unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students

“I often greet people with a smile, no matter how I’m feeling. I’ve always wanted folks to feel comfortable engaging with me. No matter how I feel I want them to feel comfortable, like I’m approachab…

“Now that I’m much older I realize, I was never really lonely. There was always people around me in my life - my family, my friends - that I could have reached out to and built a relationship with.” …

Today is a special crossover episode, featuring The Contemplative Corazón podcast, with Julie Calderon!

The episode you will hear today from The Contemplative Corazón, featuring Ashanti Branch, origi…

“I try to lie to myself that ‘I find stillness in activity.’ But actually I think I’m terrified of stillness. I’m terrified of sitting with me.” - Kip Ioane

Ever Forward Club’s Ashanti Branch is join…

“I’ve always been, quietly, a fearful kid growing up. And there’s always that fear in the background. It probably wasn’t until I was in college - fear was the only form of motivation that I knew.” - …

“I became trained to feel that I always need to be doing something. To get loved. To get respect. To be appreciated. When I look back, it wasn’t healthy. But it was the reality.” - Ashanti Branch

In …

“Sometimes I just want someone to sit with me and say, ‘I know you’re scared.’ And I never had that when I was a kid, and I don’t have it now.” - Donovan Hall

It’s our THREE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY episode …

“When I’m having a good time, I feel like my soul and my spirit are in the room. They’re both present and in the room. And if I’m not enjoying myself, then I feel like I’m disconnected from those big…

“We’re different adults, this is a different situation, and you don’t have to be that child anymore. You can be, for that child, what you needed when you were their age. And we can do that now. And w…

“Everyone’s always thinking about what they don’t have. We can always be looking at each other thinking, ‘he’s got something I don’t have’ or ‘she has this.’ You take that focus away from what you do…

Say not, “I have found the truth,” but rather, “I have found a truth.”

Say not, “I have found the path of the soul.” Say rather, “I have met the soul walking upon my path.”

- The Prophet by Kahlil Gi…

“Racism has been used as this tool for centuries to divide and conquer, and to separate ordinary people of different colors, and to keep them from working together to challenge the corporate dominati…

“Keep on keepin’ on. Because, believe it or not there’s someone who’s looking at you in a way that you don’t even see yourself.” - Tyrone J. Dangerfield

Ever Forward Club’s Ashanti Branch is joined b…

“I’m generally more shy and reserved, and I think I’ve naturally gravitated towards more extroverted people because they take up space and it makes me feel more comfortable.” - Drew Barvir

Ever Forwa…

“Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.”

-…

“I knew that if I wanted to control the outcome before someone was about to make fun of me, or judge, or criticize; it was better for me to be the first one to make a joke about myself.” - Diego Estr…

Ever Forward Club’s Ashanti Branch is joined by Christopher Veal. As a former Marine officer, combat veteran, and Black man, Christopher leverages all this and his 25 years of experience in executive…

“What keeps me hopeful is our students. Our students and our youth, they’re fearless; they’re committed; they’re open-minded. They have always been the anchor to the work that I do. When they realize…

“It’s just this cycle I’ve been on for so long. What would it be like to not distract yourself with the work thing, but also not go to the numbing out thing - and just be present in all the stuff? Th…

“In the end, I want you to trust me. There are some students - they don’t always like me, but they know I got their back. And sometimes you can’t have both at the same time, and I think growing as a …