Michael Ian Black is many things: actor, comedian, screenwriter, award-winning children’s book author, essayist, memoirist, and podcaster. He is also a man and the father of a boy on the cusp of manhood himself. In his new book, “A Better Man: A (Mostly Serious) Letter to My Son,” Black offers a thoughtful and personal appraisal of the complicated meaning of masculinity in our times. Written in the form of a letter to his son as he gets ready to leave for college, the book is based on both personal experience and thoughtful observation of the rapid changes taking place in society. Black also shares stories of his complicated relationship with his own father, who died when he was a child, and his upbringing in an often-contentious lesbian household. Invite Black on your show to discuss coming-of-age in a time when boys were routinely told to “act like a man,” with no direction on how to do so — or even what those words meant; why we need to challenge the outdated assumptions our society continues to impose on boys about their place in the world; and how boys of the rising generation can navigate that change to become more evolved men. Contact Johanna Ramos-Boyer at (703) 991-8328; jboyer@rtirguests.com
