I'm Jonathan K. Parton, welcome to K-PART. Concerns about masculinity and the American male have

increasingly become an interesting and fraught part of societal and political discourse.

In this week's episode, you're going to hear two distinct voices coming from two different

vantage points, but coming to similar conclusions. One is well-known in this space, Richard Reaves

is president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, an author of the book,

of Boys and Men, why the modern male is struggling, why it matters, and what to do about it.

The other is Washington Post's opinion writer, Christine Emba. She's the author of rethinking sex

a provocation, and became a prominent voice in the masculinity dialogue with her widely read

Washington Post's opinion essay, Men Are Lost. Here's a map out of the wilderness.

In this incredible conversation, first recorded for Washington Post Live on July 12,

Reaves and Emba talk about the issues facing the modern American male, how to address them,

and why the phrase toxic masculinity is a problem. So if there's no non-toxic masculinity,

then that means there's only toxic masculinity, and that's just a really bad place to end up in.

If we're want to talk about solutions for men, we also have to make them feel invited into the

conversation, not just stigmatized for existing, frankly.

You're both coming at this really interesting conversation from different vantage points.

Christine, let me start with you. In your opinions essay, you took a closer look at the

changing narrative around masculinity as revealed through your research. What does the modern man

look like, and what does society expect of him?

So that's the real question. The modern man looks confused. In my research, I talk to young men

around the country, really, and sort of ask them what they thought it meant to be a man in this

day and age, and whether being a man had become harder over time. And so many of them said that

...