Inside the training camps for “alpha males”

This is Ira Glass. On this American life, we tell stories about when things change. Like for this guy David, whose entire life took a sharp, unexpected, and very unpleasant turn. And it did take me a while to realize that it's basically because the monkey pressed the button. That's right.

Because the monkey pressed the button. Surprising stories every week, wherever you get your podcasts. This is Fresh Air, I'm Tanya Mosley. For about a decade now, we've been talking about toxic masculinity. The term gained steam alongside the cultural reckoning of me too.

And now it has collided with a new and louder movement, an aspiration to be an alpha male. We see it everywhere. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has reinvented himself as a cage fighter and declared that corporate America doesn't have enough masculine energy. President Trump's inner circle includes men celebrated for their warrior tattoos, their MMA records, and their bench press videos. And influencers with millions of followers are telling men and boys that the problem with society isn't how they treat others, it's that they've been made to feel ashamed of who they are.

We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (47 minutes, 7,598 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.

No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 10 episodes for $5, and monthly plans are cheaper still.