Are You Breathing? | 3min snip from The Man Enough Podcast

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Breaking the Boxes: Race, Gender and Vulnerability with Chris Rivas

The Man Enough Podcast

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CHAPTER

Are You Breathing?

"For years, I didn't realize that I was holding my breath constantly," he says. "I'm flexing all the time to protect myself from the world." He recalls wanting so badly to be white as a kid and how his grandma told him to sleep with a clothespin pinched on his nose. 'There was no way to hide it for a big, everything looked different'

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Episode notes

Actor, author and podcast host Christopher Rivas is constantly breaking the boxes society places around his identity. Today Chris shares his journey towards self confidence, education and peace as a brown man in America. Our hosts get intimate about their relationships to privilege, adolescent insecurities and actionable steps they are taking towards being a “good” person.

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

01:19 Episode Starts

03:20 Where Did The Title "Brown Enough" Come From?

05:33 When Was The Last Time You Didn't Feel Enough?

08:58 The World Isn't Black and White

16:47 Brownness And It's Proximity to Whiteness

19:34 The Real History of James Bond

22:40 Insecurities And The Desire To Fit In

28:04 Expressing Vulnerabilities/ Safe Enough To Be Vulnerable

36:59 Tangible Ways To Be Better Men/Fight for Action

48:25 Ignorance Doesn't Taste Good

56:07 Be Engaged In The World

59:48 What Does It Mean To Be Man Enough

01:00:40 Breathing Exercise

Quotes

“There isn’t a box that can contain a man” - Christopher Rivas

“What stories must die so that new ones can grow?” - Christopher Rivas

“I am less interested in better and I am more interested in how do I be more honest.” - Christopher Rivas

“I show up in the world everyday knowing that I am going to be somebody's ancestor. ” - Christopher Rivas

"I'm moved by not wanting to be in a state of ignorance. I'm moved by wanting to be in a state of peace." - Christopher Rivas

Read Brown Enough

Brown Enough, part memoir and part social commentary, emerges, asking readers to proudly put their bodies, their identities, into the conversations of race. Brown Enough is a roller coaster of finding one's true self while simultaneously having a racial awakening amidst the struggle to be "perfectly" Latinx, woke, and as Brown as possible to make it in today's America.

Buy Brown Enough wherever you buy your books!

Support Brown Enough Podcast

https://chartable.com/podcasts/rubirosa

About Christopher Rivas

Christopher Rivas is an actor, author, podcaster, and storyteller. He is the host of two podcast series with SiriusXM's Stitcher: Brown Enough, which explores the parallel themes of this book through interview-style episodes; and Rubirosa, a 10-episode documentary-style investigation of Porfirio Rubirosa. On screen, Rivas is known for his work on the Fox series, Call Me Kat, opposite Mayim Bialik, Leslie Jordan, Kyla Pratt and Cheyenne Jackson. He has recently released his first book Brown Enough, which explores what it means to be Brown in America.

Guest Social Links:

CHRIS RIVAS

Instagram @christopher__rivas

Twitter @chris__rivas

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Order the Boys Will Be Human book: https://boyswillbehuman.com

FOLLOW THE HOSTS:

Justin Baldoni