Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction

SHOW NOTES:🏈 Damon’s early life as a quarterback at North Texas💨 First time trying meth — and losing control instantly🏚️ Running burglaries out of trap houses across Dallas🤯 Meth-induced delusions, paranoia, and total madness🚔 Getting busted in front of his parents⚖️ Sentenced to 65 years in a Texas prison⛓️ Life behind bars — navigating gangs and survival☕ The coffee bean story that changed everything🧠 Finding faith, structure, and recovery📚 Rebuilding his life and helping others🎤 From inmate to speaker and author🧃 Bonus: Damon’s take on prison hooch and microwaved food❤️ Classic Dopey themes: addiction, consequences, redemption, and dark comedy🔗 Links:www.damonwest.orgwww.patreon.com/dopeypodcast🖤 Fucking toodles for Chris. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

THESE ARE NOTES ON THE EPISODE - NOT THE TEASER!📝 Show Notes:🧠 Childhood ChaosBorn in NYC, nearly died of a staph infectionFell off a table and cracked his skull at 8 months oldWalked home alone at 3 years old 💥Deep TV addiction starts young (shoutout to MTV, Different Strokes & Give Me a Break)🎭 Early Identity StuffShirt chewing, sugar binging, and fake depression for attentionDidn’t want a bar mitzvah: “It’s not your party, it’s my party.”Too insecure to get lifted in the chair at his own bar mitzvah 😬Played harmonica in a ska band called The Percolators🍹 First Drug StoriesFirst drunk = 16 screwdrivers at summer camp → blackout, vomit, shameNever got into booze, but took acid at a Dead show before ever trying weedEventually... heroin, methadone, weed, and the long road home🎨 Art, Fear & FlowMTV intern in high school, obsessed with music and creativityParalyzed by fear, self-doubt, and a deep need to be authenticBig art nerd: Kandinsky, Mondrian, Jackson Pollock, Bob Dylan, Richard Pousette-Dart 🎨🌞 Spirituality, Recovery & the Dopey DNAWanted spirituality before he had it“The Sunlight of the Spirit” and the resentment trapEarly recovery = doing it because he had toFound real connection through service, comedy, and storytelling🎙️ The Real DopeyIt’s not just about drugs — it’s love, dumb shit, and keeping people companyLetting your freak flag fly, creating community, and making people laughDave’s dream: Dopey TV show, doc series, global recovery adventures, Keith Richards in a chair at DopeyCon 🤘“I just want to make something worth putting in your ears.”💔 Final ThoughtsOn grief, fatherhood, fear, flow, and evolutionBukaty calls Dave out on blind spotsDave: “I like the idea of displacing my father and taking over the apartment.” 😂Tribute to Annie Ellie and the Dopey Nation: “It feeds the show. It is the show.”💌 Got thoughts? Send 'em: dopeypodcast@gmail.com👕 Rep the show: dopeypodcast.com📞 Leave a voicemail, join a Zoom, get involved🧸 Stay Strong Dopey Nation💀 And fucking toodles for Chris  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week on Dopey! In one of the possibly most powerful and emotional episodes of Dopey ever, Dr. Nzinga Harrison returns to the show to tell a story she’s never shared before—despite being around the show for over five years. Her older brother, Kofi (aka Debo), has spent the last 30 years in prison for a triple homicide he didn’t commit. This episode is about injustice, resilience, heartbreak, and family—and how one letter from the foreman of the jury might change everything.💥🎥 Support Nzinga’s documentary “Born Friday” – the story of her brother’s wrongful conviction and the fight for justice: bornfridayfilm.com🧦 Want Dopey socks? Join the Dopey Patreon and get all the goodies (and Wednesday Zoom access!)💌 Send in your voicemails and emails! dopeypodcast@gmail.com🧘 Need help while using? Call Safe Spot at 1-800-972-0590. They’ll sit with you on the phone and make sure you stay alive.🌿 Kratom, Ozempic, Suboxone, weed… we get into it all with Dr. Harrison.🧑‍⚖️ Want to support clemency efforts or help fund the doc? Visit bornfridayfilm.com or email Dave.🛏️ Pajama pants in public? Dr. Harrison says maybe. Nora says no.📺 White Lotus? Not so much. Jim Morrison alive in upstate NY? Definitely not.🗣️ Quotes:“Maybe they killed me that day, and this is some demented afterlife.” – Kofi “Debo” Harrison“Recovery is not the point. Life is the point.” – Dr. Nzinga Harrison“Once a stoner, always a stoner.” – Dave“The Dopey Nation just feels like my people.” – Dr. Harrison Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

🚨 NEW PATREON EPISODE – REDDIT CONSPIRACIES & CONTROVERSY 🚨If you’re not subscribed to the Dopey Patreon, are you even a real fan? 🤔This week, it’s a Reddit Roundup, and things got heated:🔥 A wild conspiracy theory about me and Chris 🦋 Someone out there injected butterflies (seriously, what the fuck?)📢 Dopey randomly mentioned in The Wall Street Journal🐳 A debate over the Dopey mascot: Mopey Dick🎥 Updates on the Dopey Documentary & DopeywoodAlso, a voicemail from New Zealand where a listener confesses she was never Team Chris… but always Team Dave 🤯All this and more for literally 20 cents a day—plus ad-free episodes, extra content, and weird-ass Zooms.🔗 Listen now: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastStay strong & fucking toodles for Chris. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This Week on Dopey! I'm super excited to have had the chance to interview PAtrick J. Pespas and Sam Lipman-Stern from The Telemarketers!  A junky/true crime/scam busting documentary series on HBO! AI wrote all the juicy nuggets below - PLUS Dove updates us! Weighing heroin bags, and Siggy's 7 years!!!! All that and more on a brand spanking new episode of the good old Dopey Show!more dopey at: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast📞 Dopey Podcast Episode Notes: The Wild Life of Pat Pespas & The Telemarketers Scam🎙 Guest: Pat Pespas & Sam Lipman-Stern (The Telemarketers, HBO)📅 Recorded: March 14, 2025🔥 In This Episode:Pat Pespas, the ultimate junkie telemarketer, takes us through his insane journey—from selling fake police stickers while nodding out to blowing the lid off a billion-dollar scam.How a scumbag telemarketing company (CDG) scammed millions from well-meaning Americans under the guise of helping cops, firefighters, and sick kids.Pat’s life in full chaos mode: Heroin, drive-up dope spots, wild scams, and barely staying employed.How Sam (a high school dropout & graffiti writer) started filming at 14 and turned this madness into an Emmy-nominated HBO series.Going undercover to expose police corruption—and how they almost got arrested at an FOP convention.Pat’s mysterious disappearance & the hunt to find him before HBO lost their minds.How politicians & the system FAILED to stop the scams (but Twitter had their back).The Emmy snub (damn you, Beckham!) & why Pat walked away from $250K in media deals.📺 Watch Telemarketers on HBO & Max💰 Support Dopey on Patreon for video & exclusive content: patreon.com/dopeypodcast👕 Merch Drop! Get your Dopey gear: dopeypodcast.com📩 Send in voicemails & emails: dopeypodcast@gmail.com🎶 Outro: A killer banjo cover of Good So Bad by listener Jake 🎵🖤 Stay strong, Dopey Nation—Toodles for Chris! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

NEW DOPEY 'Teaser' Ray is back, and we’re diving deep into the mysteries of junkie slang, Mamoun’s falafel, and the eternal question—does coke make you gay?  Plus, the Jeff Tweedy rejection saga continues. Tune in for unhinged rants, unnecessary debates, and that sweet, sweet Dopey chaos.TO HEAR MORE RAY: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week on Dopey! Chris's sponsor Dylan is back! We hear all about how he is doing and reminisce about Chris and his final run before recovery! PLUS Cat Greenleaf stops in to read emails and talk shit!PATREON - www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastDOPEY LOVE LIVE with MARGARET CHO AND FRIENDS: https://publictheater.org/productions/joes-pub/2025/d/dopey-podcast-live/Episode Description:Buckle up, Dopey Nation—this one’s a wild ride. Dylan returns to the show, and we get deep into the messiness of recovery: Is 12-step the only way? Can something else work? Does Dylan even want to build something new? It’s a classic Dopey-style conversation—raw, honest, and full of uncertainty.Then, we get a next-level Dopey moment: a cleaning lady unknowingly eats a whole bar of mushroom chocolate, trips her face off, and leaves some of the most horrifying (and hilarious) voicemails we’ve ever heard.But that’s not all. TV host and podcaster Kat Greenleaf stops by to talk about her version of recovery, her very personal views on "mouthfeel," and a psychedelic experience that supposedly did 30 years of therapy in one night. Plus, she shares the shocking truth about what she really loves to put in her mouth—and it’s not what you think.Somehow, we squeeze in shoutouts, ads, and a surprise Pee-wee Herman connection. It’s a jam-packed, totally unhinged episode of Dopey.Biggest Takeaways:Dylan wrestles with the idea of alternative recovery models—does he want to build one, or is he just doing Dopey?12-step’s structure may be flawed, but it’s survived nearly a century without scandals or profit motives, which is rare in the recovery world.A cleaning lady’s accidental mushroom trip is both horrifying and peak Dopey chaos.Kat Greenleaf gets very candid about her oral fixation (in more ways than one).Psychedelic therapy might be the future—or just an excuse to get high in a controlled setting.Pee-wee Herman was secretly a huge Katz’s fan and a sober ally.Don’t leave drug-infused treats where unsuspecting people might eat them.Sponsors & Shoutouts:CustomStickers.com – Get Dopey stickers! Use code DOPIE20 for 20% off.Safe Spot – A service that stays on the phone with you while you use. Call 1-800-972-0590.Dylan’s Berkshire Transition Network – Helping people in recovery.Final Notes:Stay strong, Dopey Nation—especially if you accidentally eat a whole chocolate bar of shrooms. And as always, fucking toodles for Chris. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

ERIN KHAR is back on Patreon! She talks about her recent spiral into depression and how she has gotten out of it - plus a sort of scintillating sort of gross 'Ask Erin Question' and much much more on this brand new teaser of the dopey show! PLUS she talks Rick James and Elliott Smith and more! MORE! MORE!Patreon - www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastDOPEY LOVE TICKETS - https://publictheater.org/productions/joes-pub/2025/d/dopey-podcast-live/This is what AI says: 💀 PATREON TEASER: ME & ERIN CARR, DEPRESSION, CRACK, & RANTING 💀🎧 LISTEN NOW: [Insert Patreon Link]Alright, another Tuesday Patreon teaser. Strung-out author, ex-elite equestrian, unlicensed advice columnist Erin Carr is back. And I say fucking way too much. Maybe I should stop. Maybe I won’t. Who cares.🔥 On this one:🌀 Erin’s big depression spiral (bad)🐶 Tried fixing it with a dog (iffy)💀 Crack-smoking past (pawn shops, stolen jewelry, total disaster)🎤 Rick James & Elliott Smith in rehab together?!? (YES, REALLY.)🏛️ Politics?! (Sure. Let’s fix society, why not.)🔥 ALSO: Me rambling about Patreon & merch$5 = bonus shows, zooms, videos. People say it’s too much. I say, you’re welcome.$8 = ad-free Dopey, stickers.$10? Extra weird shit.$15 = socks. $20 = socks + beanie.$100 = sober coaching. Maybe. Who knows.🔥 DOPEY LIVE SHOW ALMOST SOLD OUTMargaret Cho, Brace Belden, Carl from Summer House, Dr. Nzinga, Downtown Ray Brown—it’s a party.DISCOUNT CODE: DOPEY25 ($25 off. If you paid full price… well, shit.)💌 WANNA SHOUTOUT? Email DopeyPodcast@gmail.com⚡ STAY STRONG, DOPEY NATION! And of course...Fucking toodles for Chris. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week on Dopey! Rejoice Lenny from the Beach is Free! Lenny from the Beach returns from being locked away! Hear all about his time away in Long Island's Jail System and then upstate for more time incarcerated before SHOCK treatment! Hear all the ins and outs of institutional living and the nature of incarcerated recovery! PLUS a crazy meth fishing voicemail and Dopey emails! All that and more on this brand new version of the good old Dopey Show!Patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastMargaret Cho/Dopey Love/Live Tickets: https://publictheater.org/productions/joes-pub/2025/d/dopey-podcast-live/Here is what AI Says:🎙️ Smuggling Subs, Smoking Deuce, and a Vagina Full of Dope: Lenny's Wild Jailhouse Tales 🌊In this wild new episode of Dopey, Dave welcomes back Lenny from the Beach, straight out of jail and treatment, to share his mind-blowing journey through addiction, recovery, and the madness of institutionalization. 🚔🏠💉🧠 What to Expect:Lenny's Jail Tales: From smuggling Suboxone to the infamous "Deuce" experience. 🫠💊A Vagina Full of Dope: Yes, you read that right. A jailhouse smuggling story for the ages. 👜💉Meth Fishing Adventures: A hilarious and harrowing voicemail story from the Dopey Nation. 🎣🚨Emails of Hope: Heartfelt letters from listeners, including Mark’s story of turning his life around at 50. 💌🧦The Shock Program: Military-style drug treatment (but not as shocking as you'd think). 🥊🏋️Gratitude & Grooves: Dave wraps up with gratitude and a nod to the Beastie Boys' "Gratitude." 🎵🙏📢 Shoutouts:Happy Birthday to Britta! 🎂🎨Upcoming Dopey Love Live Event: Featuring Margaret Cho, Carl Radke, Abby Fickley, and more! 🎭✨Sponsors: Big love to Oro Recovery, Mountainside, and Recovery Unplugged for keeping the Dopey ship afloat. 🛟🏠🎶🎟️ Get Your Tickets: Dopey Love Live at Joe’s Pub🔥 Support Dopey: Join the Patreon, snag some Dopey socks, and don’t forget—leave a review! 🌟🧦Stay strong, Dopey Nation, and fucking toodles for Chris. ❤️ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

🎧 Tuesday Teaser Alert! 🎧Dopey Patreon Teaser with a crazy email about neighbors on METH! Plus me and Howie navigating the new tiny Dopey studio.Patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcastDOPEY LOVE LIVE WITH MARGARET CHO https://publictheater.org/productions/joes-pub/2025/d/dopey-podcast-live/Yo, Dopey Nation! It’s Tuesday, and you know what that means—Patreon Teaser time! 🎉 Listen to this wild preview, and if you need the full chaotic experience, hit up 👉 www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast🔥 This Week: Howard is back! You loved (or hated) him on Good Morning Dopey, and now he's gracing the Patreon with what might just be our worst episode ever—but hey, it's also the first episode from the brand-new Dopey Studio, courtesy of Howard Beach Buxbaum!🦶 Side note: My feet hurt, probably from all the sugar. Anyone got a detox smoothie recipe that actually works? Hit me up at dopepodcast@gmail.com!❤️ Listener Love:"Chris helped me get into my first treatment program when I was 18. I'll be 9 years clean this year because of him. Love you guys, thanks for being there for me throughout the years."🎟️ Dopey Love Live:Two weeks away! Featuring:Margaret Cho 🧨Brace BeldenDr. Nzinga HarrisonErin CarrRay BrownAbbie Fickley📍Where: Joe’s Pub, Manhattan👉 Get Tickets: [Link in bio]🆕 Fresh Dopey Stickers just landed! Patrons get 'em first—so join the crew!🙏 Stay strong, Dopey Nation, and...🚦 Fuckin' toodles for Chris. 🚦 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.