Stair Pits Podcast By Robert Thompson cover art

Stair Pits

Stair Pits

By: Robert Thompson
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What happens when a kid who lost the parent lottery grows up to find success — and then decides to write the whole thing down? Stair Pits is the podcast where author R.A. Thompson and co-host Max unpack the stories behind the memoir Stair Pits: a darkly comic look at a childhood gone spectacularly wrong. Expect real talk, sharp humor, hard-won wisdom, and the kind of honest conversation you only get between two people who trust each other. New episodes regularly — grab the book at unbreakableorigins.com.

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Episodes
  • We Lost the Ability to Read and Nobody's Talking About It
    Mar 20 2026

    Why Reading Feels Hard (And Why That's Exactly the Point)

    Reading a full page and absorbing nothing is a weird kind of panic — we've both been there. We call it "the scorpion in the mouth": the strange discomfort of something that demands your full attention when your brain is trained for quick inputs and fast replies.

    In this episode, we get honest about why books feel harder than texting, scrolling, or watching a show — and why that difficulty is actually the whole point.

    We break down what gets lost when communication moves to a screen (tone, subtext, the ten different meanings of "OK fine"), make the case for novels as a mental gym, and talk about how reading expands your vocabulary beyond good/bad/sucks when you need to explain what's actually going on in your life.

    Then we go deeper: imagination, ownership, and why the character you build in your head hits different than the one a film decides for you.

    We also cover writing that works for people who hate reading, why short chapters matter, and how small inventions like spacing and punctuation made written language powerful in the first place.

    If you've ever said you don't like reading — this one is for you.
    👇 Drop your take in the comments: what's the last book that truly pulled you in?
    📖 Get the book at UnbreakableOrigins.com
    🔔 Subscribe and share with someone who lives in their texts

    [00:00:00] Biographies, Novels, And The Scorpion
    [00:06:16] Why Reading Feels Hard Now
    [00:11:19] Texting Loses Nuance And Subtext
    [00:15:04] What Reading Is Really For
    [00:22:06] Imagination, Ownership, And Characters
    [00:27:56] How We Learn Language By Assimilation
    [00:32:36] Vocabulary, Precision, And Better Thinking
    [00:46:09] A Book Built For Non Readers
    [00:50:11] Charlemagne, Punctuation, And The Close

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    55 mins
  • Growing Up in Chaos: What I Had to Leave Behind
    Mar 13 2026

    Have you ever sat at a table — literally or figuratively — and realized you didn't belong there anymore?

    In this episode, R.A. Thompson and Max trace back to a single Thanksgiving moment that cracked a teenager's world open and sent him on a decades-long journey toward something better. It's the kind of story that doesn't announce itself as a turning point until you're already past it.

    This isn't a polished redemption arc. It's messier and funnier than that — fake cigarettes, Calvin and Hobbes energy, and a rule about long shots versus close-ups that changes how you look at pain entirely.

    What we get into:
    The Thanksgiving table that became a mirror — and a exit sign
    Why Robert wears a suit, and what it actually means
    How acronyms like ZZZ, WHY, and WWW helped turn chaotic people into patterns you can understand
    The three-part definition of life that reframes everything: childhood is what you can do, adolescence is what you can get away with, adulthood is what you can overcome
    Why knowing what NOT to do is a completely valid strategy when the right path isn't clear
    How addiction works like an enzyme — quietly changing everything around it
    Using dark humor not to avoid pain, but to make it something you can actually look at

    📖 Grab the book: unbreakableorigins.com

    🎙️ Follow the show, leave a review, and tell us what topic you want next.

    [00:00:00] Cold Open Banter And Identity
    [00:07:20] Thanksgiving Shock And Leaving
    [00:19:00] Knowing What Not To Do
    [00:32:40] Sleepwalking Parents And ZZZ
    [00:45:20] Overcoming Vs. Excuses

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    52 mins
  • Welcome To The Stair Pits Zone
    Mar 4 2026

    What happens when a retired investor in a suit walks onto a college football practice field?

    In this first episode, author R.A. Thompson and co-host Max pull back the curtain on an unlikely friendship, an even unlikelier mentorship, and the book that came out of a life spent doing the next useful thing.

    Robert shares how five weeks at Utah Tech turned into years of steady presence on the sideline — not because he knew football, but because he showed up when no one else did. Together, he and Max dig into the contrarian mindset that guides everything: when everyone's selling these kids short, buy their future.

    They also open up about Stair Pits — a lean, darkly funny memoir about a childhood gone spectacularly wrong in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, written for modern attention spans. Short chapters, no filler, and a simple truth at its core: you only ever live one of two arcs. You fail and keep going — or you fail and stop.

    In this episode:
    How humor delivers hard truths without drawing blood
    Why identity has to outlast the athlete label
    The contrarian logic of betting on people everyone else gave up on
    Writing a book designed for people who don't read
    Creation over consumption — and why it matters

    📖 Grab the book: unbreakableorigins.com
    🎙️ Follow the show, leave a review, and tell us what topic you want next.

    [00:00:00] Humor's Lens: Long Shot Vs Close-Up
    [00:06:03] Showing Up Becomes A Mission
    [00:11:39] Connecting Through Humor And Truth
    [00:17:11] Why Write Stair Pits
    [00:24:00] The Two Life Stories We Choose
    [00:28:20] Closing Gratitude And Book Tease

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    30 mins
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