Born to be Mild (Paperback or Softback)

Born to be Mild is a misremembered memoir by former CBC journalist James Hees, who looks back with dark humour on a youth spent standing uncomfortably close to danger.

Growing up poor in a small town, Hees was a peculiar child whose imagination often blurred the line between fantasy and reality, leaving him in temporary fantasy episodes he called the movies in his mind. While others chased risk with boldness and bravado, he hesitated. That hesitation, he now believes, shaped the course of his life.

His world was anything but mild.

He drifted through a cast of unforgettable characters and a series of near-misses, where boredom turned dangerous and small decisions carried real consequences. From reckless stunts to close calls with disaster, he survived moments that should have ended differently. Told with sharp wit, self-deprecating humour, and unflinching honesty, these stories reveal that life is often stranger—and funnier—than fiction.

Radio became his refuge. Behind the microphone, Hees reinvented himself, moving from small-town stations to national broadcasting, even as addiction, grief, and the darker stories he covered as a journalist began to close in. Reporting during Edmonton's "dark years," he witnessed lives unravelling at the margins and confronted the uneasy truth that survival is not always earned.

With dark humour and unsentimental clarity, Born to be Mild reflects on cognitive issues, moral luck, and the strange mathematics of who lives, who falls, and who is left to tell the story.

Funny, poignant, and deeply human, Born to be Mild is a memoir about the stories we survive, the people who shape us, and the unexpected ways humour can carry us through life's darkest moments.

James Hees is a former CBC journalist whose work has received national and international acclaim. He has written and performed award-winning stories for CBC Radio and was nominated for an Alberta Film and Television Award for a CBC Television feature. Raised in a working-class community in British Columbia, he build his career in journalism after early stints as a wrestling announcer, obituary reader, country music deejay, actor, and stand-up comic. He lives in Edmonton with his wife, Nicolle.