The Brett Cooper Show
Shawn Ryan on Masculinity, Independence, and Family | Episode 6
Mon, 17 Feb 2025
Shawn Ryan joins the Brett Cooper Show to discuss masculinity, the Gen Z mental health crisis, and the biggest lessons he has learned from fatherhood.The Brett Cooper Show on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bbrettcooperBy joining Cooper Confidential you are directly supporting me and my team. You’ll get ad-free episodes, exclusive ‘Dear Brett” videos, and a private newsletter Sign up now:https://cooperconfidential.supercast.com/NEW MERCH IS LIVE! Order now:https://brettcoopershop.com/Good Ranchers: Get a year of FREE MEAT and $25 off with code BRETT:https://www.goodranchers.comPeterson Academy: Join today for $59 a month!https://petersonacademy.com/brettCheck out The Shawn Ryan Show: https://www.youtube.com/@ShawnRyanShow
Chapter 1: What does it mean to be a man in today's society?
Being a man, it takes being vulnerable, it takes raising kids, and it takes monogamous relationships to better society. Look at these people that run around their whole life. That's not a good road to go down. I mean, if you're not trying to better society, then what the fuck are you doing?
Guys, I am so excited to bring you the first long form conversation of the red Cooper show. Genuinely. I have been looking forward to this since all of this started. I've been promising you guys this for the last month that I've had a bunch of comments and DMs saying, when are the interviews going to start? Well, I was painting trim in this new studio.
We were hanging shiplap and getting all the wallpaper done. We were building furniture this morning. And now we have our first guest here with me today. The incomparable Sean Ryan host of the Sean Ryan show. And if you guys don't know, Sean is a former Navy SEAL and CIA operative turned podcaster who interviews some of the world's most interesting people.
His show is consistently ranked in the top three podcasts in the world, as it should be. He has also become a wonderful friend and mentor to me, especially in this transition into independence. And so I'm just so honored that he agreed to be my first guest. Sean, thank you so much for being here.
Thanks for having me. So I'm guest number one?
You're guest number one.
What an honor.
I know. I'm very excited. No, I'm honored that you came. I wanted actually to start off by asking you, who was your first guest? Do you remember?
Mike Glover.
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Chapter 2: Who is Shawn Ryan and what is his podcast about?
Well, congratulations. You're independent now. I know. I'm excited. So welcome to the club. It's exciting, man. I'm happy for you.
Thank you. And you've been so wonderful. And for those who don't know, Sean's here in Nashville and has been a great source of support. So I appreciate it. And that's why I'm so happy that you're the first guest. You brought something up about your therapist. You were talking about men coming on the show and being able to be vulnerable. I think that there is a...
prevailing attitude especially on X in this like manosphere world where we kind of have this new caricature of men and obviously I think that it is a response to the softening of men in our society obviously and what people are experiencing but it feels like we've been pushed in the opposite direction where men are now these caricatures of
You can't cry, you can't love a woman, you can't get married, you know, being a father's gay. Obviously, you know, you're a husband, you're a father, you have these men who are incredibly, incredibly successful, incredibly brave, probably the most masculine men in our society, and they're coming on and crying. What...
I guess, can you talk about masculinity in your mind and what an accurate representation of masculinity is based on your experience?
Man, that's a broad question. It's a big one.
I made it broader than it probably should have been.
Look, I think being a man... I mean, if you're not trying to better society, then what the fuck are you doing? It takes being vulnerable. It takes raising kids. And it takes monogamous relationships to better society. I mean, I think, and you know, like anybody that thinks that's not what it's about, look at these people.
that run around their whole life, and they jump from woman to woman, and they don't have any kids, and then they're 65 years old. Nobody wants them anymore. Nobody gives a shit about them. They've contributed nothing to society, and look at how fucking miserable those people are. They left nothing positive in society that they've made. They've left no marks. They're just lost, lonely souls.
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Chapter 3: How did Shawn Ryan transition from tactical training to podcasting?
It has to be you. You cannot try to imitate what other people are doing and try to get success off that because it's not authentic. And I think, you know, I don't know much about Gen Z, but from what I've heard, Gen Z really craves authenticity. They do. So if you're not being authentic, you're not fucking going anywhere.
And it's hard to, I don't want to say find authenticity in yourself, but you, I think it takes a lot of work. At least this is what I've experienced has been setting up this show. You have to really figure out what is you and what you want to portray and put online and create. Cause I think it's very easy to go. I'll just do a show. I'll just do this, but you have to get to the core of,
why am I doing this? Why do I care? Why am I having this personal? Why am I talking about this issue? And it forces a lot of self-reflection. I feel like I've gotten to know myself better over the last six months of, you know, getting to this point that I, you know, even if this was a absolute failure and never went anywhere and nobody ever watched my stuff again and they were like, screw you.
We don't, you know, like you anymore or whatever it is. That would be fine because I've learned, I've learned so much about this industry. I've learned so much about being my own boss, but I've more importantly, I've learned so much about
mean what I want and who I am as a person and as a you know whatever you want to call this personality whatever that that's worth it for me but it takes I think it's harder work than people think
Yeah. It's not easy. You'll constantly innovate. You'll make minute changes. And because it's all you, you're just constantly trying to be perfecting it. What can we do better? What can we do better? How can we make it look better? How can we make it sound better? How can we crank them out faster? How can we get to the people we want to reach?
You'll just start solving all those problems one by one by one by one. But
And it's exciting to be able to have a hand in it.
Who are you going to go after? Yeah, what kind of interviewees?
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