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Men In the Arena Podcast and author Alan Smyth discuss men’s responsibility to step up in the fight against sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

Brotherhood of Fatherhood and author Alan Smyth explore the role of authentic masculinity in ending sexual exploitation and trafficking. There’s a lot of talk these days about the role of masculinity in ending sexual exploitation and trafficking. On one hand, you have people who argue that traditional masculinity is responsible for perpetuating these problems in the first place. On the other hand, you have people who argue that authentic masculinity – the kind that isn’t based on violence or exploitation – is key to solving them. So what’s the truth? What role does authentic masculinity really play in ending sexual exploitation and trafficking?

In this episode, Laura speaks with Alan Smyth, Executive Director for Saving Innocence and co-author of the book ‘Men! Fight for Me: The Role of Authentic Masculinity in Ending Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking’. Alan has been on the front lines of caring for child victims of trafficking for six years through his role with Saving Innocence in LA.

It was somewhere in the early 2000s when I got a package in the mail from a friend, who had just taken a job with an organization that purported to rescue people from slavery. And I’ve got to admit, and especially at the time, it was something of an embarrassing admission that I had no idea that that was a need. It blew my mind.

MEN! Fight For Me is co-authored by Alan Smyth & Jessica Midkiff, plus a host of other experts, survivors as well as professionals in the field. Alan Smyth is the executive director for Saving Innocence, an anti-human trafficking organization based in Los Angeles. Jessica Midkiff is a trafficking expert having survived 10 years of commercial, sexual exploitation herself as well as having spent 10 years of advocacy work helping younger victims escape and recover…