Jason W. Park is the author of two memoirs, a number of short stories and personal essays, a scientific research note and eight Op-Ed’s. His writings typically revolve around the hero’s quest, or more generally speaking, a significance-laden journey. In it, Jason finds himself under constant adversity, weakness and danger, but still can summon the will for self-sacrifice (hence, heroism), for the sake of all humanity.

His more recent projects have redirected from purely literary to public policy. For example, one topic is how “dual diagnosis” or “co-occurring disorder” – mental illness and drug addiction combined – leads to homelessness and incarceration. Jason also weighs in on how the state of California’s mental health system can be improved upon – an issue touching close to home for him.

Finally, a recently emergent theme for Jason is what roles untreated mental illness, easy access to guns and absent law enforcement have in mass shootings. In that vein, Jason attempts to understand the “gun rights vs. gun control” debate less as hopelessly acrimonious and more as positively conciliatory, which could ally conservatives, liberals and moderates around effective gun policy.