News and Happenings

A few years ago, Laurie McTeague noticed her teenage son, Ian, was uncharacteristically depressed. So she went snooping around on his phone and discovered that he’d been widely experimenting with nearly every drug under the sun. What followed was years of relentless searching for effective adolescent treatment while her son continued to relapse again and again. As a parent, how do you navigate this? 

This season started with the question: How did we get here? How did Stefano and Harris overdose and die in their early 30s? How did our country lose 400,000 lives to opioids since 1999? In the new year, we turn our attention to other last day stories, and other kinds of last day stories. Brittany and Ahren are high school sweethearts who built a life and a family together, when “the blues” came into the picture. Brittany and Ahren talk about Ahren’s addiction, his last days of using, one ugly night, their joint recovery, and what gives them hope for the future. Plus, addiction medicine doctor Dr. Charles Reznikoff shares his approach to early recovery.

Show Description We asked. You answered. This week, we hear from Last Day listeners about why the holidays are so hard, different, stressful, all of the adjectives. Stephanie chats with Dr. Neha Kumar, a clinical psychologist, about tips to get...

Last Day episode 12: What I Know Now transcript   [00:44] Stephanie Wittels Wachs: If you are just joining us for the first time, this next episode will make the most sense if you start listening to Last Day from...

Last Day Episode 11 -- Wake Me Up transcript   [00:51] Stephanie Wittels Wachs: I know I say this all the time, but this time it's really true. If you are just joining us for the first time, this episode...

Transcript:   [00:32] Stephanie Wittels Wachs: So the holidays are coming, whether you like it or not. For some people, this season is a time for good food and family bonding. But for others, the holidays are just a festive...

Transcript   [01:34] Stephanie Wittels Wachs: I'm just walking around outside of my house because I cannot stay on the phone in my house. It will not connect to you. So I'm reading through these interviews this morning and I'm...

Transcript   [00:26] Stephanie Wittels Wachs: I am a broken record about lots of things on this show, and I am also a broken record about the fact that if you're joining us for the first time, I think you...

Transcript   [00:01] Hiawatha Collins: I hate to use this term. And I hate to say it but dead people don't recover. And the thing is to just give people a second chance at recovery at life. That's what it's...

Transcript   [01:20] Jessica Cordova Kramer: OK. I'm going to read this note. So this is from Stef on Wednesday, January 29, 2014. It's around 5 a.m., he writes to me, subject: Livvy’s present.’ ‘Hey, I feel awful about not...