The Art of Manliness Podcast aims to deepen and improve every area of a man's life, from fitness and philosophy, to relationships and productivity. Engaging and edifying interviews with some of the world's most interesting doers and thinkers drop the fluff and filler to glean guests' very best, potentially life-changing, insights.
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The Lost Virtue of Thumos (And Why Men Need It)
The ancient Greeks believed the human soul had three parts: reason, appetite, and something called thumos . Thumos is difficult to translate into English. It encompasses anger, noble spiritedness, pride, ambition, a sense of honor, and the drive to act. The Greeks thought it was essential to living a life of manly virtue, and my guest thinks we could use a lot more of it. His name is Mike LeBlanc,…
Note: This is a rebroadcast. Have you ever known one of those people who seemed to be able to connect with anyone? The kind of person who had the ability to make others feel understood and smoothly navigate even the trickiest of conversations? Charles Duhigg calls these folks “supercommunicators,” and he’s the author of a new book by the same name. Today on the show, Charles explains that what…
The Joy of Touching Grass (and Knobs, Buttons, and Boarding Passes)
Remember the old hotel ice machines? The kind where you'd slide your bucket under the chute and hear the avalanche of cubes crashing into it? There was something so fun and strangely gratifying about that thing. Or think about breaking an icicle off the edge of a roof. Such a gratifying feeling from such a small act. My guest has written an ode to the outsized pleasures that arise from these kinds…
Big P vs. Little P Purpose: Why You Don't Need to Find Your One True Calling
People are told their whole lives how important it is to find their purpose. But many find the search frustrating. They feel there's one true calling or one grand goal they're supposed to be pursuing, but they can't seem to discern what it is. My guest, Jordan Grumet, author of The Purpose Code , says that searching for what he calls your big P purpose can be fruitless and even harmful, and that a…
Restless, Rooted: What the Odyssey Reveals About Americans' Divided Souls
With the release of Christopher Nolan's adaptation of the Odyssey, it seems like everyone's been talking about a 3,000-year-old epic again. But my guest thinks this ancient tale offers a framework for understanding our modern lives that you probably haven't heard before. Patrick Deneen is a professor of political science and the author of American Odyssey . Today on the show, Patrick argues that…
When most people think of negotiation, they picture big, high-stakes moments: haggling over the price of a house, negotiating a starting salary, or hammering out the terms of a business deal. But negotiation is also something we do every day. It’s working out who’s taking on which chores with your spouse, convincing a coworker to help on a project, or even deciding where to go for dinner with…
Most people assume that if a goal is hard to achieve, getting there has to feel hard too. We tend to believe that extraordinary results require extraordinary suffering. But my guest says the secret to success isn't gritting your teeth; it's making the path enjoyable. His name is Jia Jiang, and in his new book, Easy Discipline , he argues that consistency comes from designing your work and your…
Beyond Midlife Myths: Why Middle Age Can Be Your Prime Time
Many of us grow up believing that midlife is when things start going downhill. Your body's breaking down, your best work is behind you, and you may fall into a full-blown existential crisis. But a lot of what we think we know about midlife turns out to be based more on pop culture than actual research. My guest says the reality is much more encouraging. Her name is Margie Lachman. She's a…
George Washington is perhaps the most familiar figure in American history. But most people really only know the image of him they see in marble statues and patriotic paintings. Behind those symbols was a real man: ambitious, self-taught, intensely concerned with honor, and constantly wrestling with the immense responsibilities history placed on his shoulders. In celebration of America's 250th…
The Retirement Trap: Should You Really Stop Working at 65?
The modern idea of retirement was built on a bet that turned out to be wrong. It assumed people would spend most of their lives working and only a relatively short period of time retired. Instead, many Americans now reach 65 healthy, active, and with an entire third of their life ahead of them. Yet we're still using a retirement model designed for a world in which old age was shorter and fewer…