bell hooks saved me. I say that in all sincerity. At a critical time in my life, when I was at my lowest point, it was bell hooks, through her books, who pulled me out of a hole of profound depression and set me on a path of self-renewal on which I have remained ever since. Newly divorced with two very young sons, I was determined to give a better fatherhood experience than the one I had.
If you went to the movies this fall, you probably met him: the Sad Art Dad. You'll have known him by his miserableness; despite the flash of the cameras and the cheers of the groundlings, he's most often found moping alone. His vocation may vary-movie star (in ), art-house director ( Sentimental Value), blockbuster Tudor playwright ()-but his problem tends to be the same. He has chosen great art over good parenting, utterly failing as a father, and he knows it. There's something delicious about his cocktail of self-pity and self-loathing, which can arouse both the viewer's repulsion and compassion.
"It's a good shorthand phrase for healthy masculinity in 2025. The first instinct of a mensch is to protect, to sacrifice for something bigger than oneself, and not to pick on the vulnerable but to look out for your family and community. Real men don't start bar fights; they break them up. They don't shit-post other people or their country; they defend both. A man's default setting should be to protect, in any situation."
"I just live in this constant state of imposter syndrome," Virgin media TV presenter, author and influencer Eric Roberts says. "And I have done for the last couple of years. I'm pinching myself constantly."
This summer, he took on a new role - becoming a dad for the first time. And if you know anything about Ferraro, you know that this just adds fuel to his fire. Ferraro called fatherhood "the best thing in the world" and said his family feels "very blessed." He added, "I have a child now to play for, so I'm even more motivated to be out there."
It's a beautiful sunny day and the final day of an 11-week shoot when I meet Aidan Quinn. The base for RTÉ's new six-part series The Walsh Sisters is on the grounds of Terenure College in Dublin. Everyone is buzzing, full of the joys of what has clearly been a wonderful project to work on. A wrap party everyone actually wants to go to, someone tells me happily.
That instinct to nurture stuck with me. At 10 years old, I was constantly pestering the neighbor in our New Rochelle apartment building to let me feed her new baby. She probably thought I was crazy, but she let me, and I loved it. By the time the Cabbage Patch Dolls craze hit in the 1980s, I wanted one - not because it was popular, but because I wanted to adopt something, anything, that needed love.
"Golf was how I bonded with my stepdad after I lost my biological father when I was young," Carson wrote on Instagram. "It was where we had uninterrupted quality time to talk, share & learn about each other. It was the backdrop where he taught me about life." One of his most cherished memories with his stepdad was a weekend golf trip to California. "I never forgot it."
Thankfully, my husband is the opposite of that, and so many millennial dads are following suit, like TikTok user @scuba.y.korea, who demonstrated a masterclass in being a girl dad after his daughter expressed fear she may be getting her period. "I don't feel so good," his daughter says. In true dad fashion, he first asks, "Got a poop?' She replies, "I don't know. All I know is that I haven't had my period yet."
(Fatherhood) changes everything, the lens you see every bit of life through just changes and priorities shift," Nick Jonas said. "As a songwriter and as an artist, I think you just look at the world very differently and we've been fortunate enough to be able to tell some of our stories about our journey as fathers and husbands.
Colin Cummings, regarded as the GOAT of air hockey, approaches his sixth world title defense uniquely, balancing his sport with new parental responsibilities and a job in Hawaii.
I already went out on the ice with him a year ago, and that's when my dream came true. At 55, I'm not ready to play professional hockey.
While I'd always done my share at home, my family knew that now I had 'nothing else to do,' which meant I was now asked to do a lot more.
Jed Storey emphasized that their unexpected rise on TikTok was an amazing opportunity for bonding, saying, 'We never expected it to take off so quickly; it's been an amazing way to connect.'
