Previously you had to have somebody “Buy U a Drank” in order to stand auto-tune, but not any more. If you didn’t see Jimmy Fallon and Oprah Winfrey’s fake totally real ’80s soap opera yet, you’re missing out. Though “Midnight Meadows” was short-lived, it wasn’t short on ridiculous, over-the-top audio editing. Fallon explained that the director of the series thought effects added drama, but you be the judge. T-Pain, take note. “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on NBC.

Previously you had to have somebody “Buy U a Drank” in order to stand auto-tune, but not any more.

If you didn’t see Jimmy Fallon and Oprah Winfrey’s fake totally real ’80s soap opera yet, you’re missing out. Though “Midnight Meadows” was short-lived, it wasn’t short on ridiculous, over-the-top audio editing. Fallon explained that the director of the series thought effects added drama, but you be the judge.

T-Pain, take note.

“The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on NBC.

View this article – 

Oprah And Jimmy Fallon’s Voice Effects Soap Opera Could Almost Make You Not Hate Auto-Tune

23. “No Black Person Is Ugly” by Lil B Lil B has always managed to acquire some of the best beats in hip-hop, but it is #rare that the rawest rapper alive’s unfiltered stream of consciousness permits him to really focus in on his flow and subject matter. “No Black Person Is Ugly” is Lil B’s most purposeful and uplifting song, carefully delivering nuggets of truth like, “Never been racist so I understand if you wanted / Try to change places / I’ve seen the other side and I know that’s amazin’ / Life is amazin’.” #TYBG. — Ryan Kristobak 22. “Take Me Away” by Bleachers ft. Grimes Short and sweet, “Take Me Away” is …

23. “No Black Person Is Ugly” by Lil B

Lil B has always managed to acquire some of the best beats in hip-hop, but it is #rare that the rawest rapper alive’s unfiltered stream of consciousness permits him to really focus in on his flow and subject matter. “No Black Person Is Ugly” is Lil B’s most purposeful and uplifting song, carefully delivering nuggets of truth like, “Never been racist so I understand if you wanted / Try to change places / I’ve seen the other side and I know that’s amazin’ / Life is amazin’.” #TYBG. — Ryan Kristobak

22. “Take Me Away” by Bleachers ft. Grimes

Short and sweet, “Take Me Away” is bizarre: A synth-heavy freak pop song fueled by Jack Antonoff’s and Grimes’ mismatching styles. Antonoff’s an unabashed fan of grandiose hooks and Grimes has mastered dark, ADD-style electronica. The combined effect makes this song, off Bleachers’ first album “Strange Desire,” sound like something so comfortable and otherworldly all at once. — Jessica Goodman

21. “Stolen Dance” by Milky Chance

German duo Milky Chance came out of nowhere, but the infectious combination of minimal electronic beats and indie strums in “Stolen Dance” provide the perfect closing number for any night out celebrating life with friends. — RK

20. “Yayo” by Snootie Wild

Sometimes “bad” rap songs are just the best. Snootie Wild’s “Yayo” says very little, but when he rhymes “burritos” with “torpedo,” it’s hard not to love it for what it is: a turn-up anthem. — RK

19. “Trap Queen” by Fetty Wap

Fetty Wap, the New Jersey-based artist whose over-the-top “Trap Queen” clocked in some serious internet time this summer, had a no-nonsense debut. His four-minute after-hours party mixes melody rap with, yes, trap to leave you screaming one message at 4 a.m.: “I’m like hey wassup hello!” — JG

18. “Down On My Luck” by Vic Mensa

Even in his relatively brief discography, Vic Mensa has proven his ability to flow overtop a wide variety of genres infused with hip-hop. “Down On My Luck” furthers that trend with some dance-floor-ready action. Spitting dizzying stabs that circle around a four-on-the-floor beat, the young MC’s mesmerizing cut proves that he is one of Chicago’s, and hip-hop’s, best kept secrets (but for only a little while longer). — RK

17. “Gunshot” by Lykke Li

On the surface, “Gunshot” is the peppiest track off Lykke Li’s heartbreak-addled album, but violent lines like, “I’m longing for your poison like a cancer for its prey/ I shot an arrow in your heart where you waited in the rain” make it the soundtrack to a revenge plan we’d never actually have the guts to execute. — JG

16. “Octahate” by Ryn Weaver

Ryn Weaver made her own little dent in the Internet in June, when she uploaded “Octahate,” produced by Benny Blanco and Passion Pit’s Michael Angelakos, to Soundcloud. It gained 1 million listens in two weeks and became one of the most talked about tracks of the year. Weaver’s voice is subtle and imperfect, catching delicate lyrics and sharp house beats to make something so new seem so familiar. — JG

15. “We Dem Boyz” by Wiz Khalifa

Few songs can rile an entire bar with a single chord, but “We Dem Boyz” became a war cry for, well, boys who go bananas. Now it’s got a Grammy nomination, inspires Karen Gillan to dance with John Cho and has, like, eight Red Bulls worth of energy. — JG

14. “Steal My Girl” by One Direction

One Direction’s greatest new track — on an album of straight-up surprise hits — starts as a power ballad, hell bent on waxing poetic over “my girl.” Everyone wants to steal her! There are a couple billion in the whole wide world! Find another one! If we can forget for just a second that they sing about women “belonging” to men, it’s really the only song to sing at karaoke. — JG

13. “True Love” by Tobias Jesso Jr.

It’s not included on Tobias Jesso Jr.’s full album, “Goon,” due out next March, but, wow, “True Love” is so sad and simple. It’s like looking at your eighth grade diary and actually relating. Jesso Jr. has written what, on the surface, seems like the year’s easiest track, but, let’s face it, we could never build silence into lyrics like, “Everyday just trying to get by/ No time to cry, no he can’t afford to/ And she waits through everything/ Anything for you.” Nope, not if our betrothed’s life depended on it. — JG

12. “Waking Light” by Beck

“Waking Light” is the sum of all of Beck’s “Morning Phase”: it has piano, strings, guitar and soaring vocals. The final note of Beck’s dream, the last minutes of night, the haze is finally broken with a closing guitar solo — after seven or eight years away from his guitar do to a spinal injury, this is a particularly powerful ending. It is with hope that Beck sings, “When the memory leaves you / Somewhere you can’t make it home / When the morning comes to meet you / Fill your eyes with waking light.” Beck is ready to embrace the new day, are you? — RK

11. “Stay With Me” by Sam Smith ft. Mary J. Blige

Sam Smith’s “In The Lonely Hour” was a very sad album, and nothing hit deeper than Smith’s desperation for human contact in “Stay with Me.” The search for love isn’t always easy, and sometimes it just sucks, and when that story is told by the harmonies of Smith and Mary J. Blige, you’re going to shed a few tears even if you’re loved one is sitting right next to you. — RK

10. “i” by Kendrick Lamar

All ears have been to the ground since murmurs of Kendrick’s follow-up to “Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City” legitimately took form. While many were disappointed with the mainstream appeal of “i,” Kendrick brought out a classic soul sample to match his call to action. “I love myself” is a message that couldn’t have come at a more important time for black youth, and all those marginalized by the unjust powers that be. “I” proves that Kendrick is ready to change the world. — RK

9. “Chandelier” by Sia

Sia has written for many of pop’s biggest stars, but “Chandelier” finally gives her the opportunity shine like she deserves. A semi-insight into her own life examining the dangers of unchecked drinking and partying, there is a certain intensity to Sia that sets her apart from her many peers. “Chandelier” also features one of the most intriguing vocal progressions of the year in its chorus, a line that will be stuck in our head for years to come. — RK

8. “Can’t Do Without You” by Caribou

The first single from Caribou’s sixth album is a postponed present. Ninety seconds in, the entire song morphs from a slow beating ballad into a psychedelic dance track before transforming again into a completely elated, thrashing surprise. — JG

7. “Never Catch Me” by Flying Lotus ft. Kendrick Lamar

Beside Kendrick Lamar proving that he is capable of surfing the most un-rappable of beats, “Never Catch Me” is one of the most electrifying instrumentals of 2014. The song opens with a jazzy groove as Lamar calmly croons “I can see the darkness in me and it’s quite amazing / Life and death is no mystery and I wanna taste it.” Then, with little warning, the song breaks into a light-speed, laser-filled bass solo that has listener’s asking, “Did I eat mushrooms earlier?” — RK

6. “Turn Down For What” by DJ Snake and Lil Jon

Make way for the song of the year. Though it came out last December, Lil Jon and DJ Snake’s masterpiece became the anthem to frat parties, club life, your office’s holiday party and, uh, the internet. In a horrible year for news, “Turn Down For What” was the song we needed to collectively say, “Ughhhhhhh.” — JG

5. “17 New Years” by Polyenso

Polyenso might be the most promising rising act in music today. “17 New Years” is nothing short of a perfect blend of R&B, indie and pop, and its chorus has listener’s singing along before they finish their first play through. Feeling as refreshing as it does familiar, “17 New Years” proves that, even at such a young age, Polyenso wants to consistently experiment and take risks. But more importantly it proves that their evolution is on the right course. — RK

4. “0 to 100/The Catch Up” by Drake

Very few phrases were uttered as often as “Zero to one hundred, real quick” was in 2014. Even without releasing an album, Drake managed to come out on top of hip-hop in 2014, and “0 to 100” shows him at his best. Mixing boasts like Stephen Curry comparisons in his ever-growing tone of confidence with self-examinations like “know yourself, know your worth.” And to top it all off, the song’s beat is so hot, that Diddy was willing to fight months after its release. — RK

3. “Tuesday” by ILoveMakonnen Ft. Drake

Has there ever been a song that made you love a random weekday this much? Of course not, but there’s more to Makonnen than this breakout song about getting effed up on a Tuesday. The Atlanta-based rapper rose to fame and earned a Grammy nod within six months, and this isn’t even the best track on his EP, “I Love Makonnen.” The club went up and Makonnen’s still rising. — JG

2. “Two Weeks” by FKA Twigs

The first single from Twigs’ stellar debut album, “LP1,” “Two Weeks” is a perfect combination of sexy and weird. No one else has brought us lyrics like this — “Feel your body closin’, I can rip it open/ Suck me up, I’m healin’ for the shit you’re dealin'” — with a beat that makes us wish we could dance like the star delivering its message. She’s made her self vulnerable, and we’re grateful. — JG

1. “Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)” by Run The Jewels

Run The Jewels is at its most merciless on “Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck),” leaving no chambers unloaded on the corrupt politicians, manipulative clergy, prison profiteers, money-sucking corporations. Trading vicious line after line, Killer Mike and El-P demonstrate in full that no one is as lyrically adroit and pissed off as them, while Zach De La Rocha provides his most blazing verse in recent years, closing out the track with an unmistakable declaration of war, “The only thing that close quicker than our caskets be the factories.” Run The Jewels has had enough of these “dog-fuck political agendas,” and with a “grin and a gun,” they are ready to give the “slavers of men and women” in this world a hearty serving of their “anarchist’s cookbook.” — RK

Listen to the songs here:

Check out HuffPost’s best albums of 2014 here.

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The 23 Best Songs Of 2014

Earlier this week, President Obama sat down for an interview on Black Entertainment Television. The primary focus of the interview was the issue broadly defined as Black Lives Matter, the protests and the social movement inspired by, among other related events, the decision by the grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, not to indict the police officer who killed Michael Brown, and a similar decision by the grand jury in Staten Island, New York, not to indict the officer who killed Eric Garner. BET News’ Jeff Johnson essentially gave the president the opportunity to explain his thinking and his response, as well …

Earlier this week, President Obama sat down for an interview on Black Entertainment Television. The primary focus of the interview was the issue broadly defined as Black Lives Matter, the protests and the social movement inspired by, among other related events, the decision by the grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, not to indict the police officer who killed Michael Brown, and a similar decision by the grand jury in Staten Island, New York, not to indict the officer who killed Eric Garner.

BET News’ Jeff Johnson essentially gave the president the opportunity to explain his thinking and his response, as well as his broader view on the struggle for racial equality and equal justice, of which the Black Lives Matter movement is certainly a part. I want to focus here on how Barack Obama spoke about that struggle, one that stretches back not only decades but centuries:

This isn’t going to be solved overnight. This is something that is deeply rooted in our society, it’s deeply rooted in our history. But the two things that are going to allow us to solve it: Number one is the understanding that we have made progress. And so, it’s important to recognize that, as painful as these incidents are, we can’t equate what’s happening now to what was happening fifty years ago. And if you talk to your parents, grandparents, uncles, they’ll tell you that things are better. Not good, in some cases, but better.

And the reason it’s important for us to understand progress has been made is that this gives us hope that then we can make even more progress…We have to be persistent….Progress is in steps, it’s in increments….When you’re dealing with something as deeply rooted as racism or bias in any society you have to have vigilance…but you have to recognize that it’s going to take some time and you just have to be steady so that you don’t give up when we don’t get all the way there….

We’re not going to make it perfect, but we can make it better. And better is good because over time, [if] you have enough better, ten years, twenty years from now, [then] our kids are safer, the community is more confident about its place, the police officers are going to be in a position to do a better job.

In a CNN interview, Tavis Smiley, after first noting that he does “appreciate and agree with much of what the president had to say,” added that he was “galled” by the president’s emphasis on patience:

And so, for the president to suggest, to black folk, that this is going to take time; we have to be patient — that things don’t happen overnight — I get the point he was trying to make. And yet, the truth is, if he had been patient in 2008, he wouldn’t be the president tonight. So, that message of being patient, as opposed to doing exactly what folk are doing right now, I think, rings hollow.

On Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, Smiley added:

With all due respect to our President Barack Obama, black folk don’t need lectures on Black Entertainment Television. You go to Black Entertainment Television, Mr. President, respectfully, to lecture black folk and then you’re wrong, respectfully, when you tell them that these things take time….Stop telling black folk they[‘ve] got to wait, and that these things take time. We can’t wait. Number two, Mr. President, respectfully, when you say we can’t compare what’s happening now to what happened fifty years ago, tell that to the parents of these kids who are being gunned down in America’s streets. It is open season on black men, and it is in many ways as bad as it was fifty years ago.

I’m certainly not going to tell anyone whose unarmed fathers or sons or brothers were killed by police officers how they should feel, or whether things are better or worse for them. Certainly, when the president makes the point that real progress has been made over the past five decades — whether we are talking about voting rights or even the basic question of whether it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of race — I’m sure that Tavis Smiley would agree. To deny that progress would be to ignore the sacrifices made by those who fought and bled to achieve it, as the president has said numerous times.

On the matter of patience, let’s recognize what the president is most emphatically not doing. He is not saying that achieving our goals will take time because he wants people to stop protesting and wait patiently for progress. He did not, as Smiley charged, preach “being patient, as opposed to doing exactly what folk are doing right now.” Obama is not telling people that they need to stand down because now is not the time to struggle. He is, in fact, saying exactly the opposite. He is encouraging them to be ready for a long struggle, because, in Obama’s words, we have to be “persistent,” “vigilan[t],” and “steady.” And, although he is optimistic about the long-term prospects for the fight against bigotry, he noted, “We can’t just wait for that process to happen on its own.” Does that sound like someone who is “opposed” to “what folk are doing right now?”

One reason why some people protest — at least in part — is to express their anger and their pain. Beyond this, the Black Lives Matter protest movement aims to make profound changes in our society. People who organize or even simply participate in such a movement are, by their very actions, evincing a belief in the possibility of success, in the possibility of progress. Otherwise, what would be the point?

President Obama encourages protestors and organizers to have hope, and to do what he has also promised to do, namely to “stay on this.” He paraphrased Frederick Douglass’ point about power conceding nothing without a demand. Douglass’ larger argument was to counter those who counseled against “agitation” and “struggle,” adding: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Clearly, Obama agrees, and that is why he emphasizes progress and hope, to encourage us to keep on struggling.

Hope that we can achieve full justice and equality fuels our movement. We protest because we have hope that we can achieve more progress. The president praised “the value of activism, organizing, peaceful protests, [which] reminds the society, ‘This is not yet done.'” — while calling violence “counter-productive.” He added that these peaceful protests are “necessary.” Our country needs them.

And yes, there is reason to believe, to have hope that activism can continue to bring about change. Just within the last couple of years, activists fought against the stop-and-frisk policy that disproportionately targeted young black and brown men in New York City. Activists protested in the streets and fought in the courtrooms. They won.

If all is lost, then there’s no reason to try and win. But all is not lost. We have won tremendous victories on civil rights and equality for everyone. We’ve also suffered setbacks. But we cannot give up. We will not give up. In fact, we shall overcome.

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Obama Is Right to Emphasize Progress and Hope — If There’s No Hope, Why Bother Fighting?

David Oyelowo hasn’t been shy about discussing how God spoke to him in 2007 and said the actor would eventually play Martin Luther King Jr. in what would become “Selma.” “The reason I’m talking about that is because I’m as shocked as anyone else may be that this British guy is playing Martin Luther King,” Oyelowo, who was born in England, said during a recent interview. “Certainly back then, in 2007, I had done none of the movies people have now seen me do now.” At the time, Oyelowo — who has since starred in “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” “Jack Reacher,” “The Help” and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” — was a relative unknown. But it…

David Oyelowo hasn’t been shy about discussing how God spoke to him in 2007 and said the actor would eventually play Martin Luther King Jr. in what would become “Selma.”

“The reason I’m talking about that is because I’m as shocked as anyone else may be that this British guy is playing Martin Luther King,” Oyelowo, who was born in England, said during a recent interview. “Certainly back then, in 2007, I had done none of the movies people have now seen me do now.”

At the time, Oyelowo — who has since starred in “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” “Jack Reacher,” “The Help” and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” — was a relative unknown. But it was another obstacle separating him from King that proved more difficult to overcome: Stephen Frears. Back then, the director was attached to “Selma” and didn’t think Oyelowo was right for the part. In the ensuing seven years, however, Frears left and multiple directors nearly stepped into his place (including Spike Lee and Paul Haggis). In 2010, Lee Daniels came onboard and, after working with Oyelowo on”Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” cast the actor as King. The tumultuous development process didn’t end there: Daniels dropped out because of scheduling conflicts. That’s when Oyelowo suggested another former collaborator: Ava DuVernay, with whom Oyelowo had made the 2012 indie film “Middle of Nowhere.”

“There was so much faith that had to be employed that this thing was going to happen,” Oyelowo said. “Virtually every day between that moment [when God spoke] to me and now, I did everything I could to make this thing happen.”

Now that it has, Oyelowo has received the best reviews of his career for playing King. The performance earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama, and it has Oyelowo in the middle of a crowded group of contenders vying for an Oscar nomination. “Selma,” meanwhile, stands as one of the year’s best films, a timely and insightful drama that says as much about Martin Luther King’s struggle to get equal voting rights in 1965 as it does about the Millions March in 2014.

Oyelowo spoke to HuffPost Entertainment about “Selma,” working with DuVernay and what it was like to meet King’s children.

You’ve talked about hearing a higher calling to play this role all the way back in 2007. Does that kind of connection with God extend through the production as well?
What I couldn’t have anticipated is how much I needed, to be perfectly frank, God’s help in the playing of it. Not least because this was a man of God. This was someone, if you’ve seen him giving those speeches, there is something flowing through him other than himself. He is flowing in his anointing. I needed that. I like to think of myself as a good actor, but Martin Luther King, I ain’t! If you’re going to go and shoot in Atlanta, in a historical church, with 500 people who are from Atlanta, you need a little help from above. So I definitely felt I had that.

Watch Oyelowo in an exclusive clip from “Selma”

During that seven year period from when you first read the script and now, was playing Dr. King something you thought about every day, or is that impossible?
The first thing I can say to you is that it’s very possible to think about playing Martin Luther King every single day for seven years. I’m living evidence of that. There is never going to be a time in your life as an actor where you’re going to go, “Oh yeah, I’m ready to play Dr. King now.” But between doing the work in quiet and then, the films that presented themselves to me, I prepared. Playing a Union solider in “Lincoln,” playing a preacher in “The Help,” playing a black fighter pilot in “Red Tails,” playing the son of a butler in “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” who is in the Freedom Riders and becomes a Black Panther: these were all films in which I had to go study the history. Inevitably they were part of what informed playing Dr. King. Now, were they opportunities that were divinely presented to me or was I just continually drawn to that material because of what was going on in my head? That I can’t really say. But I do know that so many different aspects of my life went into what you see in the film. Plus, I was now the age Dr. King was when these things happened in his life. When I first read the script, I had two kids; when we shot it, I had four kids, like he did. There were so many things I matured into by the time I played the role.

Dr. King is, relatively speaking, a young man during the events of “Selma,” but he looks 10-15 years older than his actual age. How did you manage the physical transformation this role required?
Again, we’re back to the spiritual side of things. People like to talk about the weight gain and the voice, but that’s what we do as actors; that’s the first rung of what you need to do if you’re going to play someone like this. But it was the emotional and spiritual weight of what this man did and had to go through that was tough. At that stage in his life, to have spent 10 years under threat — and not only his life, but his kids’ lives, his wife’s life. Having all these people depend on him. Being a voice for the voiceless. Being someone who has seen people die because of this cause. And not just because racist people have killed them, but because he went to places where he tried to have racists act out in front of the cameras, and then people get hurt. In Selma, people died. That weighs on you. If you’re mentally placing yourself in that space, it does something to you physically. When I watch him, you can see there is a burden. You can see that he looks and feels older than he was. He was 36 at this stage. That is crazy. That had to be one of the things I tried to bring to it.

You recommended Ava to direct this film. Having worked with her on “Middle of Nowhere,” what surprised you about her transition to this kind of bigger material?
When we worked together on “Middle Of Nowhere” I saw her talent is undeniable. One of the privileges I’ve had in doing some of those films I mentioned is working with Steven Spielberg and other incredible directors. I was on the set with Ava, and she is just as good. I think the unique thing about her — and what she brought to “Selma” that was so incredible — was the ease with which she went into a film that was 100 times the budget of the last thing she had done. There were so many more people, so many more elements, it was much bigger in size, but she never panicked. She never shouted. She never threw a chair. She never compromised her vision. That went through the post-production side of things as well. To be a visionary, you have to be single minded. She has that without being, to be perfectly honest, an unpleasant person. That’s very rare! Often being single-minded is combined with being a bit of a nightmare to be around. She’s just not that.

It’s impossible to discuss “Selma” without mentioning how timely it is in its scenes of protest and police brutality. How do you think “Selma” fits in with the events that have occurred over the last month?
Well, we’re back to the divide, aren’t we? If you were ever going to have a moment in time when this film should come out in the 50 years since these events happened, it would be now. Not only would it be now, it would be now now. It would be this month. We would be having this conversation today. You can’t tell me between everything we’ve discussed already to when the film is being released to the fact that it’s a black woman who has made this — just in terms of where we are in history and how beautiful a thing that is — that it’s not divine timing. Whether you believe in that stuff or not, I truly believe the reason why this film is so pertinent for right now is that it shows this isn’t the first time. It shows that we are not a new generation for this and also how it was successfully dealt with. Peaceful protest. Strategy. Using the power of the image to bring the world together. That’s what happened in a sense.

Ferguson, I feel, was deemed a “black problem.” Eric Garner became an American problem. That’s the power of the image. Seeing him murdered onscreen has been the thing that has brought America and the world together to protest. Seeing Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge is what brought the nation together, black and white, in 1965. The difference is that was about voting rights, and this is about police reform. There had to be federal intervention with voting rights; the federal government is stalling on intervening on this, to bring in independent bodies to police the police. It’s just clear that’s what is needed. No matter what they say about how difficult that is because it’s states’ rights. It was states’ rights with voting. It’s crazy how similar it is.

“Selma” cast wears “I Can’t Breathe” t-shirts to protest the death of Eric Garner at the New York Public Library on Dec. 14, 2014

Did you get to meet anyone close to Dr. King in preparation for the role?
I met every one of his children and spoke with them. I actually became quite friendly with Dexter Scott King, his second son. I met Martin Luther King III. I actually didn’t meet Bernice King until the Friday before we were going to start shooting. I bumped into her at the King Center, if you would believe it — again, the divine! I was with a group of the actors who were going to be in the film, and she went up to everyone, deliberately leaving me to last. “So, who you playing?” she said. I was like, “Oh. My. Lord.” Dr. King’s voice is pretty deep, but I was like, in a high-pitched voice, “I’m going to be playing your daddy.” It was as bad as it could be. But by the time we finished our conversation, she ended up praying with me and giving me her blessing to play her dad. She and her elder brother saw the film recently and were very complimentary about it. She said mine is the best interpretation of her dad she’s seen. I will take it.

After seven years of having this role in your life, did you feel any letdown or hangover after you moved on to the next job?
There was no letdown. I was very happy to let this guy go. I wouldn’t say it was a burden, because I felt so privileged to do it, but there were moments where it was a real crossover. I stayed in character for the three months we were doing this. I, for one second, wouldn’t say I was him for that time, but I felt a little bit of what it may have been like. Just because you have to take it on. He lived through 13 years of that. I was very happy to walk away. I tell you that much.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

See the article here:

God Told David Oyelowo He Would Play Martin Luther King, But He Didn’t Stop There

When many families are home lighting the menorah for the first night of Hanukkah, an interfaith coalition will use the spirit of the holiday to demand an end to racial profiling and police brutality. On Tuesday Dec. 16, Jewish and Muslim community members led by the Arab-American Association of NY (AAANY), Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ), and Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice will gather in front of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn to urge Commissioner William Bratton “to end discriminatory and abusive Broken Windows policing.” Rabbi Ellen Lippmann of Brooklyn congregation Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives will lead a candle lighting during the action and told HuffPost she hoped the Hanukkah miracle…

When many families are home lighting the menorah for the first night of Hanukkah, an interfaith coalition will use the spirit of the holiday to demand an end to racial profiling and police brutality.

On Tuesday Dec. 16, Jewish and Muslim community members led by the Arab-American Association of NY (AAANY), Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ), and Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice will gather in front of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn to urge Commissioner William Bratton “to end discriminatory and abusive Broken Windows policing.”

Rabbi Ellen Lippmann of Brooklyn congregation Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives will lead a candle lighting during the action and told HuffPost she hoped the Hanukkah miracle would offer inspiration to the participants, “illuminating a vision of a just society.”

“I pray that Black and Brown Americans can move forward powerfully toward that society, and that we allies can help in ways that respect and respond to their leadership,” Lippmann said. “I am glad to join on this special night with our Arab and Muslim colleagues, as we work together in this important and growing movement. Black Lives Matter, and must matter, so that we can move from mourning unjust deaths to celebrating just lives.”

The action is seventh of 11 demonstrations that make up the #11Days of Action campaign organized by #ThisStopsToday, a pro-reform coalition organized by Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), Million Hoodies and Freedom Side. The 11 days, which run Dec. 10-20, are representative of the number of times Eric Garner said “I can’t breathe” before he died.

Tuesday’s action is also part of the national Jewish #ChanukahAction to End Police Violence campaign, which provides information about local protests and offers toolkits for activists on its website. Among the toolkits is one called “8 Nights, 8 Actions” for those who wish to engage in activism over the Hanukkah holiday.

Here’s the sign I designed for #ChanukahAction. You can download it at http://t.co/8OQpGI3LZA. pic.twitter.com/NyDutwv4YX

— daniel sieradski (@selfagency) December 14, 2014

Earlier in December JFREJ helped organized a protest against racial injustice, during which four prominent rabbis were arrested.

“Rabbis and all Jews need to stand up and say that every single person is a creation in the divine image — that black lives matter,” Rabbi Jill Jacobs, who was among those arrested, told HuffPost after the protest. “We put our bodies on the line to show how crucial it is that the systems meant to protect us do protect all of us.”

Organizations involved in #11Days of Action put together a list of 11 demands to #ChangetheNYPD, which include:

1) Mayor de Blasio should insist on full accountability for all NYPD officers responsible for killing Eric Garner and Akai Gurley and all officers who brutalize New Yorkers.
2) Department of Justice should convene grand juries to federally indict officers responsible for the killing of Eric Garner, as well as other NYC cases such as Ramarley Graham.
3) Governor Cuomo should issue an executive order directing the Office of the Attorney General to serve as special prosecutor in cases involving civilians killed by police officers.
4) Governor Cuomo should veto legislation (S7801/A9853) that would allow New York police unions to make police disciplinary policies subject to contract negotiations.
5) New York City should end the NYPD Commissioner’s exclusive authority over disciplinary decisions for officers in cases of abuse, misconduct, excessive and deadly force.

Read the full list of demands here.

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Jewish, Muslim New Yorkers To Host Hanukkah Action Against Police Brutality

In the wake of a New York grand jury deciding not to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo for the chokehold death of Eric Garner, racially diverse protests instantly erupted across the nation. White faces could be seen in swelling crowds from NYC and D.C., to Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Denver. Their mouths covered with masking tape with the words “I can’t breathe” scrawled over it. The righteousness of racial solidarity burning in their eyes as they joined in chanting, “Black lives matter! Black lives matter! Black lives matter!” This is not to say that there were not White allies protesting over the Aug. 9 shooting death of 18-year-…

In the wake of a New York grand jury deciding not to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo for the chokehold death of Eric Garner, racially diverse protests instantly erupted across the nation.

White faces could be seen in swelling crowds from NYC and D.C., to Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Denver. Their mouths covered with masking tape with the words “I can’t breathe” scrawled over it. The righteousness of racial solidarity burning in their eyes as they joined in chanting, “Black lives matter! Black lives matter! Black lives matter!”

This is not to say that there were not White allies protesting over the Aug. 9 shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. They were there shutting down the St. Louis Symphony with a haunting “Requiem for Mike Brown.” They were there disrupting a St. Louis Rams football game back in October.

There were even scattered throughout the crowd during the fiery protests that ensued after a grand jury declined to indict former Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson in Brown’s death. Allowing Wilson, who had just killed a teenager, to leave the scene, go wash Brown’s blood off of his hands and place his own gun into evidence is almost farcical — something one would expect from Shonda Rhimes’ How To Get Away With Murder, not the streets of America.

That did not stop MSNBC’s resident Republican Joe Scarborough from comparing Mike Brown to 17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s killer George Zimmerman, while his guest Donny Deutsch joined the ranks of liberal wild card Bill Maher in referring to the slain teen as a “thug.” The underlying message being: His death isn’t right, but it’s okay.

What has become quickly apparent in the days following the non-indictment of Pantaleo, however, is that there are some White people shocked at the scope of white privilege and how deeply the system of racism functions as a safe haven for bigots with badges. Unlike Wilson shooting of Brown, it is the rare White person who believed that Pantaleo, a man who has faced at least two civil rights lawsuits for violating the rights of African Americans, who boldly took down Garner, who was unarmed, using a chokehold that was banned in 1993 by then Police Commissioner Ray Kelly while the father of six gasped over and over and over again, “I can’t breathe,” would not face any consequences. Even after the New York City medical examiner’s office ruled Garner’s death a homicide, a grand jury decided that Pantaleo should not even have to stand trial. If we didn’t live in a nation where lynching was once the law that would be stunning.

Even FOX News’ Bill O’Reilly proclaimed himself “extremely troubled” by the grand jury’s decision, saying in his Talking Points segment, “[Eric Garner] did not deserve what happened to him. He did not deserve that.”

That’s when you know it’s real.

There are some White people, as evidenced by the likes of Maher, Scarborough, Charles Krauthammer and my Twitter timeline, who need to believe that had Mike Brown been a near-perfect victim, he’d still be alive. That belief exempts them from examining a system that privileges Whiteness over Blackness. It exempts them from grappling with their own racial biases. And it allows them to convince themselves that the execution of an unarmed teenager, whose body was allowed to lay exposed on the pavement for hours, his blood serving as a heart-wrenching lane divider, was an uneasy justice — unfortunate, but necessary nonetheless.

Let’s be clear: It does not matter if Mike Brown smoked weed. His life mattered. It doesn’t matter if he listened to gangsta rap. His life mattered. It does not matter that he was suspected of stealing cigarillos. His life mattered. The same system that ruled his life didn’t matter is the same system that ruled Eric Garner’s did not. Unfortunately, there are those White people who consider themselves advocates for social justice who don’t recognize the grave injustice of Mike Brown’s death, yet cry over the killing of Eric Garner. And those White people don’t get. They don’t get that there is no separation. The extrajudicial killing of unarmed Black people is never acceptable and being a perfect victim should not be the price of the ticket.

There are those Black people who have drawn the same comparisons between Michael Brown and Eric Garner. The nuanced difference here is that in most of these cases, they are not attempting to justify or excuse Brown’s death because he is suspected of scuffling with Wilson and suspected of shoplifting; rather they are pointing out the likelihood of a Black person being killed by a police officer in an encounter if they are not respectable. And that is not separate and apart from White supremacy, it is evidence of it.

All. Black. Lives. Matter. Not just the ones who make White America comfortable. And until we reach the point where that is recognized in a court of law, the racially harmonious protests currently sweeping the nation are just detours along a road full of dead, Black bodies deemed not worth the effort.

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Supporting Only ‘Good’ Black Victims Won’t Dismantle White Supremacy

On Friday, Darlene Love will sing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” for David Letterman one last time. The nearly annual tradition started in 1986, and Love has spent the last 27 years performing the holiday classic on Letterman’s shows, “Late Night” and now “Late Show.” (A CBS press release notes that Love has performed 21 times since 1986.) This 28th year will be her final bow. To celebrate, CBS released a video mashup of Love performances through the years. “They couldn’t ask me not to sing ‘Christmas (Baby)’ on another show, but after 10 years, then 15 years, of doing this one song on this one show, I felt I had an obligation to…

On Friday, Darlene Love will sing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” for David Letterman one last time. The nearly annual tradition started in 1986, and Love has spent the last 27 years performing the holiday classic on Letterman’s shows, “Late Night” and now “Late Show.” (A CBS press release notes that Love has performed 21 times since 1986.) This 28th year will be her final bow. To celebrate, CBS released a video mashup of Love performances through the years.

“They couldn’t ask me not to sing ‘Christmas (Baby)’ on another show, but after 10 years, then 15 years, of doing this one song on this one show, I felt I had an obligation to be true to them,” Love said to Billboard in October. It’s unclear if another late-night show will pick up the tradition left behind by Letterman (who will go off the air on May 20, 2015), but Love might be open to the possibility. At a concert on Long Island over the weekend, she joked to the crowd that she’d be willing to sing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” for someone else after Letterman said his last goodnight.

In the past, Love has also said how she wants to start an annual Christmas show in New York with Paul Shaffer, Letterman’s famous band leader. It was Shaffer who got Love connected with Letterman in the first place, all the way back in the mid-80s, when the pair performed together in the musical “Leader of the Pack.”

“Paul Shaffer played Phil Spector in that play. So, David Letterman came down to see the show, and one night on his show, Dave said to Paul, ‘That Christmas song the girl does in the play you’re in is the greatest Christmas song I’ve ever heard. We need to get her on our show,'” Love recalled in an interview with HuffPost Entertainment in 2013. “It was just one coincidence after another! I started doing the first Christmas show in 1986 […] Every now and then they let me sneak in another song. ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),’ however, is the song. And that’s how all of that came about.”

Prior to her resurgence in the mid-’80s, Love had financial troubles that resulted in her becoming a maid. Love has said it was “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” that helped remind the now-Rock and Roll Hall of Famer of her talent.

“I was cleaning this one lady’s house in Beverly Hills and I heard ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ on the radio. I said, ‘That’s me singing that. This is ridiculous! People are playing my records. If they want to play my records that means people still want to hear me,'” Love said last year. “I quit that job and decided to go to work.”

Love’s final Letterman performance airs on Friday.

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Watch A Mashup Of Darlene Love Singing David Letterman’s Favorite Christmas Song

Many Americans seem to only remember one of the two namesakes of the 2009 federal hate-crime bill signed into law by President Obama: Matthew Shepard. Similarly, many Americans also seem to only remember the bill as the Matthew Shepard Act. However, this abbreviated mention conveniently leaves out the other person for whom the act is named: James Byrd Jr. Shepard was a white, gay college student who was brutally assaulted by two homophobes near Laramie, Wyoming, and died six days following the heartrending attack. His death now haunts our collective consciousness, reminding us that hate against LGBT people might surely mean death. James Byrd Jr., on the other hand, was a Black man from Texas. Byrd was ruthlessly murdered by three men, two…

Many Americans seem to only remember one of the two namesakes of the 2009 federal hate-crime bill signed into law by President Obama: Matthew Shepard. Similarly, many Americans also seem to only remember the bill as the Matthew Shepard Act. However, this abbreviated mention conveniently leaves out the other person for whom the act is named: James Byrd Jr.

Shepard was a white, gay college student who was brutally assaulted by two homophobes near Laramie, Wyoming, and died six days following the heartrending attack. His death now haunts our collective consciousness, reminding us that hate against LGBT people might surely mean death.

James Byrd Jr., on the other hand, was a Black man from Texas. Byrd was ruthlessly murdered by three men, two of whom identified as white supremacists. His ankles were chained to the back of a pickup truck, and he was dragged approximately three miles along an asphalt road in Jasper, Texas. In the process, his head and right arm were severed from his body. His torso was eventually left in front of a cemetery that mostly contained the bodies of other Black people. Whereas Shepard was murdered because of his perceived sexual identity, Byrd was killed because he was Black.

Why did we feel the need to write this open letter to mainstream LGBT organizations with a reference to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act? Why have we felt the need to point to the failure on the part of the American populace to rightly acknowledge the atrocities that ended the lives of both namesakes? Because it illuminates the dangers of focusing on one type of identity-based violence — the violence that impacts LGBT people — while willfully ignoring the police and vigilante violence that impacts Black queer- and trans-identified people, as well as all Black people: Mike Brown’s bloodied and lifeless body was left on a hot Missouri street for 4.5 hours; the world bore witness to video clips of Eric Garner uttering his final words, “I can’t breathe!”, as a police officer choked him to death; Marlene Pinnock was brutally pounded by a white, male police officer on a highway in the middle of the day; and Black trans women like Erycka Morgan and Islan Nettles, and many whose names we do not lift up, continue to be viciously attacked and killed.

We can no longer sit idly by as you, mainstream LGBT organizations, center your movements and advocacy work on some within our varied communities but not others. We are no longer OK with the mainstream LGBT organizations among you who signal your complicity in anti-Black violence through your loud silence and deliberate ignoring of the types of systemic, institutionalized forms of anti-Black racism that negatively impact Black queer and trans people (and all Black people), disallow Black well-being, and deaden us.

And while there have been some awareness and recognition of the fact that anti-Black racism materializes in ways that stifle Black freedom and lives, it is insufficient for LGBT organizations to merely acknowledge these horrific events. The morally courageous thing to do is take action. And organizations like the Audre Lorde Project, the Anti-Violence Project, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and INCITE! cannot do the necessary intersectional work alone.

We are calling for a bigger commitment and a more radically inclusive vision from LGBT organizations. We are calling for an agenda and a commitment to combating racism as forcefully and unshakably as your commitment to standing against homophobia. We are calling for a new, multivariate LGBT agenda that acknowledges and advances recognition of the humanity and suffering of Black people. We are calling for an agenda that not only expresses awareness but demonstrates, through tangible actions, a value for Black life. And should you not, we can only conclude that Black lives do not matter to you.

Movements are not built on the backs of the most vulnerable in the service of the needs and whims of the most privileged. Movements are built and succeed when they begin at the most marginal of spaces — always evaluating who’s positioned in the center of power and always ensuring that asymmetrical power relations are corrected so that we might exist in a more equitable society.

Some of us within the LGBT spectrum are Black. Our lives matter too.

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An Open Letter to Mainstream LGBT Organizations That Have Remained Silent on Black Lives Mattering

I am a fairly prominent African American screenwriter (Ali, Remember The Titans). I write this in defense of Amy Pascal, someone I met 22 years ago as a young writer. What she did for me, away from the cameras, when I was nobody and just breaking in, I want to share with the public as she comes under this withering barrage of racial invective. My producer and I had a meeting with her when she was an executive vp at the studio to pitch a project. It was one of my first high-level meetings. I had only been in the business a few months. I was nervous. I was pitching a true story (something that would become my specialty years later). The meeting…

I am a fairly prominent African American screenwriter (Ali, Remember The Titans). I write this in defense of Amy Pascal, someone I met 22 years ago as a young writer. What she did for me, away from the cameras, when I was nobody and just breaking in, I want to share with the public as she comes under this withering barrage of racial invective.

My producer and I had a meeting with her when she was an executive vp at the studio to pitch a project. It was one of my first high-level meetings. I had only been in the business a few months. I was nervous. I was pitching a true story (something that would become my specialty years later). The meeting did not go well. In fact, she and producer had words, as they say. I said to myself, “my career is over before it’s even begun.” It had little to do with me, it more had to do with them, but I was collateral damage.

I left her office that day thinking, “I’m done. It’s over for me.” I got in my car and just drove around LA aimlessly. After lunch, I was headed back home when I got a call on my cell. It was Amy Pascal. I was shocked to say the least. I remember what she said like it was yesterday, “You’re a good writer and you’ll have a great career. This wasn’t your fault, but just remember a movie is not about events, it’s about people.” That was the best single piece of advice I’ve ever gotten. Ever. I use it every day to write.

This good woman saw a young black writer, reached out to encourage me when no one was looking, when there were no cameras to record this kind act. And at that time the number of black writers in Hollywood could be counted on one hand. Anyone who would call her a racist is going to have to fight me.

This does not mean there isn’t racism in Hollywood; there is. I’ve written about it myself blogging on HuffPo, “The Whitewashing of James Brown,” but to compare this good woman to that monster Donald Sterling is evil and stupid on the part of Al Sharpton. More than anyone, he should be sensitive about reputations since his careless remarks have destroyed the lives of others.

There should be a holistic discussion about race and diversity in Hollywood. I would welcome it, but leave aside character assassination and focus on the problem and how to solve it. Leave the hyperbole out of it. It does nothing to advance the cause of inclusion.

And just in case someone thinks I’ve been paid to write this, I haven’t been in business with the studio since Ali. I write this from the heart because I saw hers that fateful day when she saved me, lifted me up when I meant nothing to anyone in this town.

Link: 

The Amy I Know

“People would spit at me every day when I went into school,” Lalita Tademy recalls. Hers was the first black family to make their home in Castro Valley, California, just south of Oakland, in the 1940s and 50s. “They made it very known that they wanted us out.” But Tademy persevered. She read voraciously and excelled academically. She won scholarships, she climbed the corporate ladder, and in the midst of the first great tech boom, Tademy occupied a position that remains rare for female minorities: she was an executive at a Silicon Valley powerhouse, Sun Microsystems. And then she quit. Her colleagues and family were stunned. Her career …

“People would spit at me every day when I went into school,” Lalita Tademy recalls. Hers was the first black family to make their home in Castro Valley, California, just south of Oakland, in the 1940s and 50s. “They made it very known that they wanted us out.”

But Tademy persevered. She read voraciously and excelled academically. She won scholarships, she climbed the corporate ladder, and in the midst of the first great tech boom, Tademy occupied a position that remains rare for female minorities: she was an executive at a Silicon Valley powerhouse, Sun Microsystems.

And then she quit. Her colleagues and family were stunned.

Her career had become unfulfilling, and Tademy decided to take her life in a different direction. She spent her newfound free time pursuing a passion for genealogy, which led to the idea of creating fiction about the fascinating ancestors she’d researched.

Multiple bestselling historical sagas later, Lalita Tademy has established a new career and a new approach to life. (Her latest novel, “Citizens Creek,” focuses on a real-life slave with a gift for learning languages who was sold to a Creek Indian chief as a 10-year-old and who became the first black Creek chief after the Civil War.)

At her home in the Bay Area, The Huffington Post asked Tademy to share some life lessons — about shifting careers, aging, regrets, relationships that flower later in life, and death.

What do you say to people who are on the fence about leaving an unsatisfying career to pursue their passion?

There comes a point where you have to decide whether you’re willing to live the one life that you have in an unfulfilled way.

I’m very supportive of people taking risks, and while that risk may not take you where you think that it might, I think it will take you someplace where you can pivot and eventually find your footing.

If you are going to take the risk, do it the smartest way that you can. Plan it, save, give yourself a cushion. Don’t just say, “I don’t have to take this anymore,” and walk out. That’s not a formula for success, because whatever happens, it’s probably going to take longer than you expect.

Do you know anyone who took that risk but didn’t see it pan out well?

I do. Actually, maybe I don’t. I do know people who have stepped off and said, “I’m going to pursue something else,” and then the “something else” didn’t materialize in a way where they could be supported and they had to try to fight their way back.

But I’m not sure that was a failure. I think they stopped themselves from being on a track that they no longer desired, and they ended up someplace that maybe wasn’t lofty, but it did get them re-situated.

You went from working in a stimulating environment surrounded by smart people to working mostly alone. How have you adjusted your social life?

What I’ve done is I’ve replaced a lot of my business friends with creatives, other writers and people who understand that solo pursuit of a project.

I joked with my husband, there was a moment when I was so incredibly happy because I knew more writers than I knew business people. I was thrilled, because it’s a different energy, you’re feeding off people in a different way. Now a lot of my friendships are around hiking or walking — it’s one-on-one, one-on-two, one-on-three, smaller groups. It’s going to lunch, it’s going to dinners.

But it took a while to get there. It was quite a shock to step off of the corporate merry-go-round, and I was eager to do so but very surprised at how different life is outside of that cocoon.

What is a great regret of your life?

I don’t spend a ton of my time on regrets. There’s very little that you can do about it. And if you can do something about it, it’s no longer a regret.

I got married for the first time when I was 55. With the type of career that I had, at the time that I had it — for an African-American woman in the corporate world, I didn’t feel that I could juggle much of a social life and be able to accomplish what I accomplished in corporate America. Theoretically that could be a regret, that I didn’t spend more time trying to find a balance, that I wasn’t more aggressively seeking a partner.

But I can’t regret that because when I did get married, it was the most fabulous match ever, and it was what I’d been waiting for. It was tremendously, over the top, emotionally satisfying. We both came to it late, and therefore actually understand how incredible what we have is, and can really enjoy it together.

So I think regrets just get ground up and put in a different pocket, and take you where you’re supposed to go.

What about your relationship with your husband worked that hadn’t happened with previous relationships?

I think that leaving the corporate world and then finding out that I could write opened me up in new ways. I wasn’t nearly as rigid as I had been. I was more flexible and open and appreciative of someone else and someone’s needs, and the possibilities and the potential that two people can have together.

I don’t believe that if I had met my husband earlier in life that we would’ve gotten together, because I don’t think I would have been open to it. Because I waited so long, I knew that this was something that could work and that I was willing to work hard to preserve. I’m not sure I would’ve worked that hard earlier on when I was thinking of my needs.

You don’t have children. Are you content with how that part of your life has unfolded?

I am. It wasn’t as if that was something that I was desperate to do at some point and it just couldn’t happen. I made a series of choices, and that was never the top choice. And when the time for that faded away, that was okay with me.

Earlier in life, I regretted and sort of mourned that I didn’t have a partner, but I didn’t mourn that I didn’t have a child. I think that being a parent is beyond phenomenal and should be cherished, but it wasn’t for me.

You’re in your mid-60s. Do you have any advice for people who are 10 years younger about how to get the most out of the next decade?

A lot of the prior decades — the 20s, the 30s, the 40s, the 50s — they each had their own tone. They each had their own philosophy, their own focus.

The 50s were my best decade ever. I loved my 50s beyond all reason. I was on enough of a financial perch where I knew I’d be okay — not necessarily fabulously well, but okay. And I was on an emotional perch that was great. I knew how to no longer buy into toxic people in my life, just let that go. And I had things that I wanted to accomplish that I could work on as projects that were very fulfilling. Everything seemed very right.

So what I would recommend is: concentrate — in a non-selfish way — on making yourself happy. People around you will respond to that.

Do you think about death?

I actually think about other people’s death more than my own. I come from a family of very long-living females, and so my biggest disappointment will be that I will outlive the people that I cherish and that I love. I do think about that quite a lot instead of my own death.

I feel so supported at this moment in time in so many different directions, and I just dread the thought of those people falling away from my life. And that’s what I think about.

Your mother passed away not too many years ago. Did you take away any lessons regarding grieving that others might find helpful?

My mother’s death was long in coming. She had multiple sclerosis; she was bedridden, housebound for decades. So for her passing, it was a relief for her not to be in pain, and I had a great deal of time to prepare.

My father passed before she did. I never felt as if we didn’t say things that we should have said to one another. I think that can haunt you for your whole life if you don’t engage, and interact, and say the things that you want to say to somebody so that they know what they mean to you.

If you do tell them, then it’s just a natural passing and it’s part of life. Otherwise, it is a regret that you hold on to.

Anything on your ‘bucket list’ that you’d like to accomplish?

Very truthfully, I’ve accomplished more than I thought that I ever would. I’ve had two careers, and both have gone very well.

I have three books that I am very proud of — not because they’re bestsellers or not bestsellers, but because they really, I think, bring forth history in a way that it isn’t always depicted.

So I don’t have a big bucket list of “I need to visit these places,” or “do these things,” or “leave this behind.” It is what it is, and I’m feeling pretty dog-gone good right now.

Transcription services by Tigerfish; now offering transcripts in two-hours guaranteed. Interview has been edited and condensed.

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Inspiration From A Prominent Tech Exec Who Dumped Her Career To Pursue A Passion