NumberStory.org was founded to help adults identify our Adverse Childhood Experiences, so we can begin healing from them.

California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris reached out to me last week, and asked if I’d be willing to talk a little bit about my Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) today, to coincide with the launch of NumberStory.org, a new nonprofit organization she founded to help support people like me who had ACEs, and live with the residual trauma as a result.

Before Dr. Burke-Harris reached out to me, I had never heard of ACE in this context before. If you’re in the same boat, here’s what I learned:

“The term ‘Adverse Childhood Experiences,’ or ‘ACEs,’ comes from the 1998 Adverse…

Yesterday, I marked the fifth anniversary of my decision to quit drinking alcohol. It was the most consequential choice I have ever made in my life, and I am able to stand before you today only because I made it.

I was slowly and steadily killing myself with booze. I was getting drunk every night, because I couldn’t face the incredible pain and PTSD I had from my childhood, at the hands of my abusive father and manipulative mother.

It was unsustainable, and I knew it was unsustainable, but when you’re an addict, knowing something is unhealthy and choosing to…

Father’s Day is tough for me. I don’t have a dad, because the man who was my father made a choice, when I was a child, to be my bully, instead.

For my entire life, this man was implacable, inscrutable, and entirely unwilling to have any kind of relationship with me … yet he still felt entitled to my adoration an attention. Every day was a new puzzle to be solved, a new set of circumstances I had to figure out, so I could somehow evade his wrath and his cruelty.

In short, the man who was my father is…

A gentle reminder: when we are out in the world, it’s incredibly important to maintain a six foot distance from each other. The virus doesn’t go away and stop being dangerous, once we walk into a store.

Most of us who are able to quarantine have been doing that, and it’s working to flatten the infection curve, to give our doctors and researchers time to find a vaccine and a treatment to reduce the mortality rate of this virus. Most of us aren’t sick, and we aren’t carriers. …

I don’t know if any of you who follow me here also follow me on any other social networks, so for those of you who don’t know already, this post is for you.

For the last month or so, I’ve been digging up really great public domain short stories, and narrating them, then releasing them for free on my SoundCloud.

Wait. I need to back up, because you probably don’t know this: I’m a New York Times #1 Bestselling audiobook narrator. (FLEX) I am, by far, not the worst at narrating the written word. …

America had come together, setting aside all of our own wants and needs, to engage in the single greatest act of human kindness in history. We all stayed home, at great expense and inconvenience, so the most vulnerable among us wouldn’t die a preventable death.

I want you to think about this for a moment, before I continue: there is someone you love, who is at risk of serious infection and death,right now. I am staying home for that person, so you don’t lose someone you love. I am not the only person doing this. You’re doing this. Your family…

As we watch right-wing agitators, Fascists, media personalities, and the impeached president howl about ending Stay at Home before the public health experts say we should, remember that, as a SPECIES, we are only as safe as the least-protected person among us.

I am so grateful to live in a city, county, and state that has leadership that understands that. I can practice responsible social distancing, I can stay at home, and I can be a responsible and compassionate member of society, knowing that I’m supported by my local and state government.

The only thing Republicans care about is their own wealth and power, and if people have to die so they can accumulate even more, they are entirely okay with that.

I am terrified that right wing state governments…

My friend, Will Hindmarch, is a brilliant writer and game designer. He’s one of the smartest people I know, and his weekly newsletter always challenges and inspires me.

In this week’s newsletter, he talks about playing a video game called CONTROL, which by coincidence, I began playing over the weekend.

I wanted to share some thoughts here that I shared with Will privately, because I’m interested to hear your thoughts on my thoughts.

Will said:

> As of this week, I’m also playing Control again, and glad to be doing so.

Here’s my reply to him:

This game is beguiling…