Father’s Badlands Road Trip Recasts What Toughness Means

Sam Graham-Felsen took his young son on a cross-country road trip to Badlands National Park, a journey recounted on the Jan. 21, 2026, episode of The New York Times’s Modern Love podcast (56:14).

Graham-Felsen says he had been a fearful child who struggled with bullying and low confidence. As an adult he believed he had moved beyond those fears, but he began to notice similar tendencies in his son and set out to toughen him, invoking what Theodore Roosevelt called “the strenuous life.” Along the trip he wrestled with what it means to be a good man, and his son altered his own ideas about toughness.

The episode features Graham-Felsen explaining what happened; his original essay appears in The New York Times Magazine. Modern Love is hosted by Anna Martin and produced and edited by a named team, and listeners can follow the podcast on platforms such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Links to episode transcripts generally appear on the Modern Love pages within a week.

Key Topics

Culture, Sam Graham-felsen, Badlands National Park, Theodore Roosevelt, Modern Love, Anna Martin