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Charlamagne tha God has built a prolific career as a radio host, television presenter and mental health advocate. He has co-hosted the nationally syndicated radio show “The Breakfast Club” since 2010, and he and his
fellow hosts were inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2020 for their work on the show.
Though he has dabbled elsewhere, the radio personality emphasized that “audio is still king” while in conversation with Variety‘s Cynthia Littleton at the Variety Experience and Culture Summit: The IRL Advantage presented by OUTFRONT, during which he also shared how he has created events and shaped his content to support and meet people where they are.
In 2019, Charlamagne founded the Mental Wealth Alliance, a nonprofit organization that hosts an event on Oct. 10, World Mental Health Day, to provide a space for people to hear from mental health professionals for free.
Charlamagne, who wrote about his anxiety struggles in his 2018 book “Shook One: Anxiety Playing Tricks on Me,” emphasized the importance of access to mental health services, particularly for the Black and brown communities the organization is designed to serve. “It’s a free event because I feel those type of resources and that type of information should be free.”
The event is streamed live on YouTube, often on “The Breakfast Club” channel, which has 6.1+ million followers. But when thinking about the event’s resonance, Charlamagne brings it back to reality. “It’s funny we’re talking about IRL like it’s culture, as if we all don’t live real lives every single day,” he said.
Charlamagne is also the founder of the Black Effect Podcast Network, which hosts a yearly festival in Atlanta featuring live podcast tapings. His biggest takeaway from the event, which held its fourth iteration in April, is seeing people show up.
“We really got to get back to creating a sense of community around all of these things that we’re doing,” Charlamagne said. He described the way people interact with phones and social media as “verbally abusive relationships.” The platforms are useful, he said, but “you got to constantly weed out your garden.”
With the rise of the creator boom, which yielded success this year for former YouTubers Curry Barker (“Obsession”) and Kane Parsons (“Backrooms”), Charlamagne talked about the ability to capitalize on a platform. “I guarantee you, there’s a creator online right now that none of us in this room know about. They’re probably only getting 100 views per video, but they’re making something amazing,” he said. “Don’t wait until that person gets 10 million followers or 10 million views to pay them attention.”
Charlamagne said the connection he has found through terrestrial radio is the foundation of what he does: “Every morning I know that I’m a person’s habit.” “The Breakfast Club” has hosted interviews with modern political figures, including Kamala Harris, Zohran Mamdani and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Looking toward the midterm elections this November, Charlamagne said, “I think it’s going to be a lot of people that show up to the voters’ booth thinking about those high prices of gas, thinking about the cost of groceries, and realizing that they’ve been lied to.”
