No Small Endeavor with Lee C. Camp 236: Unabridged Interview: Lara Love Hardin
Nov 21, 2025
Lara Love Hardin is a memoirist, literary agent, and prison-reform advocate whose bestselling book chronicles her journey through opioid addiction, incarceration, and recovery. She discusses how the real antidote to addiction is connection, supported by the Rat Park study. Lara shares her experiences of shame from public humiliation and her path to forgiveness, working alongside figures like Archbishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama. She emphasizes the transformative power of community, meditation, and storytelling in healing and finding purpose in life.
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Addiction Ignores Background Or Achievement
- Addiction bypasses social status and education; it can begin with prescribed medications and escalate rapidly.
- Lara Love Hardin shows addiction felt like a compulsion that she could not resist despite knowing it harmed her and loved ones.
Eleven Months From Relapse To Arrest
- In 11 months Lara's life unraveled from relapse to arrest while juggling four children and a facade of normalcy.
- She recalls police arriving, Child Protective Services taking her youngest, and feeling both devastated and oddly relieved.
Powerlessness Feels Like A Drowning Reflex
- Powerlessness in addiction feels physiological, not simply a moral failure.
- Lara compares it to a drowning reflex: the brainstem forces the harmful act despite rational knowing it's lethal.
