A pivotal year for boys and men’s issues

This article was originally published on the Of Boys and Men Substack.

‘Tis the season of reflections; I imagine your inbox contains so many that it’s starting to feel like a circus funhouse. Undeterred, I’m offering you mine. The topline is that 2025 has been a terrific year for elevating the issues of boys and men, honestly way past anything we’d hoped or even planned for. And it’s not just been all talk, but real action, especially at the state level.

Before more on that front, though, I have to share my favorite new word of the year: Tsundoku. This Japanese word translates roughly as “Leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piled up together with other unread books.”

Sound familiar? I learned of this word from the brilliant Maria Popova, in her review of Nassim Taleb’s The Black Swan. In that review Popova quotes a passage from Taleb:

Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.

I can’t tell you how much I love this, and I hope some of you bibliophiles will find it as liberating as I did. I will be using this quote every time my wife and I discuss how many bookshelves we really need…

AIBM x2 in 2025!

I’ve been thrilled to see the team at the American Institute for Boys and Men get bigger and stronger over the past twelve months. We’ve doubled in size in terms of staff, in fact, so that we now need at least two vehicles to transport ourselves in for our team onsites. If you’re interested in AIBM, we’ve got a new intro video featuring many team members, check it out.

I’m particularly pleased to have signed Saúl Valdez to run our program on men in higher education (see menincollege.org.) The need for this initiative is starkly clear. As Bill Galston wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal:

Colleges should do more to monitor the progress of male students, persuade them not to drop out and stay connected with—and offer a helping hand to—those who leave but may want to return.

The second annual convening of our higher education program, LearningMan (what a great name coined by Kevin Kovaleski) is taking place at Arizona State University in January. We’re pretty excited about the line up and agenda. If you’re in higher education, and want to learn more do drop us a line.

Another big win is the launch of our Boys and Men Online program, under the leadership of David Sasaki. The need for a gendered approach to the benefits and risks of online life is blindingly obvious; but until now there’s been way too little research and policy focus on boys and men.

I’ve gotten to know David pretty well as he’s worked with AIBM over the past year or so, and he’s just a fantastic colleague and addition to our senior team. If you haven’t already, do subscribe to his substack here.

We’ve also added to our roster of fellows, all of whom we’re truly honored to partner with: a special shout out to Curtis Valentine, formerly of the Progressive Policy Institute and founder of Real Men Teach, who is leading our efforts to increase the share of men in K-12 education.

Gubernatorial greats

Maybe the biggest surprise has been the leadership being shown by state-level policymakers, including some big-name governors. I was thrilled when Gov. Wes Moore used his State of the State address in February to take this issue head on. He was, he said, “Directing my entire administration to begin implementing targeted solutions to uplift our men and boys.”

He meant it, too. He’s already launched programs to increase the share of male teachers, boost apprenticeships, and in partnership with Arnold Ventures, the national treasure of U.S. philanthropy (and AIBM funder, yes) to attract more men into mentorship. AIBM was honored to place a full-time fellow into the governor’s administration to support this initiative, and proud that it is someone as awesome as Patrick Bourke, formerly of the U.S. Commerce Dept and all-round super-wonk with a weakness for actual progress.

Not to be outdone, just a few weeks later, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued her proclamation, in her own State of the State address, with an accompanying Executive Order focused in particular on higher education and re-enrolment programs, as well as housing. The challenges of attracting men back into college are a really important focus, so this was great to see. As a new research paper by another stellar 2025 AIBM hire, Isaac Bledsoe, finds, men are about 30% more likely to stop out of college, and having done so about 30% less likely to re-enroll. A big problem, given that men are much less likely to go to college in the first place.

It got better still in July when Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a comprehensive Executive Order on the challenges facing boys and men, and when his colleagues took it up with such rigor and enthusiasm, including with a specific call to men through a new Male Service Challenge. Like Gov. Moore, Gov. Newsom continues to refer to the importance of this work in public appearances.

To be fair, the first governor to act on this issue was Spencer Cox of Utah, with the creation of a taskforce almost two years ago, and I’m delighted to be sharing a stage with him in Salt Lake in just over a week’s time. The work in Utah looks set to really start gearing up, especially around issues of mental health. There’s also growing energy and interest on the issues of boys and men in a number of other states, including Washington State, Indiana, Vermont and Montana: so watch this space!

Big convos

There have been a number of conversations that we’ve helped to get going or contributed to during the course of 2025, including on the declining share of men at HBCUs, the issues of male disconnection and isolation (see my New York Times op-ed with Bob Putnam and AIBM’s brief on the real facts on loneliness); on getting more men into caring occupations, an issue where among others, the economist Paul Krugman has been coming out strong, and on the debate over the costs of online sports betting.

As we look forward to 2026, we’re starting strong with events in Utah and of course LearningMan26. You can expect to see a lot more from us on fatherhood, fresh publications on boys in K-12 education; a new hub on sports betting; work around rites of passage; studies on time use and family life; as well as strong opinions on why boys need play, male dopamine, the role of nature in Black male mental health, and much more besides.

One of the very best things I did in 2025 was to have a long conversation with Gloria Steinem in her home:

What an absolute treat and privilege. We were supposed to be talking about what those who work on behalf of boys and men can learn from the women’s movement, but it ended up being about freedom and joy, both of which I’m sure we can all appreciate heading into 2026. The video of that will be out very soon, I’ll be very interested to see what you make of it.

I want to thank the whole AIBM team for their magnificent work this year, as well as all those people who have supported, championed and challenged our work. Two years ago I had no idea how this issue would play out, let alone whether there was room and appetite for a whole new institution devoted to it.

I hope you’ve had or are having a wonderful holiday, and a very Happy New Year to you and yours. Here’s to a joyful, and book-ful, 2026!

Richard V. Reeves

AIBM President