Where can a man be held without an agenda? Aaron Johnson has built his life's work around that question. In this conversation, he and host Travis Stock talk about platonic touch, the Black Brute stereotype, and why tenderness is essential for Black men and for all men. Aaron shares what it was like to grow up as a pastor's son in the Mojave Desert, where he decided at five years old that men don't cry. He talks about how older brothers shape our first models of masculinity, how the Black Brute image showed up in the media, policing, and dating in his college years, and how it affected his ability to ask for something as simple as a cuddle. He also describes losing his father, what a counselor's patient listening made possible after more than twenty years without tears, and the body tutorials he created to practice slower, more honest vulnerability with a partner. The conversation closes with the Chronically UnderTouched Project, its documentary and retreat work, and the Touch Activist Training Program. Aaron's invitation is to reclaim tenderness anyway, even in a world that makes it hard.
About the guest: Aaron Johnson is a speaker, filmmaker, and the founder of the Chronically UnderTouched Project, which creates spaces where Black men of every orientation and income level can listen deeply, hold each other, and reclaim tenderness.
Learn more at: https://www.cutproject.org
To connect with Travis:
IG: @travers03
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