BROADCASTS.com

b'In 1972, when Congress passed Title IX to tackle gender equity in education, men were 13 percentage points more likely to hold bachelor\\u2019s degrees than women; today women are 15 points more likely to do so than men. The median real hourly wage for working men is lower today than it was in the 1970s. And men account for almost three out of four \\u201cdeaths of despair,\\u201d from overdose or suicide.\\n\\nThese are just a sample of the array of dizzying statistics that suffuse Richard Reeves\\u2019s book \\u201cOf Boys and Men.\\u201d We\\u2019re used to thinking about gender inequality as a story of insufficient progress for women and girls. There\\u2019s a good reason for that: Men have dominated human societies for centuries, and myriad inequalities \\u2014 from the gender pay gap to the dearth of female politicians and chief executives \\u2014 persist to this day.\\n\\nBut Reeves\\u2019s core argument is that there\\u2019s no way to fully understand inequality in America today without understanding the ways that men and boys \\u2014 particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds \\u2014 are falling behind.\\n\\nSo I wanted to have Reeves on the show to take a closer look at the data on how men and boys are struggling and explore what can be done about it. We discuss how the current education system places boys at a disadvantage; why boys raised in poverty are less likely than girls to escape it; the fact that female students are twice as likely to study abroad and serve in the Peace Corps as their male peers; Reeves\\u2019s policy proposal to have boys start school a year later than girls; why so few men are entering professions like teaching, nursing and therapy \\u2014 and what we can do about it; why so many boys look to figures like Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate for inspiration; what a better social \\u201cscript\\u201d for masculinity might look like and more.\\n\\nMentioned:\\n\\n"Gender Achievement Gaps in U.S. School Districts" by Sean F. Reardon, Erin M. Fahle, Demetra Kalogrides, Anne Podolsky and Rosalia C. Zarate\\n\\n"Redshirt the Boys" by Richard Reeves\\n\\nBook recommendations:\\n\\n"The Tenuous Attachments of Working-Class Men" by Kathryn Edin, Timothy Nelson, Andrew Cherlin and Robert Francis\\n\\nCareer and Family by Claudia Goldin\\n\\nThe Life of Dad by Anna Machin\\n\\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\\n\\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\\n\\n\\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d is produced by Emefa Agawu, Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld, Rog\\xe9 Karma and Kristin Lin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Mixing by Sonia Herrero. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Carol Sabouraud and Kristina Samulewski.'