The Limits with Jay Williams

This week, we're letting our friends at It's Been a Minute take over our feed.

In this episode, guest host Juana Summers talks with Danyel Smith about her new memoir, Shine Bright: A Personal History of Black Women in Pop. As a previous editor-in-chief for both Billboard and Vibe magazines, host of the Black Girl Songbook podcast, and longtime music reporter, she uses her expertise to spotlight the stories of pop powerhouses like Gladys Knight, Mahalia Jackson, Whitney Houston, and more.

In her book, Smith crafts a love letter to Black women in pop, capturing the intimate details of who they were, their influence on her, and how their music changed pop forever.

For sponsor-free episodes, weekly bonus content, and more, subscribe to The Limits Plus at plus.npr.org/thelimits. On this week's Plus episode, Jay looks to his favorite moments in conversation with his guests about parenthood.

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You know Ben Baller as the jeweler who has iced up the biggest names in hip-hop. But before that, he was a record executive listening to Jay-Z's first album before anybody else. The guy's got stories. Like how he was fired by Dr. Dre for speaking out against the bad contracts Dre was giving to his artists.

So Ben gets fired? So what. He's a master of reinvention. He sells his sneaker collection for millions and starts designing high-end jewelry. Now he's telling stories about making pieces for Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson.

In this episode of The Limits with Jay Williams, Ben tells Jay how he hustled his way to the top not just once, but over and over again. The way he tells it, a Korean-American kid can do anything he wants if he just goes out and grabs it.

Content warning: This episode contains explicit language only suitable for mature audiences.

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For years, Desus Nice and The Kid Mero lived the lives of many struggling New Yorkers: juggling multiple odd jobs, battling roaches, and just trying to make ends meet in the Bronx. But they also spent plenty of time online, where their constant back and forth on Twitter was so funny that followers demanded they make a podcast.

Their eponymous show, Desus and Mero, has since exploded over the last decade, so much so that it is now coming for the throne of late night on Showtime. And still, even as their fame has catapulted, they've managed to keep the most authentic versions of themselves intact on camera and off.

On this week's episode of The Limits with Jay Williams, Desus and Mero talk about that journey, and the kind of hustle and hard work it takes to make for good podcasting and longevity in show business. Plus, they don't hold back with Jay, getting into it on the NBA, the best rappers in the game...and the virtues of the Filet-O-Fish.

Desus and Mero airs Thursday nights at 11 PM ET on Showtime.

For sponsor-free episodes, weekly bonus content, and more, subscribe to The Limits Plus at plus.npr.org/thelimits. On this week's Plus episode, Desus and Mero share their experiences as children of immigrants, and how that has shaped their careers today.

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In your mind, Kelly Rowland might be the teenager of Destiny's Child fame, or the solo artist with dance floor anthems like "Commander." But these days, Kelly's much more than a pop star. She's an entrepreneur, philanthropist, writer and mother of two beautiful children. She recently published a children's book called Always with You, Always with Me, her ode to working moms.

This week on The Limits, as we gear up for Mother's Day, Jay and Kelly explore motherhood: how Kelly juggles being a good mom with her career, how she strives to be transparent with her children about fame and celebrity, and how she cared for her own late mother in her final days.

For sponsor-free episodes, weekly bonus content, and more, subscribe to The Limits Plus at plus.npr.org/thelimits. On this week's Plus episode, Kelly takes it back to her early days with Destiny's Child, and how her experience as a child star impacts her life today.

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As a former NFL player and star of the Bachelor, Colton Underwood has embodied the highest ideals of masculinity. He worked hard to fit the mold of what everyone expected him to be. Until it almost killed him. When he finally accepted his sexuality and came out in 2021, the impact felt seismic.

This week, Colton talks about navigating his football career as a closeted gay man—what it was like to experience locker rooms, and the homophobia that came with them. And why the sports culture makes it so difficult for closeted men to live their lives openly.

For sponsor-free episodes, weekly bonus content, and more, subscribe to The Limits Plus at plus.npr.org/thelimits. On this week's Plus episode, Colton shares his thoughts on raising kids as a gay man.

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We've all failed before. Competition, rejection, loss...it's all a part of life. It's what The Limits is about: overcoming those obstacles to become great.

This week, we're featuring an episode of NPR's Life Kit featuring Jay Williams where he talks about the long, often grueling process of working through our disappointments. He describes the winning principle that got him through a career-ending motorcycle accident, through depression and addiction, and through multiple suicide attempts: you control your own narrative.

For sponsor-free episodes, weekly bonus content, and more, subscribe to The Limits Plus at plus.npr.org/thelimits.

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Denzel Curry brought his rage to rap. For years, he's been known for taking a crowd and turning it into a moshpit. It was his way of taking his internal pain and expressing it. These days, though, Denzel is looking inward and so is his music. Now his mission is to find peace, and he wants the rest of us to find it too.

Denzel pioneered the Soundcloud rap movement, but the death of his friend, XXXTentacion, made him reconsider his own relationship to fame. In this episode, Jay and Denzel talk about the pressures of fans and how to take care of yourself once you become an icon.

For sponsor-free episodes, weekly bonus content, and more, subscribe to The Limits Plus at plus.npr.org/thelimits. On this week's Plus episode, Denzel reveals who he think is the best rapper in the game right now, and what makes him the most angry.

Denzel just appeared on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert. Catch his performance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glHqWvkpRqo

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Michele Roberts grew up watching the NBA on her TV, but she never imagined she would one day be a trailblazing executive for the league. After Michele was named executive director of the NBA Players' Association (NBPA), she became the first woman to hold this position, and the first woman to lead a major sports union in North America.

The recently-retired Roberts has been a beacon for the league's star players, guiding them through a near-lockdown, a global pandemic and a full-blown strike in response to racial injustice. All the while, she's broken down barriers for Black women in sports. In this week's episode, she and Jay Williams discuss her journey from the Bronx to the big leagues, the stereotypes she's faced long the way, and her admiration for other Black women trailblazers like Ketanji Brown Jackson.

For sponsor-free episodes, weekly bonus content, and more, subscribe to The Limits Plus at plus.npr.org/thelimits. On this week's Plus episode, Jay talks to Michele about other NBA issues like Brittney Griner's detainment in Russia.

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On this week's episode of The Limits, we're in instant replay mode. We're bringing you back to where it began, with our first conversation with sports marketing executive Maverick Carter. Maverick is the architect behind LeBron James' athletic empire, and he sat down with Jay to share how he and LeBron succeeded on their own terms, why LeBron's mother initially doubted their vision, and what Mav really thought about LeBron's decision to return to Cleveland.

For sponsor-free episodes, weekly bonus content, and more, subscribe to The Limits Plus at plus.npr.org/thelimits. Follow Jay on Instagram and Twitter. Email us at [email protected].

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TJ Adeshola has been changing the game in sports media and tech for years. The Twitter Global Head of Content Partnerships got his start at ESPN, where he was grateful to receive guidance and opportunity from several Black mentors.

When he entered the tech world at Twitter, however, he didn't see many people who looked like him. From then, TJ's mission has been clear: to diversify tech spaces from the inside out – and he's been breaking those barriers as a leader for nearly a decade.

As he puts it, "If you're looking to build a winning team, you don't recruit five point guards."

TJ and Jay also discuss the current state of sports media, and how as a sports executive, he managed to maintain community and fandom during a pandemic that halted live events.

For sponsor-free episodes, weekly bonus content, and more, subscribe to The Limits Plus at plus.npr.org/thelimits. On this week's Plus episode, TJ talks with Jay about cancel culture, and how the Twitter team is tackling fake news.

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