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[0:15] Tonya Pinkins: Hi, this is Tonya Pinkins.

[0:17] Tonya Pinkins: You can't say that on the Broadway Podcast Network.

[0:20] Tonya Pinkins: Wow, it's been one year.

[0:22] Tonya Pinkins: This is the one year anniversary of me having conversations weekly with interesting people and getting to share them with all of you.

[0:32] Tonya Pinkins: Some of the feedback I got along the way was we don't know what it's gonna be.

[0:32] Tonya Pinkins: We don't know what the structure is, where's it gonna go?

[0:40] Tonya Pinkins: Yeah.

[0:41] Tonya Pinkins: Life's kind of like that too.

[0:43] Tonya Pinkins: So it's been a rough, rough, rough ride.

[0:46] Tonya Pinkins: And I'm not even talking about the pandemic, the uprisings, or the election.

[0:52] Tonya Pinkins: But it's been so worth it.

[0:54] Tonya Pinkins: And so I want to say thank you to all of you who listen, who've been loyal, who keep coming back.

[0:59] Tonya Pinkins: Please rate and review us on Apple and Spotify and all the places where people listen.

[1:06] Tonya Pinkins: Um I don't plan what we're gonna talk about when I invite a guest.

[1:18] Tonya Pinkins: In every space at all time.

[1:20] Tonya Pinkins: And if you're open to it, something special can come through and be revealed.

[1:26] Tonya Pinkins: And often people say things that they didn't think they could say because they are being heard, they feel being heard because I am listening.

[1:35] Tonya Pinkins: And thank you to all of you who listen too.

[1:40] Tonya Pinkins: It's important for me to create a space for people to have experiences that they don't risk having in their day-to-day life.

[1:51] Tonya Pinkins: It's hard to risk reaching out to someone who's different to risk being attacked, being humiliated, pronouncing their name wrong, failing, looking stupid, being vulnerable.

[2:04] Tonya Pinkins: I happen to rush into those experiences as a daily practice.

[2:10] Tonya Pinkins: I am willing to fall on my face for the sake of connection and the experience of something that my limited body and senses is not capable of.

[2:21] Tonya Pinkins: For me, it's a way of expanding everything that I am by being willing to be vulnerable in the presence of another and let them pick me up and teach me and often show me the world through their eyes.

[2:39] Tonya Pinkins: And I think my greatest hope for that is that it'll start to change the narrative around storytelling.

[2:47] Tonya Pinkins: This is the Broadway Podcast Network, and so much of our storytelling has been limited and narrowed by a perspective of a very young species of humans on the planet.

[3:00] Tonya Pinkins: Very young, very immature, in a very immature nation.

[3:04] Tonya Pinkins: There's so many older cultures, so many older traditions, that when something is sacred, people actually just don't share it.

[3:43] Tonya Pinkins: You can't say that.

[3:45] Tonya Pinkins: And you can write to me at TonyaPinkins.com if there's someone you'd like me to interview or a question you want me to answer or ask someone in the world.

[3:57] Tonya Pinkins: Uh I'm always willing.

[3:59] Tonya Pinkins: I'm always willing to take a risk to learn something new.

[4:03] Tonya Pinkins: So thank you to all of you.

[4:05] Tonya Pinkins: And please wear a mask.

[4:06] Tonya Pinkins: They save lives.

[4:07] Tonya Pinkins: Maybe not yours, but they definitely save lives.

[4:11] Tonya Pinkins: I'm Tonya Pinkins.

[4:13] Tonya Pinkins: You don't say no when you mean no.

[4:13] Tonya Pinkins: When you mean no.

[4:22] Tonya Pinkins: How come you say no?