Addiction is at an all-time high in the United States and the results are deadly. During the COVID-19 pandemic, binge drinking increased by 21 percent and drug overdoses claimed more than 100,000 lives in just a 12-month period.   

But what causes a person to develop an addiction? Why are substance use disorders so complicated to treat? And what new treatments are giving people hope that recovery is possible?  

MPR News shares “Substance Use & New Paths to Recovery,” a special broadcast from Call to Mind, American Public Media’s initiative to foster conversations about mental health.

Through in-depth interviews and reported stories, we hear firsthand from individuals who have recovered from substance use disorders, clinicians leading research to transform the treatment field, and experts who work to decriminalize substance use disorders.  

Call to Mind specials are hosted by Kimberly Adams, senior correspondent for APM’s Marketplace who covers mental health, politics, business and the economy from Washington, D.C.

Guests:

• Scott Edwards is an associate professor of physiology at LSU Health Sciences Center and the associate director at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) a T32 Program. 




• Yasmin Hurd is the director of the Addiction Institute within the Mount Sinai Behavioral Health System and the Ward Coleman Chair of Translational Neuroscience. She is also a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. 




• Carrie Kappel is a registered nurse and the board co-chair of the Minnesota Nursing Peer Support Network (NPSN), manager of operations of addiction services at Allina Health. 




• Dr. Joji Susuki is the director of the Division of Addiction Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.  

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS. 

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.