I had a blast reading "The Chosen Twelve" when it came out... Unique, fun, cool premise. And funny, as Breakwell fans know! Congrats on Book 2, James! Pumped to read The Gods of Spenser Island!

The Last Ride: One Dad's Essay on 640+ Bike Rides to School & Why It Meant Everything Yeah, I lost it. I kinda thought I might, but as I biked with my son on his last day of elementary school and our last day ever of me biking with him... The dad emotions hit me hard, which we'll get to... By my count we've covered about 2,400 miles together these last four years of biking to school... That's an entire trip across country... The first three years I biked with both my son and my daughter, but she's moved up to middle and bikes with her friends... It's the natural progression of parenthood and childhood and I'd be 100% lying if I said every day was great... Most were fine... Some were pleasant... Some with tantrums and arguments and kids refusing to slow down or speed up were frustrating as hell... My daughter went about 3 weeks straight back in 3rd grade with the sole mission of going way too fast for my son (then in 2nd) to keep up on his little bike... Which would leave me playing dad in the middle, yelling ahead to her to slow down and behind to him to relax... Good times... But most mornings were ordinary and by that I mean exceptional... The stuff that day-to-day life is made of with little kids that flies by... We talked about space and insects and state capitols... We discussed best school lunches and dinosaurs and ice cream flavors... We debated Moana vs. Ariel and Macho Man vs. John Cena... We covered everything... 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade... It is the greatest privilege of dad life to be able to spend this uninterrupted time with my kids, just us, biking to school in the sun and fresh air for 25 minutes.... No screens. No distractions. Nobody else... Then my daughter moved up and this year it was just me and my boy. 10 at the start of the year, 11 now... And he's a little dude through and through... football, hoops, WWE, music, action movies... We've discussed history and science and the Olympics and the best decades... I've imparted my wisdom on everything from Michael Crichton books to Terminator 2 to LL Cool J to Bo Jackson highlights... The kid could slide into the early 90s and not miss a bit haha... And damn will I miss our daily morning hang time. About sports. About life. About school and friends... And sure, it's just a bike ride. We have a million things we do together and I'm going to replace the ride with nightly dog walks with me so we still have our time... But this is the end of a dad era... And yes, when he walked over to the bike rack today, and he did his last, goofy, LA Knight "YEAH!" pointing goodbye (that I do back, it's our thing)... I lost it... waterworks... a blubbering mess... like i said, i kinda knew i would... but i was cool with it. earned it in a way. these 2,400 miles have been glorious and i'll remember them collectively for the rest of my life. The lesson: Spend daily time with your kids outside, away from screens and friends and distractions. Just you. Find a thing... a bike ride... a walk... a catch... whatever... But do it and do it most days... It's time spent that you will never regret. If you're a dad reading this column, please share it and follow me @Jon_Finkel for more writing like this.

There's nothing like book launch day. Energy, excitement aaaanddd INTERVIEWS. Tons of'em! Got 3 down & a bunch to go... Grateful for every one. Took a minute to give you a quick tour of Macho Man HQ:

🗣️WATCH: THE MACHO MAN BOOK TRAILER PREMIERE The ONE trailer that's the tower of power too sweet to be sour! The ONE trailer better than a cuppa coffee in the big time!! The ONE trailer that's the Cream of the Crop!!! Sound UP! Watch. Order. Share. Link in next post.

"A gym rat's Reese Witherspoon." "The book whisperer to burly bros." My fellow sophisticated meatheads, I have BIG NEWS: The New Yorker just profiled our Books & Biceps crew... Yes, when the millions of loyal New Yorker readers wake up today, they will discover that most glorious garage gym known as the Flex Factory... They will understand bench o'clock Monday morning and pull-ups with chains and Shadow Divers. Shout out to @mcgrathben for capturing what we're about, my brother, and my buddy and super longtime B&B reader @KynonCodrington for braving a brutal workout for journalism and dads everywhere. This is the collaboration you didn't know you needed today. Link in the next post:

Halloween on a Tuesday? Stupid. The holiday is broken. 97% of parents agree with me you just haven't thought about it yet... Here is a 3-step, why-the-hell-don't-we-do-this-plan to fix Halloween right now: First, let's set the stage for our current disastrous set-up: It’s 50 minutes past the kids’ bedtime and it’s too dark to see how many shots of tiny boxes of Nerds they’ve knocked back in the last half hour. Their little hearts are pumping a mixture of Smarties, M&Ms and Kit Kats and you're still a quarter-mile from home. The kids go from walking very slowly with their heads in their Halloween bags to all-out, run-from-that-burning-building sprints to the next doorbell. Like a flock of rabid stray dogs they swarm from house to house in search of a never-ending supply of free sugar from smiling grown-ups. It is now 9:15pm... They have school the next day. We have work. Who in their right mind sanctioned this grade school cocktail of dextrose-fueled lunacy? That’s right… We did... And it's time we got our heads out of our asses... Also, parents/schools have wayyyy too many events: We have a “book parade” at school on October 28th... Then there is a Halloween Fair or Town “Scary” Square event or whatever on the 29th? Then, finally, there’s Halloween on the 31st? They want kids to dress up three times and get candy three times over five days??? Umm, no. This is dumb. I have a crazy idea… How about we have Halloween for kids on one day. I have the perfect day to have it on. It’s called… Halloween! Wouldn’t that be brilliant? "But we can't!" Yeah, we can... STEP 1: WE CAN STOP HAVING HALLOWEEN ON OCTOBER 31st Again, we can. Halloween is a mishmash of Celtic, pagan, All Saints Day and others... Pope Gregory III named Nov 1st All Saints day in 800 AD. Making All Hallows Eve (AKA Halloween) the night before That was 1,200 years ago... Pope Greg never had to rip a Reese's Cup out of his kids mouth at 10pm... PG never had to clean up Twizzler and Starburst colored puke off a pillowcase... So why the hell does he have any say in when parents in 2023 choose to have Halloween? Which leads me to... STEP 2: HALLOWEEN SHOULD BE THE LAST FRIDAY IN OCTOBER Who loses if Halloween is the last Friday every October? Nobody. Adults. Teens. Little kids. Everyone wins. Adults can leave work a few hours early on a Friday like many do anyway; schools can have their costume parade at the end of the day... Kids can wear their costumes home. They can roll right to a town event or party.... Then roll right into trick or treating at night... And we all cruise into the weekend. Admit it. It's genius. Even if you don't have kids or you're single in your 20s, this set-up is 1,000x better: STEP 3: Halloween parties can actually be on Halloween and they'll always be on a Friday night. Done. No school the next day. No work the next day. Kids/adults wear costumes for one day/night. After every Halloween it's the weekend. The only thing stopping us... is us. Share this if you agree and follow me @Jon_Finkel for more columns like this. (And join my Books & Biceps newsletter for updates on my Macho Man biography, weekly book recs and workout motivation)