Why Men Are at the Top of Society (and the bottom) - Roy Baumeister - #1075

Roy Baumeister is a psychologist, professor, and researcher. Are men inherently more expendable from an evolutionary standpoint—and if so, has that dynamic helped drive innovation? If risk-taking outliers are often responsible for progress, what does that say about the role men play in shaping civilisation? And does this tradeoff come at the cost of higher failure, instability, and sacrifice along the way? Expect to learn why cultures flourish when they exploit men and what that actually means, why men have ended up in higher positions in society and if civilisation runs on male competition, why men are so much more likely to take physical, financial, and social risks, if risk-taking men are necessary for progress, what people do not understand about self-destructive male behaviours and much more… Timestamps: (0:00) Why Men Are Seen as More Expendable (7:27) The Hidden Power of Intrasexual Competition (13:25) How Female Choice Drives Male Ambition (15:55) Why Men Vary More Than Women (22:12) The Real Driver of Differences Between the Sexes (29:21) Why Men Take More Risks Than Women (33:14) What is the Imaginary Feminist? (35:56) Is Modern Gender Discourse Broken? (45:36) Has Feminism Changed How We Protect Women? (51:55) What Happens When Male Sacrifice Isn’t Rewarded? (54:07) Why Ego Depletion is Under Attack (59:15) The Strongest Critiques of Willpower (01:05:47) How to Improve Willpower and Self-Control (01:10:53) Porn is Damaging Sexual Novelty (01:21:11) How Does Sexual Novelty Affect Female Desire? (01:29:00) Where to Find Roy Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: ⁠ New pricing since recording: Function is now just $365, plus get $25 off at Get up to $350 off the Pod 5 at Get 35% off your first subscription on the best supplements from Momentous at Get a free bottle of D3K2, an AG1 Welcome Kit, and more when you first

You can listen to Why Men Are at the Top of Society (and the bottom) - Roy Baumeister - #1075 online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Why Men Are at the Top of Society (and the bottom) - Roy Baumeister - #1075 is an episode from Modern Wisdom by Chris Williamson.

This episode is 89:58 long.

This episode was published on Mar 23, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Modern Wisdom when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.