Built for This

Raised among strong women, butcher's benches, and hard ideas about what men are meant to be, Brad Poulter grows up knowing he's different long before he has the words for it. But in late '90s small-town New Zealand, 'different' isn't discussed, it's managed.

Joining the Royal New Zealand Navy offers escape, certainty, and belonging. The rules are clear, the uniform fits. Silence feels like part of the job.

But passing as straight comes at a cost. As deployments stack up, including service in Afghanistan during the War on Terror, the pressure of pretending collides with trauma, grief, and the struggle for identity, and something gives way.

From ship's galleys to combat zones, investigation rooms to leadership tables, Built for This charts a life shaped by discipline, loyalty, and unspoken rules—and explores what happens when you stop accepting them.

Honest, sharp, and often funny, this is a memoir about masculinity—how it's built, inherited, and performed—and what it takes to rebuild it on your own terms.