When Jordan Ritter Conn was a teenager growing up in an Evangelical Christian family, he met with a half dozen male friends every Saturday night for Bible Study. The sessions were a free-for-all for owning up to masturbation or admitting your insecurities, for speaking frankly about your father or dreaming about your future. Now a veteran journalist covering sports and culture for The Ringer and the author of the new book American Men, Conn still considers those Saturday nights "some of the best of my life."

On this episode of Paternal, Conn discusses why so many men are struggling to make similarly meaningful connections, as well as what he learned from years of intimate and revealing conversations with four men from diverse American backgrounds for his new book. He also examines the male loneliness crisis, why all men have to face "the masculinity gap" at some point in their lives, and why he always texts a male friend after a meaningful conversation.

Conn's new book, American Men, is available wherever you buy books.