Adolescence and the Crisis of Masculinity
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A series about a teenage boy who is accused of murdering a girl from his school was the most watched show on Netflix last weekend. Meanwhile the former England manager Sir Gareth Southgate has said that he fears young men are spending too much time gaming, gambling and watching porn.
Amol spoke to Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty, who star in the Netflix series, and in this episode of The Today Podcast he delves deeper into what it means to be a boy today with Richard Reeves, who wrote Of Boys and Men, and Catherine Carr who made a Radio 4 documentary called About the Boys.
You can listen to her series here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001yshl
To get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories and insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme make sure you hit subscribe on BBC Sounds. That way you’ll get an alert every time they release a new episode.
GET IN TOUCH: * Send us a message or a voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 * Email today@bbc.co.uk
The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson who are both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.
This episode was made by Lewis Vickers with Izzy Rowley and Grace Reeve. Digital production was by Grace Reeve and Beth Chalmers. The technical producer was Jonny Baker. The editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.9 | Hello, it's Amol in the Today Podcast Studio. |
| 0:07.0 | We've had a lot of conversations in the Today Program office this week about a new Netflix drama called Adolescence. |
| 0:13.8 | And around about this time, just last week, I was sat where I am now in the Today podcast studio talking to two stars from adolescents, Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty about their amazing TV series. |
| 0:25.7 | It is all about a teenage boy who is accused of murdering a girl from his school. |
| 0:30.6 | What's happening today in society where a young boy is stabbing a young girl to death. |
| 0:35.3 | And it was something that I wanted to look at and something that we wanted to try and raise a bit of awareness to. And I just had this idea for these four episodes. Everyone says it's fantastic TV, but it also alights on a really big theme, which is back in the news. And that is what it is to be a boy and a man today. There's been lots of lots of concern about social media influencers, |
| 0:55.5 | Andrew Tate, all the others, about the impact of smartphones on young boys. But there's also big, |
| 1:01.0 | global, local, national trends that are redefining what it is to be a man and what boys think |
| 1:07.8 | being a man actually involves. And it was a former England manager, |
| 1:11.1 | Garra Salket, who by complete coincidence this week gave the Dimbleby lecture in which he argued |
| 1:16.3 | that there is a crisis of masculinity. So that's what we're talking about on the today podcast |
| 1:21.1 | this week. What does it mean to be a young man today? And what can be done to help boys |
| 1:27.2 | navigate and overcome the challenges they're facing on the path to manhood. I'm going to be joined by two people, and I should say, I've thought long and hard about this. I'm going to be joined by two people who've thought very long and hard about this, indeed written about it and made great programs too. They are Richard Reeves, who wrote a book called of Boys and Men, which has proved very influential, and Catherine Carr, who spoke to school kids from across the UK for a superb Radio 4 documentary, which you should check out, is called About the Boys. |
| 1:54.5 | Right, let's do it. |
| 2:11.2 | Okay. Richard, Catherine, welcome to the Today podcast. |
| 2:13.0 | Thank you for having me. |
| 2:14.8 | It's wonderful to have you both here. |
| 2:16.0 | Thank you so, so very much. |
| 2:17.2 | Richard, where are you right now? |
| 2:19.8 | Right now, I'm in Asheville, North Carolina. |
| 2:24.4 | What was it about Britain that made you leave America? |
... |
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