These aren't just words.

They are the standard we hold ourselves to — and the promise we make to every person whose story we have the privilege of telling.

ADDICTION UNPLUGGED exists for one reason: to change the narrative around addiction, recovery and mental health in America. Addiction does not discriminate. It reaches into every community, every income bracket, every family — regardless of race, religion, or zip code.

And yet the stigma and shame surrounding it continue to silence the very people who need help the most.

We believe storytelling is one of the most powerful tools we have to change that.

By putting a real, human face on addiction and recovery — by going into communities, sitting across from real people, and capturing their truth on camera — we are doing more than raising awareness.

We are actively dismantling the wall of shame that stands between people who are struggling and the help that is waiting for them.

ADDICTION UNPLUGGED focuses on the people, organizations, treatment pioneers and everyday heroes who are making a difference — people helping people, saving lives, and giving back. These are not actors. These are not dramatizations.

Every story is real. Every face is real. Every second chance is real.

Created and executive produced by Stuart M. Goffman, ADDICTION UNPLUGGED is produced by an experienced and passionate production team led by director Brandon Dumlao of Subculture Filmworks — storytellers who understand that how a story is told matters just as much as the story itself.

Season One reached 2.6 million viewers on A&E. The response was overwhelming. The need is undeniable. And we are just getting started.

SEASON TWO IS COMING.

 

The Team

Every great story needs great storytellers. The people behind ADDICTION UNPLUGGED bring together decades of experience in film, television, journalism and advocacy — united by a single belief: that the right story, told the right way, can change a life.

These are not just producers and directors. They are advocates. They are truth-tellers. Some of them have lived versions of the stories we tell. All of them show up every day driven by something bigger than a production credit.

Stuart M. Goffman

Creator/Executive Producer

Stuart Goffman didn't come to this project from a boardroom. He came from the front lines.

As the founder of a premier addiction treatment and mental health center, Stuart spent over six years immersed in the realities of addiction and recovery — not from a distance, but up close. He worked nationally with a diverse client base that extended far beyond the individual: families in crisis, loved ones searching for answers, and people in recovery fighting every single day to reclaim their lives. He sat with them. He listened. He showed up.

During those years, Stuart built deep relationships with people in recovery, substance abuse advocacy organizations, and some of the leading experts in the field. He saw firsthand what the stigma of addiction does to people — and more importantly, he saw what happens when that stigma is replaced with compassion, understanding and hope.

That experience didn't just inform ADDICTION UNPLUGGED. It created it.

Stuart built the show around a simple but powerful belief: that if people could see addiction through a more human lens — if they could hear the real stories, meet the real people, and witness the real recoveries — it would change the way America talks about this crisis. Not someday. Now.

That mission drives every frame of every episode.

Brandon Dumlao Director/Executive Producer

There are filmmakers who tell stories. And then there are filmmakers who feel them.

Brandon Dumlao is the latter.

As the owner and creative force behind Subculture Filmworks and co-founder of Corner of the Cave Media, Brandon brings a rare combination of technical mastery and genuine human empathy to everything he touches. He is a director, editor, cinematographer, graphic designer and coder — a complete filmmaker in the truest sense of the word. But credentials only tell part of the story.

His resume spans decades and defies easy categorization. He has edited for Discovery Channel, Science Channel, A&E, ID and HBO. He served as post-production supervisor on Discovery's legendary Shark Week franchise. He edited Behind the Music: Ludacris and executive produced Real Change: Artists for Education — a primetime CBS special featuring Pitbull, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Quincy Jones and more. He has worked as a cinematographer alongside living legends, and laid on a patch of ice near Newfoundland documenting seals in sub-zero waters. If a story is worth telling, Brandon will go wherever it takes him to tell it right.

But what brought him to ADDICTION UNPLUGGED wasn't a resume. It was a connection — to Stuart, to the mission, and to the belief that this was exactly the kind of story the world needed told with exactly this kind of care.

Brandon came aboard before Season One and never left. Because ADDICTION UNPLUGGED isn't just a project to him. His creative vision, his instincts behind the camera, and his ability to make people feel genuinely safe and seen — to let the real emotions breathe, the real energy surface, and the real truth come through — are not just his contribution to the show.

They are the DNA of it.

His superpower is simple and rare: he doesn't extract stories from people. He creates the conditions for people to share them.

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Dr. Jaynee Poulson

Community Relations & Strategic Initiatives

Every city ADDICTION UNPLUGGED visits has a story. Jaynee Keene is the reason we find the right one.

As the team's community relations leader and strategic connector, Jaynee is the bridge between the show and the real world it enters. Before a single camera rolls in a new city, Jaynee has already been there — building relationships, earning trust, opening doors, and identifying the people, organizations and networks whose stories deserve to be heard. She doesn't just find contributors. She creates the conditions for communities to show up fully and authentically for the cameras.

It is work that requires a very specific kind of person. Fortunately, Jaynee has spent her entire career being exactly that.

A licensed mental health counselor specializing in addiction and eating disorders, she has treated thousands of girls and their families. She has served as a K-12 guidance counselor, a Health Commissioner on the state PTA board, a certified Professional Parent Trainer, a Master Fundraiser for nonprofits, and led the REAL Transition for Women program inside correctional facilities. She holds an Executive Leadership certificate from Cornell University and teaches feminism at the university level. She volunteers in youth detention centers and Utah State Prison. She has given a TEDx talk on giving pain purpose — addressing the Surgeon General's urgent mental health crisis and helping to dismantle the stigma surrounding it.

In other words, Jaynee doesn't just understand the communities ADDICTION UNPLUGGED serves. In many cases, she has spent decades inside them.

That is what makes her irreplaceable. She doesn't knock on doors — she walks through them, hand extended, with the credibility and compassion to bring entire communities along with her.