Why it's good for men to talk

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 12 July 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Across the world, there’s often a stigma when it comes to men discussing their emotions. “We’re taught here as men that a man shouldn’t cry,” says Kholekile, who chairs the ManKind Project, a support group for men in South Africa. Across the world, there’s often a stigma when it comes to men discussing their emotions. “We’re taught here as men that a man shouldn’t cry,” says Kholekile, who chairs the ManKind Project, a support group for men in South Africa.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Luke Jones. Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.
0:11.7	This time in BBC OS Conversations, we bring together men to discuss why it can be so difficult to share their emotions and vulnerabilities.
0:20.7	Our guests today are from the UK, Spain, India and South Africa, and are all men, because
0:26.9	they're going to share why men need to talk to each other more.
0:30.2	They all discuss the stigma around opening up and the damage caused when men don't seek
0:35.3	support from each other.
0:36.3	We taught a man shouldn't cry, a man should protect. A man should be brave. A man should be strong.
0:41.7	And then in that, it's only girls that are allowed to express emotion. So the question then becomes,
0:47.1	where do those emotions go to when they get suppressed?
0:56.8	There is no good reason why women should be any better than men when it comes to sharing
1:00.8	their emotional problems, of course, yet it often seems that way.
1:04.5	And it's something which the men in the conversation you're about to hear are trying
1:07.2	very hard to change.
1:08.7	All three are of Zimbabwean heritage, and they live and work in the UK
1:12.6	and are all good friends. They are Impo, Itte and Tinto. My colleague Mark Lowen began by asking
1:19.0	Tinto how they communicate with each other, and I should warn you, that the men do discuss a friend's
1:23.7	suicide during the conversation. Itai and Impo and I have a brotherhood that I think has pretty much gone past the test of time.
1:30.9	Ita I have known for the best part of, what, 31 years now, or 32.
1:35.8	Mpore I've known that it's coming up to two or three years.
1:38.7	And we have regular meetups as gents, and most of them happen around the home.
1:45.8	And it's always over a bribe.
1:49.0	We call them a brie, but they are better known as barbecues on this end of the world.
	...

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