I’ve been sober since 1987.
I’ve spent decades showing up—at meetings, at work, at the gym, in life.
And somewhere along the way, I learned the difference between habit and intention.
This publication exists for people who want to live deliberately—without dogma, without the motivational self-help industrial complex—and without pretending certainty where there is none.
What You’ll Find:
Recovery & Sobriety: Decades of lived experience without the AA orthodoxy. What actually works when you strip away the dogma.
Movement & Discipline: Fitness as a practice of showing up, not vanity.
Music & Culture: Rock history, cultural criticism, and why the art we consume matters.
Philosophy & Reality: Practical wisdom for navigating the messy business of being human.
What You Won’t Find:
Motivational platitudes
Seven-step formulas
Content optimized for algorithms instead of truth
Subscribe for weekly explorations. Sometimes it’s prog rock. Sometimes it’s sobriety. Always honest.
Who I Am:
I teach fitness, write across multiple platforms, and have zero patience for dogma from any tradition.
My other work:
PauseWhenAgitated.com — Recovery writing for skeptics and seekers
JimStalker.com — My central content hub
Quora — Essays read by more than half a million readers
This Substack is where I ask the questions that don’t fit neatly elsewhere—and try to answer them honestly, without rushing to conclusions.
