The two-dollar parenting moment
The ordinary request that exposed a much larger failure and became the book’s opening.
Press · Podcasts · Event hosts
Ryan Castleberry media kit
Verified biography, book facts, interview directions and host notes for a useful conversation.
One-line introduction
Author, veteran, father and working leader.
Ryan Castleberry is a U.S. Air Force TACP veteran, father, oilfield leader and author of Mountains, Monsters & Mercy, a memoir about survival, accountability and the small actions that make repair possible.
Short biography
Ryan Castleberry is a father, U.S. Air Force TACP veteran, oilfield leader and traumatic brain injury survivor. After fire, flood, financial collapse, relationship loss and a motorcycle wreck, he began rebuilding through small, repeatable practices rather than one dramatic breakthrough.
His memoir, Mountains, Monsters & Mercy, follows the failures, people and hard truths that shaped that climb. Ryan writes for fathers, veterans, working people and anyone learning that mercy and accountability can occupy the same room. His practical framework is built on four anchors: Movement, Reflection, Connection and Mercy.
Interview topics
Where the strongest conversations begin.
The only real apology is change
Why words lose their weight when behavior does not follow—and what a living amends can look like.
Retiring the warrior
How survival habits can help under pressure and harm in relationships where no one is attacking.
Working-class mental health
The private cost of high-pressure culture, discussed as lived experience rather than clinical advice.
Fatherhood and estrangement
Building a record of responsibility without demanding access, forgiveness or a clean ending.
The Four Anchors
Movement, Reflection, Connection and Mercy as practices—not promises.
Verified format facts
Mountains, Monsters & Mercy
Subtitle: A Father’s Journey Through Loss and the Daughter Who Showed Him the Way
Structure: 18 chapters, four parts, plus the 30-Day Climb and resources
Paperback ISBN: 9798994636800
Hardback ISBN: 9798994636817
Ebook ISBN: 9798993754802
Host notes
- Ryan can discuss his lived experience but does not provide medical, legal or therapeutic advice.
- Ask before pressing into family details beyond the published book.
- The most useful conversations allow complexity; avoid forcing a trauma-to-triumph ending.
- Use only dated, verified public claims about the book and Ryan’s work.
Suggested questions
Questions that open the right door.
- 01
Why did the French fries moment become the opening chapter?
- 02
What did you once believe being a good father required?
- 03
What is a living amends, and what is it not?
- 04
What did “retire the warrior” mean in your life?
- 05
How did traumatic brain injury change the way you understood your reactions?
- 06
How do mercy and accountability coexist?
- 07
What are the Four Anchors, and how can someone use one today?