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The 90s called and said your excuses don't work.

The 1990s didn’t just create icons. It exposed values under real pressure. In this episode of Man in Progress – Forging Manhood, we examine what held and what broke in a decade that offered fame without safety nets and pressure without pause. Through the lives of Michael Jordan, Tupac Shakur, Oprah Winfrey, Kurt Cobain, and Keanu Reeves, this episode explores discipline, truth, staying power, refusal, and restraint as lived values, not ideas. This is not nostalgia. It’s a study of what survives heat. If you’ve struggled to stand up and name your values because you fear not living up to them, this episode challenges that hesitation and shows how values are built one deliberate choice at a time.

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The 1980s are remembered for excess, neon, and noise.
But while the world was distracted, a different kind of work was happening.

This episode digs into the men and women who quietly forged the foundations of the modern world, without applause, without safety nets, and often without recognition.

You’ll hear the stories of engineers who built the digital backbone of our lives, artists who reshaped identity and expression, athletes who redefined excellence, and leaders who stood for democracy and dignity under impossible pressure.

These weren’t icons chasing fame.
They were forgers.
They worked in constraint. They chose integrity over image. And their impact outlived the decade that tried to drown them out.

This isn’t nostalgia.
It’s a reminder that real legacy is built when no one is watching, and that character is forged most deeply when the noise is at its loudest.

Stay to the end for a practical reflection on how to apply these same traits, courage, curiosity, discipline, and responsibility, to your own life, marriage, work, and fatherhood.

You’re not behind.
You’re not broken.
You’re still being forged.

Support the show

You’re not broken. You’re not behind.
You’re just a man in progress. 🔥
Thank you for listening your support means everything to me.

Hit that Follow button and Send to a friend.

Disclaimer, I am not a therapist, and this is not replacement for therapy.

Send us a text

We study how five leaders tempered values under pressure across the 1980s and draw out steps to test our own values today. Openness, nonviolence, stewardship, solidarity, and truth are measured not by slogans but by systems that last.

• Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika loosen control and end the Cold War while unleashing domestic turmoil
• Tutu’s nonviolence and Truth and Reconciliation create healing frameworks yet leave inequality unresolved
• Maathai’s Green Belt Movement links women’s empowerment with environmental restoration and civic power
• Wałęsa’s solidarity unseats dictatorship but struggles to govern amid economic shock and polarization
• Havel’s living in truth topples lies and inspires activists while confronting corruption in market transition
• Practical reflection prompts to choose one value and take a small aligned action today

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Support the show

You’re not broken. You’re not behind.
You’re just a man in progress. 🔥
Thank you for listening your support means everything to me.

Hit that Follow button and Send to a friend.

Disclaimer, I am not a therapist, and this is not replacement for therapy.