Memoirs In Search of a Better World
The roots of addiction, mental illness, and homelessness are varied and these authors look unflinchingly at their own families, lives, and choices while acknowledging the ways our systems both fail and succeed.
About the authors
DAVID PRUITT is a first-generation college graduate from UNC Greensboro and previously served on the advisory board for their Bryan School of Business. A licensed CPA and a member of the AICPA and NCACPA, David started his business career in an entry-level accounting position before advancing to first CFO, then CEO, of Performance Bike.He is an avid reader, a happily married husband for over thirty years, and a proud father of two successful children. His early life as an abused child taught him how to overcome obstacles and his successful career as a senior executive taught him how to lead and communicate effectively as a writer and speaker. He has a passion and ability to not only tell his story but to help adults, young and old, who were abused as children to live the lives they want, not the ones forced on them. That's what Relative Distance is all about: survival, overcoming obstacles, and finding the strength within yourself to get where you want to be. He currently resides in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. David retired from corporate America in 2016 and began writing Relative Distance. READ MORE ABOUT DAVID
MARY BETH O’CONNOR has been sober from her meth use disorder since 1994. She also is in recovery from abuse, trauma, self-harm, ptsd, and anxiety. Mary Beth is a Director, Secretary, and Founding Investor for She Recovers Foundation, and a Director for LifeRing Secular Recovery. She regularly speaks on behalf of these organizations and about multiple and secular paths to recovery. This includes conferences, podcasts, radio, television, and recovery houses. She develops relationships with other organizations, such as Women for Sobriety. And Mary Beth trains attorneys and medical professionals about substance use disorder and recovery. Professionally, 6 years into her recovery, Mary Beth attended Berkeley Law. She worked at a large firm, then litigated class actions for the federal government. In 2014 she was appointed a federal Administrative Law Judge from which position she retired early in 2020. READ MORE ABOUT MARY BETH
About the Host
Aran Shetterly is writer and narrative historian interested in people who not only dream of changing the world but have the conviction, courage, and audacity to try. He's working on a book about the 1979 "Greensboro (North Carolina) Massacre." This project, under contract with Amistad/HarperCollins, has received support from Virginia Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Aran's first book, The Americano, rescued an untold story of the Cuban Revolution.