From the heartbeat of New York City’s club scene to international destinations like St. Tropez, and at parties during Art Basel Miami Beach, Lina Bradford’s reach as a DJ is legendary. A mixed-race transgender woman born in New York City’s Upper West Side, Lina’s love of the city and passion for LGBTQ+ advocacy stem from her core. In this episode, Lina shares with hosts Susan and Todd her key to maintaining unflappable optimism, musings on style and influencer culture, and how she merges music with advocacy.
Show Notes:
I'm Susan Barrett, and I'm Todd Thomas. At Barrett Barrera Projects, we believe that ART IS A VERB — it’s the ongoing process of de-constructing and re-constructing our world.
This season, we'll delve deep into the creative processes of some of our most inspiring friends and collaborators, to understand how they are navigating this pivotal moment and working to transform our existing systems, reimagine the status quo, and support each other across disciplines, in order to create a more sustainable, and equitable future for us all.
Welcome to ART IS A VERB, a Barrett Barrera Project.
In today’s episode, we are speaking with world-famous DJ Goddess and advocate for LGBTQ+ Youth, Lina Bradford, whose infectious attitude and vibrant sense of humor could brighten anyone's day. Lina is also an actress, and the host of her own talk show.
As a Native New Yorker and Trans Pioneer, Lina has seen the city through many stages of its evolution and has remained a pillar of New York nightlife over the last several decades…Not that she has aged at all in that time.
In this episode, we discuss the value of optimism, building a positive chain reaction, and what true style really means. Thank you Lina, for sharing a dose of your radical kindness with us. You're a beacon of light. Welcome to Art is a Verb.
Lina: [00:00:37] It's such a pleasure. Good afternoon, everyone.
Todd: [00:00:40] We met many years ago, at I think a 1994 Wigstock, in Tompkins Square Park and, um, [Lina: What a time!] and have since met many times in different places, in different areas. And it's nice to have you here.
Lina: [00:00:59] Shape shifting, while still looking good, baby. [Laughter]
Susan: [00:01:05] And Lina, we met when you DJ’d for us at A Queen Within Pop-Up in Miami at Art Basel.
Lina: [00:01:12] In Miami! Yes, that was such a fun event.
Susan: [00:01:14] Wasn't that fun?
Lina: [00:01:16] It was, I was like, you guys worked out that space and it was such a shame that it was only there for a limited time. I was like, this was a great installment! [Laughter]
Susan: [00:01:24] I know, right?
Todd: [00:01:25] Yeah, that was fun.
Lina: [00:01:26] It was, and the couture was beautiful.
Susan: [00:01:29] Oh, thank you. [Long Pause] That was before COVID. By the way, where are you now?
Lina: [00:01:37] Well, I'm in my dressing room, here in New York, which has become my new office, which is so ironic to think.
Todd: [00:01:45] Is that where you're doing all of your work and broadcasting and DJ’ing from?
Lina: [00:01:49] Yeah. All of my table readings, my live DJ sets. It's all happening for my dressing room. Who knew?
Todd: [00:01:57] Amazing. I know you gotta be agile.
Lina: [00:02:02] I say to my husband, I'm like, I've gotta go to work, darling. I'm leaving the TV room to go to the dressing room. [Laughter] My dogs love it. They're like, mommy's not leaving. And I'm saving a bundle on car services.
Todd: [00:02:13] Exactly. [Laughter]
Susan: [00:02:17] Has it all been good since COVID? I mean, how has anything else changed?
Lina: [00:02:22] Well, you know, I got to tell you, where there's darkness there is always light. I'm a very optimistic Aries witch, and it’s really been very positive. I'm a very positive person. So I'll always find a way out of making things come correct in the times that we're in. And this is a really beautiful time to be alive, I got to say, so active and everything.
People are so empathetic, and they’re thoughtful about other people's lives, because we had to put a kibosh on our daily, run of the gamut situation, you know? We wouldn't be having all of these things that are happening right now if we weren’t going through a pandemic, but like I said, it's never lovely or nice to lose anyone, but we always have to find the silver lining out of it.
So being an optimistic person, I find it and I have found it to be very positive, uh, throughout all of this.
Susan: [00:03:07] Oh, amazing. Good.
Todd: [00:03:09] There are a couple of things that we should talk about in that whole situation and kind of the movement that's happening simultaneously... but to backtrack just a little bit, for people that might not know who are listening, you came up in New York in the nineties and you were a DJ and a performer. What was that like when you started and how has your trajectory of your career been to date, you know, kind of beginning through...
Lina: [00:03:38] Sure. Well, growing up in Manhattan, you know, I got to see all of the beautiful ups and downs of the city from, you know, the seventies to the eighties, to the nineties. And you got to really get the whole, just the underlining of how the city and the club industry, the fashion industry, everything worked back then, you know? We were mostly going through a financial, uh, downgrade in our country, you know, but was a time where the underground flourished and it brought people together, you know, and it was beautiful thing.
And so I come from that school, I come from that school of, you know, being there with your brothers and sisters, as it was all before social media, social media, was out there being there with everyone, dressing up and taking pictures and seeing them in magazines. It's like at the back of a paper and, you know, it’s big and all of these great things, you know, and it was fun, but we were in the moment. We weren't so caught up with being on a phone.
So, thank God there weren't phones back then because we wouldn't have been so dialed in and so proactive. Like I was a part of Act Up, I was a part of the fiber of the backdrop of New York and I feel honored and blessed to have been a part of that time, and to still be here for it. You know? [Todd: Right.]
A lot of brothers and sisters, as we know, we've lost, but I was always in it for the learning aspect, the fashion aspect, the music aspect. So with all of that came a very well evolved woman, that’s where I came from from my family, but continued that through my path and where I am today. So I think that when you have that, like, you know, instilled in you, there's no coming away from that, but only just going higher.
Susan: [00:05:15] Oh, that's fantastic. Todd and I have had long conversations about that time, sort of the pre-phone, and the pre-Instagram, and the pre-sort of, branded. And we've had long conversations about how fashion has changed and how that's altered fashion in terms of corporation, and a sort of sameness. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about that, like how style, you know, it used to be like street style influencing instead of from top down, to bottom up.
Lina: [00:05:50] Yeah.
Todd: [00:05:50] Also Susan, to add onto that. I mean, you, Lina, are someone that really kind of takes ownership of fashion and beauty, quote unquote, like that whole kind of vernacular, and owns it. And that's a big part of your presentation and your experience too...
Lina: [00:06:08] Yeah.
Todd: [00:06:08] I mean, it is interesting to hear your thoughts on that.
Lina: [00:06:12] Thank you, both of you. That's a really good question. You know, for me, my grandmother growing up in Manhattan, she was, a very colorful woman, you know, she was an opera singer. So, came with that, the feathers in the sequence, it wasn't gaudy, you know what I mean? It was always fashion. And she would take me out, because she knew that music was everything for me. And, you know, back then they weren't carding and I was tall.
I have a very huge appreciation for fashion, that it comes from inside, and it's not looked at it in a window and you just wear as a mannequin. You know what I mean? And I think that that's kind of like the stages that we're living in now. It's like, people want to listen to people called “Influencers,” which I don't understand what that word means.
Influencers. Who are you influencing, honey? Where did you get this from? Because you found it and you saw it. That's a whole ‘nother gamut, [Todd: Totally.] For me, style is something that is in your backbone and how you walk and how you smell and what you do, and it all connects with everything that it is that you do.
You know, it doesn't matter how much something costs us. Um, I think that having personal style is something that you don't, um, acute to something you see in a magazine or in a window. It's something that comes from where it is that you come from--It doesn't matter if you're from a city, you could be from the country. And as we know, back in the day, you had all of these beautiful people moving from all over the world and all over the country, and that's what New York and America is all about. That's what makes New Yorkers New Yorkers, and Americans American, is because they add to all of the colorful, “taste the rainbow” Skittles color situation, you know?
And that's, what's so beautiful about how New York and America is. That's why all these people who try to bring all the Lama and the mascara. It won't happen. That is not how America is. And that is not how New York is. Okay? We will always, always be a Benetton ad. So I think that you, you gotta really go with what speaks to you inside, and not by what quote, unquote, an influencer or somebody else's telling you, because I have pieces that I've had since back in the day that I still rock into, I will mix and match because nothing ever goes out of fashion.
Todd: [00:08:17] Touching on the flavor of what you just put forth of the feeling of New York and the mix and the whole vibe of inclusion... You know, we're seeing a huge movement in Black Lives Matter, and the Black Trans Lives Matter movement has been active a lot lately. And you came up in a time where the awareness wasn't as large as it is now.
Lina: [00:08:46] Baby, it didn't exist.
Todd: [00:08:47] Yeah. I'm just curious if your experience with that and your thoughts on the Black Trans Lives Matter movement that's happening now.
Lina: [00:08:55] Well that you brought that up, sweetheart, because I just had a conversation yesterday and I said, you know, you don't get to, in the Black community, decipher on a totem pole who's worthy within the Black community. It just doesn't work that way. Because I'll tell you who shows up for you. Everyone else who's not showing up for you, who's next door to you with their gun. Okay? It's your people outside of your community, who are there fighting for you and these people, today, are strong, intelligent Black trans women in different places of power. Okay? We've always been there. It's just everybody else decided he should like take their blinders off, and look and listen.
But the thing is, is that we always show up for you and that's okay if you don't show up for us because at the end of the day, I think that you can't ostracize people and put them down for where they are. Cause you don't know what puts them there. So to automatically start coming at them you put them further in their rut. You have to be empathetic and understand where they're coming from. And then at their time in their moment, when it's you know, aligned for them, they will come correct with that. And they'll be like, wow, she's going to completely gone in on me. And she didn't, ‘cause it's with ease, and care and love and light. That's how you get through to people.
You don't start screaming down their throat and raising your decibel. Nothing good comes of that. So I think that we need to remind ourselves within the community that we have to be there for each other, because I think so often it's so easy to kind of take the Oh, The white supremacists are coming for us, so I'm going to go with someone lower down in our community and I'm going to take it out on them. That's no, we can't do that. We're stronger in numbers, and we only look like it's easier for them to attack us when we do it within our own community.
Susan: [00:10:41] How do you stay so positive?
Lina: [00:10:43] You know, it’s how I was raised. I don't see negativity. I really don't.
I don't see a purpose in giving any strength to it because at the end of the day, we're not promised tomorrow. All I know is that every day that I'm blessed to be on this earth and spread my love, and my light, my Brown sugar, honey, is a good day.
We're in a pandemic. What, did we ever think that we’d see this? Absolutely not, but look, I'm in my dressing room, making people happy all over the world. So I've got to be happy and you know what, it's contagious. When you give that out to everybody, people feel it and they need it. And we also need to remember, there's a lot of people who are in their homes by themselves. So they're listening to this, this touches them.
Todd: [00:11:21] Right. What's the response you're getting from your following on, on the way that you're transmitting yourself now, do you feel like you're reaching more people? You know, I have, like a yoga teacher friend whose like classes have quadrupled online than what they were and in the physical state.
Lina: [00:11:44] Sure. It's interesting. I like, I'm a very present person. So like I said, I don't understand the whole influencer thing. You know what I mean? But I'm blessed enough to have a team that I work with. Cause they don't work for me--we work together, we're brothers and sisters and that's how it is.
They tell me things.
So, you know, I have my editor guy who puts together all of my stuff. He's genius, and he's been such a fucking rock star throughout this whole thing. And he tells me he's like, I love waking up after your weekend and after you've done stuff and just see how your numbers keep climbing and whatever. And I was like, well, you know, I wouldn't know this unless you told me.
And, also, I am the only one answering all of the messages in my inbox and I will read them all before I go to sleep. And I don't care how many it is because if you're taking out the time and your life to come. Focus into the light that I'm giving here in New York, inside of my closet, baby, I can stay up, and I can answer all these messages because that's some powerful shit. That's amazing. Being able to touch people all over them, the places. I mean, like I've been blessed enough to travel in this lifetime a few times over, but there's some countries and some places that have been reaching out to me and I'm like, Wow, the power of the internet when it's done by good is a beautiful thing!
Todd: [00:12:57] Right. That kind of brings me to your Fire Island Residency, which was a long experience. And I think your intent was not for it to be that long. And it kind of was, you know, something pretty remarkable that people just loved and still talk about so much. And I'm wondering, how that was for you, and how that brought you to the next level of where you are now?
Lina: [00:13:22] Babe, that's a really good question. And you're right. I mean, it's been six years since that. Can you believe it's six years since I've left. [Todd: No.] My sister, Candace and I were talking about that yesterday. We were having a conversation about something and that came up and she's like, girl, has it been six years already? I'm like, honey, don't sleep. Don't blink. It goes by so fast, it really does!
But yeah, it was, um, and it is amazing. And it also is a testament to who I am. Cause I've always had this time clock within me that says it's time to do something else. It was like that before it got to the Island. And it just so happened to be my 10 year anniversary.
And I didn't even know, like I'm just so spiritually in tune with those things that I was like, Oh my God, it's 10 years I've been here. Holy crap. I was like, you know what? I'm done. I think I'm done. And it was in such a beautiful cathartic way. Cause the Island gave me so much beauty, and I mean, if you're a spiritual person, even if you're not, I mean, I lived there for seven months of my life for 10 years, you know, I would get there April 1st, right before my birthday open up the house and then start right after my birthday, right before my birthday on the 14th. And I would be there until October and then I would leave.
So it was a very special time being there during the weekday and living out there, really getting a chance to know yourself in a new way. And the people and the relationships that I've met have been some of the most strongest, brothers and sisters I still have today in my life, you know, and it was such a groundbreaking moment for not only the Island, but for myself, you know, when I got asked to come there in 2005, I’d been going there since the seventies, but I was never consistent cause it didn't speak to me.
Todd: [00:14:51] Right. It was totally different.
Lina: [00:14:54] Hundred percent. The Morning Parties and all of that stuff that were happening in the early two thousands, people had, like, left their houses and they weren't really going out there a lot because you know, the whole AIDS thing, and it was just really druggie... it was not a place that people were going to anymore.
Todd: [00:15:10] Also kind of a place of white privilege too.
Lina: [00:15:14] I was about ready to go there, too. Yes. So when they asked me to be a part and come out in the Spring, when Eric had taken over the property, he’d got the Blue Whale and whatnot and The Pavilion, I was like, I don't know... I mean, I was doing Saint Tropez and Sardinia so, Mother was fine. [Laughter] for my summers.
But then I said, you know what? I will take the Pepsi challenge. There's a reason why my spiritual being is lining me up with this situation. Let me find out what it's about. And if I don't like it, I'll tell my agent, let's go back to Europe. I said, you know what? Let's find out. I went out there for one gig and I was like, well, what is this going to be about? Because my whole thing was that they're asking a--and mind you, I don't get into labels. I'll wear them, but I'm not a label--Like, I'm Lina, I'm a dynamic woman before I'm any of these things.
But, if we want to get down to brass taxes and get down to the whole situation of what it really was, because it was a very predominantly Caucasian situation--They asked a transgender woman, a mixed breed girl to come out there and DJ like, this is huge! So how could I not do it? How could I turn that away. There was something bigger than all of this. And I knew that. I knew that. I didn't really know the extent of it, but I knew that was something special and something big and that I needed to take the bite.
So I did, I was out there for one gig, and then literally by the second or third week, there was a line around The Pavilion to get up and get, it was the first time they'd ever had a DJ upstairs. It was only ever a cassette player, you know, playing, you know, after you would leave Low Tea people go up there for drinks and then they would go to their house and then go out later at night to The Pavilion to party.
So it got big then by a month in, it was just, you know, it was like, People were jumping and carrying on and the floors were like moving. And then they asked me to start spinning Low Tea. So I would do Low Tea from five to seven and then run upstairs, I’d leave a CD playing downstairs at Low Tea, start upstairs at Lina’s Lounge and then spin from seven to like 9:30. And then I would go up into the time I had the little penthouse up at the hotel, and then change and get ready and then have to do late night at the Pavilion. I was doing all three, every weekend. And that started from one gig. So the next thing you know, I moved out there and then that's how it all started.
Todd: [00:17:28] I was there many times, and it was pretty amazing. I have to say.
Lina: [00:17:33] And what you said, like, people still talk about that. Like, it's crazy to me. Like, because it is a vortex out there. It is a time capsule. So I understand that, you know, there's people who have been going out there forever. Hello, I was one of them, but it's so interesting they haven't moved with the times of realizing that, you know, I have, you know, gone on to do amazing and great things from that, but still reside me as still being a part of their summer every summer, I'm a part of their equation, regardless of if I'm physically there or not. Like, that's pretty huge.
Todd: [00:18:03] Yeah, it is. You split your time between New York and LA primarily, and travel other places. What is your life like in LA? You have family, your sister’s there....
Lina: [00:18:18] My sister Candace lives there. Yes. I love that question. ‘Cause that's funny. I never thought that I would, you know, I used to call it “LA-sia.” Now I call it “Levasié” because I love it. [Laughter] So, um, it's interesting having this conversation about Levasié cause I'm such a New Yorker, but I would say six years ago, like when I got ready to leave the Island, you know, I was like I said, I would go, um, There from April to October, and then I would spend a month with my sister, Candice in Levasié. And then I was living in London at the time, which I call “Londosiér” [Laughter] I would live there from November. First I would go back to London and then from there, I’d bet here ‘til like the beginning of the season, I was in Fire Island. So, when I would go out there and spend time, it started speaking to me and I was like, okay, I love this, then more stuff was happening. And like I said, I would usually just go in for my gig and then I would leave. Then, I started falling in love with it a little bit more, and ten I was taking my time. We are to a different place. I had started doing The Dollhouse, my talk show. And then other things started opening from there.
And I was like, okay, I'm kind of married to this. So, I said to my other half, I was like, I think we're going to have to downgrade. So we got rid of the townhouse, got a three bedroom and I got an apartment in LA, It’s pretty amazing having two lives, you know, where it's like I literally have two homes and I like it.
And I do split my time between the two. I was there before all this happened and we started filming something and we put it on hold, because we didn't know how this is going to weigh out the whole pandemic, whatnot. But I said, you know what? As long as this is on hold, I'd rather be at home with my husband. So I hopped on a plane with my daughter and came back to my man. And it’s done!
Susan: [00:19:56] Oh, that's great.
Lina: [00:19:57] So I'll be here until September until I go back to LA and we'll start filming in October.
Susan: [00:20:02] You'd mentioned spirituality a few times and I wanted to know, are you a spiritual person?
Lina: [00:20:07] Yeah, a hundred percent. I come from a biracial background. My mom is Black and white and British and Dutch and Jewish. And my father is white Irish and Jewish and Italian. So, you know, it's a whole tossed salad, you know, and you know, when you come to a family reunion, it is a Benetton ad. And with that, there was never any type of, you know, pressure on anything.
Like, I was always very in touch with my Jewish-ness that's because it's very, very pronounced in my family and I dip in and I dip out, but I never felt the pressure, and I think that your spirituality is something that is your own interpretation. It's not somebody else telling you how it should be.
You know, everybody has their own thing of how they do it, but when you start putting it on to other people, that's when I think that religion is not that situation, because it's called spirituality for reason, not structure.
Todd: [00:20:55] Right. Thank
Lina: [00:20:56] You know what I mean? It's not a teacher saying, you need to do this and you need to, hello! And that you have to ostracize this type of group or no, no, no, no.
Spirituality is something inside yourself that we all have if we tune into it. And obviously I'm very in tuned into it because of where I came from. You know, I think that most grandmothers are the matriarch of the family, but mine really was, she's been a part of the S & M contingency and the Gay Pride since the seventies, she's got a female and a male slave.
She's Black, lit up. My grandmother's, the Jordache Love... she's everything. And she lives here in Harlem. She's everything, you know, so she’s really, the backdrop of, you know, helping mama-la and Papa-la understand that this is your beautiful gift, and this is how we're going to do this. And, you know, you know, it's period.com when grandma says something. Nana, we call her. Nana.
Susan: [00:21:44] Do you think that spirituality leads to your optimism and to your great attitude?
Lina: [00:21:50] Thank you gorgeous. A hundred percent. There was never really a time that I remember ever being depressed or upset about things, because honestly, when you live and you walk this life every day of your life, there's nothing else that you can see. Especially when you come from that, you know what I mean? And because I always came from being very comfortable with myself, I always knew who I was. It was everybody else that needed to see it.
And because I come with a big smile and so much panache, people are attracted to it, even if they don't understand it, they're like, what is the beacon of light or what is this situation?
What does this show? And then you open up your mouth and they're like, Whoa, wow. I didn't understand this, but I love it. You know what I mean? Like, I just have this way of not being intrusive and down people's throat. You know what I mean? I'm very easy breezy, you know what I mean? Like, if you don't see it and you don't understand it, I'm here to be precious and sweet with your time by letting you get a little taste.
Todd: [00:22:44] And you do that in many ways. Like, you're being vocal within the trans community and your service on the board of GMHC and you're global ambassador for the Hetrick-Martin Institute.
Lina: [00:23:00] Hmm.
Todd: [00:23:02] What about your advocacy? Can you talk a little bit about your LGBTQ advocacy?
Lina: [00:23:07] Definitely, Darling. And something that you had mentioned earlier that I think will be perfect with this, that I, sorry, I didn't answer about the whole transgender visibility back in the day. You know, yeah, it was very desolate back in the day. And there was nothing there for sisters of any color--it didn't matter.
If you were a transgendered woman, you were considered a sex worker and a streetwalker and that was it for you. And really no one paid you any mind, you know, except for maybe the girls who worked in the club, you know, and that's sad. And you know, it's not that long ago that that happened.
You know, we have a real problem in this country of pushing people and ostracizing them because we don' think that they look or they don't look like us, but yet everybody in this world has a very similar way of how they think. But thank God we don't all look like each other, but the brainwashing in this country has made it very despicable for people to think that that's okay to do to other people, and that's not good. And it's nice to see that it is changing.
So, growing up in Manhattan. I did know about HMI, Hetrick-Martin School. And I just thought, Oh my God, this is amazing. I gave it again and lesbian transgender school, like, wow! I didn't want to go because I was very comfortable where I was. And I was the one who was always bringing everyone together and throwing the most amazing parties. So I didn't want to go, but I thought it was great because I knew that there were some kids in other schools, who did have problems, who might benefit from this.
Todd: [00:24:34] And Lina, just to, to interject, will you just say for people that don't know what that school is?
Lina: [00:24:41] Oh, yeah, yeah yeah, of course. Harvey Milk. The movie that I'm sure most people know about. This is the school that is down over on Astor Place and, uh, S St. Mark’s and Broadway. And they are an amazing organization that helps, and also not only just for food, and then we also opened another location out in Jersey for young gay, lesbian, transgender children, to be able to have proper schooling without being bullied and killed.
I mean, the work that they do. You guys, please do your homework and you can also fund and help... it’s amazing, amazing the work they do. So being a part and lending any part of me to this, I am honored and privileged to do and be a part of. Every year, as you know, they have an event at Cipriani’s down in Wall Street called the Emery Awards.
It's a really amazing organization, the work that they do. I got to tell ya, I love everything that they have built from the get go ‘til now. To see it's like not, and I'm not saying mainstream, but it's so nice to know that it's out there and that people can say, Oh my God, I can put my child here if I need to? How good is that? That's like mesmerizing. Because no child should ever have to worry about being themselves while getting an education! And not to cut you off again, but also too, with extending to that type of situation comes kids being homeschooled. No!
Susan: [00:26:08] Especially during the pandemic... what's going on now with this school?
Lina: [00:26:12] That is a good question because you know, a lot of those kids do look to that as being their safe haven and their place to go. You know what I mean? But, the one great thing about this school, honey, is that guess what? They still offer facilities and home situations for these kids. [Susan: Oh, that’s great.] This was all a dialed in type of situation, honey, this isn't just like, Oh, well we're going to this so good luck, and we'll see you when we see you. No, no, no. It's a family. They will make sure that you have a home. I mean, it's so amazing to see some of these kids after they graduate, wil come back and actually ended up working with these people. I mean, you've got people like celebrities, like, you know, Selma Hayek--I mean like the celebrities that are a part of this organization and are not selfish and lend their love and their light and their platforms, it’s so monumental. I can't tell you, and I'm not going to sit here and start dropping names, but they put their money where their mouth is, you know? [Susan: Oh, that’s awesome.]
Todd: [00:27:10] Yeah. It's needed support for sure.
Lina: [00:27:13] Yeah. It is. It is. And also too, a lot of these kids have like, you know, um, internships with a lot of these people, which is great. They give back, they give back.
Susan: [00:27:22] it's the whole cycle.
Lina: [00:27:23] Yeah.
Todd: [00:27:23] Where do you see yourself going next? Or, how do you see emerging out of this whole COVID situation? Everyone we're speaking with is like, you know, we're all kind of scratching our heads. Like, what's next? What are we doing? One day? It's one thing the next day, it's a different thing. The next day it's back to the other thing. What are you feeling?
Lina: [00:27:46] I am feeling always very optimistic. And I think that, you know, the more people that you reach out and you touch, it's a chain reaction of positive and responsible, iway of life. So obviously anyone that is in touch with the voice or the visual of Lina is going to know that you need to take the precautions that we all have schools ourselves on, because there's no leadership in this country, that if you want to exist in this world, and you want to come out of this, because again, this is a very small increment in our life. It seems like a long time because we're very impatient people.
I'm like, a patient person. So I'm like, you know what? This is just an eyelash of a blink in my life, honey, because there's a reason why this is all happening and I'm taking it all in and I'm making it work for me in the long run. Okay. But for everyone else, who's not that optimistic, I have to tell you: wash your hands, wear your mask, do your social distancing. And then if you are with people, still do that, you know, you don't know. None of this is certain. We don't know any of this. These are the things that we do know that can make it better for us and to get out of ground zero, where we were to now phase three or four, where we're in... you know what I'm saying? But we don't want to go back to where LA is. It's sad, you know?
Todd: [00:29:01] Right.
Lina: [00:29:02] 30 States in America right now, there's 50 States, you guys. 30 are now the highest it has ever been! Like, that's insane! Have you guys not learned anything of what New York just came out of? And now it's going to get to the point where you're going to have to start putting borders on states! We don't want that, it's going to become, what is that show, that’s so creepy... The Handmaiden's Tale!
Susan: [00:29:26] Oh, please don't say that. Please!
Lina: [00:29:28] Oh honey.
Todd: [00:29:29] Let's just live in Lina’s Dollhouse. How about that, that’s what I’d like.
Lina: [00:29:40] Well, there’s lots of room, honey, come on! [Laughter]
Susan: [00:29:34] We don't have that leadership. We all don't have that leadership. So, uh, yeah, don't be….don’t be cursing us.
Lina: [00:29:45] That's why it's important to keep ourselves around people like yourselves, people who are putting out good content. [Todd: Aww, thanks.] A hundred percent. Good content and out there, because people are looking to that and for that. They're tuning in looking for podcasts like this. They're looking for people who share their same vibe.
Todd: [00:30:01] Well, thanks. That's that's why we really felt it was important to speak with you.
Lina: [00:30:07] Aww, thank you, sweetheart. I feel privileged.
Todd: [00:30:09] So, thank you so much for taking the time to do this.
Susan: [00:30:12] Absolutely. Thank you.
Lina: [00:30:15] Anytime. You guys are beautiful.
Todd: [00:30:16] In parting, we just give us one song that we should be listening to today.
Lina: [00:30:26] [Laughter] Ooh, that's a hard one! You put me on the spot. I love it.
Todd: [00:30:29] Or two, if one is difficult.
Lina: [00:30:33] I am a classic rock girl, so I'm going to have to go with my favorite band, Led Zeppelin, so I'm going to have to say, Your Time is Going to Come! [Todd: Okay!] If you don’t know it children, you better school yourself now! [Laughter]
Todd: [00:30:41] Well, the children will have to get some schooling, I'm sure. But we'll, we'll connect it.
Susan: [00:30:53] Love it.
Todd: [00:30:55] Lina, thank you so much for being with us.
Lina: [00:30:57] Oh, thank you both so much.
Susan: [00:31:00] I know, I feel like I just had a cup of coffee with an ice cream or something in it. You made me so happy.
Lina: [00:31:09] That's a good analogy. I like that. She’s like espresso but she’s also tasty and sweet.
Susan: [00:31:17] There you go, tasty and sweet. [Laughter]
Todd: [00:31:21] Take care, Lina.
Lina: [00:31:22] Thank you, honey.
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