Advertise on podcast: Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction

Listen without ads: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast This week on Dopey’s Greatest Hits! Long Island recovery legend Smiling Joe takes us through four decades of drugs, crime, chaos, and finding a way out. From drinking and sniffing glue as a kid in Queens to taking acid on the roof of JFK Airport, shooting heroin, stealing diamond rings, and plotting a $30 million gold theft on Wall Street—Joe’s story is absolutely f*****g unbelievable. We hear about getting arrested over a stolen girdle, kicking heroin in jail, surviving Rikers Island, and dating a mob-connected man’s daughter. Her father first chased Joe with a gun, then became his friend—and later decided against bringing Joe on a ride that ended with the man being killed. Somehow, Joe also went from Rikers to St. John’s University, became an A student, and reinvented himself as Disco Joe before heroin and cocaine took over again. But the heart of this episode is how “Methadone Joe” became Smiling Joe. After years of rehabs, relentless using, and going to meetings high, Joe finally found a recovery he could live in. We talk about powerlessness, surrender, borrowing a loving God, and replacing the feeling in the needle with connection, service, and real love. Plus, Dave shares how Joe helped him feel welcome in recovery after Chris died. PLUS! Austin’s Rainbow Gathering voicemail involves boofing LSD, a blackout, and a search for his missing pants. Listener reactions to John Joseph, a Dopey studio update, and much more! All that and more on the Dopey Smiling Joe Greatest Hits Episode! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Listen without ads for $2 a week on patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast This week on Dopey! Interventionist Keith Fierman brings a lifetime of unbelievable drug stories, rock-and-roll adventures, and hard-earned recovery. From taking acid with Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and Owsley Stanley to secretly flying from Alabama to New York, stuffing his socks with heroin, and getting home like he’d spent the day at work—Keith lived two very different lives. And when he finally asked for help, he spent five days wandering a treatment center before staff admitted they hadn’t actually checked him in. Behind the backstage passes is a powerful story of childhood abuse, finding safety in heroin, and fighting to build a different life. Keith talks about relentless cravings in early sobriety, telling God “f**k you,” and the bowling trip that finally gave him a little peace. Plus, a runaway doctor demanding a naked woman on a horse, Keith Richards, an unexpected meeting with Ringo Starr in France, and why families shouldn’t have to wait for someone to hit bottom. PLUS! JD D. Hart finds a bag of drugs at work and turns it in, listener comments on gambling and process addictions, and Dave and Keith get into the ongoing saga of getting Trey Anastasio on Dopey. Is Dopey too dark—or is finding laughter and connection in the darkness exactly the point? All that and much more on this old school dose of brand new Dopey! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

FULL EPISODE ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast This week on Dopey Tuesday! Ray returns, the headphones suck, and Dave’s attempt to sell Patreon immediately backfires when Ray reveals he pays two dollars a month and still thinks there are too many ads. We revisit Ben’s unforgettable Snickers story, autographed candy bars, and the mechanics of a pierced penis before Alan joins us for his official DopeyCon review. Naturally, this becomes an argument about whether he threw away Dave’s framed posters, why photographs of Canadian tunnels get wall space, and why Dave still doesn’t know how to end a show. Plus: Ray’s suspiciously heartfelt stagecraft, Tony O’Neill, fantasy basketball draft disasters, diabolical Seymour, and gambling apps tempting Ray for all the wrong reasons. THEN! Dave reveals that his Thursday started with questioning by three LAPD detectives and ended at Gary Dell’Abate’s vinyl party. For that story, the Heart Attack Doug comments, and the rest of the stories, join us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Join the team on patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast This week on Dopey Total Replay! Dave and Chris return with a classic early episode featuring a cigarette dispute outside Katz’s, a dope-sick heroin run in a ridiculous wig, and a police officer who ate confiscated weed brownies and called 911 because he thought he was dead. Dave loses his shit when Ezra—the neighborhood character he’s supplied with countless cigarettes—refuses to run to the store for him. There are threats, wounded pride, and an incredibly petty half-cigarette power move. Chris attempts to broker peace. Then listener Tracy delivers an incredible story about buying heroin in a terrible black wig, getting pulled over with the drugs in the glove compartment, and a driver who decides this is the perfect moment to flirt with the cop. Plus, Chris remembers drinking with people on the street in Boston, surviving on stolen beef jerky and tallboys, and his family dog stealing somebody’s sandwich. We also get into how Dave and Chris met at Mountainside, how their friendship changed in recovery, Bob Marley–induced weed cravings, eighteen hours of “Natural Mystic,” and the difference between missing getting high and being able to go back. PLUS! In a new introduction, Dave remembers Bobby R., a beloved member of his recovery community, launches the Dopey Worst Recovery Texts Contest, reads your comments, and explains why this episode remains one of his favorites.  All that and More on a brand new version of a super classic old episode of that good old dopey show, Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Listen without ads on patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast This week on Dopey! Betty Guadagno brings a completely f*****g staggering story of drugs, family trauma, sex work, and finding recovery after an overdose that she describes as a trip to the other side. Raised by drug-addicted, hustling parents who stole Christmas presents and fled to Las Vegas, Betty discovered meth at fifteen—and things only got crazier from there. Betty opens up about losing both parents to suicide, moving back to New York to retrace their love story, selling drugs behind the bar, and turning to sex work to pay the rent. We get into heroin, crack, methadone, a $20,000 marriage, getting arrested during the Hurricane Sandy blackout, and a meth relapse that sent her into a world of paranoia, imagined bugs, and exploiting other women to support her addiction. Then comes the bathroom-floor overdose, the life review, and the spiritual experience Betty believes changed everything. We talk about hearing her father’s voice, drug dealers finding Jesus, following a stranger on the J train to a meeting, and the woman whose hug finally helped her surrender. Plus: tiny men mowing her brain out of heroin withdrawal, Gabby Bernstein, A Course in Miracles, UFOs, and Dave trying to get a sign from his mother. PLUS! Squirrel’s spectacular GHB-and-ketamine mistaken-identity voicemail, sex addiction, kratom and 7-OH, a listener’s 22-day meth run, DopeyCon feedback, and the ongoing debate over recording at Alan’s apartment versus a fancy studio. All that and much more on a deeply dark, strangely funny, and very spiritual new episode of that good old Dopey show! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week on Dopey’s Greatest Hits! Cro-Mags frontman, author, and hardcore legend John Joseph returns in his unforgettable first appearance on the show. From a brutal childhood in foster care to surviving on the streets of New York, John brings an avalanche of insane Dopey: stealing his mother’s Valium, running heroin, selling fake acid outside Madison Square Garden, getting chased with a hunting knife on his first real acid trip, dealing drugs in the Navy, and going AWOL—with Henry Rollins helping hide him along the way. Then things get even crazier: freebasing, robbing drug dealers, a crack-fueled run through Los Angeles, and a flight back to New York where John is snorting cocaine while lecturing the other passengers about eating meat. Plus, evading the police at JFK, hitting bottom in Alphabet City, and finding a way back through Hare Krishna, hardcore music, service, and eventually Ironman triathlons. We also get into Bad Brains, positive mental attitude, childhood trauma, forgiveness, and building a life you actually want to wake up for. PLUS! Dave reads listener comments about Mrs. Robinson, celebrates a listener’s nine months off kratom, remembers his early COVID experience, and wonders whether he was trying to sound tough when he first interviewed John. All that and much more on this brand new version of this classic episode of Dopey!   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

LISTEN AD-FREE on PATREON: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast This week on Dopey! LJ Ruggiero, host of Nothing’s Off the Table and son of New York television personality Rosanna Scotto, returns for a brutally honest conversation about compulsive gambling. At 15, LJ turned $200 into $9,000 at a blackjack table and decided he’d found his future. What followed was stolen family jewelry, drugs, treatment, an extraordinary ticket business, and a gambling habit that could swallow almost any amount of money. LJ describes going from $22 in his checking account to a $380,000 payday selling Coachella artist passes, building a business that eventually earned him more than a million dollars a year, and losing staggering amounts in casinos and with bookies. One Vegas trip saw him turn $10,000 into roughly $500,000—then lose all of it and another $100,000 before leaving. Even after stopping drugs and alcohol, the gambling continued. LJ bet from the hospital the night his son was born, borrowed money when his wife couldn’t buy diapers, and found himself about a million dollars in debt. A confrontation with an old friend finally broke through the lies, leading him into Gamblers Anonymous, financial accountability, and a long repayment plan. We also get into the difference between drug recovery and rebuilding a relationship with money, casino perks, family bailouts, shame, and why LJ regrets trying to police other people’s sobriety. PLUS! Rachel Angel’s DopeyCon theme-song entry, Dave’s Step Ten intentions, Margaret Cho listener comments, and a wild voicemail about vodka at Red Lobster, a smashed mailbox, a $200 payoff, driving on a sparking rim, and hitchhiking to Newburgh after a DWI. Stay strong Dopey Nation and toodles for Chris! Plus way way more on a new wednesday episode of that old dopey show! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Listen to the whole thing at: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast. This week on the Tuesday teaser! Heart Attack Doug returns, convinced he’s indestructible despite mounting evidence to the contrary. A $10,000 landscaping quote inspires two weeks of backyard punishment, followed by another frightening hospital trip, morphine, and an argument about whether Dave is actually his sponsor. Meanwhile, Dave remembers his summer working on New York’s World Yacht, buying a Fender Rhodes for $300, eventually selling it for heroin, and the lingering humiliation of coworkers calling him Screech. PLUS! Cormac was robbed, Cece compliments Linda and demolishes Dave, Doug claims spiritual superiority, and Dave admits that joking about inheriting Doug’s guitar turned into a sincere prayer that his friend wouldn’t die. What keeps Doug pushing himself to the edge—and will he ever listen? The conversation continues on Patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast. Stay strong Dopey Nation and toodles for Chris! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Join Patreon! www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast This week on Dopey Total Replay! Dave goes back to classic Dopey 48 with Chris and longtime friend, bandmate, and musical collaborator John. Chris has returned from a ten-day silent Vipassana meditation retreat, and Dave has recruited John to become Dopey’s answer to Fred Norris. What follows is a battle between spiritual enlightenment and a soundboard that won’t shut the f**k up. Chris describes arriving to a flooded, moldy tent, waking up at four in the morning, sitting through hours of painful meditation, and spending part of the third day planning a joke for when he’s finally allowed to speak. He also gets brutally honest about the intense cocaine cravings that surfaced during the retreat—and imagining he could leave, get high, and come home pretending he’d been meditating the whole time. Meanwhile, Dave worries about Chris promoting Dopey on Reddit’s opiate forum, where drug pictures have started following him into his dreams and waking thoughts. The guys get into Buddhism, craving, aversion, recovery, and the absurdity of craving a life without cravings. Alex calls in, Chris’s cryptic sponsor prank gets exposed, and a listener letter sparks a conversation about why insane drug stories can help people find recovery—and why being the “best degenerate” eventually stops being enough. PLUS! In the new opening, Dave gives John overdue credit for his enormous musical contribution to Dopey, recounts a family trip to Kingston and a $30 beard-oil purchase, and plays Michael’s wild Fourth of July heroin story from the Lower East Side in 1995. Bottle rockets, a shotgun, a forced naked strip search, and a dealer who warmly invites him to come back anytime! All that, terrible freestyle rapping, Dopey tattoos, secret recovery wizards, Sublime, Pusha T, vaping, rehab success-rate b******t, Dave panicking over publishing an episode while waiting tables, Anthony from the Beach comments, and love for the people who helped make DopeyCon happen. Stay strong Dopey Nation and toodles for Chris! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

AD FREE DOPEY on PAtreon! www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Summary: This week on Dopey! It’s DopeyCon 7—the Game Show Edition! Dopey Nation gathers for a night of ridiculous games, filthy comedy, music, remembrance, and recovery. Hank Azaria, Hamilton Morris, James Frey, John Joseph, Zac Clark, Alexis Haines, Rachel Slocum, Abby Fickley, Janine Coulter, Gabby Egan, and more join the madness as Dave attempts to hold together the first-ever Dopey Feud. Plus, Anthony Varela tells a catastrophically inappropriate Cialis-at-a-wake story, Tony O’Neill reads about heroin, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and a sword-wielding Anton Newcombe, and Dave presents his dad with the Dopey Medal of Freedom—while officially reducing his responsibility for Dave’s heroin addiction to seven percent. Linda delivers a beautiful tribute to the community and the people we’ve lost, Zac speaks about keeping recovery’s door open, and Rachel Angel and Trinity perform “Mud Pies.” Before the festivities: a listener empties a rich guy’s entire house while he’s fishing in Alaska, Odell’s dope-sick road trip ends with an ant attack and a pants-free meeting with a Detroit dealer, and Montana sends a powerful recovery update from prison. All that, construction noise, Stashword, Artie Lange, and much more on a chaotic, heartfelt, thoroughly Dopey celebration. Live-event audio is rough in places, as Dave explains before the recording. ALL THAT AND MORE ON OUR 7th LIVE DOPEYCON!!!! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Listen without Ads: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast This week on Dopey’s Greatest Hits! Mrs. Robinson brings a life story packed with cocaine, Quaaludes, OxyContin, porn, and recovery. A former teacher and advertising executive who entered adult entertainment at 50, she tells Dave how a conversation at a COVID-era bonfire—and her son telling her to “go get the bag”—helped launch an entirely unexpected career. Then comes the serious Dopey: drinking at 11, taking her father’s Quaaludes, growing up around violence and pounds of cocaine in Pittsburgh, and falling in love with prescription opioids while treating endometriosis. She describes teaching on ecstasy, getting caught snorting OxyContin off her classroom desk, and believing she was sober because she wasn’t drinking—even while she was using pills and cocaine. Mrs. Robinson also shares how a woman she sponsored saved her life during a suicide attempt, what happened when she attacked her psychiatrist in treatment, and the moment she finally surrendered and began building lasting recovery. Plus, her ex-husband’s devastating relapse, raising children through addiction and mental health struggles, using her OnlyFans income to help pay for family treatment, and dealing with judgment from people in recovery. PLUS! Axel calls in with a wild South Florida voicemail involving Valium, stolen Abercrombie clothes, pills, police digging up a marijuana plant, allegedly being framed for school bomb threats, and getting sent to Argentina. All that, recovery, family, freedom, explicit adult-industry shop talk, and much more on Dopey! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

JOIN PATREON: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Episode summary This week on Dopey Wednesday, the incredible Margaret Cho returns for a live conversation with Dave, hosted by our friends at Workit Health! Margaret gets brutally honest about weed, opiates, benzos, and the kratom habit that left her feeling like she was constantly kicking. We hear about two seizures in one Thanksgiving, another that sent her face-first into boiling fondue, an overdose in Amsterdam, and the horrifying moment a doctor who was also a fan told her she was dying. But this episode is also about what came next: recovery, meditation, community, and Margaret’s beautifully simple interpretation of the Third Step—“f**k it.” Dave and Margaret discuss kratom, 7-OH, kava, harm reduction, recovery in the public eye, drug dreams, and finding ways to handle disappointment without getting high. Plus, making music with Jane Wiedlin and why Margaret says sobriety is more fun than drinking and using ever were. PLUS! A listener gets busted sneaking kratom in rehab, a law student takes 18 kratom capsules before trial practice and lands a clerkship, Dave navigates the post-DopeyCon malaise, Dopey Nation weighs in on Justin Crompier, and Margaret takes us out with “Grippy Sock Vacation.” All that and much more on a brand-new episode of that good ol' Dopey Show!     Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

HEAR THE FULL SHOW ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Episode description:This week on Dopey Tuesday! Dave comes down from DopeyCon with strange feelings, a meeting, and an EMDR session that nearly puts him to sleep. Trinity wins the Theme Song Challenge by just four votes, and a longtime listener asks whether the Kevin O’Leary interview means Dopey has officially jumped the shark. Dave reads the letter and answers the question of who gets to decide what belongs on the show.PLUS: Cheryl celebrates one year sober with an absolutely insane voicemail: three car accidents in roughly two weeks, a totaled Miata with her 85-year-old grandfather inside, a condemned house with rats crawling over her, a blackout hit-and-run, and a crash through three fences into a prison yard. Somehow, she survives it all—and today she’s sober.Then Steely Dave writes about surviving three fentanyl overdoses in 24 hours, including one in a Georgia jail cell, and the four years on Suboxone that he says saved his life. Dave also gets into AI thumbnail complaints, new Dopey beanies, and a thank-you to Transitions in Kentucky.Finally, returning guest Peter Rosenberg opens up about divorce, fatherhood, sex addiction, and the constant search for validation. Dave recognizes something familiar in Peter’s story—and asks him to lay it all out.Hear the full Peter Rosenberg conversation on Patreon!!!!! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Join Patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Episode Summary This week on Dopey! Fresh off a packed DopeyCon 7, Dave is feeling the familiar post-DopeyCon blues and thanking the Dopey Nation for another incredible gathering. Plus, Recovery Unplugged gets a shout-out for arranging the filming, Papa Smurf gets his flowers, and Britta makes the drive from Pittsburgh despite losing her power steering—with drug-of-choice name tags in tow. Then Betty Ford James writes in about being made to feel unwelcome at an AA meeting, finding a potential sponsor who subsequently ghosted him, and building his recovery through Recovery Dharma, therapy, and Dopey. Dave weighs in on sponsorship and asks for your sponsor stories before catching up on listener comments. Then we go back to Dopey episode 47, with Dave, Chris, and Brooklyn tattoo artist Ryan Roi! Chris accidentally books the wrong Ryan, but gets exactly the right guest for a conversation about cocaine, whiskey, acid, and spectacularly bad tattoos. Ryan remembers getting an eyeball tattoo while tripping on LSD and rubbing an acid sugar cube into the fresh tattoo. His overnight Christopher Street shifts bring explicit tattoo requests, a hormone deal that turns into an ecstasy-fueled tattoo session, and a basement so full of crack pipes he compares it to a McDonald’s ball pit. Chris tells the sprawling story behind his misspelled “Melissa” tattoo: an older girlfriend, homemade hooch in court-ordered rehab, running away, and a drunken motel tattoo courtesy of a guy named Knockout. A speeding stop shortly after Chris takes twelve Norcos lands him back in jail, where he gets the Orange County tattoo that Ryan eventually touches up. Plus, women tattooing their names on Ryan’s legs, Chris eating an ounce of mushrooms at a Phish show, Dave’s Fourth of July acid trip with orange-juice bong hits at the original Woodstock site, and the original offer to pay for Dopey tattoos. Along the way, the guys talk about sobriety as a psychedelic experience, the impossibility of getting high “just once,” and why Ryan had to leave a tattoo shop to get sober—and become the artist he wanted to be. All that and much much more on this Monday's Dopey Total Replay!     Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

DopeyCon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507 PATREON!: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast This week on Dopey! Dave’s friend Anthony from the beach brings a lifetime of hardcore Long Island Dopey: childhood exorcisms, crack, heroin, bad checks, pistol-whippings, and getting shot in his father’s church van—with ten bundles of dope hidden in the dashboard and a kitten along for the ride. Growing up with a preacher father, a painful family breakup, and a frightening stay in a psychiatric hospital at thirteen, Anthony found acceptance in weed, deli work, and the nickname “Stoner.” Then cocaine turned into crack, crack turned into heroin, and years disappeared into rehabs, shelters, hustles, and the conviction that he could always land on his feet. Along the way: stealing his mother’s wedding ring, selling the car she bought him, smoking crack on the ride to rehab, and shopping for treatment like he was booking a resort vacation. Anthony tells Dave about a massive heroin habit, a robbery crew that missed the $5,000 in his pocket, living in his father’s church parking lot, and watching his car hood fly off on Sunrise Highway—then continuing straight to the dealer. After surviving throat cancer and returning to drugs, a cocaine relapse with his girlfriend Maggie brought terrifying paranoia, imaginary pursuers, and another attempt to cast out demons with his dad. But the story doesn’t end there. Anthony shares what finally changed: wanting to stop, getting honest, working the steps, going to therapy, rebuilding his relationship, and returning to school to become an addiction counselor. Today, the victories include a wedding on the horizon, matching bedding, seasonal dish towels, and spoons that haven’t been used to cook drugs. PLUS! DopeyCon preparations, a kratom company’s sponsorship offer, Wiley’s bloody-rig-and-fire-pit meth voicemail, a listener’s desperate struggle with alcohol, an ephedrine experiment gone wrong, and the Kevin O’Leary backlash. Dave reads the love and hate and considers what it means when the show he makes is also “our show.” All that AND more! On this New New New SUPER CLASSIC NEW episode of that good old DOPEY Shoe - errrr Show! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.