Your Attention Please: Season 2, Episode 2 (Full Episode) • Hulu

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[BIRDS CHIRPING]
[MUSIC PLAYING ON CAR RADIO]
This is the life of a farmer.
- It's time to get Black, y'all.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Your attention, please.
- Howdy, y'all.
Welcome to Robinson ranch-- where the sun shines low,
the spirits hang high, and much to my surprise,
after closing on the property, the crops
have opinions that they will openly communicate
whether you ask them to or not.
The vegetables here can talk, y'all.
(PITCHED DOWN VOICE) The vegetables here can talk,
y'all.
(PITCHED LOWER VOICE) The vegetables here can talk,
y'all.
(PITCHED EVEN LOWER VOICE) The vegetables here can talk,
y'all.
(NORMAL VOICE) But we'll come back to that.
In the meantime, let's all sit back,
get comfortable, and enjoy the show.
- Uh, you're not done, bro, Craig.
What the husk is wrong with you, man?
I mean, you've been doing this for a minute.
Like, a minute, minute.
Like, how many times do you have to remember
to set up the segment?
And then you come back from the segment.
And then it's like, you set up another segment.
It's like, pretty straightforward, dude.
I mean, when is it going to click, you know what I mean?
Like, I feel like I could be hosting the show.
- Enough!
Winston.
That is enough.
- My bad, Craig. I just thought that--
- You just thought what, Winston?
What did you think? - Uh.
- What were you thinking?
- Eh.
- You think the people want to hear that?
- You're right, dude.
I should have read the room.
I'm just going to shut the husk up.
- Think that's for the best.
OK.
So I went back and forth on this,
but I've been working with my career coach on being fearless.
So here we go.
Never been done before.
3, 2, 1.
(SINGING WITH WINSTON) Jeremy Peaches has a farm.
And he is a bro.
When I heard his story I thought to have him on the show.
With a horse horse here and an HBCU
there, here a goat, there a goat,
he got a lot of goat goats.
Jeremy Peaches has a farm.
And he is a bro.
(SPEAKING) Your attention please.
Meet Jeremy Peaches.
[HAWK CALL]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Your attention, please.
JEREMY PEACHES: Any space that's used, I'mma grow something, no
matter how small or how large.
Sometimes I even take hands full of seeds
and just throw them on the ground.
I think that's always been my motto, you know.
If I don't have it, build it.
If I can't buy it, build it.
You know, if it's broken, fix it.
[LAUGHS]
My name's Jeremy Peaches.
I'm founder of Fresh Life Organics.
I'm the president of RST bioscience, which
is a sustainable agriculture company that does
aquaponics and hydroponics.
I work with kids.
I've started 4H programs.
You know, teach them about STEM and robotics and leadership.
I'm a community advocate.
I'm involved in a lot.
Hoo, a day in the life for me is me waking up at sometimes
5:00, 6:00 in the morning.
Hopping in the shower, lighting some sage,
just to get in the mindset of once I
finish my professional life, I go to the farm.
Sometimes I have to go harvest.
Sometimes I have to wash and plant.
So my day is just one of a kind.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This is the life of a farmer.
Big truck, big tractor, long rows.
This is the life of a farmer.
Whoa, plant a seed, watch it grow.
This is the life of a farmer.
We out on the tractor.
We planting the rows.
We feeding the cows.
We eating the grass.
We water the plants, whoa.
JEREMY PEACHES: I'm always thinking about what's next.
Big truck, big tractor, long rows.
- Now this?
This is our deep water culture system.
This tank holds about 300, 400 gallons.
And the water is recirculated throughout the tank.
And inside of this filter is where we put our nutrients.
From this tank, it goes into deep water culture bed.
Inside of the deep water culture bed,
the water is being chilled and cooled by the ground floor.
It also has different aerators inside of the water so it
can be able to produce oxygen.
Now the type of plants that we grow in here
are lettuces, leafy greens, and also herbs.
So growing aquaponics or hydroponics using
deep water culture is awesome.
I mean, I built one of the largest aquaponics facilities
in Houston doing this method.
Sustainable agriculture, I think,
is something that can move urban cities and urban farming
forward.
My vision is to create more of a local, centralized network
for people in urban communities growing sustainable,
sort of like a network co-opping base.
This model is where you grow food sustainably, connected
by a network of other farms that produce and work
together and create research and does training programs--
all these different things.
And we feel like if the small, more family-localized farmer
worked together, opportunities for risk to come up
is being limited, because you have
other farmers in the network supporting each other.
[VOCALIZING]
Amen.
Amen.
CRAIG ROBINSON: The direction that you
wanted to have for your life--
did you feel like you had that grounding?
- I feel like I most definitely had grounding from my mother--
me not really knowing my father until I was 18,
and I think that it affected my view on life.
So you know, just normal black male
story that you hear sometimes.
Single mother, no father by default. Because if you don't
have somebody to guide you along the way,
it's a piece of you missing.
So when I actually got the opportunity
to meet my father and my family, I
actually understood who I was.
I feel like, yeah, now my hands are full--
full of love and full of support.
Just a warm heart.
[CHUCKLES]
CRAIG ROBINSON: How do your peers describe you?
- It depends on who you ask.
[LAUGHING]
(IN UNISON) How did we first meet?
- I messaged you on Instagram, but you never messaged me back.
- You did. Wow.
- Yeah.
[LAUGHTER]
- First young person I've met had
a greenhouse in their backyard.
- He was my only competition in town.
I figured if me and he joined forces,
we'd kind of run things, at least for Houston.
- He's very headstrong.
Whatever he wants to do, he's going
to see a way to get there.
- Also an awesome, intelligent, community-oriented
young brother trying to do things to uplift our community.
- They will say, man, it's just J. [LAUGHING] That's just J.
CRAIG ROBINSON: Why are you so passionate about 4H
and giving back to the community?
- Man.
You know, stuff like this makes me want to cry.
As a kid, I was always intuitive,
and you want to learn more things.
I think certain ages throughout my life,
especially in my teenage years, I went through certain things
that average teenagers didn't go through in terms of just being
involved in things that my mom didn't raise me to do
and my family didn't raise me to do.
4H is one of the largest and oldest
youth-serving organizations in America.
Being able to give back to the youth like somebody
gave to me, that is just extremely important.
And I want to continue to uphold that and respect that.
- To have someone like a brother in this game, and someone who
understands where you come from and where you're going,
it's really invaluable.
Him helping me scale up--
I don't even think we could put a price tag on it.
JEREMY PEACHES: Aww. - It's just like, straight love.
It just-- it's like, he wants to see me grow.
I want to see him grow.
And when we grow together, it's just going to be beautiful.
JEREMY PEACHES: Right.
We're not anybody unless we give back.
To give them a hand up and not a hand out.
If I'm growing food, and I have equipment and tools,
and it's a younger farmer, or--
that would like to get involved in agriculture,
I don't mind giving them that information
or allowing them to come and work with me
or come use some of the tools and resources or people
that I have to help their situation out.
We can't continue to do what we've done, stand in silos
and not helping everybody out.
Agriculture and farming and gardening
is an industry to where people work together.
And if we don't teach this next generation who's
going to lead the world for the next 20, 30 years,
and we having these problems with climate change,
food desert problems--
if we don't solve these issues, we're not
going to get to 2030 or 2050.
We have to be able to use some of the brains and the tools
that these younger generation have
and apply it to models and solutions,
not only for urban farmers, but for rural farmers.
You know, agriculture?
It is urban.
It is Black.
[LAUGHING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Leave the world better than you found it.
I'm 28 right now.
For the last 10 plus years, I've dedicated my life
to agriculture and urban agriculture.
By 40, I want to employ all these technologies
to build one of the largest sustainable farms in the world.
[LAUGHING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Your attention, please.
- Ronnie?
Bobby?
Ugh.
Those are my friends, dude.
That's messed up, Craig.
- What?
If Jeremy Peaches can harvest from the fruits of his labor,
why can't Craig?
[OMINOUS SOUNDS]
So y'all know how I am with names.
So luckily, our next guest gave me
a few tricks to remember his.
Let's try this out.
OK, so pencil, which is my favorite writing
utensil, which I use to trace stencils, with my homey Densil.
All right.
I think I got it now.
A CEO of a venture capital fund for the LBGTQ
plus community, a father, and a multitasker extraordinaire.
I mean, dude has three computers to do three jobs at once.
Need I say more?
Your attention, please.
Meet Densil Porteous.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Your attention, please.
- Everything I've been through has affirmed why it's
important for me to show up.
[PIANO MUSIC]
If you learn something, you should share it.
That's important to me.
Knowledge is power.
If something I have learned, I can share with someone else
to help them get to the place where I am even faster, great.
I was raised by a powerful mother who
paved an amazing way for me.
I thought-- or I still think, at times,
that I couldn't raise a strong woman, a strong Black woman.
It all connects to Jay'lah, a daughter
that I never thought I'd have.
Biologically not mine, but every day that I look at her,
she's my kid.
And she, oddly enough, looks like my mom, which I think
is just spectacular.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I was born in 1980 in Jamaica with a single mother
and my three older sisters.
We didn't have lavish things, so there wasn't a lot of extra
that I can remember.
My mom decided to move the family
to America for a better life.
Once we came to America, it was like, well,
the sky's the limit.
So let's figure it out.
Was an amazing thing--
I was able to go to an elementary school
where the variety of identities and cultures were exciting.
We used to take trips to the mall often.
I'd never ask for anything, because I
always knew that my mom gave whatever she could give.
And this particular trip, I saw a necklace that I liked.
She bought it for me, and she told me not
to tell my sisters because she wanted
me to have something special.
When you meet someone, or step into a space,
or connect with something that just really hits
your heart in that warm, kind of amazing way,
I think that's how I would describe her.
They always say a mother always knows.
I'm pretty sure she knew that I was gay.
And I don't even like labels, so I think even saying "gay" today
is still a challenge, right?
Because I can still probably fall in love with a woman,
although my partner would probably kill me, because I
am in a committed relationship.
When we moved to Queens, I had to find
some way to make space and place for myself and fit in OK.
Being able to code switch, navigate,
chameleon, whatever it is, was something that I
became very adept at doing.
But I think it's something that a lot of Black folks
are adept at doing.
I think it's-- not to say how I've survived,
but how I've navigated.
I remember someone saying, you sissy, why
are you always with the girls?
This is ridiculous.
But it connected me to other folks who I knew
had been called that word.
[MOURNFUL MUSIC]
And then everything changed.
My mother was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1993, 1992.
Here I was, at the time 13 years old.
It was around the time that I was
trying to understand my sexual identity
and grappling with all these things.
My mother's going to die.
This is ridiculous.
This is unfair.
She passed away a year later.
The fear or the dread of when she was going to die was gone.
It happened.
It was done.
And now you just figure out how to move on.
After discovering my mother's journal,
it wasn't until sometime later that I
was able to start processing it and thinking about what she
was feeling during that time.
I think it probably inspires me to do a lot of the things
that I do today.
She never stopped giving 100% of herself
to us or to other people.
And if I think about it, I guess that's part of the reason
why I am the way that I am.
I saw that she always had the ability to give more.
My mom's death thrust me into living with an aunt
and uncle who were in an upper middle class
socioeconomic status.
Being able to have access to the internet all the time--
it was AOL and dial up, but still,
I had access to a computer--
it made me want to start digging deeper.
One of the things that I came across
was an organization called Advocates for Youth.
They helped me figure out who I was
as a gay, bisexual, queer, non-whatever person.
Understanding that exploration of self
brought me to this wealth of resource and information
that I realized was in the space of nonprofit work
that then inspired me to continue
to dig deeper into that and find ways
to give back to the community.
I ended up becoming an admissions officer,
recruiting diversity students at some of the top elite colleges
in the country.
In the VC space, there are so few of me.
And when I say me, I mean Black folks.
When you add that intersectional identity
of LGBTQ who are receiving funding in the venture space,
is almost 1%.
It makes sense to be able to change the way that people are
looking at who is investing and then to also just change those
that they are investing in.
[PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
I think everything is intertwined.
I think my life has always been traveling on these two
distinctly different paths.
As a queer, gay man and Black man, you can be both.
You can be all of those things.
And people will have to just respect you for who you are.
The CEO of a Pride fund, the executive director
of an LGBTQ organization--
I didn't think that I was going to be on the board
of the Human Rights Campaign.
I didn't think that I was going to have my daughter.
I didn't believe I'd be able to marry my partner.
I finally said, lean into yourself,
and all of these beautiful things have started to happen.
Knowledge is power.
And I don't have any reason to hold on to it.
I want other people to feel and be just as powerful.
You know, everything happens for a reason.
My mother's death brought me to this place of connection
and discovery and ability and opportunity
that she ultimately wanted me to have anyway.
JAY'LAH: Daddy?
DENSIL PORTEOUS: What are you doing up?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Your attention, please.
[MECHANICAL WHIRRING]
Now there's a dude that has his priorities figured out.
Densil has really inspired me to double down
on my own personal pet project, which I promise is going to be
a huge investment opportunity.
Dial 1-555 "NEXT CRAIG THING" for details
on funding cycles and my silicon dreams.
GREG ROBINSON: I thought they were our silicon dreams.
- Who sayeth such things?
Who's in my little intricately designed cabinet,
A.K.A. Productivity Zone?
Oh, wait.
My identical twin brother Greg Robinson is in the building?
- In the flesh, my brother.
- I've dreamed of this day.
I've prayed for this day.
Thought of all the ways we can take over the game.
Take over the world.
- Me, too, Craig.
Maybe we start small, like set up the next segment?
- You got it, handsome.
In case you haven't noticed by this cameo,
my identical twin brother Greg, our final piece
features two identical twins who are changing what the jury
in fashion spaces look like.
Infusing spirituality, consciousness,
and an overall awareness of a higher frequency,
these two are changing the way we look and experience design.
- That's right, Craig.
Their works can be seen adorning such icons as Erykah
Badu, Lauryn Hill, and--
help me with this one, brother.
(SINGING TOGETHER) Beyoncé!
[MECHANICAL WHIRRING]
[ZAP]
And-- Craig!
Mama!
[INCREASINGLY LOUD WHIRRING]
[ELECTRONIC BOOM]
- Now, that's what I call Black Power.
- (IN UNISON) Your attention, please.
Meet Soull and Dynasty Ogun and their brand, L'enchanteur.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Your attention, please.
[ETHEREAL MUSIC]
DYNASTY OGUN: L'enchanteur, it means transformer.
It means the one who enchants inanimate objects is the one
who brings things to life.
I'm Dynasty Ogun.
SOULL OGUN: I'm Soull Ogun.
My name tells a story of infinity.
Past, present and future.
Ooh.
Ooh.
- I was able to name myself, and able to create who
I wanted to be in this world.
[DREAMY MUSIC]
My name, it gives me strength.
It gives me power.
And it gives me a sense of confidence in who I am
and where I'm going.
SOULL OGUN: 7 Our sisterhood is a deep connection.
So it allows us to work in synchronicity.
In synchronicity.
In synchronicity.
In synchronicity.
[FORBODING MUSIC]
DYNASTY OGUN: : Our bond as sisters, it really
gives us strength and power.
I'm a creator and alchemist and transformer.
My work connects with time and history
in a way where it makes me literally a time traveler.
I'm able to tap into different eras and aspects of time.
And aspects of (SLOWED DOWN) time.
[UPBEAT PERCUSSIVE MUSIC]
The experience of being a first generation born American,
it gives a lot of connection to who we are in other spectrums
of the world.
[RUMBLING]
[STRINGS MUSIC]
We're able to bring an experience
from a different part of the world
as a Black person in America.
(ECHOED) As a Black person in America. (NORMAL SPEECH)
Using that experience to tap into the imagination.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
We're always looking for ways to heal ourselves.
We're really just tapping into nature.
We're using nature to tell stories,
but to also highlight the connection that we
all share within one another.
Ooh.
Ooh.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Your attention, please.
- And don't be coming back round here wanting
to borrow my jewels no more.
You hear?
These are my jewels.
These are my little jewels.
Go on, get.
Ain't no brother mine.
[SIGH] Sorry about that.
Twin bro problems.
Shouts out to Soull and Dynasty for not only killing the game,
but being each other's muses and inspiration.
As you just saw, it's not easy working with family
let alone your identical twin.
Keep harnessing your greatness, y'all.
And definitely keep the product coming to me.
But just me.
Not Greg.
Greg don't appreciate nothing.
Not even his own brother.
That's all the time we have today, y'all.
And as usual, don't forget to find what you love,
share with the world, and scream from the mountaintop,
"Your attention, please!"
[MUSIC PLAYING]