Brown Enough

New Year got you feeling reflective? Us, too. So today we're bringing you a conversation between Chris and Dr. Kira Hudson Banks, an expert on race and how humans make meaning out of it. Chris walks through the steps of what called "Racial Identity Development Theory" with Dr. Banks -- from the first time he noticed his own race to the moments in his life that have changed how he thinks about his...

Lisa Solomon is a mixed media artist and author obsessed with color. So who better than her to explain the beauty behind the color Brown?   We are looking for stories about your names. Do you have a name that’s unique, one that’s hard for others to say? Do you have a funny story, an origin story? What do you think is special or beautiful about your name? Let us know! Send us an email or voice memo...

Twenty one year-old Nalleli Cobo spent more than a decade fighting to shut down an oil well across the street from her home in South Los Angeles. Nalleli says it's no coincidence that this well, and thousands of others like it, exist primarily in communities of color. Tune in to hear about the activism that won Nalleli the 2022 Goldman Environmental Prize -- aka the Green Nobel Prize -- and what s...

Chris gets a storytelling masterclass from Martina Castro, the founder and CEO of Adonde Media, a multilingual podcast company. Martina is the host of several shows including the Duolingo Spanish Podcast. But you’ll be surprised to hear that speaking Spanish at home was a challenge for her growing up. Now, she is an amazing storyteller both in English and Spanish on a mission to make stories that...

I’m excited to bring you a special episode of Some of My Best Friends Are , a podcast from Pushkin Industries I recently had the pleasure of joining. On Some of My Best Friends Are , Harvard professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad and journalist Ben Austen, two best friends who grew up together on the South Side of Chicago in the 1980s, discuss their experiences with the absurdities and intricacies of ra...

“The caucacity!” says Mandi Woodruff-Santos, co-host of the finance podcast Brown Ambition , when Black and Brown communities are hit with 6 figures of debt by corporate banks after graduating college. In this episode, Chris chats with Mandi to understand why Black and Brown families are lagging behind in building wealth and what they can do to start changing the narrative.

Brown women have a right to laugh and they need to express it, says Indian immigrant and comedian Zarna Garg. Zarna went from being a lawyer, to a stay at home mom to her three kids, to a stand-up comedian and Tik Tok star. Today, she chats with Chris about how her kids convinced her to start a career in comedy, how she mines her culture for jokes, and what it means to be a Brown woman in the worl...

Writer Mayukh Sen didn't always like to cook. But he found his way into the kitchen when he discovered seven inspiring women who changed the world of food by making an impact in American cuisine. Mayukh is the author of  Tastemakers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food In America,  a book that profiles women of diverse countries and cultures. Chris chats with Mayukh about how these seven...

"What are you?" That’s a very tricky question journalist and cartoonist Malaka Gharib is super familiar with as a first generation Filipino-Egyptian-American. Malaka grew up navigating three different cultures and two religions...something Chris can relate to as a Dominican-Colombian-American who grew up in the vibrant city of Queens, New York. Listen to learn more about how Malaka’s thinking abou...

Listen to this episode to find out exactly who in your life is a donkey and how to pay them no mind. Chris chats with actress and friend of show, Kyla Pratt, about growing up inside the entertainment industry and her long career on groundbreaking shows for Black and Brown folks.

Last time, we started to unpack the complicated history of how Dominicans think about race. Today, we keep that conversation going with Dr. Saudi Garcia, a writer born in the DR who identifies not as white, or latina, or afro-caribbean... but Black. She tells me about the bent towards whiteness she's been trying to fight for most of her life.         Did you grow up in Haiti or the DR? Or maybe in...

How can people from two countries in conflict come together? Well that's exactly what today's guest, France Francois, helps facilitate between Haitian- and Dominican-Americans.  France's organization runs workshops called Decolonizing Hispaniola, where they deconstruct historical myth and help everyone reimagine a conflict-free future.  Today, she chats with Chris about how she got into this work...

This episode is going to make you hungry. Because it's all about tacos! Chris chats with taco expert and professor Steve Alvarez about how cultures mix through their food by looking at one of Chris' favorite cross-cultural tacos: Tacos Arabes. Plus, the best tacos from LA to Queens!

Scoring all the right points in Hollywood ain't easy -- especially as a Brown person. Claudia Forestieri learned that first hand when creating her hit TV series Gordita Chronicles for HBO. The show was widely acclaimed and popular... but got cancelled after just one season. Chris chats with Claudia about the lessons she learned from pitching and creating Gordita Chronicles, and what Hollywood is f...

Row House is on a mission to reshape the book publishing world. And its founder, Rebekah Borucki, has made it her business to welcome new authors of various backgrounds into it. Today, she talks to Christopher Rivas about stealing a book that changed her life, and how she infiltrated a white industry with her progressive agenda. Plus, we hear the backstory of how that led her to Chris, who has a n...

Comete ese miedo -- or eat your fear -- is what Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa's husband told her to do when imposter syndrome sneaks up on her. But across her decades long career, she's learned to embrace the pressure. Today, she talks to Christopher Rivas about how her parents' experience in the US shaped how she thinks about this country. Plus, what she hopes for the next gene...

Sad that Rubirosa is over? Well, guess what: Chris isn't going anywhere! Stay tuned for a new conversation every week about what it means to be BROWN ENOUGH. 

In this last episode of the series, I visit the Dominican Republic for the first time ever. A trip I think will be about finding closure with Rubi ends up becoming a family reunion I’ll never forget.

The last years of Rubi’s life are as action-packed as the rest. But the mysterious circumstances of his death leave me with some uncomfortable questions.

Rubi’s story inspires me. It’s also a warning to me. And when I finally share his story onstage, I find that it’s bigger than just Rubi and me.

Turns out, most of Rubi’s lovers were white women. Looking at my own life, I realized we had that in common. Things get pretty interesting when I start asking questions out loud.

A Tíguere ⁠— a tiger ⁠— is Dominican slang for a smooth-talking ladies' man who gets what he wants. A guy like Rubi. But what does a Tíguere leave in his wake?

Forget about the white guy in the tux with the British accent. Imagine it’s Jaime Bond, Javi Bond, Bondissimo. Why haven’t Latin Americans gotten to see ourselves up on the big screen?

What does it mean to be Dominican? The good, the bad. I wanna know what’s in my blood. Today, I ask my pops about it. And then I get a lesson on the dark side of Dominican history.

A lover. A race car driver. A polo player. An international jetsetter. One of Rubi’s best friends tells me all about the playboy’s lifestyle. Plus, I look a little deeper into whether the most famous playboy on the silver screen--James Bond--was based on our Rubi.