Do You Feel Connected to Any Women in Your Life?

"There's some rules about what it means to be real men in our community," he says. "If you need to prove that you're not gay that you're Conquering, then you gotta like have a good stories now" The mentoring process starts with asking the young men why they are acting out of this behavior because they've been told that this is how you must do in order to get respect from these other young men."

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Young boys need guidance. Activist, speaker and mentor Ashanti Branch talks about his journey from teacher to full time mentor, being vulnerable with your emotions, the challenges facing young men and the importance of leading by example. Through his work with his nationwide #MillionMaskMovement Ashanti is helping young boys, and particularly black young men remove their “masks” and reveal the emotions that reside inside.

Content warning: this episode discusses sexual assault

New episodes every Monday 🎙️ The video version of every episode will always be available on the @wearemanenough YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/WeAreManEnough

The Man Enough Podcast is produced by Wayfarer Studios and presented by Procter and Gamble, in partnership with Cadence13, an Audacy company.

Show Notes

00:00 Content Warning

00:08 Episode Starts

02:28 Introducing Ashanti Branch

03:46 How Did You Get Into Activism?

08:55 When Is The Last Time You Didn’t Feel Enough?

16:44 Working On Accountability

21:27 Ashanti’s Childhood & Introduction to Porn

27:42 Sexual Assault, Adultification and Addictions

36:12 The Pressure of Masculinity and Young Men

46:15 Black Boys Aren’t Allowed To Play

47:47 Creating A Culture of Care For Black Boys

55:12 Young Men Don’t Need To Be Shamed

1:00:20 Live Mask Workshop With Our Hosts

01:12:28 What Does It Mean to be Man Enough

About Ever Forward Club and The Million Mask Movement

EFC is a non-profit organization that ensures underserved students graduate high school by addressing the underlying causes of dropout rates and youth violence, and providing grassroots solutions like mentorship, safe spaces and emotional tools.

EFC’s #millionmaskmovement provides a free, youth-friendly, hands-on emotional tool, with an online gallery of over 65,000 masks from around the world, searchable by age, so youth feel less alone.

About Ashanti Branch

Ashanti Branch is an accomplished speaker, non-profit founder and activist whose work with youth has been featured at SXSW, CNN and Sundance Film Festival. Ashanti is the Founder and Executive Director of the Ever Forward Club (EFC), a non-profit organization that ensures underserved students graduate high school by providing grassroots solutions like mentorship, safe spaces and emotional tools.

Guest Social Links:

ASHANTI BRANCH

Instagram @brancspeaks

Twitter: @BranchSpeaks

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FOLLOW THE HOSTS:

Justin Baldoni