beatings.

    7. SP

      All time.

    8. SP

      And he says he remembers, like, watching me going, "But this could have been avoided." He was also a child-

    9. SP

      [laughs]

    10. SP

      ... but he was like... He says he watched me, and he, he thought to himself, "But he could have avoided this."

    11. SP

      [laughs]

    12. SP

      And what had happened was I came home, and apparently my mom was like, "Where's all your stuff?"

    13. SP

      Mm-hmm.

    14. SP

      And I said to her, I said, "The bag got heavy."

    15. SP

      [laughs] Put it down.

    16. SP

      So I put it down.

    17. SP

      [laughs]

    18. SP

      I literally left it on the side of the road.

    19. SP

      Yeah.

    20. SP

      Very logical. I put it down. To me, logical.

    21. SP

      Yeah.

    22. SP

      And then she said, "And what happened to the shoes?" And I said, "The shoes were new, and I didn't wanna finish them."

    23. SP

      [laughs]

    24. SP

      "So I left them somewhere close to school so that I don't have to wear them out on the way home."

    25. SP

      Oh. [laughs]

    26. SP

      'Cause you know, like, your shoes would get worn out on the, on the sides, right? Like, we couldn't afford new shoes-

    27. SP

      Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, uh-huh

    28. SP

      ... the same way other kids could. Mm-hmm. So I noticed kids always had, like, a flat heel on their shoe. Look at how observant you are, though.

    29. SP

      Yeah.

    30. SP

      Exactly.

  6. 5:107:12

    Reclaiming “third spaces”: why the street became the playground

    1. SP

      As children, Trevor and his friends turned the streets into playgrounds, claiming space where none was given. He remembers how community can be built from nothing but bricks and courage.

    2. SP

      I think the truth is that we think we don't have the third spaces, but we... It's, it's just because we've made every space a private space. Like, I was just thinking this walking around, like, parts of Brooklyn the other day. I've noticed a dip in how many block parties there are.

    3. SP

      Hmm.

    4. SP

      Yeah. Just that was a simple event-

    5. SP

      Yeah

    6. SP

      ... mm-hmm ... where you closed the streets.

    7. SP

      Yeah.

    8. SP

      You agreed, neighbor at the, at the end, neighbor at the end. We all agree.

    9. SP

      Mm-hmm.

    10. SP

      On Saturdays, we are going to close our block.

    11. SP

      Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

    12. SP

      And everyone's gonna just open their door and, like, walk out-

    13. SP

      Yeah

    14. SP

      ... and the kids can kick a ball-

    15. SP

      Yeah

    16. SP

      ... and can hit a ball.

    17. SP

      That is so great for everyone.

    18. SP

      And I've seen a few parts of New York where they do it now. Mm-hmm. Like, this is, like, in Manhattan, by the way.

    19. SP

      Mm.

    20. SP

      Like Chelsea, somewhere there.

    21. SP

      Okay.

    22. SP

      I remember driving one day, and I was irritated because I was in the car-

    23. SP

      Mm

    24. SP

      ... trying to get to an airport, and the road was closed, but I loved the fact that, like-

    25. SP

      Yeah

    26. SP

      ... I saw, like, someone hitting a ball, a baseball- And then people running. The whole street was just closed.

    27. SP

      Yeah.

    28. SP

      And I was like, "Oh, we've been tricked into thinking the thing that's right outside our door is not a third space."

    29. SP

      No, but that's not a third space.

    30. SP

      Why is it not?

  7. 7:128:37

    Kids closing roads with bricks: collective responsibility in action

    1. SP

      Like, we used to do this on, I, I wish I could, like, take you to the picture in my brain. We as the kids ran the streets as if we were adults.

    2. SP

      [laughs] Mm-hmm.

    3. SP

      So we would close the street with bricks.

    4. SP

      You take responsibility.

    5. SP

      Yeah, we would take bricks-

    6. SP

      Yeah

    7. SP

      ... and we would put them at the beginning-

    8. SP

      Mm-hmm

    9. SP

      ... of each road and close each road.

    10. SP

      Yeah.

    11. SP

      And then when a car would need to turn into the street-

    12. SP

      Oh, yeah

    13. SP

      ... because this is like a road.

    14. SP

      Right.

    15. SP

      You know, it's not a public, I'm not talking about, like, main roads.

    16. SP

      Yeah.

    17. SP

      So if you're listening to this-

    18. SP

      Right, you have no permission to do this

    19. SP

      ... I'm not talking about the highway.

    20. SP

      This is just an informal thing you did.

    21. SP

      Yes.

    22. SP

      Yeah.

    23. SP

      I'm not talking about a highway. I'm not talking about a main road.

    24. SP

      Yeah.

    25. SP

      I'm talking about, like-

    26. SP

      In your neighborhood

    27. SP

      ... yeah, your neighborhood.

    28. SP

      Or beside, yeah.

    29. SP

      It, it was a township, but it was still a neighborhood.

    30. SP

      Yeah.

  8. 8:3710:53

    A mother’s harm-reduction lesson: cigarettes and beer at home

    1. SP

      Yeah. In his home, drugs and drink where shadows never touched. But one day, Trevor's mother offered him a cigarette and a sip, teaching him that even temptation could be faced with honesty.

    2. SP

      I think about growing up and my perception of drugs. So I didn't touch weed my whole ... I've, okay, so I'll, I'll, I'll even take it before even, like, drugs drugs.

    3. SP

      Mm-hmm.

    4. SP

      Uh, my mom doesn't drink, my mom doesn't smoke. My dad doesn't drink, my dad doesn't smoke.

    5. SP

      Mm-hmm.

    6. SP

      All right? So I grew up in a home where that wasn't a thing. My grandmother, et cetera.

    7. SP

      Yeah.

    8. SP

      And my mom said to me when I was 13, 12, 13-

    9. SP

      Mm-hmm

    10. SP

      ... maybe even younger, she came to my room, and she had cigarettes.

    11. SP

      Mm-hmm.

    12. SP

      And she had, uh, beer.

    13. SP

      [laughs]

    14. SP

      And she said to me, "Do you want?"

    15. SP

      [laughs]

    16. SP

      And, and I was like, "Oh, this is a trap."

    17. SP

      [laughs]

    18. SP

      "Obviously, this is a trap." And I was, I was almost disappointed, and I was like, "Come on, lady."

    19. SP

      [laughs]

    20. SP

      "I'm not gonna fall for a trap like that."

    21. SP

      [laughs]

    22. SP

      "You're gonna come into my room and offer me cigarettes?" And, and she was like, "Do you want, do you want to try them?" And I was like, "No, because these are bad things-"

    23. SP

      [laughs]

    24. SP

      "... and we should ne-" And then she said to me, "Listen, honey."

    25. SP

      [laughs]

    26. SP

      "You're gonna, you're gonna encounter alcohol. You're gonna encounter cigarettes and things."

    27. SP

      Mm.

    28. SP

      "So if you're gonna use it, I would rather know that you use it-

    29. SP

      Wow

    30. SP

      ... and then you use it at home."

  9. 10:5311:48

    Growing up with anti-drug stigma—and changing views over time

    1. SP

      So I, I didn't like any of that. And then drugs was almost in the same category for me. In fact-

    2. SP

      Because of that in- initial experience.

    3. SP

      Yeah.

    4. SP

      Okay.

    5. SP

      Yeah. In fact, drugs the way I grew up was, you are a loser.

    6. SP

      Mm-hmm.

    7. SP

      You are gonna end your life. That's how I knew drugs.

    8. SP

      So that hasn't changed now [laughs] though, just when you grew up? [laughs]

    9. SP

      That's, that's how I knew drugs. That's all I was told. These are the things that'll happen when you take drugs. So I didn't, I didn't touch weed. I smoked weed for the first time when I was 21.

    10. SP

      Okay.

    11. SP

      That's how, like-

    12. SP

      Yeah

    13. SP

      ... anti-drug ... I used to judge people, and I would look at them and I would say to them, "It is a pity that you've chosen to do this with your life."

    14. SP

      [laughs]

    15. SP

      I used to say that to my cousin.

    16. SP

      [upbeat music] In South Africa, thinness was not beauty. Mm-mm. Not at all. It was struggle. To gain weight was to be blessed. Trevor recalls how the meaning of a body can change depending on where the story is told.

  10. 11:4814:32

    Body ideals across cultures: thinness, morality, and Ozempic debates

    1. SP

      Now, I think that one of the things that our whole fascination with Ozempic is based on is, and it's interesting, you know, Christian, I wonder if you have thoughts with little kids, right? Part of beauty is thinness as, as it's taught to you from a really early age. Like, fatness, queerness, darkness, all of these things are, like, coded as signs of deviance. I f- like, you, you learn as a really young child in Disney movies, in anything, like, beauty is really coded as morality.

    2. SP

      Right, right, right.

    3. SP

      And there's this Protestant work ethic thing, right? It's something that you should achieve through hard and punitive work and discipline, right?

    4. SP

      Yeah.

    5. SP

      And when people use Ozempic, it's like, "Mm, you cheated."

    6. SP

      Yeah.

    7. SP

      "You skipped the hard work part," you know?

    8. SP

      Mm.

    9. SP

      Yeah.

    10. SP

      And so you, you got the thing we demanded of you, but now we find this a vaguely immoral thinness.

    11. SP

      Like you worked hard-

    12. SP

      Yeah

    13. SP

      ... to achieve the right thing. Okay. I, I, I hear what-

    14. SP

      Yeah.

    15. SP

      Yeah, exactly ... I hear what you're saying.

    16. SP

      Yeah.

    17. SP

      It's funny because I, I don't know how it was for you growing up, but, so I have, I've had an interesting journey with, um, weight and how I perceive it and fatness, et cetera, because I grew up in South Africa. Genuinely, growing up, this is such a weird thing to try and explain to people. In South Africa, you did not get made as much fun of if you were fat. Like, so, like a fat person, you'd just be like, uh, I mean, uh, I don't even remember if we had that many names, but I remember all the ones for skinny people was Sticks Manzanza. It w- [laughs]

    18. SP

      [laughs]

    19. SP

      [laughs] That was my favorite ones. Uh, Sticks Manzanza.

    20. SP

      [laughs]

    21. SP

      Skinny Manele. It w- like, there were all these names where it was just like you, you, you're a twig, you're thin. Yeah. You ... And it was a sign there of, of, um, a lack of having. Yeah. If you got married and you didn't gain weight, people would say that your marriage is not going well.

    22. SP

      [laughs]

    23. SP

      Literally, they'd be like, "Is your, is your wife not treating you well? Ai, man, ah, ah, ah."

    24. SP

      Yeah.

    25. SP

      "No, man, look at you."

    26. SP

      [laughs]

    27. SP

      If I would come home from the States, and like many times I would, I'd come back from America and I'd gain weight. And so whenever I'd go home, people would be like, "Ah, you're looking good, man."

    28. SP

      [laughs]

    29. SP

      "You're looking good. America is treating you well."

    30. SP

      [laughs]

  11. 14:3217:00

    Arguments at home and the “third thought”: how creativity emerges

    1. SP

      There's some classic research looking at, um, at families, uh, looking at what does it take to raise a creative child? And it turns out that creative children come from families more often than not, uh, that had regular arguments and disagreements.

    2. SP

      Really?

    3. SP

      Yeah. So, um, if you wanna raise a creative kid, um, you can at least increase the probability, I'm not sure if it's causal-

    4. SP

      [laughs]

    5. SP

      ... but by, by arguing, um, with your spouse a little bit more.

    6. SP

      What, what do you think that is? I have an idea, but I'd love to know what you think that is.

    7. SP

      Well, I wanna hear your hunch before I, I tell you what I think because I've, I've-

    8. SP

      Okay. So I-

    9. SP

      ... thinking about this for a long time.

    10. SP

      So, okay, so here's what I think it is. I think the reason children who grow up in houses that are a little more argumentative might be a little more creative is because they're existing in an environment where there isn't one way to think. And so what happens is they're both stumbling on what I like to call third thought, right? I had this i- like this idea when I was working on The Daily Show with my team, and I'd say, "I think everyone has a thought," right? And then, like, w- you can have a second thought even by yourself, but I think there's this elusive third thought that can only come from two different thoughts clashing together and forming a third thought that isn't from one specific place.

    11. SP

      Yep.

    12. SP

      And so I think if you are watching people who don't agree as a child, people who you generally love or you care for, et cetera, you are listening to a person and you are agreeing with them maybe or just seeing their point of view. You're looking at another person, agreeing with them and seeing their point of view. And then maybe you're holding both, including a third, which might be yours, which is another opinion of it, and that might force your brain to think of more things th- than just the things that exist, which I think is what creativity fundamentally is.

    13. SP

      I love this. Okay. So, so your theory is cognitive complexity comes from seeing people argue.

    14. SP

      Okay.

    15. SP

      That you don't default to-

    16. SP

      I need to remember all the ... You, you make, like, some of my ideas sound way smarter and fancier than they are, which I like. Cognitive complexity, write that down. All right. All right.

    17. SP

      I, I just give you terms for things you already know.

    18. SP

      Okay, okay, okay, cool.

    19. SP

      I also think you learn to be a nonconformist through that same process.

    20. SP

      Oh, interesting.

    21. SP

      That instead of just defaulting or deferring to whatever an authority figure tells you, you realize, well, there are two different authorities in the room and they don't agree. And you, I, I think that can both lead to cognitive complexity, but it can also lead to more courage when it comes to challenging the status quo, 'cause there's not a right answer coming from above.

    22. SP

      There is not one coming from above.

    23. SP

      Yep.

  12. 17:0018:19

    Questioning authority—starting with church: Trevor’s mother as model

    1. SP

      You know, it's funny you say this. My mom is very religious, extremely, extremely religious, but I also think she is one of the most progressive thinkers I've ever come across in my lifetime. And one thing I always noticed as a child was how sometimes she would disagree with the sermon that the pastor gave when we'd leave church. And I'd be like, "Huh." And I'm just a kid. I'm just sitting in the passenger seat listening. And she goes, "I didn't agree with that. Mm-mm. I didn't, I didn't ... I, I, I hear where the pastor was coming from, but I think he was, he, uh, that, that story of Joseph is not about..." And then she'd go into her thing and, and then I'd be like, "But he's the pastor." And she's like, "Yeah, he's a guy who reads the Bible."

    2. SP

      He's not God.

    3. SP

      Yeah, but he's not God. She's like, "We also have the Bible." And it was an interesting way for me to view even religion is going like, huh, don't assume that the person who stands on the pulpit has, like-

    4. SP

      All the answers

    5. SP

      ... a monopoly on knowledge.

    6. SP

      Yeah.

    7. SP

      You too have the book that you can read. And so now it, that makes me wonder now, I'm like, huh, was that part of me w- you know, w- okay. I like this.

    8. SP

      I, I like it too. I mean, uh, you can see both of those effects playing out.

    9. SP

      Yeah, yeah, definitely.

    10. SP

      You're, you're not just gonna assume that the pastor's answer is gospel.

    11. SP

      Right.

    12. SP

      And then you're also not gonna be afraid to question what somebody in power says.

  13. 18:1921:40

    First generation in integrated classrooms: apartheid’s shadow in daily life

    1. SP

      Trevor was part of the first generation to sit in classrooms across color lines, a fragile experiment, very fragile, if I'm to be honest with you, shaped by apartheid's shadow. He recalls what it meant to grow up in that moment of change.

    2. SP

      You know, I, I, I was talking to a, a friend of mine the other day, Dale, and we were talking about how at our school

    3. TN

      They had a program where because we were the first generation that was like literally, I, you and I-

    4. SP

      Mm-hmm

    5. TN

      ... were the first generation. How old are you, Dan?

    6. SP

      31.

    7. TN

      31, yeah.

    8. SP

      Yeah.

    9. TN

      So we were the first generation of kids that went to school with kids of a different race.

    10. SP

      Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

    11. TN

      Literally, I sometimes think about how crazy that was.

    12. SP

      Yeah.

    13. TN

      When I go like literally, the first year in my school-

    14. SP

      Mm

    15. TN

      ... that there were Black kids, Indian kids, colored kids with white kids.

    16. SP

      Mm.

    17. TN

      That was the first time that had ever happened.

    18. SP

      You guys were round one. You were the first child.

    19. TN

      We were literally-

    20. SP

      All an experiment.

    21. TN

      Yo, our teachers-

    22. SP

      Could have gone so wrong

    23. TN

      ... our teachers had never seen a Black child in front of them in a classroom before.

    24. SP

      Our parents had to wear their Sunday best-

    25. TN

      Yo

    26. SP

      ... for the first drop-off.

    27. TN

      A drop-off. Our parents didn't even know what a drop-off was.

    28. SP

      I mean, drop off-

    29. TN

      Life

    30. SP

      ... life. [laughs]

  14. 21:4026:04

    The roundabout memory: collaboration as purpose and joy

    1. SP

      Okay, tell me, um, an early specific happy childhood memory, something I can relive with you.

    2. TN

      An early specific-

    3. SP

      Specific happy childhood memory

    4. TN

      ... childhood memory.

    5. SP

      Yeah.

    6. TN

      Damn, this is an interesting one. Let me think, 'cause there's many. How, how old? Give me an age and I'll tell you.

    7. SP

      I don't care.

    8. TN

      No, but what, what, when does childhood end?

    9. SP

      [laughs]

    10. SP

      42.

    11. SP

      [laughs]

    12. TN

      Okay.

    13. SP

      No, no, I'm being serious though.

    14. TN

      No, I want, when you're, when you're, you know, a child, like under, you know, in, in school. Like a-

    15. SP

      Okay, my, my-

    16. TN

      ... an early childhood memory

    17. SP

      ... one of my happiest childhood memories is me playing-

    18. TN

      You're the only one who's ever asked me, "What do you mean by childhood?" [laughs]

    19. SP

      [laughs]

    20. SP

      Yes, because I, because I think, because I think your memories at different ages are very...

    21. TN

      Yeah, definitely. Early specific childhood memory.

    22. SP

      Yeah, so okay, when I think of young, young-

    23. TN

      Yeah

    24. SP

      ... one of my favorite memories-

    25. TN

      [laughs]

    26. SP

      ... was, uh, playing, um, on the, on the roundabout at a park near my house.

    27. TN

      Yeah. This is something, a, a specific time, not just a thing you did regularly.

    28. SP

      No, no, no. This is w-

    29. TN

      It was a time

    30. SP

      ... a specific one.

Episode duration: 26:05

Install uListen for AI-powered chat & search across the full episode — Get Full Transcript

Transcript of episode DqzW06rI00A

Get more out of YouTube videos.

High quality summaries for YouTube videos. Accurate transcripts to search & find moments. Powered by ChatGPT & Claude AI.