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About Emily Dufton

Emily Dufton is the author of Grass Roots: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America (Basic Books, 2017). A drug historian and writer, her second book, on the development of the opioid addiction medication industry, is under contract with the University of Chicago Press.

NBN Episodes hosted by Emily:

Drugs, Addiction and Recovery December 10, 2023

Agents of Chaos

Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s

Sean Howe

Hosted by Emily Dufton
It wasn’t easy writing a biography the mysterious, shape-shifting Thomas King Forçade, but after nine years of research and extensive interviews, Sean Howe did it. His new book, Agents of …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery August 15, 2023

Quick Fixes

Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge

Benjamin Y. Fong

Hosted by Emily Dufton
Listen:
Benjamin Y. Fong is author of the new book Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge, which was just released in July, 2023 by Verso …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery August 12, 2023

When Crack Was King

A People's History of a Misunderstood Era

Donovan X. Ramsey

Hosted by Emily Dufton
The crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s is arguably the least examined crisis in American history. Beginning with the myths inspired by Reagan's war on drugs, journalist Donovan X …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery July 12, 2023

Methadone and Covid-19

A Discussion with Helen Redmond

Helen Redmond

Hosted by Emily Dufton
Helen Redmond is a Harlem-based documentary filmmaker, journalist, licensed clinical social worker, and professor at NYU. As senior editor and a multimedia journalist at Filter, a website that covers drug …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery February 13, 2023

How Do We Treat Opioid Addiction?

A Discussion with Mark Parrino

Mark Parrino

Hosted by Emily Dufton
Mark Parrino has been involved with the delivery of health care and treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) since 1974. As the president of the American Association for the Treatment …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery February 7, 2022

Fentanyl, Inc.

How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic

Ben Westhoff

Hosted by Emily Dufton
Ben Westhoff is an award-winning investigative journalist whose best-selling 2019 book Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic (Grove Press, 2019), was one of the …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery February 2, 2022

Strychnine and Gold

The Untold History of Addiction Treatment in the United States

Kenneth Anderson

Hosted by Emily Dufton
Kenneth Anderson is the author of Strychnine and Gold, a two-volume history of the “untold story of addiction treatment in the United States.” Anderson knows what he’s talking about when …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery October 13, 2021

Smokescreen

What the Marijuana Industry Doesn't Want You to Know

Kevin A. Sabet

Hosted by Emily Dufton
Called the “quarterback of the new anti-drug movement,” Kevin Sabet received his Ph.D. in social policy from the University of Oxford and has worked in drug policy for over two …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery July 2, 2021

War Stories from the Drug Survey

How Culture, Politics, and Statistics Shaped the National Survey on Drug Use and Health

Joseph Gfroerer

Hosted by Emily Dufton
Joseph Gfroerer spent nearly 40 years working as a statistician for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Starting in …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery April 7, 2021

Operation White Rabbit

LSD, the DEA, and the Fate of the Acid King

Dennis McDougal

Hosted by Emily Dufton
Operation White Rabbit: LSD, the DEA, and the Fate of the Acid King (Simon and Schuster, 2020) traces the rise and fall—and rise and fall again—of the psychedelic community through the …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery November 13, 2020

American Trip

Set, Setting, and the Psychedelic Experience in the Twentieth Century

Ido Hartogsohn

Hosted by Emily Dufton
Are psychedelics invaluable therapeutic medicines, or dangerously unpredictable drugs that precipitate psychosis? Tools for spiritual communion or cognitive enhancers that spark innovation? Activators for one’s private muse or part of …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery January 7, 2020

US of AA

How the Twelve Steps Hijacked the Science of Alcoholism

Joe Miller

Hosted by Emily Dufton
In the aftermath of Prohibition, America’s top scientists joined forces with members of a new group, called Alcoholics Anonymous, and put their clout behind a campaign to convince the nation …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery October 14, 2019

Ten Drugs

How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine

Thomas Hager

Hosted by Emily Dufton
Behind every landmark drug is a story. It could be a researcher’s genius insight, a catalyzing moment in geopolitical history, a new breakthrough technology, or an unexpected but welcome side …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery October 11, 2019

Strange Trips

Science, Culture, and the Regulation of Drugs

Lucas Richert

Hosted by Emily Dufton
Strange Trips isn’t only the title of Dr. Lucas Richert’s new book; it’s also a good description of the journey substances take from the black market to the doctor’s black …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery September 19, 2019

Never Enough

The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction

Judith Grisel

Hosted by Emily Dufton
Not a lot of authors go from spending their early twenties homeless and addicted to cocaine to becoming one of the world’s leading researchers on the neuroscience of addiction. But …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery September 11, 2019

In Pain

A Bioethicist’s Personal Struggle with Opioids

Travis Rieder

Hosted by Emily Dufton
On a spring day in 2015, Dr. Travis Rieder’s life changed. A motorcycle accident, a shattered foot, and a long series of surgeries later, the Johns Hopkins University bioethicist had …