PREVIEW - The Friday Edition: The drifter's lament. Written by: A.M. Hickman.

Dec 5, 2025

A.M. Hickman is a writer and the mind behind 'Hickman's Hinterlands,' reflecting on his nomadic life and the emotions tied to it. He discusses why he misses being homeless, revealing the unexpected fulfillment it brought him. Hickman explores the connection between vagrancy and American identity, challenging societal discomfort with true wanderers. He shares vivid memories of hitchhiking adventures while contemplating the unsustainable nature of the drifter lifestyle, offering a thought-provoking perspective on freedom and belonging.

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ANECDOTE

Life As A Long-Term Drifter

A. M. Hickman recounts years hitchhiking over 100,000 miles and sleeping more than 1,000 nights rough across America.
He describes rides with strangers, dumpster meals, and even living briefly in a converted aluminum john boat.

ANECDOTE

Randomness As Personal Religion

Hickman describes himself as the king of the Irish goodbye and a patron of sudden arrivals, rarely staying more than a day or two in one place.
He treated randomness and hitchhiking as a quasi-religion and research into America’s byways.

ANECDOTE

Random Rides And Strange Companions

Hickman shares vivid stories of varied rides: Mormon missionaries, a glue-sniffing man with a pet rat, and a drunken woman who told life stories.
He details nights sleeping beside cattle cisterns and mornings of starting over on the road.

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About a year ago, a Tangle staff member introduced me to a writer named A.M. Hickman. He had just published a fascinating piece on his Substack, Hickman’s Hinterlands, arguing that America wasn’t unreasonably expensive — Americans themselves were simply demanding more out of their lives: living in urban hotspots, seeking out fancy apartments or big houses, refusing to take bets on up-and-coming areas. Hickman told this story through his personal lens; he resides in upstate New York (but, as you’ll see in a moment, is also a bit of a nomad) in a rural, dilapidated town that also happens to be incredibly cheap and quite beautiful.

I loved the story; it felt like a fresh narrative, delivered in a wholly unique voice. I began devouring Hickman’s writing — on class, on the birth of his daughter, on the death of his mother, on what it’s like to travel via bus through rural America, and even on his longing (and our shared affection) for the desert.

So, a few months ago, I got Hickman on the phone and pitched him on the idea of writing for Tangle. What stories was he turning over in his head? What piece did he want some help with from a sharp and unique editorial team? What was he working on next?

He was brimming with ideas, but one in particular caught my attention: a story about how he missed being homeless. Hickman had spent years as a kind of nomadic “bum” (his words) hitchhiking across America, and in a flourish, he described all the ways in which he felt more alive and more intellectually stimulated during that time in his life than any other. I was intrigued, and I pushed him for a draft.

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Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.

This podcast was written by: A.M. Hickman and edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Jon Lall.

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