OOYL Book Club: March Selection

'Hurts So Good' by Leigh Cowart

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The March selection for the Out of Your League Book Club won’t be a surprise to those of you who have been opening these posts, but here is the offically offical announcement.

I have enjoyed our first two book clubs immensely, and I appreciate everyone who is showing up and being so engaged with the discussion and the content. Thank you so much for helping build the OOYL community into something thriving and lovely. I couldn't do any of this without you all being here with me. OK, enough earnestness from me. Let’s get into it.

I’m so stoked to (formally) announce our selection for March: Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose by Leigh Cowart.

Leigh’s thorough examination of masochism is, in my opinion, a must-read. I’m working on a piece that will run ahead of our meeting that builds heavily on thinking that was informed by HURTS SO GOOD because this book has shaped so much of my thinking about sports and sports culture.

Masochism gets a bad rap and is considered taboo in many circles, but as Leigh lays out in their book, sensation-seeking is a near-universal human experience and there are many different ways people pursue those feelings. In addition to walking readers through the science behind intentional pain, they examine how that pursuit shows up in different subcultures—like BDSM, yes, but also ballet dancers and ultramarathoners.

From the book’s description:

Masochism is sexy, human, reviled, worshipped, and can be delightfully bizarre. Deliberate and consensual pain has been with us for millennia, encompassing everyone from Black Plague flagellants to ballerinas dancing on broken bones to competitive eaters choking down hot peppers while they cry. Masochism is a part of us. It lives inside workaholics, tattoo enthusiasts, and all manner of garden variety pain-seekers.

At its core, masochism is about feeling bad, then better--a phenomenon that is long overdue for a heartfelt and hilarious investigation… [In this book], Cowart unveils how our minds and bodies find meaning and relief in pain--a quirk in our programming that drives discipline and innovation even as it threatens to swallow us whole.

Our Zoom event will be on Sunday, March 30th at 2 PM ET/11 AM PT. Leigh will be joining us for that conversation, which is only open to paid subscribers. The conversation will be recorded and sent out to everyone who registered for the event, so you can watch it even if you can’t join us live.

courtesy of Leigh Cowart

A few days before our Zoom meeting, I’ll send out another email with the link to the event, and the comments section of that post will be open to discussion of the book for people who want to chat about it beforehand. I’ll also be compiling a companion syllabus of additional reading for folks who are interested and want to continue exploring topics covered by our book selections.

We did a more casual Zoom setup last month for RINGMASTER, using a traditional Zoom room instead of a panel event, and I think that worked better for folks. If you are someone who attended and have strong feelings about whether you preferred the more formal webinar over the open Zoom room, please let me know in the comments. Thanks for helping me figure out the best way to organize these events and community spaces.

Access to the Zoom event requires registration. You can register for our ‘HURTS SO GOOD’ BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION at the link below: