#19 Neal Thompson: Dropping In With A Skate Dad
Seattle author Neal Thompson has profiled a range of intriguing characters during his career as an acclaimed author - astronaut Alan Shepard, cartoonist and entrepreneur Robert Ripley, and Red Byron, the first champion of NASCAR. But for his fifth book, entitled Kickflip Boys he turned his eye to his sons, two boys fixated on the sport and culture of skateboarding.
In the debut episode of Season 3 of Paternal, Thompson discusses his kids' all-encompassing passion for the sport and their embrace of a counter-culture lifestyle that led to drugs, alcohol, vandalism, and a fledgling desire to question authority.
In a candid and self-depreciating conversation, Thompson reflects on getting calls from the Seattle Police Department about his kids’ late-night antics and concerns that perhaps by encouraging their love of skateboarding, he had allowed them to go too far.
