{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"You Can Mentor: A Christian Youth Mentoring Podcast","title":"300. Mentoring Boys, Fatherlessness, and the Power of a Warm Mentor with Dr. Anthony Bradley","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3557,"description":"What do kids really need from a mentor?\nIn this episode, Zach sits down with Dr. Anthony Bradley to talk about fatherlessness, mentoring, and the kind of relationships that help kids grow into healthy adults.\nDr. Anthony Bradley has spent nearly three decades studying boys, fathers, families, and human flourishing. He’s written more than a dozen books, taught at the university level for decades, holds a PhD from Westminster Theological Seminary, and has been featured on CNN, Fox News, NPR, and C-SPAN. He is one of the leading Christian voices helping us understand what boys need from fathers, mentors, churches, and communities.\n\nDr. Bradley challenges the idea that mentoring is primarily about giving advice, teaching lessons, or correcting behavior. Kids need adults who show up, spend time with them, listen, and genuinely enjoy being around them. Great mentors become the people kids know they can turn to when life gets hard.\n\nIn this conversation:\nWhat fatherlessness can do to a child\nWhy boys need healthy men in their lives\nWhy presence often matters more than another lesson\nWhat it means to be a “warm” mentor\nWhy kids need to know that you actually like them\nHow listening builds trust\nWhy mentors should resist becoming drill sergeants\nHow everyday experiences teach perseverance, failure, character, and life\nWhy the best mentors become trusted people kids can turn to\nHow healthy adults can help surround kids with the relationships they need to thrive\nDr. Anthony Bradley also unpacks the devastating data on father absence—suicide, homelessness, dropout rates, violence—and why ordinary men showing up with presence can rewrite a child’s future. Through Bradley’s own story of mentoring a drug-selling teen named JJ over two decades (from Denny’s dinners to a transformed life as a husband, father, and leader), they reveal that mentoring isn’t about being Superman; it’s about consistent relationship, unconditional acceptance, and surrounding kids with a tribe of caring...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/1Xka3zDiBlBt17bxGFKaPNKtfL4x0Qw6Yce8LqvHcjw/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8wMTU4/YTYzZjc5Y2M5NjY4/MTFkZmY0NjExMzM2/Njc1MC5qcGVn.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}