Kyle Thiermann

Live Event with Adam Skolnick & Me

Kyle Thiermann — Sun, 31 May 2026 15:31:49 GMT

Hey gang,

The Great Adam Skolnick and I will be doing a live event at The Lighthouse in Venice on Wednesday, June 3.

Expect a lively conversation on the unvarnished realities of writing and publishing a book — from reaching out to agents and navigating publishing paths to balancing creative work alongside everything else, followed by an audience Q&A on process, storytelling, and getting ideas onto the page.

After hosting a bunch of live events on my book tour, I can tell you that the real benefit of getting in your car on a Wednesday evening and schlepping it to an in-person event is the serendipity and mirth of meeting with other bookish people. Ain’t no substitute for IRL.

If you’ve read this far and you’re like, “Who is this Adam Skolnick guy?” Well, aside from being a podcast favorite, he is the author of five books, including the bestselling Can’t Hurt Me, which he co-wrote with David Goggins, as well as his debut novel American Tiger, inspired by a surreal true story of an escaped tiger in the hills of LA.

Hope to see you there,

Run of Show:

-5:00pm: Doors

-5:30pm: Conversation begins in Theater

-6:45pm: Theater session ends / Mingling

-8:00pm: Event Ends

#413 From Chubby Gamer to Jiu Jitsu Blackbelt - Leor Weiss

Kyle Thiermann — Thu, 14 May 2026 16:39:50 GMT

Leor Weiss has been training jiu jitsu since 2007, when, at eighteen, he walked into a gym and began what would become a near two-decade education in controlled violence. He now holds a second-degree black belt under Daniel Gracie and teaches at the Renzo Gracie Academy in Brooklyn. What distinguishes Weiss from the more monastic practitioners of his discipline is the breadth of his curiosity. He has traveled to Japan not for tournaments but for forests. He is devoted to the films of David Lynch. He is drawn, above all, to people whose circumstances bear no resemblance to his own. In this wide-ranging podcast, we talked about Leor’s arc from non-athletic gamer to black belt, his knack for teaching, and the crossover between jiu jitsu and surfing. I said it in the podcast and I’ll say it again: Dude’s got the gift of gab.

If you dig this podcast, will you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds and makes a difference when I drop to my knees and beg hard-to-get guests on the show. I read them all. You can watch this podcast on my YouTube channel and join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. My first book, ONE LAST QUESTION BEFORE YOU GO, is available to order today.

#412 The Power of Asking for Help - (Entrepreneur) Michael Chernow

Kyle Thiermann — Wed, 06 May 2026 14:29:47 GMT

Michael Chernow is a New York City restaurateur, entrepreneur, and television host who has spent over two decades building one of the more recognizable names in the city's food scene. He started in restaurants at thirteen, worked his way up through the ranks as a bartender and bar manager at Frank in the East Village, and earned his degrees in Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management from the French Culinary Institute. In 2010, he co-founded The Meatball Shop with his childhood best friend, a concept that grew into a six-location empire complete with a critically acclaimed cookbook and one of the more inventive beverage programs in the city. In 2015, he launched Seamore's, a casual seafood restaurant built around fresh, sustainably sourced fish. He has since expanded into wellness with his WellWell drink brand and television with A&E's Food Porn. Having now sold a number of businesses, Michael Chernow is a seasoned businessman and is the host of the Kreatures of Habit Podcast. In this episode, we focused on Michael’s growth trajectory from individual contributor to manager of large teams, how he negotiates deals with brands, and the power of asking for help.

Interviewing Your Parents Is Like Taking Psychedelics

Kyle Thiermann — Fri, 01 May 2026 16:44:49 GMT

An estimated 5.5 million Americans used psychedelics in the past year.

In many (even most) cases, I’d be willing to bet that the altered state didn’t result in any lasting behavior change. The asshole is still an asshole… just with photos of himself posing at Joshua Tree. But for others, the insights granted from a mushroom or ayahuasca trip endure long after the glassy colors faded. These psychonauts become more open, empathetic, and easy-going. In rare cases, they started telling Dad jokes at the office.

The metaphor of interviewing your parents as a psychedelic trip came early in the process of writing One Last Question Before You Go: Why You Should Interview Your Parents, and has only become more foundational to this project as time passed.

When we sit across from the people who made us, giving them the floor to tell the stories of their lives, it can soften the scar tissue that inevitably builds. We step out of the role of child and into the role of journalist, and this new vantage point can allow us to see our parents as people, an insight that leads us to become more (you guessed it) open, empathetic, and easy-going.

I got a taste of this while interviewing my mom about her time at Berkley in the 1960s, listening to her tell stories about what it was like to be in college during the Vietnam draft.

Except from the book: “The war backdropped everything,” she said. “We would gather at a friend’s house off Telegraph Avenue and watch the draft on TV. The announcer would reach into a bin and pull out little blue capsules.” The capsules resembled flu pills, each with a small, rolled paper inside. The announcer would unfurl the paper and call out a birthday. If a young man’s birthday was called, he went to war. “It was like bingo.”

It wasn’t all this heavy. She also spoke about going to Bob Dylan concerts and taking an astronomy class from Carl Sagan. “He bounced through the room.” Sixties ideology was, at its core, an optimistic vision for the future.

Psychedelics aren’t magic pills, and any durable benefits are the result of coupling the fireworks show with boring old daily habits, sometimes referred to as integration. The same goes for interviewing our parents. I’m not going to say that learning about who my mom was at age 20 was a cure-all, but it did have an empathy-boosting quality that felt oddly psychedelic. The experiment of guiding our parents through the stories of their lives can tilt perception, build new narratives, and remind us that what we see as truth is just a tiny sliver of reality. But it doesn’t take a drug. Only a chair and a microphone.

This Mother’s Day, skip the scented candles. Instead, sit down and ask her a few questions about her life.

That’s it for now. Hope you’re all getting plenty of Vitamin D.

Kyle

P.S. If you’ve read my book and want to support my writing career, please take 60 seconds and leave a review on Amazon. It really matters.

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#411 Write What Sells: TV, Audio, and the New Hollywood - Matthew Starr

Kyle Thiermann — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 15:19:50 GMT

A comedian who found his footing at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, where he spent the better part of a decade as a house writer and performer, Matthew Starr belongs to a generation of entertainers who were formed by the rigors of institutional improv and then quietly outgrew the institution. His most recent project is The Best Man’s Ghostwriter, an Audible Original he created, wrote, and directed, featuring a cast that includes Glen Powell, Nicholas Braun, Ashley Park, and D’Arcy Carden. He has also, since 2016, run Write Your Pilot!, a workshop for writers attempting their first television pilot. In this conversation, we talked about the art of improv, writing for audio narrative, and navigating the shifting sands of screenwriting in the Hollywood industry. Sharp thinker. Good dude. Easy convo.

#410 Legalize Psychedelics - Jesse Gould

Kyle Thiermann — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 15:25:44 GMT

I’ve been out of the loop on the state of psychedelics these days, particularly in the realm of therapeutic legality. So, it was time for a talk with the man who has his finger on the pulse… Jesse Gould is a former Army Ranger and a pioneer in psychedelic therapies for veterans. As Founder and President of the Heroic Hearts Project, he has spearheaded the research and acceptance of ayahuasca, ibogaine, ketamine, and psilocybin therapy programs for military veterans. Jesse has connected hundreds of veterans to psychedelic treatments, partnered with the world’s leading psychedelic centers, and is researching psychiatric applications with the University of Georgia, the University of Texas, Austin Dell Medical School, and Imperial College of London. His mission is to help military veterans struggling with mental trauma and spread awareness of the benefits that psychedelic therapies offer as an alternative treatment to pharmaceuticals. You can buy his new book here.

How to Do a Book Tour

Kyle Thiermann — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 16:37:27 GMT

You sit on the stool, book in hand, microphone in front of your face. Is my fly down? I really hope my fly isn’t down. You read a paragraph you’ve combed through 246 times and get to the first laugh line. A guy in the back snorts, but the rest of the room stays silent. The sound system has a half-second delay, and the echo, mingling with your adrenaline, creates the odd sensation of coming up on mushrooms. You breathe through your nose and try to read more slowly. The audience laughs unexpectedly at a line you didn’t try to make funny. You start to find your rhythm, eyes darting left to right, consuming text in chunks, as you are less likely to flub a word this way. You call your mother a conspiracy theorist and feel the energy in the room shift. They are against you now, especially the mothers. You reach another laugh line. This one works; they’re back on your side. You are a writer, so speaking frustrates you. Even on the good days, you wish you could go back to every conversation with a red pen and turn in a second draft. But each sentence in your book has been put on trial, executed, or allowed to go free, and this is one of the few times in your life when you get to say exactly what you mean.

I recently finished my first book tour. Seven stops. Four states. One squaredancing afterparty. Since then, I’ve had a few writers ask if I have any tips, so this article is about how I set up, promoted, and ran my book events.

But before I get into that, I’d like to make the general argument that more writers should host live events. Maybe a whole book tour is a tad ambitious, but at the very least, put on a single event in your town. When we share big projects online, ones that likely took us years to produce, the release can feel anti-climactic, like running a marathon only to stumble over the finish line. If we’re lucky, we get a few nice comments, then it’s done. The age of the internet has wiped out clear punctuation marks to signify the end of a project, and without a celebration of finality, it can be difficult to refocus and move on to the next with moxie.

I spent two years working on One Last Question Before You Go before realizing that writing a book was only half the battle. After shopping it around with my agent, I decided to take the plunge and self-publish through Scribe. It was a good experience; email me and I’d be happy to put you in touch. (Thiermann@Substack.com.) While countless people showed up to make these events possible, I did not have a fancy publisher set up this tour for me or an armada of PR personnel promoting the events. Until you reach stratospheric success in any artistic endeavour, ultimately, you are the one pushing the plough.

Where to Host Your Event

Most authors only consider bookstores as potential venues. If you self-published like me, it can be difficult to make events happen because you are competing with other, more famous authors. Bookstores often won’t host you unless you sell at their store, and you can’t sell at their store unless you have a major publisher. See the issue?

Instead, reach out to brick-and-mortar brands that are related to your subject matter. If you wrote a book about optometry, reach out to Warby Parker. If you wrote a book about breathwork, reach out to yoga studios.

Brick-and-mortar stores love hosting author events but rarely get propositioned. It gives them an excuse to throw a party, and most have a budget set aside for beer and snacks. Brands also tend to have larger email lists than bookstores, and if you give them the digital assets they need, they will blast your book event to their list.

I hosted seven events in all (six at Patagonia stores and one at MUD\WTR). I had preexisting relationships with these companies, but if you write a well-crafted email (sans AI) to a store manager, they will likely be down.

Call Six Months Ahead

If you ask a friend to help you move to a new house tomorrow, they’ll be annoyed. But if you ask them to help you with lots of lead time, they’ll lend a hand since you allowed for the physical and mental preparation required to lift an armoire into a U-Haul. I set up my book tour six months in advance and offered specific date options in the emails I sent. If you want someone to help you, make it easy for them to say yes.

I recommend hosting your events on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays. If you do it on the weekend, you’ll be competing with a sea of live entertainment, and let’s face it, convincing people to go to an unknown author’s book event isn’t exactly tickets to see Diplo.

I scheduled four events across the California coast during the first two weeks of my release. The goal here wasn’t just to sell books but to create buzz. People need to hear about a product seven times before they buy it, and lining up a bunch of events back-to-back in my home state let everyone and their mother know that I had written a book, then reminded them of this fact a bunch of times in a consolidated period.

Make a Press Kit

I hired a talented designer named Dersu Rhodes to create my press kit. It was one of the most valuable marketing assets I had throughout my launch. I uploaded the PDF, support photos, and documents to Google Drive and included the link to all of my correspondences—journalists, store managers, and podcast hosts. You want everyone to have the exact language and photos they’ll need to promote your book.

Promotion Means Texting Your Homies

We tend to think of promotion as posting on social media or going on podcasts, and while you should do all of this, a lot of people who showed up at my events were friends whom I texted, and friends of those friends. I would literally set a one-hour timer and send individual texts to friends inviting them to my events. I always included a simple design image of the event with the date and time, so they could easily forward it along. P.S. Thank you to all my friends who still haven’t blocked me after my incessant pleas to support my launch. Love you guys.

Another piece of low-hanging fruit is local newspapers. Everyone wants to get on Rogan, but we forget about the power of local media. Reach out to the editors of local papers three months ahead of time to tell them about your events and include your press kit. Again, this shit isn’t complicated, but it is a grind. That’s why most people don’t do it.

During my Austin event, I even printed posters and taped them to polls on Congress Avenue. They were promptly removed, but as I was struggling with a roll of duct tape, people actually did stop and ask about the event. In hindsight, I would’ve posted on community boards at coffee shops instead.

Promise Something Unexpected

One issue I found when advertising my events was the ever-raised question: “What exactly is a book event?” You can circumvent confusion by laying out your personal order of events: Reading, Q&A, Live Band & Drinks. Whatever it is, call out something fun that the audience can do before or after the stagetime. For example, come to my book event and make a Christmas ornament, or bring a journal for a guided prompt session. What can you offer that makes people feel included in the evening?

Items the Store Will Likely Provide

These are the items you should have talked through with the store manager prior to the event: A stool or high chair to read from, seats for the audience, a table to sign books, music (maybe have a playlist in your back pocket), drinks, a speaker, a microphone, and a microphone stand. I highlight this one because if you hold your book in one hand and the microphone in the other, turning pages will be a struggle.

Items You Will Need to Bring

Books, duh: For my Austin and Portland events, I traveled with books in my suitcase. For the New York event, I shipped them to a friend’s house three weeks in advance. The books never arrived, and I hosted this event with one lone book, which I tried to sell for $1,000 dollars. No one bit.

An Assistant: When signing books, you’ll need an assistant. My fiancé’s mom is a librarian, and without her wisdom, I would have been screwed. Have this assistant sit next to you and take orders. I bought a Square reader to make sales easier.

Post-Its and Pens: Your assistant should also have a stack of Post-Its and pens. This way, when they take orders, the person standing in line can write their name on the Post-It and stick it inside the book. This allows you, the author, not to have every interaction be about whether Elyza is spelled with an i or a y.

Yarn: String a line of yarn across the back two rows of chairs to block them off. You want the audience to squeeze up front, making it feel like every seat at your event is filled. If your event really does fill up, remove the yarn. It’s not just about the night. It’s also about photos of the night to promote your next event.

Physical Cards: I printed a few hundred cards on Canva and left one on each seat before the events started. The back of the card had 11 questions to ask your parents. It also had a small QR code that linked out to my Amazon page for people to review my book. What’s your version of this?

My Run of Show

I showed up early to all of my events to familiarize myself with the space and staff. If you’re not used to speaking into a microphone, practice before the audience arrives. As a general rule, you need to be closer to the microphone than you think.

Events started at 7 pm, and I spent the first half hour signing books. You should have a designated person introduce you with a brief bio that makes you sound impressive. When you take the stage, rather than the throat-clearing, “Thanks for coming out, blah, blah, blah,” jump straight into your first chapter. You can thank everyone for coming out once that’s done.

If you plan to read multiple chapters in different sections of your book, stick Post-It notes in the chapters you will want to read. This way, you don’t need to waste time flipping through your book to find the next chapter. I found the perfect reading time to be about 25 minutes, less time than you might think. Your goal should be to generate interest in your book, not exhaust people with it. This leaves you more time for Q&As and mingling... the good stuff.

I also created a third section for my evenings where I asked the audience to turn to the person behind them and practice a mock interview for three minutes apiece, allowing strangers to meet each other. If you create an atmosphere for strangers to make friends or even fall in love... trust me, they will buy your book.

Once the seated period ended (about 50 minutes in all), I would scurry back to my table and continue signing books for any stragglers. By 9 pm, the events would wrap up, and we’d go to a bar nearby to keep the celebration alive.

Enjoy It

After one event, a guy walked up to me and said that he hadn’t spoken to his father in seven years, but after hearing the reading, he was going to reach out and reconnect. That made everything worth it. The events will be over in a blink. The world will move on, and your book will not be the center of most people’s lives, even if it’s the center of yours. So for that brief sliver of time, relish in the pleasure, and in the following days, thank everyone who showed up. Writing a book is a hard thing. Honor yourself for having crossed the finish line. Honor your work by reading it aloud.

If you enjoyed this free article, please consider reviewing my book on Amazon or Goodreads. It takes 60 seconds and really matters.

#409 The Dane Reynolds Profile - Tony Andrews

Kyle Thiermann — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 16:15:42 GMT

Tony John Andrews hails from Rhode Island, which despite being the smallest U.S. state in terms of landmass, has the second greatest ratio of coastline to landmass of all 50 states. He’ll take it. He is a former state champion swimmer who really wanted to surf, so he did the best he could to teach himself in the region’s piddling windslop. Now in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset, trying to wrangle Ocean Beach, he has developed a renewed appreciation for his swimming background. Tony holds his BA in Philosophy and Film Studies from Amherst College, and an MFA in English from the Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program. His work is particularly interested in subjects driven by obsessive passions, like surfing, that often teeter on the edge of self-destruction. He has been contributing to The Surfer’s Journal since 2022, and recently wrote the definitive profile on pro surfer Dane Reynolds. His work has been nominated for Best American Essay and Best American Science and Nature Writing. He is represented by Creative Artists Agency, and is working on a hybrid book of surf memoir and reportage.

#408 Whatever Scares You, Go Do It - Derek Sivers (Repost)

Kyle Thiermann — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 15:59:28 GMT

In case you missed the last episode, my big news is that I relocated to Brooklyn for the next few months. My fingers are numb as I write this, but I do love it. Also, I’m capping off my book tour on February 19th at Patagonia SoHo. If you’re in town, I would love to meet you in person. You can RSVP here. Okay, what else? Right, the latest podcast. You see, I’m an informational grazer, nibbling on bits of media here and there but rarely sitting with a concept long enough to fully digest it. I’m trying to change that in 2026. One habit I’ve adopted is simply journaling about a book I’m reading for a few minutes. What did I learn? Journal one page. Done. I find this is helping the cement dry. Another is listening back to podcasts I’ve already recorded, including this one with Derek Sivers. Ahem, onto the bio: An author of philosophy and entrepreneurship, Sivers is known for his surprising quotable insights, pithy succinct writing style, and commitment to minimalism. (He currently lives in a 4x8 meter house in New Zealand and is building it out slowly, room by room, just to see what he needs.) Formerly a musician, programmer, TED speaker, and circus clown, he sold his first company for $22 million and gave all the money to charity. Sivers' books (Useful, Not True, How to Live, Hell Yeah or No, Your Music and People, Anything You Want) and newest projects are at his website: sive.rs. He loves hearing from strangers and will reply to every email, so if you enjoyed this podcast, shoot him an email and let him know.

Live with David Litt

Kyle Thiermann — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 01:30:09 GMT

Available for iOS and Android

#407 Running a Big Creative Agency In a Small Town - David Littlejohn

Kyle Thiermann — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 16:24:57 GMT

Big news. I moved to New York for the next few months. My fiancé and I are renting a spot in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and I’ve already managed to get lost on the subway twice. Also, my book tour is coming to a close at Patagonia SoHo on February 19th. If you’re in New York, come out, I’d love to hang in person. Event details here. Okay, onto our regularly scheduled programming: David Littlejohn is a magician, cold plunge enthusiast, and the founder of Humanaut, a creative agency based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Under Littlejohn’s leadership, Humanaut has executed campaigns for Liquid Death, Organic Valley, Dollar Shave Club, and many other brands that probably live rent-free in your brain. In this episode, Littlejohn and I talked about his love of sleight-of-hand magic, the real job of entrepreneurs, and the benefits of working on nationwide campaigns from a small town like Chattanooga. You can get in touch with him on Instagram and check out Humanaut here.

Portland, See You Thursday

Kyle Thiermann — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:15:50 GMT

Humans,

This Thursday, January 22nd, I will be reading my new book at the Patagonia store in Portland, Oregon. Can I still call my book new? It’s been out for two months now, which is geriatric in marketing years. Sighe. A friend once told me that when sharing your art (sorry for the pretentious word) with the world, every day is launch day. Every day, someone is coming across your art for the very first time, be it on Instagram, a bookshop, or a wet gutter in a rough part of town. So as the creator of said art, it’s your job to treat it with care and enthusiasm, even if it has crows’ feet and a bad lower back.

My point is, you can RSVP to my Portland event here.

I have never been to Portland, but while there, I am excited to reach a new apex of caffination. I hear Portland has the best coffee in the world, which makes sense as the weather is predicted to hover around 43 degrees this week, making any hot liquid taste 10 percent better.

It was a last-minute decision, but I threw a newsboy cap in my luggage before leaving for the airport this morning. It’s not a beret, but they could be second cousins. It’s brown and earnest, and I bought it in Dublin, vowing that it would be a cornerstone of my new look, a gateway garment to poetry and tobacco pipes.

I have not mustered the courage to wear it since.

But today... Today, I wear my newboy cap, along with a faded green surfer-dude sweatshirt and purple sunglasses, which makes me look like I was drunk when I got dressed this morning. In uncertain times like these, I try to remind myself that Wilbur and Orville failed hundreds of times before finally taking flight.

So here I am, experimenting with a new look, in a new city, with my new book. I would be overjoyed to see you (and your parents) this Thursday on 1106 West Burnside Street. But even if you can’t make it, please forward this email to your Portland friend.

And grant me the courage to read a few chapters in the newsboy cap.

-Kyle

Event Details
Amazon link to “One Last Question Before You Go.”

#406 Understanding Endometriosis - Soraya Simi

Kyle Thiermann — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 17:32:26 GMT

Hey Austin, Texas people. I’ll be doing a live reading of my new book at Patagonia Austin on January 8 at 7 pm. It’s a free event and you can RSVP here. Good food, cold drinks, and your future husband/wife will probably be there. Okay, onto the show.

Soraya Simi is a writer, director, surfer, and damn sharp thinker. Her first documentary, ROW OF LIFE, follows renowned Paralympian and Marine Veteran Angela Madsen as she rows solo across the Pacific Ocean. She’s now working on a new feature-length documentary about endometriosis, a chronic disease that affects roughly one in ten women worldwide and is a common cause of infertility. In this podcast, Soraya and I caught up about life, relationships, story structure, and of course, her forthcoming documentary. Connect with Soraya on Instagram.

Wanna Host a Book Club?

Kyle Thiermann — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 19:44:51 GMT

You’ve read “One Last Question Before You Go,” now it’s time to talk about it. Dissecting a book with friends can help you see characters with more depth and notice how the story may relate to your own life in subtle and silent ways. Below are 11 questions to guide the discussion. No wrong answers. The only rule is to never, under any circumstances, host a book club without a lavish charcuterie board and red wine.

Also, want a stylish PDF of the questions to have for book club night? Click here to download and print it.

Also also, I’ll be in Austin, TX, for a reading on January 8th at Patagonia. Deets here.

1. ET and Foster are two primary characters in the book. Discuss their belief systems. What are their differences, similarities, and defining traits?

2. Many hunter-gatherer societies believed in partible paternity, the idea that a fetus could be formed from multiple biological fathers. It was also common for other women, including grandmothers, to nurse a crying child. This resulted in a fundamentally different parental structure, one with children raised by multiple men and women. How has the modern nuclear family changed our society and expectations of where love comes from?

3. Money plays a subtle role throughout the book. As a boy, Thiermann was enamored by his stepfather’s wealth, but later became disillusioned. “I saw firsthand how Foster’s money inspired people to be 10 percent friendlier, 10 percent more likely to nod along with winning smiles as he talked about the reptilian elite.” How has money impacted your perception of the parental figures in your life? How has this influenced your relationship with money today?

4. The author recommends asking our parents about their twenties. “These are formative years when we are out of the house and thrust into culture. We learn drinking habits and thinking habits that can set the trajectory for the rest of our lives.” He posits that his own mom’s susceptibility to conspiracy theories may have been due, in part, to her anti-establishment orthodoxy at Berkeley in the 1960s. “It led to a psychology that the government was the problem. Over time, the hippies slowly slid right, protests moved online, and tear gas morphed into chemtrails.” Do you agree with this hypothesis? What additional factors may have shaped Kimberley’s views?

5. “People die the way they live,” says hospice nurse, Rachel the Reaper. How does the concept of death play a role in the book? How does it serve as an impetus for various characters to make decisions?

6. Many adult children fall back into old patterns when they’re around their parents. What are some of Thiermann’s blind spots and patterns around his various parental figures?

7. Thiermann and his older brother, Toby, seem to have different experiences of the same situation. Discuss how siblings can be raised in one household while having different versions of childhood.

8. Which character did you most relate to? What about their choices or experiences resonated with you?

9. Memory helps us shape our identities; it serves as a blueprint for how we should act in the future. Share a story a parent often tells and consider what that story reveals about how they see themselves or wish to be seen.

10. In the scene where Thiermann and his biological father take MDMA together, the chapter finishes with the two of them sitting in a van, and ET says, “You said that you respected Foster more than me. Kids can hurt their parents too, you know.” Adult children can say hurtful things to their parents. How can you take more responsibility for your existing dynamics with your parents?

11. What’s something you cherish most from your parents? This could be a lesson learned or a memento saved.

#405 Charging Jaws & Hunting Bucks - Wilem Banks (Repost)

Kyle Thiermann — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 17:36:51 GMT

In 2017, Wilem Banks (@Wilembanks) made headlines when he suffered a horrific fall at Mavericks and won WSL’s Wipeout of the Year (the most embarrassing award in surfing). The award seemed to put a chip on Wilem’s shoulder, and since then, he’s set out to prove that he can do more than paddle into gigantic waves—he can make them, too. This year, the humble warrior took his first trip to Jaws on Maui and bagged what some say was the biggest wave ever completed at the spot. In this episode, Wilem recounts the story in detail. Beyond the ocean, he is a hunter, carpenter, and co-owner of Banks&Banks Saunas, a custom-built sauna service he runs with his brother.

#404 What Throwing Parties Can Teach You About Brand Strategy - Ned Lampert

Kyle Thiermann — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 18:26:11 GMT

Ned Lampert is an unpretentious dude with a bag of big ideas. As the founder of Zero Ambition, a creative and strategy studio that works with Nike, Vans, Whole Foods, and a roster of other AAA brands, his job is to come up with culture-shifting campaigns that make customers laugh, cry, and do a little shimmy. Ned is also an avid fly fisherman, mountain bike rider, and backcountry skier. In this episode, we talked about how Ned got into advertising through the unlikely path of DJing parties, why that led him to New York, and where he finds inspiration today. (Spoiler: at the top of the Alpine mountains.) Oh, Ned is also behind Slick’s For All, one of the fastest-growing intimacy brands redefining the category. He does so much, the bastard.

Saving Voicemails

Kyle Thiermann — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:13:41 GMT

I have been saving voicemails for the past three years. I simply upload the recording to Google Drive and now have thirty or so messages in a folder, audio acorns, tucked away for a rainy day.

Most are from my parents, but others are from friends. One is from an Xfinity salesman with an Indian accent. I saved this one by mistake, but now his unbeatable internet deals will be with me forever. Another, this one saved purposefully, is from a podcast guest, Chris Keener, who goes on a two-minute exploration of the word “solid.” What a delightful word it is, especially when used in the possessive. “I’m solid, how are you?” To feel solid in a world designed to destabilize is an achievement and should be celebrated in a tangential voicemail, don’t you think?

When you write a book, readers use it in unexpected ways.

Like the NGOs who distribute mosquito nets across sub-Saharan Africa only to have the villagers use the nets to catch fish, I’ve been surprised by the number of readers using “One Last Question Before You Go” not to interview their parents formally, but use the chapter titles (all of which are questions) as conversation starters around the dinner table.

Additionally, I’ve been surprised by the number of readers who told me they enjoyed the book as a story, but when I ask which parent they plan to interview first, stare blankly, then sigh. It’s simply not in the cards.

For these people in particular, save your parents’ voicemails.

Numerous workbooks exist to capture our parents’ life stories. Give your parents the workbook and let them fill it out. It’s a nice thought, but I’m not sure learning about my dad’s greatest achievement through a paragraph of chicken scratch is going to make me feel close to him after he dies. It’s the voice. The inflection in his “okey dokie,” sign-off, and the meandering way he’ll start his voicemails with a simple point, “Hey, call me back,” then veer off into a colorful play-by-play of his adventures with the plumber. (Never stop, ET. Never stop.)

We groan when we see that four-minute message from mom. How dare she take up megabites on our phone? But all these voicemails hold unexpected value, especially when we get that unexpected call.

My own grandmother, who died at 100, had advanced Alzheimer’s for the last decade of her life, and my mom never had a chance to interview her. In a recent podcast we did together, my mom said that one of the only pieces of audio she had saved was a happy birthday voicemail from my grandmother.

“It wasn’t even my birthday,” she said. “But that’s not the point.”

#403 How to Die - My Mom (Kimberly)

Kyle Thiermann — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 16:17:24 GMT

In one of the early chapters of my book, my mom assembles her Gravity Kit, an assortment of belongings she’ll leave behind once gravity wins. The kit includes passwords to her accounts, photos from her life, music that moved her, and a number of other personal belongings usually left in disarray for the children to rummage through. As she once said, “logistics often get in the way of grief.” In this very personal episode, we talk about how to assemble your own Gravity Kit, the hidden value of saving voicemails, and how to maintain strong relationships even through disagreement. This one was a tear-jerker.

If you dig this podcast, will you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds and makes a difference when I drop to my knees and beg hard-to-get guests on the show. I read them all. You can watch this podcast on my YouTube channel and join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. My first book, ONE LAST QUESTION BEFORE YOU GO, is available to order today.

A Week On Book Tour

Kyle Thiermann — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 17:08:27 GMT

Kendall saved a drowning victim last week. She’s my fiancée and has been traveling with me to the past four stops on my California book tour. We were in Cardiff, and she was surfing before the event at the Patagonia store that evening. The waves were small and horrible, and the harsh winter light made it impossible to see into the horizon. Squinting into the blindness, Kendall heard the woman before she saw her: “Help, please help!” The woman had paddled out without a leash, lost her board, and was swept into a riptide. While this emergency was unfolding, I was sauntering along the beach, on the phone with a friend, informing him that “One Last Question Before You Go” was officially a #1 Amazon Bestseller.

A month prior, I had cajoled Kendall into taking the Big Wave Risk Assessment Group course with me, also known as BWRAG. It’s like a wilderness survival course for the sea. Kendall has only been surfing for a few years, but she loves the ocean and has a graceful style on a longboard, one she shaped herself. By the time I realized what was happening, Kendall had successfully shepherded the woman to shore using the protocol she had learned at BWRAG.

That evening, Kendall was selling books at the Cardiff event, and the woman walked through the doors. She approached Kendall with a hug, a bracelet, and a personalized card that read, “Thank you for saving me.” They don’t yet sell these in mass at Walgreens. The team at Patagonia Cardiff had rented a photo booth for the night, and the two of them dipped under the black curtain and took a few silly photos together.

“That’s an amazing story,” I told Kendall on our drive back to LA later that night. “Did you make her buy a book?”

For the past four months, this has been my world. For the past four months, I have not been a writer, but a promoter of books. One book, to be exact. All my efforts have been leading toward a media push that would drop this past week. Every morning I would have dedicated to writing, before starting my real job as a copywriter, was re-allocated to shameless self-promotion. Daily tasks included, but were not limited to: DMing influencers and offering to mail them an advance copy with no strings attached (there are always strings attached). Pitching myself to podcast producers (most don’t respond). And calling bookstores to ask if they’ll carry my book (they won’t unless people call and request it).

The experience is one of 98% rejection. I knew this going in, so I pretended like this entire campaign was for someone else’s book, a client, one I wanted to succeed. It’s the only way I could saddle up each morning. But even with this little bit of mental jujitsu, Kendall can attest that my level of ambient agitation the past four months hit a new decibel, caused by the looming terror that my debut book could be met by an ocean of crickets.

In the end, it was my friends who showed up. Friends who ran surf podcasts or journalists at local newspapers. SURFER magazine ran a campaign where pro surfers interviewed their parents. All of these saints graciously waited to publish the articles and podcasts until launch week, and by the end of what will come to be known as “Kyle’s Great Season of Begging,” it was enough to make last week very special.

At the Patagonia Santa Cruz event, I thought I might pass out from oxytocin. Audience members included my mom, dad, stepdad, aunts, uncles, siblings, childhood friends, book editors, and second-grade teacher, Lysa. It was like going to my own funeral. I got big laughs, good questions, and walked away with the distinct feeling that this is what I should be doing with my life. A whipped cream bonus was that Chris Burroughs, a friend of mine from Garden 31, tabled at each event. The proceeds from drinks and food sales went to his non-profit, which gets formerly incarcerated youth into organic gardening. It took a village. Thank you to everyone who helped make this book launch happen.

Especially the girl standing at the back of the room. She’ll save your life, then sell you a book.

#402 The Hidden Benefits of Self-Publishing - Adam Skolnick

Kyle Thiermann — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 17:39:29 GMT

This podcast is with Adam Skolnick, an award-winning independent journalist and author covering adventure sports, environmental issues, travel and human rights for The New York Times, Outside, Playboy and Lonely Planet. He is the author of One Breath: Freediving, Death and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits, the ghost writer and narrator of David Goggins’ smash hit memoir and audiobook Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds, and he is a co-host on the Rich Roll Podcast. His latest book, American Tiger, is available to order now. (I’ve read it and it fucking rocks.) In this episode, we talk about the state of publishing today, the Southern California wilderness, and creativity as lantern offerings. Follow Adam’s Substack here.