Tim Murphy: the conversation

Mornings in the Lab · Interview transcript

You already know the voice, the one you grew up hearing, the one you swore you'd never sound like. And for a while you didn't. You built your whole life as proof. Different job, different city, different choices. You were sure. Then one quiet night you heard it. Your mouth, their words. And you realized the promise had already broken. Tim Murphy grew up in Somerset, Kentucky. His father drank and put bullet holes in the walls of their house. Tim's childhood game was connect the dots. The dots were bullet holes. He made himself a promise. He would never end up like that. He left home and enlisted in the Air Force. Security forces. Structure, authority, a clean start. By basic training he was an alcoholic. For 30 years he served. He ran nuclear convoy security for 3,000 personnel. He guarded Langley. He retired from NORAD with honors. He was drunk through nearly all of it. When he finally stopped, AA didn't work. So he walked into his garage, grabbed a notebook, and wrote his own system. That system became a book, then a TEDx talk so unconventional Ted flagged it with a content warning. If you've ever kept a promise to yourself for so long that you forgot you'd already broken it, that's today's conversation. Tim, welcome to the lab.