In her previous groundbreaking book that was the inspiration for the Oscar-nominated film Close, NYU professor of developmental psychology Niobe Way describes her research findings that boys and young men have the same emotional and relational intelligence as all other humans and want and need the same thing, which is each other. Yet they grow up in a "boy" culture that makes them and us think otherwise. Thus, they have a hard time finding what they want and need, especially as they become men.

Now in her new book Rebels with a Cause, Way takes it one step further and reveals how these "rebels with a cause," as she calls them, not only teach us about themselves but also about ourselves and why we, too, are having such a hard time, as evidenced by the soaring rates of depression, anxiety, loneliness, suicide, and violence around the world. The solution to this crisis of connection, Way argues, is to hear what the rebels are asking of us, which is to care, to listen with curiosity, and to take collective responsibility for the damage we have done to them and to ourselves. Way provides us with not only data-driven insight from more than thirty-five years of research into the roots and consequences of our crisis of connection, she also offers us concrete and empirically tested strategies for creating a world that better aligns with our human nature and our human needs. Her book reminds us that "it's not the rebels who cause the troubles of the world, it's the troubles that cause the rebels." The time to listen to and act on what they have to teach us is now.