This week I get back to the heart of the show: drug policy, drug addiction, and drugs. I talk about free will as it relates to the war on drugs, addiction and intoxication, and I dig into genetics, criminal justice, punishment and prevention.

The nonsensical notion of free will, which I've yet to hear defined with any sort of coherence, plays no part in addiction, and our insistence that it does has allowed us to construct a culture that maximized both the occurrence and the severity of addiction.

I plan to do a follow up show to respond to questions or comments you have about this (or any) episode. Let me know what you want to hear.

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This week I talk about coffee: the history, the pharmacology, the politics and the legal battles. I take a dialectical perspective, which just means I focus on both sides of the coffee discussion: it has been blamed for sexual promiscuity and inability to perform; it has been the instigator of both dictatorships and revolutions; it has been labeled both a drug and an anti-drug in different times and places.

I also talk about caffeine as a drug and the reason we don't live in a world where we are at war with caffeine in the same way we are at war with so many other drugs and drug users. I discuss Coca-Cola's caffeine lawsuit, cocaine/coca, feminist movement and coffee, neoliberalism and coffee, and the USA's persistent habit of meddling in the affairs of S. American countries.

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This week I finally finish the topic a started a few weeks ago: religious trauma and why religion often makes people into worse versions of themselves without them noticing. I discuss two of the most important questions in life: how does one find truth, and how does one decide on morality. And I point out the many ways that religions, particularly Christianity, disrupts the process by which we do both while preventing us from noticing our lack of recipe for finding either one (truth or morality). Now days, most of us practice objective morality in which we make our own rules and morals based on what feels right to us. But religious people do so without ever having to admit it; they say they take their morals from holy books while selectively skipping those rules they don't think should apply anymore.

As always in these episodes on religion, I'm not attacking Christians. I am criticizing an idea, not people. If you practice a religion, the challenge here is not to give it up (unless you come to the conclusion it's not true), but rather to practice it responsibly and to value the truth enough to make sure you are practicing the correct form of your religion.

To see Kenneth Copeland's full interview with Inside Edition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LtF34MrsfI

To see Kevin thank God and no one else for saving him from 37 stab wounds: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=944370430207535

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This week I get back to the roots of the show and talk about drugs, specifically alcohol. How does it work?
What does it do in the body?
Why is it so popular in so many cultures?
How has capitalism both attacked and encouraged alcohol use at various times?
Why did prohibition happen in the first place?
How did our relationship with alcohol change as neoliberal capitalism expanded?

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The title of this week's episode is a shout out to philosopher Bertrand Russell, who wrote a book by the same name: Why I am not a Christian. This week I talk about religion as an addiction, responsible use of religion, how religion often programs people to avoid accountability and double down on things they know are not true, the problem with the Bible and other religious books, and lots more.

*Of all the many things people complained about in this episode, there is one error that is worth fixing: the goats I claim Jesus threw off a cliff for no reason were actually pigs. See Mark 5.

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Today's episode includes an interview with formerly incarcerated activist Jeremy Pavlik. Jeremy was incarcerated in Colorado for more than 15 years before his release in 2014. Since then, he has worked with multiple agencies who assist other recently released people trying to get back on their feet. He is currently working to start up his own organization, which you'll hear us talk about today, devoted to fulfilling all needs of recently released people under one roof, from transportation to licensing to food to clothing to medical assistance and housing.


You can reach Jeremy at jpavlik@haloreentry.com

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This week friend of the show Meghan Cosgrove stopped by to interview me in our ongoing series about previously incarcerated people who have used education to find a pathway to success. Long time listeners have heard pieces of my story, but I've seldom stopped to dig deep into what happened to me and why my life went the way it went. We talk about prison education, addiction, religious trauma, heroin injection versus snorting, bank robbery, free will, teaching in prison, and lots more. FYI, the 1963 Impala I talk about rolling at the end was actually a 1967 (my dad remembered)

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Today I continue a series of interviews with recently incarcerated people who are doing some great things in the community. Taylor Doucet was sentenced to 28 years in prison for two attempted murderers in 2013. While inside he found a different version of himself and worked to overcome his past. Now he is a peer recovery coach, a personal trainer, and a bad ass academic.

We talk about prison tattoos, prison identity, gang life in prison, peer recovery, addiction, the war on drugs, parole, prison politics, and lots more

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