Meet Dr. Dr. Blake Brandes.

Blake is a TEDx speaker, America’s Got Talent performer, and founder of the personal development company, Motivational Millennial.

With a Ph.D. in hip-hop and global youth cultures, Blake has spoken to over half a million students, parents, and educators around the world and presents Growth Mindset and Digital Citizenship assemblies to help students develop a passion for learning and practice kindness and resilience in school and in life.

As chief program officer for a national non-profit, he designed social impact programs that supported over a million children in need by partnering with Fortune 500 companies, including Coca-Cola, Disney, and Walmart.

Blake is also an award-winning beatboxer, rapper, and music producer who produced Number 1 radio songs in Europe and performed over 2,000 shows around the world.

Fun fact: he once rapped with the composer of Moana, Encanto, and the hip-hop musical Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda!

Blake was the recipient of the Marshall Scholarship, one of the most competitive postgraduate awards in the world, and he regularly coaches young people on how to create lives filled with passion, resilience, and success.

You can find out more at: www.blakespeaks.com

You can find out more about your hosts here: www.linktr.ee/martinacaviezel or www.linktr.ee/christinasweeny.

Context:

Most humans have a lot of preconceived notions and stereotypes about gender. Ex: Men are tough, silent, forceful; women are chatty, manipulative, emotional.

In doing that we put people in a box and often forget to see beyond those labels. And if someone is not fitting the mold we might call them tomboy or sissy. Those and similar labels often cause discord.

What would a world look like, where we go beyond our preconceived notions and understand that we are much more than our gender, that we humans are strong and soft and gentle, deep and powerful, tough, fierce and open, that qualities are not specific to a gender, that we all have all qualities available to express? What would a world look like where we all are free to be who we choose to be and express all our emotions?

When we allow ourselves to express the so-called masculine and feminine qualities within ourselves, we set ourselves free. When we allow others to do the same, when we accept all of them, we create synergy, peace and harmony.

You can find out more about your hosts here: www.linktr.ee/martinacaviezel or www.linktr.ee/christinasweeny.