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Jan 17, 2025 | 
andrewknapp.substack.com | Andrew Knapp
Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. This short story is ultimately a promo for my latest YouTube video which I’m desperately trying to get people to watch because I worked so hard on it and it seems the harder I work on things the less interest there is what the heck is going on. I dare you to leave some feedback!The dogs bolted out of the van after a long drive. They needed to run. Usually, I catch their attention with a ball before they jump out.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
andrewknapp.substack.com | Andrew Knapp
Feel free to call me out, but to me, this is a story about grit, determination, and the elusive nature of cause and effect. Now, bear with me–I’ve got to set this story up with an exhausting insufferable rhetoric. But trust me, it gets better. Last year, I was growing tired of my own bullshit. I was dissatisfied with every aspect of my life. It wasn’t that anything was truly awful; it was my own self-perception that was the problem. Ok, my relationships hadn’t been great.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
andrewknapp.substack.com | Andrew Knapp
It feels like a kind of magic. I didn’t plan this. My style of travel is far too chaotic to have arranged to be in my hometown on the 10-year anniversary of my mom’s death. To the day. “How does that feel?” my friend asked. “Honestly, it kind of feels like nothing, like someone else’s birthday.” If anything, it’s an invitation to think about her. Maybe an invitation to reevaluate our relationship. Ten years since she and I stopped sharing the relationship–and it became mine alone to carry.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
andrewknapp.substack.com | Andrew Knapp
I’m not sure if the bookshelves are ready for the amount of Yaya & Boo I’m about to deliver. Heck, I’m not even ready. But I signed a contract and I’m doing it and I couldn’t be more thrilled to tell you that it’s my biggest deal yet: four (4!) books! In the same style and format as Let’s Find Yaya & Boo, these board books will be as colourful as I can humanly make them, and hopefully loads of fun on every page.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
andrewknapp.substack.com | Andrew Knapp
Momo fooled me. See, I thought that dogs were like shadows, quiet and effortless, never needing much more than a little light. And that was my Momo. I seldom worried about him. He waited outside shop doors, unbothered by the passing world, until I returned. He loved travelling. He loved stillness and watching the world. He understood my words before I spoke them. Sure, I put some effort into training him. But it was like directing water downstream.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
andrewknapp.substack.com | Andrew Knapp
“Big Nickelback fan?”I was escaping the crowd at an event, finding refuge in a hallway. A girl was approaching from behind. She was commenting on my “5” tattoo on the back of my right arm. I always forget I have this tattoo. Once I figured out what she was referring to, I explained that it represented my hometown, historically a nickel mining town. Sudbury boasts a 30 foot “Big Nickel”. It’s a big five cent coin. Hence the “5”. Get it? The event was for one of my favourite social ventures, Wirth Hats.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
andrewknapp.substack.com | Andrew Knapp
I was working on my van in my driveway which rests between a mountain and the ocean. The neighbourhood sounds travelled up and down hill, kids playing down at the beach and an older couple in conversation in the opposite direction. I can’t hear their words, just the cadence and the music of their voices. The older couple are sharing slow constant monologues, droning on in long monotone breaths. The kids are explosive and throwing words back and forth in a performance of duality.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
andrewknapp.substack.com | Andrew Knapp
A guy approached and asked if he could pet Momo. He was awkward, socially, which made him relatable. He leaned over, his stiff cupped hand tapping the top of Momo’s head as if he was tapping keys on a keyboard. Momo was confused. I was confused and strangely delighted by this stranger’s clearly novel interaction—their inability to interact with this animal made me wonder how they went about the rest of their life. Were they prone to accidents? What does their sock drawer look like?
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
andrewknapp.substack.com | Andrew Knapp
When I turned 38, I tried to imagine what the absolute best gift to myself could be. It had to be something healthy. Something that would catalyze change in a big way. And since this was mid-lockdown, I was drinking a lot. I thought “wouldn’t it be amazing to gift myself one year of sobriety?” So I did. I decided that my gift on my following birthday would be exactly that, retroactively gifted. One year later I held that promise to myself.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
andrewknapp.substack.com | Andrew Knapp
I made what turned out to be a controversial statement on my social media. To me, it wasn’t a radical concept—and it isn’t novel, either. The gist of it was this: as men, we need to step up in our social and familial circles and strive to be—simply put—good men. Not just decent or acceptable, but role models actively pursuing a virtuous life—one that might be grounded in integrity, empathy, and self-discipline. What made the statement contentious wasn’t the idea itself but the timing and context.
