Brown Enough

Comedian Erik Rivera has been making audiences laugh for more than a decade. He sits down with Chris to talk about how identity and family life makes it into his jokes, and about creating a supportive and inclusive comedy ecosystem.

A star is on the rise and she’s making her big splash in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new Broadway show, Bad Cinderella. Her name is Linedy Genao. The Brooklyn native plays the leading role of Cinderella putting her own twist to the character. And this is not the Disney version we all know of.

This episode is an invitation to pause, take stock and recharge as Chris takes a reset in Napa, California - where he talks to leaders, creatives and disruptors in all fields of work.

Annie Gonzalez is setting fire -- but not literally. The actress is spicing things up in the new movie Flamin’ Hot, playing Judy, the wife and partner of the man who invented one of America’s favorite snacks, the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Today, Chris chats with Annie about her acting career, what it was like playing the role of Judy and executive producing a new biopic of the Mexican American singer Jenni Rivera.

Bri Majsiak is a journalist, but her work extends beyond that. She’s also a co-founder of a nonprofit called Breasties, an all inclusive organization that creates a community for survivors of breast and gynecologic cancer. But also for previvors, thrivers and caregivers. Today, she chats with Chris about how her mother’s story inspired her to start Breasties, what her nonprofit is doing to support folks impacted by breast cancer and an important decision she made regarding her health.

Today’s episode is extra special. We’ve been asking for your stories, thoughts, and reactions - and today you’ll get to hear all the beautiful messages you’ve been sending over time.

Henry R. Muñoz III's career has spanned art, architecture and politics and entertainment. And as the the son of a farm labor leader who worked closely with the legendary Cesar Chavez, community-building is in Henry's blood. Today, Chris chats with Henry about lessons Henry took from his parents, how his interest for the arts and advocacy intersect and all the tremendous work he’s done for the Brown community.

Today, we’re bringing you a special episode from The Man Enough Podcast - where our host Chris Rivas 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. The video version of every episode will always be available on the @wearemanenough YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/WeAreManEnough

When Chef Miguel Trinidad was introduced to cannabis, it was all about getting high. But as he got older and learned about the medicinal benefits of marijuana, he began to think about it differently. Now, he is taking cannabis to the next level. He’s infusing cannabis with food at private dinner parties. These dinners are invite only. Luckily, Chris got his invitation. Today, Chris chats with Chef Miguel about the art of cooking with cannabis, how Chef Miguel got started in the industry and how he is using these dinners to de-stigmatize the stereotype of cannabis.

If you open your Instagram account and search for the name Sarah Bahbah, you’ll find yourself looking at beautiful images inspired by romance and films. These images -- of loving couples, luxurious bathtubs and platters of food -- are just a glimpse of the world the Palestinian/Jordanian artist Sarah Bahbah has created with her photographs. And today, Chris and her chat about her visual art and identity. You can purchase of book of her copy Dear Love here.

How does masculinity show up in relationships, everyday life and in culture? For this week's episode, Chris gets deep into the topic with Mark Pagan, creator of the Other Men Need Help podcast. And then he welcomes another special guest -- his pops William Rivas. Together they chat about the stereotypes of masculinity that exist in Latin American culture and how William has gone through his own evolution.

Classical music is pretty much a space where Black and Brown folks are missing. But there’s someone close to the Brown Enough team who’s shaking things up to make the world of classical music more diverse. She’s Jazmín Morales, chief of staff at the prestigious Juilliard School and partner of executive producer Carlos E. Hernandez. Chris and Jazmín take us on a deep dive into the world of classical music, discuss what it was like playing mariachi growing up and how educational institutions should support the arts.

Chris has a little secret! He’s an actor but he surprisingly doesn’t watch much TV. He’s a busy man. He’s either auditioning for roles, writing and/or hosting this podcast. So for this week’s episode, he chats with television aficionado Ashley Ray. Ashley is the host of TV I Say, an Earwolf podcast that celebrates all things television. Both Chris and Ashley discuss their favorite shows, how Black and Brown representation on TV has evolved, and the insidious role advertising plays in all of this. We need your help. We are looking for YOUR STORIES about meditation. Do you meditate ⁠— or feel that meditation is accessible to you? Have you ever been the only Brown person in a meditation class or space? Have you tried to introduce this practice to your community in an interesting way? Tell us everything. Send your stories in an email or as a voice memo to [email protected]. You could wind up on a future episode!

There've been a slew of terms used to identify people of Latin American heritage over the years: Hispanic, Latino, Latina, and Latinx. That last one -- Latinx -- has sparked controversy, headlines and even political fights recently. So this week, Chris dives deeper into the conversation of assimilation, self identity, census checkboxes and who gets to police language. He's joined by fellow writer Julissa Arce, author of You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case For Rejecting Assimilation, who has her own thoughts on the term Latinx.

Kweli Caldereon has been a makeup artist for more than 20 years. She's often called when films, tv shows or music videos need someone to take care of hair and makeup for Black creatives. She even did host Chris' makeup once, on the set of Call Me Kat. Today, Chris chats with Kweli about how she got started working in Hollywood, what changes she’s seen in the industry, why segregation in the beauty industry persists, and the changes she wants to see.

When Chris interviewed his dad for the Rubirosa podcast, he found out a secret about his dad's real name. That story inspired today's episode, which is all about names. And the special guest is YOU! Tune in for stories about beautiful, Brown names: what you were named after, whether people can pronounce your name and how some of y’all are reclaiming your names.

Chris speaks very little Spanish. A fact he's been ashamed of for quite some time since his parents and sister are fluent. But a little while back, he enrolled in a program called "Spanish Sin Pena" that aims to empower folks with Latin American heritage to speak Spanish confidently. Today, he chats with the founders of Spanish Sin Pena about how it started, the impact they are making and why so many people feel shame and embarrassment about not knowing their parents' first language.

Before moving to LA, Chris was born and raised in Queens, New York. He remembers visiting his abuela in Jackson Heights, where more than 150 languages are spoken. Today, he talks to the New York State Senator who reps Jackson Heights, Jessica Ramos, about her career serving one of the most diverse communities in the world.

Chris wrote an essay for Modern Love in 2019 about dating—and breaking up with—white women that went viral. Hear all about the essay, its aftermath and how friend-of-the-show Grasie Mercedes had a similar experience that led to her reaching out to Chris! This episode was originally aired as part of Chris' documentary podcast, Rubirosa. To hear more, scroll down to the bottom of this feed and click on "Rubirosa Episode 1: Haunted." To read Chris' Modern Love essay, click here.

Today, we’re listening to actor Grasie Mercedes, who stars in NBC’s Grand Crew. Though she identifies as Afro Latina, she's never been cast as such. We go deep into why that might be. Plus, casting director Victor Vazquez tells us about why it’s important to see ourselves reflected on more creative projects. And how that representation can’t be monolithic

What and who do you include in a national Latino museum?That’s a question that many have been asking since late 2020, when Congress green-lit the creation of The National Museum of the American Latino. It’s a new addition to the Smithsonian Institution’s roster of national museums, many of which intend to preserve the history and culture of the United States.The fight to create The National Museum of the American Latino spans across decades. The idea was sparked by a damning 1994 report, commissioned by the Smithsonian itself, which concluded that the institution had a pattern of systematically excluding Latinos and Latinas from its programming and its staff. One of its top recommendations? To create a museum highlighting Latinos and Latinas in this country. Now, in 2022, the museum is making moves. Even though there’s no building to house it yet, the National Museum of the American Latino has appointed a board, hired an inaugural director, and has even debuted its first show in the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. In the midst of all this, many are beginning to wonder what the vision of this museum will be, and how it plans to capture the wide diversity of Latino history and culture in the United States. Show page: https://www.latinousa.org/2022/09/02/latinomuseum/Apple Podcast Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shaping-a-national-latino-museum/id79681317?i=1000578129968

What started off as a hobby crafting beer at home turned into a real business for Juan Camilo, who’s now the founder and owner of Dyckman Beer Company in New York. Juan was born in the Dominican Republic and at the age of five he came to the U.S., where he grew up between Washington Heights and the Bronx. Using his cultural influences, Juan infuses Dominican flavors to make unique craft beer. Listen to learn more about Juan and the secret recipes he's working on.

Did you know that wine actually has roots that date back to Asia? There's a lot we get wrong about wine, according to our guest Justine Belle Lambright, a co-founder of Kalchē Wine Cooperative and expert on all things food & beverage. Listen to learn about Justine's experience in the industry and how they're changing the game with their own business.

Growing up, Jesse Havea didn’t see themselves represented on screen or on stages of Broadway shows. But everything changed when they started doing drag under the name Brita Filter. Being the first Polynesian queen on RuPaul's Drag Race inspired Brita to carve out their own space in the performance world through drag and find ways to bridge divides with their conservative Mormon family members.

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 place in the world. Learn more about Dr. Banks' work and listen to her podcast: Raising Equity 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 to [email protected]. You could wind up on a future episode.

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 to [email protected]. You could wind up on a future episode.

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 she says we can all do in the fight against climate change.

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 reach global audiences.

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 race in America. I joined Khalil and Ben to talk about my own racial awakening – which I attribute to the moment I learned the “real” James Bond, Porfirio Rubirosa, was Dominican. And I share what it means, to me, to be Latinx in a country where most conversations about race are divided into black and white. You can hear more from Some of My Best Friends Are at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/sbfs2?sid=enough

“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 world of comedy.

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 women helped Americans transform how they cook and eat. 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! Please, send us an email or a voice memo to [email protected].

"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 about the question "What are you?" evolved and inspired her to write her first graphic memoir I Was Their American Dream. Her latest book It Won't Always Be Like This is out now.

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 another place with a similar history of antiblackness? What have you learned and unlearned? Send your thoughts in an email or voice message to [email protected].

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 and what Haiti and DR have in common. Plus, producer Baudelaire reports back from one of France's workshops! Did you grow up in Haiti or the DR? Or maybe in another place with a similar history of violence and antiblackness? What have you learned and unlearned? Send your thoughts in an email or voice message to [email protected]"

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 failing to do for Brown communities.

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 new book out October 11th called Brown Enough.

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 generation of Brown journalists. Her new young adult book Once I Was You: Finding My Voice and Passing the Mic is out now.

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.

Meet Rubi ⁠— a bold and bright young man, raised in Paris, who gets close with one of the most dangerous figures in Dominican history. He learned early the benefits of fitting in and playing pretend…and so did I.