Shows / unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
Only 23% of K-12 educators in America are male, a gender gap that has serious ramifications for male students - who often face DISPROPORTIONATE disciplinary action. This podcast is for male educators who want to embody a necessary change in schools, via healthy social-emotional outcomes. Come away with actionable lesson plans, relatable stories, and a renewed purpose. The US Surgeon General says the mental health of our youth is the "crisis of our time." Male educators are uniquely positioned…
Episodes
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#94 | Saving Our Black Boys: Relationships Before Results w/ Dr. Lewis Thomas III
What happens when students are expected to adapt to systems that were never designed with them in mind? In this episode of unMASKing with Male Educators…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#93 | Beyond the Curriculum: Understand Before You Educate w/ Dr. Darrius Stanley
What happens when you learn to show up prepared, confident, and composed—but struggle to process the emotions behind the mask? In this episode of unMASKing…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#92 | Step First: The Power of Vulnerability in Education w/ Jon Harper
What happens when educators stop trying to appear like they have everything figured out—and begin openly acknowledging the mistakes, worries, and struggles…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#91 | Purpose With Balance: Sacred Purpose Without Sacrificing Yourself w/ Chris Chatmon
What happens when your life is built around serving others—but the weight of that responsibility begins showing up in your body, your family, and the parts of…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#90 | Connection More Than Performance: Your Students Don't Need a Perfect Teacher w/ Phil Januszewski
What happens when educators stop waiting for the system to change before giving themselves permission to experience more joy—and begin paying attention to the…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#89 | Keeping the Imagination Alive: Learning, Teaching, and Becoming w/ Dr. Joseph Brown
What happens when educators see themselves not only as teachers—but as conduits carrying history, culture, wisdom, and possibility from one generation to the…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#88 | Bad Lessons: What Schools Teach Black Boys Without Saying a Word w/ Matthew R. Morris
What happens when Black boys are taught that they have to choose between being authentically themselves and being seen as intelligent, successful, or worthy of…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#87 | Stop Shaming Boys: A Better Way to Talk About Masculinity w/ Chris Hemmings
What happens when we stop shaming boys for the masks they wear—and start getting curious about why they learned to wear them in the first place? In this…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#86 | You Are Not Alone: Trust, Mentorship, and The Power of Showing up w/ Ray Seol
What happens when educators stop believing they need to have all the answers—and start recognizing trust, curiosity, and presence as some of the most powerful…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#85 | Hip-hop Lessons for Life and Learning w/ David Spellmon
What happens when educators stop seeing hip-hop as something to keep outside the classroom—and begin recognizing it as a tool for building confidence…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#84 | Your Words Can Build—or Burn w/ Maurice McDavid
What happens when educators recognize that their words can create warmth, build confidence, and strengthen belonging—or leave wounds students carry for years?…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#83 | Behind the High Performer: What We Hide Behind the Mask w/ Ron Rapatalo
What happens when someone appears confident, connected, and successful on the outside while privately navigating anxiety, avoidance, pressure, and self-doubt?…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#82 | Behind the Confidence: Let Kids Learn To Live w/ Dr. Ray Boyd
What does it mean to lead with confidence while carrying vulnerability, caution, and responsibility behind the mask? In this episode of unMASKing with Male…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#81 | Leading With Compassion w/ Joshua Stamper
What happens when an educator chooses to look beyond behavior and uncover the story, need, or struggle beneath it? In this episode of unMASKing with Male…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#80 | Beyond The Mask: What Education Owes The World w/ Professor Richard Weissbourd
What does it truly mean to raise caring, moral, and engaged young people? In this episode of unMASKing with Male Educators, Ashanti sits down with Harvard…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#79 | Behind the Mask: The Masks We Wear, the History We Carry w/ Dr. Frederick Gooding Jr.
What happens when a historian, educator, and cultural critic invites us to think more deeply about the masks we wear, the stories we inherit, and the truths we…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#78: More Than One Way to Be a Man: Redefining Masculinity w/ Gabriel Mizunaka
What happens when young people are only shown one version of what it means to be a man? Ashanti Branch sits down with educator, spoken word artist, and author…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#77: Student Rights Aren't Optional: Why Student Rights Can't Be Left to Chance w/ Preston Cary Green III
What happens when the protections students depend on begin to disappear in plain sight? In this conversation, Ashanti Branch sits down with education law…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#76: The Power of Questioning: Why Critical Thinking Must Belong to Everyone w/ Colin Seale
What if the behaviors schools label as problems are actually signs of untapped brilliance? In this conversation, Ashanti Branch sits down with educator…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#75: What Does It Mean to Be Black in America’s Schools? w/ Brian Rashad Fuller
What happens when your earliest memories teach you lessons about race, identity, and belonging before you even understand what those words mean? In this…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#74: Hope Dealers and Possibility: Reimagining What Young People Can Become w/ Hasan Davis
What happens when one person sees your potential before you can see it yourself? Ashanti Branch sits down with Hasan Davis, educator, youth advocate…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#73: From Survival to Purpose: The Courage to Uncover Your Light w/ Steve Sapourn
Content notes: This episode contains discussions of trauma, addiction, mental health, and psychedelic-assisted healing. Steve shares his personal experiences…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#72: What Happens When the Hope-Giver Needs Hope? w/ Chase Mielke
What happens when the people everyone relies on for hope, encouragement, and positivity are struggling to carry everyone else's burdens? In this powerful…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#71 | Helping Kids Feel Safe Enough to Connect w/ Fernando Deveras
What happens when a certified educator, trauma-informed healing-centered facilitator, and community organizer starts asking deeper questions about masculinity…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#70 | If You Didn’t Start Yesterday, Start Today — w/ Nigel Williams
In this episode of unMASKing with Male Educators, Ashanti Branch sits down with Nigel Williams, a longtime friend from Oakland, retired probation professional…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#69 | Are You In or Are You Out? — w/ Jay Wamsted
In this episode of unMASKing with Male Educators, Ashanti Branch sits down with Jay Wamsted, a 20-year educator, father, writer, and author of The Lockdown…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#68 | Does Your Teaching Match Who’s in the Room? — w/ Principal Baruti Kafele
In this episode of unMASKing with Male Educators, Ashanti Branch sits down with Principal Baruti Kafele, a 40-year educator, author, speaker, and school…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#E67 | Clyde Cole on Emotional Safety, Authentic Leadership, and Helping Students Take the Risk to Trust
Ashanti sits down with Clyde Cole, Principal of Cristo Rey Brooklyn High School, to explore identity, leadership, education, and the masks school leaders wear…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#E66 | Bishop Foreman on Transformational Teaching, Leadership, and Teaching for Real Impact
Ashanti sits down with Bishop Foreman for an honest and powerful conversation about leadership, education, and the masks we wear. This episode explores what it…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#65 | Alexander Kopelman on Authenticity, Creativity, and Helping Children Stay Real
In this conversation, Ashanti sits down with Alexander Kopelman, founding president and CEO of the Children’s Arts Guild, to explore authenticity, identity…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#64 | Jason Biehl on White Discomfort, Belonging, and the Work of Healing
In this thoughtful and timely conversation, Ashanti sits down with educator, facilitator, and author Jason Biehl to explore masculinity, whiteness, emotional…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#63 | Real Men Teach, Retaining Male Educators, & Strong Friends Still Need Help w/ Curtis Valentine
What does it cost to always be seen as the strong one? In this conversation, Curtis Valentine, founder of Real Men Teach and founder in residence with the…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#62 | Breathwork, Calm, & Impacting Lives - with Shalin Desai
What if the way through stress isn’t to push harder, but to learn how to come back to yourself? In this conversation, Shalin Desai, engineer, Art of Living…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#61 | 57 Pounds: Healing Myself While Fighting for Our Young People
Welcome to UnMASKing with Male Educators. In this episode, Ashanti shares a deeply personal update on his health and wellness journey, reflecting on what it…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#60 | School Social Work, Grief, & the Boundaries That Keep You in the Work - with Justin Martinez
One social worker. One campus. A hundred invisible fires. In this conversation, Justin Martinez, a Bay Area high school school social worker, assistant…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#59 | The Mentorship Lineage of Black Male Educators: Jacob Cory Gold, Dr. Willie Williams, Reginald Williams — Belief, Masks, and the Seeds That Outlive You
Three Black male educators. Three generations of impact. One powerful through-line: belief. In this conversation, Jacob (Cory Gold), Dr. Willie Williams, and…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#58 | “Recruiting Someone Back to the Scene of a Crime”: Sharif El-Mekki, Black Men in Education, & the Work Schools Avoid
This episode is a masterclass in what it really costs to be a Black man in education and what it takes to build something better. Sharif El-Mekki (Center for…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#57 | From “I Never Wanted to Teach” to Transforming 50+ Schools: Kyle Sumrow, Robby Cobbs, & the Real Work Behind EdTech
This is the story of two educators who never planned to become educators, and ended up building an edtech nonprofit that’s served 50+ schools in Puerto Rico…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#56 | ICE, Alex Pretti, & Emotional Landmines: What Our Students Are Carrying (and What Schools Can Do Now)
In this episode, Ashanti Branch shares what he’s been witnessing in schools and in the broader social climate surrounding ICE, Alex Pretti, and how it shows up…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#55 | Show Your Work: Language, Masculinity, and the Future of Learning – w/ Dr. Mark Anthony Neal – Professor, Duke University
What happens when “being professional” quietly turns into “being unseen”? In this episode of unMASKing with Male Educators, Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, Black…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#54 | Heart Before Head: The Emotional Work Behind Academic Success – w/ Dr. Calvin J. Hadley – Assistant Provost, Howard University
What if the breakthrough for Black boys and men in education isn’t more pressure… but more belonging? In this episode of unMASKing with Male Educators, Dr…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#53 | You’re Worth the Pause: Building Brave Spaces for Black Male Educators – w/ Ayodele Harrison – Founder, BMEsTalk
What if the leadership move you need most right now isn’t to push harder… but to pause? In this episode of unMASKing with Male Educators, Ayodele Harrison…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#52 | Why Not Today? (Dr. Steve Perry’s Wake-Up Call for Educators)
This episode didn’t go the way we planned, in the best way. Instead of a traditional interview, Dr. Steve Perry steps in with the kind of mentoring questions…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#51 | What’s Behind the Smile? What Young Men Are Really Carrying – Data, Masks & the Crisis of Emotional Safety
What if the students who say they’re “good” are the ones we need to check on the most? In this episode of unMASKing with Male Educators, Ashanti Branch pulls…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
Don't Ignore It: What a 30-day cleanse taught me about educators, self-care, and the state of our boys
Welcome back to UnMASKing with Male Educators. As we reflect and look ahead, we’re revisiting one of the most personal and vulnerable episodes of the podcast…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
Compassion and Dignity for Educators: The key to changing school communities - w/ Dr. Bill Penuel
Welcome to UnMASKing with Male Educators. As we close out the year, we’re revisiting some of the most downloaded and most meaningful conversations of the…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
Students are Leaving Their Work BLANK - Here’s Why
Welcome to UnMASKing with Male Educators. As we close out the year, we’re revisiting some of our most impactful, most downloaded, and most transformative…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
How to Start Your Next Semester: Practical Advice from a 7-Year Teaching Veteran - w/ Nicholas Ward - Educator, Mentor, Sports Connoisseur
Welcome to UnMASKing with Male Educators. As we close out the year, we’re revisiting some of our most impactful, most downloaded, and most transformative…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#50 | Building Classrooms Where Students & Teachers Thrive – w/ Dr. Maurice J. Elias – Rutgers University SEL Pioneer
What if the secret to real learning has nothing to do with cognition, and everything to do with emotion? In this episode of unMASKing with Male Educators, Dr…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#49 | What I Learned From Hosting the Young Men’s Conference: Community, Vulnerability & Planting Seeds for 2026
We just wrapped our second Young Men’s Conference, and I’m still taking in the power, the stories, and the lessons this year brought. From 220 registered to…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#48 | Teaching Through Fear, Faith & Forgiveness – w/ Dr. José Luis Vilson – EduColor Executive Director
Do you ever feel like you’re carrying the weight of your students’ futures on your shoulders? That tension, between hope and exhaustion, between responsibility…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#47 | Behind Prison Walls: Healing, Brotherhood, and the Power of Masks w/ Gregory Robinson Jr. (Samson Correctional Institution)
Gregory Robinson Jr. is an author, educator, and mentor currently incarcerated at the Samson Correctional Institution in North Carolina. From behind prison…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#46 | Redefining Consequences: Restorative Justice, Accountability, and Healing in Schools w/ Nicholas Bradford (National Center for Restorative Justice)
Nicholas Bradford is the founder and Executive Director of the National Center for Restorative Justice, where he and his team help schools across the country…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#45 | What I’ve learned from MAGA: Fighting back with positive male mentors
We police ourselves too much. And by "we" I'm referring to the progressive movement. Those on the other side have built a large coalition by putting the…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#44 | How a high school class solved SIX MURDERS and identified a SERIAL KILLER - w/ Alex Campbell (Elizabethton High School)
Alex Campbell is a high school social studies teacher at Elizabethton High School in East Tennessee, where he’s spent more than two decades reimagining what…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#43 | Curiosity, Critique & Courage in Education – w/ sam seidel (Stanford d.school)
What keeps educators going when the system feels overwhelming? How do we balance creativity, critique, and care in classrooms where students face everything…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#42 | Don't Ignore It: What a 30-day cleanse taught me about educators, self-care, and the state of our boys
I shed 30 pounds, and I’m feeling the best I’ve felt in a while. But it was 30 difficult days - of cravings, headaches, mood swings, brain fog, fatigue, you…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#41 | The Hidden Struggles of Educators & Students - w/ Dr. Edson Andrade - CSUF Counseling Professor
Do you ever wonder if you are doing enough? If you are truly making an impact as an educator, mentor, or leader? For Dr. Edson Andrade, those questions have…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#40 | Students are Losing Opportunities for Productive Struggle - Here’s what you can do (feat. Jerome Hunter, Educator, Equity Consultant, Community Leader)
I bet there are more ways you can create productive struggle in your classroom, and you haven’t thought of them. And I bet taking in what Jerome has to say…
- unMASKing with Male Educators: Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms & Schools for Male Students
#39 | Where are all the trustworthy male educators?
We've been recruiting male educators to take part in our upcoming Young Men's Conference (details below), and the successes and difficulties in doing so have…