Author: Overcoming Adversity | Buteau’s Odyssey

I was definitely one of those people who said “Please” and “Thank you” to AI while interacting with it. On a recent podcast, I was asked if I use manners in case AI takes over the world. The question made me realize something: I’d stopped saying please and thank you to AI months ago, and not because I’d decided it won’t take over. I’d recognized that using manners was changing how I thought about it. I rarely thank my car or my maps app, which has helped me out of many sticky situations (though it has also gotten me into…

Guest Post by Natalie Leticia Gallón Kyiv, Ukraine—As Ukraine enters its fifth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion, a quieter crisis is unfolding. Beyond the front lines, the war’s brutality is leaving invisible wounds on the soldiers who fought to defend the country, exposing the long-term psychological toll of combat. With millions of soldiers estimated to be suffering from trauma-related conditions, not to mention civilians, Ukraine faces an urgent question: How will it treat the lasting mental scars of war? Among the emerging possibilities is psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) in treatment of war-related trauma, a controversial yet increasingly researched approach that some…

“I didn’t need a fucking dick to hold a camera.” That’s a poignant quote from multitalented filmmaker Mattie Do (Dearest Sister), one of the interviewees in Donna Davies’s (Creepy Cape Breton) 1000 Women in Horror. The documentary is written by and based on author Alexandra Heller-Nicholas’ 2020 book, 1000 Women in Horror: 1895-2018. It’s the kind of documentary that presents enough information that I feel satisfied when it’s over, but makes me excited to continue learning more about it on my own. Set to Teleportal’s “Pull the Trigger,” the opening credits sequence has traditional 1950s-looking characters surrounded by random horror…

When it comes to the work of legendary horror author Anne Rice and her iconic series The Vampire Chronicles, most conversations inevitably circle the same familiar figures: Lestat de Lioncourt, the Brat Prince himself, and his beautiful, tragic companion Louis de Pointe du Lac. Surrounding them are even more memorable men — Armand, Marius de Romanus, Daniel Molloy, and many more — all contributing to a wider vampiric history that, predominantly, has been dominated by white male figures. That particular focus reflects the world into which the books were written, a world steeped in ancient aristocracies, old patriarchies, and centuries…

You meet someone at a hotel breakfast table, on a walking tour, or during a delayed flight. Within hours, you are exploring a city together, sharing meals and swapping life stories. Sometimes the conversations feel more honest than those with people you have known for years. Then the trip ends. It can leave you wondering: Was that even a real friendship? Psychologically, the answer is yes—but it may belong to a category of relationships that exist only within a particular moment in time. The Psychology of Liminal Friendships Travel places people in what anthropologists call a liminal space—a transitional state…

Daily Dead readers are undoubtedly familiar with the work of Daniel Kraus, from Whalefall and Angel Down to co-authoring The Shape of Water with Guillermo del Toro and The Living Dead and Pay the Piper with George A. Romero. Now he’s back with Partially Devoured: How Night of the Living Dead Saved My Life and Changed the World, a deep dive into one of the greatest horror films ever made. Many of us owe our careers and love of horror to Romero’s landmark 1968 film, and Kraus’ Partially Devoured details both the cultural impact of the film, as well as the…

In my drinking days, I searched for answers to these questions for years: How do I quit drinking for good? What can I do to break my drinking patterns once and for all? Today, people come to me with the same questions. Despite calling myself an empowered alcohol-free coach, the truth is I don’t have an answer to those. Because making life changes rarely lies within a single decision. It often consists of many small decisions. In acceptance and commitment therapy, this is called a choice point, and it’s something that shows up again and again in how people relate…

Jamie Lee Curtis was not holding back any punches when talking about producer Jason Blum and her experience working with him. At her recent appearance at SXSW the actress participated in a panel titled “If Not Now, When, if Not Me, Who? Pivoting and Manifesting,” when she spoke abut making David Gordon Green’s horror film Halloween […]

My two best friends in the literary world are Anna Karenina and Winnie the Pooh. One tells me continually that romantic love is a sucker’s game, the other that friendship is forever. But Tolstoy’s classic isn’t just about friendship; it’s a how-to manual on how to not end up under a train. If Anna had just had a good friend to talk to, who, metaphorically speaking, had slapped some sense into her, there might have been a happier ending to that story. Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, as we all know, are the epitome of true love. “We’ll be friends…

In Over Your Dead Body, till death do us part can’t come soon enough. That’s not surprising if you’ve seen Tommy Wirkola’s Norwegian original, The Trip. Jorma Taccone’s American remake opts for a more cartoonish, comedy-forward take that keeps the graphic violence. It’s an antithetical romantic comedy until it’s not, finding hilarity in a couple’s apparent hatred for one another (at least to start). Taccone, who helped shape an entire generation’s sense of humor thanks to SNL Digital Shorts, makes us laugh as bullets fly and blood gushes. Although I’d warn against watching The Trip beforehand, since Wirkola’s nasty piece…