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Welcome to the Daily Stoke. For each day, we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life.

Each one of these passages is based on the 2000 year old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoke.com.

Hey, it's Ryan. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoke Podcast. My guest today is one of my favorite writers ever.

I think one of the great sports writers of all time, I did a post on Instagram a couple of weeks ago where I just posted some of my favorite books about sports.

I had a copy of Wright Thompson's, the cost of these dreams on there.

She sent me an Instagram message, which is a total surprise and unexpected.

I said, dude, you have to come on the podcast, please. And as it happens, he has a new book out called Papyland, which is an incredible book about this whiskey manufacturer who's really an obsessed craftsman who is the best in the world of what he does.

And of course, in classic Wright Thompson style, it's not really about that at all. It's really about the human condition and the human experience, which we get into a whole bunch in the podcast.

But his book, the cost of these dreams, it's just incredible. There's a great profile of Bear Bryant's bodyguard in there, which he wouldn't think would be interesting, but it's fascinating.

He wrote the classic piece on Tiger Woods, which shaped the chapter in Stillness is the key. He wrote two incredible profiles of Michael Jordan, which also influenced my chapters in Stillness is the key.

He has a chapter profile on the book about Ted Williams and his relationship with his daughter, which I wrote a bunch of emails about for the daily dad.

And he wrote the classic profile in Urban Meyer, which is also featured into a bunch of stuff we do over at Daily Dad as well.

One of the best to ever do it at his thing when I had Paul Kicks on the podcast a few months back, you definitely listen to that episode. I was talking to him about Wright, and he's just like one of the best there is rights of the same thing about Paul Kicks.

So it's a small world out there that people who are true craftsmen are unfortunately quite rare. Any chance I get to talk to one I'm going to take and we get into stoic philosophy, we get into dealing with one's demons, we talk about trying to detach from the results of things.

And one of my favorite topics, how a great spouse keeps you sane and protects you from being at the mercy of said demons. So here's my interview with Bright Thompson. Check out his books, The Cost of These Dreams, and of course the new one, Papyland.

Well, it's amazing to chat. I loved the new book. I love the cost of the cost of these dreams so much. So I thought we'd start there.

Yeah.

That, I don't know, to me, that's just the perfect title for a book. It's the perfect expression. I went and I listened to the song where it's a drive by trucker song.

Yes, it's a drive by trucker song called Angels and fuselage. What does that phrase mean to you? Like, well, why I think I know why it resonated, but but hit me with why that that stuck with you.

You know, that song has always lived inside of me in a really melancholy way in the way that like really great music can, you know, I mean, I think the whole Bruce Springsteen album darkness on the edge of town makes me feel a lot of those same things. But like, if you are really driven to do things and you don't really know why.

I mean, you know, I think a lot of us who write for a living or a weird mixture of arrogance and insecurity that probably both come from some hole inside that we're trying to sort of understand the structure of before you can even start to fill it. And so that phrase to me, it always is like this reminder in the back of your back of my head, certainly to try to understand why you're doing this.

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