She is one of the funniest, most recognizable women on the planet. But before the sold-out shows, the film roles, and the viral moments — there was a little girl navigating the foster care system, searching for safety, and finding it in one extraordinary woman named Miss Alice.

This week on Happy With Tammi Mac, host Tammi Mac sits down with her friend, her heart, and one of the most genuinely real humans in Hollywood — Tiffany Haddish — for a conversation about the moments that shaped her, the loss that shattered her, and the happiness she's still building every day.

Tammi Mac started Happy With Tammi Mac for one reason: during the pandemic, she hit a wall of depression she couldn't see over. She looked around at people who seemed happy and asked herself, how? This show — this weekly journey into turning point stories — is her answer.

In this episode, Tiffany takes us through all three of the show's signature segments:

🌑 The Dark Journey

Tiffany opens up about a childhood defined by uncertainty — a mother who couldn't show up, a foster care system that felt terrifying, abuse, instability, and the desperate need for someone to just be there. "It was like being in a scary movie every day. You don't know who the monster is and who's going to help you."

🌗 The Turning Point

Despite all the hardship of her early years, Tiffany says the worst moment of her life didn't come until she was 42. That's when she lost her grandmother — Miss Alice — the woman who jumped through every hoop the system put in front of her to bring Tiffany and her siblings home. The woman who took her to the L.A. County Fair, grew food in her garden, made sweet potato pie, ran interference on bad relationships with nothing but a proverb, and laughed at every joke Tiffany ever tested on her. "She was my safe and happy place. And I feel like she was my protection."

☀️ Finding Happy

Tiffany reflects on what Miss Alice gave her — not just love, but tools. Discernment. Horticulture. How to sew. How to recognize who's good for you and who isn't. And how to carry someone's love forward even when they're gone.

This is the Tiffany Haddish the comment sections don't know. This is her heart.

"Happiness has been a hard word to come by — but it will exist again."

🎙️ Happy With Tammi Mac is a partner with the Inflection Network.

📻 Hosted by Tammi Mac — broadcaster, personality, and heart of KJLH Radio.

New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review — it helps more people find their way back to happy.

Also featured this season: MC Lyte, Kelly Price, Tabitha Brown, James Wright Chanel, and more.

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What do you do when you've done everything right, and the system still says no?

Judge Greg Mathis joins Tammi Mac on Happy With Tammi Mac for one of the most powerful turning point stories the show has ever told. Known for decades as a fearless voice of justice and accountability on television, Judge Mathis pulls back the curtain on a chapter most people never knew, the nearly three-year battle to receive his law license after passing the bar, while a state ethics committee weaponized a past he had already legally moved beyond.

He fought. He appealed. Three times he was denied. And then he took it all the way to the Michigan State Supreme Court — and won.

This is the Happy With Tammi Mac experience at its fullest: The Dark Journey. The Turning Point. Finding Happy.

In this deeply personal conversation, Judge Mathis and Tammi Mac explore:

• The moment he learned the ethics committee was moving to block his license — and how he refused to collapse
• Why expungement is one of the most powerful legal tools available to the Black community — and how to access it
• His philosophy of flipping the script on defeat — turning every roadblock into a redirected purpose
• A bold new initiative with Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. reframing Diversity, Merit & Inclusion in Congress
• What athletics teaches us about access, merit, and systemic opportunity for communities of color
• His unapologetic, lifelong commitment to Black empowerment and community progress

Judge Mathis doesn't just talk about resilience, he is the living proof of it. From the streets of Detroit to the Michigan State Supreme Court to a nationally syndicated television bench, his life is a masterclass in turning your worst moments into your greatest testimony.

This episode is for anyone who has been told no when they earned yes. For anyone navigating a system designed with barriers. For anyone who needs proof that life after tragedy, after denial, after heartbreak, is not only possible, it's powerful.

Happiness has been a hard word to come by, but it will exist again.

Happy With Tammi Mac is partnered the Inflection Network. New episodes weekly. Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs it.

Hosted by Tammi Mac, veteran broadcaster, KJLH radio personality, and your weekly guide through the darkest moments and brightest turning points in life.

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Before the Target collabs, before the McCormick's deal, before millions of people called her their favorite auntie on the internet,Tabitha Brown was sitting in the dark, convinced she was dying.

In one of the most honest conversations Happy With Tammi Mac has ever produced, host Tammi Mac creates a sacred space for Tabitha Brown to go all the way back. Back to 2016 and 2017, when she spent over a year battling a mysterious autoimmune illness that left doctors baffled and left Tabitha terrified. With a headache that lasted one year and seven months, vision loss, chronic pain, and failing strength in her hands, Tabitha's mind went to the place she feared most, her mother. Her mother, who died of ALS at just 51. Her mother, who was told by doctors that it was all in her head for 11 months, before being given six months to two years to live.

Tabitha saw the mirror. And she prepared herself for the end.

What saved her wasn't another doctor's appointment. It was a documentary. A conversation with her daughter. A decision to go vegan for 30 days. And on Day 10, the headache that had been her constant companion for nearly two years was gone.

This episode moves through all three segments of Happy With Tammi Mac: The Dark Journey, Tabitha's health crisis and grief; The Turning Point, the plant-based decision that changed her biology and her destiny; and Finding Happy, what it means to look back at the viral car video that launched everything and choose gratitude over forgetting.

Tammi Mac also shares her own story, the pandemic depression that inspired this entire podcast, reminding us that sometimes the most honest thing you can say is "I did this for me."

This episode is for anyone who has been dismissed by a doctor. For anyone who has watched someone they love die too young. For anyone who has sat in the silence of a body that won't cooperate and a mind that has started saying goodbye. And for anyone who needs proof that a turning point is still possible.

Happiness has been a hard word to come by, but it will exist again.

🎧 Subscribe to Happy With Tammi Mac on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Part of the Inflection Network.

Hosted by Tammi Mac, known and loved from KJLH Radio.

Coming up on future episodes: MC Lyte, Kelly Price, James Wright Chanel, and Judge Mathis.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Watch the full episode now on YouTube: @happywithtammimac 😃

Actor Amin Joseph - known for his role in 'One of Them Days' and John Singleton's series 'Snowfall' - opens up to Tammi Mac about the moment ego cost him a major movie franchise. He shares how it led to a tough season, and how he found his way back to HAPPY! 😃

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.