Brett & Kate McKay 265 posts 0 comments

At AoM, we’re champions of the lost art of letter writing. Emails, texting, and the wide variety of other digital mediums available to us in the modern age are convenient and efficient, but they can’t hold a candle to the warm, tangible,…
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Your dad bod could raise your kids’ risk for obesity and disease. You’ve probably heard of the “dad bod.” It’s the body shape of a guy who’s not super fat, but not in particularly good shape, either. It’s gotten a friendly rebrand over…
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Note: The following is an excerpt from The Technique of Getting Things Done (1947) by Donald Laird. The right reading — often accidental — wakes up slumberers and gives needed goals to those who still have none. The right book or article…
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in: Character, Podcast, Self-Improvement Brett & Kate McKay • June 9, 2026 Life rarely unfolds according to plan. A relationship implodes. A move or job change doesn’t work out. Or you simply fail in a goal you’ve set…
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I’ve always been interested in how famous men worked out. We’ve broken down Steve McQueen’s routine and Bruce Lee’s training here on AoM before, and every time I go down one of these rabbit holes, I come away inspired about how these…
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Summertime is here, and we couldn’t be happier. As author Benjamin Alire Sáenz put it, summertime is a “book of hope,” filled with the promise of freedom, adventure, and dreamy idleness. It’s a time for sloughing off the heaviness of…
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Quaker Oatmeal Squares: Brown Sugar. As I mentioned in last week’s article on what I eat in a day, my mid-morning meal is usually a big bowl of Fage yogurt and blueberries with some Kashi or oatmeal mixed in. The store was out of Kashi…
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Burgers are my favorite food. What’s not to like about them? They’re tasty, filling, and — if you load them up with toppings like tomato, lettuce, and onion — offer a fairly nutritious mix of protein, carbs, and veggies.​What I also like…
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 Walking is one of the most powerful health tools we have. It improves cardiovascular fitness, boosts mood, sharpens cognition, and can even be a predictor of how well you’ll age. But all those benefits depend on something we rarely…
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You want to get more things done in life. So you become an early riser, buy a planner, and download a to-do list app. You maintain inbox zero by answering email the minute it lands in your inbox. You stay busy from the second your feet…
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The Complete Keys to Progress by John McCallum. I enjoy reading fitness advice from old fitness magazines. You’d think it’d be outdated, but it’s usually the opposite. Most of the advice is the timeless stuff that actually works: lift…
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 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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