Brad's Corner Episode 7: The Men We Forget About
Brad Walsh is an International Speaker, Soul Visibility Guide, podcast host/producer, photographer, and #1 International Best-Selling Author who helps women step into their power and men become compassionate leaders. Through Empowerography, a Top 1.5% Globally Rated Podcast, he has held space for 800+ conversations with extraordinary women, creating a movement to EMPOWER, ELEVATE, and EDUCATE voices around the world.
I would like to personally welcome you to Brad's Corner, a new series under the Empowerography Podcast umbrella, a space where I share raw reflections, personal insights, and the lessons I've gathered from the incredible women I've had the honor of interviewing.
In Episode 7 of Brad's Corner, in honor of Men's Mental Health Month, I step away from amplifying women's voices for a moment to talk about something that has been sitting on my chest for weeks. A close friend of mine opened up to someone he was trying to build something with—and she ran the other way. That moment cracked something open in me. Because his story isn't rare. It's the story of millions of men who are told to be strong providers and vulnerable partners at the same time, and then punished the moment they actually try to be both. This episode is about the silence that is killing our men, the numbers behind that silence, and what happened when I posted about it publicly and almost no men responded at all.
This episode explores:
• Why a friend's heartbreak after opening up emotionally exposed a painful double standard men are facing today
• What happened at the Empowerography Live men's panel that completely shifted the energy of the entire conference
• The real numbers behind men's mental health suicide rates, treatment rates, and the number one reason men give for not seeking help
• Why men's pain rarely looks like sadness and what it actually looks like instead (irritability, anger, withdrawal, overworking)
• What happened when I posted about this publicly and the deafening silence from men that proved the entire point
• Why this work has to start with our boys, long before the world teaches them otherwise
• Why supporting men doesn't compete with amplifying women, it walks right alongside it
Key Insights:
• Men are told to be the strong provider and the vulnerable partner at the same time and then punished the moment they choose vulnerability
• Men die by suicide at nearly four times the rate of women, and less than half of men struggling with mental illness seek any treatment at all
• We have raised generations of men to believe silence and stoicism is strength and that belief is literally killing us
• Vulnerability is not the opposite of strength. It is strength
Key Message:
To every man listening: you are not weak for struggling. You are not broken for feeling things. No human is broken—we just need help, support, and guidance. You are human, and that's all this is. To everyone else: please check on your men. Not the surface level “hey, how are you,” but the real question, the one where you actually wait to hear the answer. Supporting men doesn't take away from amplifying women. It walks right alongside it. We cannot do this alone, not as all the women and not as all the men. We are meant to do this together, as human beings, for our men, for our boys, and for all of humanity.
"That silence is costing us men everything" - 00:03:43
“Vulnerability is not the opposite of strength. It is strength” - 00:11:56
"To every man listening to this episode right now, I want you to know you are not weak for struggling" - 00:12:30
Contact Brad:
#Empowerography #BradsCorner #MensMentalHealthMonth #MenWeForgetAbout #VulnerabilityIsStrength #RaiseBetterBoys #MentalHealthMatters #StrongMenStruggleToo #TogetherNotAlone #AllyshipInAction #BreakTheSilence #AskForHelp #SilenceIsKillingUs #MasculinityRedefined