Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction

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Long Summary Notes:

Dave opens the Dopey Total Replay by revisiting Episode 27, “Detox Withdrawal,” one of the earliest foundational episodes of Dopey. He explains how the episode introduced both graphic designer Ryan — creator of the iconic nodding Dopey logo — and Todd Curry, Dave’s longtime using buddy who would later die in 2018, just weeks before Chris.

Dave reflects on Chris’s original idea for a “Dopey Stories” book made up of listener submissions and stories from the show. He talks about failed attempts to pitch the project to publishers and wonders whether self-publishing a Dopey book on Amazon might finally make sense. He invites listeners to resend their best stories to [email protected].

Disclaimer: I think I called Spanish People Stupid - but it was meant totally with love.

Dave then shifts into a recap of Music on the Mountain in Vermont, where he attended with Linda and the kids. He talks about seeing Anders Osborne, Daniel Donato, Jackie Greene, Karina Rykman, Eggy, Lamp, and others. Susan celebrates her eighth birthday and hilariously insists on introducing bands onstage after Dave lets her introduce Karina Rykman. Dave admits Susan might actually be a better MC than him.

Dave promotes the upcoming Dopey Short Film Festival at the SVA Theater, mentioning Mountainside as a possible title sponsor and joking about Katz’s desserts and Othello cookies potentially being involved.

He reads Patreon and Spotify comments reacting to the previous replay episode, including discussion of Rush, Basketball Diaries, Knicks playoff hopes, bread basket addiction, and people missing Chris. Dave goes on multiple tangents about bread, fitness, the Knicks, and Cleveland versus Detroit.

The replay itself begins with Chris and Dave just starting to record when Todd randomly calls in. Todd immediately launches into a story about getting arrested while allegedly trying to buy weed in a housing project. Chris and Dave immediately question the story while Todd insists he was only trying to buy marijuana.

The conversation spirals into stories about community service, Delancey Street cleanup duty, reverse discrimination jokes, airport profiling, Todd’s history with Dave, and their years selling drugs together. Chris openly campaigns for Todd to become a recurring Dopey guest while Dave resists because Todd is still actively using heroin and weed.

Graphic designer Ryan joins the conversation and explains why he loved Dopey from the beginning — because it wasn’t a traditional recovery podcast. He says recovery shows felt too church-like, while Dopey mixed active addiction stories with recovery in a way that could actually reach addicts.

Todd and Dave argue about whether active users should appear on Dopey. Ryan attempts to sober coach Todd live on the air, asking him what heroin does for him emotionally. Todd admits heroin covers feelings of loneliness, insecurity, and self-hatred. He describes failed relationships, yoga classes, women, and using heroin to cope with emotional pain.

Ryan explains the basics of abstinence and recovery while Todd half-jokes and half-confesses his inability to stop using. Chris mostly eggs the entire thing on while enjoying the chaos.

The episode shifts into stories about Mountainside and the infamous “Phase Four” extended-care house. Ryan explains how he entered treatment planning only to save money for heroin afterward, but somehow ended up getting sober instead. Dave admits he originally thought Ryan would never stay sober, while Dave himself eventually relapsed despite appearing more serious about recovery at the time.

Ryan tells wild detox stories involving escaping treatment during withdrawal, trading a $2,500 laptop for heroin bundles, walking through snowstorms, and eventually landing at Mountainside. The group discusses relapse, sobriety, AA sponsorship disasters, yoga, heroin addiction, and the randomness of getting sober.

The episode eventually devolves into jokes about Dave’s disgusting toenail, Instagram photos, podcast structure, and arguments about whether episodes should be one hour long. Chris insists on ending every episode with “Good So Bad,” while Dave complains nobody wants long podcasts — ironic considering modern Dopey episodes often run three hours.

Back in present-day narration, Dave reflects emotionally on hearing Todd and Chris together again. He reveals that Todd eventually appeared on Dopey multiple times, including once when he left mid-recording to go downstairs and shoot heroin before returning to finish the episode high.

Dave closes by talking about Ryan’s later recovery work at Berkshire Transition Network and how foundational he was to early Dopey. He reflects on the pain, foreshadowing, and innocence captured in the episode before ending with “Good So Bad” and a tribute to Chris and Todd.

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Summary:

Dave opens the show talking about Susan’s eighth birthday and the family trip to Music on the Mountain in Ludlow, Vermont for the Phoenix and Divided Sky festival featuring Karina Rykman, Eggy, Anders Osborne, Daniel Donato, Natalie Cressman, Jennifer Hartswick, and members of Dogs in a Pile. Dave talks about trying to get the entire crowd to sing Happy Birthday to Susan and gives updates about Patreon, Narcan and fentanyl test strip giveaways, YouTube support, and the upcoming Dopey Short Film Festival sponsored by Mountainside Treatment Center.

Dave reads a heartbreaking email from a listener celebrating nearly 60 days sober after quitting freebase coke, Xanax, and Suboxone while grieving the loss of his beloved dog Hesh. Dave reflects on his own fears about losing Winnie and spirals into thoughts about mortality, dogs, and a brass Winnie lamp he bought Linda for her birthday.

Ben Croxton calls in with a classic IV Dopey story involving Googling “where to buy heroin in Atlanta,” instant meth psychosis at a job site, a dude hiding in a closet all day, and a cocaine-induced hallucination involving a kangaroo and imaginary police cars.

The main interview features Keta Lauren and quickly becomes one of the darkest and most powerful Dopey stories in recent memory. Keta talks about growing up in extreme poverty in Northern California with a schizophrenic addict father and alcoholic mother, bouncing through foster homes, fighting constantly, and eventually landing in California Youth Authority “gladiator school.” She recounts horrific trauma including her father accidentally causing a house fire that killed four of her siblings after leaving a candle burning while gambling.

Keta describes getting kidnapped while hitchhiking at age 11, doing meth as a child, surviving brutal YA prison fights, a devastating ATV accident that nearly killed her, and eventually falling into LA drug culture, sex work, heroin addiction, and trafficking. She explains how manipulation, survival, and trauma blurred together while trying to escape dangerous situations and abusive relationships.

The conversation shifts toward recovery as Keta talks about finally hitting an emotional and spiritual bottom after years of heroin and meth addiction. She describes seeing herself deteriorate physically and mentally, eventually surrendering and finding treatment after a religious TV preacher bizarrely spoke directly to her situation. She later discusses relapse, AA and NA, psychedelic healing with psilocybin and ayahuasca, bipolar disorder, trauma therapy, and her belief that recovery can take many different forms.

The episode closes with Trinity from the Beach reflecting on the interview playing a vulnerable acoustic cover of “Good So Bad” while apologizing for missing Dopey Zoom to record it.

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 Summary

Dave opens Dopey Greatest Hits with an AI Dopey song from Josh Clark, updates the chaos around Katz’s, Action Bronson, Paul Wall, the Divided Sky festival, Susan’s birthday, and the Dopey short film festival. A listener voicemail tells a wild guru story involving opium, coke, mushrooms, MDMA, hot springs, and pee drinking. Dave reads Patreon and Spotify comments from the Gilbert Trejo replay before playing the Gabor Maté episode.

In the Gabor Maté interview, Dave and Dr. Maté talk addiction, trauma, shame, ADD, dopamine, recovery, psychedelics, ayahuasca, the “stupid friend,” food addiction, and why addiction is not the primary problem but an attempt to soothe pain. Dr. Maté explains that recovery means getting yourself back.

PLUS MORE 

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Summary

Dave opens Dopey Wednesday by getting mad at Reddit, reminiscing about Penn South, the old Walter Reade theater, flea markets, and losing his apartment to heroin addiction. Then Ian from Paris calls in with a disgusting kratom-vomit sex story. Dave reads Spotify and Patreon comments about Zach Noe Towers, Chet Holmgren, Sassafras, Euphoria, Katz’s, white claws, Amanda de Cadenet, and Dopey Nation recovery time.

Then Dave interviews Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS and host of No Magic Pill. Blake talks about giving away 100 million shoes, Shark Tank, psychedelics, depression, getting misdiagnosed as bipolar, getting off pharmaceuticals, suicidal thoughts, San Pedro, “I am enough,” sobriety, quitting alcohol and nicotine, and using creativity, photography, therapy, and connection to rebuild his life.

All that and more on a not too Dopey episode of Dopey!

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Dave and Ray kick off a weird “Christmas in May” Dopey Tuesday with an old Ray parody song before diving into stories about Chelsea in the ‘90s, addiction nostalgia, Andy Dick, and the destruction of a longtime neighborhood building. Dave talks about working on a Andy Dick interview for Rolling Stone, while Ray reflects on drinking alone, avoiding chaos in public, and their old neighborhood’s transformation from rough-and-dangerous to luxury real estate heaven.

 

The episode spirals into hilarious listener reactions to Selby’s heavy breathing during the Patreon Reddit Roundup episode, with fans comparing him to Darth Vader, a dying pug, and someone “pleasuring himself at a men’s shelter.” Dave and Ray also talk about recovery shame, missing teeth, NYU dental clinics, old LA drug days, soft-core SLA emails, and the weirdness of getting older in recovery. The episode ends with Dave teasing a big TV pitch meeting and playing “Good So Bad.”

 

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