Episode · Huberman Lab · 2025-12-29
Books mentioned on Defining Healthy Masculinity & How to Build It | Terry Real
Terry Real is a therapist and best-selling author expert on male emotional health and how men can build the skills for healthy relating to others: in relationships, work, friendships and to themselves.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
-
Iron John
Iron John by Robert Bly is a seminal text in the mythopoetic men's movement that reinterprets traditional fairy tales to explore masculine psychology, rites of passage, and emotional maturity.
Recommended“On the other hand, [snorts] I had the privilege of being and many of your uh listeners are too young for this, but uh there was a great guy, Robert Bllye. uh he wrote Iron John and he was a great book.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (3) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Own book I don't want to talk about it
“And I wrote about male depression back in the 90s. um what I said is the way we quote turn boys into men is through disconnection.”
Own book I don't want to talk about it
“and we turn to what I call a misery stabilizer to make our loneliness tolerable to ourselves but it just makes it I said in my first book I don't want to talk about it uh taking a substance for loneliness is like drinking salt water for thirst it makes you worse than you started”
Own book Protocols
“For those of you that haven't heard, I have a new book coming out. It's my very first book. It's entitled Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body. This is a book that I've been working on for more than 5 years, and that's based on more than 30 years of research and experience.”