The Book of Donovan

My Behind-the-Scenes Recording Nightmare •  The Lost 40 Minutes:  This is actually my second attempt at recording this podcast episode. I initially spent 40 minutes talking over at my radio station desk (where I run WRTO.fm), but when I went to edit it, I realized I that it didn’t record — not sure why. •  Three Years Sober:  I recently hit my three-year soberversary on May 27th and today marks 11...

Welcome back! I start this episode off discussing Internet issues that I woke up to this morning. With some rambling, I do eventually get to the point of the episode: how using something like AI can be addictive, especially to someone (like me) that already has an addictive personality. If you need to talk or just want to comment on this episode, please do so. The email is podcast@bookofdonova...

I’ve decided to rebrand the show to The Book of Donovan . To be honest, I sat on this recording for a week because it felt too dark, even for me. But I had to get it out of my system. I’m 56 years old, and on May 4th, 2026, I’ll hit my 36th wedding anniversary. While I’ve managed to keep this family afloat and we live in a nice neighborhood, I’m struggling. I wake up at 5 a.m. every day to a routi...

I’m 1,049 days into what I like to call my “alcohol retirement,” and this episode is really a bit of housekeeping. After a year of podcasting through Spreaker, I finally decided it no longer made sense to keep paying for a platform that wasn’t really giving me much back. So, I’ve moved everything over to Substack, and in the process, I decided it was time to retire the name “Call Me Donovan” and o...

For episode 81, I talk about approaching my three-year anniversary of “alcohol retirement” and how proud I am that this is the longest I’ve ever gone without drinking. I reflect on the many times in my life that I swore off alcohol, only to convince myself I could handle it differently, and I share a couple of embarrassing and dangerous stories from my drinking years—including drunkenly peeing in...

In this episode, recorded on March 11, I’m grappling with a stinging realization about the nature of business and personal loyalty. After a decade of bending over backwards to provide the very best service for a long-term client, I found out yesterday that I’m being “rewarded” by losing them as a client.

Hey, it’s Donovan. Today’s episode is a bit raw — a snapshot of where my head’s been lately. I talk about hitting 928 days sober, but still fighting the noise in my own brain — that restless, scatterbrained feeling that makes me start too many projects and finish too few. Between running my IT business, juggling […]

In this episode of Call Me Donovan, I dusted off the mic after a bit of a break to catch up and unload about life, health, and the ridiculous state of healthcare in America. I kicked things off talking about guest-hosting on Grumpy Old Geeks with Jason DeFilippo while his usual co-host was living it up at Disneyland

I’ll be honest—I don’t know if anything I said in this episode will make a difference, but I had to get it off my chest. The murder of Charlie Kirk has thrown the country into another firestorm, and what frustrates me most isn’t just the tragedy itself, but how the political right is weaponizing it […]

This one’s a walk down memory lane—literally and figuratively. I was just standing at the office door, staring outside, when a flood of memories hit me. March 2026 will mark 20 years in this house—our first real “house-house,” not a mobile home, not an apartment, but an actual piece of stick-built real estate with roots. […]

Hey y’all — Donovan here, and in this episode of Call Me Donovan, I go full tilt into the joys (read: hell) of homeownership. What started as a normal Sunday with laundry turned into a plumbing nightmare: backed-up sinks, overflowing washing machine lines, and a trip—or three—to Lowe’s. I recount how my daughter and I […]

Hey, it’s Donovan — and welcome back to another episode of Call Me Donovan! Today marks 761 days alcohol-free, and I’m reflecting on what it means to get older — not just for us as people, but for the stuff we rely on every day. Namely: our aging vehicles. In this episode, I dive into […]

This time on Call Me Donovan, I’m catching you up on what’s been a hectic couple of weeks around here. First off, I quietly passed the two-year mark on my alcohol-free journey — 745 days and counting. But honestly, things have been such a blur lately I’m not even sure if I already mentioned that. […]

Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending on what time of day you find yourself in. Today is 536 days of alcohol retirement and this is Call Me Donovan for Wednesday, November 13, 2024. We’re in the short rows of the year now, with Thanksgiving about 2 weeks away, then Christmas, and onward to 2025. I haven’t done one of these in a little while—probably since before the election....