Author: Overcoming Adversity | Buteau’s Odyssey

It started young for me. I didn’t really have anyone to talk with. My father was a sulky, silent brute and I couldn’t risk getting yelled at or hit by speaking up. My mother preferred not to hear about turmoil and always told me to think happy thoughts, even as my older sister urged me to image the worst so that whatever did happen to me wouldn’t be as bad as I imagined. So of course, in my teens, I turned to my friends, and when it got too sad or too personal, I turned to my writing and to…

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. –  Dear BC Friends and Family,The 2025 Boston College football season has come to an end, and I share the great disappointment of many students, faculty, and staff as well as alumni and fans around the world.  While the team ended the season on a positive note by defeating Syracuse 34-12, the overall results on the field this year did not meet the standards of Boston College Athletics, nor the expectations rightfully held by those who care deeply about our program.Like many, I believe Coach O’Brien is the right man to be our head coach.  I also realize that Boston…

You know the famous aversion therapy scene from A Clockwork Orange when they stretch Malcolm McDowell’s eyelids wide open with a pair of clamps and force him to watch ultraviolent images? That’s what I thought of when I sat down on the couch to watch home videos of Rob a week or so before the unveiling of his headstone. I chose not to play Beethoven’s Ninth. The last time I had watched these blasts from the past was a few days after Rob died, when we were all miserably hanging out at my ex-wife Caryn’s house in Long Island. I…

If your planning to watch the Eli Roth slasher Thanksgiving this weekend, it wouldn’t be a bad time to bone up on some of his other works. Roth was once the golden boy of horror. The 53-year-old director and producer kind of changed the game in the early 2000s by re-invented the splatter film eventually creating a genre of his own called “torture porn.” Born in Newton, Massachusetts, Roth got behind the camera at an early age, shooting parodies or homages to horror movies popular at that time. Quentin Tarantino was a huge influence in Roth’s college years while attending…

Time loop movies are one of the more unique horror sub-genres. The same day repeating, the same mistakes being made, the same existential dread setting in. It’s a perfect recipe for horror. But some time loop movies go beyond the standard fare and deliver something truly remarkable. So, if you’re ready to get stuck in a loop of cinematic nightmares, here are some time loop horror gems that will have you questioning your sanity. For some of you, maybe even your life choices. Buckle up, things are about to get weird. Triangle (2009): The Ship of (Repeating) Nightmares This British-Australian…

President Trump will convene his Cabinet on Tuesday morning, amid controversy over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s role in ordering in a Caribbean strike that killed two survivors of an initial hit on their boat. Hegseth, who reportedly directed for the mission to “kill everybody,” on Monday night posted his support for the admiral in charge…

What will Robert Griffin III talk about next?The FOX college football analyst and 2011 Heisman Trophy winner, along with his wife Grete, tackles topics that go beyond sports every Monday on his podcast, “Outta Pocket With RGIII.”Did Lane Kiffin Backstab LSU? (12-1-25)RG3 breaks down the future of the SEC after head coach Lane Kiffin shook up the college football world by leaving Ole Miss for LSU. FOX Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt also stops by to chop it up about all the chaos around the game. Plus, RG3 gets into why BYU deserves every bit of praise they’re…

Apple TV’s Pluribus begins with an extraterrestrial virus merging the minds of nearly everyone on Earth into a shared consciousness. The new hive mind brings billions of bodies into perfect harmony, eliminating war, poverty, and loneliness. Meanwhile, Carol Sturka (played by Rhea Seehorn) is virtually the last true individual on Earth. We’re rooting for Carol, but she seems miserable compared to the “Joined.” Pluribus is about the conflict of the individual and the group, a subject that has long engaged behavioral psychologists. I describe a much-misunderstood experiment on this theme in the 20th anniversary edition of my book Fortune’s Formula:…

Going up against big studios to take your seat at the box office table is a gargantuan task. It’s like David going up against Goliath with a slingshot.  But Terror Films Releasing (TFR) has been doing just that for a decade. The horror film production and distribution company led by Joe Dain hasn’t stopped momentum and you’ve probably enjoyed at least a few of their offerings in the past. Films like Hell House LLC or Be My Cat, or The Taking of Deborah Logan come to mind.  With over 150 movies released in the last decade, including five Hell House…

I explore the challenges of bringing up boys in the world of the manosphere with Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss, author of the 2025 book Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism and the founding director of the Polarization and Extremism Research Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University. As a distinguished scholar and practitioner, Dr. Miller-Idriss offers recommendations for how to manage dangerous online misinformation. What follows is an interview about preparing for and potentially resolving problems with the manosphere and gendered violence. Robert Kraft: The manosphere presents itself as a friendly, self-help space for boys, building their…