Unterstütze JohnnyAppleseedX

I was born in Appalachia not long before the internet, into a town where old men sat on the courthouse lawn at noon and spat tobacco into Styrofoam cups. Time moved slowly there. I longed for culture, for learning, for elsewhere.

I found my way to Lexington for college, then to Chicago for graduate school. Before I was 30, I made it to the Pacific Northwest, where I became a professor. I loved the classroom, but the groupthink and quiet elitism of academia wore me down so about a decade ago, I walked away from it all.

Now, in my forties, I’m in Arizona with my dogs and a desire to keep writing well into old age.

I started this Substack after the 2024 election without a clear theme in mind. Over time, the Endless American Road emerged. The road, the one place where my restless soul finds some solace, is as good a metaphor for my writing life as any.

I write wherever my interest takes me: American culture and politics as lived experience, the working class, dogs, music, literature, sexuality, belief and doubt, strange sightings in the sky, and the long stretches of road that connect it all.

As I get older, I’ve grown more comfortable with my contradictions and less tolerant of the labels others try to place on me. I’ve always lived betwixt and between.

This project is an attempt to make a map of America with words and images—to search for home, love, meaning, and adventure along the way. The truck is packed, the huskies are waiting, so let’s push play on that carefully curated playlist and see what American adventure is out there waiting to be found.

I’ll never intentionally lie to you, and I’m very glad you’re here.