Let's Talk Bruh

The Black barbershop is a staple in the Black community. It's a safe space for Black men to be themselves, vent, talk shit, and establish community with Black men of all ages. However, as much as some of us love the Black barbershop and regard it so, historically it has not been a safe space for ALL black people as much as we'd like to think. This week on the show we break down our experiences in...

Has racism ever made you sick? This week on #LetsTalkBruh we talk about the impact that racism has had over the course of our lives as Black men. As we know all know, racism and just dealing with white folks in general is stressful, but how exactly have we dealt with both the overt and subtle racism we've experienced in our lives? How does racism impact our health both physically and mentally? And...

1 Year + 46 Episodes later and we're still here!  On this week's episode we celebrate making it 1 year in the podcast game and NOT getting cancelled!  We catch up with other about what's been going on in our lives, getting out of our introvert bubbles and break from the script by tackling some current events in black masculinity + mental health including: - Kevin Durant's Injury - Ava Du...

Self Care is defined as " the powerful commitment to constantly choose activities and situations that make you feel healthy and good about yourself”.  It's a very simple concept in theory, yet for some reason it's very difficult to put into practice for many of us.  Well for starters, let's take into account how much time we spend at work, time spent supporting family + friends, time was...

Welcome to Part 2 of our Black Man's Guide for Mental Health series. Next up? Depression. As Black Men, most of us have been taught by family, media, or peers that expressing our feelings is unacceptable. Unmanly. Weak.  Even when we're at our lowest and know deep down we should talk to someone we still choose not to.  According to research, 90% of Black Men with depression never se...

Welcome to Part 1 of our Black Man's Guide for Mental Health series. First up? Anxiety. As your hosts, you've heard us joke a lot about how we're both introverts and experience slight to moderate to sometimes extreme cases of social anxiety in various spaces of our lives. But along with social anxiety, what are some other types of anxiety? How does anxiety show up in our lives as Black men? Can an...

Invisible work. Thankless jobs. When we talk about Emotional Labor these are some of the things we're talking about.  If you've been following us on Instagram this week you've seen women say the following things regarding emotional labor: - Emotional labor takes work. And emotional labor is not just for women to deal with  - Women are doing the extra work in your platonic/familiar relati...

Brotherhood. Growing up Black. Growing up fast. Relationships. Trying to make it out alive.  What do all of these things have in common? They're all significant themes present in both films in Part 2 of our Black Masculinity in Film series.   Boyz n the Hood (1991) & The Wood (1999).  Two films both set in Southern California - South Central LA & Inglewood respectively. Both fi...

Malcolm X. Shaft. Two names. 1 real. 1 fictional character. But both extremely important in film and real life in terms of their impact on Black Masculinity. Today we explore the 1971 blaxploitation classic Shaft starring Richard Roundtree, directed by Gordon Parks alongside Spike Lee's 1992 classic Malcolm X starring Denzel Washington.   Why these 2 films? Well there's more commonalitie...

Admit it. At some point whether it was 10 years ago or 10 days ago, you've experimented in some type of way with your hair.  Growing up, YouTube videos and Instagram pages dedicated to Black haircare weren't the norm so experimenting with unhealthy hair products and practices were Black rites of passage.   And when it comes to Black men, as long as our shape up is tight, we're all g...

Left out. Forgotten. Not cared for. Do any of these resonate for you as a Black man? Sometimes as Black men we feel the weight of the world on our shoulders.  On average, our life expectancy is the lowest, our suicides rates are at an all-time high, mass incarceration and police brutality are everyday issues and many of us feel we don't have enough spaces to be vulnerable with our most pressi...

What's the meaning of life? How do we find our purpose? What happens when we die? What does this all mean for Black men?  We spend the next hour and change trying to figure out life in one episode. Spoiler alert: We end up not being able to figure everything out.  We answer a few things, but we probably end up with more questions than answers.  As Black men we already feel like our...

MINI EPISODE ALERT Today we're hitting yall with a mini-episode that really serves as a preview for next week.  This week on Let's Talk Bruh we're talking a little bit about the existential crises that we all have at certain point in our lives. As your hosts, being in our late 20s, we're both at the place in our lives where we've seriously started to question and consider next steps when it c...

Hoteps, Noteps, Fauxteps, & The Ankh Right: Why Some Black men find liberation in these movements It's 2019 and if you've been on the internet at all in the last few years you probably know how to identify what is commonly referred to as a modern day hotep. Afrocentric. Pro Black. Anti LGBTQ. Anti Feminist. Fear of the destruction of the Black family. Fear of the Black masculinity being under atta...

Our personal hoop dreams for the NBA ended years ago, but as avid fans of the basketball, football, baseball and other sports we clearly had a vested interested in this week's episode. When talking about masculinity in sports, like other areas of life, there is a certain type of  acceptable masculinity.  The fire, passion, competitive spirit and in some cases aggressiveness that sports f...

With the rise of social & political activism movements picking up steam on social media in the last 4-5 years, we've seen several topics usually relegated to academic circles enter mainstream conversations. Feminism being a major one.   Generally speaking, we believe this trend to be a positive one, however many times as men, we have failed to really grasp what Feminism is and specifical...

This week on #LetsTalkBruh we break from our regularly scheduled format and discuss the panel we participated in last week entitled: Let's Hear it From the Boys: Black Masculinity in the Age of #MeToo. We recap our thoughts on the panel and open up the conversation to those of y'all who couldn't make it. Obviously a conversation surrounding Black men and the role we play in the MeToo era deserves...

When's the last time you embraced your boy for more than the usual dap + hug combination? We're talking a good, long lasting 5-10 second hug.  It's probably been awhile, right?  Well if you're anything like us, we can certainly relate and for good reason.  For most of us, we're usually taught that the two types of acceptable touch are reserved for the 2 F's: fucking or fighting. So...

This week on Let's Talk Bruh we talk about the revolving door of fetishisation.  Often times, if our masculinity revolves around sex, we unintentionally become complicit in our own fetishisation. There is a history in this country going back to slavery of both white men and women using our bodies for labor, sex included. When we weren't in control of our bodies, we subsequently lost control o...

Back in August of last year we dropped an episode on male friendships. We covered how trash we can be as friends sometimes and even brought in research that suggests men struggle at maintaining fulfilling friendships. We also talked about what men can do to establish deeper connections with each other. So today we revisit the subject but dive a bit deeper on the subject and cover not only male fri...

Have you ever felt emasculated? In a relationship? At work? By just being a Black man in this country? Coming off of last week's new Gillette #TheBestMenCanBe ad, and the American Psychological Association's new guidelines for treating men and boys we discuss the response from large numbers of men who felt that these efforts are emasculating men and taking part in the constant effort to attack tra...

We have a full slate of in-depth topics to hit yall with in 2019, but before we get too deep we had to catch up with a good ol venting session.  Why is that the holidays are so damn stressful? From panic attacks, to thug tears, to family relationships, the holidays bring on a lot. So we take some time this week to recap our holiday breaks this week.  We also pivot near the end of the epi...

By now, if you've been on social media at all over the past 5 days you've seen your TL discuss the new Lifetime documentary, "Surviving R. Kelly" produced by dream hampton .  Today we talk a bit about the documentary, our own experiences growing up in close proximity to R. Kelly, and a look at the impact of the documentary going forward.  We hope the impact of the documentary helps to br...

If you could describe your 2018 in one word, what would it be?  Growth? Transition? Trash? Well, hopefully not that last one. Regardless of how you look at it, we've all made it to the end of the another year so there's gotta be at least ONE W in there we can all be proud about. And speaking of 2018 W's we talked about our personal 2018 wins this year as well as the following: - 2018 Wins: Wh...

We're back for round 2 and this time we brought the professionals with us. This week we were joined by Tasnim Sulaiman from Black Men Heal . She's a therapist who comes across sex and sexuality related issues with her clients so we had the great opportunity to ask her all the questions that we couldn't get to the bottom of in last week's episode like: Can sex be considered successful without an or...