The Bind with Greg Flynn

It's been a while since I posted anything to The Bind! And that's because I quietly retired this podcast. Things are moving over to Substack, where I have recently launched be.wild.er - a new project that will combine writing and podcasting. You can sign up for be.wild.er here . You should also be able to find the podcast in the normal places by searching for be.wild.er with Greg Flynn....

It’s been a minute, and I’ve missed this, um, practice of recording The Bind. I’d been waiting to finish the trilogy of episodes that Jordan and I had started (Check out ‘Why Do Men Isolate?’ and ‘Why Do Men Have a Hard Time Feeling Their Feelings?’ ), but couldn’t wait any longer. Fear not, we’ll get to it—it’s just got a timeline of its own. So I thought I’d talk a bit about practice, something...

We are back with episode two of our three episode arc—once again, joined by Jordan Ferretti . Go check out seattlemenscircle.com for information on our upcoming online circles. In this episode we explore some of the reasons it can be tricky for men to tap into their feelings—and why it’s increasingly more important that we learn how to. We talk about how men are conditioned into the strategy of se...

We're  back! And we're back with a three part series that features my good friend and collaborator Jordan Ferretti of Team Builder Dojo . Each of these episodes will be paired with an online men's circle. You can learn more by visiting seattlemenscircle.com . However, here's the high-level overview: - December 28th - Why Do Men Isolate? - January 9th - Why Do Men Have a Hard Ti...

Hey! It’s been a minute. Some stuff’s been on my mind, and I thought I’d share with you. Let me know how it lands for you. You can always reach me at greg@gregorybflynn.com Some links for things mentioned in this episode: The Wild Edge of Sorrow, by Francis Weller - a wonderful book the supports us in re-connecting to age-old practices around grief. The Smell of Rain on Dust, by Martín Prechtal -...

A bit of a different one today. I wanted to explroe something that’s been on my mind, but not be glued to my desk (with my fancy microphone). So if you’re listening to this one, you’re on a walk with me. One of the things I pretty much always invite guys to do is to feel what’s happening in their bodies. The sensations that are happening in our bodies are pretty much always telling us something ....

This one is far and reaching and was a lot of fun. Quick CW: brief mention of suicide ideation. Mike Joseph is the host and producer of the podcast Detoxicity, which aims to rewrite the code for what’s considered masculine in society. I was lucky enough to be featured on a recent episode (see the below link). Mike is also a mental health advocate, working alongside a variety of non profit organiza...

Let's take a little step into anger, shame, difficulty in self-regulation. I'm not proud of the stories I tell here, but that's the point behind telling them. My thanks to good friend Jordan Ferretti for helping me see that there's a way to work with this energy that is healthy and productive—a way that I've always scoffed at. Curious how this lands for you. Let me know at...

Where do you find your value? Work? Family? Friends? What if your value had nothing to do with those things? How's that for the shortest show notes yet? I'd love to hear how this lands: greg@gregorybflynn.com or IG: @men.connecting Links for some things mentioned in this episode: Seattle Men's Circle fourth Monday , next Mon, 5/22 Our six week training - starts Tues, 5/23 Ep. 5 of T...

Bear with me here. I had some notes on something I was going to record about, but really just didn’t feel it. So then I took another idea I’d been kicking around, and decided to record that . 10 minutes in: nope. So , I decided to write down some questions. Questions that I could respond to, but that I could invite you into. So, yeah, this episode is different. I’d love to hear your responses to t...

CW: Themes of sexual violence and abuse. This is a different kind of episode from what I've done in the past. While I typically talk about male conditioning and issues around masculinity, this one is quite specific: talking about male survivors of sexual violence. Not perpetrators (though, as mentioned, there's often confusion around that), but survivors . My guest is my friend Jim Struv...

A follow up to last week's episode: why is it  that we often behave that way? What was going on in me that I'd be such a dick sometimes to my friend? As I said in this episode: I chalked it up to masculinity, and I chalked it up to the friends I was spending time with. But I didn't include something kind of important: I was tearing myself down regularly.  This is the inner critic at...

A nice and short one for spring! We had a great Seattle Men's Circle Happy Hour this past Monday, which was refreshing after the first one we did in February. In this episode I chat a bit about why that might be—what we did differently that made it feel much better this time. Disrupting the typical experience of men getting together takes some intention. And it's worth it. What's yo...

I truly enjoyed having this conversation with Efraín—someone I’d met so long ago and recently connected with. His journey into his own personal work around felt familiar, yet deeply different to me. Efraín brings in a part of the discussion that can often remain at the edges: how has the gender binary itself shaped (and harmed) us? A couple of the questions that we broach here: As men, what can we...

This is a very special episode of The Bind (appropriate for #20, eh?). I’ve mentioned in the past that my friend Christian invited me to join him at the his inaugural event–an event that will be held quarterly on the Equinox or Solstice–to share my work and weave in some of his poetry. We had a great conversation. _And _I have to say, I was blown away that it was an audience of basically just men....

So, another short one. Yet, one that touches on something I’ve been thinking a lot about: what does it look like to just feel what we are feeling? Not try to change it. Not try to “fix” it. Not try to get over it. Just feel it. It’s a skill I’ve been working on for years. I’ve still got a ways to go. And it’s one of the most important things we can learn to do. I think, anyway. How about you? How...

Rejection. Or, at least, perceived rejection. How do you experience it? That’s where I went in this episode. First, however, I had to pay tribute to the fact that I’m hitting the three year anniversary of starting the men’s group that got all of this (points wildly around here inside The Bind) going. It was an impulse at the beginning of the pandemic, and it led me to this moment. The group is mee...

A short and sweet one. Well, definitely short. Not sure how sweet. There are some things in here that I’ve been wanting to say for a while, but haven’t quite been sure how to. There’s a lot more to unpack about it for sure. For now, I wanted to respond to the question (asked of me by an acquaintance), “why do you think men aren’t stepping into leadership roles in non-profits?” In a lot of ways, th...

How do you advocate for yourself? I mean, really ? I’ve been wanting to have Whitney on the podcast from day one. He’s a good friend, and brings a great perspective to this work. We’ve had many hours of conversations about what it is to sit in men’s circles, what it means to be a man, and the like. We’ve even co-facilitated my Understanding Whiteness program . He’s good people. So when he told me...

I met Thomas through a mutual friend, and immediately enjoyed the conversations we were having. He’s a Belgian therapist living in Portland, OR, and doing some similar things to what I’m working on here in in Seattle. We decided to just see where this conversation took us, and it went in some interesting (at least to me) directions. Most notably was the conversation about the decisions we make as...

I had a bunch of notes on what I was going to talk about today, but wasn't really feeling any of it. Instead, I decided to talk about the pace that we are moving. What pace can we do this work? Work that is often about healing, about connecting to ourselves, about stepping into a different way of operating. Makes sense that maybe we'd do that from a slightly different pace than what we t...

What’s the vision of masculinity that you received as you were growing up? Odds are, it’s not actually attainable. In this episode, I chatted with a friend I made when I (admittedly a bit embarrassingly) played around with the audio app Clubhouse for a bit a few years back. Jeff Perera has been working on masculinity issues for over ten years. His analogy of the ‘ladder of masculinity’ is one of t...

Finally! I was excited that Weston and I were able to get this time set aside to dive into this conversation (especially since he’s taking a month away to enjoy the desert of Southern California). Weston created Let’s Get Real, Bro , a game to help men step into deeper, more meaningful conversations. We explore a bit about how the game came to be, why it is that men might want (or not want) to pla...

Well, I was hoping to have a guest for you this week. Ah well, wasn’t meant to be, I guess. Soon, though, I promise! In the meantime, I wanted to take another look at the idea that “we are conditioned to live in tiny boxes.” What do I mean by that? And what don’t I mean? Inspired by a bit from Sophie Strand’s brilliant book The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Masculine , I explore a bit about...

Well, it’s live! Step Zero , my free 10-day email program for men who are looking to make some changes, but aren’t quite ready to step into a men’s group. I hope you’ll consider checking it out—and/or sharing it with guys in your life. I’m excited! In this episode, I also talked about the fifth, and final, foundation of this work, and it’s one that might be surprising to some folks. That’s all I’m...