Tina Knowles Opens Up About Beyoncé's Hair Controversy And Finding Love In New Podcast

Another gem to add to your podcast collection.

Journalist and New York Times best-selling author Janet Mock has teamed up with Lena Dunham to bring you an awesome new podcast, debuting TODAY!

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Never Before with Janet Mock is LENNY's second podcast featuring in-depth conversations with today's hottest celebrities and cultural leaders.

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In her own words, Janet described the podcast exclusively to BuzzFeed as:

An affirming and inclusive podcast that uses the conversation as a means of sharing ourselves, our insights and our experiences, and gives listeners the opportunity to learn from and laugh with the world's most known and talented cultural figures.

Since she has a knack for bringing out the best in her guests, uncovering things like their greatest achievements and life-changing moments should be a breeze.

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And this podcast didn't just come together overnight. Both women worked diligently to create a refreshing series worth the listen. Janet revealed it took almost two years.

Never Before has been nearly two years in the making, from Lena's couch and Pineapple Street's studios to the sacred space that is Miss Tina's kitchen table in the Hollywood Hills. I am elated to bring together all my selves -- the fangirl, the journalist, the feminist -- in this intimate space that allows my guests and I to give and bear testimony.

While executive producer Lena admitted she had to do A LOT of stalking to get this project off the ground:

I stalked Janet into becoming my friend (fully stalked) then pushed even further to make her my collaborator. That's because she is smarter, funnier, cooler and more aware than any other American working in media. The chance to executive produce her podcast isn't just an honor–it's an education. I cannot wait to share it with the world.

For the very first episode, Janet sat down with none other than Tina Lawson (formerly Tina Knowles). That's right, Beyoncé's mom!

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Tina spilled some fun tea about everything from Destiny’s Child to her hilarious corny jokes, and here’s a sneak peek of everything that went down in the episode:

On not spoiling Destiny's Child:

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"It's funny, because you know in the early days, one of the other parents, LaTavia's mom Cheryl, and I would travel with them all the time. She was the chaperone and I was the whatever else. We were like oh no, girls, you can't carry your luggage because ya'll are stars ... And then later on when people started fawning over them and acting like they couldn't pick up anything, we were like oh they can pick that up, they can carry it. Because we didn't want them to be so, so spoiled. And they would always say, well, you told us that we didn't have to carry our luggage and now we got someone to carry it, and you want us to carry it. But you want to keep them grounded and not become these big divas."

On Beyoncé's hairstyle controversy:

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"Hair color is just an expression of something different that you want to have, or something creative. I’ve read some things where people are like, 'Beyoncé wants to be white' because she has blonde highlights in her hair, but it’s ridiculous. You know she is who she is and she’s a very proud black woman. I know people with natural hair that are the least black inside, you know, it doesn’t matter."

On stepping into the spotlight:

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"I tried to stay as in the background as I could, and be there for them always, and I’m still there for them. But I decided that, you know, at 59 years old, it’s my time. And that’s not to be in the limelight so to speak, but just that I have a voice. I had no idea that through the years, people were watching me too. I just thought I was kind of like in the background and invisible and I just didn’t think I had much of a presence"

On the origin of those infamous corny jokes:

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"My brother passed away last year and he was my heart. And he used to tell the corniest jokes. Every time you saw him he had a corny joke. And I loved it, it made me so happy. So one day I said, as a tribute to Skip, I told the joke that he told and everybody just responded to it, and I just thought, what a better way for you in all the craziness that's going on to look at some really corny joke. It's just fun."

On helping older women find their spark again:

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"Now I don’t have that fear and I realize that I can help people, especially older women, because when I decided at 58 years old that I had to file for divorce, I was devastated. I was so scared, I felt like my life, not was over, because I knew I had my children, I had my church, all the good things I had in my life. But as far as meeting someone else again, I just was like, where am I gonna meet somebody at my age? I thought that part of life was over. So now I just want to share that that part of your life doesn’t have to be over. You can still have a great life. I’m that example for people and I love it. Nothing makes me happier than for a woman to come up to me saying I started exercising and I lost weight and I got a new man, and you know, I get chills thinking about it, it’s my purpose, I feel like I found my purpose."

To find out everything Janet and Tina discussed, you can listen to the entire debut episode of Never Before here, as well as iTunes and Spotify.

And if you can't get enough of Janet Mock like us, then you're in luck! Her second book, Surpassing Certainty: What My Twenties Taught Me, is scheduled to hit stores June 13.