At Relational Ground, Dominick explores how men’s health, relationships, and societal change intersect through stories, research, and global perspectives. This work examines how cultural norms and systemic barriers shape men’s experiences with reproductive health, family planning, and emotional well-being. From global fertility trends to fathers’ roles in sexual health and the NFL’s platform for men’s health, Relational Ground challenges outdated narratives and offers practical solutions. Its relational approach emphasizes connection—between partners, families, communities, and health systems—as a catalyst for stronger public health and healthier lives. Click the link to visit the Relational Ground Substack. Exemplary blogs are shared below. 
Tying Up Lions
When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion. Using this Ethiopian proverb as a guide, this article explores how resilience emerges through relationships rather than isolation. Drawing on research about ovarian cancer survivors, relational masculinity, and men's health, it argues that social connection, friendship, family, and community are essential sources of strength.
At a time when loneliness and disconnection affect many boys and men, the essay offers a relationship-centered perspective on resilience, wellbeing, and healthy masculinity.
Mapping Boys’ and Men’s Health Policy Activity Across the United States (2015–2026)
Over the past decade, states have introduced hundreds of policy actions focused on boys and men. This analysis maps more than 225 initiatives across all 50 states and asks a critical question: Are we building sustainable systems for boys' and men's health, or simply creating isolated programs?
Why Are Young, Childless Men Seeking Vasectomies?
Many young childless men are becoming more politically engaged because politics can provide identity, belonging, purpose, and community. As traditional sources of meaning such as marriage, fatherhood, religion, and civic organizations become less central for many people, political movements can offer a sense of connection and direction during periods of uncertainty and social change.
Miles, Men, and the Work of Staying Connected
Men do not usually walk away from their health, relationships, or sense of purpose all at once. Instead, they slowly drift away over time. Miles, Men, and the Work of Staying explains how cultural expectations about masculinity contribute to this disengagement, and why staying connected to care, identity, and other people requires ongoing effort.
Yes, The Manosphere Documentary Matters, But What Matters More?
The manosphere isn’t just an internet subculture—it’s filling a gap. This piece explores why the documentary matters, and why the deeper issue is men’s search for connection and belonging.
Should AI Companionship Optimize Engagement or Develop Relational Spillover?
It’s now possible to have a companion who never rejects you, never misreads your tone, and never needs anything back. That feels comforting — especially in a lonely world. But real relationships are built through discomfort, repair, and reciprocity. What if AI companions were designed not to maximize engagement, but to build relational capacity offline? This essay proposes a new metric: relational spillover.
Interpersonal Curiosity as Relational Infrastructure
Loneliness is not simply the absence of contact; it is the absence of meaningful understanding. Research on interpersonal curiosity suggests that asking better questions—and following up—may be one of the most practical tools for strengthening male friendships.
Why Men Need a “Single-Visit” Health Check
Most of the preventive services men need already exist—but they’re scattered across multiple appointments. The Men’s Health Check Bundle reorganizes routine screenings, labs, and conversations into one clearly named, bookable health event. By reducing friction and improving marketing, this single-visit model makes it easier for men to get back into care and stay engaged in preventive health.
One Visit, Many Opportunities: Multi-Behavior Interventions for Men’s Health Care
Men and boys often reach primary care late and focused on immediate problems. I argue that multi-behavior interventions for health care providers—supporting screening, advice, and referral in a single visit—are a critical, underused lever for improving men’s health outcomes.
The Collapse of Workplace Friendship
For many men, work quietly provided the conditions that made friendship possible: repeated interaction, shared purpose, and low-stakes proximity. As remote work, turnover, and hustle culture thin those conditions, connection doesn’t disappear overnight. It becomes harder to start and easier to lose. What we’re calling a loneliness crisis is, in part, the collapse of work as a place to belong.
Swipe Fatigue and the Friendship Gap: Why Dating Apps Don’t Fix Men’s Loneliness
Dating apps are not failing because men are broken. They are failing because they are being asked to solve a problem they were never designed to address. Access without infrastructure does not produce connection. If we want to reduce men’s loneliness, we must rebuild the friendship markets that make durable relationships possible.
Relational Masculinity in Public
Taken together, Talarico models a form of masculinity that is accountable rather than authoritarian, humble rather than domineering, and rooted in relationship rather than fear. What makes this posture especially relevant is not its theological specificity or political context, but its implications for men’s health and belonging.
The Testosterone Economy and the Appeal of Simple Answers
Men aren’t chasing testosterone. They’re chasing certainty. In a health system that often says “wait and see,” the testosterone economy offers a clear label, a defined pathway, and a sense of legitimacy—revealing not a failure of men, but a failure of care design.
Individualism Under Constraint
Childlessness in the United States is increasingly common, but rarely experienced the same way. Drawing on national surveys, demographic research, and studies of permanent contraception, this essay examines how Americans are navigating fertility, identity, and permanence in an era shaped by economic insecurity, delayed independence, and policy uncertainty.
Friendship Markets and the Quiet Crisis of Men’s Connection
This essay explores the idea of “friendship markets” — the social environments that make connection possible — and why those markets collapse for many men in adulthood. Drawing on cultural analysis rather than self-help advice, it argues that men’s loneliness is less about personal failure and more about structural design: workplaces, norms, and institutions that discourage connection. The piece examines how friendship forms through identity, transition, and shared purpose, and highlights legitimate on-ramps into belonging such as training groups, fatherhood cohorts, service teams, and recovery circles. The result is a reframing of men’s isolation as a cultural and infrastructural challenge, not an individual flaw.
General Who? What White Christmas Teaches Us About Men, Aging, and Being Loved
A Thanksgiving ritual, a 1954 musical, and an unexpected lesson about masculinity. What White Christmas teaches us about men, aging, and saying “I love you” out loud—without embarrassment.
From Talk to Transfer
By consolidating ten male-engagement curricula into an implementation-ready learning sequence (RAST) with explicit safeguards, artifacts, and service linkages, this paper moves the field from attitude change to behavioral transfer. It operationalizes men’s own health-seeking—especially in SRH—through rehearsable micro-skills and measurable clinic pathways, yielding generalizable design standards that enhance effectiveness, external validity, and participant safety (autonomy, confidentiality, GBV risk mitigation).
Men’s Holiday Check-In Guide
The holidays can be a meaningful time to reconnect—but also a time when some men struggle quietly. This guide offers a relational, low-pressure way to check in with the men in your life through everyday moments and casual conversations. Simple prompts, small gestures, and gentle follow-ups can make the season feel more connected and supportive.
Infographic: Insights on Young Men’s Connection and Belonging
• “Up to 40% of young men now belong to no organized group. Belonging is breaking down—and the data shows why.”
• “Digital spaces aren’t replacing community for young men. They’re the only community many have left.”
• “Peer invitations work. Adult outreach doesn’t. Recruitment is relational—not institutional.”
• “The least connected young men aren’t disinterested—they’re under-supported. Context, not character.”
• “To rebuild belonging, start small: peers doing something together.”
Growing Up in the Gray Area of Need
This essay looks back at the “gray area of need” I grew up in—where food assistance programs kept us afloat, but stigma shaped my identity. It’s a story about SNAP, shame, and how childhood poverty continues to shape my work in men’s health and relational masculinity.