Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction

Dopey 593: ChrisMiss 2026 - Remembering Chris - Overcoming Grief with Annie

Listen without ads on patreon at: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast SUMMARY: This week on Dopey, Dave marks eight years since the death of his original co-host and close friend, Chris O’Connor. After celebrating members of Dopey Nation—including brothers Brian and Matt, Laren, Steve Schneider and Jessica—Dave reflects on recovery, character defects and the strange experience of hearing Chris again every week through the Total Dopey Replay.   The heart of the episode is an intimate conversation with Chris’s former fiancée, Annie, who is now a surgeon, a wife and the mother of two young children. Annie looks back on finding Chris after his fatal overdose, the trauma that followed and the years it took before that memory stopped feeling frightening and became simply, painfully sad.   Dave and Annie discuss the life Chris never got to live, whether he wanted children, the secrecy surrounding his relapse and the possibility that nobody close to him knew he was using. Annie explains why she ultimately walked away from a planned career treating substance use disorder and why Dopey may offer comfort to some people while remaining too painful for members of Chris’s family.   Annie shares a powerful analogy she received shortly after Chris died: in the beginning, grief is the only room in the house. As life continues, you add new rooms—relationships, children, work, friendship and purpose. The grief room never disappears, but it is no longer the only place you can go. That realization leads Dave and Annie to an unexpected connection: recovery from addiction can also be a form of grief. You may never erase the loss or forget the feeling you once chased, but you can build a life large enough that it no longer consumes everything. PLease listen to this very special ChrisMiss Episode.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ghosts of ChrisMiss Past; He Left the Hospital Barefoot to Smoke Crack and Fentanyl: Relapse, Survival and Remembering Chris | Dopey Greatest Hits

Listen without ads on patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Summary: This week on Dopey Greatest Hits, Dave marks the eighth anniversary of Chris O’Connor’s death with a powerful replay about relapse, survival and the people addiction takes from us. Before the original episode, Dave reflects on his own recovery, restraint of pen and tongue, missing meetings and the uncomfortable truth that two things can be true at once. He also reads a brutally honest email from James D. DeHart about coming within seconds of buying meth after three years away from hard drugs. The original episode opens with Dave remembering Chris and listening back to the early years of Dopey—the jokes, interruptions and ordinary moments that preserved their friendship. A clip from Episode 100 becomes painfully prophetic as Dave and Chris casually discuss what their relapses might look like and whether either of them could die. Then Dopey legend DJ recounts the complete anatomy of his relapse after nearly two years sober. A new job and relationship slowly replaced meetings, sponsorship and honesty. Social drinking followed, then a drive past his old Detroit dope house. Within weeks, he was smoking crack and fentanyl daily, hiding drugs from his girlfriend and falling out in bathrooms. After mixing fentanyl, Suboxone, tequila, cannabis gummies and Ativan, DJ entered precipitated withdrawal and landed in a Detroit hospital. He left in undersized hospital scrubs and socks, found his way back to the dope spot and spent the day smoking crack and fentanyl in a blackout. He lost his clothes, wandered barefoot through Detroit, handed his debit card to a stranger and eventually surfaced dirty, disoriented and barely alive. His family found him, and he eventually returned to treatment. The episode also includes a classic exchanges between Dave and Chris, followed by a moving conversation with Chris’s former sponsor, Dylan. They discuss sponsorship, psychedelics in recovery, the dangers of building a life and then neglecting the recovery that made it possible—and the authenticity, curiosity and independence that made Chris unforgettable. All that and way more! on this Ghosts of ChrisMiss Past episode! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Allman Brother's Tour Manager Flees Drug Charges With Meth, Heroin and Syringes—Then Became Dickey Betts’ Sponsor | Kirk West

Listen without ads: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Episode summary: This week we continue Allman Brothers Month!Legendary photographer, archivist and Allman Brothers tour manager Kirk West tells the incredible story of his journey from small-town Iowa into the center of American rock-and-roll history. After discovering psychedelics and Chicago blues in the late 1960s, Kirk became an IV meth user and drug dealer. He fled pending charges, landed in the psychedelic communities of Boulder and Northern California, and was eventually identified and arrested while hitchhiking through Nevada with meth and syringes in his backpack. Kirk recounts therapeutic-community rehab, heroin addiction, the murder of his drug-dealing partner, repeated arrests and the camera-store burglary that finally led him back into treatment. He found recovery through one of Florida’s earliest Narcotics Anonymous communities—but after five years sober, he attempted to prove that he could drink normally. That experiment ended shortly after John Lennon’s murder and ultimately gave Kirk the sobriety date he has maintained ever since. His recovery opened the door to an extraordinary career photographing Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Clash, Jerry Garcia and countless others. Kirk eventually became the Allman Brothers Band’s archivist and tour manager, served as Dickey Betts’ sponsor and helped preserve the group’s history. He shares intimate stories about Gregg Allman, Duane Allman, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, the Big House in Macon—and the night Lowell George offered him cocaine shortly before his death. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Heart Attack Doug is BACK! Glazing, Meeting Theft Drama, Surrealismo Beatles Remixes & Doug Roasts Dave (Dopey Tuesday Teaser)

Full Show only on Patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Episode Teaser Summary: Dave is back in the garage with Heart Attack Doug for a hilarious and chaotic Dopey Tuesday reunion! The episode opens with a fresh Surrealismo remix of the Dopey theme, sparking an immediate debate over Beatles remixes, Rocky Raccoon, and who actually wrote the hits (with Dave campaigning hard for Izzy Stradlin). Doug brings the fire with savage voice memos and an all-time great impression of a whiny, anti-Semitic Dave, while the duo dives headfirst into classic meeting drama — someone stole from the collection basket and now the boys argue about gossip vs. playing cop, benefit of the doubt, and trusted servant votes. Doug drops sensible recovery wisdom, Long Island sprinkler guy corruption stories, and his famous “bragging or complaining” diagnosis. They also tease Dave’s vacation stories, Canadian wildfire smoke horror, Kratom opinions (and Dave’s upcoming Rolling Stone piece), and read spicy Spotify comments praising Ray Brown while dragging Doug. It all wraps with a raw live musical moment and classic Dopey banter. Pure unfiltered chaos, laughs, and real talk — classic Dave & Doug energy. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Atrocious weed, cocaine psychosis, shooting puddle water, smuggling heroin into Jamaica, Jerry Garcia, recovery, and remembering Chris - Total Replay 37

Listen without ads on patreon - www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast   This week on the Dopey Total Replay,!Dave returns from his summer hiatus and previews the family’s Pacific Northwest adventure, the upcoming Patreon Zoom, and the big decision facing DopeyCon: Friday night at the SVA Theatre or Saturday at the old church.   Then we travel back to Dopey Episode 37 for a classic conversation with Dave and Chris. They talk about sponsorship, working the steps, honesty, spirituality, and the strange miracle of one addict helping another. Dave tells the story of Jerry Garcia using a radio interview to summon drugs after the Grateful Dead’s package went missing in Philadelphia, plus tales of John Lennon’s psychedelic excess and Paul McCartney’s alleged plan to smuggle Owsley acid inside camera equipment.   Things get progressively dopier as Dave remembers stealing fried chicken and vodka at a company party, while Chris describes shooting cocaine in Anguilla, hallucinating benevolent Rastas hiding in the bushes, chasing an imaginary car around an abandoned house, and eventually being rescued from Saint Martin by his brother.   Finally, Dave recounts smuggling six bundles of heroin into Jamaica, burning through nearly everything, passing out on Valium during a press trip, and repeatedly sneaking into first class while withdrawing on the flight home. Beneath all the insanity, Dave and Chris reflect on the possession of addiction, the freedom of sobriety, and the strange comfort of no longer needing drugs to feel safe.   all that and probably still more! on this brand new interpretation of a classic, crusty 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.