The Hopeaholics
The Hopeaholics
Addicted to Hope
Being Addicted to Founding a Record Label w/ Blake Mathews | The Hopeaholics Podcast #340
1 hour 17 minutes Posted Jun 30, 2026 at 12:00 am.
Intro
Meet Blake Matthews
Handing flip flops to a barefoot stranger in 100 degree heat
The fentanyl crisis hiding in plain sight
The DM Chad got this morning
Chad's stance on calling it fentanyl poisoning
Adopted at birth, and the search for belonging
Functioning addict, DJing weddings since age 13
Chasing music to Nashville, and hitting a wall
The night he called his dad
What his graduation photos actually showed
Moving home, and walking away from music
Relapse, one beer with an old friend
The mountain hike that changed everything
The recover out loud movement
Connection as the opposite of addiction
The lie that drugs make you more creative
Bringing music into treatment centers and prisons
The starving artist trap
First job in recovery, teaching kids life skills
Leaving it all to go full time into Sober House Records
Opening his first sober living home
Raised Jewish, and why Jesus was a bad word
Two strangers praying in a coffee shop
The 10pm Bible study that didn't end until 4am
The night he gave his life to Jesus
Inside his album, Unbury Your Burdens
Still wrestling with depression after finding faith
Stacking wins
The fastest way out of depression
How his family sees him now
What Formerly Intoxicated actually does
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Show notes
In this episode of The Hopeaholics Podcast, Blake Mathews shares his story of addiction, adoption, and finding faith through music. Adopted at birth and raised in a Jewish household in Phoenix, Blake started DJing weddings and bar mitzvahs at 13 and built a career in music and nightlife while quietly hiding a worsening addiction for over a decade. By the time he moved to Nashville in 2014 to chase a career in the arts, he was a high functioning alcoholic leaning on psychedelics, convinced the...