Petri Hawkins Byrd and his wife, Makita Bond Byrd, join Tanya to share their deeply moving fight against Makita's stage-three brain tumor and what it truly means to honor the vow "in sickness and in health."

In this episode, Petri and Makita join Tanya to discuss Makita's harrowing battle with a malignant stage-three brain tumor. After Makita suffered a sudden seizure, a life-changing second opinion from renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Keith Black led the couple through her brain surgery, subsequent paralysis, and intensive cancer treatments. Together, they share an inspiring, deeply personal conversation about navigating fear, relying on faith, strengthening their marriage, and Makita's forthcoming book, Bonding with Myself.

When hip-hop icon Christopher “Kid” Reid first noticed his exhaustion and swollen ankles, he figured it was just life on the road. Instead, he was facing congestive heart failure—and a heart transplant was his only option for survival.

In Part 2 of our deep dive, Christopher shares his extraordinary journey of checking into Cedars-Sinai and receiving a new heart just 11 days later. We talk openly about the warning signs he wishes he’d taken seriously, the reality of healthcare disparities, and the profound second chance that inspired his new song, “Tin Man.”

As Christopher told me: “You can’t just hope to live. You’ve got to live to live.”

This week I sit down with Christopher "Kid" Reid. Before House Party, the hit records, and the Saturday morning cartoon, Kid was a nine-year-old boy surviving the car crash that killed his mother and quietly preparing for a very different future, law school. In Part 1, Kid takes me through hip-hop's rise from a cultural movement to a mainstream force, and the part Kid 'N Play, Salt-N-Pepa, Heavy D and DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince played in that crossover. He also opens up about the loss, the family rupture that followed, and how his Jamaican father's strict household shaped his discipline and drive.

He earned a degree from Lehman College, scored well on the LSAT, and gave himself just three years to make entertainment work before law school. This is Kid like you've never heard him.

Listen now on Battletested with Tanya Acker.