As she winds down her national book tour promoting her new vulnerably bold memoir Uphill, Emmy Award–winning journalist Jemele Hill brought great energy to the engaged Atlanta crowd gathered at the Carter Center. The former cohost of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” took attendees on an entertaining, bittersweet ride through conversation with Keisha Lance Bottoms, former Mayor of Atlanta, who currently serves as White House Senior Advisor to the President for Public Engagement.
“The maturity I have now, the mentality I have now didn’t happen overnight,” Explains Hill regarding overcoming obstacles on her personal journey. “This is 40+ years of work that went in to that, so you can’t look at it as if you have a disappointing moment, or you have a setback to think that has to define you, because it doesn’t. So that why you have to learn to be kind to yourself, and not put so much pressure on yourself, because you will find out what your passions are.”
As the program came to a close, Bottoms presented Hill with a few lighthearted, lightning round questions that included who her favorite music artists are? What she would do if Jeff Bezos gave her $100 million? And what questions she would ask U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker?
“I would actually want to ask him what are the three branches of government to see if he knew them,” jokes the Jemele Hill is Unbothered podcast host. “Cause there’s no way he knows it. I would give him the most basic civics question possible, and you just let the entertainment go from there.”