S3. E43: Figgy Baby on Queer Mexican Identity, Fearless Rap, Ancestral Reckoning, and Creating Bangers for the End of the World

S3. E43: Figgy Baby on Queer Mexican Identity, Fearless Rap, Ancestral Reckoning, and Creating Bangers for the End of the World

In this episode of Embracing All of Me, host Ross sits down with Figgy Baby [https://www.figgybaby.com/], Neighborhood rap star. Global Spice Boi, themself, the internationally touring rapper, writer, performer, and self-described creator of “the soundtrack for the end of the world.” Figgy’s work moves between protest and pleasure, grief and bangers, Mexican identity and mixed-race ambiguity, gender play and cultural memory. Ross and Figgy chat about AI and artist exploitation, growing up in L.A., police encounters, ancestral lineage, queerness, masculinity, and the page as a place where freedom can arrive before the body is ready to live it. This conversation isn't only about music. It's about what artists carry, what communities survive, and what it means to build a "self" out of contradiction without asking permission. We get into: * Growing up social, defiant, and shaped by service, From getting kicked out of class to working in food pantries and Planned Parenthood, Figgy traces how community, rebellion, and curiosity formed the artist before the bars. * Mixed-race identity, police, and growing up in LA, being stopped by police, and how songs like “Shortcut,” “Mr. Baron,” and “Riot Gear” document the policing of young Brown bodies. * Lineage, ancestors, and queer Latinx artistic inheritance: Ross and Figgy chat about the jacaranda tree and heart imagery on Mixed Race Mixtape, ancestral reckoning, Miguel Piñero, Chavela, John Leguizamo, and the rituals that keep a creative lineage alive. * Gender, masculinity, and the oh so fearless bars. Figgy unpacks the line “Throw me in a dress, I’ll still lean like a cholo,” explaining how ambiguity became a superpower and how queerness, swagger, and cultural commitment can coexist. * Figgy shares that they were “queer on the page” before being queer in real life, describing the page as their longest relationship and a place where vulnerability, truth, and future selves can be rehearsed. * Figgy previews Where Did All the House Parties Go?, a project rooted in the reminder that joy is not a distraction from struggle. About Figgy Baby: Figgy Baby (also know as “Spice Boi”), is an internationally touring, non-binary Mexican music maker and rapper, based in Los Angeles. Their music highlights the fluidity and range of the human condition, redefining the limits of self-expression. With a mesmerizing stage presence, Figgy offers their audience a space to experience shameless joy. Figgy Baby’s work has been featured on BBC, BET, LA Times, Jubilee, MITÚ and NPR.Their projects include Mixed Race Mixtape, Summers in LA, Michael Sam, Spice Boi, Brainrot, Riot Gear, and the upcoming Where Did All the House Parties Go? Connect with Figgy Baby: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/figgybaby [https://www.instagram.com/figgybaby] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@figgybaby [https://www.tiktok.com/@figgybaby] Bandcamp: https://figgybaby.bandcamp.com/ [https://figgybaby.bandcamp.com/] Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/figgybaby [https://www.patreon.com/figgybaby] Learn More: Embracing All of Me is a storytelling and advocacy platform for the multi, complex, and in-between, uplifting the voices of BIPOC Bi+ & Queer folks, our kin, and friends. Website: https://embracingallofme.org [https://embracingallofme.org/] Email: stories@embracingallofme.org [stories@embracingallofme.org] Instagram: @embracingallofmee [https://instagram.com/@embracingallofmee] Take Action: Support Figgy Baby’s music and merch directly. Topics: Figgy Baby, Ross Victory, Embracing All of Me, queer Mexican rapper, mixed race identity, Latinx artist, queer Latinx music, non-binary artist, Los Angeles rap, political rap, AI and music, artist exploitation, Mixed Race Mixtape, Blood From a Stone, Spice Boi, Brainrot, Riot Gear, Where Did All the House Parties Go, ancestral reckoning, queer lineage, Mexican identity, masculinity, gender expression, police violence, ICE raids, protest music, bangers with a message, Bi+ people of color, queer artists of color, diaspora, embodiment, creative survival, chosen identity

Come Sit With Us: For Anyone Who's Multiple Things at Once

Ever felt like different versions of you show up in different rooms? Too much for one crowd, not quite enough for another? In this solo episode, Ross explores what it means to live as something layered and hard to categorize, and why bisexuality (as a lens) is just one of many ways to embrace being a contradictory, unfinished work in progress. If you've ever felt like you always find yourself sitting alone at a lunch table, this is your invitation to pull up a chair.

S3.E42: Rules of the Game: Kelly Zúñiga on Building Wealth of Wallet, Mind, and Community

Who gets taught the rules of the game when it comes to money, and who gets left to figure them out alone? In this episode of Embracing All of Me, Ross sits down with Latina financial coach Kelly Zúñiga to unpack the inherited money stories shaping how we move through the world. For first-generation professionals, Latinas, creatives, and communities of color, money is rarely about numbers alone. It's about survival, sacrifice, family responsibility, identity, shame, and the belief that if we just work hard enough, everything works out. But what if wealth isn't simply about "grinding harder?" What if real empowerment means learning the rules of the game, questioning the scripts we inherited, and building a life rooted in self-trust, joy, and community care? Kelly grew her investment portfolio from zero to over $135,000 while helping clients move from money avoidance to money confidence. Together they explore the realities of wealth-building for BIPOC communities, and why access to financial knowledge is itself a form of equity. We get into: * The "rules of the game" nobody taught us: why wealth-building knowledge circulates through privilege and proximity, and what happens when BIPOC communities claim access. * Inherited money scripts and survival strategies: from "work harder" and "save for emergencies" to becoming your family's retirement plan, and how to decide which still serve you. * Moving from scarcity to self-trust: why financial confidence starts with honesty and small acts of courage rather than perfection. * Wallet activism and micro-actions that build the future we want: how everyday choices about where we spend and invest can strengthen communities of color. * Why wealth is bigger than your bank account: wealth of wallet, mind, and community through freedom, rest, belonging, and the room to imagine different possibilities. * The hidden emotional costs of silence: what money shares with conversations about race, sexuality, grief, and identity, and why breaking those taboos matters. * Permission to redefine success: letting go of inherited expectations around marriage, homeownership, status, and productivity to build a life that fits who you are. About Kelly Zúñiga: Kelly Zúñiga is a Latina financial coach who helps first-generation women, Latinas, creatives, and people of color move from money avoidant to money confident. Through practical financial education and mindset work, she supports clients in paying down debt, investing, building wealth, and creating lives aligned with their values. Connect with Kelly Zúñiga: Website: kellyzuniga.com [https://kellyzuniga.com/]Instagram: @thekellyzuniga [https://instagram.com/thekellyzuniga] Email: coach@kellyzuniga.com [coach@kellyzuniga.com] Learn More: Embracing All of Me is a storytelling and advocacy platform for the multi, complex, and in-between, uplifting the voices of BIPOC, Bi+/Queer people , our kin, and friends. Website: https://embracingallofme.org [https://embracingallofme.org] Email: stories@embracingallofme.org [stories@embracingallofme.org] Instagram: @embracingallofmee [https://instagram.com/embracingallofmee] Take Action: * Open the banking app you've been avoiding. * Identify one inherited money story you're ready to rewrite. * Practice what Kelly calls wallet activism by supporting businesses and initiatives aligned with your values. * Start one honest conversation about money with someone you trust. * Contribute your story to Embracing All of Me! Topics: Kelly Zúñiga, rules of the game, wallet activism, BIPOC wealth building, Latinas and money, first-generation wealth, inherited money stories, financial literacy for communities of color, money mindset, scarcity and self-trust, financial empowerment, investing for beginners, wealth of wallet mind and community, collective care, community wealth, financial justice, identity and money, Ross Victory, Embracing All of Me podcast.

S3.E41: Dr. Zori Paul on Bi+ People of Color, Mental Health, Media Representation, and Microaffirmations

This week, host Ross speaks with Dr. Zori Paul, a licensed professional counselor, counselor educator, researcher, and board member of the Bisexual Resource Center. As a Black bi+ woman, Dr. Zori brings personal insight and professional rigor to a conversation about the mental wellbeing of Bi+, queer, pansexual, fluid, and questioning people of color, and the conditions that allow communities to move beyond inclusion toward recognition and care. We get into: * From Brandy’s Cinderella to counseling: Dr. Zori reflects on wanting to be a fairy godmother as a child and how that desire to help others eventually became a career in mental healthcare, teaching, and research. * Why Bisexual women of color need research that sees them: After encountering studies that claimed to represent women while barely including women of color, Dr. Zori followed her own questions into scholarship centered on bisexual women of color. * Mental health, stigma, and shrinking support systems: Ross and Dr. Zori discuss how anxiety, depression, intimate partner violence, and internalized bi-negativity can affect relationships, boundaries, disclosure, and willingness to seek support. * Bi-negativity versus biphobia: Dr. Zori explains why bi-negativity can help name the systemic discrimination people experience, rather than framing the problem as something located within their identities. * Microaffirmations and conditional acceptance: Small gestures of recognition can help counter the accumulation of erasure and rejection, especially when they come from LGBTQ+ peers. But affirmation loses its power when followed by conditions such as, “You’re valid, but don’t date a man.” * Blackness, queerness, and the harm of false choices: The conversation challenges the demand that Black queer and Bi+ people choose whether they are “Black first” or “queer first,” while examining how colonization, white supremacy, and religious stigma have shaped attitudes toward sexuality in communities of color. * Representation, advocacy, and building what is missing: From Glee, Heartstopper, and Insecure to the Bisexual Resource Center and LA Bi+ Task Force, they consider the impact of seeing bisexual people represented with cultural context, complexity, and humanity. Dr. Zori also shares her interest in future research on bisexuality and neurodiversity, including autism and ADHD, and encourages listeners to follow their curiosity, create community, and understand that meaningful advocacy does not require a PhD. This episode is an invitation to imagine Bi+ belonging beyond visibility in a world welcomed without qualification. About Dr. Zori Paul: Dr. Zori Paul is a licensed professional counselor, counselor educator, researcher, and board member of the Bisexual Resource Center. Her work centers the mental wellbeing and affirmation of Bi+ people of color, including research on microaffirmations and emerging work at the intersection of bisexuality and neurodiversity. Connect with Dr. Zori Paul: Instagram: @amberinsights [https://instagram.com/amberinsights] https://www.zoriapaul.com/ [https://www.zoriapaul.com/] Learn More: Embracing All of Me is a storytelling and advocacy platform for the multi, complex, and in-between, uplifting the voices of Bi+ people of color, our kin and friends. Website: https://embracingallofme.org [https://embracingallofme.org] Email: stories@embracingallofme.org Instagram: @embracingallofmee [https://instagram.com/embracingallofmee] Topics: Dr. Zori Paul, Ross Victory, BIPOC, Bi+ people of color, bisexual women of color, Black bisexual women, bisexual mental health, microaffirmations, bi-negativity, biphobia, Bisexual Resource Center, embracing queer identity, Black LGBTQ stories, bisexual representation, neurodiversity and bisexuality, Bi+ advocacy, intersectionality, cultural belonging.

S3.E40: Sam Kim on Why He Doesn't Date Transphobic People, the Asian Diaspora, and Music as a Lifeline

Korean-American Artist Sam Kim "Babo," now "Samathan" on Diaspora, Hip-Hop, Bisexual Identity & Creative Survival What does it mean to be seen, fully, when you exist in fragments, when every room you enter asks you to choose which part of yourself to bring? In this episode of Embracing All of Me, Ross sits down with Sam Kim known as Babo and Samathan, Korean-American artist and creator, for a layered conversation on identity, the Asian diaspora, and creative expression as survival. From growing up between cultures in New Jersey and Queens to navigating hip-hop as a non-Black Asian artist, Sam reflects on the influences that shaped his sound, and the responsibility that comes with borrowing from Black art forms while holding space for his own Korean-American experience. We get into: * What it means to grow up between cultures, Korean, American, neither, both, and how diaspora fragments identity before you even have language for it * Navigating hip-hop as a non-Black artist, the influences, the debts and the tensions * Asian diaspora tensions, model minority myths and the shared work of decentering whiteness * Sam's track "i wannabeprolific" — unpacking its visual symbolism (fragmented mirrors, subtle identity cues) and the deeper frustration behind the music: the pull between creative purpose and survival * Relationships, boundaries, and one of Sam's dating non-negotiables. "I don't date transphobes." and how "Are you transphobic?," a simple question that reveals everything * Why embracing the "cringe" is part of the work, and learning to see yourself as enough before the world tells you otherwise This episode is about more than music. It's about self-worth, creative survival, and what it takes to hold all of yourself when the world keeps asking you to fragment. About Sam Kim (Samathan): Sam Kim (Samathan) is a Korean-American artist and creator whose work explores identity, diaspora, and the intersection of hip-hop, visual art, and cultural responsibility. Connect with Sam Kim: Sam's Website [https://www.babobars.com/] Watch "I Wannabeprolific" [https://youtu.be/XXPcmZVAB3Q?si=7Z9glzypsAmoF_ff] Samathan on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/babobars?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==] Samathan on Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/artist/5ZN1fZrLuobbJG6QHUXPC8?si=Q44BktIpQUS7jBe9a91d7A] Learn More: Embracing All of Me is a storytelling and advocacy platform for the multi, complex, and in-between, uplifting the voices of Bi+ people of color, our kin and friends. Website: https://embracingallofme.org [https://embracingallofme.org] Email: stories@embracingallofme.org [stories@embracingallofme.org] Instagram: @embracingallofmee [https://instagram.com/embracingallofmee] Take Action: * Contribute [https://embracingallofme.org/contribute] a written piece to Embracing All of Me * Book a Creative Consult with Ross Victory [https://embracingallofme.org/creativeconsult] Topics: Sam Kim, Babo, Samathan, Korean-American artist, Asian diaspora, hip-hop and race, non-Black artist in hip-hop, bisexual identity, queer Asian artist, bisexual asians, Korean-American identity, cultural appropriation vs appreciation, anti-Blackness in Asian communities, model minority myth, creative survival, i wannabeprolific, trans allyship, dating and boundaries, self-worth and identity, diaspora and belonging, BIPOC creatives