215: Patrick Ryan KNOWS Fiction, Wordplay, the Human Condition, Literary Success, Jenna Bush Hager and BUCKEYE

Listening to the ON THE KNOWS podcast with master interviewer Randall Kenneth Jones as he sits down with acclaimed author Patrick Ryan is a must for fans of literary fiction, family sagas, and deep-dive storytelling.

 

This 2026 interview explores the creative process behind Ryan's expansive 2025 novel, Buckeye, a "Read With Jenna" book club pick that spent multiple weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

 

Patrick Ryan's book "Buckeye" was named the #1 Best Book of the Year for 2025 by Amazon editors. This top honor recognizes his novel as the leading title on their annual list of top books.

 

Why You Should Listen to This Episode

 

• Behind the Scenes of a Bestseller: Discover how Patrick Ryan spent eight years crafting Buckeye, drawing inspiration from his own family's history and a shocking decades-old secret involving his grandmother in a small Ohio town.

 

• The Art of "The Know": Host Randall Kenneth Jones is celebrated for his ability to ask "questions no one else can ask," moving beyond standard press junket talk to uncover the "little truths" that define his guests, his characters, and their shared belief systems.

 

• Deep Themes of Forgiveness and Grief: The conversation delves into the heart of Ryan's work, exploring how individuals are defined by their mistakes and how the often unspoken words between loved ones shape generations.

 

• A Journey Through American History: Learn how Ryan uses a small-town Ohio setting to reflect sixty years of American history, from the 1920s to the 1980s, through the intertwined lives of two families.

 

Patrick Ryan is the author of the story collections "The Dream Life of Astronauts" (named one of the Best Books of the Year by the St. Louis Times-Dispatch, Literary Hub, Refinery29, and Electric Literature, and longlisted for The Story Prize) and "Send Me." His work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, the anthology Tales of Two Cities, and elsewhere. The former associate editor of Granta, he is the current editor-in-chief of the literary magazine One Story. He lives in New York City.

 

Described by recurring guest Erin Brockovich as "The best podcast and host ever," "ON THE KNOWS with Randall Kenneth Jones" is a premier podcast and media platform dedicated to exploring the intersection of professional success, personal fulfillment, and human potential. Through a series of high-energy conversations with celebrities, changemakers, and thought leaders, Jones delves into the minds of entertainment industry icons and beyond to extract actionable leadership and lifestyle insights. With its frequent focus on authors and books, the arts and humanities, the show skillfully balances the glamour of fame, success, and/or the power of influence with the humor and pathos of everyday life, creating a rich tapestry of human nature and shared experience. 

 

Listeners are invited into inspiring discussions that prioritize personal growth and the pursuit of excellence, offering a masterclass in creativity and innovation.

 

Host Randall Kenneth Jones is a bestselling author, speaker, and creative communications consultant. The announcer is the celebrated voice actor Susan Bennett, widely known as the original voice of Siri.

 

Often described as an "antidote to today's anxiety-ridden media landscape," ON THE KNOWS with Randall Kenneth Jones offers a fun yet meaningful spin on aging, legacy, lifelong learning, and "edutainment," by emphasizing "the importance of importance," conversation, laughter, listening, and thought.

 

"ON THE KNOWS" is produced and edited by Kevin Randall Jones.

 

Podcast Interview Highlights:

 

• Explanation of how Ryan and Randy "know" each other—through Randy's husband, Derek, and Ryan's mother, Beverly.

• Patrick explains how he felt when he learned Amazon voted his book the #1 Book of the Year for 2025, as well as the thrill of being a Read with Jenna Today Show pick.

• Randy praises Patrick's gift for language, descriptions, and exposition, and provides specific examples.

• Patrick explains his writing process and provides specific examples.

• Patrick explains his reasons for choosing this story, these characters, this time period, and these themes.

• Patrick shares his personal connection to Ohio, the book's setting.

• Patrick shares is view on "the complicated nature of forgiveness."

• Discussion on the concepts of aging and the passage of time with Randy's shoutout to Allison Janney, who Randy feels should be in a film firm because shes the U.S.'s version of Judi Dench, she makes everything she's in better.

• Discussion on Patrick as narrator, not passing judgment on his characters.

• Discussion on the definition of a "villain" and what it means when "life" and "expectations" are the villain. Includes comparisons to Randy's Book "Ruby, Magic Comes From the Heart." Randy shares a personal story about how Cynthia Rhodes from "Dirty Dancing" inspired his book, "Ruby." 

• Discussion on actual writing/creative process.

• Discussion on the non-traditional inclusion of a psychic character in the book, including Randy's reveal of what he learned about Patrick from his personal friend, psychic medium Linda Spellman — www.lightofthephoenix.com 

• Discussion on grief's impact on the book.

• Randy emotionally shares the impact of Patrick's work on his career over the past 20 years.

 

Best Quotes from Interview:

 

• "If we are not conducting our lives in such a way that is geared toward helping other people have better lives, then there's no point." — Patrick Ryan

 

• Excerpt from BUCKEYE by Patrick Ryan: "Bonhomie wasn't nearly so small that everyone knew everyone else, but it was small enough that, sooner or later, most everyone felt as if they'd laid eyes on most everyone else."

 

• Excerpt from BUCKEYE by Patrick Ryan: "The wisdom that comes with age was needling, he found, because it brought the clarity of hindsight without the means to change anything."

 

• Excerpt from BUCKEYE by Patrick Ryan: "Good opportunities sometimes come wrapped in garbage."

 

• Excerpt from BUCKEYE by Patrick Ryan: "People were much nicer when you had a little money. It was like a secret handshake that gained you admission to a friendlier world."

 

• Excerpt from BUCKEYE by Patrick Ryan: "Don't talk to anyone who doesn't seem nice. Don't talk to any man who has his pants hiked up and his business shoved over to one side, on display."

 

• Excerpt from BUCKEYE by Patrick Ryan: "That's the whole point," Becky said. "Is the future knowable? Will our older selves be anything like our younger selves thought we would be? We can only find out by writing it down and then putting it out of our minds and letting life take its course. The unraveling of time should be mysterious, don't you think?"

 

• Excerpt from BUCKEYE by Patrick Ryan: "What is it about time that confounds us? We spend it. We save it. We while it away. We waste it. We kill it. We complain about not having enough of it, or about having too much of it on our hands. We regret what we've done with it. We give it away. We want it back. We say "time and again" when something is bothering us and "it's time" when something is supposed to end. Felix saw it so clearly: all we should ever want of time is more of it. Life was so simple when it was reduced to the barest of necessities: more time; more air; more Duke Ellington."

 

• "A lot of lying on a regular basis would have to start feeling like the truth." —  Patrick Ryan

 

• Excerpt from BUCKEYE by Patrick Ryan: "Wasn't it a fair measure of a person, what they did with their mistakes? How they managed to stumble into some of the right steps, after taking all the wrong ones?

 

• "There's no expiration date on our ability to create or our ability to contribute." Randall Kenneth Jones

 

www.OnTheKnows.com 

 

Patrick Ryan: www.PatrickRyanBooks.com

Randall Kenneth Jones: www.RandallKennethJones.com

Susan Bennett: www.SusanCBennett.com

Kevin Randall Jones: www.KevinRandallJones.com