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Tommy Tomlinson, a former newspaper columnist, is the host of Southbound podcast. His new book is The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America.\n\n\u201cThe thing that galvanized me was the death of my sister. I signed the contract November 2014, she died Christmas Eve of that year. She had been overweight just like me. She was older than me and died from complications, an infection that was directly connected to her weight. And that more than anything made me think if I don\u2019t deal with this now, I\u2019m not going to be around in 10 years to write this book. So, the book helped certainly. The idea that I was going to put this stuff on paper and expose myself in this way to the world and I didn\u2019t want to be a failure at the end of it. More than that, I didn\u2019t want to be a failure because I didn\u2019t want to be a failure. I don\u2019t want to die.\u201d\n\nThanks to MailChimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.\n\n\nThe Mastermind (Evan Ratliff \u2022 Random House \u2022 Jan 2019)\n\n\nThe Longform Podcast Live: The Mastermind book release party with special guests\n\n\n@tommytomlinson\n\n\nTomlinson on Longform\n\n\ntommytomlinson.com\n\n\n[1:55] "You Can't Quit Cold Turkey" (ESPN Magazine \u2022 Aug 2014)\n\n\n[2:10] The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America (Simon & Schuster \u2022 2019)\n\n\n[2:25] "The Weight I Carry" (The Atlantic \u2022 Jan 2019)\n\n\n[14:45] Longform podcast #317: Paige Williams\n\n\n[18:25] "The Hunley 8, The Charleston 9" (Charlotte Observer \u2022 Apr 2004)\n\n\n[22:20] "Something Went Very Wrong at Toomer's Corner" (Sports Illustrated \u2022 Aug 2011)\n\n\n[31:55] Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body (Roxane Gay \u2022 Harper \u2022 2017)\n\n\n[36:20] Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout \u2022 Random House \u2022 2008)\n\n\n[48:20] Southbound podcast\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices