Introducing the ‘Pass the Mic’ Summer Reading Series
By Geoff Davies
We are introducing the ‘Pass The Mic’ summer reading series—Next Gen Men’s way of giving back to our community, with stories told BY our community.
Readers are leaders.
When you seek out a viewpoint that gives you pause, hear a perspective that makes you think or discover an idea that helps you see, you are doing something immensely valuable.
You’re not ‘doing” anything, not necessarily going anywhere—but by reading, you’re engaging in inner work with broad outer impact.
Keep reading, and who you are changes: you can get inside more people’s heads, feel connection with more strangers’ hearts, and more clearly see the world that’s constantly changing around you.
To meet it, and make the most of the opportunity it offers to love each other and lift up our communities, we need to keep changing too.
And so we read.
Now that summer’s here—and after a year (or two) where we’ve all earned a break a bit more than usual—we wanted to offer something special to you, our Future of Masculinity readers, for the leadership you show.
Thank you for staying Curious, leading with Empathy, staying committed to Equality, and taking the time to reflect Courageously about what kind of future we want for each other.
Our first writer is art pop musician and masculinity explorer, Saint Idiot AKA Tomáš Andel
Without further ado: Introducing Saint Idiot.
Saint Idiot (Tomáš Andel) is an NGM friend and a Slovak-Canadian art pop musician from Edmonton, on Treaty 6 territory.
As well as an artist, he is an explorer, and the many shapes and faces of masculinity is at the heart of what his art pursues.
In his new album, Alternate Utopias from a Nostalgic Future, Saint Idiot embarks on what he calls “adventures in brutal self-honesty” and sets about interrogating episodes from his own life.
The album drops in September, but the first single, Talk, is out now.
Here, for readers of the Future of Masculinity newsletter, Saint Idiot has written a companion piece, reflecting on his own process of untangling and decoding, and inviting us to sit with him on the front steps of his heart and mind.
Saint Idiot wants us to talk—really talk—and to lead us on a journey, going from a place of smallness and fear to one of expansive self-love, starting right now.
It’s a journey of humility, meditation, and walking (lots of walking) as Tomáš, in this first installment, asks a question that has haunted him for most of his life: “Why do I have a hard time forming meaningful bonds with other men?”
Read the first installment of the Pass the Mic summer reading series: Emotional Archeology by Saint Idiot.
From the Future of Masculinity weekly newsletter, where our community’s hearts and minds come together each week to do the work, tell the stories, and build the blueprint for a future where men and boys experience less pain and cause less harm. Written by Next Gen Men Copywriter and Content Strategist Geoff Davies.