In this profound episode, host Terry Shepherd sits down with author Rich Dunning to discuss his new memoir, Silence Was My First Language. Rich shares his harrowing yet deeply inspiring journey from a childhood marked by severe poverty, domestic violence, and teenage homelessness in the Bronx to becoming a highly successful senior executive in the medical device industry.
For years, Rich's outward professional achievements masked an agonizing inner reality. He reveals how the survival tactics he learned as a five-year-old boy—remaining invisible and silent to avoid physical abuse from his stepfather—followed him deep into adulthood. Driven to disprove those who dismissed him as a "dog," Rich overachieved at work while privately battling an alcoholism that was introduced to him at age seven. With immense candor, Rich details the terrifying vacation wake-up call that saved him from taking his own life, his grueling path to sobriety through rehab and AA, and how he finally replaced silence with accountability.
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