Brett & Kate McKay 234 posts 0 comments

 Note: This is a rebroadcast.A lot of young men today struggle in finding their footing in adulthood. They feel lost, directionless, and unsure of who they are and how to confidently and competently navigate the world.Part of the reason…
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Now that warmer weather has arrived, mosquitos are beginning to show up as well. I’ve done battle against these detestable bloodsuckers for some years now.Thanks to treating mosquito breeding grounds (i.e., standing water) around my…
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Dad Books Are a Dying Breed. The WSJ had a piece this week on how serious nonfiction sales are tanking. We’re talking WWII histories, shipwreck narratives, and the doorstop presidential biographies. They’re the kind of nonfiction books…
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Memorial Day is coming up. For most folks that means a day off, grilling in the backyard, and getting 30% off at their favorite online retailer.Nothing wrong with that. I’m looking forward to eating a burger this weekend myself.But…
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With the Old Breed is widely considered one of the greatest war memoirs ever written. Penned by Eugene Sledge, a Marine who fought with the 1st Division — the old breed — in the Pacific campaigns of Peleliu and Okinawa, the book is…
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When you join the military, you’re going to learn some new life skills. How to make a bed. How to shine your shoes. And, how to effectively pack a bag.We recently asked former and current members of the military who follow AoM for their…
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Hondo by Louis L’Amour. We’re fans of Louis L’Amour round these parts. Guy was prolific. Hondo is my favorite Western novel of his. The story had an unusual path: L’Amour first wrote a short story that became the 1953 John Wayne film (a…
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 Back in 2019, David Epstein joined me to talk about his book Range and why generalists often thrive in a specialized world. Now he’s back with a new book that explores a seemingly opposite idea: the power of constraints. In Inside the…
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Several weeks ago, I was seized by an inexplicable urge to buy a globe for my home office. Don’t know where it came from. I had been sitting at my desk, ruminating on an article, when I looked around, noticed my lack of a globe, and…
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Discipline is essential to every success in life. It establishes the stable, well-ordered ground that allows an individual to set and achieve goals. It prevents the ensnaring, vice-filled traps that torpedo advancement. It creates the…
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It’s graduation season, which means you may be looking for a good gift for a young man heading into a new stage of life.Books are usually a safe bet for a graduation gift, especially the kind a young man will actually find useful. Over…
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The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster. Kate recently wrote a great piece on Dying Breed, pulling out seven insights modern folks can get from this short story/novella published in 1909. I’d known about “The Machine Stops” for a long time,…
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I haven’t touched a barbell much since January. I’ve been in a leaning out/hypertrophy/mobility-focused season of my training (highly recommend having seasons to your training!). I’ve been working exclusively with dumbbells and my cable…
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in: Health, Health & Fitness Brett & Kate McKay • May 5, 2026 You hear a lot today about how our ample screentime is affecting our mental health. But how is it affecting our bodies, and how is that impact on our…
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How many streaming services are you paying for right now? If you had to write the number down from memory, could you get within five dollars of the actual monthly total? When was the last time you logged into that fitness app that’s been…
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If you’ve been following AoM long enough, you know I like philosophy. I’ve written about philosophy on the site and talked to lots of philosophers on the podcast. Philosophy isn’t some esoteric practice for me. It’s practical. I turn to…
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While we often think of life as linear, my guest’s own life, along with a decade of research, has taught him that it’s anything but. In his latest book, What to Make of a Life, Jim Collins unpacks the cyclical pattern life actually…
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Growing up in the 80s and 90s, if my dad wasn’t watching In the Heat of the Night on our wood-paneled television, he was sitting in his recliner with a book in his hand. But not just any book. Popular, mass-market paperbacks. Thick ones,…
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Few things have captured the passion, the sometimes obsession, of men like the motorcycle. There’s no mystery as to why this is. Motorcycles represent a peculiar combination of several manly elements: danger, speed, singular focus,…
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1984 by George Orwell. My 15-year-old son, Gus, has been digging into dystopian literature lately. He recently finished this classic novel and thoroughly enjoyed it. According to Gus, 1984 is “packed with high tension” and “really…
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