A Love Letter to Good Men: Rethinking Masculinity

When AI Grow Up (Podcast)

(Trigger warning) This conversation was recorded Tuesday, 9 December 2025. During the conversation, Dr Mei Ling Doery refers to “the Bondi massacre,” meaning the April 2024 Bondi Junction attack, in which six people were killed and many others injured. At the time of recording, we could not have known that days later another tragedy would unfold at Bondi Beach, taking fifteen lives and deeply affecting the community. Both Pete Ostick and I have spent meaning time in Bondi and we felt the proximity of these events profoundly.

After careful reflection, we have chosen to release the conversation exactly as recorded. It felt important and uncomfortable then; in light of recent events, it feels even more necessary now. For months, Pete has been exploring an urgent question: Are we experiencing a crisis of masculinity, and what lies beneath it?

Informed by my experience spaning emergency medicine, elite sport, veterans’ health, public health and strategic advisory—we unfold male violence, trauma, emotional development, cultural conditioning, responsibility, and what it means to be a “good man” today. We understand this conversation may be challenging to listen to, but it is necessary.