After noticing a lack of motivation among men their age, two students at the University of Saskatchewan created a podcast that aims to provide a safe, yet educational, place for young men to gather, learn, and share.
Their creation is called Young Men: The Podcast. Brian Dignean and Kaleb Welsh cover topics such as maintaining relationships, embracing friendships, and healthy management of emotions.
“We take apart some of the biggest issues that we think men face these days, and a lot of the issues presented to us as men. We try to unpack those and give answers on how we can adapt and change,” Welsh explains.
A study from the National Fatherhood Initiative found that about 1 in 4 children grow up without a consistent father in the home. Dignean says this statistic has always bothered him, and lack of strong, male role models could attribute to the unambitious tendencies that today’s young men are experiencing. He adds that the recent pandemic also played a hand.
“There’s a lot of people who started getting addicted to things like vaping or smoking or social media, because you didn’t have access to any other means of entertainment. You couldn’t go out to the theatre or to the mall, because all of these places were closed, so people would stick to their phones, communicate on their phones,” Dignean admits.
According to a recent study from the Canadian Men’s health Foundation, 43 per cent of young men are at risk of depression, and moderate-to-high anxiety impacts 57 per cent of them.
Dignean adds that advice from family members, although cherished, if often outdated, so the podcast aims to stay relevant to 2024, giving young men the tools they need to navigate through today’s world. He adds that the team “isn’t trying to provide the over-arching ‘you should listen to us’, we are more-so trying to foster a community where people are comfortable talking about these issues.”
Not only does the duo want to form a generation of ambitious leaders, but also a group-conversation of young men who feel comfortable talking with one another and swapping encouraging tips for how to handle tough situations.
“We always are encouraging people to reach out to us, to talk to us if you have questions. We want to discuss. It doesn’t matter if you agree with us or if you’re 100 per cent on the opposite side of where we stand. We want to talk to you. We want to be an encouragement for you,” Welsh assures.
The pair encourages those who feel alone, or are struggling with their mental health, to reach out to them at youngmen_podcast on Instagram.
