Daniel Schwarzhoff discovered pretty late in life that he was not really a Schwarzhoff: that the man he had always considered his father was not his biological dad.  It explained a lot.  At least it gave a shape to the chaos that had marked his early life.  He rose above that chaos with a career on Wall Street but brought a lot of it with him as well. When it eventually became too much, he found a twelve step meeting that really revealed how far gone he'd become.

Patti Clark grew up in Redwood City where she overcame a childhood marked by absentee parents to graduate high school and attend a good college. A sort of divine intervention shaped the trajectory of her life and then a tarot card reader helped her recognize her own addiction.  She spent 13 years sober, determined to raise her own children in a way that was different from her own upbringing, but then - after 13 years sober - started drinking again.  But she’s sober now and has a new book out - RECOVERY ROAD TRIP - which is part narrative and part work book - a compendium of weekly exercises to chart a more fulfilling path of your own. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. 

Frank Conniff has been a stand up and writer and producer for many tv shows like Sabrina the teenage witch but he’s probably best know for his role as TV’s Frank on the Peabody Award winning cult hit Mystery Science Theater 3000 where he also served as a writer.

I discovered Frank as one of the many members of my extended clan of Murray-McDonnell cousins. When I started doing standup, everyone in my family asked me if we had met each other so I started following him on Twitter and discovered he was, in fact, sober. I had his email address from a family group email and here we are...

My original notes...

Jamie Niven is the son of international movie star and academy award winner for best actor, David Niven.  But I really knew him from my parents crowd of waspy New Yorkers spending the summers out on Long Island where he was always the life of the party and where growing up I had rarely seen any of his set get sober.  He had a career in finance before becoming an entrepreneur and then spent 20 years at Sothebys where he eventually rose to the position of Chairman of the Americas.  He has a long career in philanthropy and currently chairs the Partnership to End Addiction.

Reposting this as it again proves sadly timely in my community, and Clancy Martin's book is an invaluable resource for suicide prevention.

Clancy Martin is the author of the recently published, highly acclaimed memoire - HOW NOT TO KILL YOURSELF - which is also an enlightened and practical guide to suicide prevention.  Clancy speaks from experience as he is the survivor of at least ten attempts to take his own life.  And as a recovering alcoholic, he looks at suicide - at least in part - through the lens of addiction.  I found the book revelatory and - as someone who regularly contemplates taking his own life - wildly helpful.  And I also think the wisdom Clancy shares in this conversation alone could save lives.

John Machado struggled wiht addictoin for years before a doctor's visit necessseitate a meeting with an addiction specilist who helped get him into rehab to begin a long process to recovery.. They say relapse is a part of the process of recovery but this convesation made me think that maybe the road to recovery is paved with all kinds of experiences some of which form the building blocks of a healthy life. 

John has published several books including his most recent works BRONZE JAZZ and JOHNNY BLUE AND THE RIGHTEOUS SPIN.

John Giordano grew up in the Bronx, a child of organized crime and despite joining his first gang at the age of ten managed to save himself from that fate thru his dedication to the discipline of competitive martial arts. But when his recreational drug use spiraled out of control in his twenties, he suddenly found himself on the receiving end of an intervention organized by the same criminals who raised him but also loved him. He made it out the other side, but it was not easy.  And he went on to build a small and innovative business empire in the world of rehab and recovery. He has a new book out called The Kid From the South Bronx Who Never Gave Up.  

Keep seeing Eric in my social media feed, and he is always just so frikken funny, innovative and original.  Impecable delivery.  Check him out!  He talks here a lot here about what it was like to grow up as a gay man in the mid-west!

Eric Hahn is a stand up comedian who grew up in a steel town in Ohio where he started drinking at age 12.  He narrowly escaped a career as a butcher before finding his way to Los Angeles via a lucrative career in the restaurant business which was upended when his employers saw his first stand up set on YouTube.  I realized Eric was sober via his hilarious twitter feed, and he shared with me here some frank and very very funny stories about coming of age as a gay man in the mid-west.

I first met David when he was an agent at CAA repping the likes of Oliver Stone and other high profile filmmakers and writers.  He was part of a powerful club I only got glimpses of and boy did it look fun. But it was also addictive, and he shares here the journey to a more measured form of contententmen. 

Nick Jonsson grew up in Sweden where drinking beer was kind of a way of life.  His drinking escalated when he moved to Australia for college and then got out of control when he started working in advertising and PR in Southeast Asia where the ex-pat community thrived in a lively and inexpensive bar scene.  His life was turned upside down after a couple job losses and he soon found himself drinking just to make it through the day. Eventually, he was hospitalized and managed through phamaceutical intervention and twelve steps to get sober.  When a friend and colleague lost his life to suicide, a message Nick posted on line went viral, and he now divides his time between his work running an executive peer support group and his work as a writer and speaker.  He has a new book out, Executive Loneliness, that is available everyhwere.