Currently, for my “This I Believe” podcast I am considering two main ideas. I’m fairly certain that I will go with my first idea, so I will spend more time explaining that, however, I will still go over my second idea. My first idea talks about the power of opening up or being vulnerable in order to break down barriers and connect with people. This past summer I did reentry work where I helped people reconnect to society after being in jail. The second person I worked with was extremely difficult, mostly because he could tell I came from a completely different world where I did not have to struggle with the problems that he did. There were clear, obvious differences between us and the way we grew up. When we met for the first time, he said to me “I’m not fucking around with some white pussy.”  It certainly caught me off guard, however, his response made complete sense. At the time, it would have made sense to be offended and step away from the situation. Instead, I decided to laugh, explain to him the times in my life where I completely felt like a “pussy” and move the conversation forward from there. Within an hour, we were joking around over breakfast sandwiches and starting to talk about how we could get his life back on track. It was certainly not a miraculous act, but opening up, taking that criticism, and validating his initial thoughts played a key part in breaking down the barrier between us. Beyond the story, I would like to explain other moments where people could take some sleep before becoming defensive. In doing so I believe people can learn from others and better appreciate themselves.  

My second idea is a little more lighthearted, and that might be very well why I choose to write about it instead. I’ll start by explaining the story and then talking about the associated “lesson.” Currently, I have four tattoos, a couple of which are a little goofy and could certainly catch someone off guard. However, they all represent meaningful things to me even if they aren’t the most aesthetically beautiful pieces of body art you have seen. With that being said, I have wondered if they could turn someone away, or worsen a person’s opinion of me. More importantly, I wonder if somewhere out there is my soulmate who would take one look at my tattoos and shut the door before I had a chance to explain why I had them. I say that partially joking, however just this fall I was talking to a girl for about two months and things were going great. But when she learned about my butt tattoo (lol) her skepticism grew massively. Very quickly, we stopped talking after that moment. For the most part, I blameless on her discomfort with my tattoos. In my podcast, I would like to discuss balancing personal wants and opinions with the rest of the world and assumptions of how you could be perceived. Aside from just tattoos, there are plenty of things a person could subscribe to which do not jive with public opinion or expectations.

For my civic issue blogs, I am most interested in talking about how and when some men gain a sense of power or privilege in the world. Instead of talking about the societal factors that give a man privilege, I would like to focus on how it becomes natural for a man to feel comfortable when they are in control or hold a sense of power in the situation. We frequently hear the phrase “male privilege,” and follow up with numerous ways in which society is set up to benefit men. However, it is less common to talk about the more psychological or sociological ways in which men take on habits that are reflective of this.  

Secondly, I would like to talk about the more typically discussed ideas surrounding gender equality. More specifically, this would include various social, political, and economic reasons why we see inequality across gender in the United States. I would like to talk about the most recent improvement in this area and how these examples can be replicated or furthered to improve gender norms in the United States.