Michael Barbaro

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro.

This is The Daily on Sunday.

The writer Tom Juno is a student of flawed men.

In a long and varied career in American magazines at places like GQ and Esquire, Tom profiled complicated figures like Norman Mailer, Kevin Spacey, and Tony Curtis.

But in all of those profiles, another flawed man loomed in the background, one who informed how Tom thought about the very nature of masculinity and manhood.

And that was his father, Lou.

A man who had a life full of secrets.

Tom's relationship with his dad is the subject of his new book, which is part memoir and part detective story.

It's called In the Days of My Youth, I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man.

And it's a powerful meditation on what we need from a father, what we inherit from a father, and how we somehow make peace with the gap in between those.

Today, on Father's Day, my conversation with Tom Juneau.

It's Sunday, June 21st.

Tom.

Michael.

Welcome to the Sunday Daily.

It's so great to be here.

It's an honor to have you.

Can I ask you to read from the eulogy that you read at your father's funeral?

Sure.

I mean, just from those brief words, it's very evident that your dad was a larger-than-life character.