I saw this asked on another instance, thought I’d ask it here and I’ll post my response from there in the comments as I think it felt cathartic.
Doesn’t need to be a life or death situation, just any moment in your life where you found yourself saying “Holy shit, I can’t believe this is happening!”
I am sorry you had to find out about your dads secret life, I can’t imagine what that felt like.
As for the Putin thing. I have so many questions.
Without getting into traceable details, government science advisors often work with large universities so that’s where the connection is.