Four-time World’s Strongest Man Brian Shaw used a recent episode of the Shaw Strength Podcast to open up about his concerns for the current generation of young men, speaking alongside guest Brandon Allen about modern masculinity, hardship, and what he sees as a troubling cultural shift.
The conversation began as the two discussed the mindset required to compete at a high level, with Shaw reflecting on what drives men like himself. He traced it back to a simple but foundational lesson from his upbringing.
“I obviously got to learn from my dad, and it’s like, this is what a man does,” he said. “You take care of it. You step up, you do the best that you possibly can, and you do things other people don’t want to do in those moments. The buck stops with the man.”
Shaw went on to describe the appeal of that standard in blunt, practical terms.
“That’s what’s cool about being a dude,” he said. “No one cares, work harder. We have bad days, so what? S**t’s got to get done. Didn’t sleep good last night? Who cares? Get up. Go. You don’t get to make excuses.”
From that foundation, Shaw shifted to his concerns about younger men and the direction he believes the culture is heading.
“I’m fearful for the younger generation of men out there,” he said. “Very little hardships for them.”
However, Allen was careful to acknowledge that the challenges facing young men today are not imaginary. Instead, he argued that the nature of those hardships has changed in ways that may not build the same kind of resilience.
“It depends on how young we’re talking,” he said. “They have harder hardships than even we had 20 years ago in terms of like buying houses and stuff like that. But just the physicality, I think, is just kind of gone. The bruntness of what it is like to be prideful, to be a dude, kind of has lost its appeal a little bit.”
Despite the concern, Allen did not frame the situation as hopeless. Instead, he pointed to what he believes is a natural cultural correction that tends to happen over time, suggesting that disciplined individuals will ultimately stand out.
“I think like anything, something swings one way, it’s going to swing hard the other way,” he said.
Shaw agreed, adding, “It for sure will. The younger men out there, they should see the opportunity that is in front of them, because if they do have discipline and they’re willing to work hard, they can succeed massively.”
Shaw then connected that drive to what he sees as a fundamental biological instinct among men.
“You always are competing for dominance,” he said. “Whether people want to admit that or not, that’s just how males are designed.”
Allen agreed, saying, “We happen to express that through strength. Other people express it through finances, through family, through religion. We as men want to be the best at what we’re doing.”
