Tryhard: A Cautionary Tale of Clocking in and Spinning Out

"Funny, brutally honest and compulsively readable." -- BookPage, STARRED review

"An insightful, funny, and refreshingly personal journey into workaholism and the pathological Type A mind." -- Cat Marnell, New York Times bestselling author of How to Murder Your Life

A superstar podcast producer delivers a unique, laugh-out-loud, cry quietly invitation to examine our delusional obsessions with work in this eye-opening book--part memoir, part mentoring, part confessional guide--that dissects the emotional ties that bind us . . . to our desks.

For any type-A, high achiever out there, this is the book that sees you. And provides a cathartic, funny, emotionally charged insight into what drives the perfection-oriented.

Laura Mayer was born a girlboss. As a child in suburban Illinois, she played "V.P. of Sales" in her bedroom, dictating important memos to her twin brother and swapping Judy Blume for the buzzy business books of the day. While other kids dreamed of being pop stars or pro athletes, little Laura had a single-minded focus: the corporate ladder.

Some thirty years later, from a dizzying perch on that very ladder--as Executive Producer of Podcasts at ABC News, with such blockbuster shows as Revisionist History, Bad Blood, and Happier with Gretchen Rubin to her credit--and with an identity shaped by annual reviews, performance indicators, and "executive presence" (whatever that means) a disillusioned Laura is calling "bullshit" on the whole work-is-life thing. Sort of.

Tryhard is a gonzo memoir for 9-to-5 devotees who have read every business book and C-suite-or-bust instruction manual yet still find we're burnt out and unhappy. It is also a deeply personal and poignant examination of why we race at all. Laura detangles this delusional mess of priorities we've created, rejects the "boss-at-any-cost" culture, and invites us to laugh at ourselves (and her) along the way. She offers the modern office worker a new path forward through her own revelations, and implores us, for the love of God, to chill out a little bit.

This is Laura's messy, somewhat enlightened, possibly transformative, heart-wrenching and always entertaining story--a one-of-a-kind sightseeing trip on the Great American hamster wheel.

Author: Laura Mayer
Publisher: HarperOne
Published: 07/07/2026
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780063380509


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 06/01/2026
Publishers Weekly 06/29/2026

About the Author
Mayer, Laura: - Laura Mayer is Head of Podcasts at Talkhouse. She worked as the Executive Producer of Podcast Programming at ABC News while she wrote this book. She has worked in "Big Podcasting" for as long as anyone can work in "Big Podcasting." Laura has developed more than one-hundred podcasts throughout her career. She executive produced ABC News's wildly-popular slate of true crime shows. She co-created and launched The Dream. She also wrote and hosted her own podcast, Shameless Acquisition Target, which inspired this book.