Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction

www.patren.com/dopeypodcast LISTEN TO FULL SHOW ON PATREON!SummaryThis week on Dopey Tuesday! Cormac and Selby return for a Reddit Roundup teaser featuring flaming drum kits, obsessive hobbies, comfort television, and another questionable Patreon sales pitch from Dave.Cormac reports back from opening for a masked surf-rock band that sets its drums on fire, then explains how music and strength training give his obsessive energy somewhere productive to go. Selby prefers to wait for the urge to exercise to pass. Meanwhile, Dave has found comfort in peanut butter ice cream and another trip through The Sopranos, kicking off...

Listen without inserted ads on Patreon! www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastSummaryThis week on Dopey Total Replay! It’s the infamous 50th episode: Dave Gives Up, Chris Takes Over! Dave tries to manufacture a feud with That Sober Guy, Chris prepares to become “Dr. Chris,” and the boys celebrate their milestone by arguing about almost everything.Chris tells the story of working in a prestigious Boston hospital while secretly shooting heroin and cocaine—and financing his habit by stealing his mother’s jewelry. After getting banned from his parents’ building, he gets the jeweler himself to drive him back for another attempt, then disappe...

Listen without ads on Patreon! www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastThis week on Dopey! My trainer Joe Belmonte comes over, and what starts with complaints about Howie’s camera angles and Joe’s horrible taste in music turns into an incredibly moving story of drugs, addiction, grief, and recovery.Growing up on Long Island, Joe went from Catholic school, ecstasy at Webster Hall, and cocaine-fueled construction shifts to a massive blues habit with his girlfriend. Together, they stole and sold electronics across Long Island to support a pill habit that Joe says reached $1,500–$2,000 a day. Then came heroin, needles, speedballs, homelessness, and a rela...

Listen without ads: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastThis 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 fucking 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...

Listen without ads for $2 a week on patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastThis 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 p...

FULL EPISODE ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastThis 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 sh...

Join the team on patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastThis 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 incredib...

Listen without ads on patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastThis week on Dopey! Betty Guadagno brings a completely fucking 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 re...

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 th...

LISTEN AD-FREE on PATREON: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastThis 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...

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 supe...

Join Patreon! www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastThis 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 fuck 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...

AD FREE DOPEY on PAtreon! www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastSummary: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 Do...

Listen without Ads: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastThis 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, get...

JOIN PATREON: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastEpisode summaryThis 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...

HEAR THE FULL SHOW ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastEpisode 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 tw...

Join Patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastEpisode SummaryThis 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...

DopeyCon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507PATREON!: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastThis 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, an...

PATREON: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastDopeycon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507SUMMARYThis week on Dopey’s Greatest Hits! As DopeyCon approaches, we return to the first DopeyCon at the Church of the Holy Apostles for a sprawling night of drugs, addiction, dumb shit, music, comedy, and recovery.Brandon Novak shares the extremes of his heroin addiction—including letting a man shave his asshole for ten dollars—and the very different life he’s built helping people through his sober houses. Andy Roy joins him for skateboarding chaos, a Washington Square Park encounter with David Lee Roth getting arrested, throwing a forty-ounce bottle a...

Dopeycon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507PAtreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastEpisode summaryThis week on the Wednesday Dose of Dopey!, Photographer and adventurer Justin Crompier, known on Instagram as Just Passing Through, shares his journey from suburban New Jersey opioid addiction to building a life around recovery, creativity, and the open road.Justin traces his early relationship with prescription medication, his fascination with drug culture, and the college painkiller habit that eventually became heroin addiction. Along the way: padding his student-film budget to buy pills, getting paid to participate in cosmetic testing, offering dealers gas instead of money, getting robbed at...

DopeyCon Tickets - ALMOST SOLD OUT! https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507FULL THEME SONG EPISODE:  www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastThis week on the teaser! Heart Attack Doug returns, and Dave asks him about the year he spent drinking after roughly 16 years sober. Doug had stopped going to meetings, filled his time working on his house, and one night bought a case of beer while snowblowing. He hid cans in snowdrifts, drank for about a year, and eventually returned to recovery. There was no dramatic rock bottom: he says he felt miserable, dishonest, and disconnected from his family and spiritual life.Dave and D...

DopeyCon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507SAVE $15 on Tickets at: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastTHIS WEEK ON THE DOPEY TOTAL REPLAY! With DopeyCon less than a week away, Dave opens with news about Presley Gerber’s death at a Santa Monica recovery residence, recalling the time he got heroin brought into his own treatment facility. He also discusses reports about cychlorphine, a potent synthetic opioid identified in a San Francisco teenager’s death, then reads listener reactions to the Nick Reiner replay.The show returns to episode 46 with Dave, Chris, Caitlin, and Colin. Chris’s attempt to date his hairdresser turns into an...

Dopeycon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2216905PATREON MEMBERS SAVE $15 on Dopeycon: www.patreon.com/dopeyconThis week on Dopey! Kevin O’Leary comes to the Dopey Studio for a conversation that starts with Shark Tank and gets into what drives him. He tells Dave about the job that pushed him toward entrepreneurship, why chasing wealth for status leaves people miserable, and the strange emptiness he felt once he was rich. They talk about his attempt to retire, his love of guitars and photography, alcohol, performance, and his wish for more time. Dave also takes him through “This or That,” with answers on mus...

Dopeycon tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507PATREON: (saves $15 off DopeyCon Tickets) www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast
Episode summaryThis week on Dopey's Greatest Hits! With DopeyCon’s game show edition coming up on October 3, Dave revisits the COVID-era DopeyCon 2. He opens by remembering the work that went into making a remote convention and the community members lost along the way, especially Colleen MC, to whom the original event was dedicated. An Australian listener then tells a mushroom story about falling deeply in love with a “tree” that turned out to be an ordinary yucca bush.The replay brings together Dopey Nation voices...

LIVE WITH GABBY AT 28 Minutes in!Dopeycon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507Save on Tickets: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastEpisode summaryOn a special LIVE Wednesday Dose of DOPEY from Covington, Kentucky, Dave sits down with TikTok creator, entrepreneur and military veteran Gabbie Egan to talk about addiction, denial and the unexpected experience that finally convinced her to get sober.Before the live conversation, Dave reflects on the AA principle that recovery can only be kept by giving it away, announces Gabbie’s upcoming appearance at DopeyCon and offers free admission to anyone who genuinely cannot afford a ticket. Listener Dean takes hi...

Ticket Tailor: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507Save Money on Doepycon Tickets with PAtreon! www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastEpisode summaryThis week on the Tuesday Teaser! Ray Brown returns to Dopey—and leaves with a new job. After debating whether he should now be called Ray, Steven or “Stefan,” Dave offers him a position as Dopey’s new part-time engineer, largely because he lives ten blocks away and allegedly spends all day watching YouTube.Dave explains the production disasters that plagued his recent interviews with Stephanie Wittels Wachs and Jason Biggs, including forgotten recordings, duplicated camera angles and an emotionally vulnerable moment captured complete...

DOPEYCON TICKETS: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507SAVE MONEY on DOPEYCON TICKETS with PATREON! www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastSummary:On this haunting Dopey Total Replay, Dave revisits the second half of Chris and Dave’s original conversation with Nick Reiner. Before the replay, Dave responds to listeners struggling with the episode in light of everything that happened afterward, reflects on Chris’s instinct for keeping the show on track, and explains why hearing both Chris and Nick together now feels like opening a bizarre and painful time capsule.In the original conversation, Nick describes shooting cocaine for the first time in a McDo...

DopeyCon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507No ADS for $8 a month! Save $15 on Tickets at: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastEpisode Summary:This week on the 600th episode of Dopey! Dave celebrates the show’s unofficial 600th Friday episode from the increasingly unreliable Dopey studio at his father’s house—and considers either dismantling the whole operation or hiring Ray as the new engineer.The episode begins with recovery anniversaries from the Dopey Nation. Mr. Jason celebrates one year sober and reflects on repeatedly returning after relapse, while Haley marks five years free from drugs after beginning at age 12. Hippie Earl delivers a clas...

Episode summary:NOTE: Bill Blabber past away 11/11/23 We love him and dedicate this show to him and Chirs and everyone else we've lost!Dopeycon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507SAVE $15 on Tickets at: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastThis week on Dopey’s Greatest Hits! Dave revisits the emotional, hilarious and completely chaotic first-ever DopeyCon.Before the replay, Dave talks DopeyCon 2026, his growing number of public encounters with Dopey Nation, listener comments, the Beatles and the limited-edition Iron Maiden Dopey shirt. Adam Byrd of Wreckage Disciple delivers an instant-classic voicemail about getting shot through the foot during a drive-by—then returning to his...

DopeyCon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507Save $15 on Patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastEpisode summaryThis week on the Wednesday Dose! Jason Biggs returns to Dopey for a funny, unusually vulnerable conversation about recovery, fatherhood, separation and learning to surrender control. Jason discusses the pressure of making his directorial debut, Untitled Home Invasion Romance, and why directing sober was one of the most stressful experiences of his life.He retraces the relapses that preceded his nearly nine years of sobriety—including secretly drinking, a major cocaine relapse and the final bottle of wine he chugged shortly after bringing his second child home fr...

FULL EPISODE: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastDopeycon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507Episode summaryHeart Attack Doug returns after a mysterious seven-week absence—and the tension is immediately back where it belongs. Before revealing what actually happened between them, Dave and Doug discuss Doug’s injuries, relentless tinnitus, possible neck surgery, anesthesia and the strange appeal of receiving drugs legitimately in sobriety.Doug challenges members of Dopey Nation to explain what they do for recovery beyond Dopey Zoom, offering free mugs for five short video submissions. Dave then subjects him to Patreon comments celebrating his disappearance, which leads into stories involving psychedelics, Mari...

DopeyCon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507Join Patreon and Save $15 on Tickets: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastSummary:This Week on the Total Replay! Nick Reiner’s first appearance with Dave and Chris in 2016. Nick is currently incarcerated and has pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of killing his parents, filmmaker Rob Reiner and photographer and producer Michele Singer Reiner. Dave addresses the criticism he received after previously replaying Nick’s appearances and explains why omitting this episode would violate the purpose of replaying the entire Dopey archive in order.Dave reads a deeply compassionate letter from listener Leah, who identifies with...

Tickets for Dopeycon: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2216905PAtreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast
Episode summaryTHIS WEEK ON DOPEY! Actor, comedian, director and Curb Your Enthusiasm star Jeff Garlin joins Dopey for an unusually candid conversation about comedy, compulsive eating, mental illness, addiction and the breakdown that nearly killed him.Jeff explains why he believes his morally questionable Curb character is nothing like the person he tries to be. He talks about gratitude, refusing to indulge in self-pity and the early comedy lesson that taught him never to make an audience feel sorry for him.The conversation then moves into Jeff’s...

DOPEYCON Tickets:  https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507SAVE 15$ on PATREON: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastEpisode summaryThis week on Dopey's Greatest Hits! Dopey legend Jessa Reed returns for one of the strangest, funniest and most honest conversations in the archive. Jessa talks about becoming uncomfortable with public attention, feeling trapped by other people’s versions of her and disappearing from podcasting after years of sharing her life.She describes contracting Lyme disease at the beginning of the pandemic, losing much of her memory and vocabulary, contemplating suicide and eventually recovering through an unconventional treatment involving Antabuse. She and Dave explore nervous-system regulation, people-pleasing, bou...

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SummaryThis week on the Wednesday Dose! Close Friend of the show, legendary tattoo artist, punk-rock outlaw, former bank robber and federal prisoner Shane Enholm returns to Dopey with a frightening update: after surviving hepatitis C and end-stage liver disease decades ago, he has been diagnosed with cirrhosis again.Shane retraces a life built around heroin, prison, tattooing and survival—from having an ounce of fentanyl inside federal prison in 1990 to being forced onto methadone after his release. He talks about becoming a prison pul...

DopeyCon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507Save Money with PAtreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastSummaryDave recounts a family expedition through the Balloon Museum, Little Italy, and the black-market handbag scene on Canal Street before reading an incredible listener story from the early-’90s Grateful Dead tour.Despite barely caring about the band, Tom follows the tour for its parking-lot wonderland of drugs, hippies, and chaos. Completely broke, he finances the trip by repackaging truck-stop speed and selling it as ecstasy. Along the way, he encounters Persian heroin, a motel-wide fireworks war, a filthy grilled-cheese dealer carrying bundles of New York heroin ta...

DopeyCon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507Patreon Membership Saves $15 on Dopeycon www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastEpisode summaryDave celebrates Labor Day with a replay of one of the most polarizing early Dopey episodes: “The Structured Episode.” Before the classic show, Dave runs through the growing DopeyCon lineup—including Hank Azaria, Brandon Novak, Hamilton Morris and possible appearances from Joey Diaz, Jeff Ross and Artie Lange—and shares a spectacular listener voicemail involving blue ketamine, Stinky Pete and an alarming box of dildos.Then Dave and Chris attempt to impose actual structure on Dopey using handwritten topics, Siri and a series of timers. It immed...

DopeyCon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507PAtreon save $15 at www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastEpisode summaryLeah Martin—farmer, Deadhead, Phish fan and recovering addict—joins Dopey for a story that begins with the Beatles, weed and an acid trip at a Tool concert before descending into Perc 30s, heroin, crack, fentanyl and absolute chaos.Leah recalls failing out of college, selling drugs, taking half-gram lines of cocaine while driving and joining a crew of “magnificent hippies” who followed Furthur across the country. She lived in Golden Gate Park, trimmed weed in California and supported herself on tour by selling water—only to return hom...

DopeyCon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507 PAtreon and save $15: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast She Shot Heroin in Her Neck and Overdosed on the Phone: The Call That Saved Kimber’s Life This week on Dopey's Greatest Hits! A woman named Kimber leaves rehab, returns home alone and prepares to inject what she believes is heroin—probably fentanyl—into her neck. Knowing her tolerance has disappeared, she calls the Never Use Alone hotline. Nurse Jessie stays on the phone, urges Kimber to use less and collects her location. Moments after injecting, Kimber stops responding. Jessie calls for help, and paramedic Stephen Murray...

DopeyCon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2216905 PATREON SAVES on DOPEYCON TICKETS: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast This week on the Dopey Dose! Dave opens the Wednesday Dose of Dopey with gratitude, recovery reflections and a reminder that it is possible to restart your day at any moment. A Canadian listener recounts ceremonially burying—and urinating on—his remaining cocaine while tripping on acid, while Northeast Ohio Bob remembers the drug-fueled chaos of Nelson Ledges Quarry Park. Then Stephanie Wittels Wachs joins Dave to discuss her new book, Last Day, and the death of her brother, beloved Parks and Recreation writer and come...