Occupation: I’m a senior writer at SB Nation/MMA Fighting. It’s the leading website of mixed martial arts. I’ve been there since 2013. Before that, I was at ESPN. There, I was a columnist for ESPN.com, and an on-air analyst for MMA Live on ESPN2. I’ve been in journalism for nearly 20 years.

Family: I’ve been married for 12 years to Rebecca. I met her at the LA Weekly, 15 years ago. We’ve lived all over. We have a daughter, Lily, who is 10 years old and in school at Reed Intermediate School. Our son, Blaise, is 5, and at Hawley School, in kindergarten.

Pets: We have two cats, Henry and Jack, which were both adopted from The Animal Center, although at different times.

How long have you lived in Newtown? We’ve been here going on six years. We came here from the Los Angeles area. We lived in New York, before we had kids, and always loved the New England culture, the history, and the seasons here. Lily was getting ready to go into school, and it was the schools that put us here succinctly.

What do you like to do in your free time? I take Lily to Moo Duk Kwan at NYA, a form of karate. I like to do that with her. I grew up in Colorado, so I’d say that fishing and reading are two things I really like to do.

Do you have a favorite author? I really love, for nonfiction, A.J. Liebling, who wrote about the periphery of New York City and boxing. George Plimpton and Norman Mailer are two others. I love all the classics, too, and anything from Hemingway — his whole canon. I still find I can read them.

Do you have a favorite fishing spot? The Pootatuck has brook trout in it, and sometimes I’ll go there to fish and clear my head. I try to get out to Colorado one or two times a year, if I can, and visit my old fishing holes there: Blue Mesa is the main one. I’ve always been a fan of fly-fishing.

Do you have a favorite travel destination? Probably my favorite city to visit is Charlotte, N.C. The culture and food there is great. With my job, I travel quite a bit, and Charlotte always keeps its charm.

What is the best thing about Newtown? What I love the most, honestly, is that it’s a historical village. It’s not overrun with fast food places. It’s a lot of family-owned businesses, which we really like. We love the traditions here, like Halloween on Main Street, the tree lighting, and the duck race. The Booth Library — when we first moved out here, we fell in love with it right away.

Who has been the greatest influence in your life? It’s probably my wife. We both come from a journalism background, but she is also a writer and graphic designer. We can communicate on several levels. Without her, I don’t think I’d be as successful in writing.

If you could spend a day with anyone, who would you choose? I’m the fourth Chuck Mindenhall, and I never got to meet my great-grandfather, the first Chuck Mindenhall. He lived in Colorado, around the late 1890s to 1920s. He died in a mine explosion in Leadville, Colo., when he was pretty young. I’d love to get to know him.

Do you have a guilty pleasure? I would say catering to the Denver Bronco season a little too much. That, and craft microbrews.