Jordan Peterson

Early Life and Education

Jordan Peterson was raised in Fairview, Alberta. His father Walter was an elementary school teacher and administrator and served as Fairview’s fire chief, while his mother Beverley was the head librarian at the local campus of Grande Prairie College.

The librarian at Peterson’s junior high school, Sandy Notley (wife of Alberta NDP leader Grant Notley and mother of future Alberta premier Rachel Notley), encouraged his early interest in politics. At age 14, Peterson came within 13 votes of becoming a vice-president of the Alberta NDP. In a March 1977 interview with the Edmonton Journal, Peterson vowed that he wouldn’t “be happy until I’m elected prime minister.”

Peterson studied political science at Grande Prairie College and the University of Alberta, but grew obsessed with humanity’s capacity for evil and genocide amid the Cold War’s nuclear threats. While he earned an undergraduate degree in political science, Peterson later switched his field of study to psychology, earning a PhD at McGill University in 1991.

Career

Jordan Peterson worked as a professor in the psychology department at Harvard University between 1993 and 1997, where he developed a reputation as a popular instructor to whom students were sent if they had unusual project ideas. His research initially focused on alcohol and drug abuse.

In 1997, Peterson returned to Canada as a psychology professor at the University of Toronto, where he actively taught until 2017. He also established a clinical practice.

Published in 1999, Peterson’s first book, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief, explored how human lives are guided by myths and stories. It was a work Toronto Life later described as “a dense and difficult blend of psychology, mythology, philosophy, and neuroscience.” Peterson hosted a 13-part television series based on the book for TVO in 2004 and subsequently made regular appearances on The Agenda.

In 2013, Peterson began uploading his lectures onto YouTube, finding that the platform provided more force than written material.

Bill C-16 and Pronouns

On 27 September 2016, Jordan Peterson uploaded a video onto YouTube titled Professor against political correctness: Part I. In it he criticized Bill C-16, a federal amendment to the Canadian Human Rights Act and Criminal Code which would add gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds for discrimination. In the hour-long video Peterson discusses many topics, including the ways in which a climate of political correctness can lead to self-censorship, and his arguments against the idea that gender is independent of biological sex. In the months that followed, the video’s most oft-cited statement was Peterson’s declaration that he wouldn’t “recognize another person’s right to determine what pronouns I use to address them.” Peterson posted two additional videos in this series on political correctness, and testified against Bill C-16 in May 2017; it passed that summer.

Peterson’s stance on pronouns rocketed him to the forefront of public attention. Students staged protests for and against him on the University of Toronto campus. As complaints about his online content grew, Peterson found an audience for his perspectives; by June 2017 he had accumulated 300,000 followers on YouTube and was earning $30,000 a month in Patreon subscriptions.

Following his initial refusal to use non-traditional pronouns such as “they/them” in a singular context, Peterson seemed to soften his stance. During a debate on TVO’s The Agenda in October 2016 Peterson said that if society came to a consensus on pronouns, and that consensus solved “the problem properly, without sacrificing the distinction between singular and plural, and without requiring me to memorize an impossible list of an indefinite number of pronouns, then I would be willing to reconsider my position.”

12 Rules for Life

Published in 2018, Jordan Peterson’s book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote for Chaos became a best-seller. The book argues that a meaningful life is built on personal ethics and taking responsibility for one’s actions instead of trying to seek happiness. He undertook a 160-city speaking tour to promote the book, speaking to crowds of up to 3,000 people per event.

Health

Prone to health issues ranging from autoimmune disorders to depression, in early 2020 Jordan Peterson underwent an emergency drug detox treatment in Russia to alleviate a benzodiazepine dependency; benzodiazepines are a class of drugs used to treat anxiety among other conditions. In the summer of 2025, Peterson was hospitalized with pneumonia and sepsis. He had been battling neurological issues that his family believe stem from chronic inflammatory response syndrome following long-term mold exposure.

Professional Issues

In January 2022, Jordan Peterson resigned as professor from the University of Toronto. In an editorial published in the National Post, Peterson articulated his reasons for leaving his tenured teaching position. He cited the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion mandates as a chief concern, arguing that to characterize job or academic candidates primarily by their race, ethnicity or sexual orientation, and to weight these characteristics as more important than other qualifications, was wrong-headed.

Later that year, in June, Peterson was suspended from Twitter for violating the platform’s hateful conduct policy after commenting on actor Elliot Page’s gender transition. Following Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter in October 2022, Peterson’s account was reinstated.

Also in 2022, acting on complaints it had received, the Ontario College of Psychologists determined that Peterson’s social media posts may have been unprofessional and requested that he undertake a coaching program. While Peterson had ceased his clinical practice in 2017, he wished to retain his license, and claimed his public statements were not made as a clinical psychologist, nor were the complaints lodged by former clients. After an Ontario court ruled against him and the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear an appeal, Peterson agreed to undergo social media training in August 2024.

Personal Life

Jordan Peterson married Tammy Roberts, who he had known since childhood, in 1989. They have two children: Mikhaila, who has collaborated on his enterprises, and Julian.

In December 2024, Peterson announced that he intended to leave Canada for the United States, declaring on Mikhaila’s podcast that the federal government was “incompetent beyond belief” and that he was growing uncomfortable living in his Toronto neighbourhood. His home was sold in the summer of 2025.

Other Interests

With colleagues Daniel Higgins and Robert Pihl, Jordan Peterson created two websites to assist users with their personal lives, the Self Authoring Suite and UnderstandMyself. Peterson is also a founder of the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), established in 2023. Through research and conferences, ARC aims to “develop a more hope-filled vision for the future and re-lay the foundations of our civilisation,” according to their mission statement.

In 2024, Peterson and his daughter Mikhaila Fuller established Peterson Academy, a non-accredited online university offering courses in business, humanities, science and social sciences.

Books

Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief (1999)

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2018)

Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life (2021)

An ABC of Childhood Tragedy (Volume 1) (2022)

We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine (2024)