Episode 97 Notes and Links to Kyle Beachy’s Work
On Episode 97 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Kyle Beachy, and the two talk about impactful childhood and adolescent experiences, both recreationally and involving reading, his formational days at the university school paper, his meeting with David Foster Wallace and his relationship to the latter’s work, his first novel, Slide, the myriad intricacies of skateboarding culture and its evolution, and existential questions that govern the critically-acclaimed The Most Fun Thing.
Kyle Beachy‘s first novel, The Slide (Dial Press, 2009), won The Chicago Reader’s Best Book by a Chicago Author reader’s choice award for the year. His short fiction has appeared in journals including Fanzine, Pank, Hobart, Juked, The Collagist, 5 Chapters, and others. His writing on skateboarding has appeared in The Point, The American Reader, The Chicagoan, Free Skateboard Magazine (UK & Europe), The Skateboard Mag (US), Jenkem, Deadspin, and The Classical. He teaches at Roosevelt University in Chicago and is a co-host on the skateboarding podcast Vent City with pro skater Ryan Lay and others. His newest book was released in 2021 to rave reviews-the book is The Most Fun Thing: Dispatches from a Skating Life.
Buy Kyle Beachy's Books
Chicago Reader Review of Kyle’s The Most Fun Thing
“A Interview with Kyle Beachy”-regarding Slide -from 2009-Hobart Pulp
The Most Fun Thing Featured with NPR’s “12 books NPR staffers loved in 2021 that might surprise you”-by Mia Estrada
At about 2:20, Pete and Kyle jump right into the important topics: Was the remix better than the original for “Flava in Ya Ear”
At about 4:00, Kyle responds to Pete’s questions about his early relationship with reading and language
At about 7:00, Pete asks Kyle about the balance between the philosophical and the realistic as he got into adolescence, and Kyle responds with how these ideas impacted him and his reading/skating
At about 10:00, Kyle discusses his attitude toward realism and how it plays out (or doesn’t) in his writing process
At about 12:30, Pete wonders about any “ ‘Eureka’ moments” in Kyle becoming a writer, and he references his incredible Pomona College student newspaper editor, David Roth, as well as Kyle’s embrace of 90s hip hop styles
At about 16:00, Pete wonders about chill-inducing writers for Kyle, who shouts his “ravenous” reading after college, including John Barth, Murakami, Denis Johnson, David Foster Wallace, and Don DeLillo; later reading brought out Joan Didion, Marilyn Robinson, Annie Dillard
At about 19:00, Kyle details his career as a professor/teacher, and Pete and Kyle wax nostalgic about being “young, cool teachers”
At about 21:00, Kyle talks about how he does (or does not) use skateboarding and his personal experience in the classroom
At about 24:45, Pete wonders how Kyle would identify himself-as a “novelist?”
At about 26:50, Kyle summarizes and discusses seeds for his first book, Slide, including how Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections informed the work
At about 30:00, Pete and Kyle begin talking about Kyle’s recent critically-acclaimed The Most Fun, and Kyle shouts out texts that informed his, like Iain Borden’s Skateboarding and the City
At about 33:45, Kyle explains his understanding of why skateboarding hasn’t necessarily been “put under the microscope” too often before
At about 35:30, Kyle discusses exciting and fast-moving changes in the last decade in skateboarding scholarship
At about 36:20, Pete compliments the book as “unclassifiable” and masterful in so many ways, and Kyle responds by talking about the particular challenges of writing about skateboarding
At about 40:15, Pete shouts out Kyle’s thoughtful comments as shared on the excellent writer’s podcast, “I’m a Writer But…”
At about 41:55, Kyle muses about what skateboarding is and what it isn’t, as described through the book
At about 45:00, Pete shouts out one o
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