Personal journey stories take writers all over the place. Sometimes we cruise with them across continents in search of pizza and prayer, other times the miles they travel is solely within their own identity, and sometimes they just see the world and have lots of sex. Sam Sheridan’s own story is about the path of a bonafide, balls-to-the-wall adventure seeker, a nut with a lust for life who sets out to see the world and finds himself literally fighting his way across it. That journey became A Fighter’s Heart, an intense and often funny tale about a bloodlust to fight that the author had been carrying with him since childhood. What drove Sheridan to kickbox his way through Thailand and go mano a mano with jujitsu champs in Brazil? What drives nations to wage war? Why did I nearly break my foot kicking a taxi in Times Square the other day? He doesn’t answer that question, but Sam Sheridan’s A Fighter’s Heart asks and answers many big questions about why we fight through his uniquely personal prism.

Read an excerpt.

Read SMITH contributing editor Michael Slenske’s interview with Sheridan.

Watch Sheridan on The Daily Show this Thursday, March 1.