Brian Larson

I am so excited to announce the first guest on Shelf Care Society: The Podcast. 🎙️ 📚 She is a Nobel Laureate, an activist, an author, and a truly extraordinary human being. She is Malala Yousafzai. The episode drops Wednesday, January 28 at 12pm EST. Watch the full conversation on Spotify and YouTube, or listen anywhere you get your podcasts. We talk about @malala ’s new memoir, “Finding My Way”. In it, we discuss mental health, her time at Oxford, falling in love, and the quieter rituals that keep us steady, like books and writing in the margins (with quick side quests into Heated Rivalry and Labubus, naturally). You’ll also hear the story of how we met and became friends. Special shout-out to @ginnimedia in Midtown Manhattan for hosting us in their gorgeous studio. Follow and subscribe to Shelf Care Society: The Podcast now so you don’t miss it. Link in bio. #shelfcaresociety #malala #bookpodcast #selfcare #findingmyway

You’re officially invited: I’m bringing @brian.reads off the page and into conversation. 📚 🎙️ The podcast is called Shelf Care Society by @Brian.Reads . If you’ve been following me for a while, you know @brian.reads has always been my home base. It started with books, then became something bigger: the place where I’ve shared the stories that moved me, the ideas that shifted me, and the moments that stayed with me long after I closed the cover. For a long time, I’ve wanted to take you one step closer to the conversations behind it all. I kept wishing I could bring you into the room, not just tell you what was said afterward. That’s what this podcast is. Shelf Care Society is where I’ll sit down with authors, activists, artists, and people whose work makes me think differently about ambition, creativity, identity, belonging, and what it means to build a life that feels like yours. And I’m still processing that my first guest is someone very special to me. A friend, yes, but also someone whose work I’ve admired for years. The kind of person who has shaped how so many of us understand courage and conviction. I can’t wait for you to hear our conversation. More details soon: the launch date, where to listen and watch, and who’s joining me first. For now, I just want to say thank you. For reading with me, thinking with me, and letting this space become more than a feed. I’m excited for this new chapter, and I can’t wait to bring you along. More soon. 📚 #podcast #shelfcaresociety #offthepage #podcastsofinstagram #shelfcare

It’s official: I’M WRITING A BOOK! ✨ Earlier this week, I signed with @broadleafbooks to publish “THE AFTERPARTY,” a radical reframing of sobriety not as loss but as liberation. Pitched as “Quit Like a Woman” for its cultural critique and “I’m Glad My Mom Died” for its candor, this is the book I desperately wanted to find on a shelf ten years ago, when I was struggling to get sober—one that could invite me into sobriety without judgment, tell me the truth about those shaky early days, and show me how much my life could transform across the journey. But this isn’t just my story. “THE AFTERPARTY” is for the sober, the sober curious, anyone who has questioned their relationship with alcohol, or loved someone whose life was touched by addiction. And it’s especially for my LGBTQ+ community—you’re beautiful, and I want each of you to see your rainbow in high definition every single day. Writing these words feels surreal. I’m humbled, grateful, and so ready. Thank you to everyone who has walked with me on this journey. To Ashley Hong, my brilliant agent, for believing in me and shepherding this project. To rachelle_literary_agent and Gardner Literary for being my biggest champions. To Shari MacDonald at @broadleafbooks —thank you for immediately seeing my vision and welcoming this project home in its very first week on submission. To @maggierogers for gifting me the soundtrack to my earliest sober days—I’m honored to include your lyrics in this story. And to my family: you are the reason I’m alive to write this book. I love you. “THE AFTERPARTY” arrives June 2027. 🥂 (with seltzer, of course). More on Substack—link in bio. #theafterparty #bookdeal #broadleafbooks #debutauthor #sobercurious #sobercommunity #soberliving #soberbooks #bookstagram #booktok #authorsofinstagram #nonfictionbooks #sobrietyjourney #soberlife

It’s surreal to even say this: I have been sober for seven years today. I don’t track my sobriety in an app or wake up and tick another box on a sobriety clock. But I do return to one photo in particular, thanks to the power of Google Photos, and when I look at that Brian from seven years ago, I mostly feel compassion for him. I wish I could give him some grace before he starts down the long, difficult, deeply rewarding road ahead. Sobriety has become one of my great superpowers. It has given me the chance to meet extraordinary people, build deeper relationships, and, most importantly, return to my own body. For so long, I tried to numb the feelings wrapped up in perfectionism and anxiety. I didn’t know there were other tools that could help me break through. Getting sober made those tools possible for me. I am a huge proponent of SSRIs. They saved my life, and I don’t say that lightly. I am also a huge proponent of cognitive behavioral therapy, psychiatry, friendship, sunlight, long walks, and touching grass whenever the world starts to feel too loud. The world opens up when you get sober. For me, it took more than six attempts to get and stay sober, plus a dream from my grandfather, which I write more about in my book, “The Afterparty: An Open Invitation to Sobriety,”out May 2027. For anyone struggling, I hope you give yourself grace. Addiction does not discriminate. And if you love someone who is struggling, I hope you practice empathy wherever you can. Sobriety only comes when someone truly wants it, but no one gets there alone. Each day can still bring its own struggle. But each day can also bring its own blissful little rainbow of life in technicolor, with absolutely no hangover. #sobriety #soberlife #sobrietyjourney #recovery

What a great weekend with @internationalthrillerwriters at ThrillerFest 2026! There’s nothing quite like the thriller community. I couldn’t stop smiling this entire weekend. Such an incredible pleasure to be a panelist amongst these all-stars, too. Until next year! 🔪🫶🏻

And just like that… season one of Shelf Care Society by @Brian.Reads : The Podcast is a wrap 🤍 The idea for this podcast had been simmering since last fall, but it took a gentle nudge from @malala and her team to finally begin. Start the podcast. Have the conversations you want to hear. Highlight the authors you love. So I did. I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that so many brilliant, generous writers said yes to coming on the show. Each conversation felt like settling into a living room with a close friend and a cuppa tea, talking about life, identity, creativity, and of course, books. To everyone who listened, shared, messaged, or encouraged me along the way, thank you. Truly. The response has meant more than I can put into words. Season 2 is already taking shape, but for now I’m reveling in this gratitude. All episodes of season one are out now wherever you listen to podcasts. 🎧 Have you read any of these books, or are they on your TBR? #shelfcaresociety #bookstagram #readingcommunity #currentlyreading

Happy Pub Day, @kerrydocherty ! It’s finally HERE! ❣️ It feels like just yesterday you were telling me about this wild memoir you were finishing copyedits on called “Selfish.” I still remember you introducing the book last year to a restaurant full of publishing folks, “Well, my book begins with me and my husband sitting in couples therapy... debating what my salary should be.” There was a collective gasp. What’s even more incredible is seeing the early reader response to “Selfish.”This is a memoir that will resonate with so many mothers, female entrepreneurs, and yes, men too. I love “Selfish”because it dares to go where memoirs so often hold back. Kerry gives us the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the utterly heartbreaking. To me, “Selfish”sits somewhere at the intersection of @mirandajuly ’s “All Fours,” Phil Knight’s “Shoe Dog,”and @belleburden ’s “Strangers.” It’s a stunning work. I loved getting to sit down at Penguin Random House’s studio here in NYC to talk all things “Selfish,”and we did not hold back. We got into all of it: Beau, naked yoga, a psychic named Constantina, a ghost named Dalia, and a woman who keeps fighting for what she believes in, whether through her social impact work at Faherty or in the way she shows up as a mother, wife and human being. I love you, Kerry, and I cannot wait for the world to read “Selfish.”And thank you to the HRC team at PRH for all the love and care you poured into this book. Shelf Care Society by @Brian.Reads : The Podcast with special guest Kerry Docherty is out now wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find it at the link in bio. Oh! And “Selfish” is my April selection through my book club with @allstora ! Is “Selfish” on your TBR? Have you heard of Faherty? What’s the most Selfish thing you’ve ever done in terms of staking claim to your life? @penguinrandomhouse @harmonyrodaleconvergent

I absolutely loved this conversation with the incomparable and wildly talented, @tayari . Tayari’s new book “Kin” is my favorite book of the year—and chances are, if you’re reading this, I’ve already gifted a copy to you. “Kin” is brilliantly queer, packed with “she did that!” moments, and bound to find a home amongst the greatest books of contemporary literature. Tayari, thank you for this conversation, for inspiring me and countless others, and for being the world’s best pen-pal! Your letters always reach me when I need them most. Listen to this episode of Shelf Care Society with Tayari Jones wherever you listen to podcasts (link in bio, too!). Q: Have you read "Kin" yet!? #tayarijones #selfcare #shelfcare #podcast #books

Celebrating the release of “Famesick: A Memoir” with the one and only @lenadunham . ❣️ “Reclamation” feels right word to encapsulate “Famesick.” This book reads like Lena taking back her story, on her own terms, after nearly a decade of working her way toward it. The vulnerability here is striking, especially knowing she’s eight years sober. It deepens everything she puts on the page. I loved “Not That Kind of Girl,” and this feels like a return with more distance, and more perspective—and a ton of hard work. This is a memoir people are going to see themselves in, in ways that might surprise them. Teenage Brian is somewhere in the background of all this, dancing in his room to Call Your Girlfriend, toggling between episodes of Girls, and quietly wondering if he’s ready to come out. News flash: he does. And life? Still messy, still beautiful. And yes, still dancing alone in the bedroom when life is lifing. #famesick #lenadunham #books #bookrecs

Got to chat all things books and my podcast, Shelf Care Society, this afternoon with @_hannah.donnelly & @kwanialunis on NBC10 Boston! I love coming home to Boston and stopping by the station! Hannah and Kwani do such a fabulous job with @thehubtoday that I think it’s time we bring them to NYC! TV magic! 🫶🏻 Special thanks to @nbc10boston , @crownpublishing , @harmonyrodaleconvergent , @aaknopf , @simonbooks , @atriabooks , @flatiron_books , @doubledaybooks , and the tagged authors for helping me launch the first season of Shelf Care Society! Can’t wait for ya’ll to see this episode of The Hub— and hear us discuss the ONE question I ask EVERY guest on Shelf Care Society! Hint: it starts with a “YES!” 📚 #books #livetv #nbc #boston #bookclub

Today, I attended the Women Breaking Barriers event at the United Nations General Assembly as the guest of my friend, astronaut and activist @amandangocnguyen . Amanda is the founder of @risenow.us , a civil rights organization she started after her own experience as a survivor of sexual assault. What began as a personal fight became national and global change. She authored and helped pass the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights in the United States, which guarantees survivors the right to preserve rape kit evidence without being forced to immediately decide whether to pursue a case, and the right to be informed about the status of that evidence. Through Rise, that legislation has since been replicated in multiple states and countries around the world. Her work has fundamentally changed how survivors are treated within the legal system. It gives survivors time and information, and restores a measure of control in moments where that control was taken from them. I read Amanda’s memoir, “Saving Five,”last year, and it stayed with me in a way few books do. Her story gave me the courage to include my own experience in my memoir. It was a late addition, and one I almost left out. The event focused on women breaking barriers across sectors and around the world. Amanda’s work with Rise stood out as a powerful example of what that looks like in practice, reshaping how survivors are treated and protected. Sitting in that room, I was reminded how many people carry lived experiences they have not yet named, and how much work like Amanda’s makes it possible for those truths to be recognized and protected. As a queer man and a survivor of sexual violence, I felt the weight of that, and a responsibility to show up with honesty and in solidarity—on and off the page. Being there was a reminder that healing doesn’t happen in isolation. It takes community, advocacy, and people willing to speak, even when it’s difficult. Amanda, I’m so proud of you. And so grateful for the work you’ve done to make space for so many of us to be seen, protected, and heard. @spotlightinitiative @unitednations #unitednations #rise #survivorsrights #womenbreakingbarriers #speakyourtruth

I will, in fact, get dressed up for just about anything book-related. A premiere tied to one of the most iconic crime series ever written? Say less. 📚✨ Getting to celebrate Scarpetta felt especially fun because this is the kind of adaptation readers love to see: one that honors the world Patricia Cornwell built while adding a little extra style, drama, and screen-worthy flair. The first season brings Kay Scarpetta to life with all the forensic intrigue, sharp tension, and moody sophistication that made the books classics in the first place. Books really do keep opening doors. Sometimes that looks like a quiet night reading on the couch, and sometimes it looks like getting dressed up and heading out to celebrate the stories that stay with us. And honestly? I love both. Scarpetta premieres March 11 on Prime Video. #scarpetta #bookishlife #booktofilm #nyc