The Art of Manliness – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Note: This is a rebroadcast.

Over the last year, my 12-year-old son has been doing one challenge every week as a rite of passage and chance to earn a special trip. Some of these challenges have involved reading a book in a week, and the most recent book we gave him to read was How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie. His review? He said it was the best book he's read so far.

So a book written almost 90 years ago can still be a favorite of a kid in the 21st century. Talk about some staying power. 

The advice in How to Win Friends & Influence People, and Dale Carnegie's other classic, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, is timeless. But to help introduce it to a new audience, my guest, Joe Hart, has recently co-authored the book Take Command, which synthesizes, updates, and adds to the principles of Carnegie's two perennial bestsellers. Joe is the President and CEO of Dale Carnegie & Associates, which continues Carnegie's work in the present day, and we begin our conversation with some background on the guy who kicked off this work back in 1936. We then talk about what principles we can take from How to Stop Worrying and Start Living on developing a positive mindset. From there, we talk about the big overarching principle of How to Win Friends & Influence People, and how you can use it to improve your relationships. We end our conversation with advice on how to live life with more intentionality and meaning.

• How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
• The Dale Carnegie Website, with links to the Take Command book page and the Dale Carnegie Course
• AoM Article: The 8 Best Vintage Self-Improvement Books
• AoM Podcast #818: The Philosophy of Self-Improvement
• AoM Podcast #457: Leadership Lessons With Craig Groeschel
• AoM Podcast #527: The Journey to the Second Half of Life With Richard Rohr
• AoM Podcast #518: The Second Mountain With David Brooks

• Joe on Twitter
• Joe on LinkedIn

As you get older, you can start to feel like you'll never achieve your dream or receive recognition for your contributions to a field, or that your best work is behind you.

Mo Rocca has compiled stories that demonstrate that you shouldn't give up hope, and that no matter your age, the best may yet be to come.

Mo is a humorist, journalist, and the co-author of Roctogenarians: Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs. Today on the show, Mo shares the stories and lessons of entrepreneurs, artists, actors, and more who achieved greatness or adulation in their twilight years or had a new spurt of creativity when they thought the well had run dry, including KFC founder Colonel Sanders, the artist Matisse, a couple of guys who didn't receive their first war wounds until they were old enough to qualify for the senior citizen discount at Denny's, and even a virile 90-year-old tortoise.

• AoM Podcast #849: Live Life in Crescendo
• Samuel Whittemore
• John L. Burns
• Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater
• Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum
• Henri Matisse's The Swimming Pool
• Documentary about Tyrus Wong
• Mr. Pickles the Tortoise

• Mo on X

Do moments where you run up against your dependence on modern technology get you wondering about the ways some of your personal capabilities seem to be atrophying?

Graham Lee has spent years thinking about this idea. While he's a digital skills educator who appreciates the way technology can enhance our abilities, he worries that our ever-increasing reliance on algorithms and artificial intelligence may be robbing us of elements that are vital to the core of who we are.

Lee is the author of Human Being: Reclaim 12 Vital Skills We’re Losing to Technology, and today on the show, we talk about some of those dozen endangered skills, including navigation, reading, writing, craftsmanship, and solitude. Lee offers case studies on how these skills enhance our humanness, why their loss matters, and how we can reclaim these capabilities and a greater sense of satisfaction and self-efficacy.

• We, the Navigators, The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific by David Lewis
• AoM series on learning how to navigate with a map and compass
• AoM Podcast #534: How Navigation Makes Us Human
• AoM Podcast #793: The New Science of Metabolism and Weight Loss
• AoM article on the benefits of solitude 
• Indian Running: Native American History and Tradition by Peter Nabokov
• Watchmaker Geoge Daniels
• Castaway Alexander Selkirk
• NotebookLM

• Graham on LinkedIn

Ever wondered why, after hours of reading and highlighting, you still feel unprepared for that big test? Or why, shortly after a work training, you can’t remember much of what was said and how to apply it? Or why you have trouble comprehending a difficult book?

Whether you’re a student studying for exams, an employee trying to learn the ropes at a new job, or someone who’s into personal study, learning effectively is hugely important in increasing your capacity and knowledge. Unfortunately, most of what people do to learn simply doesn’t work.

Here to unlock the superior, research-backed strategies that will help you harness the potential of your brain is Daniel Willingham, a professor of psychology and the author of Outsmart Your Brain. Today on the show, Daniel explains why the default way that our brains want to learn doesn’t work, and how to approach learning by both reading and listening more effectively. We discuss how to get more out of your reading, including whether you should highlight, whether speed reading is effective, the optimal method for taking notes during a lecture, the best way to cement things into memory, and much more.

• AoM Article: How and Why to Become a Lifelong Learner
• AoM Article: How to Read a Book
• AoM Article: How to Read Long and Difficult Books
• AoM Podcast #677: The Value of Learning New Skills in Adulthood
• AoM Article: Ace Your Exams — Study Tactics of the Successful Gentleman Scholar
• AoM Article: Write This Down: Note-Taking Strategies for Academic Success

• Daniel’s website
• Daniel on X
• Daniel on TikTok

Today I talk to Bryan Black, founder and owner of ITS Tactical. ITS Tactical is dedicated to providing "knowledge that empowers individuals with indispensable skill-sets to explore their world and prevail against all threats." You'll find content on emergency prep, wilderness survival, and self-defense on ITS Tactical. It's sort of like Boy Scouts, but manlier.
Bryan and I talk about why he started ITS Tactical, the tactical skills every man should know, and the gear every man should have to be prepared for any situation.

In this episode of the AoM podcast, I talk to science journalist Steven Kotler about his new book The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance. In his book, Steven takes a look at the world of extreme athletes and discovers that these so-called adrenaline junkies are pushing the boundaries of human performance, and it isn't the adrenaline that's driving these advances. Rather, it's the concept of flow -- an optimal state of attention that slows down time and makes life-or-death decision making possible.
In The Rise of Superman, Steven gives examples of extreme athletes -- like big wave surfers, solo rock climbers, and base jumpers -- who are tapping into flow to do the seemingly impossible. What's more, he shares research-backed ways that Average Joes can hack their own flow so that they can improve their performance across all facets of life and truly flourish.

What does it mean to be "gifted"?
Is it talent? Creativity? Intelligence? A mixture of all three?
Is giftedness something you're born with or can you nurture it?
Is it possible to measure and predict giftedness?
Our guest today, Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman, has tackled all these questions in his most recent book Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined. Scott is a cognitive psychologist who specializes in creativity and intelligence. Besides writing books and scholarly articles on the intersection of creativity and intelligence, Scott is a co-founder of The Creativity Post, a blog dedicated to exploring the science behind creativity and imagination.
In today's episode, Scott and I talk about intelligence, talent, and giftedness. I think if you're a dad, this show will have a lot of food for thought for you on how to raise your kids to be their best.

Today we talk to John Durant, author of The Paleo Manifesto, about how looking at our ancestral past can help us achieve optimal health both physically and mentally.

In today's episode I talk to writer Steven Pressfield. Steven has written over a dozen books ranging from fiction and non-fiction. His book Gates of Fire, a fictional account of the Battle of Thermopylae, is used by the Marine Corps Basic School and his non-fiction books have become go-to guides for writers, entrepreneurs, and other creative types. Steve and I talk about why war plays a central theme in all his work and how to apply the Warrior Ethos to creative work.

In today's episode I talk to author Christopher Klein about his new biography of famed 19th century boxer John L. Sullivan (he's the "boxer man" that serves as the unofficial logo of the Art of Manliness). Klein and I talk about this larger-than-life character and his influence on boxing and modern ideals of manhood in America today.