{"id":52281,"date":"2015-11-24T15:28:06","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T21:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=52281"},"modified":"2026-10-26T20:45:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T01:45:46","slug":"podcast-158-the-prime-of-life-what-it-means-to-be-an-adult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-158-the-prime-of-life-what-it-means-to-be-an-adult\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #158: The Prime of Life \u2014 What It Means to Be an Adult"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the past thirty or so years, the definition of what it means to be an adult has undergone a radical transformation. Where there were once clear markers of adulthood (get a well-paying job, get married, have kids) there are now fuzzy boundaries. It’s not uncommon to find 30-somethings muse, “Am I an adult yet?”<\/p>\n

And while we think that our ancestors weren’t plagued with this question, history tells a different story. Steven Mintz, a professor of history at the University of Texas, shows in his book, The Prime of Life: A History of Modern Adulthood<\/a>, <\/i>that what it means to be an adult in the West has been in constant flux since the 1500s. Today on the podcast, Professor Mintz and I discuss how society’s concept of adulthood has changed throughout the centuries and what we can learn from our ancestors about navigating the sometimes uncertain waters of being a grown-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the past thirty or so years, the definition of what it means to be an adult has undergone a radical transformation. Where there were once clear markers of adulthood (get a well-paying job, get married, have kids) there are now fuzzy boundaries. It’s not uncommon to find 30-somethings muse, “Am I an adult yet?” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,156,42388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-podcast","category-self-improvement"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/158-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/158-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/158-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/158-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/158-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"\nPodcast #158: The Prime of Life \u2014 What It Means to Be an Adult | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-158-the-prime-of-life-what-it-means-to-be-an-adult\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #158: The Prime of Life \u2014 What It Means to Be an Adult | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"During the past thirty or so years, the definition of what it means to be an adult has undergone a radical transformation. 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