Liver King: Masculinity in Crisis

When the “Liver King” built an empire on raw meat, steroids, and slogans about being “a real man,” what if he wasn’t selling a message based on muscles but mortality? In this episode, Savannah and Lee dig into how the fear of death shapes our obsession with control, strength, and self-sufficiency. Drawing from Untold: The Liver King, Scott Galloway’s research on the masculinity crisis, and Richard Beck’s The Slavery of Death, they trace a cultural thread that might tell us something about how we handle one of the rare, universal experiences: death. Things we mentioned in this episode: Reviving Old Scratch by Richard Beck The Slavery of Death by Richard Beck The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin Scott Galloway on Armchair Expert The Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty Follow The Subtext: Instagram | Threads | X | YouTube | TikTok Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter | Lee's Newsletter Follow Savannah: Instagram | Substack Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com