Breaking the Boy Code is Back
Art from Breaking the Boy Code
By Jonathon Reed
Let’s start by rewinding the clock.
I started listening to podcasts when I rode my bicycle 15,000 km to the Arctic Ocean as part of a photojournalism project for Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017. I went looking for meaningful discussions on masculinity, and there were a few—that’s when I started listening to German Villegas’ Modern Manhood podcast—but none that featured the voices of boys themselves.
Boys’ experiences, attitudes and beliefs matter. Their stories matter.
We can’t possibly get anywhere by talking about positive masculinity and feminism without engaging with and listening to the next generation.
I pitched the idea to the guys I knew at Next Gen Men, and they responded with a micro-grant to buy the recording equipment I needed to get Breaking the Boy Code podcast off the ground.
Pause at the pandemic.
Three and a half years and two seasons later, I burned out. The podcast took hiatus after hiatus as I tried to muscle my way through the final episodes of season two, and dropped entirely when I started working entirely online in the spring of 2020.
I knew something had to change, but I didn’t know what.
Three things gradually emerged. The first was a program within my Master of Education that pushed my thinking on youth voice and anti-oppression education. I started wanting to educate myself more on racism in order to embed intersectionality within Next Gen Men’s program design.
The second was my work collaboration and budding friendship with Adrian Leckie. Adrian propelled NGM Boys Club from its initial summer pilot to the burgeoning youth community it is now. As we worked together in the fall of 2020, we started talking about using Breaking the Boy Code to delve into race and masculinity together—and to do it alongside a group of boys.
As these ideas started to spark in my mind, we saw the emergence of NGM Podcast Network, a collective of passionate individuals committed to engaging with men and masculinities in the feminist movement. All of a sudden it wasn’t just me bitterly trying to fight through audio on my own, but me with Remoy, and Samantha, and German and the rest working together to create stories that matter.
So what’s the story of season three?
I first met 11-year-old Louis because he was bullying a boy in one of Next Gen Men’s youth programs. Badly. To an extent that included going to the hospital and going to juvenile detention.
Over the span of 2021, Louis embarked on one of the bravest journeys I’ve seen an 11-year-old undertake. He built his empathy for the other boy, he faced his guilt for the hurt he had caused, he switched friend groups and committed to standing up for those who were vulnerable instead of targeting them.
So when he told me he wanted to be part of the podcast, I knew he had something to say.
Season three is a four-part mini-series in which Louis tells his story. It’s a story of friendship and belonging; it’s also a story of bullying, violence and the youth justice system.
But most of all, it’s a story of change. It’s about the distance you travel when you’re 11-turning-12, what it takes to be true to yourself on that journey and the kind of mentoring relationship that can bring you closer to who you want to be.
Coming soon wherever you listen to podcasts.
Season four is underway.
Adrian and I have been working behind the scenes for almost a year to envision and launch the next project of Breaking the Boy Code, in which we centre the voices of BIPOC boys in a series of conversations on race, relationships, mental health, systems of power and chance.
Art from Breaking the Boy Code
In the fall of 2021, we got in touch with Patricia, an educator at a school in Regent Park in Toronto, who dove into a collaboration with us as we worked together to gather a group of the five youth partners in Grades 7-8 who will be the voices of Breaking the Boy Code season four.
We also connected with Adonis and Tyrone at FOCUS Media Arts Centre, who invited us to bring our group of boys to the Radio Regent recording studio and work together to our project on the air.
We’ve just completed our first recording session and are taking a break for the holidays…and crossing our fingers that COVID doesn’t cause too much of a disruption to what we hope to do together.
Engaging with boys and empowering them as leaders for change is at the heart of what we do at Next Gen Men. This transformative work—guiding boys like Louis, for example, or amplifying the voices of the boys in Regent Park—is made possible by our foundation of Next Gen Menbers.
Support this important work, and the stories of Breaking the Boy Code and NGM Podcast.
It’s been a long journey to find myself here again, with a microphone in front of me and energy at my fingertips. But here I am, with a powerful story to share and a thoughtful and articulate 11-year-old keen to add his voice to mine.
I’m looking forward to sustaining this project into 2022 and onwards, and I can’t wait for you to hear what comes next.
Written by Next Gen Men Program Manager Jonathon Reed as part of Breaking the Boy Code, a podcast on the inner lives of boys on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Spotify. Follow @boypodcast on Twitter and Instagram for podcast-related updates and masculinity-related news.