The Ryan Sallans Book Series

By the time our three days together had passed, and I was boarding the train to go back to the airport, I felt something fluttering inside. Feelings that hadn’t pulsed through my veins in a very long time. I immediately felt guilty and insecure. I couldn’t have a crush on one of my colleagues. Especially when I was in a relationship, right?

My phone vibrated in my pocket as I walked through the canned-goods aisle in an overcrowded grocery store. I pulled the phone out and saw my brother’s name pop up. Most of our conversations took place over text messaging, so I hesitated before answering. “What’s up?” I asked. “Grandma died this morning,” his emotionless voice replied. “Oh, no,” I said. I stopped in front of the corn and stood ther...

DISCLAIMER: This episode takes you to Belgrade, Serbia where I share my lower surgery experience.  The sound of a door opening and closing and a plate sliding onto the nightstand next to me woke me from a lucid dream. I began to blink my eyes and focused on the blurred image of a small woman in a white dress and a stethoscope around her neck. She held in her hand a syringe, which was full of a cle...

On August 10, 2007, I agreed to make my first appearance on Larry King Live! It didn’t fully sink in that I would be on live television and watched by millions of viewers until I stepped into the studio and felt the heat from the lamps, which surrounded the table, rest on my forehead. When will you be complete?” Larry asked. His other questions had been slightly awkward, but this one stopped all w...

Welcome to the start of Season 2, where we begin with part 3 of Second Son! Christmas, 2005, had passed. The ranch-style stone house I was renting with Michelle was still illuminated by our live-cut, eight-foot Christmas tree, which we had purchased from a local hardware store. With the high from the holidays and the activities that reminded me of my family growing up, I looked at her and blurted...

The focus on my perceived imperfections leads me to understanding how guys get addicted to weights and their supplements. I’ve been able to keep myself away from the supplements so far, but the thoughts pop into my mind every day. My right hand is constantly edging my computer mouse toward the search button after typing GNC into the box. The battle not to click on the box gets harder with each yea...

Over the years I’ve noticed our transgender brotherhood and our experiences have turned us into mentors in the community. There are so many aspects to transitioning: the name change, surgical procedures and options, hormones, insurance coverage, legal protection, and finding peace with one’s body. It helps when people are willing to sit down and talk about each aspect, one issue at a time.

In preparing to do what I felt would be the impossible, I accepted the fact that my family may very well disown me and never want to see me again. If I could accept losing everything and still move forward, I knew that things couldn’t get any worse for me in life.

Many people question how to come out to family. In this brief trailer, Ryan provides a few tips on how to navigate the process. 

In preparing to do what I felt would be the impossible, I accepted the fact that my family may very well disown me and never want to see me again. If I could accept losing everything and still move forward, I knew that things couldn’t get any worse for me in life.

The strong smell of latex paint and a mixture of bleach hit my nostrils as the door swung open to the single dorm room I would be residing in during my sophomore year of college. I was wearing a black tank top to show off my tan, which I had acquired from working the summer on a road construction crew. I also wore a pair of jean shorts that were five sizes too big for me. I kept pulling them up as...

After a few weeks in college, I began to wonder if I would be able to reach either of my goals that I set after high school (to not to gain weight and to find a boyfriend who would want to marry me). The embarrassment I felt on account of my body, and the fight I had against my biology, affected my development as a person, especially within romantic relationships.

By my twelfth birthday I quit wishing to turn into a boy and started to wish that my body would just stop turning more female. With puberty I saw my breasts developing and my hips widening. The changes were taking away my androgynous build.

“Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird. . . It’s a plane. . . It’s Superman!” My seven-year-old body shot up, off the ground. My right arm lifted above my head as my feet, clad in red-trimmed sweat socks pulled up to my knees, darted mearound the room. My idol and mentor, like any other boy’s fantasy, was a superhero.

In this episode, take a step back into the mid-1960's in small town Nebraska where my parents first met. I am happy to share that their romance and love story is still strong, 60 years later. 

In this episode we enter into Ryan's current best-selling book, Second Son.   By age four, I was labeled a tomboy—a label that made my dad happy, I think. I became his shadow. Everywhere he went, I followed. I wanted to be his helper. I wanted to be just like him.

It was death by Scotch. By jeez, by gosh! Yes . . . death by Scotch. Multiple computer coroners thus professed.   The killing of Ryan's computer was just the start of things comically going further downhill after his break-up. 

In this episode, Ryan is taking you to the San Jacinto Mountain Range of Southern California. He went there to escape from heartache, but he is learning there is no escaping grief. 

In this episode, we are entering into chapter 3 "Love Spun Undone," from my forthcoming book Finding Me: Finding We.     

Look to the sky, whenever one's in doubt.  Look to the sky and wander all about.   In this episode, Ryan will read chapter 2, God's Land from his forthcoming book, Finding Me: Finding We. Get ready to smell like a camp fire after hearing this story. 

Welcome to the inaugural episode of The Ryan Sallans Book Series! Ryan has been entertaining audiences with his storytelling across the globe for the past 20 years. Now, it time to go behind the microphone to read his stories, book-by-book, chapter-by-chapter. In this episode, Ryan shares the prologue, Listening to Fink and first chapter, Pitter, Pitter: Patter, Patter from his forthcoming book Fi...