The Art of Manliness

When people visit a therapist's office for help with their depression, they often don't find the relief they're seeking. That's because much of the counsel that is traditionally given doesn't offer the context people need to make sense of and preserve their mental well-being.

Pooping. Everybody does it, but a lot of people are embarrassed to talk about it. That's a shame, my guest says, not only because your digestive health is incredibly linked to your overall health, but simply for the fact that there is much happiness to be found in an easy, worry-free constitutional.

Courage is one of our most prized and celebrated virtues. But once you really start exploring it, the nature of courage is surprisingly hard to pin down.

We tend to think of genius as something you’re born with — a rare trait possessed by the Einsteins and Teslas of the world. But what if many of the abilities we associate with genius — a great memory, quick problem-solving, mental math, creative insight — are actually trainable skills?

Cold exposure has gotten a lot of attention the past few years, with people dunking themselves in ice baths for the sake of their health and well-being.

When we fail to make desired progress in life, most of us put the blame on physical and environmental limits. But my guest says that what's really holding people back is what's in their heads.

When it comes to building a happy and meaningful life, most of us rely on a grab bag of strategies — habits and goals around work, relationships, and health.

If you're looking for a way to improve your fitness, boost your mental health, and reconnect with a deeply human activity — all without going to the gym or pounding your knees on a daily run — then rucking may be the practice you've been looking for.

The awkward silence at work when everyone knows a project is going off the rails. The simmering resentment in a marriage over an issue neither spouse will confront. The dysfunction in a church where certain topics are understood to be off-limits.

Of all the books in the Bible, Ecclesiastes is arguably the most philosophical. Dark, experiential, existential, and unsparingly honest about the human condition, it wrestles with work, money, ambition, pleasure, time, and death — and it does so in a way that feels uncannily modern.

Not long ago, the primary concern people had about boys was that they were wild, impulsive, and out of control — getting into fights, pushing limits, and stirring up trouble. Today, the problem has flipped. The more common challenge isn’t reckless behavior, but inert passivity.

We’ve all had that feeling — you meet someone new, and the conversation just flows. You’re in sync. You click. But what’s really happening when that magic occurs?

American football is so big — so braided into our weekends, our language, and our culture — that it can be hard to see it clearly as a whole.

We usually think of money as something very practical, concrete, and secular; we earn it, save it, spend it, and crunch the numbers behind it. But money is never just about money: it reflects our values, our priorities — and even our spiritual life. My guest today, Tom Levinson, knows this well.

For decades, fitness culture has tended to break people into two categories: you’re either a strength guy or an endurance guy. You lift heavy or run far — but not both. But my guest today says you don't have to choose; you can excel at both modalities and be ready for anything.

Most of us chase goals — starting a business, running a marathon, getting a promotion — without ever asking: What are the actual odds this will work? My guest today says those odds aren’t just graspable — they’re hackable.

Note: This is a rebroadcast. Happiness is the subject of thousands of articles, podcasts, and scientific studies. Yet all this focus on happiness doesn’t seem to be making people any happier.

Books are everywhere. They're so common, they're easy to take for granted. But my guest argues that they’re worth fully appreciating — because the book isn’t just a container for content; it’s a revolutionary technology for shaping culture and thought.

Most of us know what we should do to be healthier: eat better, move more, sleep well. The real challenge? Actually following through.

There’s a lot of debate these days about what it means to be a man. But maybe the answer is simpler than we think, and a lot of masculinity just comes down to confident competence. A broad set of know-how. The ability to get stuff done. The capacity to move through the world with purpose and skill.

Note: This is a rebroadcast. It’s a tough job to manage a household. Things need to be regularly fixed, maintained, and cleaned. How do you stay on top of these tasks in order to keep your home in tip-top shape?

When people think of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, they often picture tweedy Oxford professors and beloved fantasy authors.

When we think about what shaped our life trajectory, we often focus on the way our parents raised us. But what about our siblings? What role do they play in who we become? My guest today makes the case that siblings may be just as influential as parents in impacting how we turn out.

In a story from ancient Greek philosophy, Hercules faces a choice between two paths: one promising pleasure and ease; the other, hardship and struggle — but also growth and greatness. According to today’s guest, this ancient parable is more relevant than ever. Dr.

We live in a culture that does everything it can to keep death at a distance. We hide it behind hospital curtains, euphemize it in conversation, and hustle through grief like it's just another item on the to-do list. We don't want death to get in the way of living.

Ben Aldridge on using philosophical challenges — cold exposure, fasting, silence retreats, discomfort practice — as tools for building resilience, gratitude, and self-knowledge.

Ryan Holiday on his book Discipline Is Destiny — the Stoic virtue of temperance applied to modern life. Why self-discipline isn't about deprivation but about freedom from compulsion.

Jon Tyson on the five developmental shifts that boys must make to become men: from self to others, from victim to agent, from consumption to creation, from safety to risk, and from passivity to purpose.

Norton cuts through nutrition noise with hard evidence. Supplements worth taking, plant vs. animal protein, meal timing myths, and why most nutrition advice is based on correlation studies that prove nothing.

Neil Howe presents his theory that American history moves in 80-100 year cycles, with each cycle ending in a 'Fourth Turning' crisis (Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWII, and now...). We are in the crisis period now.