The Kyle Thiermann Show

I’ve been out of the loop on the state of psychedelics these days, particularly in the realm of therapeutic legality. So, it was time for a talk with the man who has his finger on the pulse… Jesse Gould is a former Army Ranger and a pioneer in psychedelic therapies for veterans. As Founder and President of the Heroic Hearts Project, he has spearheaded the research and acceptance of ayahuasca, ibogaine, ketamine, and psilocybin therapy programs for military veterans. Jesse has connected hundreds of veterans to psychedelic treatments, partnered with the world’s leading psychedelic centers, and is researching psychiatric applications with the University of Georgia, the University of Texas, Austin Dell Medical School, and Imperial College of London. His mission is to help military veterans struggling with mental trauma and spread awareness of the benefits that psychedelic therapies offer as an alternative treatment to pharmaceuticals. You can buy his new book here.

If you dig this podcast, will you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds and makes a difference when I drop to my knees and beg hard-to-get guests on the show. I read them all. You can watch this podcast on my YouTube channel and join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. My first book, ONE LAST QUESTION BEFORE YOU GO, is available to order today.

Tony John Andrews hails from Rhode Island, which despite being the smallest U.S. state in terms of landmass, has the second greatest ratio of coastline to landmass of all 50 states. He’ll take it. He is a former state champion swimmer who really wanted to surf, so he did the best he could to teach himself in the region’s piddling windslop. Now in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset, trying to wrangle Ocean Beach, he has developed a renewed appreciation for his swimming background. Tony holds his BA in Philosophy and Film Studies from Amherst College, and an MFA in English from the Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program. His work is particularly interested in subjects driven by obsessive passions, like surfing, that often teeter on the edge of self-destruction. He has been contributing to The Surfer’s Journal since 2022, and recently wrote the definitive profile on pro surfer Dane Reynolds. His work has been nominated for Best American Essay and Best American Science and Nature Writing. He is represented by Creative Artists Agency, and is working on a hybrid book of surf memoir and reportage.

If you dig this podcast, will you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds and makes a difference when I drop to my knees and beg hard-to-get guests on the show. I read them all. You can watch this podcast on my YouTube channel and join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. My first book, ONE LAST QUESTION BEFORE YOU GO, is available to order today.

In case you missed the last episode, my big news is that I relocated to Brooklyn for the next few months. My fingers are numb as I write this, but I do love it. Also, I’m capping off my book tour on February 19th at Patagonia SoHo. If you’re in town, I would love to meet you in person. You can RSVP here. Okay, what else? Right, the latest podcast. You see, I’m an informational grazer, nibbling on bits of media here and there but rarely sitting with a concept long enough to fully digest it. I’m trying to change that in 2026. One habit I’ve adopted is simply journaling about a book I’m reading for a few minutes. What did I learn? Journal one page. Done. I find this is helping the cement dry. Another is listening back to podcasts I’ve already recorded, including this one with Derek Sivers. Ahem, onto the bio: An author of philosophy and entrepreneurship, Sivers is known for his surprising quotable insights, pithy succinct writing style, and commitment to minimalism. (He currently lives in a 4x8 meter house in New Zealand and is building it out slowly, room by room, just to see what he needs.) Formerly a musician, programmer, TED speaker, and circus clown, he sold his first company for $22 million and gave all the money to charity. Sivers' books (Useful, Not True, How to Live, Hell Yeah or No, Your Music and People, Anything You Want) and newest projects are at his website: sive.rs. He loves hearing from strangers and will reply to every email, so if you enjoyed this podcast, shoot him an email and let him know.

If you dig this podcast, will you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds and makes a difference when I drop to my knees and beg hard-to-get guests on the show. I read them all. You can watch this podcast on my YouTube channel and join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. My first book, ONE LAST QUESTION BEFORE YOU GO, is available to order today.

Kyle Thiermann is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I also take payments in surf wax.

Big news. I moved to New York for the next few months. My fiancé and I are renting a spot in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and I’ve already managed to get lost on the subway twice. Also, my book tour is coming to a close at Patagonia SoHo on February 19th. If you’re in New York, come out, I’d love to hang in person. Event details here. Okay, onto our regularly scheduled programming: David Littlejohn is a magician, cold plunge enthusiast, and the founder of Humanaut, a creative agency based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Under Littlejohn’s leadership, Humanaut has executed campaigns for Liquid Death, Organic Valley, Dollar Shave Club, and many other brands that probably live rent-free in your brain. In this episode, Littlejohn and I talked about his love of sleight-of-hand magic, the real job of entrepreneurs, and the benefits of working on nationwide campaigns from a small town like Chattanooga. You can get in touch with him on Instagram and check out Humanaut here.

If you dig this podcast, will you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds and makes a difference when I drop to my knees and beg hard-to-get guests on the show. I read them all. You can watch this podcast on my YouTube channel and join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. My first book, ONE LAST QUESTION BEFORE YOU GO, is available to order today.

Kyle Thiermann is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I also take payments in surf wax.

Hey Austin, Texas people. I’ll be doing a live reading of my new book at Patagonia Austin on January 8 at 7 pm. It’s a free event and you can RSVP here. Good food, cold drinks, and your future husband/wife will probably be there. Okay, onto the show.

Soraya Simi is a writer, director, surfer, and damn sharp thinker. Her first documentary, ROW OF LIFE, follows renowned Paralympian and Marine Veteran Angela Madsen as she rows solo across the Pacific Ocean. She’s now working on a new feature-length documentary about endometriosis, a chronic disease that affects roughly one in ten women worldwide and is a common cause of infertility. In this podcast, Soraya and I caught up about life, relationships, story structure, and of course, her forthcoming documentary. Connect with Soraya on Instagram.

If you dig this podcast, will you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds and makes a difference when I drop to my knees and beg hard-to-get guests on the show. I read them all. You can watch this podcast on my YouTube channel and join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. My first book, ONE LAST QUESTION BEFORE YOU GO, is available to order today.

Kyle Thiermann is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I also take surf wax as payment.

In 2017, Wilem Banks (@Wilembanks) made headlines when he suffered a horrific fall at Mavericks and won WSL’s Wipeout of the Year (the most embarrassing award in surfing). The award seemed to put a chip on Wilem’s shoulder, and since then, he’s set out to prove that he can do more than paddle into gigantic waves—he can make them, too. This year, the humble warrior took his first trip to Jaws on Maui and bagged what some say was the biggest wave ever completed at the spot. In this episode, Wilem recounts the story in detail. Beyond the ocean, he is a hunter, carpenter, and co-owner of Banks&Banks Saunas, a custom-built sauna service he runs with his brother.

If you dig this podcast, will you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds and makes a difference when I drop to my knees and beg hard-to-get guests on the show. I read them all. You can watch this podcast on my YouTube channel and join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. My first book, ONE LAST QUESTION BEFORE YOU GO, is available to order today.

Ned Lampert is an unpretentious dude with a bag of big ideas. As the founder of Zero Ambition, a creative and strategy studio that works with Nike, Vans, Whole Foods, and a roster of other AAA brands, his job is to come up with culture-shifting campaigns that make customers laugh, cry, and do a little shimmy. Ned is also an avid fly fisherman, mountain bike rider, and backcountry skier. In this episode, we talked about how Ned got into advertising through the unlikely path of DJing parties, why that led him to New York, and where he finds inspiration today. (Spoiler: at the top of the Alpine mountains.) Oh, Ned is also behind Slick’s For All, one of the fastest-growing intimacy brands redefining the category. He does so much, the bastard.

If you dig this podcast, will you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds and makes a difference when I drop to my knees and beg hard-to-get guests on the show. I read them all. You can watch this podcast on my YouTube channel and join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. My first book, ONE LAST QUESTION BEFORE YOU GO, is available to order today.

In one of the early chapters of my book, my mom assembles her Gravity Kit, an assortment of belongings she’ll leave behind once gravity wins. The kit includes passwords to her accounts, photos from her life, music that moved her, and a number of other personal belongings usually left in disarray for the children to rummage through. As she once said, “logistics often get in the way of grief.” In this very personal episode, we talk about how to assemble your own Gravity Kit, the hidden value of saving voicemails, and how to maintain strong relationships even through disagreement. This one was a tear-jerker. If you dig this podcast, will you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds and makes a difference when I drop to my knees and beg hard-to-get guests on the show. I read them all. You can watch this podcast on my YouTube channel and join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. My first book, ONE LAST QUESTION BEFORE YOU GO, is available to order today.

Kyle Thiermann is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This podcast is with Adam Skolnick, an award-winning independent journalist and author covering adventure sports, environmental issues, travel and human rights for The New York Times, Outside, Playboy and Lonely Planet. He is the author of One Breath: Freediving, Death and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits, the ghost writer and narrator of David Goggins’ smash hit memoir and audiobook Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds, and he is a co-host on the Rich Roll Podcast. His latest book, American Tiger, is available to order now. (I’ve read it and it fucking rocks.) In this episode, we talk about the state of publishing today, the Southern California wilderness, and creativity as lantern offerings. Follow Adam’s Substack here.

If you dig this podcast, will you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds and makes a difference when I drop to my knees and beg hard-to-get guests on the show. I read them all. You can watch this podcast on my YouTube channel and join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. My first book, ONE LAST QUESTION BEFORE YOU GO, is available to order today.