You’ve probably heard of Mike Rowe. He had this little show called Dirty Jobs awhile back? He narrates a lot of shows for Discovery Channel, and has a show on Facebook called Returning the Favor. One of the things that he currently does, is put out a podcast called The Way I Heard It. It’s a fun little 10 minutes of can you guess what famous person Mike’s talking about before he tells you at the end of the episode.

Last year, he put out a book that included some of his favorite episodes, interspersed with bits about why he chose each episode for the book, or how each story relates to something he’s experienced himself.

Mike’s an entertainingly opinionated person, who doesn’t fit in the neat categories of ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ being passed around as the truth these days. He’s a refreshing voice of honesty and integrity who’s trying to live life as close as he can to his own values. He’s engaging and entertaining and funny.

The podcast is consistently fun, and the book follows assuredly in its footsteps.

*spoiler alert* (If you aren’t already listening to the podcast, or haven’t read this yet.)

There’s a fun part where he talks about how the Soviets built a statue to Laika, treating her as a hero. One of his friends responds that Laika is no hero, and that the statue is there to assuage the Soviet guilt conscience. It’s that kind of insightfulness that makes the book (and the podcast) so enjoyable.

Bottom line, a solid 4, 4 and a half, out of 5. Definitely worth reading, and possibly re-reading.

Have you read it? Tell me what you think of it.