Darius Bradford & April Simpson

In this episode of The Rundown with Rene Knott, Rene sits down with April Simpson and Darius Bradford, two familiar voices in St. Louis media who are bringing a fresh, energetic dynamic to morning radio.

What starts as a fun and lively conversation quickly turns into something deeper. April opens up about her very public health battle, including her brain tumor diagnosis and recovery, and how faith, family, and community helped carry her through some of the darkest moments of her life.

Darius shares his own perspective on loss, purpose, and why he’s now fully stepping into a new chapter—choosing to live boldly and intentionally after personal tragedy.

Together, they talk about resilience, friendship, and what it means to show up for each other both on and off the air.

It’s a conversation filled with humor, honesty, and heart—and a reminder that even through life’s toughest challenges, there is still room for joy, growth, and new beginnings.

The Rundown with Rene Knott is powered by I Got Dan and Midwest BankCentre.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_08 0:00

April. We're talking about all that you did. It was always on a public stage. How did you handle that? Because you're a private time. It was never really a private time.

SPEAKER_03 0:15

It was weird. I mean, it was I honestly, like when I was going through when I was diagnosed with my brain tumor, so when I was going through that, I was so like I didn't I don't think I understood how serious it was. I never thought, okay, I'm about to die, so let me just I I I never felt that way. And I just wanted to just live and enjoy life. And I had my family, and I had like my my local family people here like Timmy Zale and people like that. I had people like that. So I was I I I just made it through it with prayer and people were just being there for me. Because it was right. Oh, it was horrible.

SPEAKER_08 1:16

Something special today. First of all, a trio that is coordinated. You'll find out in just a moment. But most of all, we're talking to two people who've made an impact on St. Louis, media, as well as our communities. Please welcome right now, Darius in April, uh, the morning show in the house radio. Uh coming to the episode of uh podcasting. Yes.

SPEAKER_09 1:39

You like that idea? I like it. I like it. Listen, listen. We love it. I like what you're doing here, sir. You're showing radio. He's taking ideas. He's stealing your ideas, so get ready for it. It's not me. It's a lot of people behind the cameras making all this work. Around you.

SPEAKER_08 1:53

How much are you, April, enjoying the idea of radio? Because your career was all based in television. Television.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

I love it, actually. It's I mean, because I get to work with Darius. And so it's like fun. It's not as much work as it, you know, you would think it is, because we have fun with it. Okay. And so that makes me like want to get up every morning and get in every every morning and do things to him, scare him, do every kind of all those things.

SPEAKER_07 2:19

That's what she does. She's uh she's a bit bit more than what y'all think. Yeah, she's uh what do you mean, a bit more than what we think? She's uh more than television. This lady is uh Arkansas, ready to rumble. So she's uh, you know, I love her. She's excited and uh she does it for me. Now you've got the top billing. I mean, it's your morning show. Yeah. She's like the bottom line down there, right? Right, man. She's more so catty corner, right? Yeah. She's at an angle. All right. You know, she's at the top of her game. I feel like I pretty much, I guess, could be at the top of mine, is the perfect combination. Johnny Gill, Stacey Ladisau.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Why do you keep calling me Stacey Laddisau?

SPEAKER_07 2:55

I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_08 2:58

Taking us way back in the day. What do you want your show to represent? Is it is it about entertainment? Is it about information? At the end of the day, what do you want to say about it?

SPEAKER_07 3:07

It's a collage. It's about everything that kind of matters, which makes you go, which, you know, just boost your days, that kind of uh gets you away from the norm of life, especially in these times, but at the same time reminds you that it'll uh work out at the end of the day. So that's kind of what it is. It's uh all of it. You know, it's not no one thing, it's the things that matter. That's what I like about it. And and it's fun, it's breakfast and lunch. It's kind of brunches, it's all of it. Yeah, brunches. It's like uh he'll make it.

SPEAKER_09 3:40

Okay, he's making it work all. But it worked.

SPEAKER_08 3:43

It worked, it worked, it definitely worked. Yeah, you know, you you talk about finding happiness at the end of your day, giving people a reason to go out and feel good about themselves. In April, your life has been one that is embodied in the word resilience.

SPEAKER_03 3:57

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_08 3:58

Um, how resilient have you been to get to where you are today?

SPEAKER_03 4:02

Well, when Darius and I had talked about this show like a while ago. I can't remember. And he had he had we were because we're gonna do a podcast as well. So he had talked about that, and I'm like, okay, right. You went Darius was not like okay, you know, and so finally when he called, I was like, okay, we can do that. I'm available, I can do that. I was, you know, move back to St. Louis. I was like, okay, we can do this. And so I, you know, I've been through a lot, I've uh endured a lot, but you know, it's like I have God in my life, so I can move forward and keep going. And that's what I have been doing.

SPEAKER_08 4:32

Is that hard though? Because you know, it's a lot of people will say, people told me this. You know, trust in God, trust in God. But there is those days where you question. There's those days where you go, is it really going to happen? How did you keep pushing forward though? I mean, like you said, you have been through a lot.

SPEAKER_03 4:48

Yes. I just, you know, because I I you don't have a I didn't have a choice.

SPEAKER_08 4:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:53

You know, I didn't want to be, I didn't want people to feel sorry for me. I didn't want to. I mean, I had my moments where uh I probably for a couple years, I was just in the bed, in the house, just in the dark. I was in that dark place, a very dark place. And I told my parents this. I was like, you know, I'm in a dark spot, y'all. Just let me be, you know, whatever. And everybody's so concerned, I'm like, I'll get through this. So I would, when I tell you, I would pray, pray, and pray, I did that.

SPEAKER_07 5:18

April is a pioneer. This lady is from what do you call it?

SPEAKER_03 5:21

LA LA, Lower Arkansas, Lower Arkansas. Gurden, Arkansas.

SPEAKER_07 5:24

She done seen somebody grab a chicken by the neck.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

Oh, my grandma. Okay. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_07 5:30

Okay. And the lady, she's a she's a survivor, she's a uh the truth. That's what I love about her. She's basically unstoppable. And when you uh kind of measure your life against what some of the things she went through, we all go through things, but sometimes you need somebody to measure uh what you're going through. And you say, wait a minute now, I can do anything through Christ. And then as April has done, she's a uh a fresh breath of air in the morning. I I show up for her.

unknown 5:56

Really?

SPEAKER_07 5:57

Darius Bradford morning show, whatever, is April for me. Showed up for each other. We show up for each other, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

We we we we balance each other very well. Okay, I've been knowing Darius since I moved to St. Louis 20 years ago. And so we've been friends for a long time. So we get along very well. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 6:13

Now, while she's from LA, Lower Arkansas. Lower Arkansas. You are St.

SPEAKER_07 6:17

Louis through and through. Through and through. U City. U City from the route, grandmother from the city, a cass and grand, uh relatives in the heart of the city, and my dad was fortunate enough to find residence in uh U City for me and my siblings and my mom, and then we just ran with it, and but you know, well balanced. I still caught the bus back down page to my grandmother's house. So I I get it all. I know it, you know, it's I'm well balanced. So I'm fortunate to be grade school driven. Yes, U City. For real, U City.

SPEAKER_08 6:57

Well, what do you think about your city now? When you think when you think about St. Louis and where we are and what needs to be done and what is being done, what do you think we are? Are are we a city that's indeed moving forward, or are we a city that's sort of on a treadmill that just keeps turning and turning but not going anywhere?

SPEAKER_07 7:12

I think we all I think we are really with nostalgia. I think we're on a uh city that needs to uh take a look back. Sometimes you channel back because it's not always about to me, it's not always about, you know, throwback or uh, you know, taking it back. It's almost going back to what worked and simplicity, and that's what I love. Simplicity. I love simple living. I love bedtime. I love all that. I think all networks should be canceled for three years and we'd be forced to look at channel 2, 4, and 5. Okay. MASH. That's it. Just look at MASH. I think MASH should be the last television show for everybody. Good times. Uh MASH Jefferson's. No, just Mash. Just MASH, the last show. MASH put you to bed. I was asleep. When MASH came on, I was asleep before the helicopter. No, no, you got to go back to things that kind of structured your evening. I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_09 8:07

You know, three-quarters of the audience is like Mash. What is that? That's what I was saying. Googling and everything.

SPEAKER_08 8:13

I think the American flag should come on at nighttime. Do you think that when you you you're mentioning going looking back? Right. Do you think that somewhere along the way we lost sight of the values, lost sight of you know the true meaning of being here?

SPEAKER_07 8:27

Yes, I really do. I think that's what it is. And even in my stand-up, I try to tell stories that kind of validate that the truth was our parents' way of living, not this new fast-paced. The truth was in the house phone, not the cell phone. We don't even know directions. My phone goes dead right now. I'm calling the police. I don't know my way back home.

SPEAKER_08 8:48

I don't know how you would have called them.

SPEAKER_07 8:49

I don't have a do I set up smoke signals. Metaphorically speaking, we need to use our brains and not chat GPT to just navigate our way through life. Just get back to the basic. That's how I live now. Okay. And that's where I get my get up and go from. I'm not worried about anything anymore. I'm done with it. You know, I'll use it to my advantage, but I would not use it to my life.

SPEAKER_08 9:16

Where are you electronically?

SPEAKER_03 9:17

Oh, I I love electronically.

SPEAKER_07 9:19

She just posted me. I had to be on the watch for her.

SPEAKER_03 9:23

She posted me so. I scared him this morning. And so he, and I posted it on social media. She posted, she don't care.

SPEAKER_07 9:30

She videoed me sleeping. She videoed me sleeping, and now she's holding it over my head because I don't sleep beautiful. Uh my sleep is atrocious.

SPEAKER_03 9:41

What did you say? Nobody would date you if they saw you how you sleep.

SPEAKER_07 9:45

They would not date me. That's why I tend to uh ask uh women to leave before the night is over. Oh my god, don't wake up to me because it's gonna be over.

SPEAKER_08 9:55

You know, if you if you get married, then that's a that's a different thing. Period of time at some point, you know.

SPEAKER_07 10:00

She signed up for ugly. There you go. That's all I'm saying.

SPEAKER_08 10:03

Name of the contract. Right thing.

SPEAKER_07 10:05

I'm a thick and thin, ugly and fine.

SPEAKER_08 10:09

April, when it comes to your life, uh, do the deer come with it? Yes. Because all of a sudden now you're like a deer wrangler, rancher, whatever you want to call it.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

Deer whisperer. I guess I don't know. I'm a backwood. I don't know. Well, you know, here's what I started. In my neighborhood, my neighbors normally they would feed them. And I wasn't paying attention to it because I was, you know, working every day. And then when I was done working um at Fox 2, I they they asked me to say, hey, we're gonna go out of town. Can you feed the deer? I'm like, I'm not feeding deer. My daddy, they eat deer where I'm from, you know. They do. LA? Yeah, exactly. And so I did it, and then like the deer were like not scared. I mean, they were just like, you know, like, okay, so I just kept doing it, kept doing it. Eight years later, I'm still doing it. I'm still doing it. And I name them.

SPEAKER_09 10:57

Oh my god. What were their names? Prancer. Nixon, Mixer.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

No, my my deer have some ratchet names.

SPEAKER_09 11:03

Oh. LaFonda.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

Okay. LaFonda's one of them. That was on the movie Napoleon Dynamite. Napoleon Dynamite, that's where that came from. We have Archie, A. Aaron, he said. A Aaron. There was a light-skinned Keisha.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 11:18

And um LaFonda has four, she had four boys, and they were Devontae, Mr. Delvin, Casey, and Jojo.

SPEAKER_07 11:25

Do you hear this? Do you hear this, Randy? And I imagine what I hear in the morning about these deer stories last night.

SPEAKER_03 11:33

They come every day, even in the snow. I'm out there to snow with them and in the rain. I'm out there. But that is like something that calms me.

SPEAKER_08 11:40

You're not afraid of them?

SPEAKER_03 11:41

I'm from Arkansas. Okay. You know, I grew up on the farm. I'm not, I'm not afraid of them because I know I know what they can do, but I don't touch them or anything. I know what they can do. So I'm not like gonna try to go, oh hey, buddy, come here. You know, I don't do that. But I I do feed them, I do talk to them, and I dame them. So I narrate their lives. And so my little segment is called family. Yeah, it's like we have a dear family. Um it's called the get loose crew. That's the name of the herd.

SPEAKER_07 12:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:05

And it's a uh they get loose.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

I got it.

SPEAKER_07 12:09

Sounds like a sitcom. My dear family.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Yeah, they it's like a trademark.

SPEAKER_08 12:17

You know, you can get a dog or a cat.

SPEAKER_03 12:19

I had yeah, I have a I had a I have a dog. Well, I had a dog and I moved to Indiana, and I had to let my sister keep him because I was gonna be working a different us like at night. Okay, and so my sister has him and he's uh she's attached to him now. Okay, and he's attached to her, so his name is Legolas from Lord of the Rings.

SPEAKER_07 12:36

Okay, okay. Lady is Lady is pet friendly. Yeah, I like yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:42

So my little York, he's gone. He's with my sister, but I'm gonna get I'll get another one in here.

SPEAKER_08 12:46

Okay. Possession is, you know, nine-tenths of the loss. I know.

SPEAKER_03 12:52

And I'm like, can I I'm gonna come get him? No, no, he's he's happy here. But he's out in the country and just running around and doing everything.

SPEAKER_08 12:58

So any animals in your line?

SPEAKER_07 13:01

Uh, so this young lady, she's a tiger. Oh my god. When I tell you, okay, I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. We have these stories off. No more no animals anymore.

SPEAKER_09 13:15

No pets no more. I got two basset hounds. Oh, I know, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 13:18

They're a handful. They're more than enough. Had two kids, they're grown and gone, and I got two dogs that won't ever leave. Exactly. Because they can't go anywhere. There you go. There you go. As you look at where you are now in life, because you and I had a conversation beforehand about touring and things like this. Do you see yourself back out there doing shows, being on stage?

SPEAKER_07 13:40

Absolutely. This is the time. This is my because I uh I've done it and I've worked with a lot of folks, and I've had the privilege of television, all the great shows and everything. But now in my maturity time, it's really where I want to do it and like myself. I don't want to be a part of anything. I want to Eddie Murphy, you know, uh have my own signature moment that I go and it's kind of deliver my brand of stand-up. I don't want to compromise going up uh before someone where I have to pause and all of that. So right now it's uh my headlining. I've always headlined, but now it's extreme. I'm going for the gusto. It's really a time for me to say, look here, uh Darius is here.

SPEAKER_08 14:28

How'd you get to that point? What made you get to the level where you go, it's about what I need to do?

SPEAKER_07 14:34

I think it's it's a few elements involved, you know, with maturity and everything. And then unfortunately, I lost a child to violence, and then it just kind of reminded me that life is for the living, and right now, there's no pausing, no compromising. You can just do it. You don't have to negotiate whether it's your time, you don't have to do anything. You can just choose everything. You can choose to be whatever you want to be right now. Tomorrow does not know that you are waiting on it. So do it today and show up with it tomorrow. So that's where I'm at with it.

SPEAKER_08 15:08

And that's not about at all being selfish. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_07 15:12

No, no. It's the simple rule of the airplane uh put the oscillatory mask over your mouth so you can help those who may not be as strong as you are. And right now I need the strength to help myself before I can pretty much help others that I love with all I got in me. Do you feel like you're breathing now? Yeah. I feel like I'm there, I think. A little numb, but because it's new, you know, when you walk into those new spaces and uh you kind of have uh success remorse, you have peace remorse because you're conditioned to live in that space. You know, it's like a New Yorker, you know, when they go to the country or LA, they like, oh my God, the silence is so loud. The silence is loud, that's a real thing. So right now I'm just adjusting to the fact that uh structure and life and purpose is loud, but that's what I want to hear.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 16:02

Where are you now with your life?

SPEAKER_03 16:05

I am just living.

SPEAKER_07 16:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:06

And you know, I really am just living because I just I'm thankful for every day that I have, you know, and so it's for me. I just I just want to live life and be happy. And I get up every morning, I get to work with him.

SPEAKER_07 16:18

This is my cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

We we we work great with each other, so I get to laugh. I get, you know, I'm still on the show. I I do like the news and stuff, so I get to do that. But we have fun, and it's it's it's it would it makes me happy. Yeah, you know, I would just want to be happy.

SPEAKER_08 16:32

When you get to write the book of your life, not that you're gonna write a book. Oh, I have to. You are gonna write a book? I thought about that this morning too. I said, she would have one heck of a book. Exactly. Oh, believe me, it's already on the book.

SPEAKER_03 16:42

No, I don't. No, it's not. I don't have that. You have a title for me?

SPEAKER_08 16:45

I no. No, I've you know take it April Showers. Oh my god. I'm fired right now. Okay. But when you look at the chapter of your life right now, what chapter are you in, would you say?

SPEAKER_03 16:58

Um, I think I'm in the chapter where, you know, the next step for me, like this is to me, like as far as career-wise, you know, I've been in TV over 20 years, and it's kind of like it's changed so much that it's just like I'm ready to move on and do something different. And with this, we're doing this, and I'm just in a time on the now time for me. It's now, and I just want to be happy now. I don't like to think too much about what's gonna happen in the future, like or what happened in the past. So I just I just want to live in now because if I think about stuff like that, I don't want to get you know too my anxiety or anything knacked up. So I just I just try to live for the now and be happy now.

SPEAKER_08 17:38

Okay, right now.

SPEAKER_03 17:39

And I am happy.

SPEAKER_08 17:40

You seem very happy.

SPEAKER_07 17:41

Let me tell you something. She leaves directly after work. You better move. When I tell you this, she has a good thing. And then once it wraps, let me tell you something. April is out of there. When I look up, I'm thinking I'm gonna do the deer thing. So uh what April's like, I'm done with you, I'm on to my next thing. I'm gonna have a good time with my deer. I'm gone.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

You would be amazed though at how those deer, how they calm people. Like I have people that that write me and email me talking about the deer. Some people have gone through cancer, some people have gone through other uh problems, and the deer calm them for some reason. I'm like, I don't like watching these deer. Like, I didn't think it was gonna be a thing. It's a thing. People like to watch it. It's a thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 18:24

It's a thing. Well, before we get into more things with you guys, I'm gonna step aside for just a second, hear from our sponsors, and then we'll be right back with more darias in April, because these two are off to hug. I gotta talk about coordination. How we all end up with some some blend of green. I know we're taping on St. Patrick's Day, but still.

SPEAKER_03 19:15

Great minds think alike. Is that what it is?

SPEAKER_08 19:18

Think alike. Now, how long have you guys been together now with the show?

SPEAKER_03 19:21

It's been a month, almost a month.

SPEAKER_08 19:23

Are you starting to get synchronized?

SPEAKER_07 19:25

Uh, well, language-wise and things, our beats are pretty good. She can catch whatever I'm finishing. We there, ba-boom. All the things we it's just there. I can hit 944-1069. And we rock it. Yeah. So that's what it is.

SPEAKER_08 19:41

That is pretty good. Yeah, we these guys don't know any of my phone numbers.

SPEAKER_03 19:46

We have like a good connection, like me, Darius, and DJ Rec. He he is the one that puts it all together for us.

SPEAKER_07 19:52

He does all the work at the airport. He's here with us.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 19:57

He does it all.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

We were just spinning.

SPEAKER_07 20:00

Lock it. I'm like, oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 20:02

Like he can come in and wreck and put everything together. I can read the news. He can be the comedian.

SPEAKER_08 20:07

You know, it's just it's how are you guys gonna go with all this? Do you do you see this, you know, becoming a syndicated show one day or just having fun for now, and we'll see where it goes when it goes.

SPEAKER_07 20:17

I always dream big. So uh, you know, uh definitely syndication presents itself, and then me and her branching into our podcast that it's yeah, this thing, the starius grabbed experience, and like the uh good old classic days of showing uh live entertainment and things of that nature. And then yeah, we're thinking uh whatever the universe delivers, the next level we're gonna ride the wave. And yeah, you know, or more so we may invent it ourselves. We may not even wait on the universe ring. We might be done waiting.

SPEAKER_09 20:53

I feel like hey, hey, I feel like one of the deer right now.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

They're like, You would be Archie. Archie's the herd. Is that what it's? Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_08 21:05

I'll I'll I'll join the herd and and hang out with you guys, do all those things too. Uh, April, you know, I started off with talking about all that you've been through. And it was always on a public stage, too. Yes. When you think about it.

SPEAKER_04 21:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 21:20

How did you handle that? Because you your private time was never really a private time.

SPEAKER_03 21:25

It was weird. I mean, it was, I honestly, like when I was going through, when I was diagnosed with my brain tumor and stuff, when I was going through that, I was so, like, I didn't, I don't think I understood how serious it was. I don't think I ever understood the severity of it. And I remember like my dad, my like all my family was uh up in St. Louis and we were at the hospital. My dad was signing autographs. I'm like, my dad signed it. People ask my dad for his autograph and stuff. But I don't think I ever uh really understood the severity of it. And I never like, even when like when I had my surgery, my surgery was 16 hours. You know, it was 60 hour surgery, you know, and I coded it during the surgery. So if a lot of people don't know that, yeah, I did. And so like that just I I I think I just and they they didn't tell me that at first either. They didn't tell me that part. But when they told me, I'm like, what? Yeah, you know, are you what? Okay. But I never thought, okay, I'm about to die, so let me just I I I never felt that way. And I just wanted to just live and enjoy life. And I had my family, and I had like my my local family, people here like Timmy Zell and people like that. I had people like that. So I was I I I just made it through it with prayer and people just being there for me. Because it was rough.

SPEAKER_08 22:39

Oh, I can imagine.

SPEAKER_03 22:39

Oh, it was horrible. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 22:41

When they told you you you had coded. Yeah. I mean were you just oh okay, or did you just stop in your in your trash right there and go, What? Excuse me?

SPEAKER_03 22:53

I remember when it happened. So I I thought maybe I was dr dreaming when it when it happened.

SPEAKER_07 22:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

And I remember.

SPEAKER_07 23:05

My little buddy.

SPEAKER_08 23:06

Yeah, right. You know, one of the best things about the on the other side is that you know how loved you are. You know that you've got not just family there at your side, friends at your side, strangers at your side, and it makes a big difference.

SPEAKER_04 23:22

It does.

SPEAKER_08 23:22

I think that's one of the things that I have loved about St. Louis is the fact that you might be down but you think you're so low, and then there's everybody there trying to try to reach and pick you back up. So you always got a friend to us. Yes. Yes, yes. He's always got some joke to give you too that'll pick you up instantaneously.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

When I was in the surgery, Tim was there for 16 hours. He was there the whole surgery. I was like, he went to LSU, so like what is that about? You know, I'm a razorback, but you know, we we are we are rivals. Right. So it was like I I don't think I understood how much people cared about me, and I now I do.

SPEAKER_08 23:57

Yeah, yeah. I think what you find out is that people care. Yeah. And I think for the longest time, we don't think people really care about that. Oh no, you don't. My world. I don't care about your world. But then you find out people they have this soft side.

SPEAKER_07 24:08

She would find out more from me if she took me off of Do Not Disturb. It's not everybody's on do not disturb. I'll be trying to tell her when premonitions and moments come, I try to call this lady to encourage her. And she's like, I ain't trying to hear that. You know what?

SPEAKER_03 24:21

It's not you. It's just I just have it on some sometimes like that.

SPEAKER_07 24:24

I'm asleep, I'll just lady blocks me out regularly.

SPEAKER_08 24:29

I mean, I don't have your number yet, but yeah, you can imagine so I can let you know I might have to. Yeah. One thing I do notice is your necklace. Yes, the angel wing. Tell me about the angel.

SPEAKER_07 24:38

Let me tell you why that's so crazy. See, food trying to make me cry. I I refuse to cry on this male Oprah. The angel, what is it? Let me tell you, let me find my fun angel.

SPEAKER_08 24:51

I've never been called the male Oprah before.

SPEAKER_07 24:53

I take that as the compliment. Male Oprah. Oh. M-O, Missouri. Okay, enough of that. So what happens is, and I just switched it out to the white uh symbol, but when I came to see, of course, my son uh passed uh uh last year on March 4th of his birthday. And so when I was at the station as we approached a year later, April came in and brought me this necklace with uh different uh wings. These are wings. So, and and remembrance of my son reminding me that he's always here. So I switch him out, and she's again, uh as much as she's been through, she uh kind of thinks of others and stimulates us that we'll be okay. And and I let her proof in the pudding uh go into my spirit, and I say, yes, it is. So I'm always switching them out. Today was I wore the white one. They're gemstones, so he switches them out. This is my new thing, and uh it's always with me. I she just out of nowhere, she just was like, Here, take this, Danielson. I was like, oh my god, karate kid daughter. I'm like, uh it just makes it happen. I'm like, and then I just topped it off. Oh, okay, thanks, thanks, and all that. And then I thumped myself in the eye and say, that's why I'm crying. Nothing to do with this.

SPEAKER_08 26:12

Well, you know, people will be able to hear that. I and I think for men, especially. We need to have that realization that it's okay to not be okay sometimes. It's okay to accept love from other people, it's okay to show vulnerability because sometimes you try to be so stoic for so long.

SPEAKER_07 26:31

The lady got me together, she don't even know it. She got me together. She made me leave women that ain't got no business being in my life. Wow. But the scale is she probably messed me up though. Like, April, y'all would have you ever April to me? The ball is so high on simple. She bring me water in the morning. Here's a you-hoo. All that I'm like, ain't nobody ever gave me a you-hoo. And I'm like, everybody must go. Starbucks. Starbucks.

SPEAKER_08 26:58

At least she's keeping the people away from watching you sleep.

SPEAKER_07 27:01

Let me tell you. Let me tell you.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

Oh, that video 520 in the morning.

SPEAKER_07 27:08

I tried to come in early to show my strength and all that. I'm with you guys. 520. I laid on my arm like my hair was done. I was here with it. You know, it was ridiculous. I thought I could hang. She's an early bird. I guess that's from you.

SPEAKER_03 27:22

But I just working in, and I don't know. I can just get up and I can do it.

SPEAKER_07 27:26

She's an early bird. I forgot about that pretty much.

SPEAKER_08 27:29

Well, I used to wake up at midnight. So my God.

SPEAKER_05 27:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 27:32

I did say used to.

SPEAKER_05 27:33

Right, right, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_09 27:34

Yeah, new life now. So you guys got it. Stay till six.

SPEAKER_07 27:37

I definitely getting up before the sun comes up. I would love to be cloned right now. Hey, you go in from six to eight, I'll meet you there. There you go. There you go. But hey, I love it. Along with the team, they keep me on track, and uh, it's a beautiful thing, actually. And we're just getting started.

SPEAKER_08 27:52

We are. Well, I'm looking forward to the growth. Okay. I'm looking forward to the syndication. And maybe one day being a guest. Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_07 27:59

We would love you on there. You're just letting you know that I'm available. We were talking about you. Yeah. We were like, I told her just the other day, I was like, I would love to have Michael on. What is it? Randy or Michael? Okay. Hey, I'm done. I'm done.

SPEAKER_09 28:20

But they're good though. They're good though.

SPEAKER_08 28:22

You know how many times people get my name wrong. It it happens all the time. So I still. But I want to thank you guys so much for sitting down and hanging out and really revealing yourselves and at the same time giving us all reasons to step forward.

SPEAKER_07 28:33

Listen, your contributions to St. Louis and uh representation of just uh men in general from all levels, man. You have to really take a minute and not taking over nothing. But listen, you gave us our congratulations. I can't wait to see what this breeds for you. Exactly. You are born to win, and you therefore you share. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 28:53

Yeah, you're a legend yourself, Randy. You have to know that.

SPEAKER_08 28:56

Well, the way you guys talk, there's a good chance you could be on again.

SPEAKER_07 28:59

There you go.

SPEAKER_08 29:01

Kiss it up to the host is over to the house.

SPEAKER_07 29:04

Thank you so much. Hey, Randy, thanks so much. Hey, come on in, Randy. I love you, girl. You're all right. It's a love fest.