Podbit · On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Countless incidents of referees and coaches showing racial bias — from unexplained red cards to being picked last despite being the best — could have broken a young Miles. Instead, following his mother's advice to just win, he transformed discrimination into a chip on his shoulder and became the trailblazer a generation of Black fencers never had.
Where this was said
At 19:08 · chapter starts 18:22
Jay acknowledges that being the first Black American world champion in a notoriously white sport is a historic achievement and asks Miles to walk through the lived experience of breaking into that world. Miles is unflinching. He describes being picked last in group selections despite clearly being one of the best in the room; receiving five unexplained red cards at his first Junior Olympics — knowing it was racial because the next day, under different officiating, he won the under-17 event; and enduring countless racial gestures from referees and coaches between ages 14 and 18. He never spoke publicly about much of it. His mother's consistent advice was pragmatic and powerful: just win, and then what can they say? Once he realised why it was happening, Miles made it fuel. He describes still reaching out to younger fencers experiencing the same thing — most recently a Black kid in Amsterdam — because he knows the loneliness of being the only one who has felt it. [1] — Miles Chamley-Watson "Miles was picked last for team events despite being one of the best fencers in the room, received five unjustified red cards at his first J…" 17:04
Miles's debut World Fencing League event in LA sold out, broke records, and drew over a million live viewers — more than the Olympics. Watching kids who'd never seen fencing on television light up on the red carpet was, he says, the greatest day of his life. Not because of medals, but because a whole generation finally saw themselves in the sport.
The inaugural World Fencing League event in LA sold out and drew over a million live viewers, surpassing the Olympics' fencing audience.
Social media feeds men and women the absolute worst caricatures of each other while stripping away the everyday, imperfect relationships that would calibrate their expectations. Combine that with smaller families and fewer cross-sex friendships, and you get a generation that talks about the opposite sex constantly but almost never to them.
The 'would you rather be alone with a man or a bear' debate went viral not because men are objectively more dangerous than ever, but because an entire fear industrial complex of influencers and safety products had already primed women to feel that way. Once the algorithm identifies you as worried about personal safety, the content and the scrunchie drink-covers never stop.
Women feel less safe not because danger has increased, but because trust in institutions — police, churches, schools — that used to enforce safety norms has collapsed. Young women are far less likely than older women to believe those institutions will handle sexual assault responsibly, leaving them with only individual self-protection as a fallback.
Even self-identified feminist women consistently told Daniel Cox in interviews and surveys that they want men to open doors, pay for dates, and show demonstrable care. The internet noise around 'benevolent sexism' drowns out this widespread, quietly held preference.
In focus groups in Philadelphia and Raleigh, every single hand went up when participants were asked if parents discussed financial stability and education. Zero hands went up for marriage or parenthood. Parents are shaping their children's ambitions with total silence on the experiences that matter most.
American families are smaller than ever, with roughly 1 in 5 children now growing up as only children. Without the daily friction of siblings — shared bedrooms, shared bathrooms, resolving disagreements — young people enter adult relationships without the negotiation muscles relationships require.
Online dating optimises for your existing preferences rather than expanding your horizons. People who meet online give bad first dates almost no second chances; people who meet through mutual friends are far more forgiving. The disembodied, checklist-driven nature of apps removes all the social cues that actually reveal character.
A split-sample survey found that men judge male and female cheating identically harshly, and women judge male cheating the same way men do. The outlier: young women are dramatically less likely to call female infidelity morally wrong, suggesting shared-fate thinking and personal experience of being cheated on are reshaping the moral calculus.
The monk mode trend encourages men to withdraw from social life to work on themselves — but this is precisely backwards. The research is clear: close friendships are the single most powerful predictor of whether a man dates, commits, and becomes his best self. Self-improvement without social reintegration is just sophisticated avoidance.
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