Modern Manhood: The Podcast

I reached out to Jeff Perera, activist and public speaker out in Toronto that has been working for anti-violence projects out there for at least 10 years now. We talked about reconciliation for men, and we also connected on how we came to do the work we do, along with stories about his father, safe spaces, and the tragedy of December 6th. I had such an awesome convo with Jeff, actually felt lighte...

When the media, schools, and society at large speak the issues of body image and how it affects your self-esteem, we usually hear about from a female lens. We don’t think of this as a male issue, but I can tell you honestly that the majority of men face body issue problems. And I think men of all sexual orientation have a specific relationship with their penis. UK artist and photographer, Laura Do...

Do we have a problem when politicians such as Justin Trudeau and Theresa May call themselves feminist? Especially if they back policies which in their root cause are anti-feminist? And the other big one, does feminism truly lead to a liberation of traditional masculinity? Or does it just critique? And if it just critiques, where does that lead the men who want to find their own masculinity? Ally F...

All of those times I changed my career path, they really gnawed at my question of identity. What was I supposed to be? What am I supposed to give out to the world? And it also answered the question that the path for a career, even for yourself was never in a straight line. We’re lucky if that happens. Andrew Paul faced the same questions of identity. But Andrew is quick to say that his story is no...

Kristain Basaraba grew up on punk rock, and his idols were punk rock singers. But he didn’t play or he didn’t sing, but he still wanted to do something punk rock. Being a dad he saw didn’t look punk rock, so Kristain has injected a bit of it to the Dad movement. He paired up with a local designer ( Nigel Hood )and created a skull and hearts logo to make Rad Dads, a chapter of a group down in the s...

How we as men here in Canada, especially in Alberta, view hockey players is right at the top of the masculinity hierarchy. This has been ingrained to us since we’re kids. And I can say even as adults we admire these players to what they can be, and look to them to be examples of leaders, to show us perseverance, resiliency, and humbleness. So hockey players have a distinct role to play in how Cana...

Today we’re going to continue our exploration of things “nerdy.”   by talking about video games. And to help us, I invited Carolyn Petit who is the managing editor for Feminist Frequency. Now you might have heard of Feminist Frequency because of it’s executive director Anita Sarkeesan who was a prominent player in Gamergate. But besides this whole mess, I was more interested in how an almost male...

Wonder Women came out in May, and along with it came a wake of good feelings, well wishes, and empowerment among women superhero lovers. Now of course, with anything involving geeky fandoms and women, the trolls came out. First it was whining about the all female screening of Wonder Woman in Texas, and then the just souring of the movie as some sort of “propaganda tool.” Not only that we see it no...

When you work in any type of professional field, you usually end up meeting the same cast of characters. Working in what some people call the “men sector,” the people that are committed to issues like ending violence against women, creating healthy masculinities, and working with male victims is pretty small. Especially locally. One of the perks of doing this podcast, and living in a world where p...

Have you ever looked at your body, looked in the mirror, and just hated it? So much so that you would go out of your way to not do things like go swimming, take off your shirt, and maybe even have sex with the lights off always. The concept of body image which in the past was something that for the most part gets attributed to women, now we can say that it affects both men and women. The policing...

On today’s show, we go a little more personal, and speak directly about Elliott and Michael’s background as first-generation Canadians and how their family households made them unique participants in the line for political commentators.  How their dads set them up to be more sensitive and vulnerable males, and how they enjoy each other as male friends. Not only that we speak to the masculinity and...

I started listening to The Highlevel Showdown , a local politics show with two guys, Elliott Tanti and Michael Vecchio , from opposite sides of the political view talk about what the heck is going on in the world of politics. Now, lucky for me they also were curious about questions of manhood, and questions in how masculinity works in politics as much as I did. Even more lucky for me, they were cu...

For today’s episode, I wanted to speak directly about men’s mental health and how men have problems getting the help they need either through the system that creates barriers or the society that sees them in a different light. This ties hand in hand with Men’s mental Health Awareness Day on June 13. So for this, I wanted to speak to a front line worker here in Edmonton that deals directly with peo...

Allen Featherstone has gone through his own journey of understanding how to be a proper man and human being. And it took him a long struggle with addictions, with hard drugs, then alcohol to understand what he has to do. In this interview, you can see that he is still on this journey, one that he is willing to share with anyone who will listen. You can hear that he is working to better himself, an...

In early May, Modern Manhood Podcast celebrated one year of life. In the last 12 months we have had an awesome collection of interviews and guests, each providing a unique spin on what they call manhood. In the first of many different clip shows, I'm going to be providing some feedback on my favorite parts of these interviews, as well as try to parse them in a way which is relevant to the study of...

Today I'm very excited to talk to Dr. Joseph Gelfer who is the founding editor of Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality ,  and the creator of the Future Masculinity online course and Director of Masculinity Research. He also created the Five Stages of Masculinity model, which is used to view a person's understandings of masculinity. This model is the basis of the Masculinity Research orga...

Today we're going to talk about the law. Not the law in regards to masculinity or how it affects males, but the law profession. How it affects the notions of self-care, and how the law profession is heavily run by males, and what the effect of that dynamic can be. We're going to talk to law student Ian Moore from Vancouver about this, plus I wanted to ask about his own life and what stories might...

On April 1st, Men Edmonton put on a special event screening the movie The Mask You Live In by the Representation Project. Through this movie Men Edmonton invited a panel of different men with different viewpoints, including old guest David Shepherd, to talk about masculinity in an open manner. The panel was hosted by 630CHED’s Ryan Jesperson, and the event was kicked off by Councillor and friend o...