After losing his best friend to suicide, battling his own mental health challenges, including decades of passive suicidal ideation, and better understanding what was (and was not) available to attempt survivors, ideators or other struggling, Sean created the Suicide Noted podcast in the summer of 2020 in an effort to help more people in more places feel a little less shitty and a little less alone. He has since had more than 280 open conversations with survivors from around the world, including 45 U.S. states and 24 countries.
Sean is also the creator and curator of True Stories that Matter, an organization dedicated to helping honest people tell hard stories on stages of all kinds. His own stories and talks have been featured on several national platforms, including TEDx, the Moth, the Risk! podcast, Story Collider, USA Today Storytellers Project, Stories from the Stage, Story Jam, This is My Brave and NAMI NC. In 2022, he wrote and performed his second full-length solo show, The Space Between, which combines personal narrative storytelling and public audio from his podcast.
Sean received a Masters Degree in Education from Fordham University and has spent 30 years presenting in classrooms, performing on stages and speaking into microphones. He has spent the bulk of the last 15 years doing what he can to create spaces for people, particularly those who are often overlooked, silenced and marginalized, to be seen, heard and hopefully understood. In addition to the Suicide Noted podcast, this work has included:
- Talk of Hope, community radio program/speaker series in NC
- Buenos Aires Storytelling, open mic in English
- Sotto Voce, documentary theater company in NC
- Life Out Loud, immersive theater and live lit performances in Argentina
- Oxford Seminars, trainer for international language teachers
Moving forward, Sean’s primary goals are to expand the reach and impact of his message by continuing to grow the podcast and speaking on more stages - both in person and virtually - around the world.
