Welcome!

Well, hello! It seems there are a lot of new people here, populating my newsletter feed, and I believe I have the Trauma Super Conference, Rich Roll’s addiction and recovery masterclass and Tim Ferriss to thank! What with all these new friends, I thought I’d share a little bit about myself.

I’m Jess to everyone but telemarketers, I was a middle and high school teacher for twenty years (English, writing and Latin), the last five of which were in an inpatient drug rehab for adolescents. Oh, how I loved that job. I’ve written about it in a few places.

I’ve written for The Atlantic, in the bi-weekly column, “The Parent Teacher Conference” at the New York Times, and at the Washington Post, Air Mail, The Boston Globe, and lots of other places. My first book, The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed was a New York Times bestseller and my newest book is The Addiction Inoculation: Raising Healthy Kids in a Culture of Dependence. Happy to send out signed copies for the holidays!

I co-host the award-winning #AmWriting podcast with authors K.J. Dell'Antonia (The Chicken Sisters, a Reese’s Book Club pick) and Sarina Bowen (author of thirty….seven-ish novels including twenty USA Today bestsellers). This year, #AmWriting won an Iris Award for Podcast of the Year and last week, BookRiot selected the #AmWriting podcast at one of the top ten podcasts for writers, so that was incredibly cool.

I have been sober since 2013 (I tell that story in excruciating detail here, in People Magazine) and I work part time as a recovery and prevention coach at Sana at Stowe, a detox and rehab in Stowe, VT. One hundred percent of my pay goes to fund a scholarship fund for young people who need rehab and can’t afford it. There’s not enough there yet to fund a stay, but the longer I work there, the more people we’ll be able to help.

I live in Vermont with my husband Tim, a medical ethicist and infectious diseases doc at the University of Vermont Medical Center. He’s a writer, too, usually at the New York Times. I have two kids, Ben (22, an economist) and Finn (18, a musician and anxious college applicant).

If you’ve seen my social feeds (Twitter, IG or FB), you know my dogs are the real stars of the show. They are Luther the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog Henry the Golden Retriever mix, and our newest pack member, Moby the French Bulldog. Three is the magic number of dogs, by the way.

This newsletter is where I do all my most personal writing. It’s where I write when I’m first figuring things out and where my ideas first take shape. This essay on going to a Porter Robinson concert with my son Finn, for example, was the genesis of another piece that will publish soon.

Welcome. I’m so happy you are here.