The real reason American men are struggling
5/2/202628 min
From Apple News In Conversation: The headlines say that American men are in crisis. But what does that actually mean — and what does it look like up close? Journalist Jordan Ritter Conn spent five years inside the lives of four different men to find out. His new book, American Men, explores the gap between masculine ideals and the reality of men’s lived experience. Apple News In Conversation guest host Sam Sanders sat down with Ritter Conn to talk about what those four lives reveal about masculinity, inadequacy, and what the national conversation about men keeps getting wrong.
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First 90 secondsSam Sanders· Host0:00
[upbeat music] This is In Conversation from Apple News. I'm Sam Sanders in for Shamita Basu. Today, what the lives of four men reveal about masculinity in America. [upbeat music] For a while now, a certain narrative about men has dominated headlines. Men are in crisis. Boys are falling behind. But a lot of that conversation happens at a distance, in statistics, in culture war arguments, in podcast hot takes. The real complicated human stories, those tend to get left out. Journalist Jordan Ritter Conn wanted to go deeper, so he spent five years with four very different men, following them in their day-to-day lives, with their families and friends, talking with them about what it actually means to be a man in America right now. Jordan's new book, American Men, is about the gap between the men we're told we should be and the men we actually are. Jordan argues that this gap is at the heart of a lot of what's driving the conversation about men today. You, our listeners, told us how that gap has shown up in your own lives.
Jordan Ritter Conn· Guest1:16
I was taught by relatives, peers, and my culture that boys should avoid anything that could be considered girly.
Speaker 21:24
Manliness to me meant I should handle my business alone.
Speaker 31:27
I thought masculinity meant being