From the outside, Scott Meyer had the picture-perfect life. Married his high school sweetheart, five kids, his own accounting firm, a home in the community he grew up in, and the respect of everyone around him. He was the trusted professional people came to with their money. He was also quietly destroying everything he'd built.

In this episode, Scott traces a gambling addiction that started as something social and slow, two or three trips a year, until a single jackpot rewired the way his brain saw the casino. He's remarkably candid about the double life that followed: the lengths he went to so his wife wouldn't find out, the morning a detective was waiting in his driveway, and the question his wife asked first when it all came apart.

Content Warning:

This episode contains discussions of suicide and mental health, which may be distressing for some listeners. If you or someone you know is struggling, please consider seeking support. Help is available. In the U.S., you can contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 — available 24/7.

If you’re struggling right now, you’re not alone.
Email me anytime at modernmeetingpod@gmail.com

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This episode is dedicated to the memory of Sonya — a Marine, an adventurer, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, and a friend, who passed away on May 27th after a nearly twenty-year battle with addiction. In her sister Tracy's words: "I choose to remember my sister, not her addiction." And then we hear a letter Sonya wrote in her own hand. Thank you to Tracy and Dan for trusting me with it.

From there, this is a solo episode recorded from a hotel room on the road at the tail end of a week of conferences, meetings, DMs, and parents at their wit's end — and I came home with one conclusion I can't shake: we are not doing enough. Let's talk about it.

If you’re struggling right now, you’re not alone.
Email me anytime at modernmeetingpod@gmail.com

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When we left Paul Buck, the real number had just come into focus, and the obvious question was: how did he get caught?

He didn't.

In Part 2, Paul picks up at the night everything came apart, and the unlikely thing that finally made him stop after seventeen years: not a confrontation, not getting found out, but a newspaper article about a complete stranger. He's honest about the hardest day of his life, the conversations he had to have afterward, and what it actually takes to turn yourself in when no one is coming for you. He also tells the story of EPIC Global Solutions, the company he founded to stop gambling harm before it starts. What began as one man's second chance now works in 38 countries.

Content Warning:

This episode contains discussions of suicide and mental health, which may be distressing for some listeners. If you or someone you know is struggling, please consider seeking support. Help is available. In the U.S., you can contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 — available 24/7.

For more information about Paul and EPIC: epicglobalsolutions.com

If you’re struggling right now, you’re not alone.
Email me anytime at modernmeetingpod@gmail.com

The Modern Meeting is supported by Evive!

Evive meets you exactly where you are.

Download Evive today or visit www.getevive.com

Before founding one of the world's leading gambling harm prevention consultancies, Paul Buck placed his first bet in October 1994. It was a £10 each-way on a 33-to-1 horse, chosen for no reason other than the jockey wearing his football team's blue and white. He walked up to the window thinking it was a mug's game. The horse won. And for the next 17 years, not a day went by that he didn't gamble.

In Part 1 of this conversation, Paul takes us from that bookie's shop in Leeds through a decade he kept completely hidden — a high-performing finance career, a wife and three kids, and a third world nobody around him could see. His wife lived with him for ten years without knowing. For three of those years, she thought he was having an affair, because there was no other explanation that made sense.

For more information about Paul and EPIC: epicglobalsolutions.com

If you’re struggling right now, you’re not alone.
Email me anytime at modernmeetingpod@gmail.com

The Modern Meeting is supported by Evive!

Evive meets you exactly where you are.

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I went back to Springfield, MA for the first time in over six years. I went for a conference, and I ended up walking through the casino for the first time since I entered recovery.

In this episode I break down the top five things I noticed walking through MGM Springfield as a compulsive gambler in recovery — the dead-eyed slot machine players, the guys with a hop in their step, the craps tables packed to the railing, and the woman who hit $1,800 and couldn't have cared less. I also get into what happened on the way out — five beers in, casino all around me — and what that told me about my own overconfidence in recovery. I also have something to say about what MGM Springfield put in their employee break room next to a zero-fee ATM. I promised myself I'd stay calm about it.

If you’re struggling right now, you’re not alone.
Email me anytime at modernmeetingpod@gmail.com

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Brian Dolan grew up in The Berkshires, won $500 in a March Madness pool in fourth grade, and spent the next 15 years chasing that feeling. By his freshman year of college he was dealing drugs to cover gambling debts. By his mid-20s he had $80,000 cash in a shoebox from a "hot streak," and lost it all, plus more, within months. Three treatment centers. Multiple relapses. A night he thought about jumping off a bridge. And then, five years to the day before Adam's own sobriety date, Brian surrendered. He's now a master's level counselor, recovery coach, and board member of the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling — with nine years away from a bet and a practice built entirely around helping others find their way out.

Content Warning:

This episode contains discussions of suicide and mental health, which may be distressing for some listeners. If you or someone you know is struggling, please consider seeking support. Help is available. In the U.S., you can contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 — available 24/7.

For more information on Brian:

www.briandolancounseling.com

Brian Dolan MHC, CRC | LinkedIn

If you’re struggling right now, you’re not alone.
Email me anytime at modernmeetingpod@gmail.com

The Modern Meeting is supported by Evive!

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I still have zero urge to gamble, but in the last few months I went from one meeting a week to four. And it's been awesome. This week I share not just what I've been learning in those rooms, but what I've been contributing — including a different way to look at ego in recovery, how to navigate the early days, and how one person's energy can completely change the course of a meeting. I also took a break mid-record to take a phone call from someone who slipped as they were closing in on a milestone.

If you’re struggling right now, you’re not alone.
Email me anytime at modernmeetingpod@gmail.com

The Modern Meeting is supported by Evive!

Evive meets you exactly where you are.

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On December 1st, 2012, his birthday, Edgar Jones' teammate took his own life and his girlfriend's life outside the Kansas City Chiefs facility. The team played the next day. Edgar played. And then he spent years trying to outrun everything he felt, with pills and alcohol, while performing at the highest level of professional football. In this conversation Edgar talks about survivor's guilt, substance abuse, what it took to finally get sober, and why he believes the most important thing any of us can do is find the right container to pour our fuel into. He also gets into the current state of mental health in professional sports, what's happening with young athletes and gambling, and why staying quiet is the worst thing we can do.

If you’re struggling right now, you’re not alone.
Email me anytime at modernmeetingpod@gmail.com

The Modern Meeting is supported by Evive!

Evive meets you exactly where you are.

Download Evive today or visit www.getevive.com