The Art of Manliness

My guest today on the podcast did a firsthand investigation of the fascinating history of military research and shared her findings in a highly readable and entertaining book. Her name is Mary Roach and she’s the author of "Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War." Today on the show, Mary gives us a look inside the military fashion departments that create uniforms that keep soldiers cool, comf...

Negotiation. If you’re like most people who grew up in the West, particularly America, negotiation might make you uncomfortable because it’s really not part of the culture. The price someone asks is usually the price we pay. But negotiation is something all of us will have to do at one time or another. A job salary or car price are two obvious examples that come to mind. The problem is the way mos...

Today on the show, we cut through all the confusion when it comes to nutrition and fitness by talking to an actual Doctor of Gains. His name is Jordan Feigenbaum. He’s a Starting Strength Coach, diet consultant for some of the best competitive powerlifters and CrossFit athletes in the world, and a medical doctor currently doing his residency at UCLA. Jordan I discuss why barbell training is the be...

My guest today on the show argues that in order to get a big picture view of your finances, you need to start looking at your family as a business and yourself as the Chief Financial Officer of Family Inc. His name is Doug McCormick and he’s a professional investor and the author of "Family Inc.: Using Business Principles to Maximize Your Family’s Wealth." Today on the show, Doug and I discuss the...

The armies of ancient Greece and Rome have gained legendary status. Both militaries successfully conquered much of the known world in their respective eras. But what made them so formidable? Technological innovation? Novel strategies? Plain old grit? My guest today on the podcast argues that it was the Greek and Roman armies’ reverence for their mythic pasts that made them great. His name is J.E....

What can you do to de-escalate potentially violent confrontations so things don't come to fist blows? How do you deal with people who get in your face and act in verbally belligerent ways? My guest today has spent his career studying the psychology of aggressive people and how to handle them. His name is Shawn Smith, and he's a psychologist, and the author of the book "Surviving Aggressive People:...

The popular idea out there is that women are more social than men and men are more competitive than women. What’s more, these tendencies are socially conditioned rather than biologically innate. But what if it’s the other way around? My guest today is a psychologist who has spent thirty years researching the differences between how boys and girls socialize, and she’s discovered that many ideas tha...

I've had several Navy SEALs on the podcast, because as the SEALs are one of the world's last bastions of unabashed manliness, they have a lot to teach modern men. My previous SEAL guests have talked about how the lessons they learned from being a special operator can apply to gaining greater resilience, navigating the business world, and even parenting. In these interviews, we talked a little abou...

How can you learn to love the place you live, even if you don’t feel it's the place of your dreams, or the most ideal location? My guest today spent a year researching the burgeoning science of what's called "place attachment" in order to answer that question. Her name is Melody Warnick and she’s the author of This Is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live. On the show...

When it comes to the factors that lead to success, there’s a tendency in folks to discount the role of luck. We like to think we’re the complete masters of our fortune -- that we can control everything that happens to us and make our own luck. But by not giving luck its due, we actually prevent ourselves from effectively managing this force so we can experience success in the long run. My guest to...

Bonds. James Bond. 007 is a masculine film icon - handsome, debonair, and dangerous, and epitomizes the French idea of savoir faire, which is the ability to know what to do in absolutely any situation. Bond is so manly, that it'd be easy to think he's solely the creation of author Ian Fleming's imagination. But in fact, Bond was inspired by a real life WWII spy named Dusko Popov. My guest today, L...

Why do smart people do dumb things? This is one of the many questions my guest has explored during his writing career. His name Malcom Gladwell, writer at the New Yorker, author of several New York Times Bestselling books, and now host of the podcast Revisionist History. Today on the podcast, Malcom and I explore the question of smart people doing dumb things by looking at the basketball career of...

In the American Revolution, two figures stand in stark contrast to each other: George Washington and Benedict Arnold. What few Americans know is at the start of the War of Independence, Washington was a blundering general, while Arnold was one of the colonies’ very best. How is it that Washington transformed himself into one of America's greatest leaders while Arnold ended up betraying his country...

To the layman, financial investing can look extremely complicated. And while financial markets are certainly complex, the rules governing sound investment are actually pretty simple. The problem most people have is following those rules. It’s all about behavior. My guest today is a behavioral finance expert who has recently published a book crammed with practical advice to help investors from all...

Where goes greatness come from? Why was Ted Williams the greatest hitter in the history of baseball? What made Mozart one of history's most talented composers? The typical answer is that greatness is innate - some people are just born with extraordinary gifts and talents. Recent research though is turning that on its head. Greatness is actually the result of years of hard, deliberate practice. My...

Since the days of Ancient Greece, a battle between two political forces has been going on in the West: democracy vs. tyranny. But what makes a tyrant a tyrant? How has tyranny changed throughout Western history? And what is its connection to masculinity? My guest today, Waller Newell, has recently published a book that explores these questions. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and C...

Ernest Hemingway is a literary legend, but unlike many literary legends, he gained that status while at the very beginning of his career when he introduced his first novel, The Sun Also Rises. My guest today has published a detailed account of how Hemingway created his first novel. Her name is Lesley Blume and her book is "Everybody Behaves Badly: The True Story Behind Hemingway’s Masterpiece The...

Hosting guests, letter writing, and going out on real dates are often seen as old-fashioned practices that are no longer needed in an age when folks can book an Airbnb room instead of crashing at your pad, you can communicate instantaneously via email or text, and your next girlfriend is just a Tinder swipe away. But my guest today argues that the refinement of civilization requires that we still...

What if belonging to a tight-knit group that requires loyalty and self-sacrifice is the key to feeling fulfilled and wholly human? That’s the argument that my guest makes in his latest book. His name is Sebastian Junger. In his book, "Tribe," Junger uses his firsthand experience as a war reporter as a starting point in exploring the vital human need to belong to a group. In today’s show, Sebastian...

One of the things that makes humans, well, human is the ability to make a fist. Other primates can’t do this. The commonly accepted theory as to why humans developed the ability to make a fist is that they needed to do so in order to grasp tools. But research conducted by my guests today have led them to posit a very different theory. They argue that the reason we can make a fist is so we can give...

A common complaint of the modern age is the sense of distraction and lack of focus that pervades our lives. We typically blame technology like the internet or smartphones for our inability to concentrate on the task at hand. But my guest today argues that the culture of distraction we face runs much deeper than that and actually began several hundred years ago with the Enlightenment. His name is M...

We've all had those days where everything seems to go just right. We set goals for ourselves and we accomplish them. Instead of frittering away our time on YouTube, we're focused and get work done. It's easy to attribute these sorts of days to luck, but my guest today argues that research from behavioral economics and psychology can show us how we can consistently have more of these good days. Her...

If you're like most men who work a 9-5 job at an office, you're probably spending a lot of that time sitting down at a desk. Then when you get home, you might be a little active, but then you'll sit down at your desk in your home office, or you'll sit on the couch and watch TV. All that sitting is not good for your body. Some doctors even say it does as much damage to your body as smoking does. My...

In the quest to become the men we want to be, we're often our own worst enemy, especially when it comes to our egos. Our ego is prevents us from being humble and teachable when we're first starting out on an endeavor, it blinds us to our own weaknesses in times of success, and it can cause us to wallow in self-pity when we fail. My guest today is Ryan Holiday and in his latest book, Ego is the Ene...

A few months back, we had Frances Cole Jones on the show. She's the author of How to Wow: Proven Strategies for Selling Your Brilliant Self in Any Situation. At the end of that show, Frances directed our listeners to her website to ask her any question about how to better present oneself. She was flooded with questions from AoM podcast listeners, and today I have Frances back on the show to answer...