RICO LOPEZ
Author • Podcaster • Radio Host • Speaker
Rico Lopez is the author of Ungovernable: The Man My Mother Never Met, a raw and deeply personal memoir about childhood trauma, bad decisions, survival, accountability, and the long road toward becoming a man he once couldn’t imagine being.
Rico’s story isn’t one of a perfect transformation or an easy redemption arc. His life has been complicated, messy, and at times painful. He has experienced instability, incarceration, consequences, loss, and the lasting impact of choices made while trying to survive circumstances he didn’t yet know how to process.
But Ungovernable isn’t about making excuses for those choices.
It’s about understanding where they came from—and proving that where a person starts does not have to determine where they finish.
Today, Rico uses the experiences he once wanted to leave behind to connect with others who may recognize pieces of themselves in his story. He is the host of the 8158 Podcast: Stories of Sacrifice, where he sits down with first responders, veterans, survivors, and others to have honest conversations about sacrifice, trauma, resilience, and life beyond the uniform.
He is also a radio personality and co-founder of Slightly Unhinged Radio, bringing the same candid, unapologetic personality to the microphone that readers encounter in Ungovernable.
Now, Rico is taking the message behind the book beyond its pages.
Through speaking engagements at correctional facilities, county jails, rehabilitation and reentry programs, community organizations, and other spaces serving people facing difficult chapters in their lives, Rico shares the message at the heart of Ungovernable: your past may shape you, but it does not have to define what comes next.
