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The Ed Mylett Show · July 14, 2026 · 55m

How to Remake Yourself Feat. Ryan Kalish

Ryan Kalish, a former Major League Baseball player for the Boston Red Sox, discusses his journey from career-ending injury and dark thoughts to becoming a humanitarian serving vulnerable populations across multiple continents. After 14 surgeries and the silent collapse of his baseball identity, Kalish found spiritual purpose serving orphans, refugees, and homeless people in Indonesia, Thailand, Uganda, India, Jordan, Tanzania, Egypt, and beyond—largely self-funded with his 70-year-old father as his cameraman. Ed explores the raw honesty of hitting rock bottom, the substances Kalish used to self-soothe, and the moment by a river in Austin where everything shifted.

This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.

Highlights

The reframe that unlocks everything when sitting in a hard season: recontextualizing helplessness as an invitation to act rather than a signal to freeze.
Ed pushes Kalish on whether the emotional hit from feeding someone starving compares to the hit of circling the bases after a home run—and his answer stops the conversation.

Editorial

Identity Death as Prerequisite for Reinvention
The most painful part of remaking yourself is plucking out your old identity to make room for who you're becoming.
Spiritual Calling as Persistent Signal
Kalish experienced repeated spiritual callings that found him even when he ran from them, eventually leading to the moment by a river in Austin where everything clicked.
Serving Others as Antidote to Addiction and Despair
After using substances to self-soothe post-career, Kalish found that service work—bathing homeless people, feeding the hungry, caring for orphans—replaced both the addiction and the despair.

Misc

Kalish bathed homeless people on the street and gave them haircuts—this moment on Instagram caught Ed's attention months before the interview
14 surgeries trying to save a baseball career that ultimately ended
Father, age 70, serves as cameraman on humanitarian trips
The reframe that unlocked everything: what to do when feeling helpless in a hard season
Kalish's answer about whether feeding someone starving compares to circling bases after a home run stops the conversation
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