Lena Waithe Delivers A Masterclass In Honoring Black Hollywood Icons With ‘Legacy Talk’ Podcast – Here’s What To Expect For Season 3

Many know of Lena Waithe as an Emmy-winning writer, producer, actor, and founder of Hillman Grad Productions. She’s celebrated within the entertainment industry for her storytelling work on “Master of None,” “The Chi,” “Twenties,” “Queen & Slim,” and more. But what might surprise people is that she’s a gifted interviewer with an encyclopedic knowledge of decades-old television series and films. Waithe often flexes her keen eye for attention to detail, editorial prowess, and deference and respect for legacymakers when honoring those who came before her in show business, through her ever-growing, increasingly popular podcast series, “Legacy Talk.”

“I honestly did not feel the need to throw my hat in the ring. I want to be very clear about that. I didn’t feel like we needed another podcast. And so my creative partner, Justin Riley, said to me, ‘I do think your voice is needed in that space.’ So, that’s where the conversation began, where I said, ‘Well, I would want to talk to people that I’ve admired, I’ve looked up to, people that I want to give their flowers. And then we started composing a list,” Waithe said to me.

She immediately thought of her mentors in the industry, like Debbie Allen and Jenifer Lewis, and a longer list started to form organically. “The idea of me sitting and talking to them was very much inspired by James Lipton’s ‘Inside the Actors Studio,’ and sort of like a bit of a Charlie Rose type of conversation in terms of just being centered and grounded and research-based,” she said.

The podcast was founded in November 2024 with the intention of spotlighting trailblazers, visionaries, and changemakers to discuss the stories that define them, honor the legacies they’ve built and continue to create, and foster connection through authentic storytelling. It’s important to note that “Legacy Talk” isn’t just interviews, as the platform serves as an archive of stories and experiences of those who shaped multiple generations, broken barriers, and inspired multitudes of upcoming creatives through honoring their craft and accepting the call of purpose, no matter how complex the challenges of Hollywood may be.

Since launching, Waithe and her team have gathered some of the buzziest and most well-respected names in the industry, many of whom have been in entertainment for decades. Actors and actresses like Oscar-winning Debbie Allen, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Jada Pinkett Smith, Taraji P. Henson, Vivica A. Fox, Loretta Devine, Tisha Campbell, Robert Townsend, Jenifer Lewis, Lela Rochon, Ava Duvernay, Gina Prince-Bythewood, and Phylicia Rashad, to name a few, have been featured on earlier seasons of her podcast. As season three taping is currently underway in Los Angeles and will feature 12 new guests, fans of the series are expected to be just as inspired, especially with the live-viewing podcast component added.

But how does one create an engaging structure for a series dedicated to honoring Black Hollywood legends while also allowing audiences to get to know Waithe better? Justin Riley, Co-Creator and Executive Producer of “Legacy Talk,” shares, “The idea to create ‘Legacy Talk’ was a desire to showcase the depth and range of Lena. I’ve known her for nearly 15 years now. The thing most people didn’t know is that she is an incredible interviewer, and now they do. She’s incredibly thoughtful in her approach and the questions she asks, but, more importantly, she is encyclopedic in film and TV, history, and knowledge. We wanted to create a platform that would allow her to express her reverence for the people who meant so much to her. If you have followed Lena’s career, she has always paid homage to the women and men who were so influential to her in her growing up, whether that was the characters that were played on TV while she was a child, or to her peers and contemporaries and her mentors who helped guide her as she moved into this business and ascended her career in Hollywood,” he shared.

Riley continued, “When you look at the landscape of podcasts, in particular, video podcasts right now, there are a lot of conversations and dialog happening across different industries. One thing I noticed is that there wasn’t a platform specifically highlighting our legends, our storytellers, and the incredible Black visionaries who were so instrumental in telling our stories.”

He believes that “Legacy Talk” serves as a balm for the aspiring creative when their journey of exploring and perfecting their craft becomes difficult. “When we are struggling, or we’re confused, or we just need motivation, a little bit of belief to know that this line of work is our calling, ‘Legacy Talk’ provides confirmation. It’s genuinely a great pride to have a historical archive that lives forever. Black Hollywood is part of the historical record, and this show elevates the impact that art has had, and specifically film and TV have had on this world, on our culture and our shared experiences,” he said.

Season two guest, Taraji P. Henson, couldn’t agree more with Riley’s sentiments. “What Lena is doing with ‘Legacy Talk’ matters. It allows us to tell our own stories in our own words. Lena is creating a space where Black artists can be seen, heard, and valued, and that’s essential for the future of our industry,” she shared with me in an emailed statement.

Lena Waithe On Forming The Podcast And Having Ownership

I’m very visual, so I never listen to podcasts. I’m always watching the interview because I don’t want to hear, I want to see people’s body language. I want to see how they interact. So that was always going to be a component for me. Also, the podcast is fully funded by me. Nobody pays for this. Nobody else owns it. I own the IP.

During “Legacy Talk,” people are watching me be an active listener and centering my guest. It’s really not about me. We take care of our guests. We want to make sure that when the episode comes out, they feel proud about it. We’re not here for shock value. There’s no tea, no gossip, it’s about processing craft.

Once I started looking at each person by credits and going over their entire career, I made these connections. Connecting dots and seeing themes continue to appear became an education for me, and then being able to ask them questions, it was also so very full circle.

Mara Brock Akil, Gina Prince-Bythewood, and Ava DuVernay are people who have seen me in my 20s, trying to figure it out and find my own voice.

On Curating An Archival Resource And Communal Experience

I’ve watched it evolve with my very eyes.

It is such an amazing communal experience. You were there for Vivica A. Fox’s live podcast viewing, and it felt like a party. It felt like a family reunion. I want to put these conversations on vinyl, because they’re so archival. Even though, yes, it does take away a little bit of the visual component, it’s still there in case anything happens to these tech places. YouTube could go away tomorrow. I want to make sure we preserve these voices, these stories, these words. I’m an old head. I go back and listen to old James Baldwin interviews. I listen to, Malcolm X, or Lorraine Hansberry give an interview. And so I’m grateful to YouTube for helping me find those things. But if that ever goes away, we have to have analog, we have to have something tangible. We live in a time where people want to erase history. They want to take away the past. And there’s also a level where some of our heroes are invisible.

On Doing The Work And Committing To Your Creative Process

It’s a different time now. You can go viral tomorrow and get an executive meeting. So, then people wonder what’s wrong and why the work isn’t holding up the way it used to back in the day.

There is no disconnect between me and my elders. People feel that from me. They’re like, ‘Oh, you’re like a young elder.’ ‘I’m like, that’s because I’ve been around Mara, Gina, Ava, Debbie, and Jada; they’ve shown me the way.’

I want people to reinvest in the work, not the result, because that is what makes us better and stronger as artists.

I’m only as good as my next thing. I don’t get to rest on my previous projects. It’s like, ‘What am I doing next?’ Now people come up to me and say, ‘I love “Legacy Talk.” This entire idea was about highlighting others’ legacies, and now it’s actually become part of my own.

Her Favorite “Legacy Talk” Conversation

It is tough. The truth is, our guests all give me something. They all provide me with something. Loretta Devine has definitely been a fan favorite this season. And a big part of that is because no one ever really hears her talk; she rarely does interviews. And that’s because she’s just a humble person, and she really just cares about the work. But when you listen to her, she just reminds you of so many women in your family, who’s wise, but in a way that’s so subtle and will sneak up on you. And she’s hilarious, naturally, not trying to be.

And then Taraji P Henson, who had no idea that Bill Duke was booked to do our show, and shared a story about him, ‘Yeah, we were a bunch of actors and we couldn’t get jobs at the time. So we approached Bill Duke to see if he’d be willing to sponsor a little acting camp. And he did!’ It’s beautiful the stories they have.

I also want to shout out Ms. Phylicia Rashad, our finale episode guest for season two, who is phenomenal. We recorded that interview in real time in front of a live audience. It was the first time we ever did that for Tribeca X, as part of their programming.

I hope that people see who we are. We do not come from thin air. We don’t just appear. You know that we all are products of influences that we’ve seen, witnessed, and watched.

On Leading By Example:

I’ve written a play (Trinity), and I’m about to be in it. I’ve never done that before. I have to memorize the entire play. I have to be on stage. I have to not drop a line. This is all new to me. It’s a new mountain to climb. It’s scary as hell. They could totally watch me fall in front of my face, but that is me leading by example. I want new mountains, and that’s not wrong.

What’s In Store For Season Three:

For season three, we’re allowing God to move, listen, and being very obedient. And it may not be me paying for the podcast next year, but I still own the IP. I want to put on a bigger stage. I hope we can partner with someone and be on a bigger stage. I never want to lose the integrity of what the show is, because otherwise I wouldn’t be having conversations like this.

I hope people can look at the evolution of “Legacy Talk.” There are definitely some dream guests that I’d like to sit down with and one of those people is Angela Bassett.

There also needs to be an educational element. So it’ll be a mix of that, but I’m excited. We have to get Queen Latifah back on. She was supposed to be on season two, but we were only able to film half her episode.