5 Disturbing Facts About Masculinity and Men | FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

In this week's Friday Field Notes, Ryan Michler returns to the studio to address a critical and disturbing trend: the rapid decline of modern men. Diving into five alarming statistics, Ryan breaks down the uncomfortable truths about male suicide rates, the epidemic of isolation, and dropping testosterone levels. He doesn't just highlight the problems; he offers practical, hard-hitting solutions to help men break free from societal traps. Whether it's building a brotherhood, taking charge of your physical health, or stepping up to lead in your relationships, this episode is a wake-up call to reclaim your masculinity. Tune in to discover how you can stop isolating, boost your vitality, and become the protector and provider you were meant to be. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS 00:13 - Back in the Studio & Vortex Optics 02:19 - Five Alarming Statistics About Men 03:10 - Statistic 1: The Tragedy of Male Suicide 04:50 - Statistic 2: The Epidemic of Isolation 08:40 - Where to Find Good Men 11:35 - Statistic 3: The Single Status of Young Men 17:20 - Statistic 4: The Decline in Male Education 21:05 - Statistic 5: Plummeting Vitality and Testosterone 22:12 - How to Naturally Boost Testosterone 28:50 - Upcoming Interview with Jim Caviezel Battle Planners: Pick yours up today! https://store.orderofman.com/products/order-of-man-annual-battle-planner Order Ryan's new book, The Masculinity Manifesto https://www.amazon.com/Masculinity-Manifesto-Establishes-Influence-Credibility/dp/1684513316/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1665048672&sr=8-1. For more information on the Iron Council brotherhood https://orderofman.link/iron-council. Want maximum health, wealth, relationships, and abundance in your life? Sign up for our free course, 30 Days to Battle Ready https://orderofman.link/battle-ready-0

• 0:00Speaker 00

  I have people that care about me. I have people that love me. I have people that check in on me every single day. It's foreign. It's unfathomable to me that there might be guys out there who don't have a single person to check in on or to have them check in on them. I was appalled by the amount of men that I received in the comments and I received hundreds and hundreds of comments on that post are like, oh no, this is true. Oh no, this is accurate. Oh no, I don't have any friends. Like, what is happening?

• 0:32Speaker 00

  Hey, what's up, guys? It feels really good to be back in studio. I've been out of the office and the podcast studio for about a week and a half with a couple of different hunts, one in Minnesota, actually just one hunt, one in Minnesota, and then I went and spent some time in Wisconsin with Vortex Optics. And I mean, what an incredible company. The fact that they've been able to become the world's largest optic manufacturer in 25 years, beating their competitors out by leaps and bounds is fascinating. And we've got some really, really cool stories and podcasts and conversations and content coming out around Vortex and their story and what they've done. So if you haven't checked them out,

• 1:16Speaker 00

  make sure to check them out. But yeah, it is good to be back in studio. I'm actually leaving again in a couple of days. You've heard from my good friend and co-host Kip Sorenson on the podcast and Sean Vialovos as well on the AMI. You're gonna hear from me next week and we'll talk about a little of what they said, some I agree with, some will rebut a little bit. So it should be a good conversation, but I am glad to be back and wanted to have a really important discussion about some alarming statistics that I have seen with regards to the state, the condition of of men, and it's not good.

• 1:58Speaker 00

  It's really, really not good. And we're on the heels of a horrible, horrible election cycle. And look, I, I don't really want to get into the left versus right, but there's some dangerous things that are going to be happening over the next, probably at this point, two to eight years, maybe even a decade that we need to be very aware of. So there's been a lot going on while I've been gone, while I've been sitting in a tree stand. And I, I wish I could just do that. Sometimes people say, well, you know, just go out and focus on the things that are closest to you. Yes, absolutely. And also focus on the things that impact you, politics being one of those things.

• 2:41Speaker 00

  But we'll save that for another discussion. Today, I want to talk with you about five statistics, alarming, disturbing, frustrating statistics that I have seen come up as I researched this podcast, I researched the things I want to talk with you about. Some of them I have talked about before and others I have not yet addressed, but let's, let's break this down. So first and foremost, men account for close to 80% of US suicides, 80%. Now, look, we represent about half the population, a little less than.

• 3:18Speaker 00

  And yet we represent 80% of all US suicides. Now, I will say, there's a caveat here. That does not mean that we attempt 80% of suicides. It means that we complete, for lack of a better term, or we, we, we accomplish. I don't even know what the word is. There's no word for that. But we actually account for 80% of US suicides. Now, what's also interesting about this is our female counterparts actually account for more attempts than we do. Most of the time, that is a byproduct of reaching out for help as opposed to, I want to kill myself.

• 4:04Speaker 00

  Men are more, for lack of a better term, effective at killing themselves. It's just the means. We kill ourselves with guns. That's it. Women might kill themselves with, with pills and other means, but men kill themselves with guns. So for every attempt, we are much more likely to actually complete the act of suicide than our female counterparts. So what does that say?

• 4:31Speaker 00

  Well, it says that we're depressed.

• 4:36Speaker 00

  It says that we're desperate. It says that we as men can't see a way out of the situation that we may find ourselves in. And there's some other statistics that I'm going to talk with you about today that might underscore this first statistic that we account for 80% of US suicides. But at the end of the day, we are killing ourselves off at insane, absolutely insane, tragic numbers. And I can't help but think that some of what I'm going to go through, the other four steps or the other four statistics that I've heard, might help alleviate some of this pressure and some of this strain.

• 5:16Speaker 00

  But it's not good. It's not good when we're killing ourselves 80% of the time relative to our female counterparts. All right. Number two, 15% of men have no close friends. And that's up from 3%. So 15% might not sound like a big deal. 15%, 85% do have close friends. It might not sound like a big deal, but that's up from 3% in 1990. Guys, if you think that social media and technology and the interwebs and everything else is good for you,

• 5:56Speaker 00

  I'm telling you right now, it's not. And this is coming from a man who uses the internet, who uses digital technology, who uses social media every single day. And I hope that what I bring to you fosters and encourages and bolsters the antithesis of this statistic that we are actually connecting with men face to face, shoulder to shoulder. We're going out, we're going to events, we're connecting with guys, we're going on hunts, we're taking adventures. But the reality is, is that 15% of men have no close friend.

• 6:32Speaker 00

  Maybe that's you. I actually think it's higher. I think this statistic is skewed a little. I think it's actually higher because you have to define what close friend is.

• 6:44Speaker 00

  I made a post just the other day about, somebody had made a comment and it went a little viral and it said something to the effect of, you know, men have no close friends, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada.

• 6:57Speaker 00

  And nobody cares about men. And I said, I don't agree with this. I don't agree with this. I think we do have people that care about us. I think we do have people that want us in their lives. I think there are plenty of people who are relying on us. And I really, I firmly believe that. That's my universe that I operate in. I have people that care about me. I have people that love me. I have people that check in on me every single day. It's foreign. It's unfathomable to me that there might be guys out there who don't have a single person to check in on or to have them check in on them.

• 7:34Speaker 00

  But I was shocked. I was appalled by

• 7:40Speaker 00

  the comments that I received. I mean, the comments that I received, none of them were, were harsh necessarily, but they were.

• 7:51Speaker 00

  I, I don't even, I don't even know, like, they, they were just, they were horrible. The amount of men that I received in the comments and I received hundreds and hundreds of comments on that post are like, oh no, this is true. Oh no, this is accurate. Oh no, I don't have any friends. Like, what is happening? What is happening? You can't go golf with somebody. You can't call up a buddy and go to lunch. You can't carpool or commute with somebody. You can't go on a hunt with somebody. Again, it's, it's foreign to me because I, I operate in a tribe and I've built a community of men. But it says that 15% of men have no close friends and probably even a greater number of that or a percentage than that have no friends at all.

• 8:37Speaker 00

  Guys, that's brutal.

• 8:40Speaker 00

  If you're one of those men, you gotta get yourself out of that cycle.

• 8:47Speaker 00

  It's desperate. It's lonely. It leads to point number one, 80% of suicides completed by men. Isolation and solitude lead to that. And yet there's 15%, and I would argue more of men that don't have a single close friend. What a horrible, horrible environment to operate in. You've got to have close friends. I'll give you some examples and some things that you can do here shortly. But at the end of the day, you can do one of four things, really. Where are the good men? It's easy. It's really easy, guys. The good men, the guys you want to be connected with, are in faith. So start going to church.

• 9:32Speaker 00

  And I don't even care what church you go to, but start going to church. Number one, go to church and meet men who fear God. Number two, your fitness. So if that's the gym, if that's the jujitsu dojo or studio or academy, if that's going on a hike, if that's cycling, I don't, I don't, I don't actually care what it is. But, but the gym, fitness.

• 9:59Speaker 00

  Number three is around building and growing a career. And where are those guys? They're at Chamber, they're at Rotary, they're at

• 10:13Speaker 00

  Elks Lodge, they're at Business Network International, they're going to conferences, they're investing in those things. That's where those guys are. And number four is hobbies.

• 10:25Speaker 00

  What are your hobbies? What are your interests? Do you like painting? Do you like shooting? Do you like underwater basket weaving? Do you like scuba diving? Do you like snorkeling? Do you like traveling the world? Do you like finances? Do you like paint, I think I already said painting, photography, website development, interior design? I don't really care what it is. And I know we have this misconception that, oh, there's some hobbies that are masculine and some that are feminine. I don't know, I've never lifted up the skirt of my hobbies to see if it had little balls or a vagina. I don't care. I don't care. Some guys will say, well, cooking is not masculine. Other guys will say it is. It's not masculine or feminine. It's just cooking. Some guys will say, well, shooting is feminine or masculine and not feminine. I don't, we don't need to get into that.

• 11:11Speaker 00

  If you're into arts, if you're into drama, if you're into shooting, if you're into jujitsu, if you're into personal defense, if you're into fortifying your home, if you're into photography, if you're into website design, if you're into interior design, if you're into style and fashion, I don't care. Whatever it is, go do your thing.

• 11:32Speaker 00

  Our model of protect, provide, preside is not discriminatory towards the hobbies and activities that you're interested in. So go find a hobby and an activity that you're interested in, and I promise you will find other men who are interested in the same. Stop isolating.

• 11:50Speaker 00

  Now, another one, this one's crazy. 63% of men under the age of 30, 63% of men under the age of 30 are single.

• 12:03Speaker 00

  Compared to 34% of women. Now, this kind of makes sense a little bit. Why would women under the age of 30 be married or single at the rate of 34% while men under the age of 30 be single at the age of 64%? Because women are marrying older men. I mean, that's the reality of it, right? And that makes sense. That tracks. There's a bit of a

• 12:29Speaker 00

  hypergamy at play here, like women will naturally gravitate towards men who are older, more mature, more successful. Whereas men will naturally gravitate towards women who are younger, youthful, vibrant vitality. People get mad when I say this, but the statistics bear this out. Women are interested in stability and men are interested in vitality. So it's no wonder to me that women will be looking for men who are older, more mature, more established. Whereas men will be looking for women who are more youthful, more vibrant, more have more vitality, the, essentially, the ability to have children, essentially.

• 13:14Speaker 00

  Now, we'll come up with all the cultural norms and all the conversations and we'll massage and tweak and adjust and make each other feel good about it, but that's the reality. Okay, women want safety and security. Men want vitality, youthfulness, vibrance, beauty, et cetera. It's the, just the natural order of things. But what's disturbing to me is that 63% of men under 30 are single. Not, not married, single. Meaning there is no woman in their life. And we see alarming statistics that the fact that men are just not interested in being in relationships anymore.

• 13:55Speaker 00

  And look, I get it. When, when you hear this statistic, you might be one of those guys who says, well, why would I? Why would I be in a relationship?

• 14:06Speaker 00

  There's this big red pill movement, Meg Tao and voluntary celibates. I've been bucking against this for 11 years. And everybody's like, no, no, no, no, no. And then you see the guys like Andrew Tate who get arrested and Tristan Tate for trafficking children.

• 14:21Speaker 00

  I just saw another article today that, what's his name, Russell Brand? The guy that everybody like clamored around, oh, gotta get him on my podcast, gotta talk to this guy, was just convicted of rape and sexual assault. And will be, you know, facing some severe penalties.

• 14:42Speaker 00

  Everybody's pursuing these people who don't build their movements or their message or their lives around just being a good and decent man.

• 14:54Speaker 00

  But on the flip side, you have guys like Scott Galloway, the fool, the clown, who wrote a book about men and notes or notes on men or something. I can't remember what it was called. And this guy's the biggest fool of them all. You've got another guy like Ryan Holiday, who talks about ego being the enemy and the obstacle is the way. And you see him completely lose his mind because he's kind of a mental midget. I don't understand how it has to be one or the other. Because most of us, the guys listening to this podcast, we operate in the medium.

• 15:30Speaker 00

  All right, we're not those weak, soft soy boys like Scott Galloway or Ryan Holiday. And also, we're not the alpha guru fucking dorks like Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate and Dan Bilzerian and these types of guys who just are clowns. Most of us operate in the middle.

• 15:56Speaker 00

  I feel like I'm a decent dude. I'm trying to raise my kids. I've gone through a divorce. I've suffered through and worked through substance abuse. I've made good decisions. I've made bad decisions. Ultimately, I just care about people. I care about my kids. I care about my business and this movement. I care about putting food on the table for my children and I care about being a decent human being. But I'm not some fucking soy boy and I'm not some fucking alpha. I'm somewhere in the middle.

• 16:28Speaker 00

  And what I see in society today is that everybody is like, I gotta pick sides. I either gotta be this soy boy nerd or this Billy badass alpha. And there's no room for middle ground. I'm a middle ground guy.

• 16:44Speaker 00

  Now, look, I think we should be protectors, providers and presiders, sure. And so I gravitate more towards that side of things. But I also have an appreciation for compassion and empathy and kindness.

• 16:57Speaker 00

  And to go back to point number three, with 63% of men under 30 not being in a relationship, I can't help but think that we have moved so far to the right side of things where everybody's telling them that women are bad and women are evil and they're only out to get you and they're going to steal half your wealth. Choose better women. Choose better women. That's the reality of the situation. Choose better women and that's on you. All right, number four.

• 17:27Speaker 00

  Men earn just 42% of bachelor degrees, which is the lowest share that's ever existed. Now,

• 17:38Speaker 00

  you know me, I've talked about this for a decade. I'm not a huge advocate for the common, I'm not going to say traditional, but the common post-secondary education. I don't think it's necessary unless you're going to be in STEM. I just don't think it's necessary. So what is STEM, science, technology, engineering and math? Outside of that, you don't need a college degree, okay? And maybe the statistic says that we're wising up, but I don't think that's what it says. I think what the statistic says is that we're tapping out. I think what the statistic says about only 42% of men, or excuse me, of bachelor's degrees are men,

• 18:21Speaker 00

  I think is underscoring the point that men are not interested in educating themselves. And I can't help but think part of the reason is men are tapping out. We're throwing up our hands. We're like, not interested. I don't want anything to do with this environment. The rig, the, the, the, the system is rigged against us. The odds are stacked against us. And so I'm out. And that goes back to the second point that I made where men have no close friends. We're isolating. Like you can only play a game so long

• 19:03Speaker 00

  after losing over and over again before you just wash your hands and you say, I'm out. And this is a game. The United States government has created a system and a game as, as illustrated by the majority of people believing that

• 19:19Speaker 00

  the, the system is stacked against you. And I can't argue that. I really can't. I used to, I want to argue it. I do. I want to argue that point. I want to be able to say that the system is not stacked against you, but I can't. In good faith, I cannot tell you that the system is not stacked against you.

• 19:43Speaker 00

  And when people lose hope, they don't act, which is part of the design, isn't it? Part of the design is to get you to lose hope. So you just acquiesce and surrender. Whatever you say, big brother, whatever you say, I'm not going to do that. I don't think you're going to do that. But when I see 42% of bachelor's degrees going to men, I can't help but think that it's not that we're just disinterested in getting post-secondary education. It's that we're disinterested in society. Now, look, there's all sorts of other opportunities, trade schools, just going into business. Somebody asked me just the other day, they said, do you have a bachelor's degree? I said, no, I went to half a semester of college and said, I'm out.

• 20:28Speaker 00

  But I wasn't disengaging from the system when I said that. What I was doing when I said that is I'm going to go engage with the real world. I'm going to go put myself to work. And I outproduce, I don't know what the number is, but a large percentage of bachelor's degree recipients financially. So the bachelor's degree is not as important as the, the statistic around the level of engagement with men. It's, it's abysmal. And number four, number five is, and this one's kind of a little interesting, but it's

• 21:10Speaker 00

  a statistic I found is that semen counts have dropped 62% since 1973. So a little over a quarter of a century, semen counts have dropped 63%, excuse me, 62%. Why would I add that? Well, it's a measurement of vitality of men. That's what it is. And we can take the corollary statistics with that. When you talk about a man losing semen count, you can also correlate that with strength, with ambition, with drive, with motivation, because what drives the number? Testosterone.

• 21:55Speaker 00

  So frankly, at the end of the day, it's not just the semen count is lower. It's the fact that men are declining drastically as it relates to testosterone. Well, what could that be? Well, let's think about what boosts testosterone. And therefore as a byproduct boost semen counts. What is it? It's easy. It's really easy. There's a bunch of gurus who tell you, like they trick you and they'll do the GLPs and the fads and the crazes and all, everything else. It's, it's really easy, guys. Okay. So number one is you need to eat meat.

• 22:34Speaker 00

  Not the impossible burger, but you actually need to eat meat, not beans, not eggs even. You need to eat meat. Okay. So eat meat. That's number one. Number two, you need to develop muscle, which means that you need to lift heavy things. A lot of you guys are running the treadmill with those ladies. Cool. You look awesome in your spandex, but are you lifting heavy objects? And if you're not, you're missing out on testosterone production. Eat meat, lift, lift heavy things. Number three, have sex. Okay. Having sex actually boosts testosterone. This goes back to point number three. What did I say? 63% of men under 30 are single?

• 23:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, they're not having sex. They're having sex with their hand. Okay, that's not actual sex. You need to have sex with women in the right environment. I'm not telling you go plant your seed wherever you want. I'm not telling you just to be reckless or flippant with a woman who might care about you and you're just using her. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying go build and develop a committed, long-term, faithful, beautiful relationship and have sex with that woman and have kids with that woman and, and let her know how you feel about her. Men are to penetrate the world.

• 24:03Speaker 00

  And when I say penetrate, I'm talking about deliberate and forward action. I'm talking about moving forward in business and physical fitness. And I'm also talking about the act of procreation. We are to penetrate a woman. That, again, in righteousness, I want to add that caveat, in righteousness, but that's what we do as men and we're not doing it. I just told you 63% of men under 30 are single. That means they're not having sex. That means they're not procreating. That means they're not having children. So is it any wonder that our testosterone rates are lower? The next one, compete. You have to go out and compete.

• 24:47Speaker 00

  There are studies that suggest that men who go out and they compete and, and more specifically, they win. If you compete and lose, that does not boost your testosterone. If you compete and win, that boosts your testosterone. So go out there and compete with other men. Put yourself in competitive environments and boost that testosterone rate. And the last one, number five, do manly things. Go out and lift, go out and shoot guns, go out and fight, go out and adventure, go on hikes, go on challenges. Like this is what it means to be a man.

• 25:27Speaker 00

  I made a joke years and years ago about how men love loud noises, things that smell, and I can't even remember the third at this point, but go do manly things. And everybody knows what a manly thing is. We all know. I talked about hobbies and I said, hey, if you want to go out and, you know, pick flowers that might not be masculine nor feminine, but it's not going to boost your testosterone. But if I said, go out there and go fight somebody, that would, that would boost your testosterone. If I said, go out there with some buddies and shoot some lead, that would boost your testosterone. If I said, go out there and take your boys to a football game or a baseball game or

• 26:09Speaker 00

  lacrosse game, or go to the, you know, the, the monster truck rally in your local area, that will actually boost your testosterone. And we need it. Because here's the reality of what's happened, because we've declined so much in testosterone, we've allowed that or asked that our women pick that up. And women don't want to do that. They will. Women are very capable of some of those things. They, they will, they'll do those things out of necessity, but not out of desire. Have you ever, ever met a woman who says, you know, I really want to be the man in the relationship? I don't think so.

• 26:53Speaker 00

  I'm not saying she hasn't said she wants to be bold and strong and courageous and contribute to the relationship. Of course she does, but she doesn't want to be the man of the relationship. That's you. You're the man. But if you can't be the man by protecting, by being capable, by creating an environment where she thrives and feels safe and comfortable to express herself and be beautiful and lovely, then she's going to have to do it. And then what happens is she's going to have resentment towards you because you're not being the man. So she's going to start asking, acting more manly. And then you're going to have resentment towards her because she's acting like either your mom or your dad even potentially, and you're going to be turned off by that. But that's your fault.

• 27:37Speaker 00

  You created that environment. You did that, or you did not do something. Boost that testosterone, fellas. Very easy. Again, eat meat, compete, lift heavy things, have sex, do manly things. That's it. Welcome to testosterone production 101. You don't need all this other stuff. You do that stuff, your testosterone stuff will go through the roof. These are alarming statistics, guys, and it's something that we need to be very aware of and actively fight against and fight towards creating solutions to these problems. Again, number one, men account for nearly 80% of all US suicides.

• 28:20Speaker 00

  Number two, 15% of men have no close friends, which is up from 3%. Number three, 63% of men under 30 are single compared to 34% of our female counterparts. So we're almost double of what our female counterparts are. They're just marrying older men who have more testosterone and more capability. That'll go to point number five. Number four is that men earn 42% of the bachelor's degrees, which is the lowest on record. And number five, sperm counts, which I directly tied towards testosterone production are dwindling. They've dropped 62% since 1973. It's abysmal. We have work to do, which is good. It's part of the reason that we have this movement.

• 29:05Speaker 00

  We're all here to grow, develop, to get stronger, to get bolder, to build testosterone and to become the men that we're capable of becoming. So guys, I've got a really, really great conversation with Jim Caviezel. Many of you know who Jim is, whether it's Count of Monte Cristo, which is one of my favorite movies, The Passion of the Christ, The Sound of Silence, and his newest movie, Ghost Soldier, coming out very soon. He will be joining us on Tuesday's podcast. So if you've not subscribed on YouTube or Apple Podcasts or Spotify, Pandora, wherever the hell you're listening to our podcast, make sure you subscribe because Jim Caviezel and I have a really, really powerful conversation next week.

• 29:49Speaker 00

  Guys, until then, go out there, take action and become the men you are meant to be.

• 29:55Speaker 01

  Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast. You ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be? We invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.