Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction

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This Week on Dopey Greatest Hits! My dad is back and we catch up on all things dopey and life including Alan’s deeply specific breakfast routine. Dave also reads listener emails and comments about grief, recovery, Motley Crue, Safe Spot, Steve Poltz, Dopey socks, and whether celebrities actually bring the Dopey.

Then the episode replays Dave’s interview with the legendary Danny Trejo. Danny talks about growing up in Pacoima, smoking weed at eight, using heroin at twelve, idolizing his Uncle Gilbert, surviving violence, robberies, prison, Soledad, heroin withdrawal in the hole, and finally finding recovery through 12-step programs and a higher power. He also talks about his kids, helping addicts get treatment instead of prison, staying clean for decades, why he can’t smoke weed, acting as a way to revisit—but not live in—the darkness, and why food, tacos, and pancakes can sometimes reach people better than lectures.

All that and much more on this week's Dopey Greatest Hits!

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This week on Dopey Wednesday,! We begin with a Father’s Day rant about dads texting each other, calls his father Alan live on the show, argues about masculinity, the Knicks championship, post-Knicks withdrawal, the Dopey Film Festival, and whether Seymour is allowed to come. Dave also reads Patreon and Spotify comments about Todd’s sister Allie, Todd’s apartment, Dopey socks, and listener reactions.

Then the episode shifts into a live Workit Health/Dopey event with the great Amy “Dopey Dres” Dresner, author of My Fair Junkie. Amy talks brutally and hilariously about long-term recovery when life does not magically become beautiful: losing her father, mother, and cat in a short period of time, checking herself into a psych ward with ten years sober, surviving suicidal ideation, epilepsy, seizures, brain meds, isolation, grief, and the nightmare comedy of American healthcare.

Dave and Amy get into harm reduction, MAT, 12-step recovery, writing through trauma, being funny in the middle of misery, shame, forgiveness, isolation, suicidal thoughts, and why connection is still the only real way out. It’s classic Dopey: funny, dark, honest, messy, sad, useful, and somehow hopeful. All that and more on a weird new dopey!

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Summary

This week on Dopey Tuesday, Dave welcomes back his old friend Doug for another session. Dave admits he's stressed out trying to bank ten episodes before vacation while also preparing for the upcoming Dopey Film Festival. The pressure, combined with everyday disasters, has turned him into a basket case.

Dave tells the story of joining a local gym and getting evaluated by the massively muscular trainer Joe. Everything goes smoothly until a set of lunges leaves Dave convinced he tore his hamstring during the assessment itself. Despite his injuries and insecurities, he signs up for personal training and dreams of eventually turning his basement into his own home gym.

The guys revisit Dave's infamous barber story and discuss how comments made on the podcast always seem to find their way back to the people involved. Dave also vents about his mounting list of problems, including blowing out Linda's bicycle tire, Winnie destroying the screen door, and his general inability to keep up with life.

Doug takes heat for missing meetings and for potentially skipping the Dopey Film Festival, while Dave complains that Doug is supposed to be helping recruit attendees.

All that and more on the teaser - liste n to the full show on patreon!

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Summary

This week on the Dopey replay! Dave opens the show melting in a ninety-degree attic after removing his ugly window air conditioners and battling his third malfunctioning Rodecaster. He spirals through equipment frustration, a failed attempt to recruit an actress from The Pitt, and his anxiety about banking ten episodes before vacation, before reminding himself that gratitude and acceptance are the answer.

Dave promotes the June 26th Dopey Film Festival and reads heartfelt emails from listeners who discovered Dopey after Chris's death and have been listening from the beginning. He reflects on the murder of Dopey legend DJ Don, discussing the tragic circumstances surrounding his death and how loss remains an unavoidable part of making a podcast about addiction.

Dave and Chris with special guest "Vinny," an old friend and longtime stoner. The episode wanders hilariously through stand-up comedy, Leonardo DiCaprio encounters, Perrier pronunciation debates, and Chris's legendary stories before landing on the centerpiece: Vinny's unbelievable Amsterdam LSD tale.

While studying abroad, Vinny and a group of fellow Americans drop acid in Amsterdam. One of them, "Tok," completely loses his mind, strips naked in a coffee shop, searches for his dog "Java," swings at strangers, gets whipped by two random guys carrying sex whips, and ultimately ends up handcuffed and sleeping it off in a Dutch jail. By morning, Tok remembers absolutely nothing.

all that and more! on a super brand new and yet simultaneously old episode of that good old dopey show!

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This week on Dopey! We continue to celebrate the Knicks championship, we prepare for the ticker tape parade, and share a pair of horrifying junkie stories involving blue toilet water and fabric softener injections. We promotes the upcoming Dopey Recovery Film Festival and we read comments from the Brandon Novak episode before sitting down with acclaimed musician and author Mishka Shubaly.

Mishka opens up about growing up with a distant father, surviving a school shooting, discovering alcohol at 14, leaving home at 15, and falling into a life of heavy drinking and self-destruction. He talks about moving to New York, shipwrecking in the Bahamas, surviving by drinking his own urine from a hard hat, and eventually quitting alcohol without rehab or AA. The conversation explores writing, music, Bukowski, Mark Lanegan, Pink Floyd, resentment, running, dogs, hunting, atheism, and recovery. Mishka explains how ultra-distance running became his own recovery program and why community remains the missing piece in his sobriety.

All that and somehow a ton more - on the brand new episode of that good old dopey show!

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This week on Dopey Greatest Hits,! Dave dusts off one of the biggest episodes in the show's history as the Dopey Patreon votes Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe to the top of the poll. Before the interview, Dave celebrates Ray Brown’s legendary “Home Sweet Heroine,” reflects on working Step Eight with a sponsee, and shares another gratitude story involving his father. Then Jules the Cocaine Bear delivers a classic disaster tale involving cocaine, drunken party crashing, a switchblade, British police, and a miraculous escape from drug charges.

Kimber King joins the show to react to comments from her replay episode, discuss Wednesday Zoom antics, laugh about bizarre drug combinations, promote Safe Spot, and celebrate the Knicks' championship run. The two revisit old stories and joke about everything from meth vapes to foot fetishes and Suboxone flavors.

The centerpiece of the episode is Dave’s epic conversation with Nikki Sixx. Nikki discusses twenty-plus years of sobriety, fatherhood, moving to Wyoming, writing The First 21, and how creativity replaced addiction. He opens up about childhood trauma, being introduced to drugs at an early age, selling “chocolate mescaline,” discovering heroin, and surviving the darkest years chronicled in The Heroin Diaries. Nikki reflects on Mötley Crüe’s forty-year journey, his friendships with Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones, the monster of addiction that never dies, and why he continues to share his story in hopes of helping others. The interview finishes with a rapid-fire rock and roll quiz before Dave signs off after his dog nearly attacks an Amazon delivery guy.

PLUS MORE!!!!!

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Summary:

Before the conversation, Dave shares updates about the Knicks championship, the upcoming Dopey Short Film Festival, Patreon Zooms, Narcan and fentanyl test strips, and reads a classic Dopey story about winning free Detroit Tigers tickets, scamming free t-shirts, smoking crack behind a dumpster, trying to go to Canada, and getting banned from the country.

Then Dave and Allie talk about Todd’s life, his Dopey appearances, his humor, his family role, his addiction, and the strange pain of remembering someone eight years later. Allie reflects on how Todd’s birthday can feel harder than the anniversary of his death, how her kids remember him, how her parents handled his addiction and death, and how family denial and shame shaped so much of the experience.

Dave remembers Todd as one of the foundational characters in Dopey history: the friend who called into the show without knowing he was being recorded, the hilarious storyteller, the hustler, the lost soul, and the person whose pain and charm became part of the show’s DNA. Together, Dave and Allie explore the impossible questions around enabling, tough love, interventions, family secrets, and the strange ways grief stays alive.

It’s a bittersweet episode about keeping people alive by remembering them, telling the truth, laughing when possible, and honoring the people we lost to addiction.

All that and more on the new Dopey!

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Summary:

This week on Dopey Tuesday, Dave sits down with Dopey Nation favorite Trinity for a hilarious, awkward, and surprisingly heartfelt conversation that serves as the setup to her deeper recovery story on Patreon. Trinity explains how she first came to the beach meeting while secretly addicted to dextromethorphan (DXM), carrying fake sober time, and trying to figure out how to get clean. She talks about discovering Dopey after seeing Dave and Handsome Evan recording at the beach and eventually becoming a fixture in Dopey Zoom and the larger Dopey community.

The conversation quickly turns into a brutally honest critique of Dopey's YouTube channel, with Trinity explaining why the audio version works so well and why the video version needs help. Along the way they discuss eye contact, recovery awkwardness, Heart Attack Doug, Dopey Zoom, listener comments, the Knicks, softball, college, selling weed in Huntington, rolling blunts, and whether Tuesdays with Doug are significantly gayer than Tuesdays with Ray.

A reading from Just For Today about resistance to change sparks a genuine conversation about fear, complacency, recovery, and the challenges of building a new life in sobriety. Dave reflects on Trinity's growth and reminds her that despite her fears she's built 227 days sober by continuing to take action and ask for help. The episode closes with Trinity performing an emotional cover of Good So Bad, the song that first connected her to Dopey and inspired her recovery journey.

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Episode Summary

This week on the Dopey Replay, Dave reflects on the bittersweet anniversary of Todd Curry's fentanyl overdose death, celebrates the Knicks' first NBA Championship in 53 years, and remembers beloved Dopey contributor DJ Don Jr. Rentz, who was tragically murdered last summer.

Then the replay rolls back to one of the most legendary episodes in Dopey history. DJ tells the unbelievable story of becoming addicted to prescription opioids as a teenager, forging prescriptions, stealing 1,000 Vicodin from a pharmacy where he worked, and getting caught on his 18th birthday. Along the way, Dave shares his classic 9/11 methadone clinic story, Chris talks crack and recovery, and the guys dive deep into addiction, recovery, friendship, and the madness that made early Dopey so unforgettable.

A true Dopey classic featuring Chris, Dave, and the unforgettable DJ Dopey Don

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NOVAK COMES IN AROUND 37 min on

This week on Dopey! Dave battles Long Island summer heat, conquers a dead rat under his porch, rescues Susan's escaped corn snake Noodle, and prepares for the upcoming Dopey Short Film Festival. Along the way he shares a wild voicemail involving fake liquid LSD, sweaty molly, and a hard-earned lesson in not ripping people off.

Did we read this cat shit one before?????

Dave reads listener comments from the beloved Kelly P episode before welcoming recovery legend Brandon Novak back to Dopey. Novak celebrates 11 years sober and dives deep into his journey from heroin addiction and Viva La Bam chaos to running treatment centers and helping others recover.

The conversation gets even better when Novak calls his Dreamseller co-author Joe Frantz, who tells unbelievable stories about Novak stealing his own books from a bookstore signing to buy drugs, disappearing with advances, losing his phone, and the reality of filming during the darkest years of addiction. Together they reflect on Bam Margera, recovery, friendship, forgiveness, and the long road from self-destruction to redemption.

Plus: Grateful Dead stories, funeral plots, methadone and Xanax, treatment philosophy, Joe Biden sightings, and why this might be the greatest Brandon Novak appearance in Dopey history.

AND MORE!!!!!! on a super fun new installment of that good old dopey show!

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