The Unspoken Lives of Men - The Deeper Thinking Podcast

The Unspoken Lives of Men

The Deeper Thinking Podcast 

What does it mean to witness a masculinity that doesn’t perform? And how do we make space for forms of strength that don’t announce themselves? Drawing from the relational ethics of bell hooks and the radical attentiveness of Simone Weil, this episode listens for what emerges when masculine identity is neither defended nor performed—but allowed to soften.

This is not a critique of men, nor a celebration of them—it is an invitation to witness what remains unspoken. From the disorientation that follows when the cultural scripts no longer fit, to the quiet dignity of those who choose presence over posture, we ask: what does liberation sound like when it doesn’t shout? How might silence itself be a form of love?

Engaging with the feminist thought of Sara Ahmed and Amia Srinivasan, and the border-thinking of Gloria Anzaldúa, the episode traces how disenfranchised masculinity is not the absence of power, but the quiet space where new ways of being begin to form. We pay attention to not-knowing—not as weakness, but as a kind of ethical presence.

For anyone questioning what it means to be a man in a world where performance is no longer enough, this episode is a meditation on restraint, vulnerability, and the strength that does not seek applause.

Why Listen?

• What happens when the scripts for being a man no longer fit
• Why not-knowing can be a new kind of presence
• The emotional terrain of disenfranchised masculinity
• How thinkers like hooks, Weil, Srinivasan, Ahmed, and Anzaldúa expand the conversation around love, masculinity, and care

Listen On:

• YouTube
• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts

Bibliography

• hooks, bell. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love. New York: Washington Square Press, 2004.
• Weil, Simone. Gravity and Grace. Translated by Emma Craufurd. London: Routledge, 2002.
• Ahmed, Sara. Living a Feminist Life. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017.
• Srinivasan, Amia. The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021.
• Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1999.

Bibliography Relevance

• bell hooks: Connects masculinity to love and liberation as intertwined forces.
• Simone Weil: Reframes attention as a devotional act—core to witnessing.
• Sara Ahmed: Tracks the affective politics of gendered life and refusal.
• Amia Srinivasan: Pushes the boundaries of consent, power, and gendered norms.
• Gloria Anzaldúa: Opens a space for hybrid identities and new modes of belonging beyond masculine borders.

What if the strongest thing a man could do—is not to act, but to stay?

#Masculinity #bellhooks #SimoneWeil #Feminism #Care #Attention #Gender #Anzaldúa #TheDeeperThinkingPodcast #Liberation #DisenfranchisedMasculinity #NotKnowing #Presence #Love