What Gen Z Men Actually Need — Braeden Sorbo on Faith & Masculinity

**Braeden Sorbo** (0:00)
Masculinity inherently is much deeper than some sort of superficial list.
Masculinity itself inherently is responsibility, exemplified the best through Christ and his sacrifice. And so masculinity can't be defined by a single item on a checklist. What it truly is at its core is it's sacrificial and it's loving. It's having mercy and compassion on those who might not even deserve it, but taking responsibility for those that you have no business taking responsibility for.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:36)
Your organization is known worldwide and we certainly appreciate every facet that you do.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:41)
I do believe in what you're doing because I've seen it in my family.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:44)
I'm so excited about all the things that Robert, you guys do with Classical Conversations. It's been a huge blessing for our family.

**Robert Bortins** (0:51)
Grateful for the work at Classical Conversations. You're a leader and you have been in this movement for a long time.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:56)
We love Classical Conversations. I do feel like I have a debt of gratitude to you, your family, all of CC for just the fruit that has come from CC.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:07)
I appreciate all that you guys do both through this wonderful podcast and also through Classical Conversations, which I am convinced is the best education resource out there. Thank you very much for all that you do for the cause of Christ and for our families and for our children. Really, really appreciate it.

**Robert Bortins** (1:23)
Hey, everyone, I'm excited to be with a CC alumni for today's Refining Rhetoric episode. It's going to be super informative. And yeah, at 24 years old, Braeden Sorbo is making waves as an actor, author and cultural commentator with over 2 million followers. His impact is undeniable. He's just not talking about change. He's leading the charge following the success of his second book, Embrace Masculinity, lifting men up in a world that pushes them down. Braeden continues to take a fearless stand on the 21st century manhood, challenging society's narrative and empowering men to reclaim their strength, purpose and leadership. So without further ado, Braeden, welcome to the show.

**Braeden Sorbo** (2:03)
Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

**Robert Bortins** (2:06)
Yeah. So you're a Classical Conversations alum. I know your family moved around the country a little bit while you were growing up. Yeah. So just tell us a little bit, what was it like just moving around while being in Classical Conversations? Did that help you with any adjustments or is that?
Yeah. Just tell us a little bit about growing up and being in CC.

**Braeden Sorbo** (2:27)
Yeah. So I was public schooled all the way up until the end of second grade. I remember my mom distinctly telling this story tens of dozens of times over, where she asked my teacher how my book reports were doing about six months into second grade, the year right around the winter break. And the teacher immediately responded, oh, they're not good at all.
And she's sitting there going, well, why would you not tell me? You're his teacher. You should be giving me these reports. And so she'd always been taught in public schools that she was unfit to teach her kids. She might have had maybe an inclination when she first had us that, oh, well, I wonder if maybe I can do this. But she put it off as some sort of delusion. I just, I'm not qualified. We'll leave it to the professionals. But hearing that teacher say, your son's reports suck and not being told that for six months of the year, she decided I'm going to try to do Braeden's book reports with him. And so she kept me in school for the second half of second grade.
But she did my work with me. And about three months in, she realized that she was already homeschooling. That was all it was. And so by the end of second grade, I was pulled out of public school. And I remember even asking my mom, I might have been nine years old at the time, eight years old, and I said, we're not going back to school, are we? Because for the first couple months that she had started teaching me, doing the book reports with me, she would come to school and pick me up and say, hey, how was it? Do you have homework? And I go, yeah. She says, well, if you were homeschooled, you wouldn't have homework. So she was sort of prepping me to be excited about homeschooling. But by my third grade year, we started with some random thing that we found online. And it was okay. It kind of faltered, didn't work, but it did enough to pass. And by my fourth grade year, we found CC. And so I started going to a Classical Conversations campus once a week, you know, as the program, meet with all the other kids who were in my grade, co-op, share, have lunch together, spend time, community, fellowship, all of the great stuff. And I remember travel becoming significantly easier because when I was public schooled, anytime we had to leave, go on a trip, dad was filming a movie or, you know, we needed to be somewhere else.