Episode Details

Daniel Allen Cox is a prolific and beloved Montreal-based author. He has written and published one novella, and four highly acclaimed novels. Daniel’s memoir-in-essays “I Felt the End Before It Came” dives into what it’s like to be raised and manipulated to reject yourself, or reject the only world you’ve ever known. Daniel grew up as a Jehovah’s Witness in the suburbs of Montreal. As he writes, “I spent eighteen years in a group that taught me to hate myself.” You cannot be queer and a Jehovah’s Witness—it’s one or the other.”

Daniel was a stellar guest, with hot and generous takes on Jehovah’s Witnesses, cults, language, ESL, writing, rejection letters, getting published, sobriety, apartment fires, the LGBTQIAS+ community, creative routines, and more.

For your chance to win a free hardcopy of I Felt the End Before It Came, check out these Facebook and Instagram posts. Contest ends Thursday, February 29.

Follow @danielallencox on Instagram and check out his website at danielallencox.net

Loving shout-outs to @dansavage and the It Gets Getter Project

Daniel Allen Cox, Episode Breakdown

0:00 Intro and Theme Song

1:05 Very fun break re free book giveaway

2:53 Daniel’s bio

4:09 Intro to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Beyond their persistent canvassing skills, who are these people, really?

4:58 First two pages of I Felt the End Before It Came

7:25 The internal experience of being a Jehovah’s Witness: Do they feel special and like they are better than everyone else?

13:47 The discrepancies in how JW rules are interpreted

16:49 No Blood Transfusions Allowed: JW’s medical belief and their view of death

27:46 Being a queer JW teenager and the process of disfellowship

40:28 The importance of language in cults. Daniel goes to Poland to teach ESL and eventually binge-write his first novella

46:59 Is writing about your experience cathartic and therapeutic? Is writing ever cathartis and therapeutic?

53:09 Writing, rejection letters, and getting published

53:42 Daniel’s stint with alcohol and how he