Transcript
WEBVTT
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A listener production.
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This is Crappita Happy and I am your host, Cas Dunn.
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I'm a clinical and coaching psychologist and mindfulness meditation teacher
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and of course author of the Crappita Happy books. In
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this show, I bring you conversations with interesting, inspiring, intelligent
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people who are experts in their field and who have
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something of value to share that will help you feel
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less crappy and more happy. In today's episode, I'm speaking
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to Rob Milsey Mills, an Australian actor, musician, TV presenter
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and all round good guy. Since appearing as a finalist
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on the very first season of Australian Idol, Millsy has
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really carved out a name for himself in the entertainment industry.
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The pandemic was tough for Milsie, like it was for
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so many people. After losing two of his mates, he
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went on an exploration himself and more broadly, of manhood,
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mates and mental health. The result of that process is
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a brand new book that he has put out into
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the world called Putting On a Show, which looks at
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what it means to be an average Aussie bloke and
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how men exist in the modern world. During our chat,
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we speak about how men process and communicate their emotions,
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understanding how toxic masculinity affects both men and women, and
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how men can start opening up in their day to
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day lives. That is, if indeed we should expect them
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to enjoy this episode with Melsy. Melsy, Welcome to the
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Crapit Happy Podcast.
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It's great to be here. Thanks so much for having me.
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You have just written a book called Putting on a
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Show exploring a mental health, mateship and men the average
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Aussie bloke. I'm curious just to ask. First of all, Rob,
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I guess what was the catalyst for you exploring this
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topic and putting out a book things.
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I've always been pretty curious the last couples that I've
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been working on a one man show about identity of
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this country, so sort of looking at the songs that
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sort of have shaped our social and political landscape, the
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songs of like my grandfather and father knew. And then
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when approached by the publisher after I wrote an article
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about drinking culture and Australia about my own relationship with
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alcohol after losing a few mates to cancer during the pandemic,
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they were like, what do you want to talk about
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in the book, and I was like, oh, identity would
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be great, but it's a really big kind of conversation
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to talk about the whole country. And they said a
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lot of you look at it from the perspective of
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just the aussy man, and I started thinking about, Yeah,
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what is the aussy man?
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What is the Aussi bloke?
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The archetypes have definitely shifted over the last you know,
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twenty thirty forty years, even like you go back forty
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years or you could probably go all right, he's a
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sheep share in out black jackie, how we're in kind
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of bloke. And then there's the beach blonde eye blond
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surfer guy. Then there's the quintessential sort of footy player
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kind of bloke. They've all really shifted. There is no
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real just quintessential Aussie bloke. And I want to know
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what are the things that still make us Australian or
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what are the things that make us who we are?
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And is there such a thing as the real Aussie bloke?
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Yeah, well, you just preempted my next question because I
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was going to say, number one, who is the average
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ossy bloke?
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A Number two? Is there such a thing? No, there isn't. Look,
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we're so diverse.
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We're diverse in nationality, we're diverse in our religious beliefs,
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we're diverse in sexual orientation. We're so diverse in this
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country and all for the better. Like rainbows are the
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best possible thing that happened in the sky.
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I want to have a rainbow country as well.
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You know, like we're so diverse, and I think we
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need to realize how diverse that we are and need
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to keep celebrating that as well.
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You did really unpack like some of the issues around masculinity,
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and we'll get to talking about toxic masculinity. So I
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guess what were the first steps she took in starting
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to dive into this topic of looking at oss email culture.
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I think I really needed to ask people, so like
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I have one person's perspective, so yeah, yeah, best to
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ask either the people that are around me, also people
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that I found interesting people that are actually working in
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this field. So people like Dr Pat McCurry, who've and
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Professor Jane Purkis, Doctor Zach Seidler, Tommy Hark and that
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was sort of like my specialist people. And then there's
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also just the stupidly inquisitive and awesome humans, Tyson youngker Porter,
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my friend Jamilla Risby. There's also a guy called Maka
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who hosts a TV show called What's Up down Under?
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Who I met where it was co hosting the show
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with him a few years ago, and I've never met
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a more what you would say is a quint essentially
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Ozzie bloke, still got the really long bear a kubra.
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He's an ex military sniper, like he's so lives on
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the land, like he's always caravaning or camping or but
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we'll give you the shirt off his own back. That
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kind of you know, super blokey bloke, but also really
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kind and generous and considerate. So yeah, I went about
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asking all these similar questions of what do they think
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it is to be an ausy man? And is there
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such a thing as masculinity? What is it? Is it
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always toxic? And we discovered that no, it's just super
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important to have masculinity. I mean jokingly. I looked at
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the sort of paradox in the world of this toxic masculinity,
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but also looking at the most popular book in the
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last twenty thirty years for women was Fifty Shades of Gray,
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which is all about you know, dominance and masculinity like
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which you would say is hyper masculine, you know. So
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I also found it strange that the word masculine actually
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just says to the dictionary possessing qualities of a man, Like,
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what does that even mean? So I think we need
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to need to redefine what that is.
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I was reading your book and I guess you start
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really pushing strongly a feminist agenda. And I'm a feminist.
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Don't get me wrong. I think you can turn people off.
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Yeah, one hundred percent. I would agree.
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That's and that's the sort of plan I was going
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for with this book, as well as not shouting at people.
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But it's me learning. I'm learning from Jamilla, I'm learning
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from all the people throughout the book, and hopefully the
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reader is learning along with me, kind of like Lee
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Sales in Any Ordinary Day, which I read a few
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years ago, which I found myself just absolutely gobs back
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to the chats that she had with these people who
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have gone through horrific, traumatic sort of scenarios. But then
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Lee reflecting on that and it really made me go, oh,
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I think that's how I want my book to be, Like,
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is not so much of a memoir for me, but
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more of what am I learning from these interviews? And
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how can I like what am I reflecting? And also
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the whole thing is about trying to get blokes to
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self reflect. So if I can't self reflect, well, I'm
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not really not really doing my job. I by trying
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to get people to do the thing trill to get
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to do.
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Well, you did a very good You've done a very
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good job of it. I have to say, it's a
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really it's a really great read. The I guess the
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stereotypical blog doesn't talk about his feelings too much, and
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I think that's true. And the work that Tom does,
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obviously is in helping men to be able to share
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and express, sometimes for the first time in their lives,
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talk about their feelings from what you've learned, what you understood.
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How do we get more men to be able to
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do that every day? Not in a men's circle or
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an organized group.
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We don't do it every day. That's the thing. It's
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exhausting for men.
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This we get, we get we get compassion fatigue. So
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I'm going to get Gus Wordlan about this. At the
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moment we have like his aim is for like five
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percent real chat ninety five percent banter. At the moment,
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we're probably probably more around the one hundred percent banter.
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I would like it to be more around like fifteen
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to two twenty percent. That would be much better for
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me as far as our real chat goes, and about
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eighty percent banter.
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But I think for blokes it's building trust.
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We have to build so much trust in order to
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let our guards down or to be vulnerable, or as
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Tommy calls it, to be open, and a lot of
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the ways that men do that is through banter. We
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learn to trust someone through our gags and through our jokes,
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and creating that safe space for blokes is really important
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to know that. I don't know whether it's primal, whatever
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it is, doctor Zach says. I hope it's not primal,
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or it's in the DNA, because what the hell are
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we doing here if blogs are never going to learn,
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if we can't teach it, if it's already in the DNA.
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So I don't think it is. Maybe there's something in
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there though that we just refuse to show our feelings
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because it shows that we're weak, and that's the thing.
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When we show our true feelings, or that's when we
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actually really connect with one another. That's when we really
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connect with our partners, with our brothers and fathers and parents.
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It's those more often than not.
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For blokes, it's after tenders that they're like.
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Oh, bloody love you exactly.
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I've been going through all this hard stuff I haven't
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been able to talk to anyone about. I didn't know
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how to bring it up that. The way that I
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worked it out was just doing it. And it was
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long walks with my brother and we were training for
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the ox Fam one hundred kilometer walk.
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And I think those really.
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Long walks, after an hour, you've got all the small
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talk that's all gone. You've got nothing but time to
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self reflect on how you've felt about stuff as a kid,
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or how you think your own children are really feeling
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about something, or how you're feeling about something in life,
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what's troubling you. So I think long walks where you
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don't have to look at the person as well, is
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super important. I think a lot of people will will
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know that for some reason they just really connect well
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on a walk with their partner, or like in the
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car driving along, there's even with my partner now like
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we might not especially during lockdown, we might not have
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spoken properly. Fades go for a walk blah blah blah
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blah blah blah blah blah blah, or she's like, why
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didn't you tell me this stuff?
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Like I had no idea.
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It's not I don't know whether it's in all blows,
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but it's not in us to open up so easily.
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But yeah, we've got to build trust for for blokes,
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we have to prove that you're a trustworthy person. And
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that's what I love r Uokda as a really good
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reminder for for blokes, for anyone really to check in
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on your mates, but don't just ask them how they're
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going on that day, Like especially to a stranger. They
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they especially for a guy, they weren't they won't open up.
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But yeah, you've got to You've got to build that
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trust over time. And that's really important.
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Yes, very And I think the other important point that
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you made then for women listening is don't expect your
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partners to be open and sharing and vulnerable every single day.
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That's never going to happen. Yeah, there was.
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There was one of the things I was talking to
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my friend and Rachiano about this. She was really on
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me about it.
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See what women to help we men have already taken
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so much from us.
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I'm like, okay, I'm just saying that you were better
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at I'm giving you a compliment. Women are better at thoughts, feelings.
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Sharing just help help help us a little bit. We
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like being told stuff, you know, I mean, what to do,
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but we like being told how to make something better.
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Rob, we talked about stereotypical masculinity and this topic of
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toxic masculinity, which is a term, as you point out
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very rightly in the book, that really rubs a lot
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of men the wrong way. That hold just the concept
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of toxic masculinity. When does masculinity become toxic?
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I think it's when the banter with mates in that
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sort of pack mentality becomes aggressive towards women or towards
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a different subject. I think that's when it becomes toxic.
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And if no one is there calling it out, and
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that's when it comes from the blokes that they need
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to be like, oh, actually this is a bit too far. Yeah,
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but I think it's so important to still you need
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your masculinity. You need it to in case something goes
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wrong in an emergency. You need anger anger is still
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an emotion that we're still coming to terms with it.
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If you just bottle it up, it'll come out in