Why Boys are Falling Behind in America Today, and the Truth About ADHD and Plastics, with Dr. Leonard Sax | Ep. 1387

August 27, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

“Reality is boring. Reality is lame. Reality sucks.” That was a 15-year-old boy defending his AI girlfriend to Dr. Leonard Sax — a practicing physician and psychologist who has spent 25 years visiting more than 500 schools. The boy had dumped his real girlfriend, preferring a chatbot he paid $19.95 a month for. When Sax asked whether he’d rather be intimate with an actual woman, the boy replied: “I’m tired of women made of meat. Women made of meat disgust me.”

That exchange captures the endpoint of a crisis Sax has tracked across two decades. His updated book Boys Adrift identifies six factors driving what he calls “the growing epidemic of unmotivated boys and underachieving young men” — and the consequences are now measurable in national data.

The mismatch no one planned for

The most striking fact Sax offers is that four-year colleges in the U.S. are now roughly 60 percent female, 40 percent male. Girls outperform boys in every subject, K–12, including math and science. Women under 35 with no children at home now out-earn men in the same category by about 20 percent, because they are more likely to be college-educated and in higher-paying jobs.

Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.

Read Full Summary →

Free • No credit card required

Listen to Audio Summary Open in App

Never miss an episode of The Megyn Kelly Show

Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

What you'll learn

1 (01:15) **Why Boys Are Falling Behind: The Epidemic of Unmotivated Young Men** - Dr. Leonard Sax introduces the core problem: boys are becoming less ambitious, less resilient, and lacking purpose, while girls are thriving.
2 (07:37) **The "Mating" Argument: Why We Should Care About Boys** - Sax refutes the claim that men still hold all the power, explaining the personal and societal stakes of the male decline.
3 (10:55) **The First Factor: Changes in Education** - The modern school environment is fundamentally unfriendly to boys, starting as early as kindergarten.
4 (15:50) **The Danger of Suspension and the Need to Switch Schools** - One school suspension can permanently derail a boy’s life, making it a red alert for parents.
5 (18:00) **The Second Factor: Video Games** - Video games are now the dominant leisure activity for boys, often replacing real-world social interaction and ambition.
6 (20:20) **The Harm of Violent Games and Parental Duty** - Games like Grand Theft Auto are proven to change a boy's personality for the worse, and parents cannot rely on the law to protect their children.
7 (23:40) **The Third Factor: ADHD Medications** - The over-diagnosis and over-medication of ADHD in boys is a massive problem, often masking other issues like sleep deprivation.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Megyn Kelly is joined by Dr. Leonard Sax, author of “Boys Adrift,” to discuss the biggest factors causing boys and men to fall behind in our society, the alarming decline in coupling and fertility in America today, the social effects of women making more money than men under 35, how changes in American schools have hurt boys, the way boys declining in elementary school is setting them up to be worse as men, how video games are negatively affecting boys’ ambition, why parents need to take an active role in limiting video game and social media use, why many boys diagnosed with ADHD may actually have something else going on, the potential effects of ADHD medication on motivation, the truth about "endocrine disrupters" and male fish becoming female, the female hormones humans are consuming through plastics in food and drinks, the importance of positively role models to help boys become men, why our current cultural leaders are harming boys, how pornography is teaching boys the wrong lessons about sex, the alarming rise of AI girlfriends, how porn use can actually lead to erectile dysfunction, and more.

More from Dr. Sax-https://www.leonardsax.com/

ARMRA: go to https://tryarmra.com/MEGYNto get 30% off your first subscription order

Lean: Discover why LEAN is becoming the choice for real weight‑loss results—shop now at https://TAKELEAN.com use code MK.

Herald Group: Learn more at https://GuardYourCard.com

Quo: Make this the season where no opportunity slips away. Try QUO for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to https://www.Quo.com/MK

Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKelly

Twitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShow

Instagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShow

Facebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow

Find out more information at:
https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.