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893: Testosterone
Brief
Testosterone is the organizing subject: the episode is a 2002 This American Life piece rerun as a topical response to a 2026 order referenced by Ira Glass to test and offer testosterone to military personnel over 30. The program unfolds in four acts that move from intimate first‑person accounts to a workplace experiment and then to contrasting extremes—excess, absence, and adolescence. Alex Blumberg and Ira Glass frame the episode around how little we actually know about what testosterone does, and they repeatedly warn listeners that hormones are only one part of a social and psychological mix.
Act One profiles Griffin Hansbury, who describes dramatic, fast‑acting changes after taking high‑dose depo‑testosterone (2 cc of 200 mg), including overwhelming libido, altered visual/sexual perception, difficulty crying, and new intellectual interests; Griffin later told the producers he would now nuance how much of his change stemmed from cultural messages about masculinity rather than hormone alone. Act Two is a staff contest: producers and contributors spit into tubes (samples processed at the Yerkes center) and predict each other’s rankings. Results surprised them—David Rakoff topped the men at 274 ng/dL while others clustered much lower, and Julie Snyder (seven months pregnant) topped the women—provoking hurt feelings and a discussion with James Dabbs, who emphasized population tendencies (higher T linked to boldness, muscle, baldness, and contest effects) but warned against overinterpreting individual tests. Act Three presents an anonymous GQ writer’s report of living with virtually no testosterone—profound apathy, flattened perception, and a peculiar, dispassionate sense that “everything is beautiful.” Act Four narrows to adolescence: Miriam Toews recounts her son Owen’s taciturn, music‑obsessed teen years and the small, nonverbal ways she learned to reach him. Across acts, speakers agreed that testosterone can shift attention, risk and desire, but disagreed (and ultimately cautioned) about how much biology alone explains social behavior, identity, or moral responsibility.
Why it matters
Ira Glass framed the episode as a rerun and a cautionary tale after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (mentioned by Glass) ordered all U.S. service members over age 30 to have testosterone tested and offered boosts (prologue).
Key details
- Griffin Hansbury told Alex Blumberg that his first masculinizing shot was 2 cc of 200 mg depo-testosterone, which raised his blood testosterone to over 2,000 ng/dL (average male range given as 300–1,000 ng/dL); he reported rapid onset of intense libido, intrusive sexual imagery, blunted crying, and an unexpected new interest in science.
- Ira Glass organized a staff experiment (Act Two) using saliva tests sent to the Yerkes National Primate Research Center; among the five men tested David Rakoff measured highest at 274 ng/dL (about twice any other staff member), with Alex Blumberg 144 ng/dL and Ira Glass 150 ng/dL; the male ranking was Rakoff, Alex, Ira, Jonathan, Todd, and Julie Snyder (seven months pregnant) had the highest level among the women.
- James Dabbs (Georgia State), cited in Act Two, summarized cross‑sectional findings: higher testosterone correlates with boldness, fearlessness, decisiveness, greater muscle and baldness, and fluctuates with wins and losses (rises after victory, falls after defeat); he cautioned that individual behavior cannot be reduced solely to testosterone.
- An anonymous GQ writer interviewed by Alex Blumberg described life with near‑zero testosterone (Act Three): prolonged apathy and lack of desire, days spent staring at walls for three to four hours, and a flattened, list-like perception of the world where everything feels ‘that is beautiful’ but said in a dispassionate way.
- Writer Miriam Toews (Act Four) described her 15-year-old son Owen as taciturn, fiercely musical and competitive, and often nonverbal about feelings; she used timing/competition and nonverbal approaches to understand him and later reports he outgrew that extreme silence as an adult.