David and Ecem

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In 2022, I had just climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and I was tired. Six countries in a row will do that to you, so I went to Zanzibar, because it looked like the nicest place to sit still for a while and write.

The plan was a travel log. Turns out writing a travel log is pretty boring, at least the way I was writing it. I was still very new at this. So I told myself: okay, I’ll write a novel instead.

I’m David Galle, and that novel became Digital Asylum, my debut. It comes out November 11. This is why I wrote it.

Key Takeaways

1. It started with PTSD. I lived it, and I wanted to give something back to the veteran community.
2. Sci-fi made it interesting. Black Mirror style futures are how I like to think about hard stuff.
3. Flow came from The Circle. One company in everything could do huge good, or huge harm.
4. Meditation is the heart of it. It helped me more than anything else.
5. Marlow is a jerk on purpose. That’s what PTSD often looks like up close.

So where did the idea come from?

I’d known for a long time that I wanted to write about post-traumatic stress disorder. I went through it, both in Afghanistan with the Army and after. The veteran community is extremely important to me. The military is foundational in my life, and I wanted to contribute something.

I wanted to teach people what we actually understand about PTSD today, but in a way that was interesting. And what I find interesting is sci-fi, especially those Black Mirror style dystopian futures.

So when I sat down in Zanzibar and brainstormed, it clicked. PTSD. Giving back to my community. Teaching people inside a story they’d actually want to read.

A quick, honest note. I’m not a psychologist. I’ve read many books about PTSD, and I’ve lived it. You might learn something from Digital Asylum, but professional help is the best help. Along with meditation, of course, because that’s the core of the book. If you’re struggling, talk to a professional.

That’s also why I love speculative fiction. Tech and science are full of moral gray areas, and a story is a safe place to bring them up.

Why build a world where one company runs everything?

Honestly? Mostly because of Dave Eggers’ The Circle. I read it in a college English course a long time ago. The book is okay. It’s not my favorite. But I liked the idea of one giant tech company that watches too much, where sharing all that information causes problems.

A true monopoly of information could be the greatest benefit and the greatest drawback at the same time. If it were completely benevolent, a company like Flow could do so much good. If Flow is in everything, everything flows, right? You could ask it for a car, whether you took your medicine, or to remind you about laundry. That only works if Flow is in everything, including your washing machine.

In my mind, Flow is the product range of Xiaomi, the integration of Apple, the intelligence of Alphabet, and the social reach of Meta, all in one. In the book, Flow runs your phone, your commute, the Flow Stream, and even the car that rates you. It runs hospitals too, and a big part of its medical research is about understanding human psychology so it can make better products.

But there’s no benevolent utopia. Flow has a bottom line, and at the end of the day that’s profit.

So Flow outsources some of its morality to companies like the one Marlow works for. That idea came from Barbara F. Walter’s How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them. It shows how social media has already fueled real conflict. In Myanmar, Facebook did little to stop calls for violence.

So I figured a future company like Flow would hire an outside firm to check that it isn’t inciting violence. They’d do the bare minimum. But nobody checks whether Flow is manipulating us into buying stuff we don’t need. That kind of morality slips through the cracks, especially in the United States.

Ecem dug deeper into the company in Inside Flow: The Company That Runs Everything in Digital Asylum.

Why put meditation at the center of a sci-fi book?

Years ago, I read that therapy and meditation each help with PTSD, but together they work even better. I couldn’t find that study again, and the research I can find is still early. But it matches my own life.

I started with therapy. It didn’t fully cure my PTSD, but it got me interested. I started reading about the neuroscience of PTSD, and that eventually led me to meditation.

Meditation was always something I was curious about but never understood. When I was about 20, I asked a meditation teacher, “What are you supposed to do? Just sit there and not think about anything? That doesn’t make any sense.” I didn’t walk away any wiser.

It wasn’t until Headspace that it clicked. That app teaches a complete beginner the basics extremely well. Then I found the Waking Up app by Sam Harris, which is a wealth of information. I modeled some of Lucie’s meditations in the book on his. In Digital Asylum, the first thing Lucie teaches Marlow is how to breathe.

Eventually I hit a wall. Okay, I get it, but can I do more? Joseph Goldstein, in one of his talks on Waking Up, described a retreat where meditation is the only thing you do. Ten days. No talking. Nothing else to distract your mind.

Since then I’ve done two 10-day Vipassana retreats. The courses in the S.N. Goenka tradition are a little harsh, and I wouldn’t recommend them to everybody. But they get the job done, and they run on donations. That’s an important resource.

Personally, I got more out of meditation than therapy. But using both makes a lot of sense to me.

The neuroscience matters here too. Meditation strengthens the connection between your prefrontal cortex (the thinking part) and your limbic system (the emotional part). PTSD or not, that will make your life better. It gives you space. You won’t get dragged through life by the whims of your emotions.

That doesn’t mean emotions are bad. It means you get to choose whether an emotion is the right one for the moment. We can all use that.

Why make Marlow sarcastic and not always likable?

One of my friends read it and asked, “Why’d you make him an asshole?”

Because most people you meet with PTSD aren’t comfortable to be around. They can be mean. A lot of that comes from the PTSD itself. And the only way I could show Marlow being a jerk was to make him a jerk.

He doesn’t always make the best decisions. Good stories usually have lovable characters, and Marlow isn’t exactly lovable. That might hurt the novel. People don’t love reading about people they don’t like.

But I wanted it to be realistic. A lot of the veterans I know are extra messed up, because the military trains you to be hard on people, and then PTSD piles on top. Those are exactly the people who need help.

What do I hope you take away?

First, I hope you enjoy the story. Second, I hope you notice there are layers.

I want you to question your technology and how much of yourself you give it, especially social media. Every day we teach our tech what kind of people we are. Then it uses that to sell us things we don’t need. I never say that directly in the book, but I want you to walk away thinking about how you use your devices.

And I want you to come away knowing a little more about meditation and the neuroscience of PTSD. Not “this is how you cure PTSD.” Just what PTSD actually is, and what’s happening in your brain.

If I had to boil it down to one sentence: if you close the book knowing a little more about PTSD and thinking twice about how much of yourself you give your phone, I did my job.

If one origin story isn’t enough

For the spoiler-free pitch, start with Why Digital Asylum by David Galle Is a Must-Read for 2026. For the company behind it all, read Inside Flow.

Digital Asylum comes out Wednesday, November 11. Mark November 11 on your calendar. Buying it that day helps a debut novel climb the charts more than anything else you can do.

Quick answers

1. What is Digital Asylum about? Marlow is 32, sarcastic, and grieving. His way forward is a brand-new therapy from Flow, the company that runs almost everything.
2. Is it based on a true story? No. It grew out of my own experience with PTSD and meditation, but Marlow’s story is fiction.
3. Do I need to know anything about meditation to read it? Not at all. Marlow starts out knowing nothing either.
4. Is the book a replacement for therapy? No. If you’re struggling, talk to a professional.
5. When and where can I buy it? November 11 on Amazon. Kindle is $4.99 and the paperback is $11.99.

Follow @david.galle on Instagram for launch day.