Call of Duty Black Dads Podcast

Call of Duty Black Dads Podcast is a parenting show that runs on banter. Two fathers, L and T, carry it, and the opening of an episode tells a newcomer most of what to expect. Each man introduces himself with a stack of aliases. L goes by E. Diddy, All World L and L. Dro, and T goes by Old Eddie Kane, International T and, in a running gag, 'your baby mama, new baby daddy'. New nicknames get tacked on as jokes, and a fumbled intro sometimes gets a second take on tape. From there, the conversation goes wherever the pair's attention goes. Fatherhood is what holds it together. The episode titles show the range: 'Do You Have To Like Your Kids?', 'Dads Mental Health', 'Parental Paranoia/America doesn't care about their kids' and 'Christmas Talk With The Kids'. A recurring habit is to pull a story from the news and argue it out. Sometimes the story is celebrity gossip with a parenting angle, such as the reported monthly child support Tristan Thompson owes across three children with three mothers. Sometimes it is grim, like a Texas case in which two brothers and a friend killed a stepfather accused of abusing their sister. The best stretches come when the jokes ease off. In 'Dads Mental Health', a Kanye documentary shows his mother as his biggest fan. That leads to an honest exchange about growing up without hearing parents say 'I love you', and about saying it to their own kids. The interview with Jevin Smith, a guest first spotted through his TikTok videos, turns to the anxieties of raising a daughter. It covers men who try to talk to her. It also asks how parents who roamed freely until the streetlights came on can give today's kids anything like that freedom. The show can also turn hard. One episode is announced at the top as angry and serious, a reaction to people breaking into the White House. In it the pair ask how differently things would have gone if the crowd had been Black, and they criticize politicians who stayed quiet. There is a looseness to the whole enterprise. One episode finds the pair back after nearly a year off the mic, catching up on work and a son starting high school. A Christmas Eve episode is billed as a quick one, with L calling himself the Black Santa. They plug their social accounts, joke that anyone leaving less than five stars is a hater, and talk about someday getting onto YouTube. Their usual sign-off is a blunt order to be responsible and raise your kids. 'Dads Mental Health' is a good first listen, since its intro banter gives way to a sincere conversation about love and parents. The language is strong throughout, slurs included, so it is not for listening around children.