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'What is Wrong with Men': New book explores that question through Michael Douglas films

WBUR | By Emiko Tamagawa

Published August 8, 2025 at 11:51 AM EDT

The cover of "What is Wrong With Men" and author Jessa Crispin. (Courtesy of Pantheon and Laura Ouch)

In her new book “What Is Wrong with Men: Patriarchy, the Crisis of Masculinity, and How (Of Course) Michael Douglas Films Explain Everything,” podcaster and author Jessa Crispin examines how the films Michael Douglas made in the 1980s and 1990s reflect the anxieties of those times.

Here & Now‘s Emiko Tamagawa speaks with Crispin about the book.

Book excerpt: ‘What is Wrong with Men’

By Jessa Crispin

The credit line will be: From “What Is Wrong With Men By Jessa Crispin” Copyright © 2025 by Jessa Crispin. Published by arrangement with Pantheon, an imprint of The Knopf Doubleday Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2025 WBUR

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Emiko Tamagawa

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