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Who were you ten years ago?

Ten years ago I was just recently become the president of the foundation for individual rights and education.

That followed about six years of me being the legal director.

And what I was doing there was I was following my lifelong dream of defending freedom of speech.

I went to law school to do first amendment work.

It's my lifelong passion.

You know, my first generation American and I think one of the most amazing things about the US is freedom of speech.

And I ended up defending on campus somewhat to my surprise.

And from pretty much day one I realized that day one was 2001 for me.

That thing was a lot easier to get in trouble on the modern college campus for what you said even back then.

But what led me down the path to the book frankly is a very personal story.

I always had issues with depression.

You know, I just kind of took it for granted.

I'm, you know, Russian Irish.

You know, it just goes with the territory I assumed.

But I got into a really bad one in 2007 when I was about two years into my presidency of fire.

And what's, and I was hospitalized.

I actually talk about like how bad it got.

And what saved me, I'll say it flat out, is cognitive behavioral therapy.

So I'm recovering from this devastatingly terrifyingly bad depression.

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