The wait is over. After three long weeks, REVOLT and Jason Lee are back with another episode of one of the hottest talk shows on the internet.
If this is your first time tuning into “The Jason Lee Show,” then you’ve been missing out on unfiltered and candid conversations with host Lee and several of his celebrity friends, including artists such as Grammy Award-winning rapper Cardi B; comedian, actress, and activist Laverne Cox; rising actor and musician Da’Vinchi; actress and businesswoman Lala Anthony; and more.
For his latest installment, Lee sat down with Emmy Award-winning sports journalist Jemele Hill. The famed commentator and host of “Jemele Hill is Unbothered” opened up about several different topics, including her childhood growing up in Michigan, suggesting that Former President Donald Trump is a white supremacist, her thoughts on the NFL and Colin Kaepernick, her relationship with ESPN, and much more.
Hill released her new book “Uphill: A Memoir” in October 2022, where she spoke candidly about her difficult upbringing and being raised by her mother who struggled with substance abuse, including vividly describing being exposed to drugs at a young age. The podcast host revealed she ultimately began journaling as a way to cope. Hill also shared that writing out her feelings played a significant role in her development.
From there, the author opened up about her marriage to a medical salesman and longtime love Ian Wallace. The pair tied the knot in November 2019 at the site of their first date together, the Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, California, after reportedly meeting in 2014 during homecoming at their alma mater, Michigan State University.
When asked if Wallace was aware of the many sensitive stories in her book prior to its release, Hill shared that he knew many of the major events, including that she had an abortion after an unwanted pregnancy from a previous relationship.
Hill told Lee that her decision to avoid motherhood was “twofold: career-focused, person-focused.” The media figure admitted that her relationship with the man, whom she did not name, was rocky. The 47-year-old also noted she “wasn’t sure that [relationship] was going to work,” that it “was not going to be long-term,” and that “marriage wasn’t in our future.”
The famed journalist spoke candidly, stating, “I did not want to be tied to somebody for the rest of my life like that.” She continued, “I was never somebody who was like, ‘Oh, I got to have some kids.’ That was never me.”
Her choice to not carry her child to term garnered the host significant backlash. Hill told Lee she got a bunch of “crazy responses” from people and that some critics even allegedly called her “selfish” and “baby killer” following the Supreme Court’s historical decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed women the constitutional right to an abortion.
Jemele Hill would later find herself under scrutiny once again in 2017 after daringly calling Trump “a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself with other white supremacists” and “the most ignorant, offensive president of my lifetime” online. She also noted that his rise was “a direct result of white supremacy” in a post on Twitter.
The repercussions were severe and resulted in ESPN parting ways with “The Undefeated” host after the journalist refused to delete the post. Looking back on the incident, Hill feels “grateful for the ignorance.”
“And by that, I mean I’m grateful that I was ignorant to what I was doing in that moment because if I actually had time to think about it, I might have talked myself out of it. Like, ‘What are you doing sending this tweet?’” she explained.
Hill pointed out to Lee that the way in which society talks about the twice-impeached former president has changed. “Back then, that wasn’t the case because he was the president,” she added. The journalist also believes “the media, in particular, was very slow to call a sitting president a d**k head.”
Prior to her departure from the company, the media personality bumped heads with ESPN in 2017, too, after she targeted Jerry Jones following the Dallas Cowboys owner’s statement that players who disrespect the flag would not play for his team. Hill suggested on Twitter that fans should boycott the team’s advertisers and not buy their merchandise, which earned her a two-week suspension.
As many may remember, former San Francisco 49ers star Colin Kaepernick infamously knelt during the national anthem at the start of a game in protest of police brutality and racial inequality in the U.S. As a result, the athlete and activist was benched for the majority of the 2016 season before opting out of the final season of his contract.
Hill said she doubts the NFL would ever reconsider a relationship with Kaepernick, despite JAY-Z’s presence in the league. “JAY-Z is power beyond measure, but he ain’t gonna tell 30 white billionaires what to do,” she quipped. “They are not going to do it.” The writer strongly believes they resent Kaepernick.
She continued, “They hate Colin… On their dying breath, they’re not going to let this man in the league because they felt like he stepped outside of an order that they felt like they had explicitly established — their order of conformity.” That is something Hill believes is “unforgivable” to members of the organization.
Like always, if you liked what you heard, tune into new episodes of “The Jason Lee Show” every Tuesday on REVOLT’s TV channel at 10 p.m. ET as well as every Wednesday on our website, YouTube Channel, and app at 5 p.m. ET. Also, don’t forget to watch the latest installment with Jemele Hill here.