The Lost Boys Podcast

Ladies man or misogynist? Business mogul or human trafficker? Warrior or poser? To some, Andrew Tate is the ideal modern man, bending the rules of a broken system to suit his needs; to others, he is the living embodiment of toxic masculinity. We discuss the explosive rise of Andrew Tate, why he is so appealing to his male followers, and explore his particular archetype of masculinity.If you think Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson have something in common, you're right – and wrong. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

Each year, thousands of troubled young children – most of them girls – are shunted on a path towards gender transition therapy and hormone blockers, often without the knowledge or consent of their parents. Puberty, already the most confusing period in a human being's life, is recast as a nightmare, nature's mistake, something to be fought or circumvented entirely if possible. This is happening with the full approval of teachers, therapists and the medical establishment. Against their efforts stands one man and a billboard, traveling around the world raising awareness, sounding the alarm, putting himself in harm's way. He has been shamed and spat on, assaulted and defamed, suffered broken bones and endless threats, and yet still he continues to stand tall. He goes by Billboard Chris, and we were honoured to speak with him. If you would like to support Billboard Chris' cause, you can donate directly on his website here. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

Girls, we hear all the time, are the new benchmark for success. They're succeeding in school, aiming ever higher in university, and out-earning their male peers in cities. But cracks are emerging in this success narrative, and they point to an overlooked and ignored mental health crisis in young girls. In this episode, we present the Lost Girls of our age. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

The combination of the birth control pill and the sexual revolution have dramatically changed the way men and women interact. The promise was nothing short of total liberation: women freed from the animal reproductive cycle, marriages based on love and mutual respect between equals, and an end to loneliness and sexual jealousy. More than a half-century later, however, the voices of discontent are growing louder. In The Case Against the Sexual Revolution, journalist and anti-rape campaigner Louise Perry surveys a sorry landscape of discontented women, lonely, porn-obsessed young men, and abusers cloaking their misdeeds in the language of "sex positivity." On balance, has the sexual revolution been a positive or negative? We discuss. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

Inspired by recent Twitter spats involving J.K. Rowling and Matt Walsh, we discuss the most controversial question of the moment: what is a woman? Competing definitions have split the center-left and center-right, allowing a fringe minority to radically alter laws, school curriculums, and even the English language. Is there some middle ground between the Handmaid's Tale and allowing biological males into women's prisons? We believe so, and finding it is a necessary first step. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

We spoke with Canadian academic and writer Terry Newman about her "through the looking glass" experience of being a first-generation college student on a progressive campus, and how the biases and blindspots she witnessed first-hand, among students and teachers, have hurt our media's ability to understand average Canadians. As a proud member of Heterodox Academy, Terry is committed to returning viewpoint diversity and open debate to the classroom, and she shares her prescriptions for how to make that happen.As a friendly reminder, future interviews with guests will be paywalled, so this is a great time to consider becoming a subscriber. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

After recent controversies involving high-profile women behaving badly, one of the shibboleths of the modern era looks increasingly suspicious: #BelieveAllWomen. After a short summary of the Amber Heard and Jada Pinkett Smith dramas, we discuss our ideological blindspots, and how group psychology and a complete lack of personal accountability are undermining the democratic process right in front of our eyes. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

TikTok: digital public diary meets modern dating cesspool. We examine two major trending videos from the last week – one lamenting a NYC lothario named Caleb, and another boasting of the good life working for Uber in Chicago. Both videos caused an explosion on the internet but a closer look reveals a dysfunctional cultural landscape bruising egos and breaking self-esteems. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

What choices does a lost boy have when faced with total uncertainty? In Jethro Bronner's case, the call to the open road was strong enough to compel him to drive from South Africa to London, passing through countries in the midst of social and political turmoil. He shares what he learned along the way and how it transformed his outlook on the world. Subscribe to his YouTube to see what he's been up to in South Africa and follow him on Instagram @jethrojamesbronner. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

At the time of this writing, a 17-year-old kid is being prosecuted for murder, and all of America awaits the verdict. But the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse is just another flashpoint in a culture war that so often turns on the innocence or villainy of a young white man. We discuss some of the psychic baggage burdening this trial and its representation in the national consciousness. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

Iranian white supremacists, angry suburban moms, gun-toting politicians – the Virginia gubernatorial election had it all. We break down the surprising results, discuss the role women played in rocking the vote, and analyze what this means for lost boys and woke women. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

The gap between reality, as most of us perceive it, and how we're meant to talk about it continues to widen. Those brave or foolish enough to speak out pay a heavy social cost. In this episode, we use the reaction to comedian Dave Chappelle's latest Netflix special to discuss the forced conformity spreading through social media and influencing our policy making at every level of society, including in schools and prisons. How did we stray so far from truth, and why is it so hard to correct our course? Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

As men's college attendance continues its steady decline, we're also witnessing a funny thing: the rise of sugar babying among elite college students. Women from some of the most expensive and exclusive universities in the world are exchanging companionship for money, luxury vacations, and help with tuition. We discuss the underlying cynicism driving these choices, the power dynamics they generate, and the callousness that seems to have set in when it comes to "sex positivity." Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

“Anything can happen in life, especially nothing.” – Michel Houellebecq A discussion about the French novelist Michel Houellebecq with a focus on his first novel The Elementary Particles. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

We've come a long way since the days of opening doors and pulling chairs, but we still hear an almost daily chorus of criticism leveled at men for what they should be doing on women's behalf. In this episode, we put Gloria Steinem in dialogue with G.K. Chesterton to ask: what do women owe men? Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

We spoke with writer, podcaster, and advice columnist Default Friend about our modern dating difficulties, the psychodramas that keep us from achieving real intimacy, and the unexamined role microblogging sites like Tumblr played in shaping a generation's sexuality and normalizing a culture of extreme sensitivity and offense-taking. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

Troubling new data confirms that the social landscape ain't what it used to be. Both men and women have lost friends since the '90s, but the loneliest and most isolated people are mostly male. What's causing this decline, despite an era of Internet-enabled interconnectivity? And what are both sexes missing out on when men can't make friends so easily? Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

We discuss HBO's hit miniseries Mare of Easttown and its unflinching portrayal of American decline: addiction, broken homes, male suicide, and the enormous burden placed on the women who have to pick up the pieces. What lessons can we learn from the chaos, and what parallels can we draw to life in our progressive cities? Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, we discuss the link between our generation's prolonged adolescence and “soft tyranny,” with a little help from French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville. Can a nation of lost boys and girls govern themselves, or are they destined to be ruled? Are we headed for dystopia, or are we already living in one? And does this upside down cultural moment help explain the popularity of anti-heroes, from Tony Soprano to Walter White? Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

Canada is at the forefront of progressive politics, mindlessly embracing every new fad in the pursuit of “social justice.” Why are we so committed to change, so susceptible to untested grand theories? And where are these theories taking us, as a country? We discuss the things no one wants to address in government or even conversation: multiculturalism, immigration, and ...throuples. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

The critics of modernity are multiplying, but how many people are rolling up their sleeves and actively rebuilding among the ruins? We spoke with Stephen Blackwood, founder of Ralston College in Savannah, Georgia, about civic alienation, architecture, olive farming, what we still have to learn from the past and the hope of building the future. Link to article by Cornel West & Jeremy Tate Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

We had the great pleasure of speaking with Rob Henderson, a former foster child turned wunderkind psychologist currently finishing up his PhD at Cambridge University. We spoke about his escape from difficult circumstances, the paradox of losing freedom to gain freedom, The Sopranos and the curious disconnect between what psychologists and sociologists know to be true and what we are *supposed* to broadcast as truth. Don't miss his invaluable advice for lost boys looking to move forward with their lives. Subscribe to his newsletter for weekly insights on human nature. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

A listener asks us to discuss the masculinity crisis in China, and how similar/dissimilar it is to ours. We discuss cultural change, technological shifts, AI girlfriends, and the Communist Party of China's efforts to masculinize their young boys. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, we respond to a listener's questions about government intervention: what have various governments done and not done, and what might they do to address the Lost Boys problem? Another question asks us to name the parallels between younger Millennials struggling to find their footing and older, middle-class voters pulling the lever for Donald Trump. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

In 2018, an online mob attempted to cancel the poet Joseph Massey's existence, spreading rumours and allegations against him to friends, strangers and employers, damaging his livelihood and his mental health. To our collective fortune, Joseph is still working, still writing, working to rebuild his life. He generously shared his time with us to speak about the experience of public shaming, the politicization of America's creative writing programs, and the power of words to both hurt and heal.Read his story in Quillette here. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

Pregnancy is a mystery, most of all to men, who have to watch the process unfold from the outside. In this episode, Phil asks Christina what her experience has been like and how it's changed her understanding of herself, women, and her goals in life. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

When well-meaning policy disregards nature, nobody wins. We discuss Joe Biden's Executive Order, its impact on Title IX and the ACLU's Four Myths About Trans Athletes. Website referenced: http://www.boysvswomen.com/#/ Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

Educator, editor at Project Forever Free, mother of three sons and writer Erika Sanzi is devoted to enlightening others on the boy crisis. Insightful, funny and incredibly well-informed, Erika talks to us about the K-12 education system in the US, how boys are falling behind and the extent to which people ignore or refuse to acknowledge the data that is right in front of them regarding the state of boys and men in the 21st century. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

Alex Kaschuta is a writer, podcaster and all around brilliant voice of reason who has carved out a unique place for herself in the dissident digital space with a witty sense of humour and an incisive Eastern European skepticism. We spoke to her about many things, including Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate, Jordan Peterson, iron curtains, the demise of Western institutions, the commodification of loneliness and desire, John Gray's Black Mass and imminent apocalypses. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

The real worry is not men who want to tear down society. That's not what is going to cause America to collapse. It will be the men who do nothing. It's a similar set of men who feel themselves disenfranchised and not invested and not represented, but the ones who are really lethal to your republic or to your nation or to your culture aren't the ones with the zip ties or the guns – they're the ones who are going to sit at home and play video games while the republic burns. The narrative of white guilt is not a narrative the is going to unify America. It's a narrative that will bitterly, bitterly divide the country. And it will result in what you saw at the Capitol. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

Is morality something fixed, eternal, divinely ordained? Or is morality something fluid, relative to time, place, technology? In our ongoing discussion on religion, we attempt to define what progressives value and how those values differ from classical liberals and conservatives. We invoke some insights from evolutionary biology and game theory to help illustrate some of those differences, and to help explain the growing lack of trust between men and women. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

We pick up where we left off in our previous episode, discussing the faith/reason division and how it plays out in society, but this time we enlist some heavy-hitters: Milton, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche. Did we reason ourselves into our present troubles, and can we reason our way out of them? Have we outlived god? Or will god outlive us? Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

One of the most consequential social developments of the last 50 years has been the diminishing role religion has played in public life. "Unbelief" is on the rise, church attendance is in free fall, and every new generation is more secular than the one that preceded it. But every new generation is also smaller than the one that preceded it. How sustainable are these changes, and what impact are they having on how we date, marry and reproduce? We review our godless upbringing for insight into the past, present and future. Part I of an ongoing conversation about the role religion no longer plays in our Western culture. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

Janice Fiamengo is a retired professor of English literature who captured the attention of the Internet when a talk she was scheduled to give at the University of Toronto ("What's Wrong With Women's Studies") was disrupted by protestors brandishing bullhorns and pulling fire alarms. She has been a fierce critic of gender ideology ever since, first in her YouTube series The Fiamengo File, and more recently on the website Regarding Men. She generously agreed to speak with us on the subject of men in the modern world, the decades-long transformation of the universities, and the "gradual encroachment of ideas."  Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

Men as moral pariahs. Women as monolithic sisterhood. A conversation on how men and women vote, how married couples versus singles vote, where they all differ, and how that plays out in politics and society. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

OnlyFans. What is OnlyFans? Who is it for? And what does it say about a generation of men willing to pay for an online subscription to watch naked women perform sexual acts when the internet is filled with free porn? What makes OnlyFans special? And why is this being normalized to a frightening degree? Business Insider article referenced in this episode. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

On a tiny island off the coast of Maine, Kenny Corson is raising his eight year old son Odin to learn, think, explore and do for himself. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

Men today increasingly dedicate their leisure time to virtual pursuits. Global revenue from video game sales has surpassed the revenues of the music and film industries, combined. Pornography consumption has propelled the sex industry into a multi-billion dollar business, with revenue estimates placing it in competition with major league sports. These behavioural changes have been fuelled by social and economic changes: men's decreased labour force participation, for example, and the dramatic decline in the marriage rate. But they have also become causal: men work fewer hours or spend less time dating because their leisure pursuits have become so dominant in their lives.What effects are these habits having – on men, on women, and on society? And what does it say about the modern world, that so many people voluntarily plug themselves into a digital Matrix to escape it? Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

Hardly a week passes without documented evidence of male violence: a mass shooting in middle America, a gangster shootout in Chicago, an insurrectionist uprising in the Middle East, a warlord brutally subjugating his own people. We measure the damage men do in bullets spent, bodies wounded and maimed, lives lost. And even those of us fortunate enough to live away from this mayhem, who only read about it in the morning paper or catch it on the evening news – we nonetheless conjure male villains in our imagination. Walking through empty streets late at night, it's a man's footsteps we fear.Why are men so catastrophically destructive, and why haven't we been able to curb their violence? Are violent video games, movies and tv shows to blame? Or maybe it's football and combat sports? It's time for an honest reckoning with male violence and destruction – and a reappraisal of the valuable role men still have to play in keeping us safe. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

Canada and the United States are in the middle of an opioid epidemic. Every year now, more Americans will lose their lives to overdose than to car crashes. The peak years of the opioid epidemic have killed more American men than died during the Vietnam War – the entire Vietnam War. So severe has the impact of this public health crisis been, that it has caused a decline in the life expectancy of white men in America. And yet what has been most glaring about this crisis is how little public commentary it has occasioned, how little impact it has had on politics or political campaigning.It's time to take a closer look at male pain, to speak directly about the mental health problems men face, and how these manifest in their lives – in drug, alcohol and food addictions, in epidemic male loneliness, and a retreat into the virtual world.What social factors have changed to make these addictions more prevalent? And more importantly – why do we have so much trouble talking about male pain? Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

The single biggest social change of the last 50 years is also the most taboo to talk about: the disappearance of fathers. Throughout most of our history, family cohesion wasn't just an abstract goal – to be pursued or not at a person's convenience – but a necessary precursor to having children, backed by the force of law and reinforced by social stigmas. These changes have been most pronounced in the United States: where, in 1960, just 9% of children were born to unwed parents, today 40% are, with the result that America now leads the world in its rate of children living in single-parent households – 23%, compared to a global average of just 7%. Euphemisms like “single-parent households” obscure as much as they enlighten, for the reality is that 81% of those single-parent households are female-led. What does this father-absence bode for the United States? What do fathers contribute, and how will their lack be felt? And what does it mean for men, that so many of them are now missing out on one of life's most important responsibilities? Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

What does marriage mean in a postmodern world? By the numbers, things look bleak: fewer people are getting married than ever before, and they're doing it later, almost as an afterthought. Birth rates have collapsed, smaller families are the norm, and dating has gradually become the pursuit of 30- and 40-something people chasing after their lost youth. How did marriage go from having a central role in our lives, a rite of passage most people experienced, to an antiquated, optional extra that only the rich seem still to be interested in? Does marriage still have a role to play in the 21st century? Do we want it to? Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

The second half of the 20th century saw meteoric changes in the job market. Not only did we begin outsourcing and automating our manufacturing jobs, but women began to enter the workforce in ever-higher numbers.The consequences of these developments on men have been profound. Male labour force participation has been on a steady decline for decades, and as men's employment levels have dropped, so too have their marriage rates. Taking stock of these changes in the third decade of the 21st century, we can see that the consequences of these changes have transcended the labour market, and altered society itself.Men – with fewer and fewer exceptions – are no longer breadwinners and providers. Women are no longer dependent on men for their livelihoods. While many men still chase status and career success, many more have beat a steady retreat into a life of quiet comfort, replacing time once spent raising a family with greater and greater leisure. Where do these changes leave us? Have they made us happier? And the most dangerous question of all: what role do we want men to play in the 21st century? Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

In the modern dating world, everyone is free, and everyone is unhappy. Marriage and fertility rates have bottomed out, and record numbers of people are living alone, even into middle age.Why do so many young people find dating unfulfilling, emotionally scarring, and deeply demoralizing? Why are young people having less sex? When did right-swipes replace flowers and late-night texts overtake phone calls? What are the assumptions men and women have of one another, and how do those assumptions play out in the age of Tinder and sex positivity, Instagram and OnlyFans? Is there any chance of calling a truce in the gender war, and finding some common ground, or will things continue to spiral? Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

You wouldn't know it from the coverage it gets, but there is at present a crisis in education, and it concerns boys. Dropout and disciplinary rates are both much higher among boys than girls, and boys' lagging academic performance, over decades, has manifested in a chasmic college attendance gap. Worse still, all of these developments occurred at a time when manufacturing jobs were collapsing or being shipped overseas, making a college diploma a vital passport for entry into the middle class. Some of the blame belongs to changes in pedagogy, perhaps, but much also belongs to the wholesale adoption of a vogue ideology that treats boys and girls as interchangeable, malleable beings, equally adaptable to the requirements of classroom learning. The natural rambunctiousness of boys, their energy and their competitiveness, has too frequently been stamped out or pathologized or medicated away. What have we forgotten about educating young boys, and how can we turn things around?  Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe

The greatest untold story of the last 50 years concerns the diminishing role of men in public life, and the consequences of their failings on society at large. By almost every conceivable metric, men are falling behind or dropping out entirely. Their rates of high school graduation, college attendance and labor force participation are at or near all-time lows; their rates of drug and alcohol addiction, incarceration, and suicide at or near all-time highs. Less devastating but perhaps just as consequential has been the sea change in our culture, whose unwritten rules now leave men lost and confused rather than prepared for the demands of work, dating, family formation and old age. They are the Lost Boys. Get full access to The Broken World at thebrokenworld.substack.com/subscribe