Vic sits down with Van Lathan Jr., Oscar-winning producer, CNN panelist, and co-host of Higher Learning, for a conversation about politics, culture and the true cost of freedom. At its heart is an honest reckoning with the Black experience: the price of "earning your humanity" through talent and how one word flattens a whole world of culture, whether you're standing in Chicago, Ghana, or South Africa.

📱 Follow @vicmensa · @vanlathan

🎤 Guest: Van Lathan Jr.

(00:00) Cold open

(01:13) Van Jones, Palestine and the price of the invitation

(12:13) Reparations, Coates and the white liberals

(19:33) The Matrix was a documentary

(26:56) Kamala, the aunties and who the party serves

(34:46) Whose dead bodies matter

(44:15) Get Rich or Die Tryin' and the violence that raised us

(01:02:28) Black here, Black in Ghana, Black in South Africa

(01:19:23) Boxing, Spike Lee and Mo' Better Blues

(01:56:20) TMZ, the headlines and the cost of being watched

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices