Men and healthcare

Luigi and how men are redefining manhood through health

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Luigi is a specific type of guy. He’s a programmer who is into fitness. He seems anti-capitalist yet retweets Peter Thiel. He cites academic papers and yet is into spirituality. It feels incongruent and niche.

This also describes a lot of dudes.

If I were to go down the list of the most popular male podcasts and their affiliated tribes - Andrew Huberman for the science inclined, Joe Rogan for the MMA enthusiasts, Sean Ryan for the military curious, Chris Williamson for the modern GQ man - every single one of them caters to that type of guy.

And so someone with interests as specific and as Luigi turns out to be an Everyman, and is treated as a folk hero.

But Luigi had one interest that ruled them all, and that is fitness. Luigi had abs. His abs had abs. Anyone who’s chased the abs dragon knows that being a regular gym goer is not enough. This level of abs requires fitness being a whole personality.

10 years ago, being a fitness philosopher felt extreme. Today, this describes every podcast host I just mentioned.

Men care about health more than ever

A mixture of podcasts, Instagram, and Tiktok has put fitness and related health issues at the forefront of dudes’ minds. If you’re a man on social media, you’re getting health content. And so men have a want: to be not just healthy, but healthier than ever.

At the same time, America is the sickest it has ever been.

• 73% of Americans are overweight or obese.

• Heart failure deaths increased 906% among people <45 in the last decade.

• 12% of Americans have diabetes.

This creates tension. Men are more health obsessed than ever and yet we’re surrounded by sickness. In my opinion, these are the conditions for anger.

And when we think about the systemic causes for how sick we’ve gotten, it’s clear this anger will grow:

• Our healthcare system frustrates patients and has one of the worst outcomes per dollar spent of any country in the world.

• Our food systems are grown with a recognized poison (glyphosate), are processed to be addictive, and are subsidized to prioritize calories over nutrition.

• We built a world that is filled with plastic that causes cancer and chronic health issues, air and water whose contaminants exceed health guidelines in most counties, and lighting that disrupts healthy circadian rhythms.

So where does this leave us?

In my opinion, it leaves us with a generation-defining fight. I’ve talked before about how men’s sense of household security is broadening to domestic health, how Gen Z’s valuing autonomy prioritizes time and health alongside money, and how Gen X health podcasters have more influence over folks’ lives than a medieval church. These trends once felt coincidental, and now they feel like they’re part of the same culture war. Men want to protect their agency, and protecting health is the most visible way we do this.

One of the talking points of this newsletter is that men broadly care about two things: health and wealth. For the past few generations, we focused on wealth. I think podcasts, Tiktok, and Instagram are shifting the balance towards health. I think we’re still in the early stages of men becoming more health conscious. And as health increasingly becomes an identity for men, it’ll get more political.

I find it surprising that health feels as politically amorphous as it does right now. Joe Rogan - perhaps the most popular “dude who talks about fitness” on the Internet - endorsed both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. For such a huge issue, it is wild that neither party has claimed this territory yet. And there’s a frustrating lack of solutions, it’s also an opportunity for anyone trying to make political inroads with men.

And the opportunity is simple. Men are redefining manhood through health right now, and are looking for allies. Who will help us get healthy? Thousands of health-focused tribes are being built on social media right now. Who are their allies? We’ll likely soon find out.

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