Warren Farrell on the Boy Crisis, Dad-Deprivation & Healing the Gender Divide

“We’re all in this together. We’re all in the same family boat.”

Renowned thought leader, speaker, and prolific author Warren Farrell has a passion for getting the truth out about issues that matter deeply—issues with enormous human consequences that might begin to heal if people better understood the forces driving these trends: the boy crisis, fatherlessness, the cultural tendency to vilify men, and the lack of healthy and effective communication between men and women. Warren has authored several data-driven bestselling books that go right to the heart of these matters, and in this conversation his expertise is clearly evident, right alongside his dedication to do everything he can to shift the evolution of the harmful idea that women are good but men are bad.

Warren has put himself on the line time and again to stand up for fatherless boys. He puts out a clarion call to couples to communicate with care, so that a father can be involved with the raising of a child, and in his books and workshops, Warren offers concrete steps to minimize children’s trauma, such as his four must-do’s after a divorce and the caring and sharing practices he teaches couples around accepting criticism without getting defensive. Immensely insightful, immensely practical, Warren points the way forward through a territory that has become murky, difficult, and hateful. Guaranteed, you will learn things about our contemporary culture you didn’t know before, and be inspired to do what you can to heal the disastrous divide between the sexes.

Recorded September 25, 2025.

Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Heidi Mitchell

Topics & Time Stamps

• Introducing Warren Farrell, outstanding feminist, intellectual father of the men’s movement, champion of gender role innovations & prolific author (00:54)
• How did Warren come to champion the women’s movement? (02:33)
• The opposite of power & privilege: what men are giving up (05:35)
• Toxic masculinity (11:05)
• Why do men commonly trade put-downs? (14:29)
• Misinterpreting male behavior & the need for dialogue between men & women (18:29)
• Sexual harassment and the “believe women letter” (22:01)
• After a divorce, the child’s needs need to come first (26:04)
• Speaking up about the importance of father involvement in raising boys changed Warren’s professional trajectory (30:29)
• Death from overwork, called kuroshi in Japan (33:55)
• Fatherless children have issues in 55 different areas, and the biggest predictor of male suicide is lack of father involvement (37:10)
• The idea that women are good, men are bad (38:26)
• Biological effects of lack of father involvement (40:22)
• 4 must-do’s after divorce to minimize children’s trauma (41:37)
• Rough-housing is a gift (44:07)
• A father’s unconditional love incorporates conditions (49:07)
• Teasing, one of the 7 important contributions that fathers make (50:31)
• Couples counseling: why is criticism so hard to handle? (54:04)
• Teaching couples to communicate effectively is the most important way to prevent the boy crisis (58:03)
• The relation between dad-deprived youth, gang membership, prison & being a victim of sexual molestation (58:53)
• The worst thing you can do after a divorce (01:05:11)
• The biggest hole in my heart and the best decision of my life: John Lennon (01:09:16)
• The ramifications of dad-deprivation in 1965 and currently (01:17:40)
• A closer look at gender differences in income (01:21:57)
• The feminist argument against Warren (01:31:00)
• When only one sex wins, both sexes lose (01:36:06)
• What can men do to help boys? (01:38:37)
• We need to work toward equality while recognizing our evolutionary differences (01:40:50)
• Our bias about men being full-time dads (01:45:06)
• Important skills Warren teaches in his Role Mate to Soul Mate book & his online course (01:51:48)
• Warren’s current book-in-progress, The Man Crisis (01:57:17)
• Roger’s summary of the extraordinary impact Warren has had on our culture (01:59:00)

About the Deep Transformation series

We are clearly in a new era, facing world-threatening challenges and graced with barely conceivable opportunities. In this mind-boggling new world, we all face two crucial questions:

• First, the ever-present conundrum of how to best live fully, deeply, wisely, and well.
  Second, the new question unique to our times, how to best understand and heal our endangered world.
• Wouldn’t it be wonderful to hear responses to these questions from some of the great consciousness pioneers—the outstanding thinkers, sages, scientists, and activists—of our time? These are the people and conversations that Deep Transformation offers.

Deep Transformation: Self-Society-Spirit draws on diverse ideas from around the world. It goes beyond traditional positions and polarities—beyond left and right, material and spiritual—to seek syntheses of deep wisdom and practical know-how that integrate the best of all positions.

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About Warren Farrell

Dr. Warren Farrell is the author of many books, including two award-winning international best-sellers, Why Men Are The Way They Are and The Myth of Male Power. His most recent books are Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say, which is a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and Why Men Earn More, which is about how the gap in pay between men and women really isn't discrimination and how women can earn more.

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About Roger Walsh

Roger Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., has spent nearly a quarter century researching and practicing in the world's great spiritual traditions. His critically acclaimed book, Essential Spirituality, is a summary of that wisdom, outlining the seven spiritual practices common to the world's major religions.

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About John Dupuy

John Dupuy is co-founder and CEO of iAwake Technologies, a company that creates cutting-edge, high-tech brainwave entrainment soundtracks that support the healing of emotional/shadow issues, deepen meditation, mental focus, creativity, and flow states, and enhance a daily integral transformative practice. John has been working personally and professionally with brainwave entrainment technology since 2004, and travels internationally to teach and inspire on the subjects of Integral Transformative Practice and Integral Recovery®. John is also the author of Integral Recovery: A Revolutionary Approach to the Treatment of Alcoholism and Addiction (SUNY Press, 2013), winner of the 2013 USA Best Book Award, and co-host of the popular Journey of Integral Recovery podcast. John also hosts the online series Spiritual Tech Talks 2.0, in which he converses with leaders, pioneers, and inventors on the current wave of emerging spiritual technologies.