Q&A with Caleb Campbell

  

 

 

 

Caleb Campbell is the author of the new book Unstriving: 12 Lessons on Authentic Success from a Recovering Overachiever. He is a former Army officer and NFL athlete, and he lives in Nashville, Tennessee. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Unstriving?

A: I think Unstriving came from a couple of places.

For the better part of the last decade, I’ve been in a season of deep personal transformation, and at some point I could feel that season beginning to shift. There was a sense of completion to it, like something I had been living and learning for years was finally ready to be shared.

There was also something creative happening that I didn’t want to ignore. The book felt like it was asking to be written, and I had reached a point where I was ready to trust that impulse and give language to what had changed my own life.

And secondly, as a keynote speaker, I travel the country speaking to a lot of high-achieving people, and I keep hearing a similar longing. People are tired of believing they have to endlessly push and strive in order to make their lives happen. A lot of people have built successful lives and are waking up with the kind of tired that more sleep doesn’t solve.

I wrote Unstriving because I believe we’re hungry for a new way forward, and I wanted to put words to what that way might look like.

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

A: The title came to me through a pretty random series of events.

I ended up having coffee with someone who didn’t really know me or my story, and I started telling him about the last decade of my life and the book I had been trying to write. At some point, I told him how frustrated I was because I still didn’t have a title.

He looked at me and said, “I know exactly what the title is.”

When he said the word Unstriving, I got goosebumps all over my body. I knew immediately that was it. In the most unstriving way possible, the title found me.

Over time, that word has come to represent something much bigger for me. So many of us learn how to survive our lives through striving. We learn to push harder and make things happen because, for a long time, it works. It helps us build careers and create lives we’re proud of.

Eventually, though, we can outgrow the identity that got us there and we see it manifest through soul exhaustion.

Unstriving is the process of untethering ourselves from who we had to become in order to survive our lives and allowing our identity to evolve. It’s through this inner evolution that a new way of being begins to emerge allowing us to become who need to become in order to fully live our lives in a way where ambition and wholeness can coexist.

 

Q: The author Jonathan Martin said of the book, “While Caleb Campbell writes with remarkable vulnerability about his own healing journey, this book is ultimately less about his story than it is an invitation into your own.” What do you think of that description?

A: I love that description because that was always my hope for the book. I knew I needed to tell the truth about my own life, and I wanted my story to become a doorway that helped people see their own lives more clearly.

My story is obviously woven throughout the book, but the deeper invitation is for you to begin asking your own questions. Who did you have to become in order to survive your life? What ways of living helped you get here but may no longer fit who you’re becoming? What might your life feel like if you stopped trying so hard to make it happen and learned to participate more fully in the life that is already here?

So when Jonathan described the book that way, I felt like he understood exactly what I hoped Unstriving would become. My story may be the vehicle, but the reader’s life is where the book is meant to lead.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

A: My biggest hope is that people finish Unstriving with a deeper sense of permission to live their own lives.

So much of our striving comes from the stories we’ve inherited about who we need to be, what success should look like, and what we need to accomplish in order to finally feel like we’re enough. Over time, those stories can become so familiar that we stop questioning if they’re actually ours.

I hope this book helps people become curious about the life underneath all of that. I hope it gives them permission to loosen their grip on who they think they’re supposed to be and begin listening to what their own life is asking of them now.

There’s no greater gift than waking up knowing you’re living the life you’re meant to live.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

A: Between keynote speaking and raising a 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son with my beautiful wife, life is pretty full right now.

But something did  happen during the book launch party of Unstriving that I’m still sitting with.

I partnered with an artist to create an immersive experience around the themes of the book. We paired his artwork with a guided audio experience by me that invited people to move through different stages of unstriving and experience the ideas in the book in a way that went beyond simply reading about them.

I was really inspired and moved as I watched people have a deeply personal experience with the work, and it made me curious about what else might be possible.

I don’t fully know what that means yet, and I’m trying not to rush to figure it out. But, there's something about creating experiences where people can actually feel and experience Unstriving for themselves that is catching my heart’s attention. I have a sense that this could become a new expression of the work, so for now, I’m giving it some space to show me what it wants to become.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: I believe that Unstriving is the journey that allows us to transform at an identity level. It essentially becomes the vehicle that takes us from where we are to where we want to be by helping us to become someone new.

And if Unstriving is the vehicle, then self-compassion is the fuel.

One of the hardest and most profound lessons I’ve learned in my own life is that you cannot hate yourself into a life that you love. Being gentle with ourselves is a non-negotiable on this journey.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Jim Minarik

  

 

 

Jim Minarik is the author of the new memoir Reckoning: A Journey Through Tragedy, Triumph & Transformation. It focuses on the impact on his life of his brother's murder conviction. Also a businessman and former CEO, he lives in California.

 

Q: Why did you decide to write Reckoning?

A: I began writing it for my children, grandchildren, and future generations, so they would know the whole story of my life—not just the business side.

 

As I wrote, I realized how much I had spent trying to outrun the impact of my brother’s crime through achievement. The story grew into an exploration of experiences many people face: tragedy, depression, success, and the search for meaning.

Q: How would you describe your relationship with your brother John?

A: John was my older brother, and I loved him. His crime caused devastating harm, and I have never minimized that. We stayed connected during the 55 years he spent in prison, and I saw how much of his life he devoted to helping others.

 

I hold both truths: he was accountable for what he did, and he was more than the worst thing he ever did.

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: “Reckoning” describes the process of facing what happened, understanding its effect on your life, and asking what matters now. The subtitle—A Journey Through Tragedy, Triumph, and Transcendence—describes the arc of my story.

 

Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?

 

A: Writing the book was painful, but it helped me see how the events of my life were connected and how long I had been running from difficult questions. I didn’t write it because I had all the answers.

 

I hope readers find their own experiences in it and come away with better questions about identity, purpose, forgiveness, and what matters to them.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m focused on sharing Reckoning and speaking with readers about its themes. I remain involved in business and board work, while trying to live with more attention to being, not just doing.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: At its heart, this is a book about what happens to a family after tragedy and how people change over time. I hope it will be useful to readers facing their own challenges. They can learn more at ReadReckoning.com.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Katie Rizzo

  

 

 

Katie Rizzo is the author of the new memoir The Trimesters of Grief or Are You Gonna Listen to What Is Going on in Here?. It focuses on the death of her son from opiod addiction. She also has written the poetry collection None of Them Are You. She is also an educator, and she lives in Arizona.

 

Q: First of all, I'm so sorry for your loss...

 

Why did you decide to write The Trimesters of Grief?

 

A: I looked everywhere for a book on how to hold on after losing a kid to addiction, and couldn’t find one.  So I decided to write it.  As a scientist, I observed, kept a journal, and looked for patterns. Life felt so unlivable, so I fell back on trying to understand how things had gone so utterly wrong.

 

What I found in my curiosity is that birth and death aren’t distant relatives. They’re different sides to the same coin, or one is a door and the other a window. If my body still holds some of Nicholas’s cells, as science has shown, then is it such a stretch to think of my body as capable of experiencing his death as well as his birth?

 

I need this book to chronicle our experience and then to radiate out some heavy truth. Eighty thousand people died of overdose in 2024, the year our son died.  We’ve met parents so overburdened with shame they haven’t told others about their child’s death.

 

It’s time to address the shame and bring it into the open. Drug addiction doesn’t have an easy cure. Look at relapse rates; for opioids, it’s as high as 90 percent return to their drug of choice after a costly rehab. Instead of treating addiction as a moral failing, it’s time to treat it as a disease.

 

Our son was prescribed Xanax and opioids, and once he grew tolerant to their effects, he was always trying to get back to a normal baseline. He didn’t want to be addicted; he didn’t want to die. He just wanted to feel “normal” again.

 

Q: The writer Colin Campbell said of the book, “I cried several times reading this memoir, but I also laughed out loud.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: The whole thing about grief is that it feels ridiculous. Our son can not possibly be gone.

 

And our words that surround grief can be cruel: you can laugh, or be angry and shake your fist. Either way, he’s still gone.

 

And Nicholas’s life wasn’t just longing and despair. He was a rambunctious kid, and laughter followed him.

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The Trimesters of Grief: or Are You Gonna Listen to What Is Going on in Here? The title picked itself. My body held grief in similar ways to pregnancy. The subtitle is an Easter egg, and every time I see the title, the words rumble a little in my chest.

 

Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?

 

A: Writing The Trimesters of Grief was an experience in letting my best self look at the data to find a way to survive. I’ve had to reexamine everything. I used to believe that “things happen for a reason” and “time heals all wounds,” but now those truisms are lies. The grief expert David Kessler says that I will grieve as long as Nicholas is gone, and that feels about right.

 

I hope readers deep in grief find grace for themselves. So much of my grief was overshadowed by guilt and shame. I would love to take those emotions from readers.

 

In addition, people who have addiction feel such deep self-loathing. Who benefits from that? I hope we as a culture start looking at addiction as a physical dependence on a substance that doesn’t allow them to return to baseline of security, peace, or comfort. It’s literally like being in an Edvard Munch painting. Who benefits from treating addiction like a moral failing?

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’ve written two YA books that are out on submission. One is about a young woman who sets out to find who dumped mining tailings into the Roaring Fork River. It's fiction but based on growing up in the valley. I’m hoping to write more about life and death and the Elk Mountains.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: My compendium book of poems - None of Them Are You - is available as well. 

 

For those in Colorado, I’m doing a book launch on Oct 9 at Explore Books.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Ken Terry

  

 

 

Ken Terry is the author of the new book Beyond Medicare for All: Cracking the Code of the Healthcare Affordability Crisis. His other books include Physician-Led Healthcare Reform. He is also a journalist. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Beyond Medicare for All?

 

A: About 20 years ago, when I was an editor at Medical Economics, the business magazine for doctors, I began thinking about how the healthcare industry could be restructured to provide universal access to comprehensive, affordable healthcare.

 

At that time, I believed that Medicare for All was possible, and I based my reform model on a regionally administered version of that approach. But after I had written two books on the subject, published in 2007 and 2020, I realized that Medicare for All was not politically feasible. So I came up with a free-market alternative that allows health insurers to stay in the game. The result was Beyond Medicare for All.

 

Q: How would you reform the insurance market to improve U.S. healthcare?

 

A: I would divide health insurance into two parts. First, I’d have competing primary care groups of a certain size charge subscription fees for all basic care—the care that most people need most of the time, including the lower levels of specialty services. Those fees would roll up into a budget for each group. So the primary care groups would be taking financial responsibility for basic care—the definition of insurance.

 

To do well economically, they’d have to improve population health and reduce waste. If people were healthier and had their chronic diseases under control, fewer of them would be hospitalized or referred to specialists. As a result, costs would come down.

 

Second, traditional insurance companies would cover everyone—including those currently on Medicare, Medicaid and private health plans—for the cost of hospital care, nursing home and rehab care after hospitalization, and the more expensive forms of outpatient care, such as ambulatory surgery and cancer care.

 

Employees who are now covered by company-sponsored insurance would choose one of these “major medical” plans from a menu on an online insurance exchange, similar to those of Obamacare. Benefits would be standardized and comprehensive, although some plans might offer extra benefits for a higher price.

 

Individuals, employers, and the government would split the cost of major medical insurance and subscriptions for basic care.

Q: What changes would you like to see when it comes to hospital budgeting?

 

A: I like the system that Maryland has introduced over the past several decades. To start with, the state established an all-payer rate-setting process, in which each hospital had to charge the same prices to Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers. That eliminated the market power of hospital systems, which continues to drive up the cost of care.

 

Second, Maryland required hospitals to negotiate global budgets with the state, based on their individual cost structures. They can raise their prices if they come in under budget but must lower them if they exceed their budget. This has also helped to lower the cost of hospital care in Maryland.

 

I’d like to see every state adopt this approach, which would give hospitals the same incentive to restrain costs that the basic care groups would have. In addition, if hospitals took financial risk for the cost of care, insurers would have no reason to deny coverage of medical services.

 

Q: What role do you see AI playing in healthcare reform?

 

A: AI should be used to support physicians, not replace them. By helping doctors document care, comb notes for pertinent facts, triage online communications with patients, and facilitate other routine functions, AI could make it easier for physicians to diagnose and treat patients.

 

In addition, AI could be used to orchestrate the many tasks involved in population health management.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Right now, I’m trying to get the word out about my book. As part of that effort, I’m writing op-eds and doing podcasts. It takes a lot of time just to keep up with everything that’s happening in healthcare.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Every American deserves high-quality healthcare. We’re a long way from that now: nearly a third of our people lack a regular source of primary care, and about half of those who answered a recent poll said they couldn’t afford healthcare, although 90 percent of our population is insured.

 

Clearly, our system is broken, and we need a better way forward. I think that the model described in my book can help get us there.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Seema Yasmin

  

Photo by Lucas Passmore

 

Seema Yasmin is the author of the new middle grade book Mo Farah, the Boy Who Ran to Be Free. It's the second in her Muslim Mavericks series. She is also a physician, a journalist, an educator, and a poet.

 

Q: Why did you choose Olympic runner Mo Farah as the subject of your new Muslim Mavericks book? 

 

A: Mo Farah is known as an iconic Olympic athlete who broke world records and is beloved around the world for his achievements and warm heart.

 

What many people might not know is that he had a difficult childhood which included being separated from his family, given a new name, and kept out of school for years. I wanted to share a story of hope and survival, and one that ends with triumph and truth. 

 

Q: How did you research his life, and what did you learn that especially surprised you? 

 

A: What was incredibly surprising is how many different versions of Mo's life are circulating in the ether, including in his autobiography, which sadly includes some half-truths because Mo was scared to tell the truth. Only recently did he make a BBC documentary sharing what really happened to him as a child.

 

This made it tricky to fact check the book and I included a note to my readers explaining this special situation.

 

Q: What do you think Noha Habaieb’s illustrations add to this new book? 

 

A: Noha's illustrations help create the Muslim Mavericks' world by guiding readers through visual representations of story elements. There are maps, landscapes, faces and more. It was important for me to bring young readers into this universe with visual cues as well as the written world. 

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from Mo Farah's story? 

 

A: Readers will learn what life can look like for the millions of children who are trafficked, and how friendships, support and hope can culminate in freedom.

 

I hope they'll take away that Mo's story is both exceptional and, sadly, not rare enough. And I hope they revel in the success he generated and the beautiful life he's living now. 

 

Q: What are you working on now? 

 

A: The third book in the Muslim Mavericks series! It's about a curious child who grows up to be a kind and influential adult. But I can't say more than that!

 

I'm also working on my second young adult novel, which will also be published by Simon and Schuster. As with my first YA novel, Unbecoming, this second novel is also set in the near distant future and is about a teenaged girl navigating her future in a topsy turvy world. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

 

A: I am adapting Unbecoming into a feature-length screenplay, a creative journey that has landed me in acting school. Fun!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Seema Yasmin. 

Q&A with Sharique Zea

  

 

 

Sharique Zea is the author of the new middle grade novel Lionborn and the Secret of Dark Rider. It's a sequel to his novel Lionborn. He is also an accountant, and he lives in London.

 

Q: This is your second book featuring your character Fionn--do you think he's changed from one book to the next?

 

A: In the second book, Fionn faces a very different kind of challenge. While external threats still exist, much of his struggle comes from within.

 

The possibility of losing his adoptive family forces him to confront just how deeply he loves them and how much they have become a part of who he is. Being viewed with suspicion by the people closest to you is a painful burden, especially when all you want is to belong.

 

In the first book, Fionn’s growth was more outward and visible. He was discovering his true identity, learning about his extraordinary abilities, and beginning to understand his place in a much larger world.

 

In the second book, however, his journey is more emotional and introspective. Rather than finding strength through power, he learns to find it through vulnerability. His growth is quieter, but in many ways deeper, as he learns that true strength often emerges in moments of weakness.

 

Q: What inspired the plot of Lionborn and the Secret of Dark Rider?

 

A: The plot of Lionborn and the Secret of Dark Rider began with the themes I wanted to explore rather than with the story itself. I knew I wanted to challenge Fionn in ways that went beyond physical battles and magical powers. It would have been easy to make him increasingly powerful, but real growth rarely comes from easy victories. I wanted him to earn every step forward.

 

To do that, I placed him on a journey filled with love, trust, doubt, and betrayal. The story is designed to show that there are no shortcuts to becoming the person you are meant to be. While Fionn’s training in the Winged world demands physical strength and discipline, the challenges he faces at home require something far more difficult: emotional resilience.

 

Ultimately, the inspiration behind the plot was the idea that true strength is not measured by power alone. It is measured by perseverance, compassion, and the courage to keep going when both your heart and your convictions are tested.

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: That’s a great question. When choosing the title Lionborn and the Secret of Dark Rider, I wanted it to reflect both the hero and the central force opposing him. Lionborn represents Fionn, while Dark Rider hints at the mysterious antagonist whose actions drive much of the conflict in the story.

 

I intentionally paired the two names to create a sense of confrontation between the protagonist and the antagonist, but I also wanted the title to suggest that there is more beneath the surface. The word Secret is particularly important to me because it points to the fact that Dark Rider is not simply acting out of evil or malice. He has motivations, history, and secrets that shape his choices and fuel his pursuit of Fionn.

 

In the story, Marrok is not literally referred to as “the Dark Rider,” which is one reason I chose not to include the in the title. Instead, Dark Rider serves as a symbolic title that evokes mystery and menace while leaving readers wondering who this figure truly is and what drives him.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from this new novel?

 

A: I hope readers come away with the understanding that their worth is not determined by how others see or treat them. People may misunderstand you, judge you, or question who you are, but none of those things change your true value. What matters most is having the confidence to know yourself and the courage to remain true to that person.

 

I also hope readers see that challenges, however difficult they may seem, can become opportunities for growth. Throughout the story, Fionn faces setbacks, doubts, and hardships that test him both physically and emotionally. Yet it is through those struggles that he becomes stronger, wiser, and more resilient.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Lionborn was always envisioned as a trilogy, so I’m currently working on the final book. At the moment, I’m refining the story outline, shaping the key character arcs, and ensuring the trilogy concludes in a way that feels both satisfying and meaningful.

 

It’s an exciting stage of the process because it gives me the opportunity to bring together the themes, relationships, and unanswered questions that have been developing across the series. My goal is to give Fionn a finale that challenges him in new ways while delivering a rewarding conclusion to the adventure that began in the first book.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: There are actually a few little real-world inspirations hidden throughout the series. Several characters, including Fionn, Ella, and Scarlett, were named after the children of friends, which made it especially fun to bring those characters to life on the page.

 

As for the baby dragon in this sequel, that addition came from a very important source: Fionn himself! After putting him through so many challenges, it felt only fair to grant his request and give him a dragon of his own.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Sharique Zea. This Q&A was conducted in partnership with Sharique Zea. Readers who follow along on this virtual book tour will have the chance to win one of 10 signed paperback copies of Lionborn and the Secret of Dark Rider by Sharique Zea. One lucky grand prize winner will also receive a $50 Amazon gift card.

Oct. 9

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Oct. 9, 1934: Jill Ker Conway born.