Bootcamp for Men: from betas to alphas

Endless Thread

WBUR

Reddit, Technology

4.2 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the past few years, videos from a new kind of camp have begun circulating the internet. They feature men participating in a variety of bizarre activities: from aggressively digging holes under floodlights, to collectively wailing in a pool of water. These are man camps, where men can pay up to $18,000 to undergo extreme boot-camp-like conditioning in the name of reclaiming their masculinity.

This week on Endless Thread, host Ben Brock Johnson and senior producer Dean Russell, dive into the past, present and future of man camps.

Show notes:

Learning 'how to be a man' in the Californian desert: Man Camp (The Guardian)

Transcript

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1:57.9	Producer Dean Russell of the podcast Endless from wb ur boston's npr how comfortable are you with
2:07.4	your masculinity uh i'm fine about i feel fine i guess uh but what about you co-host ben brock johnson of endless thread and all the other things that you said?
2:24.0	I feel fine with it.
2:26.0	I think it's about trying to figure out how to not inflict pain and destruction.
	...

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