Brett & Kate McKay 265 posts 0 comments

Search and rescue (SAR) teams in U.S. national parks respond to lost hikers, injured climbers, stranded boaters, missing children, and backcountry medical emergencies. Their work ranges from relatively simple trail searches to high-angle…
Read More...

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. The founders of Huckberry gifted me this book over a decade ago, and it sat on my shelf unread until a few weeks back when I finally cracked it open. It’s the first novel I’ve read about Vietnam, and man, it…
Read More...

If you’ve moved beyond machines in your strength training journey and are getting under a heavy barbell to do squats, cleans, or presses, you may have wondered if you should get yourself a pair of weightlifting shoes.If you’ve started to…
Read More...

 If you’re looking for a way to improve your fitness, boost your mental health, and reconnect with a deeply human activity — all without going to the gym or pounding your knees on a daily run — then rucking may be the practice you’ve…
Read More...

Many who are reading this are old enough to remember a time when they wrote long letters to loved ones.Many more can remember that when email was first introduced, people often composed multi-paragraph missives to their friends,…
Read More...

Aerobic Exercise Proves Just as Effective as Antidepressants in Large Review. We’ve talked about the mental health benefits of exercise on AoM for years, and I’m fond of saying that if you struggle with depression and aren’t regularly…
Read More...

 The awkward silence at work when everyone knows a project is going off the rails.The simmering resentment in a marriage over an issue neither spouse will confront.The dysfunction in a church where certain topics are understood to be…
Read More...

If you’re like a lot of men, you’ve probably set some big goals for yourself this year. Lose twenty pounds. Start a side hustle. Finally read Aristotle.When you set those goals for yourself, you likely felt good. Really good. Setting…
Read More...

Saunas are awesome, and we’ve previously covered the many mental and physical benefits of spending time in one. If you’ve been thinking about getting more restorative, satisfying heat exposure in your life, today we cover all the…
Read More...

Flint and Tinder Reverse Sateen Fatigue Shirt. Years ago, I picked up a vintage military-inspired field jacket from Flint and Tinder that’s become one of my go-to pieces. They discontinued it, but this reverse sateen fatigue shirt…
Read More...

You’re on vacation and staying at a rental house with your future in-laws.They head out to do some shopping in town and you figure it’s a great time to take care of your daily constitutional.Once the deed is done, you flush the toilet.…
Read More...

 Of all the books in the Bible, Ecclesiastes is arguably the most philosophical. Dark, experiential, existential, and unsparingly honest about the human condition, it wrestles with work, money, ambition, pleasure, time, and death — and…
Read More...

Our recent article about backup power got me thinking about backup light sources. For most people, their backup light source when the power goes out is a flashlight.But flashlights come in handy even when the grid doesn’t go down. I…
Read More...

The Apartment. My most recent Zone 2 cardio movie was this 1960 Billy Wilder film. And man, it was sadder than I expected. Jack Lemmon plays C.C. Baxter, an ambitious insurance clerk who lends his apartment to his bosses so they can…
Read More...

 Not long ago, the primary concern people had about boys was that they were wild, impulsive, and out of control — getting into fights, pushing limits, and stirring up trouble. Today, the problem has flipped. The more common challenge…
Read More...

When I played football in high school, our head coach had one refrain that he’d hammer into us over and over again: act with class.It meant no trash talk. No showboating. Help the other guy up, even if he just tried to take your head…
Read More...

Whether you’re moving across town or across the country, there are a lot of factors to consider in deciding where to live. To figure out which factors to prioritize, it can be helpful to use what we call the “90/10 Rule.” Under the 90/10…
Read More...

The Hustler. The Hustler was my most recent Zone 2 cardio watch. Paul Newman plays “Fast Eddie” Felson, a pool shark gunning for the legendary Minnesota Fats (played by Jackie Gleason). The black-and-white cinematography is beautiful,…
Read More...

Polar exploration stories have a way of both terrifying and inspiring the soul. The combination of physical discomfort and psychological strain strips life, and leadership, down to its utter essentials: resilience, skill, competence, and…
Read More...

in: People, Podcast, Social Skills Brett & Kate McKay • January 27, 2026 We’ve all had that feeling — you meet someone new, and the conversation just flows. You’re in sync. You click. But what’s really happening when…
Read More...