No More Heroes
Send us Fan MailThere's a particular kind of leader dominating the world right now — fast, certain, dominant, always with an answer. This podcast asks: what if that's exactly the wrong response to the moment we're in?In this episode, James and Carolyn dig into James's essay No More Heroes — an exploration of how heroic, hyper-masculine leadership has become the default setting for power, and why that matters for all of us. Drawing on Raewyn Connell's work on hegemonic masculinity, Arlie Hochschild's concept of the "second shift," and Anthea Lawson's idea of the "entangled activist," they trace how a particular kind of dominance reproduces itself — in politics, in organisations, and in the people trying hardest to resist it. The conversation takes in communal narcissism, double binds, and Elizabeth Grosz's notion of "the nick of time" — the moment when real change actually becomes possible.This isn't a conversation with conclusions. It's an invitation into the kind of dialogue that's harder to find than it should be: honest, self-implicating, and genuinely curious. James reflects on his own research into masculinities, the paradox of "mansplaining feminism," and what it looks like when a leadership team learns to sit with discomfort rather than whack-a-mole their way through it. The question they keep returning to isn't what's the answer? — it's what does it feel like to stay in the mess, together?Thanks so much for listening! Keep in touch:Email us on mail@mayvin.co.ukSubscribe to our mailing listVisit our website Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter
