{"id":161,"date":"2026-05-22T13:46:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=161"},"modified":"2026-05-22T13:46:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:46:24","slug":"where-do-men-go-from-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=161","title":{"rendered":"Where Do Men Go from Here?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><em>Download a transcript.<\/em><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><em>Listen and subscribe:<\/em> Apple | Spotify | Wherever You Listen<\/p>\n<p><em>Sign up to receive our weekly cultural-recommendations newsletter.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The phrase \u201ctoxic masculinity,\u201d deployed ad nauseum over the past decade, now borders on clich\u00e9, but the fact that men are in <em>some<\/em> kind of crisis feels beyond dispute. Statistics on boys\u2019 prospects are bleak, showing falling graduation rates, diminished employment opportunities, and dismal mental-health outcomes. Meanwhile, the manosphere has fanned the flames of these discontents. The question of what\u2019s to be done is more pressing than ever. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz consider a new wave of texts that aims to diagnose men\u2019s ills, and to offer a path forward. The men in these works fall, broadly, into two lanes: the damaged, sometimes violent types who are front and center in such series as Richard Gadd\u2019s \u201cHalf Man,\u201d and the softer, more emotionally attuned protagonists of shows like \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d and \u201cDTF St. Louis.\u201d But this tidy schematic falls apart in real life\u2014and, as looksmaxxers have taught us, obsessing over models of manhood may only compound the problem. \u201cUsually, if I\u2019m thinking about <em>being a man<\/em>, it is in a self-reproving or self-indicting way that is not helpful to the situation,\u201d Cunningham says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re asking how to be a man, often the real answer is just how to be a person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=159\">Marie Arana and Writing Between Reality and Imagination<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Read, watch, and listen with the critics:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHalf Man\u201d (2026)<br \/>\u201cMagnolia\u201d (1999)<br \/>\u201cFight Club\u201d (1999)<br \/>\u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d (2025\u2014)<br \/>\u201c\u2018Heated Rivalry,\u2019 \u2018Pillion,\u2019 and the New Drama of the Closet\u201d (<em>The New Yorker<\/em>)<br \/>\u201cAdolescence\u201d (2025)<br \/>\u201cDTF St. Louis\u201d (2026)<br \/>\u201cThe New Masculinity of \u2018DTF St. Louis,\u2019 \u201d by Alexandra Schwartz (<em>The New Yorker<\/em>)<br \/>\u201cLord of the Flies\u201d (2026)<br \/>\u201cLord of the Flies,\u201d by William Golding<br \/>\u201cCan Starting from Scratch Save \u2018Vanderpump Rules\u2019?\u201d by Naomi Fry (<em>The New Yorker<\/em>)<br \/>Clavicular\u2019s <em>appearance on \u201cImpaulsive\u201d<\/em><br \/>\u201cWhy So Many Guys Are Obsessed with Testosterone,\u201d by Azeen Ghorayshi (The New York <em>Times<\/em>)<br \/>\u201cLouis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere\u201d (2026)<br \/>\u201cThe Pitt\u201d (2025\u2014)<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=157\">Dean\u2019s Is Not Your Average Pub<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=155\">Summer Culture Preview<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new slate of cultural offerings presents divergent ideas about the struggles men and boys face today\u2014and how to resolve them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-critics-at-large"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Where Do Men Go from Here? - City Relocation News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=161\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Where Do Men Go from Here? 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