"I don’t want to be whatever version of masculinity y’all keep telling me I have to be. Why are all the benchmarks violent and aggressive? I don’t wanna do it. I’m not interested” — Jason Reynolds

We all inherit scripts about who we’re supposed to be. For boys, they often center on toughness, aggression, and hiding their emotions. Jason Reynolds has spent his life questioning those scripts, carving out space for tenderness and love, honoring friendships that offered freedom, and exploring what masculinity might mean beyond the narrow definitions passed down to us.

Jason Reynolds is a national treasure. A Newbery Medal winner, a National Book Award finalist, a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, and a two-time National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, he is the beloved author of “Ghost,” “Long Way Down,” “Look Both Ways,” “Twenty-four Seconds From Now,” and so many more. Jason brings expansiveness to his books, illuminating the gentleness, humor, and vulnerability too often left out of stories of boyhood.

In this episode, Jason shares his thoughts on masculinity: the good, the bad, and the beautiful. He explains why everyone needs to have a 'tuning fork' friend, reveals how Saturn flipped his life around at age 30, and pays an incredible tribute to the tattooed biker badass who was his loving father.

Settle in for a vulnerable, revelatory conversation with an icon of American literature.

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For his reading challenge, Challenging Conventions, Jason has curated a collection of books that push back against the narrow definitions of boyhood and girlhood many of us have come to live by. Peruse selected titles and Jason’s full reading challenge for free at thereadingculturepod.com/jason-reynolds.

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This week's Beanstack Featured Librarians are not actually librarians, but they are integral members of the literary community who are pioneers when it comes to student voice and writing. They happen to be friends of Jason Reynolds. Kathy Crutcher and Sasa Aakil – from Shout Mouse Press – share about their upcoming book, “Bright Before Us Like a Flame,” which Jason Reynolds called “a gift,” and for which a previous guest of the podcast, Elizabeth Acevedo, wrote the foreword.

Show Chapters

Chapter 1: Aaron

Chapter 2: It’s OK to Say I Love You

Chapter 3: It’s Complicated

Chapter 4: Growing Pains

Chapter 5: Girl

Chapter 6: Cultivating What Matters

Chapter 7: Reading Challenge

Chapter 8: Beanstack Featured Librarian

Show Links

Host and Production Credits

Host: Jordan Lloyd Bookey
Producers: Mel Webb and Lower Street Media
Script Editors: Josia Lamberto-Egan, Mel Webb, Jordan Lloyd Bookey

I Love You, Man: Jason Reynolds on Masculinity