Episode 101 — Ohio

The opioid crisis did not happen by accident. It was built — prescription by prescription, shipment by shipment — until Ohio became ground zero for the worst drug epidemic in American history. We examine how the unchecked prescribing of pain medications and the calculated flood of heroin into the state created a catastrophe that would ripple across the entire country.

But inside that catastrophe, something extraordinary happened.

Communities refused to fracture. Local heroes rose from their own devastation to fight for their neighbors. People who had lost children, siblings, and friends stood back up — and started pulling others up with them. Episode 101 will break your heart and then make you stand up and cheer.

Episode 102 — Music & Recovery

For generations, music and addiction have been painfully linked. Some of the most beloved artists in history have lost their battles with drugs. But what if the same power that pulled so many under could be used to pull people back?

ADDICTION UNPLUGGED travels to Austin, Texas — the live music capital of the world — to find out. We go inside a remarkable movement that is flipping the script, harnessing the healing power of music alongside community resources and science to give people in recovery something they may have never had before: a reason to feel again.

Episode 103 — Leidos: A Father's Request

It started with an email.

A Leidos corporate employee, shattered by the loss of his son to addiction, did something almost no one does in a professional setting — he told the truth. In a company-wide message, he bared his grief, his pain, and his plea. What happened next was extraordinary.

Hosted by former Leidos CEO Roger Krone, this episode chronicles how one father's heartbreak became the catalyst for a national movement — bringing together prominent business leaders, drug prevention organizations, medical professionals and corporate America in a unified stand against the opioid crisis. It is a masterclass in what happens when people in power choose compassion over silence.

Episode 104 — Wounds of War

For too many American veterans, the war doesn't end when they come home. The memories follow. The wounds — visible and invisible — remain. And for countless heroes who survived the battlefield, the battle against PTSD, physical trauma and pain becomes a private war fought alone, often with drugs and alcohol as the only weapons they have.

Episode 104 shines a light on the veterans who refused to stay down. We meet military heroes who found their way through unconventional therapies and who have now turned their recovery into a mission — fighting not just for themselves but for every warrior and civilian still trapped in the darkness of addiction and PTSD.

Episode 105 — Addiction in the LGBTQ Community

In a community where suppression of identity, family rejection and daily oppression are too often facts of life, the rates of addiction are devastating. The pain of not being accepted — of hiding who you truly are — has driven countless people in the LGBTQ community toward substances as the only available relief.

Hosted by Recovery at Wildwood Farm, we visit an extraordinary Connecticut farm that has become something rare and precious: a genuine safe haven. A place where identity is celebrated, stigma is left at the gate, and addiction is treated with a level of understanding and compassion that meets people exactly where they are. This is what recovery looks like when it is built around acceptance.

Episode 106 — Mothers & Addiction

Motherhood and addiction. Two words that rarely appear together without judgment. Episode 106 goes to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to change that.

We celebrate the remarkable work being done to help expectant mothers overcome addiction — and go on to experience the full, joyful, healthy life of motherhood they deserve. These are stories of extraordinary courage, second chances that begin before a child takes their first breath, and the compassionate professionals who refuse to give up on any mother who walks through their door.

Episode 107 — Rebound: The Jayson Williams Story

Jayson Williams was one of the most electrifying players in the NBA. Then addiction took everything. What came next is one of the most unlikely and inspiring comeback stories in sports — and in recovery.

With the help of friends who refused to let him disappear, Jayson got sober. And then he did something nobody expected. He built his own recovery method — high-octane, unconventional, built on adrenaline, accountability and brotherhood — and turned it into a mission to bring the gift of sobriety to others. Episode 107 is proof that the most powerful recoveries sometimes come from the most unexpected places.

Episode 108 — First Responders

They run toward the danger so the rest of us don't have to. They pull people from burning buildings, respond to overdoses, and carry the weight of what they witness every single shift. First responders are the heroes we call when everything falls apart — and far too often, nobody asks how they are doing.

ADDICTION UNPLUGGED goes inside police stations and firehouses to have the conversation that rarely gets had. Because sometimes heroes need heroes too. And the emotional toll of a life spent in harm's way has driven more first responders toward addiction than most people know. This episode refuses to look away from that truth — and finds the people fighting to change it.

Episode 109 — My Pillow: Mike Lindell

Mike Lindell is one of the most polarizing figures in America. But before the controversy, before the cameras, before the empire — there was a man in the grip of a crack cocaine addiction so severe that almost everyone around him had given up hope.

He didn't. And what he built on the other side of that recovery is as remarkable as the recovery itself. Today, Lindell doesn't just employ people — he deliberately hires the people nobody else will. The ones with records. The ones fresh out of treatment. The ones the world has written off. His story is complicated. His commitment to giving others a second chance is not.

Episode 110 — Addiction in the Inner City

Addiction does not stay in the suburbs. It reaches into the South Side of Chicago and the streets of Overtown in Miami — communities that have long been overlooked, underserved, and left to fight this crisis with far fewer resources than they deserve.

ADDICTION UNPLUGGED goes in. We find the concerned, determined, upstanding people working in the shadows of these communities to bring light to places that have too often been forgotten. And we visit the youth center founded by NBA Hall of Famer Alonzo Mourning — a visionary who believes deeply that what he has built is the model to break the cycle. After spending time inside it, it is very hard to disagree.