The ManFlu | Exploring Gender Dynamics, Partnerships & Raising Boys Who Care

Weekly conversations on gender roles, emotional labor and family dynamics AI summary

Lucy McAfee Visit website › Society & Culture · EN · 18 episodes · latest 2026-11-11 · explicit

Rank 3373
0 upvotes, 0 downvotes
0

What it is about

You’ve heard of the “ManFlu” — that mysterious illness that somehow hits men way harder than any woman could ever fathom. Well, we’re not handing out tissues. We’re here to talk about the real stuff underneath it: the disconnection, the imbalance, and how we can start to change it.The ManFlu is a metaphor we use to dig into something deeper: the cultural scripts, gender roles, and unspoken rules that keep men sidelined and leave women carrying more than their share of the mental and emotional load.Host Lucy McAfee has spent years studying how gender dynamics play out at home. As a wife and boy mom, she’s still working them out in her own family. Each week, The ManFlu brings together researchers, thinkers, and families themselves to explore emotional labor, modern partnerships, and how we raise more connected boys. Together, we examine why these patterns persist, how they affect families, and the practical shifts that build stronger partnerships today and help break old patterns for the next generation. You’ll leave each episode not just nodding along, but equipped with one small shift you can try at home.Join us to lighten the load and build a future where women and men can both show up as their whole selves. New episodes drop every Wednesday, follow the show so you don’t miss one. And share it with your friends, because no one should have to face the ManFlu epidemic alone.Follow Lucy on Instagram @lucypmcafee for more on gender dynamics, mental and emotional load, and raising boys who care. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Publisher’s own description, taken unchanged from the podcast feed.
Lucy McAfee

Listen

Available at these services — the RSS feed works in any podcast app.

Latest episodes

  1. 2026-11-11 · 45 min · Episode 17

    At a workshop for ski lift professionals in Lake Tahoe, one man stood up and said what most won’t. Two guys on his team had taken their own lives, and nobody knew they were hurting. His message: F the Tough Guy Show.…

  2. 2026-11-04 · 44 min · Episode 16

    You can love your kids and still not love everything that comes with being a mom. Both things can be true at once, and learning to hold them together is a simple reframe that can take some of the weight off.On The…

  3. 2026-10-28 · 45 min · Episode 15

    Ask a group of moms whether they noticed the friend who seemed off at dinner, and most will raise a hand. Ask their husbands, and you’ll often get a shrug. That gap in who notices what raises a bigger question. Are we…

  4. 2026-10-21 · 25 min · Episode 14

    This episode discusses sexual assault, consent, and allegations of sexual misconduct involving college students. The Cornell allegations remain the subject of ongoing legal proceedings.Most parents can explain the rules…

  5. 2026-10-14 · 47 min · Episode 13

    It’s 7:43 AM, her boys still aren’t out the door, and our guest is sipping her coffee and saying nothing. Middle school parenting asks you to step back right when every instinct tells you to step in.On this episode,…

  6. 2026-10-07 · 50 min · Episode 12

    You ask for help. He nods along. Next week looks exactly the same. If you've wondered how to talk to your husband about the mental load without it ending in tears or silence, this conversation is a good place to…

  7. 2026-09-30 · 41 min · Episode 11

    Julia Markish sat at a dinner party while the women around her swapped stories about burnout and the mental load. She has a wife, so she couldn't relate. Still her first thought was a guilty one: Am I the man in this…

  8. 2026-09-23 · 52 min · Episode 10

    Long before mental load and maternal burnout were in our common vernacular, our guest this week had a moment that clearly illustrated them: rushing out the door for work, unable to find a glove, and deciding that if she…

  9. 2026-09-16 · 31 min · Episode 9

    The Manosphere doesn't need boys to go looking for it. Researchers who set up TikTok and YouTube accounts posing as teenage boys found it reached their feeds within 26 minutes, starting from nothing more than a fitness…

  10. 2026-09-09 · 42 min · Episode 8

    Some women carry the mental load in marriage so quietly that even their own husbands don't see it happening.Host Lucy McAfee sits down with Victoria Tice, a copywriter and birth doula. Victoria has spent five years…

Episode details from the publisher’s feed. Playback happens at the publisher.

Publisher details

Oldest episode in feed
07/2026
Typical length
38 min
Format
Episodic Newest first, episodes stand alone
Keywords
gender dynamics, gender roles, emotional labor, mental load, modern relationships, marriage, family dynamics, parenting

The ManFlu | Exploring Gender Dynamics, Partnerships & Raising Boys Who Care in the rankings

For podcasters

Is this podcast yours? Verify it — afterwards you can correct details, get the widget for your website, and we let you know when your podcast is nominated or wins.

Without an account you can use an email address on your show’s own domain — we create the account along the way. The other methods need a login.