Tonight: Author Swims the Under Bay Bridge to His Book Signing

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

This is terrifying: Jaimal Yogis, author of the appropriately titled "The Fear Project," is swimming 2.4 miles under the Bay Bridge tonight, arriving sopping wet and we imagine a touch exhausted to his book launch and reading at Book Passage at the Ferry Building in the Embarcadero. The book is all about the biology of our most primal emotion: fear. It's also a three-year personal exploration of Jaimal's own fears, from becoming a dad to surfing Mavericks (both of which he totally did). His reading starts in just a few hours at 6:30, so we guess he's starting to swim about... now?

If you'd like to learn how to stare down your own fears and discovery more about why you have them in the first place, you should read The Fear Project. Want a free copy? Jaimal is giving away 50 books (normally $25) to celebrate his crazy swim and finishing the book. For a chance to win a free copy, tweet this post with the hashtag #fearproject, share it on Facebook and tag "Jaimal Yogis," email it to 10 friends and bcc jyogis@gmail.com, rate the book on Amazon, or, finally, tweet what your personal #fearproject will be in 2013. If you do all five, you have five chances to win!

Also, check out the book's trailer below. Good luck tonight Jaimal!