What being a mailman taught Stephen Grant about work, belonging and going the extra mile

Stephen Grant was laid off from his job at a boutique marketing agency in March 2020, right when COVID took the world hostage.

Newly diagnosed with cancer, he needed health insurance, fast — plus, he was the primary financial supporter of his wife and daughters. Which is how he found himself becoming a mail carrier, back in his hometown in rural Appalachia.

It was a tough transition. Grant was bad at his job — “deeply incompetent,” he writes in his new memoir, “Mailman.” He is shaken by his lack of real-life skills, by his inability to feel at home in the mountains where he grew up, by his uncertainty in what it means to be in community during a time of isolation.

But “Mailman” rarely lingers on the malcontent. Instead, what Grant learned about himself, his fellow Appalachians and our country as a whole propel his new book. He joins host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to share stories about working as a rural mail carrier, about blue collar versus white collar work, and about the overlooked importance of public service in a fractured nation.

Guest:

• Stephen Starring Grant is a writer and brand strategist. His new memoir is “Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home.”

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