josh, i can hear you erica so if you want to keep going and answer and hopefully we can have claire reconnect . >> host: can you hear me? >> yes claire, i can hear you, you're coming through fine but erica is going to go ahead and respond . >> guest: while we wait for claire to reconnect, i started drinking when i was about 13 and then i did a lot of other drugs then. it was the 90s, i was in high school. i did a lot of acid, ismoked weed . pretty minor stuff in the scale of things and i didn't really drink until, heavily until i was in my 30s and i didn't really do a lot of other drugs either. i mean, drinking was really my main squeeze once i really started. and i have been sober for 5 and a half years. my sobriety date is february 4 2015. and i have been writing basically since forever. i started writing when i was, started writing professionally when i was about 18, 19 in college . i started taking internships back in the days when internships were things that you did not get. technically, paid for. and i've just been doing it ever since. as an internist at the texas observer, started wri