The economic challenges facing men without college degrees
The Indicator from Planet Money
NPR
4.7 • 9.2K Ratings
🗓️ 27 December 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Many men in the U.S. feel like they're not doing as well as their fathers. But what does the data say? This episode, we're sharing an extended conversation between Darian Woods and Richard Reeves, the president of the American Institute for Boys and Men. They discuss what's really going on with men's wages. Richard also argues economic and cultural changes are needed to address the struggles unique to working-class men.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | NPR. |
| 0:02.5 | This is the indicator from planet money. |
| 0:13.9 | I'm Darym Woods. |
| 0:15.0 | It's the season of giving. |
| 0:17.4 | So today we are giving you an extra episode to enjoy. It starts with a question about |
| 0:22.9 | men and money. Now, over the last several decades, have men been earning more now than they |
| 0:32.3 | used to? Well, there are no simple answers in social science or economics. I sometimes feel it's a bit like, you know, the Groucho Marx quote about, well, these are my principles. |
| 0:42.6 | If you don't like them, I have others. |
| 0:46.2 | Richard Reeves is president of the American Institute for Boys and Men. |
| 0:50.5 | And Richard says to answer this question about the change in men's wages depends on the answer to other questions. |
| 0:57.3 | Like what span of years have been compared and what ages are you looking at? |
| 1:02.2 | Over the age of 16, prime age men, which distressingly is defined as 25 to 54. |
| 1:08.8 | How old are you? |
| 1:09.3 | I'm 55. |
| 1:10.6 | I know. You just left prime. I am literally no longer |
| 1:14.1 | prime age. A subprime, maybe. I'm subprime, thank you. And then perhaps like nerdiest of all, |
| 1:20.7 | you can decide how to adjust for inflation. So do you use a common measure like the consumer |
| 1:26.7 | price index or something else? |
| 1:29.0 | And so all of those different decisions, which men by age, which starting year, and which measure |
| 1:34.7 | of inflation, to have massive differences in the story you want to tell. |
| 1:38.9 | For Richard, the story he wants us to focus on is one he argues has been ignored and overlooked in elite circles, |
| 1:46.1 | the economic and social challenges facing men, particularly men without college degrees. |
... |
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