Episode Overview

Podcast: Pivot (Special "On With Kara Swisher" Feed Drop)
Title: Why Scott Galloway Wants Us To Celebrate Masculinity, Not Diminish It
Host: Kara Swisher
Guest: Scott Galloway
Date: November 28, 2025

In this episode, Kara Swisher interviews her Pivot co-host Scott Galloway about his personal journey, his new book "Notes on Being a Man," and his growing advocacy for young men. They examine changing concepts of masculinity, parenting, the challenges facing boys and men today, and how society might foster a more positive, updated vision of what it means to be a man. The conversation is candid, self-deprecating, deeply personal, and includes both sharp social critique and actionable policy ideas.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins & Motivation for "Notes on Being a Man"

• Growing Concern: Scott explains that as he's aged, he's become more focused on using his platform to discuss overlooked issues, particularly the struggles of young men. (05:37)
• Shifting Conversation: Five years ago, raising boys’ issues had a stigma, but the far right filled that void with regressive answers. Scott aims to offer a positive, modern alternative.

  “Five years ago, if you did anything resembling advocating for young men … there was an understandable gag reflex.” (05:44 – Scott Galloway)

• Personal Stake: As a father to two sons, Scott sees worrisome trends among boys—academic struggles, lack of social skills, and a widening achievement gap.

  “If my 15 year old has a party, the boys are kind of dopey… The girls look like they could be the junior senators from Pennsylvania.” (08:05 – Scott)

2. Masculinity and Its Current Crisis

• The Statistics: High rates of male suicide, underemployment, addiction to technology—all signs of deep-rooted problems.
• Need for a Code: Scott argues that many boys lack a guiding set of principles, or a ‘code’, which past generations might have found in religion, family, or civic duty.

  “Every young person needs a code to help them sort through… decisions they make every day.” (07:39 – Scott)

• Masculinity as Code: He believes masculinity should be reclaimed as an aspirational concept—grounded in strength, responsibility, and care—not in coarseness or dominance.

3. Personal Memoir: Scott’s Upbringing

• Raised by a Single Mom: Scott shares how being raised without a father shaped his ideas of masculinity and left him lacking key role models. (11:15)

  “If a kid has someone who tells them … ‘I love you and you have worth’… you do grow up with a little bit of a fire of confidence. I got that from my mother.” (11:38 – Scott)

• Fragility of Boys: He highlights research showing that boys, despite physical strength, are often emotionally and mentally less resilient than girls—especially in single-parent families. (12:10)
• Stories of Mentors: Positive male figures—coaches, friends of his mother—played outsized roles in boosting his confidence and opening economic opportunities, like teaching him about investing. (15:02)

4. Barriers to Mentorship

• Societal Suspicion: Scott laments that well-intentioned men are often hesitant to mentor boys due to fears around appearance or suspicion, especially post abuse scandals. (17:00)
• The Need for Better Men:

  “If we want better men, we have to be better men… There are wonderful men… who have love and concern to give.” (17:49 – Scott)

5. Scott’s Approach vs. Academia

• Transparency & Fallibility: Unlike experts such as Richard Reeves or Jonathan Haidt, Scott brings a unique combination of data, personal failure, and openness about his mistakes to the conversation. (18:31)

  “A lot of the stories are like, where I got it wrong and what I’ve learned… this is my way, it might not be the right way…” (18:42 – Scott)

6. Fatherhood, Regret, and the Three-Legged Stool

• Addicted to Providing: Scott admits he was consumed with providing for his family, often at the expense of time with his sons.

  “I'm addicted to money and the affirmation of strangers.” (20:52 – Scott)

• Recalibrating Priorities: Losing his mother and becoming a father taught him that relationships and care outweigh success.
• The Three-Legged Stool: The core of positive masculinity is, for Scott, “Protect, Provide, Procreate.” (26:27)
  • Provide: Economic responsibility.
  • Protect: Emotional, physical, psychological security.
  • Procreate: Building families, undertaking life partnership roles.

  “The only time I’ve ever felt sated is late at night, my kids are asleep… I feel like my life makes sense.” (27:20 – Scott)

7. Redefining ‘Sensitive’ Masculinity

• Masculinity ≠ Cruelty: He critiques the ascendant models (e.g., Trump or Musk) as confusing masculinity with cruelty, instead calling for an empathetic, supportive approach.
• Kindness as Secret Weapon:

  “The three reasons women are attracted to men sexually are: One, they signal resources… Two, you’re intelligent… The third thing is kindness.” (33:11 – Scott)

• Humor and Excellence: Humor and demonstration of excellence in group settings play major roles in attraction and connection. (32:00–33:00)

8. Political and Cultural Backdrop

• Why the Manosphere Resonates: The aggressive, risk-taking style embodied by figures like Musk and Trump appeals to innate male drives—a fact that has been strategically weaponized in politics, especially in the MAGA movement. (41:00)

  “Young men… just want change, they just want chaos. And Trump is a chaos agent.” (45:39 – Scott)

• Zero-Sum Fallacy: Advocating for boys’ progress needn’t mean regression for others; both gender and civil rights movements have relied on coalitions.

  “What we need to raise our boys around, and masculinity around, is that your default has to be protection.” (44:19 – Scott)

9. Solutions: What Society and Policy Can Do

• Early Interventions:
  • Red-shirt boys (delay school entry to account for brain development differences)
  • Recruit more male teachers (only ~25% of K-12 teachers are male)
  • Reform school discipline policies (boys suspended more than girls)
  • Expand and de-stigmatize vocational training and apprenticeships

  “Boys start kindergarten at 6, girls at 5… More male teachers in high schools…” (50:20 – Scott)

• Tertiary Education: Expand university seats, including non-traditional certifications; push universities to serve as civic institutions rather than exclusionary brands. (51:38)
• National Service: Support mandatory service programs to build connection, citizenship, and maturity in young people. (52:37)
• Third Places: Subsidize community organizations to combat isolation and encourage meaningful socialization. (53:03)

10. Personal Reflections: Fathers and Sons

• Legacy of Scott’s Father: Scott reflects on his complicated relationship with his father, acknowledging both trauma and the important positive traits his father tried to offer—and the generational progress made.

  “He was a much better father to me than his father was to him… Towards the end of his life, he really did try to be a decent, loving man.” (53:47 – Scott)

• Lessons from His Sons: Parenting gave Scott a profound sense of purpose, a reason to channel masculinity into nurturing, not just striving.

  “I finally have a sense of purpose for the first time in my life… I don’t fear death but I finally feel like I could go and have meant something.” (56:50 – Scott)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On what’s wrong with today’s masculinity:

  “The right has conflated masculinity with coarseness and cruelty. And I don’t think that’s working. The left has said the answer is, you should act more like a woman. I don’t think that’s right either.” — Scott Galloway (46:47)

• On his mother’s impact:

  “If a kid has someone who implicitly and explicitly every day tells them, I love you and you have worth… you can’t help but sort of start to believe it.” — Scott Galloway (11:38)

• On practical solutions:

  “The incumbents… will claim these issues are too complex. We have screwed this up. We can unscrew it.” — Scott Galloway (50:20)

• On the difference between men and women in relationships:

  “If you’re in a room of 400 people… 300 of the men would have sex with most of the women. Most of the women would have sex with none of the men.” — Scott Galloway (37:33)

• On his personal purpose:

  “My job is to raise loving, patriotic men… You want them to know you love them immensely… But what I have learned from my boys is, I finally have a sense of purpose for the first time in my life.” — Scott Galloway (56:50)

• Comic Relief, on men never finding anything:

  “If my dick wasn’t attached, we’d find it on a card table next to a script of Goodfellas in Soho. I’m always five minutes away from losing my keys.” — Scott Galloway (34:30)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [05:37] — Why Scott became concerned about young men and masculinity
• [08:05] — The boys/girls gap in adolescence, partnering and economic opportunity
• [11:15] — The influence of mothers and the fragility of boys without male role models
• [15:02] — The impact of mentorship (the story of Cy, the stockbroker)
• [17:00] — The suspicion men face as mentors and the need for better men
• [18:31] — Scott vs. the academics: what he brings to this conversation
• [20:52] — Addiction to work, money, and the cost of being a provider
• [26:27] — Breaking down ‘protect, provide, procreate’
• [32:00] — Initiating contact & the ‘consumer dissonance’ in dating today
• [33:11] — The research on what attracts women: resources, intelligence, kindness
• [41:00] — Why the MAGA “manosphere” appeals to young men
• [44:19] — The positive call for masculinity as protection
• [50:20] — Actionable policy solutions for schools and national service
• [53:47] — On his father’s impact and generational progress
• [56:50] — Lessons and purpose learned from raising his sons

Style & Tone

The conversation is frank, warm, and self-deprecating, combining academic references with personal anecdotes and humor. Both hosts are unafraid to challenge each other but clearly have mutual respect. Scott’s tone blends confessional vulnerability with bracing statistics and policy recommendations.

Conclusion

Scott Galloway’s central message is that the answer to the legitimate crisis facing young men is not to diminish masculinity, but to celebrate and modernize it—as a force for purpose, kindness, partnership, and resilience. The episode is both a call to personal action and a challenge for collective, institutional change to foster a better future for boys, men, and, ultimately, society as a whole.