Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction

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This week on Dopey! Dave’s friend Anthony from the beach brings a lifetime of hardcore Long Island Dopey: childhood exorcisms, crack, heroin, bad checks, pistol-whippings, and getting shot in his father’s church van—with ten bundles of dope hidden in the dashboard and a kitten along for the ride.

Growing up with a preacher father, a painful family breakup, and a frightening stay in a psychiatric hospital at thirteen, Anthony found acceptance in weed, deli work, and the nickname “Stoner.” Then cocaine turned into crack, crack turned into heroin, and years disappeared into rehabs, shelters, hustles, and the conviction that he could always land on his feet. Along the way: stealing his mother’s wedding ring, selling the car she bought him, smoking crack on the ride to rehab, and shopping for treatment like he was booking a resort vacation.

Anthony tells Dave about a massive heroin habit, a robbery crew that missed the $5,000 in his pocket, living in his father’s church parking lot, and watching his car hood fly off on Sunrise Highway—then continuing straight to the dealer. After surviving throat cancer and returning to drugs, a cocaine relapse with his girlfriend Maggie brought terrifying paranoia, imaginary pursuers, and another attempt to cast out demons with his dad.

But the story doesn’t end there. Anthony shares what finally changed: wanting to stop, getting honest, working the steps, going to therapy, rebuilding his relationship, and returning to school to become an addiction counselor. Today, the victories include a wedding on the horizon, matching bedding, seasonal dish towels, and spoons that haven’t been used to cook drugs.

PLUS! DopeyCon preparations, a kratom company’s sponsorship offer, Wiley’s bloody-rig-and-fire-pit meth voicemail, a listener’s desperate struggle with alcohol, an ephedrine experiment gone wrong, and the Kevin O’Leary backlash. Dave reads the love and hate and considers what it means when the show he makes is also “our show.”

All that AND more! On this New New New SUPER CLASSIC NEW episode of that good old DOPEY Shoe - errrr Show!

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This week on Dopey’s Greatest Hits! As DopeyCon approaches, we return to the first DopeyCon at the Church of the Holy Apostles for a sprawling night of drugs, addiction, dumb shit, music, comedy, and recovery.

Brandon Novak shares the extremes of his heroin addiction—including letting a man shave his asshole for ten dollars—and the very different life he’s built helping people through his sober houses. Andy Roy joins him for skateboarding chaos, a Washington Square Park encounter with David Lee Roth getting arrested, throwing a forty-ounce bottle at a food truck, and the intervention intended for Bam Margera that became Andy’s opportunity to get help.

PLUS! Chloe LaBranche delivers dark rehab comedy, Maia Szalavitz talks harm reduction and the surprising connection between Katz’s and needle-exchange activism, and Smiling Joe brings decades of addiction and recovery experience—including stealing a box of enormous silk bloomers to sell for heroin money. Erin Khar remembers finding black tar heroin hidden in her sweater while desperately sick at the Plaza Hotel, and MC Serch tells the story of finding recovery after his wife’s ultimatum, plus a weed-smoking disaster involving a terrified producer stranded on the Triborough Bridge.

Along the way: messages from Marc Maron and Artie Lange, music from the Dopey family, memories of Chris from his former partner Annie and Joe Schrank, Chris’s mushrooms-and-Jesus story, a chaotic trivia game, Linda’s moving account of coming to understand Dopey, and Alan facing a very suspicious appearance from “New York City Sarah.” All that and much more on DopeyCon 2022!

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Episode summary

This week on the Wednesday Dose of Dopey!, Photographer and adventurer Justin  Krompier, known on Instagram as Just Passing Through, shares his journey from suburban New Jersey opioid addiction to building a life around recovery, creativity, and the open road.

Justin traces his early relationship with prescription medication, his fascination with drug culture, and the college painkiller habit that eventually became heroin addiction. Along the way: padding his student-film budget to buy pills, getting paid to participate in cosmetic testing, offering dealers gas instead of money, getting robbed at knifepoint in his pajamas, and crushing up his remaining pills while a police officer approached his totaled car. In an eerie connection, that last incident mirrors the overdose story he had already turned into his senior thesis film.

After a relapse at the Peach Music Festival, a Christmas visit from his cousin helped Justin finally recognize his addiction. Watching Wild also awakened the possibility of a different life. He returned to treatment, embraced a twelve-step fellowship, and slowly rebuilt—delivering pizzas, working at UPS, and developing his photography between shifts. A trip to Yosemite and Big Sur eventually inspired him to leave UPS, build out a van with help from his recovery community, and pursue the adventures he once believed were impossible.

All that and MORE on this week's Dopey Dose!

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This week on the teaser! Heart Attack Doug returns, and Dave asks him about the year he spent drinking after roughly 16 years sober. Doug had stopped going to meetings, filled his time working on his house, and one night bought a case of beer while snowblowing. He hid cans in snowdrifts, drank for about a year, and eventually returned to recovery. There was no dramatic rock bottom: he says he felt miserable, dishonest, and disconnected from his family and spiritual life.

Dave and Doug also get into the reaction to the Kevin O’Leary interview, what belongs on a Friday episode of Dopey, and whether sex, love, and gambling addiction fit the show. Then they read comments on Ray’s episode and preview the DopeyCon theme song challenge.

GO TO PATREON FOR FULL THEME SONG CONTEST!

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THIS WEEK ON THE DOPEY TOTAL REPLAY! 

With DopeyCon less than a week away, Dave opens with news about Presley Gerber’s death at a Santa Monica recovery residence, recalling the time he got heroin brought into his own treatment facility. He also discusses reports about cychlorphine, a potent synthetic opioid identified in a San Francisco teenager’s death, then reads listener reactions to the Nick Reiner replay.

The show returns to episode 46 with Dave, Chris, Caitlin, and Colin. Chris’s attempt to date his hairdresser turns into an argument about scalp massages, roommates, and what actually happened. Caitlin tells the story of losing her boyfriend after a Deer Tick concert and spending the night on a Bronx football field between two strangers who helped her get home. Colin recalls Chris arriving in Great Barrington determined to get sober, the relapse that followed, and the friends who got him back to treatment. Then Colin tells his own blackout story: hiding under a log during a police raid, sheltering in a barn, and waking up beside a wrecked golf cart with a DUI charge. They finish by debating whether Dopey needs more structure, six months into making the show.

All that and a bit more on the old/new version of episode 46!

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This week on Dopey! Kevin O’Leary comes to the Dopey Studio for a conversation that starts with Shark Tank and gets into what drives him. He tells Dave about the job that pushed him toward entrepreneurship, why chasing wealth for status leaves people miserable, and the strange emptiness he felt once he was rich. They talk about his attempt to retire, his love of guitars and photography, alcohol, performance, and his wish for more time. Dave also takes him through “This or That,” with answers on music, watches, the Knicks, Trump, and his fellow Sharks.

Before Kevin arrives, listener Adam brings the unmistakably Dopey story: he swallows a balloon of heroin during a jail visit and later has to retrieve it without gloves. Dave shares DopeyCon news, reads some reactions to Garrett McClendon’s episode, and tries splitting listener comments between the beginning and end of the show.

All that and more on a not too Dopey but NEW Dopey episode of that good old Dopey show. 

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Episode summary

This week on Dopey's Greatest Hits! With DopeyCon’s game show edition coming up on October 3, Dave revisits the COVID-era DopeyCon 2. He opens by remembering the work that went into making a remote convention and the community members lost along the way, especially Colleen MC, to whom the original event was dedicated. An Australian listener then tells a mushroom story about falling deeply in love with a “tree” that turned out to be an ordinary yucca bush.

The replay brings together Dopey Nation voices and guests including Marc Maron, Bam Margera, Jessica Kent, Mike Majlak, Brandon Novak, Bob Forrest, Dr. Nzinga Harrison and Dr. Drew. Anders Osborne performs “Mind of a Junkie,” Scout Willis sings, and Dave visits places tied to Dopey’s beginnings. The stories move between absurd drug use and the lives people have built in recovery. Near the end, Dave remembers Colleen’s kindness and service to others; Alan then helps deliver a gloriously awkward final review.

Alll that and somehow more in the newest new old episode of dopey ever!

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LIVE WITH GABBY AT 28 Minutes in!

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Episode summary

On a special LIVE Wednesday Dose of DOPEY from Covington, Kentucky, Dave sits down with TikTok creator, entrepreneur and military veteran Gabbie Egan to talk about addiction, denial and the unexpected experience that finally convinced her to get sober.

Before the live conversation, Dave reflects on the AA principle that recovery can only be kept by giving it away, announces Gabbie’s upcoming appearance at DopeyCon and offers free admission to anyone who genuinely cannot afford a ticket. Listener Dean takes him up on the offer and sends a classic Dopey story about stealing his mother’s car to buy heroin in the Bronx, hitting a motorcyclist and fleeing with bundles scattered throughout the vehicle.

At the Transitions recovery event, Gabbie explains how she became pregnant at 13, struggled with trauma and domestic violence, joined the military at 17 and continued drinking while outwardly remaining productive and successful. During the pandemic, her candid videos about motherhood attracted millions of followers, but arrests in Las Vegas and Nashville eventually began threatening her family, career and reputation.

Even then, Gabbie remained convinced that alcohol wasn’t the problem. Her turning point came when a friend invited her to Los Angeles under the premise of appearing on a podcast—then brought her to her first AA meeting. Hearing another woman tell her story finally allowed Gabbie to recognize herself and admit, “I’m the problem.”

Gabbie describes the identity crisis and unhappiness of her first year sober, the peace she eventually made with her 13-year-old self and the freedom she found through forgiveness. Dave discusses Chris’s relapse and death, the necessity of maintaining recovery and the opportunity sober people have to transform painful experiences into service.

During the audience Q&A, Gabbie speaks about judgment, accountability, family reactions and learning to enjoy being home. The episode closes with an archival Dopey story in which Dave remembers walking against the crowd on September 11, 2001, persuading an armed soldier to let him reach his methadone clinic and then spending the remainder of the day shooting heroin.
 

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Episode summary

This week on the Tuesday Teaser! Ray Brown returns to Dopey—and leaves with a new job. After debating whether he should now be called Ray, Steven or “Stefan,” Dave offers him a position as Dopey’s new part-time engineer, largely because he lives ten blocks away and allegedly spends all day watching YouTube.

Dave explains the production disasters that plagued his recent interviews with Stephanie Wittels Wachs and Jason Biggs, including forgotten recordings, duplicated camera angles and an emotionally vulnerable moment captured completely out of focus. From there, Dave and Ray compare dental nightmares before discussing Ray’s frightening summer of shingles, skin cancer and general physical deterioration.

Ray previews a new song for DopeyCon while Dave reveals that the annual DopeyCon theme-song contest currently has almost no entries. They then read listener reactions to the emotional return of Heart Attack Doug, revisit Dave and Doug’s falling-out, and discuss anger, avoidance, friendship, accountability and the difficulty of repairing a rupture.

The episode also includes Beatles opinions, the whereabouts of Ray Brown, GLP-1 medications, Dave’s habit of leaving people on read, Selby blaming everything on Dave, kitchen-sink laundry, Old Spice, Aqua Velva and an unpaid endorsement for Dr. Squatch Pine Tar deodorant.

All that and more on the teaser - but there is way way more if you sign up for Patreon and hear the whole show!

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Summary:

On this haunting Dopey Total Replay, Dave revisits the second half of Chris and Dave’s original conversation with Nick Reiner. Before the replay, Dave responds to listeners struggling with the episode in light of everything that happened afterward, reflects on Chris’s instinct for keeping the show on track, and explains why hearing both Chris and Nick together now feels like opening a bizarre and painful time capsule.

In the original conversation, Nick describes shooting cocaine for the first time in a McDonald’s bathroom after getting kicked out of sober living, while Dave and Chris trade their own stories about cocaine, meth, speedballs and the terrifying paranoia that followed. Nick traces his first heroin use back to people he met in adolescent treatment, raising difficult questions about sending young people into rehab before they are ready to stop.

The conversation moves through Skid Row, fake movie money, complicated relationships with dealers, privilege, family expectations and the pain of watching parents enter a world they never imagined for their children. Nick talks about growing up in the Reiner family, his father visiting him in jail immediately after attending his sister’s Harvard graduation, and his desire to escape the identity attached to wealth and Hollywood.

The episode closes with a disturbing listener story about sexual exploitation by a rehab counselor, followed by an unusually revealing debate between Dave, Chris and Nick about abstinence, controlled use and whether recovery would eventually become necessary. Looking back, Chris’s final prediction—“more will be revealed”—lands very differently today.

These all land at clean subject changes:

1. 00:14:28 — Immediately before the original Nick Reiner replay
2. 00:23:43 — After the cocaine/meth paranoia section
3. 00:35:06 — Before the Permanent Midnight discussion
4. 00:46:41 — Before Nick’s Gawker/Malibu rehab story
5. 00:58:14 — After the listener email and before the closing recovery debate

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