Weekly essays, reflections, and a gathering place for people willing to be cracked open by disability, caregiving, and life itself.
| Platform |  | Pricing | Only free issues | Publishes | Weekly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues | 73 | Founded | a year ago | Last Issue | 7 days ago |
| Active | |||||
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davidbyounger.substack.comLatest Issues
You’re Already Free
Ram Dass
Mark Epstein, the Buddhist psychiatrist and author of Thoughts Without a Thinker and Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart, once described a conversation with Ram Dass that changed how he approached his work. Ram Dass asked him wh...
Love Bombed
Deb and me at our friend’s house in the recliner they borrowed for me. I look happier than I have been in months.
We had a family trip planned for months for the four of us to visit my best friends and chosen family in Seattle last week. I...
The Loss of the Stepper
The Long Undoing, digital painting by Judith Alalu, 2026
It is Wednesday morning. For the past six years, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday have followed a familiar rhythm. I wake up, do my morning routine, spend forty-five minutes t...
Burden Is Not a Verdict
Lost in the Forest, digital painting by Judith Alalu, 2026
The intercom in my parents’ house had a ring I can remember distinctly. I can picture my father’s body in the second before my mother’s voice actually came through. He’d be in his...
At Least We Have Each Other
My daughter and I separated from the crowd at my son’s college graduation
Last week I wrote about the importance of co-regulation in parenting our neurodivergent daughter. What I’ve been thinking a lot about this week is how having a physi...
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Authors
The writers behind this newsletter.
I’m a husband, father, psychologist, reluctant expert in muscular dystrophy, and recovering neurotic. I’ve spent my life studying what happens inside people as a therapist, meditator, and through a body that made me listen.
Substack When Pain Writes. Drawing on literature, philosophy, and personal experience, this Substack explores what cannot be easily narrated.
I write about motherhood, thinking alongside my five children as we learn to show up with a good heart. I believe small acts of kindness can change the world. Here, we slow down, think together, and build bridges.
I write about disability, power, and the wisdom of lived experience. My work challenges dominant narratives about disability and explores what those narratives reveal about agency, embodiment, and what it means to be human.
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