Brett & Kate McKay 265 posts 0 comments

OAS Saguaro swim shorts. I needed a new pair of swim trunks this summer. I’ve always loved Western motifs, and reading Lonesome Dove with the Dying Breed book club has put cowboys particularly on my brain lately, so when I came across…
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 When most people think of negotiation, they picture big, high-stakes moments: haggling over the price of a house, negotiating a starting salary, or hammering out the terms of a business deal. But negotiation is also something we do…
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When we think of summer, we tend to think of warm, languid, blue-skied days. Pool parties and backyard BBQs. Beach balls and popsicles. Sunshine and smiles.And it can indeed be an idyllic season. If you live somewhere that’s very cold…
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Way back in 2008, we proclaimed that every man should carry a pocketknife. If you haven’t made one part of your EDC yet, having perhaps remained unconvinced of its utility, below we list the many ways a pocketknife can come in handy on a…
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At 91, He’s Hiking the Appalachian Trail. Again. In 2017, Dale “Grey Beard” Sanders became the oldest person to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail at age 82. His friend M.J. “Nimblewill Nomad” Eberhart took the record in 2021 at 83 (Sanders…
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in: Character, Podcast, Self-Improvement Brett & Kate McKay • July 14, 2026 Most people assume that if a goal is hard to achieve, getting there has to feel hard too. We tend to believe that extraordinary results require…
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You’ve been on the volunteer committee at church for three weeks when the texts start.It’s 9:47 PM on a Tuesday, and your phone lights up with a wall of text from Linda. She’s furious about the budget vote. Except the budget passed the…
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There are a lot of tasks that go into keeping your household running and your home ship-shape.I keep a weekly maintenance list of these recurring chores and use the Todoist app to stay on top of them. I’ve made my Todoist home…
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No hair transplants, pills or toupees. These men are embracing baldness. While plenty of guys are flying to Turkey for hair transplants, rubbing minoxidil into their scalps every night, or taking finasteride, this WSJ piece profiles men…
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in: Character, Podcast, Self-Improvement Brett & Kate McKay • July 7, 2026Many of us grow up believing that midlife is when things start going downhill. Your body’s breaking down, your best work is behind you, and you…
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A few weeks ago, I met up with some Strenuous Life guys here in Tulsa for a book club meeting at a local brewery. One of the guys had a gift for me: a 1970s Avon aftershave in a bottle shaped like the bust of Teddy Roosevelt. Screw off…
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George Washington is perhaps the most familiar figure in American history. But most people really only know the image of him they see in marble statues and patriotic paintings. Behind those symbols was a real man: ambitious, self-taught,…
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You’re at a business convention chatting with a colleague, when up walks a man, the head of some major department, a guy you know you’ve met before. “Hey there, Sam!” he says as he shakes your hand. Then he waits for you to introduce him…
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How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk. The NYT put this U.S. dialect quiz out years ago, but I only stumbled onto it recently. It asks twenty-five questions about the words you use and how you pronounce them. Do you say y’all or you guys?…
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It’s swimsuit season once again, and many men will find themselves lounging at backyard pool parties and hitting the beach.Hanging out in just a swimsuit can make some guys feel self-conscious, for obvious reasons. You don’t have on any…
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 The modern idea of retirement was built on a bet that turned out to be wrong. It assumed people would spend most of their lives working and only a relatively short period of time retired. Instead, many Americans now reach 65 healthy,…
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It’s summertime, which means a lot of you will be loading up the car and hitting the highway for vacation.I love road tripping. I prefer it over flying because flying is for the birds. When you’re on a road trip, you’re in control.…
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MET-Rx Big 100. These are one of my four favorite protein bars, and my go-to when I’m on a road trip. I told Michael Easter about them, and they became his go-to on an 850-mile hike. Vitamin-fortified and hefty in size — they come in at…
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in: Character, Podcast, Self-Improvement Brett & Kate McKay • June 16, 2026 We all want two things that can seem at odds with each other: to be our own person and to belong. We want to stand apart from the crowd, but we…
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Ask any marriage counselor what couples fight about most, and money will be at or near the top of the list. Research backs up clinical experience: disagreements over finances are one of the strongest predictors of marital conflict,…
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