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0:46

Hello and welcome to the iHeart podcast Speaker

0:48

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0:50

Podcasts. As you know, each week we like to get

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Really been looking forward to today's conversation

1:01

Every time I've told somebody that I was having a conversation

1:04

with the Mimi Walker, host of Hand

1:06

Me, my first podcast, There's two

1:09

things that keep coming up. I've heard people say

1:11

she is an amazing soul or she

1:13

has a wonderful spirit. I hope that someday

1:16

somebody describes me that way. But

1:18

we're just gonna jump right in and I'm going to

1:20

introduce you, guys, Mimi Walker.

1:22

Thanks so much for joining us today.

1:23

Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate

1:25

that.

1:26

Yeah, you visited with our

1:28

podcast team a few weeks ago. About

1:30

one hundred people jumped on to have a conversation

1:33

with you, and the feedback from that was, again,

1:35

just sort of a contagious spirit. Have you

1:37

always been known as somebody that had sort of

1:40

a contagious spirit and energy about

1:42

you?

1:42

You know?

1:43

I would say yes, I think

1:45

that I've pretty much had the same personality

1:47

since I was a little girl. I would say that.

1:50

But I'm definitely the kind of personality that

1:52

either you really like me or you really

1:55

don't. Yeah, it's not a lot of great people

1:57

either really like being around me, where they're like,

2:00

I can't deal with this lady because she's too much.

2:02

Well, the good news is podcast listeners

2:05

and our team seem to very much like

2:07

you. So you found the right audience and you're

2:09

joining us today. Surrounded by

2:12

kids in the background, drumming.

2:14

We were talking about this just before.

2:15

Do you want to tell us sort of where you are, not specifically,

2:18

but generally where you are today?

2:20

So today I am. I actually came

2:22

home a little bit early, but before I left

2:24

work. I'm an educator and students

2:26

just came back into the building for summer

2:28

boost program. And when they walked

2:30

in, I was like, what is happening because I'm

2:33

a total grumpy auntie in the

2:35

summer, like I don't want to see any kids, and

2:37

if I have to see them, I don't hear a lot of

2:39

noise. Right, The gentlemen came in with like

2:41

twenty buckets, twenty orange like

2:43

home depot buckets.

2:44

Yep.

2:45

I was like, what is happening?

2:47

Because I sit at the front door, so I had to buzz

2:49

them in and they came in.

2:50

They were like, we're part.

2:51

Of the drumming program, and I was like, drumming program

2:53

and I was like, man, please let them be

2:56

on the third floor and not anywhere

2:58

near where I will be. Yeah, they're

3:00

right about twenty feet

3:02

away from the door of the main office

3:05

in the auditorium, so I heard them drumming

3:07

and banging on buckets.

3:09

I hope you had access to what

3:12

I'm.

3:12

Really good at just tuning

3:14

stuff out good.

3:15

That's definitely a good quality and when you're working

3:17

in school. So I want to go straight to the.

3:19

Name of the podcast, which I love the name.

3:21

It's definitely one of those names that people talk

3:24

about. But going back to this idea, this metaphor

3:26

of the purse, but hand me my purse, can you

3:29

talk about the origin of the name, what

3:31

it means, and then we'll jump in from there.

3:33

So originally it was gonna be

3:35

everything with the kitchen sink, realized

3:38

that there was already a podcast by

3:40

that name. Okay, I had to

3:42

go back to the drawing board, and I talked to a

3:44

good friend of mine, I call her my big sister, Angelica,

3:47

and I was like, I need a name, and

3:49

we started talking about like the premise of the

3:51

show. And for me, I

3:54

consider myself everybody's favorite auntie.

3:56

I don't have any children, I'm forty three,

3:59

I'm not married, so I'm like the fun auntie,

4:01

Like I don't you know, whatever you want, you can.

4:03

Have, just don't get on my nerves.

4:05

Whatever you want, as long as it's not illegal, right,

4:07

or nobody's gonna get hurt, and so we were

4:09

talking about it and I went

4:11

to get my.

4:12

Purse for something and she was like, what about your

4:14

purse? She said, what is.

4:15

Something that an aunt or an older woman

4:17

always says? And I was like, they always talk about their purse,

4:20

Give me my purse. And so we talked through it, and that's how

4:22

handy my purse was born. Because women

4:24

always have to go in their purse for something.

4:26

And if an auntie goes

4:28

into her purse for something, she's gonna

4:30

take something out of there that either is gonna make your life

4:33

really great or you're gonna

4:35

be really.

4:35

Upset about it.

4:36

Yeah, but all the tools are in there.

4:37

Everything she needs, a belt, if you need a

4:39

spanking, candy if you're in church,

4:42

and you won't keep still because I remember

4:44

those days because I've had the same personality

4:47

my entire life. I'm all over the place. I

4:49

can sit in church for four hours and not have anything.

4:51

Candy, a mint, a sewing kit,

4:54

an earring back, like everything you need,

4:57

every you need, she has in her

4:59

purse.

4:59

I love it.

5:00

Anything that you need I'll have in my purse.

5:02

So you decided to call the podcast that,

5:04

but even before that, when you decided you might

5:06

want to start a podcast.

5:07

What was the origin? What made you think to start a

5:09

show?

5:10

It's so funny.

5:11

In twenty ten, I remember

5:13

I have a friend, her name is Aerin and she was a beauty

5:15

blogger and in another lifetime, I was

5:18

a professional makeup artist.

5:20

That's a whole different story. And she

5:22

said you should start a podcast. This is

5:24

twenty ten. Keep in mind.

5:25

I was like, what is that and

5:28

she was like, a podcast, you know, it's like a blog

5:30

with on the radio. And I was like, nobody assigned

5:32

for that. I'm trying to make money, be in the next

5:35

Pat McGrath. I don't have time for that. Well that didn't

5:37

quite work out because there's only one Pat McGrath.

5:39

Google her if you don't know who she is. She's amazing. And

5:41

so she said that she planted the

5:43

seed in twenty ten.

5:46

I never thought about it again. Another friend of

5:48

mine did this like podcast

5:50

intensive with MPR. They

5:53

selected five people out of five hundred

5:55

applicants to be a part of this

5:57

intensive and the five people got

5:59

to learn everything about podcasting, and

6:01

then MPR would work with them to help

6:04

they already had a podcast, but help them to develop

6:06

it and your podcast will be on NPR. So

6:08

my friend Michelle asked me to come in and be on

6:11

her pilot episode. Right, And so I

6:13

go into the NPR studios in DC

6:15

and somebody's working, you know, the controls,

6:17

and I'm.

6:18

Blah blah blah blah blah. All I do is talk. Ask

6:20

Taylor. He'll tell you I'm a talker. And

6:23

so I'm talking.

6:23

But when it's time to start recording the episode,

6:26

you know, it's serious business because this

6:28

is her podcast. I want to be serious. And so

6:31

two days later she texts

6:33

me and was like, they were really impressed

6:35

with you when you were recording. Then

6:37

she texted me the next ding and said the woman that was

6:39

the head of the entire program

6:41

was like, she said that next year, when they do it, she

6:43

wants you to apply. So in my mind I was

6:45

like, Okay, I need to get ready because next

6:48

year it's going to happen. And so that

6:50

lady went on to work for like Lemonada.

6:52

They didn't do the program anymore, some company.

6:54

They never did the program again. But I

6:57

was like, I still want to do this because I had a good time

6:59

and if somebody else sees something. This is the second

7:01

time I've heard I should do a podcast, let

7:03

me look into it. So I did research for

7:06

a total of thirteen months, very

7:08

context research, yep, and on March

7:10

the first, twenty twenty, I started it.

7:12

I love it.

7:13

I do think that's amazing that somebody mentioned

7:15

this to you back in twenty

7:17

ten. I mean, so few people would have been

7:19

listening to podcasts at that point.

7:21

I didn't know what she was talking about.

7:23

Yeah, you're like, okay, yeah, whatever. Yeah.

7:25

People always tell me what they think I should do.

7:27

Right, right,

7:46

So your mission with the podcast, how would

7:48

you describe that? What you're hoping listeners

7:50

take away or hoping to accomplish with it.

7:53

I want to tell stories about

7:55

black people that are not

7:58

often heard, you know, because people see

8:00

people in a way in there. That's where stereotypes

8:03

come from. People see all people through

8:05

their lens, and you know, there's

8:07

the media, there's news, there's word of

8:09

mouth, there's versions of history, and

8:11

then there's what you learn in your family or in your

8:13

community. I want to tell stories

8:15

that don't really get told. And there

8:18

are a lot of stories that just don't

8:20

get told, not your traditional stories,

8:22

but stories that you don't hear about.

8:24

And also I talk a lot about mental health

8:27

and self care and self

8:29

worth because I want to

8:31

normalize having those kind of conversations

8:34

as well. And the interesting part is

8:36

that I am always befuddled

8:38

by the fact that anybody wants to listen to what I have

8:40

to say. But it's so interesting

8:42

to me that there are people from all

8:44

different walks of life that tune

8:46

in to listen to my show, and it kind of

8:48

just helped me understand that what I'm talking

8:51

about is not specific to the black community.

8:53

What I'm talking about really is about not necessarily

8:55

how too, but having conversations

8:57

around being the best version of yours.

9:00

What that looks like, it's like at first it was

9:02

literally a walk through my own self healing journey,

9:05

but it is something I think

9:07

that everybody wants. Everybody wants to be the best version

9:09

of themselves and figure out what is and feel

9:11

good about who they are, even if they're not the best

9:13

version of themselves. Yet they want to feel

9:15

good about who they are. And I think that

9:17

has nothing to do with race, it has nothing to do

9:19

with socioeconomic status.

9:22

That's just about being a human and I think that

9:24

is kind of what my mission is.

9:25

Yeah, but I do like. I know that you mentioned that

9:28

the podcast is for everyone. I

9:30

do like the wave sort of embrace this

9:32

idea of the auntie that is

9:35

so sort of prevalent within black

9:37

culture.

9:37

As a kid, I grew up next door to kid

9:40

named Jason.

9:40

Would always go over there and he would introduce

9:43

me to somebody that was over for the day, and he'd say,

9:45

this is my aunt Joe, this is my aunt Sandy,

9:47

this is my and each one. I'd say, so it is that your mom's

9:50

sister or your dad sis She'd say neither one.

9:52

I was so confused by this idea until finally

9:55

understanding it over time. But the role that

9:57

they played in his life was tremendous.

10:00

So I was wondering if we could talk about like that

10:02

a little bit, because I do love that that's sort of incorporated,

10:04

even if it's for a broader audience, the role

10:07

of the aunt within a.

10:08

Community absolutely, and

10:10

from my own personal experience without

10:13

sharing too much, I

10:15

don't know, and I'm.

10:16

Not gonna get emotional, I'm not gonna cry, but.

10:18

I don't know who I would be

10:20

as a living, breathing human being

10:23

without the aunties in my life,

10:25

whether it's my godmother when I was a child,

10:27

whether it is my great aunt

10:29

who was the first person that ever curse at

10:31

me and call me the B word when I was nine,

10:34

whether it is my actual aunt,

10:36

my father's sister, or my mother's sister,

10:38

like my grandparents sisters. Like even

10:40

if it was just watching them, I

10:43

don't know who I would be as a

10:45

person, like a functioning citizen.

10:48

Of the world without them in

10:50

my life. I don't. I don't.

10:52

It's so important because your

10:54

auntie does not have to be a sibling,

10:57

your grandparents, your parents, or your

10:59

great grandparents. It could literally be the

11:01

lady at church that your grandmother

11:03

likes to sit and gossip with. In my case, it could

11:05

be your fifteen year old mother's best

11:07

friends. It could be any woman

11:10

that is close to you that can

11:12

offer you wisdom guidance

11:15

in life, or not wisdom and guidance

11:17

because she's still your auntie if she's not giving you

11:19

guidance. But even in that not so great

11:22

influence, there's wisdom or a lesson to

11:24

be learned, whether it's to make you a better person down

11:26

the road. I know watching one of

11:28

my aunts, I know, like I don't

11:30

want nothing to do with that and that was a lesson for

11:32

me, and she had no idea that she gave

11:34

me that. But it's like, oh, I don't want no parts of

11:36

that when I get older, so let me just sure

11:39

that I file that away. I think that black

11:41

aunts play such a vital role, like

11:43

they're icons in our community. They are

11:45

because you can talk to them about things that you

11:47

can't talk to your mother about, that you can't talk

11:49

to your grandmother or your father about. Oh

11:52

yeah, you have to have a safe space, and they

11:54

provide a safe space. Oftentimes

11:57

not all the time, but most times they

11:59

provide a space for you to go

12:01

to and learn about self worth, even

12:03

if they don't know they're teaching you that. Learn about why

12:05

you should be the best version of yourself, learn

12:08

about why it's important to look good all the time,

12:10

how to feel good about yourself.

12:11

Yeah, even TV aunties.

12:13

Black TV Auntie's like Wellana from Good

12:15

Times, She's a good god post.

12:17

For a black auntie.

12:18

Absolutely. I love that.

12:37

When you're on the show, you are often

12:40

dealing with difficult topics and I'm

12:42

wondering if for even you personally,

12:44

you find the podcast to sort

12:46

of be an outlet for you to work through

12:48

difficult topics and difficult things.

12:51

Absolutely.

12:52

So I've been going to therapy since

12:54

I was twenty five, off and on. I've been in really

12:56

intense therapy, and I'm not ashamed to

12:58

talk about it. I think just in our community,

13:01

I think in all communities, talking

13:03

about going to therapy is like.

13:04

Ooh, you're really crazy if you need

13:06

to go to therapy.

13:07

I think it's starting to become less and less taboo

13:09

now. But I've been in really intense

13:11

therapy for the past three years. I love my therapist.

13:13

She is a god to me in real life.

13:16

But it does help me to process

13:19

information, and even if it's not about

13:21

me, it's helpful for me to process what

13:23

may be going on with people in my.

13:25

Life, you know what I mean.

13:26

And I think that what I try to do is

13:28

take the things that my therapist has helped

13:30

me to learn in that time frame, because

13:32

really, I started going to therapy the same time I started

13:34

this podcast. So as I like

13:37

grow, I'm kind of imparting some of

13:39

the wisdom that I get from her, because technically

13:41

she's like a black auntie too, the wisdom that I

13:43

get from her, and kind of sharing it with the

13:45

world. Like, I don't know if you know this, but you.

13:47

Better start doing.

13:48

One of the things that I say all the time is

13:51

do what you want to do and do not do what

13:53

you don't want to do, which is something that

13:55

she drills into my brain all

13:57

the time. And so not be telling Ellen

14:00

from Vancouver, you don't have to do things

14:02

you don't want to do. You don't you should

14:04

do things that you want to do. So it is very

14:06

helpful for me. It's very cathartic, and

14:08

it also helps me to process some

14:10

of the things that I learned in therapy and the

14:13

things that I'm working on myself. And I even say

14:15

that on the show a lot that you know, I'm working

14:17

through this myself as I'm sharing this with you.

14:19

You know you mentioned starting this three years

14:21

ago.

14:22

So really this podcast has been alive

14:24

through the duration of COVID of the pandemic,

14:27

and we saw a real shift

14:29

in what people were looking to listen

14:31

to. It's no surprise to anyone that

14:34

you look back five years ago and true

14:36

crime was sort of everything in podcasting

14:38

and it is very much still a huge

14:40

category. We saw people coming in

14:42

and kind of going in two directions.

14:44

On the one hand, they wanted an escape,

14:46

and so comedy, pop culture,

14:49

entertainment in general sort of escape

14:51

from it all, and then on the other hand, going

14:53

right at it and sort of the growth of

14:56

mental health shows, seeing things like

14:58

Happiness Lab, The Psychology

15:00

of Your Twenties, and Therapy for Black

15:02

Girls and so many other shows that have just

15:05

taken off. And I think that's no surprise

15:07

why so many people are gravitating to your

15:09

show.

15:09

It's a little bit different.

15:10

I think what they find with your show is

15:13

very real accessibility because you're right

15:15

there with them. You're not saying I'm

15:17

the expert. You know, I'm a trained like

15:20

therapist or anything like that. You're saying, we're all

15:22

going through this stuff together and let's

15:24

talk it through. Is that important to you that for

15:26

your listeners to sort of feel like you're right there

15:29

with.

15:29

Them one of the things that and I never

15:31

really realized it until like maybe

15:33

two to three years ago. My best friend who was

15:35

recently on the show. I know that ever

15:37

since I was a little girl, individuality has.

15:39

Always been really important to me.

15:41

Yeah, and as I've gotten older, I

15:43

realized that authenticity is

15:46

like, if I had core values,

15:48

authenticity would be number one or number

15:50

two, And I just want

15:52

people to understand that, like I'm not dealing

15:55

out any like phony business,

15:57

Like this is real life. I'm not making

16:00

anything up, I'm not telling any lies. I'm

16:02

not trying to sell any snake oil. Like

16:05

this is real life. And I think it's important

16:07

for people to feel like they have

16:09

access to an authentic

16:12

voice because sometimes and this is not to

16:14

put any show down or anybody down.

16:16

I'm not speaking about any show in particular, because

16:18

when you listen to shows, or when you watch

16:21

television, or when you read books

16:23

or listen to radio shows, I know, for me, I'm

16:25

like, this is not who this person is. And you can

16:27

tell like when you're not authentic for me

16:29

anyway, it's like your skin turns a totally

16:32

different color, like you turn the screen.

16:34

And I want people.

16:35

To understand that there are people who are still

16:37

authentic, and there are places

16:39

that they can go to still have really authentic

16:42

voices that are speaking not

16:44

only on their behalf, but on the behalf

16:46

of the person themselves. To let people know, like

16:48

you're not the only person that's going.

16:50

Through whatever it is you're dealing with.

16:51

It, Like we're all human, we're all

16:53

dealing with like life is not easy,

16:56

but you have the choice to decide about

16:58

how smooth it is gonna be for you, Like how are you

17:00

going to receive it?

17:01

It's tremendous advice. And that's what I hear timing

17:03

again, even from our team with respect

17:05

to the podcast, is just how one

17:07

how real it feels, and how accessible it

17:09

feels, and how you feel like you've got a

17:11

host or a talent that can really

17:14

identify with what you're going

17:16

through. And so it's been a blast to just see

17:18

the podcast continue to grow and to get

17:20

out there. And you mentioned earlier that it's always been

17:22

surprising to you that that many people would want to listen

17:25

to you. Has it been fun to see the podcast growing.

17:27

Though it's funny.

17:28

I do pay attention to numbers, right, numbers

17:30

are important, but it's interesting to

17:32

watch my show from twenty twenty

17:34

to twenty twenty three before I joined

17:37

iHeart podcast and then now I

17:40

still look at the numbers. But the most important

17:42

thing to me, I tell people this all the time, is I

17:44

like to look at where people are listening and lows

17:47

my mind. When I have

17:49

someone listening in Germany every

17:52

week, it blows my mind

17:54

that people all over the world are listening

17:56

to me, and I think part of it that really

17:59

throws me off is because my entire

18:01

life, teev have told me to shut up or

18:03

told me like.

18:04

You're too loud and you talk.

18:05

Too much and just wait

18:08

and shush, and it's like, yeah,

18:10

no, yeah, no, shushing.

18:12

Now it's time.

18:13

And we're glad that you didn't listen to that, because

18:16

you, like I said, you bring an energy

18:18

and an intelligence and a spirit that

18:20

we love having here. And

18:22

we're so happy to have the podcast and the

18:25

family here. Anybody that has not yet

18:27

checked it out, hand me my purse. It is

18:29

a fantastic podcast. I think anyone

18:32

can listen to it. You will walk away having

18:34

laughed a few times. You will walk away having learned

18:36

a few things.

18:37

And I'd be.

18:38

Very surprised if you don't walk away feeling

18:40

a little bit better. And so, Mamie, I

18:42

really appreciate you spending some time with us, and congrats

18:45

on the success of the podcast so far.

18:46

Thank you so much. I appreciate everything

18:49

you said.

18:49

And when I turn this off, I'm probably gonna lay down

18:51

on the floor and cry like a newborn

18:53

baby. But that really touches my heart. I really appreciate

18:55

everything that you've said. I believe everything

18:58

that you're saying. It feels very authentic.

19:00

I believe that you are saying it and you mean

19:02

it.

19:03

And I'm really, really, really.

19:04

Grateful to be here and to be a part

19:06

of such an amazing everybody has been

19:08

so amazing.

19:09

I'm just grateful to be here.

19:11

Well, thank you, Mimi, good luck with the kids this summer,

19:13

and yeah, we'll hopefully see you sometime soon.

19:15

Absolutely, thank you so much for having me.

19:17

Thanks everybody for joining us today, and we'll be back

19:19

with you again next week.

19:20

Take Care.

19:29

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19:32

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19:34

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19:36

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