Andrew Cuomo’s just the latest. Why is masculinity so often conflated with domination? And how do we separate the two? Kai turns to a historian and to a novelist for answers. 

Linda Hirschman, author of Reckoning: The Epic Battle Against Sexual Abuse and Harassment, tells the story of how a small group of women in a room in Ithaca, New York, came up with two words that attempted to change the law, and the workplace, forever. But as you'll hear, victory really has a thousand mothers.

Many of the social movements against sexual harassment and assault, including #MeToo, have been pioneered by Black women like Carmita Wood and Tarana Burke, but violence against Black women is often overshadowed or missing from conversations.

Kiese Laymon, author of the essay collection How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America and the forthcoming re-release of Long Division, talks to Kai about the role of masculinity in this violence through his own journey to manhood -- what he has learned, had to unlearn, and how he and Kai are both still wrestling with it.

Companion listening for this episode:

The 'Indoor Man' and His Playmates (10/2/2018)

Playboy wasn’t just about the pictures. Hugh Hefner’s magazine helped create a new ideal for the so-called alpha male -- built on the notion that women were there for the taking.

The Dream Was Not Mine (9/17/2018)

Jennifer Willoughby and Saily Avelenda each woke up one day wanting to make a change. They ended up toppling two political giants.

“The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. 

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Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.