The Drunkalogues

John Giordano grew up in the Bronx, a child of organized crime and despite joining his first gang at the age of ten managed to save himself from that fate thru his dedication to the discipline of competitive martial arts. But when his recreational drug use spiraled out of control in his twenties, he suddenly found himself on the receiving end of an intervention organized by the same criminals who raised him but also loved him. He made it out the other side, but it was not easy.  And he went on to build a small and innovative business empire in the world of rehab and recovery. He has a new book out called The Kid From the South Bronx Who Never Gave Up.  

Keep seeing Eric in my social media feed, and he is always just so frikken funny, innovative and original.  Impecable delivery.  Check him out!  He talks here a lot here about what it was like to grow up as a gay man in the mid-west!

Eric Hahn is a stand up comedian who grew up in a steel town in Ohio where he started drinking at age 12.  He narrowly escaped a career as a butcher before finding his way to Los Angeles via a lucrative career in the restaurant business which was upended when his employers saw his first stand up set on YouTube.  I realized Eric was sober via his hilarious twitter feed, and he shared with me here some frank and very very funny stories about coming of age as a gay man in the mid-west.

I first met David when he was an agent at CAA repping the likes of Oliver Stone and other high profile filmmakers and writers.  He was part of a powerful club I only got glimpses of and boy did it look fun. But it was also addictive, and he shares here the journey to a more measured form of contententmen. 

Nick Jonsson grew up in Sweden where drinking beer was kind of a way of life.  His drinking escalated when he moved to Australia for college and then got out of control when he started working in advertising and PR in Southeast Asia where the ex-pat community thrived in a lively and inexpensive bar scene.  His life was turned upside down after a couple job losses and he soon found himself drinking just to make it through the day. Eventually, he was hospitalized and managed through phamaceutical intervention and twelve steps to get sober.  When a friend and colleague lost his life to suicide, a message Nick posted on line went viral, and he now divides his time between his work running an executive peer support group and his work as a writer and speaker.  He has a new book out, Executive Loneliness, that is available everyhwere.

This episode is largely about addiction to pornography as Powerful Eric struggled for years to overcome his own pornography addiction.  Ultimately, he stumbled on a shift in perspective that helped him get well, and he has built on that shift to create a program for other addicts that shares some of the tools I employ as well.  While this podcast is largely about drug and alcohol addiction, addictive behaviors share so many similarities and sometimes it just gets harder once alcohol has been removed from the equation!

I came across Tom Vaughan on twitter and started following him for his helpful screenwriting tips, and then one day he tweeted something about his sobriety and I reached out to see if we would be interested in coming on the pod.  He graciously agreed, and I imagined some sort of quasi-scholarly discussion about story structure and sobriety.  Little did I realize, Tom and I had crossed paths in my most formative Hollywood years and shared so much in common... not least of all being our penchant for pre-pubescent car theft!  You can tune into his many screenwriting resources at storyandplot.com 

I interviewed Nena about two years ago...tho it feels like a lifetime.  We were just coming out of covid and it was one of the first times I'd been back in the room with a guest.  I would say that in the interim, interest in hallucingens has only grown as mushrooms seem to have quickly become both the medicine of choice and the party drug of choice....

here are the original notes!

I've been wanting to do this interview for years....  Nena is a scion of one of America's most famous families and grew up in the rarefied air of upper east side NYC where that legacy was mostly confounding.  She initially started out as an interior designer, and we met in LA in the aughts when she was exploring the entertainment biz and we were both aimlessly navigating the cocktail scene, here.  We lost touch when I had kids and she was nearly killed by a series of flesh eating bacterial infections. And when we reconnected - both now sober - I asked her if she was still decorating, and she said, "No, I'm a shaman."  I love second acts, and this one - that takes us into the world of sacred rituals and medicines (yes, we're talking hallucinogens) is fascinating.

Sometimes I do a podcast and by the end of the conversation my guest and I are friends for lise. Such was the case with Jenny Aurthur!

Original notes:

Jenny Aurthur grew up in a somewhat nomadic family - traveling in a large bus to organize neighborhoods for the Communist Labor Party, and while her parents never married, they maintained a strong family dynamic. So it was especially traumatic when she lost two members of her family to suicide and then - in sobriety - grieved as her closest friend also took his own life. Despite all that her joy remains in tact and reverberates thru this convo.

Ryan King moved to Los Angeles as a toddler when his father, Commodores co-founder William King, moved here for work.  He was a pretty straight arrow through high school earning himself a coveted spot in the highly competive baseball program at Long Beach State.  But booze became his way of belonging and soon his undoing as his alcoholo habit compounded a case of the "yips" that kept him from throwing the ball to first base!  Things got slowly worse from there, and he skidded along the bottom without ever hitting it until a relapse on his honeymoon changed everything forever.

I wanted to interview Lyle the moment he walked into my 830 am meeting  - full of humor and charisma - and always a devilish glint in his eye... 

original notes: 

Lyle Lodwick was a famous international model and toured the world with several well known bands before the wreckage of his life eventually caught up with him.  But after a stint at an in patient rehab and a fastidious commitment to his own recovery, he has found a new path devoting himself to helping others get well, too.