Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction

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NOTE: I forgot to mention it was first Chris's 'hooping the shooter' mention - and i ate expired cereal during the whole show - and it was pretty gross.

This week on the total replay! Dave opens the Monday replay talking about bringing his daughters into Manhattan for a museum day, taking them to the Met, walking through the city, and feeling grateful to be sober enough to do it. He also talks about how exhausting it is carrying recording gear back and forth to the city every week.

He plays a voicemail from a listener who mixed kratom with alcohol after losing weight and wound up diving through a window, running through a retirement community covered in blood, and waking up in the hospital. Dave reads an email from another listener who got sober after prison, reunited with his son, and says Dopey helped him along the way.

The replay itself is an early Dopey episode with Dave and Chris talking in the old apartment setup. They joke about expired cereal, cigarettes in the room, Disney World feeling like rehab, and old-school research chemicals. Dave tells a long Katz’s story about upsetting customers, finding a lump in his neck, and then freaking out after hearing a woman at a meeting say her cancer started the same way.

The episode also includes an email from a guy deep into dissociatives and psychedelic research chemicals, plus more classic early Dopey energy between Dave and Chris. At the end, Dave reflects on how raw and alive the old episodes felt, and points out that this was also an early appearance of the kind of material that would later become part of Cormac’s role in the Dopey world.

All that and MORE - on a brand new, super old classic episode of dopey!

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This week on Dopey! We check in after Dopeywood! And talks about going back to meetings, realizing they don’t need to be brilliant to be good.

Dave shares a story about going to a Howard Stern vinyl party, meeting Baba Booey and Chuck D, and telling his Stern story while playing Neil Young. He reflects on being relentless in both recovery and building Dopey.

The episode features Sarah Clark, a lawyer in recovery, who shares her story. She grew up with a drug-addicted father and started using as a teenager. Her addiction escalated from alcohol and Xanax to pills and eventually IV heroin. Within months, she was shooting in her neck and forehead and living a chaotic life of hustling, stealing, and bouncing between rehabs.

After developing a severe abscess that led to losing part of her butt, she still couldn’t stop. She went to treatment multiple times before finally committing. She got sober, worked the steps, and rebuilt her life.

Today, Sarah is a lawyer, married, raising her stepchildren, and has adopted her husband’s daughter, breaking the cycle of addiction in her family.

ALl that and MORE, MORE, MORE, MORE on a super duper Dopey show!

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SUMMARY:

This Week on Dopey's Greatest Hits!

Dave records from his dad’s overheated apartment and opens with a long, chaotic conversation about Dopeywood at The Comedy Store. His dad gives a detailed, meandering recap of the trip, the show, and his mixed reactions to the comedians, praising the turnout but criticizing some of the material as confusing and overly raunchy.

They argue about politics, language on the show, and listener feedback, including a back-and-forth with a fan upset about violent rhetoric. Dave reflects on tone, community, and the balance between humor and responsibility.

The episode includes emails and voicemails about poppy seed tea addiction, with detailed stories about making opioid-like substances from seeds and pods, building tolerance, and the extreme lengths people went to stay well.

The second half features a replay of Dave’s interview with Steve Earle. Steve talks about growing up surrounded by recovery, with addiction deeply embedded in his family, including relatives who were part of early AA. He says he avoided recovery at first despite seeing that it worked.

Steve describes getting high for the first time at age 11 and explains that music and addiction developed side by side but weren’t directly connected. He talks about learning guitar from his uncle, discovering Dylan and the Beatles, and becoming obsessed with songwriting and storytelling.

He reflects on his career as a musician, the pressure of performing, and how much he depends on audience feedback to feel okay. He also talks about the realities of the music business, losing his band, shifting to solo work, and writing for theater.

Throughout the conversation, Steve is blunt about addiction, family history, and the long-term impact of substance use, while also showing humor, insight, and a deep connection to music as both a craft and a survival tool.

ALL THAT AND MUCH MUCH MORE! On an old classic episode with my Dad in it TWICE!

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This week on Wednesday! Still coming down from the Dopeywood high and talk about productivity, procrastination, and trying to get back on track with the Dopey fitness challenge. Getting older, body image, and whether drastic measures like Ozempic are worth it.

We read a wild listener email about someone accidentally receiving a kilo of black tar heroin in the mail and dumping it around Alphabet City, and react to what we would have done in that situation. Then  play a voicemail from a listener who shares a brutal story about accidentally burning his dick with farming chemicals while high,. And a bit of DTF St. Louis.

We go through Spotify comments, connect with the Dopey Nation, and shout out listeners before bringing on comedian Allie Macofsky.

With Ali, we get into nicotine addiction, vaping vs cigarettes, and the weird logic of quitting one thing by picking up another. We talk about early sobriety, relationships, and what it’s like to be young in recovery. Ali shares how her drinking escalated quickly in her late teens, including blackouts, risky behavior, and crashing her car, and how she first went to AA just to get her family off her back.

We hear how she realized she couldn’t control her drinking, got sober at 20, and what it was like working the steps early on. We also talk about stepping away from recovery, becoming depressed, getting on medication, and eventually returning to meetings and finding relief again.

The conversation touches on thoughts about drinking again, curiosity around psychedelics, and what it means to stay sober long-term while building a life and career.

All that and a little bit more on this classically alcoholic new episode of dopey!

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🔥 DOPEY SHOW NOTES

Dave is in Los Angeles with childhood friend Jeremy, breaking down a lifetime of friendship, addiction, resentment, and survival.

Jeremy tells the story of tearing his Achilles and relives Dopeywood chaos—including abandoning stage manager duties for his girlfriend’s birthday, which led to a six-month silent treatment from Dave.

From first grade friendship, comic books, Hebrew school harmonies, and acid trips on NYC rooftops… the episode dives deep into their evolution into drugs—weed, acid, and SPOTIFY COMMENTS!

And to listen to the rest - join patreon!

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This Week on the greatest Hits!

We did Dopeywood at The Comedy Store We Sold it out.! Was pretty, pretty good!

We Read a cool dopeywood review,

Read commentts from Patreon and Spotify - and play an old voicemail from a kid who got sober at 15 after puking all over a girl in science class and sitting in it all day so his mom wouldn’t find out.

Then the rplay! Chris eats a heroic dose of mushrooms, decides he’s Jesus, and instead of going to the bathroom just pisses the bed because… why not, he’s Jesus.

Almost tells his parents he’s Jesus but decides they’ll just think he’s high. 

Plus loads of other stuff - and a little bit more!

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This week on Dopey! We shout out some epic dopes! Katie B with 8 fucking years and Scott Wic with 6 years!!!!

We play a VM from Axel. We read emails - spotify comments - the whole deal. LEAVE SPOTIFY COMMENTS PLEASE!

Then we are joined by the host of the Nothing's Off the Table Podcast Louis  LJ Ruggiero. Born into 'New York City Royalty' the son of renouned news anchor Rosanna Scotto. We cove a full descent from privileged NYC kid to full-blown addict: Xanax, coke, gambling, oxy addiction (30 pills a day), arrests, and the death of a friend. It escalates into a near brush with murder before landing in recovery and a strong stance on AA, accountability, and rejecting paid “sober influencer” culture.

ALL THAT AND MORE! MORE MORE MORE!

On this weeks new new new episode of that good old dopey show!

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Dave tees up a Greatest Hits episode featuring Hasnie, a belly dancer turned first responder alcoholic with a wild, emotional story. Before that, we get a classic Dopey email about a reckless dealer named King who jumps out a window during a raid and later crashes a car doing whippets.

Then shit gets real when Matt calls in mid-show ready to relapse. Dave and Ray talk him off the ledge in real time — and somehow even his dealers tell him not to use.

Hasnie’s story is intense: early chaos, booze, pills, sex, trauma, sending her kids away, and hitting bottom hard. She gets sober after a moment of clarity, goes to rehab, and finds her footing in Gay AA and SLAA.

She rebuilds her life, gets her kids back (including rescuing her daughter from Ukraine during war), becomes a first responder, and stays sober through COVID and real-life trauma.

ALL THAT AND MORE ON A NEW YET STILL OLD EPISODE OF DOPEY!

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Dave sits down with filmmaker Ben Feldman, director of The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother Hillel, for a deep, funny, and emotional conversation about music, addiction, and friendship.

They get into the origins of the Chili Peppers, the insane creative scene in 80s LA, and the bond between Flea, Anthony, and Hillel Slovak. Ben talks about making the film, interviewing Flea and Anthony, and how losing his own best friend to addiction shaped the project.

Dave connects it all to Dopey—losing Chris, losing Todd, and what it means to keep going after people die. There’s talk about sobriety actually being kind of fun, the loneliness of addiction, and the weird magic of finding connection.

Plus: listener emails about cocaine and the Chili Peppers, a wild Jamaica Queens dope bust story, Spotify comments, Ram Dass, running, and a banjo cover of “Good So Bad.”

It’s Dopey meets the Chili Peppers—with grief, laughter, and a lot of heart.

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ON THE TEASER: Heart Attack Doug  AGAIN! For a chaotic Tuesday episode filled with tangents about music, meetings, and listener feedback.

The tone shifts when Dave reads a detailed email from a listener addicted to 7-OH, a potent kratom extract sold in gas stations. What starts as a mild experiment quickly escalates into full dependence, with increasing tolerance, daily use in the hundreds of milligrams, financial strain, secrecy, and failed attempts to quit—even with Suboxone.

Dave and Doug react with concern, noting the growing number of similar stories and questioning how such substances are widely available. They emphasize treatment, honesty, and community support, while pushing back against stigma—highlighting that addiction can take many forms, regardless of the substance.

LISTEN TO THE WHOLE THING ON PATREON!

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