Modern Manhood

Trent Wilkie is a writer/journalist/performer in Edmonton Alberta, Canada. Trent has written for everything from CBC Radio (The Irrelevant Show) to Adbusters to Fangoria to almost every print media in Edmonton. He is also an experienced canoe guide, he in his words “considers the deep dark woods a therapy that only comes at the cost of comfort.” Trent is also a new father late in his life, and someone who was adopted at a young age. This is one of many reasons why I wanted to talk to Trent about his vision for manhood, his ideas around fatherhood, and his wonderings about therapy.

You can find the UnDad Podcast here, or if you go to the Alberta Podcast Network website.

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Brendan Kwitkowski, a Ph.D. candidate out of the University of Edinburgh, and a Canadian teacher out of BC, spent his master’s research time wondering why were 81% of students diagnosed with behavioural disorders male? Why are males 4-7 times more likely to commit suicide?

Those questions (among others) led him towards research that held the socialization of males at least partially responsible for these worrying statistics. So he dug further and did some research with young men.

Vivek Shraya is an award winning artist artist who has published many books before but her newest book, titled I’m Afraid of Men, explores how masculinity was imposed on her as a boy and continues to haunt her as a girl—and how we might reimagine gender for the twenty-first century. Not only that, she’s a person who is my age and was raised in Edmonton.

This is why I wanted to talk to her and I was lucky to do just that before she spoke at LitFest and interviewing Tegan And Sara at macEwan university.

vivekshraya.com

Buy “I’m Afraid of Men” at Amazon

In the second part of my conversation with Col Cseke we talk about what his journey was like being a man, his family and the ways they didn’t conform to gender biases, and the many ways in which fatherhood has shaped the way Col see gender for life.

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When Calgary’s theatre community was faced sexual harassment accusations, a lot of men came together to lean into these discussions around the privilege of masculinity, these discussions mirror the discussions a lot of communities have been having. And it helps especially during these times to understand what that conversations looks and sounds like. I got a chance to talk to one member of that community who wants to see a change in how we see privilege and how he sees that community shaping that conversation.

If you’re in Calgary you can check out CART here.

Poetry was something that Ahmed did but he hid it, until wife showed him a poetry club, and ever since then Ahmed has tried to show poetry to the world. He’s the current Poet Laureate for Edmonton, and his love for his community and the love of the community he has in Edmonton lead him be nominated for that position. He was part of the Breathe in Poetry collective and has spoken about and with immigrants. There’s a reason why I wanted to talk to Ahmed, his perspectives are limitless and he approaches so many things with empathy and love. It was inspiring to talk to him, and I hope you’re inspired too.

Join Ahmed and Karen Teng for the launch of Otherwise Podcast on Sept 28th, and keep that show on your mind when you hear this episode. To find out more info check out the Otherwise Podcast.

As well, if you want to check out Litfest there is a coupon code you can use if you check out the start of the show where you can get 5 bucks off. Go to litfestalberta.org for all the shows and tickets available in October.

Over all men between the ages of 25-29 were far more likely to get their sexual education from porn than any other form.

Now anyone who has a passing knowledge of internet porn can see how problematic that can be, if everything you learn about sex is through these forms of entertainment. It’s like learning how to drive a car from action movies.

Luckily as we have heard before from people like Bryony Cole, the sex tech industry is vastly evolving and now we have places where people can ask those sex questions that maybe you couldn’t ask your teacher, your mom, your dad, or hell even your doctor. Juicebox is an app that is made just for that, and I invited Brianna Rader the founder of Juicebox to tell us more about the app and how it can help men of all ages

You can try out the app by using the code MANHOOD