Seattle is a boom town. From manufacturing to tech, some of the world's biggest companies have brought jobs and wealth to the region.

But that comes with real growing pains. I'm Joshua McNichols. And I'm Monica Nicholsberg. We host Booming, a podcast that helps you make sense of the economic forces shaping our lives here in the Pacific Northwest.

From the big budget projects on Seattle's to-do list to the artificial intelligence age,

we get into the stories that hit your wallet and our region. Listen now on the KUOWW app or wherever

you get podcasts.

Hey, good morning. I'm Patricia Murphy. Happy New Year. It's January 1st, the time of year when many of us re-evaluate our priorities.

Reading more is a common New Year's resolution, and KUOW's podcast Meet Me Here explored this on a recent episode.

Specifically, they looked into the phenomenon of men reading less, less than women and less than they did before.

The data behind the claim is complicated, but the narrative that men aren't reading is widespread.

But some books are able to break through, like The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown.

It's about the UW rowing team that won a gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

It's a book that sold millions, drawing men to tears and back into literature.

Host Katie Campbell talks with author Daniel James Brown about what resonated with so many male readers

and why many books don't and book wrecks to get anyone reading.

In The Boys in the Boat, a nonfiction story, we meet this group of men who are rowing their way to the 1936 Olympics.

They build genuine relationships with each other, their families, and with themselves.

But Dan didn't commit to this narrative initially. He actually worried that these men everyone

resonated with once the book was out would be too wholesome, too corny, not manly enough.

So we're going to start there. Hey, Dan, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me.

So this isn't our first time chatting, but I want to go back to this thing that you told me.

Why did wholesome men worry you? Why was that maybe going to be seen as corny?

Well, I mean, because for the simple reason that men are always more complex than we tend to think of

...