The Art of Manliness

Modern life is filled with conveniences designed to make things easier. We can order dinner without leaving the couch, check ourselves out at the grocery store, communicate instantly with anyone, and stream nearly every movie and song ever made. So why do we often feel busier, more stressed, and more, well, inconvenienced than ever? My […] This article was originally published on The Art of Manli…

If you’ve got a philosophical bent and you like to lift weights, you’ve probably heard of Yukio Mishima. Mishima was one of history’s most interesting cats. He was a Japanese novelist and playwright, a martial artist and bodybuilder…and an insurrectionist who attempted to overthrow his country’s government. His life started out one-sided. Then he found […] This article was originally published on…

Smells can conjure up powerful memories. The smell of pine needles can take you back to childhood Christmases or the smell of a laundry detergent can remind you of home. For me, there are certain smells that I’ve come to associate with manliness. Whenever I smell them I think of my dad or grandpa or […] This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Salesman. My latest Criterion watch was this 1969 documentary, which follows four door-to-door salesmen from the Mid-American Bible Company as they work Catholic parishes around Boston and then down in Florida, trying to move a $49.95 (that’s $500 in 2026 dollars — expensive!) illustrated Bible to working-class families. It’s a peek into a world that […] This article was originally published on T…

You’re surely familiar with the idea that humans spend a lot more time sitting than they used to. If you haven’t heard the statistics — the average American sits for 9-10 hours a day — you’ve experienced it in your life, finding yourself spending long stretches of your work and leisure time sedentary in office […] This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

We all have things we’ve always wanted to know how to do, but have never gotten around to learning. Speak a foreign language. Play an instrument. Write a book. Take up surfing. Maybe you’ve even started one of these pursuits a few times, only to drop it after a couple of weeks. My guest calls […] This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

The raglan tee (or as most guys know it, the baseball tee) is a shirt with sleeves that contrast in color from the body. Those sleeves are its defining feature: instead of attaching at a vertical seam on top of the shoulder, they’re cut in one continuous piece of fabric that runs from the underarm […] This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

In one of the emails Oliver Burkeman, author of Time Management for Mortals, sent out to his subscribers, he talked about how we typically treat our to-do lists like buckets that we need to empty every day. The problem, Burkeman observes, is that the to-do list is a bucket that never entirely empties. As we […] This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

The virtual Criterion Closet. If you’ve been following along with me for a while, you know I’ve been on a quest to become a cinephile, which I’ve been pursuing by watching films from the Criterion Collection during my zone 2 cardio sessions on the treadmill. To find my next pick, I usually just ask ChatGPT […] This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

When it comes to camping, there are rules you should follow to respect nature: don’t use even biodegradable soap in streams to avoid disrupting the ecosystem; pitch your tent on established or durable surfaces instead of trampling vegetation; use local firewood so you don’t introduce invasive insects and diseases. There are rules for respecting your […] This article was originally published on Th…