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We’re thrilled to publish the audio from our first major event in collaboration with Aspen Institute’s Philosophy & Society Initiative. P&S and Wisdom of Crowds have grown up together and are both relentlessly focused on getting down to first principle questions. Click the link below and add your email to the mailing list to find out when we’re doing more of these kinds of events.

In this episode, we take on the crisis of masculinity. Damir Marusic asks our own Christine Embaand Washington Post nonfiction book criticbecca rothfeld whether the crisis is in fact real, and if so, what can be done about it.

Christine argues there is hard evidence that young men are struggling — young men are dropping out of school, their unemployment rates are up, and deaths of despair are rising. Becca is less convinced — she thinks we may be misdiagnosing the problem, and in doing so are entrenching harmful stereotypes and gender norms.

In the full episode (for paying subscribers only) the audience chimes in with questions, and the conversation takes some surprising turns. Is modernity making heterosexual relationships more difficult? Is technology making re-evaluating gender roles easier? And who has the advantage on dating apps?

Required Reading:

* The Aspen Institute’s Philosophy and Society Initiative.

* “If attitudes don’t shift, a political dating mismatch will threaten marriage” by Editorial Board (The Washington Post).

* “How to be a man? Josh Hawley has the (incoherent) answers” by Becca Rothfeld (Washington Post).

* “Men are lost. Here’s a map out of the wilderness” by Christine Emba (The Washington Post).

* “‘The Two-Parent Privilege’ gets caught in the trap of convention,” by Becca Rothfeld (Washington Post).

* “Single moms know marriage would be ideal, but how do they get one?” by Christine Emba (Washington Post).

* “An uneasy political marriage... or not” by Christine Emba (Wisdom of Crowds).

* The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind by Melissa Kearney (Amazon).

* Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi (Amazon).

* Rethinking Sex: A Provocation by Christine Emba (Amazon).

* Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs (Amazon).

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