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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 brownenough@stitcher.com. 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 BrownEnough@stitcher.com. 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 BrownEnough@stitcher.com. 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 BrownEnough@stitcher.com.