Tommy Tomlinson reads an excerpt from "The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America," backed by an original Storybound remix with sound design and arrangement by Jude Brewer.

Tommy Tomlinson has written for publications including Esquire, ESPN the Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, Garden & Gun, and many others. He spent 23 years as a reporter and local columnist for the Charlotte Observer, where he was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in commentary, and he is currently working on a new book about the Westminster Dog Show.

He is also the host of the podcast “SouthBound” at WFAE, Charlotte’s NPR news station, and he also does weekly commentaries for the station. He has taught at colleges, workshops and conferences across the country. He’s a graduate of the University of Georgia and was a 2008-09 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices