Cassie Young Speaks Her Mind

A MONROE NATIVE, CASSIE YOUNG, IS A RADIO TALK SHOW AND PODCAST HOST BASED IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA. THIS MULTI-PASSIONISTA DOESN’T MINCE WORDS OR GIVE SOFT LOVE. CASSIE YOUNG SPEAKS HER MIND.

Article by Vanelis Rivera and Photography by Kelly Moore Clark

THOUGH THEY SAY THE pen is mightier than the sword, speaking our truths with conviction can also carry a lot of clout. But having a voice isn’t a painless prospect, especially when utilizing platforms like social media or personal blogs. We’re often met with criticism, disapproval, or even abandonment for sharing our personal views and struggles. It takes courage to be open about opinions and to let go of the crippling fantasy that we must be accepted by everyone. That’s exactly what Cassie Young, radio talk show and podcast host based in Atlanta, Georgia, learned during years of discussing and exploring issues on The Bert Show. This multi-passionista doesn’t mince words or give soft love. She could care less what critics think and isn’t scared to wade into the mire, online trolls and all.

“Louisiana is such a big part of my upbringing. I consider myself from Louisiana,” says Young, who was born in the United Kingdom but raised in Monroe, Louisiana. A Neville High School alumni, her small-scale city experience contributed to her knack for connecting to people. “Atlanta is a really friendly city but it has a lot of northern roots. It’s not that true down-south experience that Monroe was.” Visions of Friday night Neville football games with their throng of fans and animated cheerleaders still flood her memories when she thinks of her hometown. While it may not be able to rival Atlanta in square mileage, Monroe combines the best of country hospitality and “big city” fun. Her experiences in a place where closeness to people was encouraged and fostered religiously, allowed her to appreciate and embrace other people’s stories, even when they varied from her own. “Monroe is that special bubble of people,” she says.

While a student at Neville, her French teacher randomly recommended Emory University in Atlanta. Young loved it, so she stayed. While a student, she got into social media, becoming a member of Facebook in 2004, when the Harvard group opened the platform to other schools. “There was no wall,” she laughs, recounting the absence of photo albums and comment boxes. Shortly after, she got on Twitter and began building her online presence, working her way into running the Emory Alumni Association’s social media accounts. Her skill set landed her a job at The Bert Show as director of digital media and communications.

The Bert Show is a nationally syndicated radio show that airs all over the nation, including Shreveport, Louisiana. “What I love about it is that it’s about entertaining people,” she says. It’s “everything” from listeners calling in about personal drama, the hosts divulging their own inner struggles, silly games, and a serious breakdown of current hot topics. “We run the gamut.” In one segment the hosts may be playing “the dumbest game ever,” like having other cast members guess pop songs that have been turned into lullabies. “Not real high brow, not difficult.” But in a next segment they’ll have Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical expert, informing about coronavirus. Young appreciates the plurality of the show and its ability to flip back and forth between celebrity news and diving into deeper issues like body positivity (a personal and passionate topic for her). Ultimately, the show is pro-female, family-friendly, and open-minded.

Young didn’t begin at The Bert Show as the rambunctious firebrand she has become. She remembers starting out as the nervous new girl who worked in the corner of the studio, trying to find her place among already well established cohorts. When the show lost their second female cast member, she overheard Bert mention to a producer that they needed more female-oriented stories. Young perked up but was still apprehensive. At the time, she wasn’t a rule breaker. She kept thinking, “You weren’t hired to be a radio star. Know your place. Know your role.” But after talking to her then boyfriend, now husband, she got bold and trusted her intuitive pull: “I’m gonna do it. What’s the worst that can happen? He can say no and I’ll die of humiliation, but I’m just gonna try.” She wrote her pitch to Bert, highlighting stories from her personal life she felt would make amusing and interesting talking points. He wrote back to her: “HELL YES!” The more stories she pitched, the more air time she got, until finally she talked her way up, earning her own mic.

Her stories have changed since she began as a twenty-seven-year-old. Now a new mother at thirty-four, her boyfriend and roommate “dramas” have shifted to mommy adventures. Being the resident office momma was not in her game plan. She considered herself one of the most unlikely people, of those on the show, to become a mom and, as of now, she’s the only one on air who is. Recently, she shared a story of her first time breastfeeding in public, and she braced herself for a lot of “hate.” Surprisingly, she got a lot of support, though there was a lot of back and forth regarding her backing of #DropTheCover, a movement aimed at normalizing the act. Young wants to spread the message that women shouldn’t feel embarrassed or ashamed of breastfeeding. “I never really thought about it until I became a mother and had to feed my baby while I was out and about,” she says. It’s difficult if you’re on the go and need to hunker down in your car or frantically search through establishments trying to find a bathroom. Thanks to a listener’s testimonial about being forbidden to pump at work, The Bert Show is pushing a bill in the Senate that if passed would allow mothers who work to have time to breast pump and be given breaks in a room that’s not a bathroom—a powerful example of speaking ideas into existence.

“It’s hard to know what to share, what not to share, and how to spin stories and how much of yourself to expose,” she admits. Even when people on social media are “nasty,” it’s important for her to “lay it all out there.” She doesn’t want her stories to take a boring turn or seem disingenuous. That’s why she has no qualms about dealing with personal subjects on air. Even when her tales are random, there always seems to be someone “out there” who can relate. There’s a validation and comfort that can result from sharing unadulterated, intimate truths.

At times, she has felt silly speaking about seemingly surface topics like body image and struggling with her weight, but when she does people constantly admit they share her feelings. A self-proclaimed feminist who champions equal rights and women allowing themselves to step into their own body, she was naturally called on air anytime those topics were covered. “I don’t sugar coat,” she says. Once, under discussion was the issue of a caller whose wife got a breast reduction without talking to him first. Since he was acting like a “d-bag,” she popped off on him. “You don’t get a say,” she began. Talking on the show has allowed her to practice not holding back, especially about body positivity, which took a while for her to develop.

“I hated my body for a long, long time,” she says. Her journey to acceptance started to turn a corner when she accepted a weight loss bet on the show. The payoff—the loser would have to dance in their underwear to a song of the winner’s choosing. She lost. In retrospect, it was “dumb” to go into a weight loss competition against a man. The winner chose a song by one of her favorite artists, “I’m A Slave 4 U” by Britney Spears. “There are two ways I can do this,” she remembers thinking. She could take a “crappy phone video” of herself dancing in undies or she could make the video a manifesto of sorts. She got a videographer and recorded a fan video of the song in an abandoned floor of the show’s building. The video was only supposed to be available on the show’s YouTube channel for three weeks, but after racking up considerable hits (currently close to 56,000 views), the team left it up. Once again, she expected floods of antagonizing comments, but she received more love than hate. That’s when the tide turned and she began to realize it was okay for her to like herself despite her weight.

Owning who she was opened up more platforms for self-expression. The first came in the form of a style guide for plus-sized women on Instagram. When she started to embrace herself, she wanted others to find that same freedom: “When you’re not restricted by how you think you look and what you think others are thinking about you, you can do so much more with your life. You’re allowed to live.” Recently, she celebrated the 100th episode of Broadly Speaking, a podcast she hosts with Bert Show co-host Davi Crimmins, at a sold out live show in Atlanta. “It’s basically a super uncensored version of us,” informs Young. Like the radio show, Broadly Speaking covers both crucial and capricious topics. In a span of a couple of episodes, they covered the Black Lives Matter movement, delved into why “Christopher Columbus sucks” and why the day should be National Indigenous People’s Day, and played the irreverent game Bed, Wed, or Dead where a person names three celebrities and another person has to choose who they would sleep with, marry, or kill. “It’s really just a microcosm of our lives.”

Young is an amalgamation that began overseas, evolved in Monroe, and is flourishing in Atlanta. She claims to love Cajun food, owns “way too much” striped clothing, enjoys whiskey sours made with egg whites, and sucks at math and baking cookies. Quirky and approachable, she ties her charms with her upbringing, mentioning how much she misses the “nostalgic charm” of Monroe, with its touchpoints like Cormier’s Cajun Catering, the Forsythe tennis courts, and Mardi Gras parades. It goes without saying that there’s no place like home, but Young carries home with her—just ask; she won’t hold back.

Follow Cassie Young on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to learn more about existing and new projects. Visit http://thebertshow.com to learn about community service projects like Bert’s Big Adventures, which provides an all-expenses-paid, five-day journey to Walt Disney World® for children with chronic and terminal illnesses and their families.