Modern Manhood: The Podcast

Toxic Masculinity, it’s what many people think this podcast is about, a term that comes loaded with many definitions: gender roles and dominations, expression of emotions, the opposite of healthy masculinity, whatever that looks like, and what can be noted as traditional. All of them  add to the confusion of what Toxic Masculinity, a phrase that is entrenched in our vernacular, actually is. So I ask, does the media get this essential part right? 

The way that masculinity gets talked about in the general mainstream media really annoys me.  If anyone wants to learn more about how masculinity shapes our daily life, or how gender affects the world at large, the media does a piss poor job of explaining even the basic of concepts. How does someone even learn about multiple masculinities, gender inequality structures, systemic issues that deal with masculinity? Is there a solution to all of this? Or is this even a problem? 

Ryan if you don’t know is one of the co-founders of Men Edmonton, and most importantly one of the men that guided me into the pro-feminist masculinity movement. I met him at a coffee shop in Edmonton, he wanted to suss me out before I could join Men Edmonton. Well i guess I fit the bill and I was invited in, and have been thankful ever since. And now he’s joined the Next Gen Men family, as the Program Manager for Wolf Pack. We got a chance to talk about what it's like to be at a Wolf Pack, the highs, the challenges, and the tension. About the group and about masculinity in general nextgenmen.ca

To celebrate the third anniversary of Modern Manhood, I asked for people to submit questions that they have wonderings of in regards to masculinity and gender. So here's me answering a few. We're going to talk about:  -Straight Man's Anxiety -Young Boys -Facts and Logic Bros -Men's Groups Links: Harper Bazaar's "Men have No Friends and Women Bear The Burden", Deloitte's "The Design of Everyday Man"

We have been talking about the relationship between men and female friends for a long time. It was the basis of the movie When Harry Met Sally, a good 5 years before Friends invented the Friendzone.  The issue is that the lesson of those movies and in fact of society is that men and women are sooooo attracted to each other that they cannot be friends. So today, I’m going to give you a small treat, I’m going to give you a listen to the last WolfPack we did here in Edmonton, to get a chance to listen to our storytellers talk about The Friendzone. Jessica runs Ripple Effect, go check her events out

There is a notion especially in western society that environmentalism is deemed girly or not manly. Either by being vegetarian, caring about animals, or just caring about the environment in general. Why is that? Even though issues like climate change is a non-gendered issue that affects everyone, men for the most part resist green behaviour or activism. Why do a lot of men think being eco-friendly is unmanly?

Even in the year 2019, there is a worry about the label of feminism when it comes to men. I just want to be clear, when I get a chance to talk to a lot of men there’s a lot they agree with in regards to pro-feminist values. You know except a few idiots here and there that try to be contrarian. It might feel like those idiots are everywhere but they’re not. Not that I see anyways, I see a lot of guys that are confused, misinformed, feeling shamed, feeling anxious about what they should support. They’re worried that if they embrace the word feminism, that they are more prone not only from other men but from women who are now holding them to a much higher standard. My question is, why is that label so hard to hurdle? why is it so hard for men to say that they are feminist? Men's Lib Thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/MensLib/comments/b9vs3u/do_you_believe_that_menslib_should_be_considered/ and my episode with Matthew Hodges from MensLib The Man's Survey: https://www.chatelaine.com/survey-define-masculinity/

The brunt of parenting and the fathers who are working to make a better more equitable world is tough when you think about ideas like paternity leave and mentorship. We’re going to talk to two individuals who are taking these two outcomes to reality. Two fathers, two lives, and their thoughts around gender, and fatherhood in modern world.

Ever since the movement to create better ideals around masculinity, there have been a lot of popular male figures stepping up to the plate to talk these issue. None bigger though than movie and TV star, Terry Crews. I got to hear Terry speak in an event hosted by the Alberta Council of Women's Shelter, so from then I wonder what is it about Terry Crews that we like? Why is he the flame in which this message gets carried on? Or is he just a man? Flawed like any other?  

Hockey, one of the most masculine sports in Canada. So much so, that a lot of Canadians feel a certain set of confidence when we measure it up with other sports. In the manliest of manliest of professional sports in Canada, how does masculinity play with how we view violence and gender? We speak to Tim Skuce from Brandon University and Megan McCormick.  

Youth for the most part, they understand the rules but usually hate playing by them, and question why they’re there to begin with. In their eyes issues like gender and equality are night and day and they question why don't adults understand? So how do we teach youth when adults are fighting this battle as well. How do we teach boys when men are confused as well? This episodes includes conversations with Carrie Starbuck from Happy Lands and Nick Sandor from Man Made A clip from CBC Metro Morning with Matt Galloway is included

A lot of think pieces came out after the story of the Covington young men, and many focused on the social education of young men, and of the work educators of all stripes need to do create healthy role models for men. So we will talk to two young male healthy relationship teachers (Jonathan Reed, Brendan Kwiatokski), and hear from youth as well.  Brendan is at Remasculate Jon's Breaking The Boy Code

In the past few years there have been countless and countless examples of how gender has shaped our conversation, and how a lot of men and society are working to have this conversation around masculinity. #MeToo has ignited that conversation ten fold. For this episode I wanted to go back to those instances and talk about that......but then a perfect little storm happened when Gillette focused their new ad campaign tackling Toxic Masculinity We will explore the ad and the discussion around it with Al Harris, Nick Sandor, and Elliott Tanti.

Robert Kandell is an accomplished teacher, coach, and lecturer, helping men find themselves and utilize their internal power for fourteen years. He is the host of the well-known podcast, Tuff Love and is currently writing his book, unHIDDEN – A Book for Men and Those Who Are Confused By Them.     In here we talk about men’s feelings, mens’ next steps, and you’ll also listen to me ramble on and on about systemic change. Stay tuned.

In 2018, a lot of things happened, and it’s hard to encapsulate all of what happened, and all the thoughts around gender and masculinity I had into a lot of what went on. So to help me not only look back and think forward, I invited my buddy, Jake Stika who is the Executive Director of Next Gen Men to take some time dissecting the year that happened and look forward to the year that is going to be

Wanted to do a quick interview with David Lion who is starting a summit with his own interviews around masculinity. It's going on right now, and through this he explains his process and his own life. Check it out at Summit.evolving-men.com   (PS, there's a bit of sound problem at the end, blame the Zoom thing!)

Trent Wilkie is a writer/journalist/performer in Edmonton Alberta, Canada, and host to The UnDad Podcast. We continue this conversation with Trent and we touch upon subjects like crying in public, and the release of it. As well as answering a question I always had in my mind, why don't parents give themselves more credit? We are supported by the Otherwise Show, Let's Do Coffee, and of course Next Gen Men

Trent Wilkie is a writer/journalist/performer in Edmonton Alberta, Canada. Trent has written for everything from CBC Radio (The Irrelevant Show) to Adbusters to Fangoria to almost every print media in Edmonton. He is also an experienced canoe guide, he in his words "considers the deep dark woods a therapy that only comes at the cost of comfort." Trent is also a new father late in his life, and someone who was adopted at a young age.This is one of many reasons why I wanted to talk to Trent about his vision for manhood, his ideas around fatherhood, and his wonderings about therapy. You can find the UnDad Podcast here, or if you go to the Alberta Podcast Network website. If you want to attend any of the Wolfpacks coming to Toronto, Calgary, and Edmonton, go here to sign up! Or just follow Next Gen Men on Facebook and Twitter

Brendan Kwitkowski, a Ph.D. student out of the University of Edinburgh, and a Canadian teacher out of BC, spent his master’s research time wondering why were 81% of students diagnosed with behavioural disorders male? Why are males 4-7 times more likely to commit suicide? Those questions (among others) led him towards research that held the socialization of males at least partially responsible for these worrying statistics. So he dug further and did some research with young men.

Vivek Shraya is an award winning artist artist who has published many books before but her newest book, titled I’m Afraid of Men, explores how masculinity was imposed on her as a boy and continues to haunt her as a girl—and how we might reimagine gender for the twenty-first century. Not only that, she’s a person who is my age and was raised in Edmonton. This is why I wanted to talk to her and I was lucky to do just that before she spoke at LitFest and interviewing Tegan And Sara at macEwan university. vivekshraya.com