The Dr. Junkie Show

173: Life after Life without Parole (David Carrillo)

This week author, academic and previously incarcerated rock star David Carrillo stops back by to talk about his new book, Kiko: From Life without Parole to Life with Purpose, available wherever you buy books. We discuss prison politics, drugs in prison, slow and fast changes in perspective through aging and experience, academics in prison, the concept of redemption, morality, prison media and his continuing role as an in-prison educator working with multiple colleges in Colorado. You can find the Territorial Prison story of the warden's wife and the death row letter-writing DU-PAI video on YouTube here.Support the show

172: Drug Boats, Hellfire Missiles and Foucault's Knowledge/Power

Today I talk about the US military missions against alleged drug boats near Venezuela using Foucault's theory of knowledge/power. Support the show

171: Media, Monopolies, and the Fairness Doctrine

This week I talk about who owns the media and why that matters. I get into the consolidation of media outlets from local owners a century ago to mostly multinational super-rich corporations today, and I unpack some of the ways that change has shaped the media we consume, which in turn shapes us. I talk about the Fairness Doctrine, the war on drugs, free speech, Buster Brown shoes, monopolies and why they are generally discourages in the US, Reagan, neoliberalist policy and lots more. You can find a visual version of this episode with graphics on YouTube. Support the show

170: Polybius and the End of Democracy

This week I kick off a new section of the show by talking about the cycle of democracy, which philosopher Polybius outlined more than 2000 years ago. I cover aristocracy, oligarchy, democracy, anarchy, monarchy and tyranny, explaining the seemingly-unavoidable cycle that links them all together into a loop...one we appear to be nearing the end/beginning of.Support the show

169: Freud on Drugs, Religion, Guilt, Shame and Civilization (Civilization and its Discontents)

This week I dive into some of the work Freud wrote later in his life, particularly a book called Civilization and its Discontents published in 1930. Freud believed that the evolutionary process we can use to trace the changes humans have gone through over the centuries can also explain why culture itself has evolved as it has. He basically thinks we are all self-deceiving, chronically unfulfilled and unsatisfied bots programmed to lie to ourselves above all else, and to avoid feeling guilt or shame based on unavoidable urges we all have by lying to ourselves and everyone else about those urges existing. Instead we redirect them. Killing someone in revenge becomes laser tag this weekend. Driving 100mph like an asshole to work everyday becomes gokarts and beers on Friday night. Cheating with the neighbor becomes an Only Fans subscription or a weekend at a swinger's convention. In this episode I cover morality, guilt, shame, intoxication, sublimation, civilization, and Freud's views on why all of these things exist in the human species. Support the show