Hats Off - Unmasking Toxic Masculinity

Linda Gonzalez is a bilingual life coach, business/employee consultant and writer, with a focus on liberatory practices and racial justice and systemic change through collaborative, interactive processes. She address dynamics of power, intersectionality, and different work approaches. As a writer she explores issues surrounding gender identity, cultural hybridity, motherhood, and marriage. Her work examines the tension in embracing feminism as a life philosophy.

Bonnie Harrison is a dynamic Licensed Psychotherapist, Educator, and Master Trainerpracticing in her community of Harlem in New York City. She is known as pioneer in herprofession, and a developer and facilitator of wellness-centered learning experiences forwomen, men, and gender-diverse groups. She also developed and facilitated the firstknown counseling service and support groups in New York, for HIV/AIDS diagnosedBlack Same Gender Loving men & women.

It’s a New Year and we are so happy to be back for a new season of vital discussions about men’s mental health and featuring dynamic, insightful guests with particular points of view. In this episode, our host, Dr. James McKnight is talking to renowned actor/comedian, Mike Troy, aka, “Brooklyn Mike!"Although he is Brooklyn-based and performs a lot in NYC, Mike’s tours throughout the US and Internationally, including Da Bounce Comedy in Holland. His TV appearances include the Chappelle Show, NBC's Showtime at the Apollo, and HBO's Def Comedy. In addition to being a featured writer for Chris Rock’s SNL monologue for his appearance in 2020, Mike continues to write for Chris Rock on his latest tour.

Welcome back to Hats Off - Episode 2: Unmasking Toxic Masculinity. Our host Dr. James McKnight reflects on the holiday season with us us…for better or worse depending on your circumstances and mindset. This time of year, typically is a season of joy, peace and celebration, but for some it can be the most challenging time of the year, on many levels. We’ll get into that for today’s show, but for now I just want to take a moment to acknowledge some of the tragic incidents that have been in the news and may be a factor in overshadowing this season.

In this first episode, Dr. McKnight sits with Coach Billy Council to begin to explore the current state of Men's Mental Health in our community. On this journey, Dr. McKnight invites us to remove our hats, caps, wigs, unmasks and begin to accept the uncomfortable feelings of being vulnerable.

This is the Trailer for “Hats Off” is a podcast by Dr. James McKnight. Hats Off Trailer is the beginning in a series where we will be talking about “Unmasking Masculinity" and other topics. Our podcast is dedicated to exploring the complexities of mental health and therapy for men.