I’m a writer living in Minneapolis, Minnesota with my two kids. My dear mama named me Joshua, and most friends and loved ones call me Josh or J. An old work friend dubbed me Dharmapala, and I like it. He used it as an honorary title, like how they call the Count of Monte Cristo “Count.” 

For the past two and a half years, I’ve worked in community-facing roles and explored entrepreneurial projects. I’m currently unemployed.

I was a human rights lawyer for 15 years before stepping away from the law to work on myself. My first self-published book, Human Justice, tells the story of my last trial, where corporate values played out to their logical extreme. What happened led me to leave the law, and signaled that corporatism is incompatible with a sustainable future for our species and planet. Human Justice is available here in several digital formats on a donation basis, or, as Old Kanye calls it, “Free.99.” I call it the “Will Write For Food” marketing plan.

Shortly after finishing the first draft of Human Justice, I had a profound transformative experience where my reality unraveled over several frightening days and nights. My deepest fears and insecurities played out in supernatural ways, and I saw, heard, and felt things that don’t exist in this physical realm. Some call this sort of experience a psychotic break, and others call it a Dark Night of the Soul. 

I gradually emerged from my Dark Night with my liberty and spirit intact. Somehow, my body felt stronger and my mind sharper. I felt immense gratitude to be alive, and an overwhelming impulse to learn more about spirituality and regulating emotions. My second book, Good Vibes, is a coalescence of things I’ve learned about the subjects since my Dark Night. The manuscript for Good Vibes is complete, and it’ll be out sometime in 2026, the Universe willing.

My third book, Astral Travelin’ Man, is the storytelling-rich spiritual companion to Good Vibes. Like its companion, it blends ancient Stoicism and timeless spirituality with narrative flair. If I don’t find publishers for Good Vibes and Astral Travelin’ Man, at some point I’ll put them out here under the WWFF plan, along with several other projects I’ve got cookin’ in the lab like a fiction novel and a lil’ kids’ book I wrote back in the day about multiculturism.

I also write short pieces about social, societal, and spiritual stuff. I call them “essays,” my loved ones call it “journaling,” and I landed on “j’essay.” My name starts with a J and Jesse’s my childhood best friend, so j’essay hits. I started submitting them as letters to the editor during the 2024 presidential election cycle as a hobby and creative outlet, and now I post them here.