Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Emmy Award-winning ESPN writer Tom Junod joins us with Taffy Brodesser-Akner for a conversation about fatherhood, family secrets, and Junod’s new memoir, In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to be a Man, with a special musical performance by Loudon Wainwright III.
Tom Junod’s father dominated every room he entered. A successful traveling salesman who carried himself like a celebrity, he had countless affairs and didn’t do much to hide them. He could be cruel, but he loved his youngest son. And when one of Lou’s mistresses stood up at his funeral and announced, “Can we all . . . just agree . . . that this . . . was a man,” Tom set off to learn the facts of his father’s life. The secrets he uncovered — about his father, his father’s lovers, and deceptions going back generations — stunned him.
In a celebration of the book’s launch, hear Junod and Taffy Brodesser-Akner — herself a gifted chronicler of the deceptions and revelations of familial love — as they discuss Junod’s gripping emotional detective story: a moving, surprising inquiry into our projections, and collective self-deceptions, about fatherhood and masculinity itself.
Mar 11, 2026
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Emmy Award-winning ESPN writer Tom Junod joins us with Taffy Brodesser-Akner for a conversation about fatherhood, family secrets, and Junod’s new memoir, In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to be a Man, with a special musical performance by Loudon Wainwright III.
Tom Junod’s father dominated every room he entered. A successful traveling salesman who carried himself like a celebrity, he had countless affairs and didn’t do much to hide them. He could be cruel, but he loved his youngest son. And when one of Lou’s mistresses stood up at his funeral and announced, “Can we all . . . just agree . . . that this . . . was a man,” Tom set off to learn the facts of his father’s life. The secrets he uncovered — about his father, his father’s lovers, and deceptions going back generations — stunned him.
In a celebration of the book’s launch, hear Junod and Taffy Brodesser-Akner — herself a gifted chronicler of the deceptions and revelations of familial love — as they discuss Junod’s gripping emotional detective story: a moving, surprising inquiry into our projections, and collective self-deceptions, about fatherhood and masculinity itself.
Mar 11, 2026
Your support helps us continue creating online content for our community. Donate now: 92NY.org/Donate
Facebook: facebook.com/92ndStreetY
Instagram: Instagram.com/92ndStreetY
TikTok: tiktok.com/@92ndstreety
Archives: 92ny.org/archives
