The Kyle Thiermann Show

Charles Duhigg. The man. The myth. The big idea guy. The dude writes books, maybe you’ve read them. The Power of Habit spent over three years on New York Times bestseller lists. His second book, Smarter Faster Better, was also a New York Times bestseller. And his latest, which just hit the shelves, is titled Supercommunicators. Turns out ol’ Charles also lives in my hometown of Santa Cruz, California, and the dude surfs! Who would’ve thunk? This pod was under an hour, and we covered a lot: the writing process, breakthrough communication skills, and, of course, surfing.

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. You can join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. This episode is brought to you by Claude Copywriting Agency---An out of the box way to inbox.

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

Rick Hanson, Ph.D. is a psychologist, New York Times best-selling author, and buddy of mine. He’s a wonderful and (sane) blend of science and spirituality and often writes writes about the intersection between the two. His books include Making Great Relationships, Neurodharma, Resilient, Hardwiring Happiness, Just One Thing, Buddha’s Brain, and Mother Nurture—with over a million copies in English alone. This podcast was first released over Covid—whew, remember those dark days—and it's still one of my favorites, so I figured I'd bump it back to the top of your feed so your ears can luxuriate in all of the wisdom that is Rick Hanson, Ph.D. one more time. Get Rick’s newsletter.

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. You can join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. This episode is brought to you by Claude Copywriting Agency—an out of the box way to inbox.

I’ve known Shems Hartwell for a while now. A relationship coach, foil surfer, and long hugger, he’s a guy I could easily see myself rolling my eyes at if it were not for his authenticity. Even the word “authenticity” feels like it’s circling the drain of descriptors these days. It’s always the carefully curated posers who love to share their “authentic” selves with the world. And in this podcast, we get into it. The phenomenon of men who commodify their vulnerability to achieve status, sharing just enough to be cheered on for their bravery while never letting the truly risky parts of themselves show. Real authenticity means a willingness to fail. And Shems is willing to fail. He creates a safe container for other men to fail too. For lots of dudes, the pressures of careers and mortgages and relationships are enough to snap the spine, and this is where true terror lies. Women say they want a vulnerable man, but they also don’t want a loser. This tightrope walk leaves men shakily standing on a high wire, looking thousands of feet below—Jocko Willink to one side, liberal cucks to the other. Shems is the net. (Did that metaphor make sense? Meh, I’m keeping it.) He’s is leading a men’s retreat in Nicaragua in a couple of months. There will be surfing. If this seems like your jam, check it out and more of his work here. If you like this episode and want more, check out Episode #121 or Episode #148.

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 to come on the show. Get my newsletter at Substack. It’s glorious.

Marine Protected Areas. No take zones. Areas of the ocean where fishermen cannot recreate. Do they work? Or are they sledgehammers where scalpels would be better used? In this episode, I speak with environmentalist Randy Garrett about the proposed MPA in the Pleasure Point area in Santa Cruz, California. He details his concerns about MPAs as potentially ineffective and even destructive mechanisms to protect ocean resources. Randy is one of the most science-based thinkers I know, so when he asked to have this conversation I was all ears.

Learn more at: Allwaters.org

If you dig this podcast, will you be 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 to come on the show. 

Get my Friday newsletter at Substack. It’s glorious.

You know the guy. He's been coming on this podcast so often these days I should probably call it The Charlie Hart show. He's a brilliant marketing mind who also happens to be my housemate. (Rent's coming soon Charlie, I swear.) This episode was a little different. T'was a book review. We each read Ogilvy On Advertising and discussed it over this podcast.

Maybe you don't fancy yourself a "marketer." Maybe that word grosses you out. But this book is really about psychology. It's about how to deliver ideas that change behavior. And whether you're selling a product, a movement, or yourself, these are damn valuable skills.

Back to Charlie, (ahem). At age 24, he became the 10th employee at RXBAR, the protein bar company known for its clean branding and "No BS" campaigns. Hart quickly rose to lead the brand’s marketing and growth, helping guide the company to a $600m exit before his 30th birthday. After traveling the world, Hart founded Sign and Sapien - an agency specializing in advising and investing for early and mid-stage companies and joined Factor75 as Chief Marketing Officer, where he steered the company towards a ~$300m exit. Today, he works as the Chef Marketing Officer for entertainer and entrepreneur Rob Dyrdek, managing and growing his media verticals and portfolio companies. Charlie doesn't have Instagram, but you can reach him at his email: [email protected] or follow him on LinkedIn.

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. 

You can join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious.

This episode is brought to you by Claude Copywriting Agency. An out of the box way to inbox.

Manu Koenig serves as First District Supervisor for Santa Cruz County. Prior to his election to the Board, Manu worked for several technology startups including Paystand in Scotts Valley and Civinomics, where he was co-founder and CEO. The local startup created an app for citizens to propose and vote on new policy online. It also conducted polling and survey research for local governments throughout the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Area. Manu was born and raised in Santa Cruz County. He holds a Bachelor's degree from Stanford University and is an avid surfer, cyclist and climber. Manu lives in Live Oak with his wife Leah, daughter Charlotte and blue heeler Benjie.

As our Country gets enamored with the Trump vs Biden election cycle, it’s easy to forget about local politics. This is the place we can often have the greatest impact, and this podcast is about the levers we can pull to make change happen.

Read my story for Patagonia: The Wave Below the Sleeping Rabbit

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. 

You can join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious.

James Arthur (@JamesArthurFoto) began his journey with regenerative aquaculture as a teenager volunteering at the Nature Interpretive Center in Southern California where he got first hand experience with a steelhead trout breeding and hatchery program. 

For the past ten years he lived aboard and sailed around the Pacific from San Francisco to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. Throughout that time he’s been on a mission visiting ocean aquaculture farms, vetting claims, lab testing seafood and connecting the best-in-class aquaculture projects with farm-to-table restaurants in California.  In 2020 he founded SEATOPIA, a gourmet seafood subscription box now delivering certified mercury-safe seafood, carbon-neutral, direct to homes nationwide.

Through SEATOPIA, he is endeavoring to scale a truly regenerative seafood supply chain and empower health-conscious consumers to directly support innovative aquaculture projects producing some of the healthiest protein on the planet.

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. 

You can join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious.

At eight, Coco Nogales sold gum on the street in Mexico City. He was a runaway, sleeping in bushes and bus stops, and if the police caught him, they would throw him in a juvenile detention center, so he hid at night and worked on the streets to survive. Eventually, he had enough money to buy a bus ticket to Puerto Escondido, a small town with one of the most dangerous big waves on the planet.

The watershed moment of his career came when he was 17, photographed surfing a gigantic wave at Puerto Escondido. He says it changed his life forever. Determination and following every opportunity led him to where he is today. Now recognized as one of the top big wave surfers in Mexico, he has traveled the world from Hawaii and South Africa and many places in between.

During this podcast, Nogales tells the story of nearly drowning at Todos Santos, a big wave in northern Baja, and the lessons he learned through his recovery.

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. 

You can join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. Send voice memos and hate mail to [email protected] 

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

I met Ben Moon years back at Burning Man. He was carrying a five-gallon bottle of urine, and I was not entirely sober.

Since then, I’ve admired his work from respectful a distance, (his IG is worth a stalk). I was very grateful to cross paths with him again for this podcast. This time, he held a kombucha and I was reasonably sober.

Ben is an adventure, lifestyle, and portrait photographer whose vibrant images have graced the pages of Patagonia catalogues for the past 18 years.  In recent years, he has shifted his focus to filmmaking. In 2015, he founded his production company, Moonhouse as a platform for collaboration with friends and creatives to bring a wide range of thought-provoking, impactful and cinematically beautiful stories to life on-screen. As a director, Ben’s unique ability to connect with his subjects paired with the talent and experience for visual storytelling allow him to bring a high level of emotional and visual depth to his films. Surviving colorectal cancer in his 20s inspired Ben to develop a deeper connection to others and the natural world and gradually shifted his artistic focus from capturing the pursuit of adventure to telling nuanced human stories that have inspired and impacted millions worldwide.  Most notably, he told his own story about his journey with colorectal cancer and his special relationship with his dog, Denali in the viral short film, Denali. Ben currently resides on the Oregon coast where, in addition to his film and photo work, he is building a house and just published a personal memoir called "Denali: A Man, a Dog, and the Friendship of a Lifetime" on Penguin Books about his journey with cancer and his life with Denali.

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. This episode is brought to you by Claude Copywriting Agency. An out of the box way to inbox. You can join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. Send voice memos and hate mail to [email protected] 

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

As one of the leading players in the revival of paddle-in surfing in giant conditions, Kohl Christensen spends much of his time tracking swells and testing new board designs at some of the most dangerous waves on the planet. An erudite and well-read man with a keenly unique perspective, he explores the world as Hunter Thompson may have, had he surfed. Kohl has lived all over the world, including a year in Easter Island, the remote island off the coast of Chile. When it’s flat, he installs solar energy systems and tends his off-the-grid farm on the North Shore of O’ahu.

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. 

This episode is brought to you by Claude Copywriting Agency. An out of the box way to inbox.

You can join my newsletter on Substack. It’s glorious. Send voice memos and hate mail to [email protected] 

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