Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
For decades, the fight for gender equality has squarely focused on lifting women up—in the workplace, politics, and beyond.
But according to Richard Reeves, president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, it’s the men who now need support.
From childhood, boys are falling behind in school. Men are trailing women in college completion by an even wider margin than existed (in the opposite direction) when Title IX became law in 1972. They also die by suicide about four times more often, with especially troubling increases among younger men over the past two decades.
In this episode, Reeves sits down with Shilo Brooks to discuss why the struggles facing boys and men have become politically impossible to discuss, why they need to stop hearing that “the future is female” and that their masculinity is “toxic,” and what the specific policies are that he believes will help them.
For decades, the fight for gender equality has squarely focused on lifting women up—in the workplace, politics, and beyond.
But according to Richard Reeves, president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, it’s the men who now need support.
From childhood, boys are falling behind in school. Men are trailing women in college completion by an even wider margin than existed (in the opposite direction) when Title IX became law in 1972. They also die by suicide about four times more often, with especially troubling increases among younger men over the past two decades.
In this episode, Reeves sits down with Shilo Brooks to discuss why the struggles facing boys and men have become politically impossible to discuss, why they need to stop hearing that “the future is female” and that their masculinity is “toxic,” and what the specific policies are that he believes will help them.
