The Stone Cold Daddy Podcast

Paul | Stone Cold Daddy
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Mental Health
  • Updated Weekly

Suicide survivor. Sober since 2009. Dad to two kids, including one on the spectrum. I turn the hard stuff into stories that make you feel less alone. Dark humor, real talk, and no holds will be barred from mental health, recovery, and parenting. If you've ever felt broken, this is for you.

  1. 18h ago

    11 Dollars

    When I was 15 years old, my father walked into my bedroom in the middle of the night and told me that if I didn't give him eleven dollars, he was going to get shot. That was how one of the worst nights of my childhood began. In this episode of The Stone Cold Daddy Podcast, I share a deeply personal story about growing up with a parent struggling with addiction, the fear and uncertainty that came with it, and the strange details that stay with us long after the moment has passed. From a frightening confrontation between my parents to a sleepless night at my grandparents' house, I revisit what happened and what it felt like to walk into school the following morning carrying something nobody around me knew about. And somehow, a borrowed red tie with thin blue stripes and a simple question from a friend named Natalie became two of the things I remember most. This is a story about childhood, parental addiction, family dysfunction, and the things we sometimes can't find the words to say, even when someone notices we're hurting. The Stone Cold Daddy Podcast explores addiction, recovery, mental health, parenting, and the complicated, sometimes absurd experiences that shape our lives. Told with honesty, vulnerability, and humor, one story at a time.

  2. Oct 2

    Been Preparing for This My Whole Life (With Kristen)

    What happens when your brain has been preparing for disaster your whole life? Paul sits down with Kristen, the creator behind Driving Mom Crazy, for a conversation about parenting, anxiety, depression, medication, motherhood, and eventually finding a way to laugh about some of it. Kristen shares how her mental health changed dramatically during pregnancy, the shame she initially felt asking for help, and how her struggles intensified through motherhood and eventually included suicidal thoughts. She also talks about finding support, rediscovering a sense of purpose outside of being a mom, and how writing about the things people don't usually say out loud became part of her healing. Paul and Kristen also get into the complicated relationship they both have with needing medication, why talking openly about mental health matters to them, and what happens when an anxious brain finally encounters the chaos it's been expecting all along. Sometimes your brain looks at a crisis and thinks: I've been preparing for this my whole life.

  3. Sep 25

    A Paul I Did Not Know (with Juliette)

    What happens when someone has known you for more than 30 years, but discovers there was an entire part of your life they never really knew? Paul sits down with his longtime college friend Juliette to talk about friendship, parenthood, mental health, therapy, medication, and what it feels like to learn that someone you love was struggling more than you realized. Juliette shares what it was like hearing Paul talk openly about his suicide attempt and mental health for the first time, and the two compare their experiences as parents trying to make it easier for their kids to ask for help when they need it.

  4. Sep 17

    That's What Friends Do (with Dawn)

    What does it mean to really show up for someone? In the first guest episode of The Stone Cold Daddy Podcast, Paul sits down with his longtime friend Dawn to look back on 25 years of friendship, parenthood, cancer, mental health, addiction recovery, and one unforgettable lunch at South Station. Dawn shares her experience surviving breast cancer, the vulnerability she wishes she had shown during treatment, and how that journey eventually led her and her daughter Quinn to create Quinnessential Comfort, a nonprofit supporting people undergoing breast cancer treatment and recovery. The conversation also returns to the first time Paul told Dawn about his suicide attempt and psychiatric hospitalization, this time from a perspective he had never heard before: hers. What began as an ordinary lunch between two old friends became a conversation neither of them would forget. It's an episode about friendship, surviving hard things, being vulnerable enough to let people in, and what it actually looks like to be there for someone when you don't know what else to do. Sometimes that's what friends do. More about Quinnessential Comforts: https://www.instagram.com/quinnessentialcomforts?stkn=dWJia2loanQwbW80

  5. Sep 11

    I Don't Know What's Going To Happen

    Inside a psychiatric hospital after his suicide attempt, Paul met Bob. They arrived at different times but shared the same hospital pajamas, dark humor, suicidal thoughts, and eventually a kind of honesty Paul had never experienced before. In this episode, Paul remembers the friendship they formed inside the hospital, the conversations about suicide and mental health they could have with each other, and the moment Bob admitted something Paul understood immediately: “I don't know what's going to happen.” Bob eventually left the hospital. Paul saw him through a window, returned his wave, and never got the chance to properly say goodbye. This is a story about psychiatric hospitalization, suicide, friendship, loneliness, and one person Paul still thinks about years later.

  6. Sep 3

    Two F*cking Points?

    How certain are you when you know you know something? During COVID, a trivia game with friends asked who won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. Paul was certain the answer was Martin Luther King Jr. His friends apparently weren't nearly as impressed with his certainty. Two confidence points. Two. F*****g. Points. What starts as an absurdly persistent trivia grievance becomes a story about certainty, memory, growing up in Black Washington, D.C., the context we carry with us, and why sometimes the things that seem obvious to us aren't obvious to everyone else. And maybe that's a reason to get a little more comfortable saying: I don't really know.

  7. Aug 23

    Not Well, B*tch

    What happens when you put a room full of people struggling with their mental health together for an icebreaker? After a suicide attempt landed Paul in a psychiatric hospital, he found himself wearing maroon hospital pajamas, grip socks, no underwear, and sitting through a group activity with a bunch of strangers who weren't exactly having their best week either. It's a funny, uncomfortable and deeply human story about psychiatric hospitalization, mental health, communal discomfort, and discovering connection in one of the last places Paul expected to find it.

  8. Aug 13

    I'm Fine... I'm Fine

    Paul once fell off a booze cruise into Boston Harbor. For years, that was the story. It was funny. He survived. He even has the scar to prove it. But looking back through the lens of addiction recovery and sobriety, the story feels different. Paul revisits the drunken accident that could have killed him and the warning signs around alcohol that were much easier to turn into comedy than examine. Sometimes “I'm fine” is true. And sometimes it's the story we tell ourselves.

See All (13)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Suicide survivor. Sober since 2009. Dad to two kids, including one on the spectrum. I turn the hard stuff into stories that make you feel less alone. Dark humor, real talk, and no holds will be barred from mental health, recovery, and parenting. If you've ever felt broken, this is for you.

Information

  • Creator
    Paul | Stone Cold Daddy
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Paul | Stone Cold Daddy
  • Show Website
    The Stone Cold Daddy Podcast

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