Building Better Boys | Michael Reichert

Michael C. Reichert, PhD is founding director of the Center for the Study of Boys’ and Girls’ Lives at the University of Pennsylvania and a clinical practitioner specializing in boys and men, who has also conducted extensive research globally. In his recent book, How to Raise a Boy, he shares powerful stories and research about the behaviors, roles and expectations we place on young boys and how that often locks them into ways of being that are destructive not only to their own lives, but also potentially to their relationships in all parts of life and to society writ large. In our conversation, Reichert also addresses a number of societal myths and offers more constructive, science-backed reframes. At a time when we’re all reexamining 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.