Fewer Friends, More Pressure: The State of ‘American Men’

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2026

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Journalist Jordan Ritter Conn has spent years studying some of the psychological challenges facing men in the United States. These include feelings of loneliness, depression and anxiety, sometimes violence and often a sense that this economy isn’t for them. His book “American Men” delves into the lives of four men: a West Point grad, a Black trans man in rural Ohio, a white law student recovering from childhood trauma and a gay man prone to alcohol-fueled fights. It explores the gap between the expectations placed on men and the failure, real or imagined, to meet those expectations – and why friendships between men often fail to provide the kind of emotional connections they seek. Conn joins us. Guests: Jordan Ritter Conn, senior staff writer, The Ringer; author, "American Men" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Scott Schaefer, host of KQ80's Political Breakdown. Head over to Political Breakdowns
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0:36.2	From KQED.
0:38.9	This is Forum. I'm Scott Schaefer in for me and Kim.
0:42.5	Journalist Jordan Ritter-Kahn has spent years studying some of the psychological challenges facing men in the United States.
0:49.7	Challenges leading to loneliness, depression, and anxiety, sometimes violence,
0:54.0	and often a sense that this economy just isn't working for them.
0:58.6	His new book, American Men, delves into the lives of four men, a West Point grad, a black trans man in rural Ohio, a white law student recovering from childhood trauma, and a gay man prone to alcohol-fueled fights. It explores
1:12.9	the gap between the expectations placed on men and the failure, real or imagine, to meet
1:18.5	those expectations and why friendships between men often fail to provide the kind of emotional
1:23.6	connections they seek. Jordan Ritter-Con, welcome to forum. Scott, thank you so much for having me.
1:29.3	Thrill to be here.
1:30.3	Well, let's start off with kind of setting the table a little bit.
1:33.3	This book comes out, as you know, at a time when men still wield enormous power
1:38.3	over American institutions, anywhere you look, but they're still struggling by a lot of other measures.
1:43.3	So paint a picture of American men in 2026, if you would.
1:48.0	Sure. You know, I think this book is a lot about how we measure ourselves against the scripts that we inherit from a really early age,
1:56.0	what we're taught about who we're supposed to be. We're taught these ideas that we're to be physically dominant, whether in an athletic
	...

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