Joe and Amy welcome back Sean Paul Mahoney, writer, recovery advocate and program manager for the Mental Health and Addiction Association of Oregon to talk about people addicted to fentanyl, why methadone is a better alternative than Suboxone for fentanyl users, relapses and death among recovery workers and the overlooked rise in alcohol deaths.

Joe and Amy chat with  Lt. Jeff Gauthier of the Milwaukee Fire Department, sober for 28 years. He talks to us about the mental health crisis and substance abuse among firefighters as well as his work in the Peer Support Team, breaking the stigma and shame and getting them the help they need. We also discuss his work with MORI, the Milwaukee Overdose Response Initiative and the frustrating cycle he sees but also the unique position he’s in as a person in recovery to elicit empathy in his fellow firefighters and connect with the people he goes to revive. Visit our sponsor for 20% off Clean Cause 

Joe and Amy talk with Kevin F., who got clean from heroin 11 years ago by taking ibogaine. After a few years in traditional 12 step groups, feeling alienated by his ibogaine experience and continued interest in psychedelics, he formed “Psychedelics in Recovery”, a growing 12 step fellowship composed of people utilizing psychedelics as a recovery integration tool.  We ask him if psychedelics and 12 step really can co-exist, what his group considers “sobriety” and why people gloss over Bill Wilson’s own use of psychedelics. Visit our sponsor for 20% off Clean Cause 

Joe and Amy sit down with Patrick Reilly, currently the Clinic Manager of a Medication Assisted Opioid Treatment Program in Milwaukee Wisconsin and one of the cohosts of the “Don’t Die Wisconsin” podcast.  We talk about his transition from working in residential treatment to  harm reduction,  why he feels it’s so important for abstinent people to support all pathways to recovery and specifically his appearance at the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety to legalize fentanyl testing strips. Visit our sponsor for 20% off Clean Cause 

Joe and Amy sit down with Dr. Susan Pierce Thompson, Adjunct Associate Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester, a multiple New York Times bestselling author, and an expert in the psychology of eating. We talk food addiction, why it can be harder to beat than drugs or alcohol, what sugar does to the brain, and how to rewire your brain. Visit our sponsor for 20% off Clean Cause

Joe and Amy interview Carl Erik Fisher, addiction physician, bioethicist and assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University. We talk about his own addiction journey during med school and his new book “The Urge:  Our History of Addiction”.

Joe and Amy sit down with Joanna Conti, a serial entrepreneur. After becoming frustrated with the lack of success rate data available as her daughter cycled in and out treatment programs, she started a research firm to independently collect data in order to answer the critical question “what are the outcomes of rehab?”

Joe and Amy sit down with Dr. Peter Grinspoon, primary care physician, cannabis specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and  an Instructor at Harvard Medical School. He is also the author of the  memoir ‘Free Refills: A Doctor Confronts His Addiction’.  We discuss his own addiction, cannabis, his take on 12 step and why there aren’t earlier interventions and less punitive routes for doctors facing SUD.

Joe and Amy welcome back journalist and writer Duff McDonald to talk about his new book “Tickled: A Common Sense Guide to the Present Moment”, a radical departure from his 5 previous books. Duff describes his wild epiphany during the pandemic which taught him to live in the present moment.  We talk sobriety, why it’s so difficult to tolerate uncertainty, and his practical way of living in the now.

Joe and Amy sit down with Dr. Joseph Yi, a Board Certified Addiction Psychiatrist who specializes in Holistic Psychiatry and Detoxification.  He gives us the low down on the “4 pillars of wellness”, the role of nutrition in mental health and recovery, the rise of technology addiction and his personal take on psychedelics and cannabis.