November 20, 2025 • 12 mins
Amy talks with author Adam Nimoy about his new book The Most Human: Reconciling with my Father, Leonard Nimoy.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's say good morning now to the author of the
Most Human Reconciling with My Father. It's about his relationship
with his famous dad, Leonard Nimoy. Please welcome, Adam Nimoy.
Thanks so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Adam, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Okay. I have to tell you that on Sunday, I
was awakened at about four o'clock in the morning because
the rain was coming down so heavy, and it woke
me up and I couldn't go back to sleep, and
so I thought, well, you know what, I'm going to
get a jumpstart on reading the book ahead of our interview.
So I started reading at about four am. Think can
I just read a couple of chapters, and instead I
(00:37):
just read and read and read and read, and finished
the book at about noon when the rain was still falling.
It was such a good book, Adam, I mean, like
so engaging, so well written. So it was just a
joy to read. Why did you write this book?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well? What first, I really appreciate you taking the time
to read it. I wrote the book because it's sort
of you know, it's a celebration of my relationship with
my dad, and we had a lot of obstacles in
the way of connecting with one another since I was
very young. I've been in recovery now for twenty years,
(01:18):
and I often share about how the tools of twelve
step recovery enabled me to figure out a way to
connect with my dad, to have a relationship with him
because we were strange for a number of years. I
shared this anonymously at these meetings. I'm what we call
a double winner going on, which is for family members
who have a family member who has a drigger alcohol problem,
(01:42):
and my dad was an admitted alcoholic and I'm in AA.
I would share this story anonymously and it seemed to
resonate with people. It inspired them to try to figure
out a way to reconnect with their own family member.
And I just thought, you know, it's time to come
out and do a more detailed kind of chronic of
how it went down with my dad and how we
(02:02):
were able to really have a closer, loving relationship the
last years of his life, which I.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Think is so great because on the surface, you know,
we see photos of you with your dad and he's
in his spock outfit, and you've got smocky years on,
and you look at that time and you go, oh,
everything looks so idyllic, but in reality it was much
more complicated than that. Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, I mean this is the weird part of being
you know, uh, being raised in the family with Leonard
Nimoy and being the son of Leonard Nimoy is that
it's this it's this combin you know, these incredible experiences
like being on the set where that picture was taken,
and having a myriad of experiences with my dad because
(02:46):
of his tremendous success, but coupled with episodes and regular episodes,
have flat out verbal conflict with him because we didn't
have the tools to resolve any differences of opinion that
we had with one another.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
And so I got the feeling from reading the book
that your dad kind of was Spock. Do you get
that feeling too.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, Well, there's a lot of Leonard and Spock, and
there's a lot of Spock in Leonard. Yeah. This was
the issue I had with my dad growing up. He
was a very kind of reserved, introverted, introspective, remote, distant,
cool kind of person. He was not a warman, busy guy.
My mother played the role of the warm and fuzzy parent. Yeah,
and then, and so I had trouble relating to him
(03:32):
as a kid. Then when the Spock years came and
he was talking about the fact many times he talked
about the fact you have trouble getting in and out
of character. Now, not only did I have Leonard to
deal with at home, I had Spock living with us
at home. So yeah, I mean, yeah, they're very you know,
there's it's just it's hard to separate the two, it
really is sometimes.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I also loved how in the book, Adam you were
talking about, you know, your life experience in and then
you'd kind of mix in Star Trek references, and for
Star Trek fans like me, I think it not only
helps keep us engage, but it also shows how much
of a role Star Trek played in your lives. Even
(04:13):
though the series only lasted for three seasons.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well yeah, I mean this is another part of the
legacy of Star Trek. It's still going. We're in year
fifty nine now, sixty years next year of the airing
of the original series, and it's still resonating with people
because it's a positive message of the future, and I
think people are really glooming onto that, particularly now when
we lived in such polarized times, but yeah, this has
(04:38):
kind of been the right with being in the name
why family, the legacy just goes on. There's images of
Spock everywhere. I traveled the world, and I see images
as I was in Barcelona a couple of years ago
and there's an image of Spock in a Matador outfit
in a store window. I mean, it's just it's everywhere.
It's so iconic, this character you created. And of course
(05:03):
the series continues on, so it's just been amazing. I
mean I think it's surprised everybody involved that the series
we would still continue to resonate with people today. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I think the other thing about this book is it
really shares some like some inspirational moments and also some
very painful moments. And one of the things that you
shared was an email that you got from your dad
in two thousand and six. I think you had said
you would send him a picture of him on stage,
and his response was an email, and I was thinking
(05:36):
it was the first punch of a one two punch,
because then you got another email. Can you share part
of that with us?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Well, yeah, I mean this is at a point in
time where my dad and I were pretty much a
strength from each other. We were both The conflict we
had for thirty years was kind of exacerbated by the
fact that my dad was drinking and I was pretty
much a pottheaded wakem Baker daily. Those elements were no
longer in our lives. My dad had gone sober in
(06:06):
the nineties. My sobriety birthday is an you were first
two thousand and four, but by two thousand and six
not much had changed between us. I mean, you take
out the drugs and alcohol, but without the tools of recovery,
we were really still in a kind of a rut
with one another. And my dad was still pretty angry
with me that we were disengaged and just estranged from
(06:27):
one another. So when I reached out to him, his
response my dad really wanted any engagement with me, and
if it was negative engagement, that was okay with him.
And so he basically wrote me a long letter of
why he felt that I was a disappointment to him
and that I was the problem in the relationship with him.
(06:48):
He just had a lot of anger and resentment that
had been built up over the years. I mean, unfortunately,
a lot of the things that he wrote in the
letter about me were true. I made a lot of
mistakes and I had a lot of mishaps. There were
a number of times when he tried to help me
with my career and it didn't turn out the way
we both thought it would and should. But the letter
really provided me with an opportunity to grow personally by
(07:12):
making amends to him for all the things that I
was told to do. This in recovery, that's what we do.
I just tried to take responsibility for my part in
the failure of our relationship. And it was when I
went to him with that letter and apologized to him
everything in it that everything started to change between the
two of us and we started to rebuild our relationship.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
That was such a powerful thing in the book. And
I hope that you know, the people who are listening
to you now will read the book because it really
was a beautifully told story. And like I said that
one two punch, I mean, I got kicked in the
gut when you did when you were telling me about it,
and then how you ultimately resolved it and kind of
(07:51):
got back on track with your dad. I just thought
it was so cool. And there's a part in the
book where you're talking about leaving the house that you
had spent so many years in, that your kids grew
up in, and then ultimately you had to leave so
everyone could kind of move on with their lives. And
your daughter, Mattie said something as you were leaving that
seems to sort of be a recurring theme of the book,
(08:12):
and that's that you can't have joy without experiencing sadness.
And that just hit home with me too. I thought
that that was kind of profound for a kid.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah. No, I appreciate your saying that, Yeah, because I mean,
this is the whole point is that she was working
through feelings that she had and it's not it wasn't bad.
You know, it's okay to have those feelings. This was
the problem that my dad and I were suffering from
for years, is that we were both numbing ourselves help
medicating ourselves and not feeling stuff like this and not
(08:43):
working through it and talking about it and communicating and connecting.
And that was the kind of the dysfunction I was
trying to break with my own kids, to be pressed
for them by being sober, having experiences like this where
we could really process it together, go through it together,
and you know, and know that we're not alone. I mean,
(09:03):
even though her mother and I split up, I'm still
very close to, you know, my ex wife because we
it's really important that we stay connected and that we
have we work through this stuff together. That's the whole
I think that's the message book. So I really appreciate
you know, you're pointing out that point of part of it,
because that was really, you know, part of the emphasis
(09:24):
of what I was trying to accomplish with my own kids.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Cool, Okay, Adam, what do you think your dad would
think of this book?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Well, I think he'd appreciate it, you know, I mean, uh,
I you know, really in the end, I'm celebrating the
fact that that really figured it out. I mean, you know,
I have some personal tragedy that happens near the end
of the book, and my dad showed up for me.
He became the parent I needed him to be. I
think he was very proud of the fact that he
could be present from me finally in my life. I mean,
(09:53):
he himself admitted that that being you know, in the
you know, supporting the family, being involved with the family
connected with but then was not a priority for him
when he was in the Star Trek years, he was
just trying to focus on his career and get something
going because you know, it was a hustle for him.
It was before Star Trek we were very hand them
out family. We just didn't have a lot of economic security.
(10:16):
So later in life things changed for my dad and
he really came through. He became the father and needed
him to be. And I think that's really what the
celebration of the book is about, and I think he'd
be pretty happy with that message.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, I love that. I love that. Okay, So I
got to tell you before I let you go that
I learned something in your book. It's on page two
seventeen when you were teaching your wife Martha some Yiddish,
and that is that Laverne and Shirley hated their company
because I didn't know what Schlamiel and Schlamazel meant until
(10:50):
I read your book.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, okay, well I'm glad I couldn't lighten you. Yeah,
we were going through all the sah whor so funny. Yeah,
they were kind of like putting each other down. Yeah,
that was a wonderful experience with her. You know, I
really was lucky to know her and to have gone
through all that with her and be present for her,
(11:14):
you know, and I have my dad be present for me.
I mean, that's the whole point of that part of
the story. But yeah, I really appreciate you saying.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
That, and it was a beautiful part of the story.
And I know it was also very painful for you.
But I don't want to tell the whole thing because
I want people to read it and kind of experience it,
because you told the story with with a lot of grace,
you know, because I know that was a really painful
time and having your dad show up, I was like that.
What I took away from a lot of that with
(11:41):
your dad was that you were a lot more verbal
and he was not as verbal. But that's his love language,
you know.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah, exactly. I mean, this is the thing about making
amends and recovery is that, you know, I made an
apology to him. I actually did a step nine my
dad's amends to me what we call living amends. He
was not the kind of guy to say I'm sorry
about stuff I didn't expect him to. But by helping
me out and present from me and supportive at a
(12:10):
time when I really needed him, that's an amazing in
and of itself. That's his way of saying, I'm sorry
about what happened in the past. I'm here for you now,
so you know, and that's really what the celebration of
the book is about. So thank you for acknowledging that.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Of course, the book is called The Most Human Reconciling
with My Father. It is written by Adam Nimoy. Thank
you so much. Adam loved the book and I hope
our wake up Call listeners will read the book because
it's a good one.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Amy, I thank you so much. I just also wanted
to say that I'm going to be at book Soup
on Friday, signing and talking about the book in Hollywood
at seven o'clock, So if your listeners are in the neighborhood,
please drop by and as always, live long, and produitable
Let's say good morning now to the author of the
Most Human Reconciling with My Father. It's about his relationship
with his famous dad, Leonard Nimoy. Please welcome, Adam Nimoy.
Thanks so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Adam, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Okay. I have to tell you that on Sunday, I
was awakened at about four o'clock in the morning because
the rain was coming down so heavy, and it woke
me up and I couldn't go back to sleep, and
so I thought, well, you know what, I'm going to
get a jumpstart on reading the book ahead of our interview.
So I started reading at about four am. Think can
I just read a couple of chapters, and instead I
(00:37):
just read and read and read and read, and finished
the book at about noon when the rain was still falling.
It was such a good book, Adam, I mean, like
so engaging, so well written. So it was just a
joy to read. Why did you write this book?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well? What first, I really appreciate you taking the time
to read it. I wrote the book because it's sort
of you know, it's a celebration of my relationship with
my dad, and we had a lot of obstacles in
the way of connecting with one another since I was
very young. I've been in recovery now for twenty years,
(01:18):
and I often share about how the tools of twelve
step recovery enabled me to figure out a way to
connect with my dad, to have a relationship with him
because we were strange for a number of years. I
shared this anonymously at these meetings. I'm what we call
a double winner going on, which is for family members
who have a family member who has a drigger alcohol problem,
(01:42):
and my dad was an admitted alcoholic and I'm in AA.
I would share this story anonymously and it seemed to
resonate with people. It inspired them to try to figure
out a way to reconnect with their own family member.
And I just thought, you know, it's time to come
out and do a more detailed kind of chronic of
how it went down with my dad and how we
(02:02):
were able to really have a closer, loving relationship the
last years of his life, which I.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Think is so great because on the surface, you know,
we see photos of you with your dad and he's
in his spock outfit, and you've got smocky years on,
and you look at that time and you go, oh,
everything looks so idyllic, but in reality it was much
more complicated than that. Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, I mean this is the weird part of being
you know, uh, being raised in the family with Leonard
Nimoy and being the son of Leonard Nimoy is that
it's this it's this combin you know, these incredible experiences
like being on the set where that picture was taken,
and having a myriad of experiences with my dad because
(02:46):
of his tremendous success, but coupled with episodes and regular episodes,
have flat out verbal conflict with him because we didn't
have the tools to resolve any differences of opinion that
we had with one another.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
And so I got the feeling from reading the book
that your dad kind of was Spock. Do you get
that feeling too.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, Well, there's a lot of Leonard and Spock, and
there's a lot of Spock in Leonard. Yeah. This was
the issue I had with my dad growing up. He
was a very kind of reserved, introverted, introspective, remote, distant,
cool kind of person. He was not a warman, busy guy.
My mother played the role of the warm and fuzzy parent. Yeah,
and then, and so I had trouble relating to him
(03:32):
as a kid. Then when the Spock years came and
he was talking about the fact many times he talked
about the fact you have trouble getting in and out
of character. Now, not only did I have Leonard to
deal with at home, I had Spock living with us
at home. So yeah, I mean, yeah, they're very you know,
there's it's just it's hard to separate the two, it
really is sometimes.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I also loved how in the book, Adam you were
talking about, you know, your life experience in and then
you'd kind of mix in Star Trek references, and for
Star Trek fans like me, I think it not only
helps keep us engage, but it also shows how much
of a role Star Trek played in your lives. Even
(04:13):
though the series only lasted for three seasons.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Well yeah, I mean this is another part of the
legacy of Star Trek. It's still going. We're in year
fifty nine now, sixty years next year of the airing
of the original series, and it's still resonating with people
because it's a positive message of the future, and I
think people are really glooming onto that, particularly now when
we lived in such polarized times, but yeah, this has
(04:38):
kind of been the right with being in the name
why family, the legacy just goes on. There's images of
Spock everywhere. I traveled the world, and I see images
as I was in Barcelona a couple of years ago
and there's an image of Spock in a Matador outfit
in a store window. I mean, it's just it's everywhere.
It's so iconic, this character you created. And of course
(05:03):
the series continues on, so it's just been amazing. I
mean I think it's surprised everybody involved that the series
we would still continue to resonate with people today. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I think the other thing about this book is it
really shares some like some inspirational moments and also some
very painful moments. And one of the things that you
shared was an email that you got from your dad
in two thousand and six. I think you had said
you would send him a picture of him on stage,
and his response was an email, and I was thinking
(05:36):
it was the first punch of a one two punch,
because then you got another email. Can you share part
of that with us?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Well, yeah, I mean this is at a point in
time where my dad and I were pretty much a
strength from each other. We were both The conflict we
had for thirty years was kind of exacerbated by the
fact that my dad was drinking and I was pretty
much a pottheaded wakem Baker daily. Those elements were no
longer in our lives. My dad had gone sober in
(06:06):
the nineties. My sobriety birthday is an you were first
two thousand and four, but by two thousand and six
not much had changed between us. I mean, you take
out the drugs and alcohol, but without the tools of recovery,
we were really still in a kind of a rut
with one another. And my dad was still pretty angry
with me that we were disengaged and just estranged from
(06:27):
one another. So when I reached out to him, his
response my dad really wanted any engagement with me, and
if it was negative engagement, that was okay with him.
And so he basically wrote me a long letter of
why he felt that I was a disappointment to him
and that I was the problem in the relationship with him.
(06:48):
He just had a lot of anger and resentment that
had been built up over the years. I mean, unfortunately,
a lot of the things that he wrote in the
letter about me were true. I made a lot of
mistakes and I had a lot of mishaps. There were
a number of times when he tried to help me
with my career and it didn't turn out the way
we both thought it would and should. But the letter
really provided me with an opportunity to grow personally by
(07:12):
making amends to him for all the things that I
was told to do. This in recovery, that's what we do.
I just tried to take responsibility for my part in
the failure of our relationship. And it was when I
went to him with that letter and apologized to him
everything in it that everything started to change between the
two of us and we started to rebuild our relationship.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
That was such a powerful thing in the book. And
I hope that you know, the people who are listening
to you now will read the book because it really
was a beautifully told story. And like I said that
one two punch, I mean, I got kicked in the
gut when you did when you were telling me about it,
and then how you ultimately resolved it and kind of
(07:51):
got back on track with your dad. I just thought
it was so cool. And there's a part in the
book where you're talking about leaving the house that you
had spent so many years in, that your kids grew
up in, and then ultimately you had to leave so
everyone could kind of move on with their lives. And
your daughter, Mattie said something as you were leaving that
seems to sort of be a recurring theme of the book,
(08:12):
and that's that you can't have joy without experiencing sadness.
And that just hit home with me too. I thought
that that was kind of profound for a kid.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah. No, I appreciate your saying that, Yeah, because I mean,
this is the whole point is that she was working
through feelings that she had and it's not it wasn't bad.
You know, it's okay to have those feelings. This was
the problem that my dad and I were suffering from
for years, is that we were both numbing ourselves help
medicating ourselves and not feeling stuff like this and not
(08:43):
working through it and talking about it and communicating and connecting.
And that was the kind of the dysfunction I was
trying to break with my own kids, to be pressed
for them by being sober, having experiences like this where
we could really process it together, go through it together,
and you know, and know that we're not alone. I mean,
(09:03):
even though her mother and I split up, I'm still
very close to, you know, my ex wife because we
it's really important that we stay connected and that we
have we work through this stuff together. That's the whole
I think that's the message book. So I really appreciate
you know, you're pointing out that point of part of it,
because that was really, you know, part of the emphasis
(09:24):
of what I was trying to accomplish with my own kids.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Cool, Okay, Adam, what do you think your dad would
think of this book?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Well, I think he'd appreciate it, you know, I mean, uh,
I you know, really in the end, I'm celebrating the
fact that that really figured it out. I mean, you know,
I have some personal tragedy that happens near the end
of the book, and my dad showed up for me.
He became the parent I needed him to be. I
think he was very proud of the fact that he
could be present from me finally in my life. I mean,
(09:53):
he himself admitted that that being you know, in the
you know, supporting the family, being involved with the family
connected with but then was not a priority for him
when he was in the Star Trek years, he was
just trying to focus on his career and get something
going because you know, it was a hustle for him.
It was before Star Trek we were very hand them
out family. We just didn't have a lot of economic security.
(10:16):
So later in life things changed for my dad and
he really came through. He became the father and needed
him to be. And I think that's really what the
celebration of the book is about, and I think he'd
be pretty happy with that message.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, I love that. I love that. Okay, So I
got to tell you before I let you go that
I learned something in your book. It's on page two
seventeen when you were teaching your wife Martha some Yiddish,
and that is that Laverne and Shirley hated their company
because I didn't know what Schlamiel and Schlamazel meant until
(10:50):
I read your book.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, okay, well I'm glad I couldn't lighten you. Yeah,
we were going through all the sah whor so funny. Yeah,
they were kind of like putting each other down. Yeah,
that was a wonderful experience with her. You know, I
really was lucky to know her and to have gone
through all that with her and be present for her,
(11:14):
you know, and I have my dad be present for me.
I mean, that's the whole point of that part of
the story. But yeah, I really appreciate you saying.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
That, and it was a beautiful part of the story.
And I know it was also very painful for you.
But I don't want to tell the whole thing because
I want people to read it and kind of experience it,
because you told the story with with a lot of grace,
you know, because I know that was a really painful
time and having your dad show up, I was like that.
What I took away from a lot of that with
(11:41):
your dad was that you were a lot more verbal
and he was not as verbal. But that's his love language,
you know.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah, exactly. I mean, this is the thing about making
amends and recovery is that, you know, I made an
apology to him. I actually did a step nine my
dad's amends to me what we call living amends. He
was not the kind of guy to say I'm sorry
about stuff I didn't expect him to. But by helping
me out and present from me and supportive at a
(12:10):
time when I really needed him, that's an amazing in
and of itself. That's his way of saying, I'm sorry
about what happened in the past. I'm here for you now,
so you know, and that's really what the celebration of
the book is about. So thank you for acknowledging that.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Of course, the book is called The Most Human Reconciling
with My Father. It is written by Adam Nimoy. Thank
you so much. Adam loved the book and I hope
our wake up Call listeners will read the book because
it's a good one.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Amy, I thank you so much. I just also wanted
to say that I'm going to be at book Soup
on Friday, signing and talking about the book in Hollywood
at seven o'clock, So if your listeners are in the neighborhood,
please drop by and as always, live long, and produitable
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