Brett & Kate McKay 285 posts 0 comments

 When Mark Hertling learned he was deploying for Operation Desert Storm, he decided to start a journal.Back then, Mark was an Army major and cavalry officer with two young sons. His unit would be out in front of the main force, and…
Read More...

Harakiri. My latest Zone 2-watching, trying-to-become-a-film-buff movie was this 1962 Japanese samurai film directed by Masaki Kobayashi. It’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. The cinematography is amazing; nearly every scene could…
Read More...

in: Character, Podcast, Self-Improvement Brett & Kate McKay • September 1, 2026 Professor of psychology Angela Duckworth is famous for her work on grit — the combination of passion and perseverance that leads to high…
Read More...

On a recent episode of the AoM podcast, I talked with Jordan Grumet, a hospice doctor and the author of The Purpose Code.In our interview, Jordan drew a distinction between what he calls “big P purpose” and “little p purpose.” While the…
Read More...

William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism by Robert D. Richardson. I’ve been on a real William James kick lately. I’m working on a piece about James for Dying Breed, so I’ve been reading through all of his writings. I also…
Read More...

 The ancient Greeks believed the human soul had three parts: reason, appetite, and something called thumos. Thumos is difficult to translate into English. It encompasses anger, noble spiritedness, pride, ambition, a sense of honor, and…
Read More...

As summer winds down, folks are taking their last vacations before school is back in session (if it isn’t already) and fall arrives.When it comes to the logistics of pulling off a vacation, most of the attention is spent on preparing for…
Read More...

Years ago, I found myself at Kate’s ten-year high school reunion. As I surveyed the room of her former classmates, I noticed a dichotomy in the trajectories that the males and females had taken. By and large, the women had kept…
Read More...

Note: This is a rebroadcast.Have you ever known one of those people who seemed to be able to connect with anyone? The kind of person who had the ability to make others feel understood and smoothly navigate even the trickiest of…
Read More...

Every morning in America, a lot of men stand in front of their bathroom mirror, lather up with shaving cream, and scrape their face clean with a razor. Probably a multi-blade cartridge razor. If they’re old-school, a safety razor. If…
Read More...

in: Character, Podcast, Self-Improvement Brett & Kate McKay • August 11, 2026 Remember the old hotel ice machines? The kind where you’d slide your bucket under the chute and hear the avalanche of cubes crashing into it?…
Read More...

The comedian Sinbad had a bit where he talks about how much he hates standing in line behind people at McDonald’s. The fact that folks would be hemming and hawing about what to order left Sinbad shaking his head in frustration: “People…
Read More...

In The Safety Trap by security expert Spencer Coursen, he describes a case where a wealthy client of his kept the key fobs for his luxury vehicles near the front door. A thief was able to quietly enter this man’s home, grab a fob, and…
Read More...

Left of Bang: How the Marine Corps’ Combat Hunter Program Can Save Your Life. I had Patrick Van Horne on the podcast way back in 2014 to discuss this book, which he co-authored with Jason Riley. Left of Bang lays out the Marine Corps’…
Read More...

in: Character, Podcast, Self-Improvement Brett & Kate McKay • August 4, 2026People are told their whole lives how important it is to find their purpose. But many find the search frustrating. They feel there’s one true…
Read More...

I’ve been lifting weights consistently for over 15 years now, and in that time I’ve learned that no matter how dialed-in my training is, every now and then I hit a stretch where the wheels fall off. I get busy with work and family stuff,…
Read More...

The Friends of Eddie Coyle. This week I watched this 1973 crime film during my Zone 2 cardio, and man, it’s awesome. Robert Mitchum, in one of the best performances of his career, plays Eddie Coyle, an aging, small-time Boston gunrunner…
Read More...

Things are hard out there in the money game. It seems like every month the cost of stuff goes up, making it harder to get ahead, let alone keep your head above financial water. It can make a fella feel hopeless.One way to counter a sense…
Read More...

in: Character, Manhood, Podcast Brett & Kate McKay • July 28, 2026 With the release of Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of the Odyssey, it seems like everyone’s been talking about a 3,000-year-old epic again. But my guest…
Read More...

Over on Dying Breed, we’ve been doing a book club where we’re reading Lonesome Dove.If you haven’t read Lonesome Dove, the basic plot is that two former Texas Rangers — Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae — lead a cattle drive from the Rio…
Read More...