Why Are Young Men Feeling So Lost? - Mike Thurston - #607

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the show. My guest today is Mike Thurston. He's a podcaster, YouTuber and a fitness model. Me and Mike went to university together 15 years ago. Even though we were odd, awkward creatures, there was no pressure to get our life together. In 2023, it feels like there is much more pressure on both men and women to sort their lives out. What's changed and why is life more confusing than ever before? Expect to learn why Mike wants Derek from More Plates More Dates to test him for steroids. Why going to university wasn't a waste of time. Why Mike stopped drinking alcohol. What he thinks about Greg Doucette's YouTube channel. Why women are just as lost as men. The problems of masculinity in the modern world. And much more. This conversation and a debate that I had in Doha the day before has really helped me to understand some of the challenges I think that both men and women are facing in the modern world. Why it was that me and my friends 10 to 15 years ago didn't feel this overwhelming sense of pressure to to get our life sorted out and to know our path and our purpose and why that's changed. Very, very interesting. So yeah, enjoy this one. Don't forget that you might be listening but not subscribed and that means that you're going to miss episodes when they go up. Also, if you want to spot the show, the best thing that you can do is to press the follow button on Spotify or the Plus in the top right hand corner on Apple Podcasts. I thank you very much. But now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mike Thurston.
Michael Thurston, welcome to the show.

**Mike Thurston** (1:56)
Hello, Chris.

**Chris Williamson** (1:56)
Good to see you again. Thank you for letting me use your house to record this in. What do you think?

**Mike Thurston** (2:01)
I know you're a bit of a connoisseur of setups when it comes to podcasting. What do you think of this one?

**Chris Williamson** (2:07)
I think it's really nice. I'm loving whatever that is, some old school, old and worldy telescope type. I think that's very nice. Very well done. I'm impressed. You've entered the dark and dingy world of podcasting. Yeah, how are you finding it?

**Mike Thurston** (2:21)
I'm finding it good, actually. It's probably been one of the things which I've learnt the most out of. Like, what it's taught me so far from just having conversations with people, doing research about people and being able to hold a conversation, it's been very interesting.

**Chris Williamson** (2:36)
Well, you've done YouTube for a very long time. How long have you been on YouTube now?

**Mike Thurston** (2:39)
First video went up in 2016

**Chris Williamson** (2:42)
It feels like longer than that. But I guess that's still quite a long time.

**Mike Thurston** (2:45)
Yeah, I went hardcore in 2017 That's when it kind of took off.

**Chris Williamson** (2:52)
Looking back now and obviously having this big arc of content creation for the last coming up on a decade, being on a platform which is getting ever more successful, ever more popular, more and more people joining, more and more people being competitive. What have been the principles that have managed to get you to not only a stage that you've got a sizeable platform, but also have managed to help you avoid being dragged into the muck and the mire and the politics and the backbiting, the reaction videos and the call outs and all that sort of stuff. I think you've done a very good job of avoiding that.

**Mike Thurston** (3:27)
I think I've never really been massively opinionated on anything. I'm quite neutral and I would keep like, say for example, a lot of my content training related, it would just be about the training. I would never call anyone out or say anyone else's name. It would just be what I believe you need to do when it comes to training, building muscle, losing body fat. Same thing when I transitioned to vlogs and lifestyle, it was mainly just either about me and what I was up to or the place that I'm going to, not about the people.

**Chris Williamson** (3:59)
Is that a purpose-built strategy to avoid getting yourself into politics or is that just natural?

**Mike Thurston** (4:05)
I think I generally just don't like drama. I would like to avoid it if possible. Why? Because it's just, I just don't like it.

**Chris Williamson** (4:15)
Stress?

**Mike Thurston** (4:16)
Stress. And I think, I think it's petty once like the drama starts, it's like backwards, forwards, backwards, forwards, and it never really ends. And then sometimes it can get a little bit like, some people might say something they regret. And I didn't want to do something, I'll make a video where I look back and think, oh, that was a bit stupid and childish.