You Too?

Join Rich Jones, Edwin McCain, and Shay Houser as they tackle the alarming increase in suicides and overdoses. This was recorded before the pandemic so the numbers are even higher now. We have got to keep the conversation going! If you are having suicidal thoughts, please ask for help. Call or text 988 to talk to someone at the Suicide and Crisis Support Line. Visit https://988lifeline.org/ for resources or to chat to a support person. Services are also available for veterans, deaf and hard of hearing, and Spanish speakers.

Founder and CEO of I Ally shares more about the genesis of her company and the importance of community and wellbeing for caregivers.

Lucinda Koza is the Founder + CEO of I Ally, an app created for and by family caregivers. She is a member of the current TechCrunch Include Cohort, SheWorx + AWS Startups Mentorship Program 2020, All Raise Org's Visionary Voices Speakers Bureau, and the Lyfebulb Patient Entrepreneur Circle. She just received Honorable Mention in the Lyfebulb + Orexo Innovation Challenge and received Honorable Mention for Intermitten's 2020 Changemaker Award. Her writing has been published in Thought Catalog and Medium Women. Passionate about storytelling and giving voice to the voiceless, Lucinda also premiered a short film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016.

Michael Gallagher's childhood was the antithesis of the All American Family. With a mother completely ensconced in being a Jehovah's Witness and his addicted father in and out of prison, Michael quickly learned to escape using alcohol and cocaine. In his book, Waking Up: A Guide for Transformation, Michael tells his story of how he finally woke up and began using tools that transformed his life. Join Rich as he chats with Michael and hear first hand how he came back from addiction to live a life full of love and gratitude.

Michael has spent a lifetime studying what causes some people to adapt and transform to match their circumstances while others struggle to find their way. In his research on transformation, Michael realized there were only a few big blocks that everyone needed to build upon to create lasting change. He is the author of Waking Up: A Guide for Transformation, and has a passion for sharing these life-changing tools with others. Michael Gallagher has successfully built several businesses, overcoming challenges that should have left him a statistic. When Michael is not speaking at conferences, coaching or writing you‘ll most likely find him traveling with his family, learning about something new or telling one of his four daughters a dad joke.

Sean McCann and his wife Andrea Aragon have co-written a deeply personal memoir called One Good Reason: A Memoir of Addiction and Recovery, Music and Love.

The book is an honest story about Sean's sexual abuse that leads to years of drug and alcohol addiction. We get Sean's perspective, but also Andrea's side of the story as the wife who loved him but ultimately had him choose his family or his addiction.

Sean is now in recovery and is known as mental health, addiction, and recovery advocate.

Listen to this wonderful conversation as we hear them both in their own voices. If you are a sexual abuse survivor we hope you find comfort that there is light on the other side.

MORE about Sean:

After exiting the internationally renowned Newfoundland folk group and publicly admitting a secret past where he used alcohol to mask the pain of sexual abuse by a priest; Séan stopped lying to himself. With his boys and his wife Andrea as his motivation, Séan found the courage to face his truth and overcome his demons. Today he continues his journey as a singer, songwriter, husband, father, and now a sought after keynote speaker and mental health advocate, always with Old Brown by his side.

The laws and systems dealing with addiction and mental health are in need of a radical overhaul. Our guest this week has dedicated her life to the cause. Listen and learn what she doing to help change the landscape and get inspired to fight for changes in your community.

Shelly Weizman is the Associate Director of the Addiction and Public Policy Initiative at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. She works on a project portfolio focused on the opioid epidemic, addiction policies, barriers to treatment for substance use disorders, public health approaches to drug policies and how law can promote access to treatment and support recovery.

Before joining the Institute, Ms. Weizman worked as the Assistant Secretary for Mental Hygiene in the Office of Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York. In that role, she oversaw New York State’s efforts to address the opioid epidemic as well as policy and operations related to addiction, mental health and developmental disabilities. Prior to joining the Governor’s office, Ms. Weizman served as Policy Director for Managed Care at the New York State Office of Mental Health, where she focused on developing and implementing systemic reforms within New York’s public mental health system.

Previously, Ms. Weizman served as a Senior Staff Attorney at MFY Legal Services, a not-for-profit legal services organization in New York City. At MFY, she led efforts to expand and enforce the rights of people with psychiatric and physical disabilities, promote deinstitutionalization, and improve government oversight and accountability through legislative and regulatory reform, community organizing, and federal and state civil rights litigation. Ms. Weizman also provided advice and representation to hundreds of individual clients on civil legal matters including eviction prevention, access to health care and transportation, and individual civil rights matters.

Ms. Weizman received her JD with a concentration in Health Law and Policy from Seton Hall University School of Law and her BA from the University of Houston.