Dan MacQueen (he/him)

Dan joined Momma on February 2, 2026 for a live Q&A via Twitch and YouTube to talk about Traumatic Brain Injuries, Gamification & Rebuilding

About Dan

At 28, Dan was leading a healthy, active life. After an optometrist appointment to identify the cause of his persistent headaches was cut short, he was handed a sealed envelope and told to go directly to the hospital. What followed, was emergency brain surgery. On June 21, 2014, Dan's reality was shattered by a devastating brain hemorrhage. With no map to guide him on the grueling path to recovery, Dan had to rely on his grit, perseverance, and resilience to relearn everything he once knew: how to walk, talk and even smile.

Dan has survived two emergency brain surgeries, weeks in a coma, and months in a rehab hospital. What he found out along the way might surprise you: there is nothing like a brain injury to refocus the mind! Driven by a positive mindset, Dan battled through excruciating rehab exercises to rebuild his life and return to a job he loved. 

He’s grateful for the doctors who saved him and the friends and family who supported him. Now he wants to pay it forward. The tools Dan used to build back his life can be used by anyone facing challenges. He reveals strategies to help folks be #BetterThanYesterday and achieve their goals, one step at a time. His action-oriented life hacks help others tackle anything they face.

Socials / Links for Guest Connection

• Website - http://www.macqueendan.com/

• Twitter / X - https://twitter.com/macqueendan

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/macqueendan/

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielmacqueen/

References / Things Mentioned During the Stream

• Show Recommendation: Breaking Bad

• Book Recommendations: Ryan Holiday on Stoicism

• Whoop Strap

• Confucius Quote - “We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.”

• Favorite Poem - Invictus by William Ernest Henley

Episode Summary

This episode is equal parts gut punch and practical toolkit, built for people who are tired of being told to just stay positive.

Dan MacQueen was 28 years old when an optometrist appointment changed everything. What started as persistent headaches and a terrifying moment of blindness on a London tube platform ended with an emergency brain surgery, a massive hemorrhage, four weeks in a coma and months of relearning how to walk, talk and smile. In this episode of Even Tacos Fall Apart, Dan sits down to talk about what it really took to rebuild his life and the framework he now uses to help others do the same.

Dan is quick to point out that he is not some extraordinary person. His brain scans came back average after two emergency surgeries, and he took that as a good sign. His whole approach to recovery and resilience is built on the idea that anyone can do this. You do not need to be exceptional. You need to be willing to try, fail, and try again.

A huge part of how Dan made it through was gamifying his recovery. From timing how long it took to get into a wheelchair and shaving five minutes off each week, to tracking his swim laps in a notes app going back years, he turned the grind of rehab into something he could measure, compete against and win. He talks about the Monopoly strategy he pulled on his family, the icebreaker hack he developed for walking through crowded London streets and how Mario Kart taught him more about navigating life patterns than he expected.

Dan also gets into the three things that drove him forward: proving people wrong, proving people right and being of service to others. His nurse planted the seed of that first one when she pointed across a park and told him the kids over there did not think he was good enough to talk. He yelled back across that park loud enough for everyone to hear. Spite works. So does love. Ride whatever wave shows up.

One of the most practical tools Dan shares is his decision-a-day framework. Every morning you decide that today you are going to fight. Tomorrow you decide again. You do not have to commit to the whole mountain, just the next step. Pair that with his aim small, miss small approach to building habits and you have a system that is genuinely hard to argue with. He went from two minutes of morning meditation to twenty. One block of walking to a full route. Five minutes in the pool to over a hundred laps.

This episode covers traumatic brain injury recovery, stoicism, gamification, resilience, motivation and what it actually means to be better than yesterday. Dan is still in the thick of it, still having eye surgeries, still stumbling through the back streets, and still showing up. That is exactly what makes this conversation worth your time.