The Slingin Podcast

The Slingin Podcast launches with a legend. Father Peter G. Young spent more than 50 years on the streets, in the jails and at the Capitol in Albany, NY, fighting to treat addiction as a disease, not a crime. Kay Bond sat down with him for a conversation about the work that changed New York.

In this episode:

• The Navy captain who challenged a young sailor to be an "agent of change"
• Gym-floor shelter nights in Albany's South End, and why alcoholism is a vicious cycle
• "They're sick. They're not really criminal." Saying "treatment, not jail" in the 1950s
• A cup of coffee at the Capitol that brought Governor Rockefeller to see the drug crisis for himself
• "It's not Harlem, Governor. It's heroin."
• The three-legged stool: treatment, housing and a job, and recovery programs run by the people in them
• 35,000 meetings at the Capitol and the fight for second chances

Father Peter G. Young died on December 9, 2020, at age 90. This conversation is from Kay Bond's interviews with him for Hoodz Radio.

Watch the clips and read more at HoodzRadio.com.

Hosted by Kay Bond. A Hoodz Radio production. Respect the Legacy. Amplify the Movement.