America's young men are lost. At least that's what they're telling us online. From feeling

disconnected in school, relationships, and even purpose, to loneliness. Our nation's boys are

turning to the internet for answers and guidance. And that's where they find the manosphere,

a world of influencers promoting strength, stoicism, and often

misogyny. Extremely normal, a new investigative series by USA Today's extremism reporter Will Carles

examines how extremists and fringe ideas and movements have moved into America's mainstream.

Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt.

I'm Dana Taylor.

Today we're diving into one part of extremely normal, the Manosphere.

What is it and how it can devolve from ideas about fitness and discipline into something

darker?

We'll step into the Manosphere space to see what

teenage boys and young men in their 20s are consuming online and to understand how it's shaping

their worldview. Will, welcome back to the excerpt. Thanks for having me on. Let's start with a full

definition. What is the Manosphere? Well, the sort of most accepted definition of the Manosphere is essentially a collection of podcasters and influences pretty much exclusively, if not exclusively, male, who preach a mix of essentially self-help, fitness, taking control of your life.

But the concerning side of it is that there's often a misogynistic or an anti-female

or at least an anti-feminist element to their messaging.

So essentially they're playing into the sadness and the desperation

that you mentioned in your intro among young men. And the excuse that they give young men is

basically the reason that you feel like this is because of women and because of the way that

women treat men and because of the way that men are treated. And that's the sort of underlying message of the manosphere. Well, you've covered extremism in the United States

for years now. Tell us more about what drove you to explore this topic of young men in particular.

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