I was born in Baker, Oregon, but I grew up in northeastern Ohio in the 70s, in Boardman, a suburb of Youngstown. At the University of Pittsburgh I fell in love with academia, college radio, french fries from the O, and the history and philosophy of science, among other things. In 1987 I left Pittsburgh for graduate school in philosophy at the University of California, San Diego.

By 1992 I had a Ph.D., a wife, two daughters (a son would come in 1995), and a job as an assistant philosophy professor at Virginia Tech. Seven years later I was divorced and raising my kids in central Wisconsin, where I taught at UW-Stevens Point. In 2003 the four of us moved to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where I remarried and took a job at nearby Bloomsburg University. In 2019 I resigned (from Bloomsburg and academia). I’m proud of the contributions I made to philosophy of science and academia; they’re listed in my CV.

Around 2012 I started finding myself on stage—playing guitar in a kindierock band, then doing stand-up, then co-founding a comedy open-mic, and eventually even scripting, booking, and hosting a variety show. In the Fall of 2019 I earned a Graduate Certificate in Audio Storytelling from the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine, and moved with my wife to New York City. There I did lots of of tape syncs; co-produced a couple of NYC-based performance arts podcasts; pitched; and recorded and produced an audio book. At the start of 2025 I moved to Chicago, where I continue to do all of that, and sometimes even make my own stuff.