Can a Bad Man Be a Good Father?

About this episode

<p>The writer Tom Junod has spent a career crafting profiles for men’s magazines like GQ and Esquire, often of famously complicated men like Norman Mailer, Kevin Spacey and Tony Curtis.</p> <p>But another man loomed behind Junod’s interest in these figures, informing his own sense of masculinity and manhood: his father, Lou.</p> <p>Lou Junod was handsome, charismatic — a man who seemed like a celebrity, even though he wasn’t famous. He was also mysterious, a keeper of secrets that have continued to reverberate through his son’s life.</p> <p>On today’s episode, Michael Barbaro talks with Junod about his new book, “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/books/review/in-the-days-of-my-youth-i-was-told-what-it-means-to-be-a-man-tom-junod.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man,</a>” which is part memoir and part detective story, as well as a powerful meditation on fatherhood.</p> <p><strong>On Today’s Episode:</strong></p> <p><strong>Tom Junod</strong> is the author of <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/89092/in-the-days-of-my-youth-i-was-told-what-it-means-to-be-a-man-by-tom-junod/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">“In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man.”</a></p> <p><strong>Background Reading:</strong></p> <p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/style/tom-junod-would-like-to-tell-you-about-his-father.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tom Junod Would Like to Tell You About His Father</a></p> <p>Art: Lou Junod with baby Tom in 1958.</p> <p><p>Subscribe today at <a href="http://nytimes.com/podcasts">nytimes.com/podcasts</a> or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher">https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher</a>. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.</p></p><br/> <p>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.</p>