Dan Harris opens with the moment that changed his life: having a panic attack live on air as a Good Morning America anchor, in front of millions of viewers.

What was actually happening beneath the surface:

• An ambitious, hard-driving journalist who'd covered war zones and thrived on adrenaline
• Quietly self-medicating accumulated stress and unprocessed trauma with cocaine and other substances
• The panic attack was the visible eruption of a much longer unraveling

Mortified, he became determined to find a way to manage his internal state that didn't rely on substances or sheer willpower. This sets up the book's central tension: a contemptuous skeptic, miserable enough to actually investigate meditation — something he'd have previously dismissed as incense-and-chanting nonsense unfit for a serious journalist.