Opinion | Masculinity, Podcasts and Trump: 12 Men Discuss

America has lost its way when it comes to men: the lessons they are taught as boys, the behavior expected of them at work and socially, the expectations of what being a man are. The return of Donald Trump as president might start setting things straight — that’s the hope, at least, among the 12 men in our latest Times Opinion focus group. They all voted for Mr. Trump in November not only because they liked his views on the economy, crime and immigration but also because many of them believe he’s “a man’s man” whose government leadership and approach to American culture will help many men who feel devalued, overlooked, lost or isolated.

“One of the reasons so many young men probably voted for Donald Trump is they’re having trouble finding their way in our current society,” argued one of our participants, Matthew, a 43-year-old from Tennessee.

With Mr. Trump preparing to take office on Monday, we wanted to dig into why one of his core constituencies — men who prefer Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson, YouTube and X over the mainstream media — put so much trust in these sources of information and believe that Mr. Trump, in particular, has their backs. We spoke with a mix of Republicans, Democrats and one independent of various ages, races and ethnicities and professions.

Why do these men trust what they trust? Time and again, they said they were drawn to qualities like common sense, curiosity and freewheeling debate and to people with strong beliefs who are willing to go toe-to-toe with anyone. Listening to the men, you can see why Mark Zuckerberg, who recently appeared on Mr. Rogan’s podcast, shelved the fact-checking operation at Meta: They said their views were shaped in part by conversation and debates on podcasts that could last hours and not from news and social media sources that provided fact-checking that the men didn’t have faith in.

The most robust debates in the group were about what constituted a “man’s man” — a theme that kept coming up — and why some men feel isolated or depressed in society today. For the most part, though, they were optimistic about the future under Mr. Trump and his allies. “I’ve been an Elon Musk fan since before probably most of you knew who Elon was,” said Jon, a 45-year-old from Pennsylvania. “And the fact that I have a chance to live in an America where Elon and Vivek Ramaswamy are charged with ridding the government of fraud, waste and abuse — that’s the America I want to live in.”