#61 Andrew Reiner: Better Boys, Better Men

A number of years ago, the dean at the Honors College at Towson University in Maryland went on the prowl for ideas for new seminar courses at the college. Andrew Reiner wasted no time in offering an idea for a seminar on a subject that he says has become a compulsion in his life: Masculinity. What if the school offered a course where he could work with students to deconstruct our ideas around masculinity and what it looks like now for a new generation of college students, men and women?

On this episode of Paternal, Reiner discusses the course “The Changing Face of Masculinity,” as well as some of the most compelling findings in his 2020 book Better Boys Better Men, including why boys are struggling with a crisis of masculinity, how their ideas of masculinity hold them back in the classroom, and why their penchant for competition inhibits their ability to build trust among male peers, even in adulthood. Reiner, a father himself, has also written about men’s issues for the New York Times, Washington Post, and Forbes.