So when you think about how boys, especially young boys, behave, what comes to mind?
Chances are, if you're, like so many other people, some form of aggressive behavior, fighting, rambunctious, too much energy.
Turns out that so much of this is complete myth, and so much also is not something that's actually a natural part of that experience.
But it's learned.
It's taught.
So my guest today, Michael Reichert, is the founding director of the center for the Study of Boys and Girls, lives at the University of Pennsylvania.
And he is a clinical practitioner specializing in boys and men who has also conducted extensive research around the world.
And in his recent book, how to raise a Boy, he shares really powerful stories and research about the behaviors and roles and expectations that we place on young boys and how that often locks them into ways of being that are destructive not only in their own lives, but also potentially to their relationships in all parts of life and to society writ large.
And in this conversation, we also address a number of societal myths and offer kind of a more constructive, science backed reframe.
And at a time when we are all re examining questions of gender identity, behavior, and the way we bring ourselves to the world and our roles in teaching those who look to us as models of behavior and values, this topic has never been more important.
So excited to share this conversation with you.
I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is good life project.
I think the field that you've been practicing in clinically for decades now, I guess three and a half decades or so, and researching in is something that has sort of, you know, like it has met its match in the zeitgeist over the last few years.
But I want to take a step back in time with you.
I'm curious how you actually got into your practice.
I know a couple months back you actually published an op ed in the New York Times.
And in that piece, you relayed a pretty horrifying moment from when you're in high school.
Would you share that with us?
I would, yeah.
So I was attending an all boys urban school in my hometown, and I think I was somewhat naive as a boy.