Art of Manliness Podcast #111: Why Men Fight & Why We Like to Watch With Jonathan Gottschall

Originally published April 2015 Jonathan Gottschall was an associate professor of English whose career had stalled in mid-life. Then one day he looked out his office window, saw a MMA gym across the street, and decided he was going to train to become a fighter. He wanted both to prove something to himself and to gain firsthand experiences to draw from in writing a book about the biology, anthropology, and sociology of male violence. The result was The Professor in the Cage: Why Men Fight and Why We Like to Watch. In this episode I talk to Gottschall about violence and masculinity and why getting in a fight may be the best thing a man can do for himself. Show Highlights Why an English professor decided to become a MMA fighter in middle-age How Gottschall’s assumptions about violence changed after his training and research into male violence How MMA training benefited other areas of his life The role of honor in male violence How ritualized violence is a benefit to society Why some sociologists think we need to bring back the duel Why we like to watch other men fight and be violent Why men like to fight more than women And much more! Show notes: https://ift.tt/2JkHJZ5 Follow us! https://ift.tt/1FOPIX2 http://twitter.com/artofmanliness https://ift.tt/YAd15k https://ift.tt/1DUJeqE