The Art of Manliness

By The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture Education Philosophy

What's The Art of Manliness about?

The Art of Manliness Podcast aims to deepen and improve every area of a man's life, from fitness and philosophy, to relationships and productivity. Engaging and edifying interviews with some of the world's most interesting doers and thinkers drop the fluff and filler to glean guests' very best, potentially life-changing, insights.

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The Myths and Truths Around...

05.31.2023

You might think we’re heading into a low time of year for suicides because they peak during the cold, dark months of winter. But, in fact, suicide peaks during the spring and early summer. This is just one example of ...

The Art of Manliness episodes:

05.31.2023 The Myths and Truths Around Suicide You might think we’re heading into a low time of year for suicides because they peak during the cold, dark months of winter. But, in fact, suicide peaks during the spring and early summer. This is just one example of ...
05.29.2023 The Essential Guide to Getting Promoted Have you been languishing in the same role at work, frustrated that you haven't been promoted to a higher position with more pay and different responsibilities? My guest can help you level up in your career. His name is Randy ...
05.24.2023 The Heroic Exploits of WWII’s Pacific Paratroopers When people think of the paratroopers of World War II, they tend to think of the European theater — the 101st Airborne Division and the Band of Brothers. But paratroopers were also deployed in the Pacific, and here to unpack ...
05.22.2023 Answers to the FAQ of Modern Etiquette The charge to be well-mannered, to treat others with civility, kindness, and respect, is perennial. But the rules for how to carry those manners into action, the rules of good etiquette, change over time. Given all the cultural and technological ...
05.17.2023 The Art and Science of Getting Unstuck Do you feel stuck in life — that you aren’t making progress in a relationship, job, or goal and you don’t know how to fix the problem and move forward? Well, perhaps you can take a little solace in the ...
05.15.2023 The Essential Guide to Visiting and Camping in the National Parks America’s national parks are one of the country’s greatest treasures, and many people have it on their bucket list to visit one or more of these gems. But figuring out where to go and how to execute a national park ...
05.10.2023 Thoreau on Making a Living We don't often think of work when we think of Henry David Thoreau. We think of Thoreau living with his family, or loafing around at a cabin at Walden, and mostly spending his days walking and enjoying nature. We know ...
05.08.2023 Optimize Your Testosterone When men think about optimizing their hormones, they tend only to think about raising their testosterone. But while increasing T can be important, an ideal health profile also means having testosterone that's in balance with your other hormones as well. ...
05.03.2023 Leadership Lessons From Military Mentors When Daniel Zia Joseph decided to join the Army at the unusually late age of 32, he solicited advice from his buddies who had served in the military on how to succeed in the experience and become a good officer ...
05.01.2023 Become a Focused Monotasker Writing an email while on a Zoom call. Talking on the phone while walking. Scrolling through social media while watching a movie. In both our work and our play, we’re all doing more and more multitasking. Doing two things at ...
04.26.2023 Generations — The Surprising Truths and Persistent Myths Different generations love to cast aspersions on each other. Boomers think Millennials and Gen Zers are fragile narcissists. Those younger generations think that Boomers are selfish, closed-minded pinheads who helped themselves to economic success and then pulled the ladder out ...
04.24.2023 Toastmasters, Aristotle, and the Essential Art of Rhetoric When John Bowe learned that his extremely reclusive cousin, who had lived for decades in his parents' basement, had moved out and gotten married at the age of fifty-nine, John was extremely surprised. What made him equally surprised was how ...
04.19.2023 The Wisdom of Psychopaths When most people think of psychopaths, they think of uniformly monstrous characters who lack empathy and conscience. But my guest says that those characteristics are just one part of the spectrum of traits that make up psychopathy, and while always ...
04.17.2023 The Science of a Better Daily Routine There's plenty of advice out there about how to have a better daily routine. But what's just bunk and what actually works to improve the quality of your day and your overall life? My guest, medical-doctor-turned-science-educator Stuart Farrimond, took a ...
04.12.2023 The Golden Rules of Success You know Michael Phelps, the most successful and decorated Olympic swimmer of all time who won a record 28 medals, 23 of which were gold. Well today, meet the coach behind Phelps' legendary success. Bob Bowman is an Olympic swimming ...
04.10.2023 What the World of Psychology Gets Wrong About Men Several years ago, the American Psychological Association issued a set of guidelines for psychologists working with boys and men. Guideline #1 says: "Psychologists strive to recognize that masculinities are constructed based on social, cultural, and contextual norms." Guideline #3 says: ...
04.05.2023 The Essential Habits for Becoming an Agile, Vital, and Durable Human Being Kelly Starrett, a doctor of physical therapy, has trained professional athletes, Olympians, and military special operators, helping them unlock peak performance. But as he approached his fifties, he started to see cracks appearing in the health of the folks around ...
04.03.2023 How to Deal With the Worry of Waiting If you've ever waited, and perhaps are now currently waiting, to hear whether or not you've tested positive for a disease, passed medical boards, or got the job you interviewed for, you know that this period of uncertainty can be ...
03.29.2023 The Naturalist’s Art of Animal Encounters Whether you see some deer, have a fox cross your path, or spot a moose, there’s something disportionately delightful about encountering wildlife. Even seeing something pedestrian like a possum feels really fun. If you’d like to have more of these ...
03.27.2023 The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in a World That Won’t Stop Talking We live in a chatter-filled world. People will talk your ear off when you see them in person and everyone is constantly sharing their thoughts online. But my guest would say that all this chatter may be hurting us more ...
03.22.2023 A Kantian Guide to Life If you've had some contact with the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, there's a good chance you found it abstract, heady, and hard to understand. But my guest would say that it's full of rich, usable insights on how to become ...
03.20.2023 Finally Follow Through You get really excited about an idea to start an exercise program, or become a better partner, or get organized. And then you do . . . nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's said that the road to Hell is paved with ...
03.15.2023 Bat Bombs, Truth Serums, and the Masterminds of WWII Secret Warfare Many a man has been impressed by the ingenuity of secret agent operations, and intrigued by the subterfuge, gadgets, and disguises required to pull them off. Much of what we think about when we think about spies got its start ...
03.13.2023 Anxiety Is a Habit — Here's How to Break It You may think of anxiety as a reaction, a feeling, or a disorder. My guest today says that perhaps the best way to think about anxiety, especially if you want to treat it effectively, is as a habit. His name ...
03.08.2023 The Fitness Supplements That Actually Work In your journey towards becoming stronger, fitter, and healthier, there often comes a point where you wonder if taking some supplements will help your progress along. But what fitness supplements are actually effective and worth investing in? Here to answer ...
03.06.2023 The Essential Framework for Understanding The Art of War You heard about The Art of War, and it sounded pretty cool. So you picked up a copy to read. But you found that, beyond a few of its famous maxims, a lot of this text attributed to the ancient ...
03.01.2023 Why You Like the Music You Do What albums and songs are getting a lot of play on your Spotify or iTunes app currently? My guest would say that the music you put in heavy rotation comes down to your unique "listener profile." Her name is Susan ...
02.27.2023 Authority Is More Important Than Social Skills Influence comes down to a person's level of authority. When someone is perceived as having power, status, and worth, others readily follow them and comply with them. Authority isn't just a matter of position. It's also a personal quality. When ...
02.22.2023 Throw a 2-Hour Cocktail Party That Can Change Your Life When Nick Gray moved to New York City, he was a shy introvert with few friends. But he wanted to build up his social network. So he started throwing cocktail parties to meet people. These parties changed his life, and ...
02.20.2023 The Myths of Trauma Among people who experience some sort of trauma, what percentage do you think go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder? A third? A Half? More? Actually, the answer is 10%. An overestimation of how common it is to develop PTSD ...
02.15.2023 Leadership Lessons from a Disastrous Arctic Expedition You've probably heard of Ernest Shackleton, and his ill-fated Antarctic expedition. The Endurance, the ship on which he and his crew sailed, famously became trapped in ice, sunk, and set the men and their indomitable leader off on an arduous ...
02.13.2023 Jane Austen for Dudes Years ago, I was flipping through TV channels and came across Hugh Laurie, of Dr. House fame, decked out in 19th-century English gentleman garb. Because I was a House fan, I was curious about what Hugh Laurie sounded like with ...
02.08.2023 Get a Handle on Your Shrinking Attention Span Twenty years ago, it didn't seem like a burdensome task to write a handwritten letter to a loved one. Fifteen years ago, it wasn't a big deal to write a long email to a friend. Today, it can feel hard ...
02.06.2023 The Survival Myths That Can Get You Killed Surviving in the wild can seem like a romantic proposition, at least as it often plays out in popular culture and our imagination. We picture ourselves confidently navigating the obstacles of nature, pulling trout out of mountain streams, and building ...
02.01.2023 Escape the Happiness Trap 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. In fact, the more they try to be happy, especially by fighting to get ...
01.30.2023 Dante's Guide to Navigating a Spiritual Journey Dante's Divine Comedy is considered one of the greatest works of literature ever written. The poem not only imagines the three parts of the afterlife, but serves as an allegory for the spiritual journey of the human soul. Here to ...
01.25.2023 Move the Body, Heal the Mind When we think about the benefits of exercise, we tend to think of what it does for our body, making us leaner, stronger, and healthier. But my guest is out to emphasize the powerful effect physical activity has on our ...
01.23.2023 Kit Carson's Epic Exploits Within the space for just three decades, monumental episodes of exploration and expedition, politics and violence, including the mapping the Oregon Trail, the acquisition of California, and the Mexican-American and Civil wars, forever changed the history of the United States ...
01.19.2023 How to Win Friends and Influence People in the 21st Century Over the last year, my 12-year-old son has been doing one challenge every week as a rite of passage and chance to earn a special trip. Some of these challenges have involved reading a book in a week, and the ...
01.16.2023 Advice on Achieving Any Long-Haul Dream In a world that celebrates overnight success, it's easy to forget that very often, achieving your dreams takes a heck of a long time. My guest knows this all too well. You may know Steven Pressfield as the bestselling author ...
01.11.2023 Key Insights From the Longest Study on Happiness Started in 1938, the Harvard Study of Adult Development represents the longest study on happiness ever conducted. It set out to follow a group of men through every stage of their lives, from youth to old age, to discover what ...
01.09.2023 Heal the Body With Extended Fasting In the last several years, intermittent fasting — only eating for a short window each day — has gotten a lot of attention, particularly for the way it can facilitate weight loss. But as my guest will explain, going longer ...
01.04.2023 7 Journaling Techniques That Can Change Your Life In my twenties and early thirties, I was a regular journaler. Several years ago, however, I stopped journaling almost entirely because I wasn't getting anything out of it anymore. But my guest has helped me see that my problem wasn't ...
01.02.2023 Get Fit, Not Fried — The Benefits of Zone 2 Cardio When most people work out, they jump right from a resting state called Zone 1 cardio to Zone 3 cardio. But in skipping over Zone 2 cardio altogether, they miss out on a significant range of benefits to their health, ...
12.28.2022 Why You Don’t Change (But How You Still Can) [ENCORE] Anyone who’s ever tried to lose weight, curb their temper, quit smoking, or alter any other habit in their lives knows that personal change is hard. Really hard. Most self-help books out there treat people like machines, blitzing past this ...
12.26.2022 How Testosterone Makes Men, Men [Encore] What creates the differences between the sexes? Many would point to culture, and my guest today would agree that culture certainly shapes us. But she’d also argue that at the core of the divergence of the sexes, and in particular, ...
12.21.2022 The Unexpected Origins of Our Christmas Traditions With Christmas coming up, you're likely in the full holiday swing of things — decorating your tree, eating certain foods, listening to particular music, and buying and wrapping gifts. But did you ever stop to think about why it is ...
12.19.2022 The Affectionate, Ambiguous, and Surprisingly Ambivalent Relationship Between Siblings For most people, their siblings will be the longest-lasting relationships of their lives, potentially enduring all the way from birth until past the death of their parents. Marked by both jealousy and conflict and love and loyalty, siblings are also ...
12.14.2022 Why Homer Matters Even though the legendary poet Homer wrote the Iliad and Odyssey thousands of years ago, my guest would say that these epic poems are just as relevant and significant today, and even represent a kind of scripture. His name is ...
12.12.2022 Befriending Winter Some people dread winter with its cold weather, long dark nights, and the downcast mood these elements often induce. But my guest would say it's possible to befriend winter, and truly enjoy the rhythms and opportunities that are unique to ...

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