This week I dive into some of the work Freud wrote later in his life, particularly a book called Civilization and its Discontents published in 1930. Freud believed that the evolutionary process we can use to trace the changes humans have gone through over the centuries can also explain why culture itself has evolved as it has. He basically thinks we are all self-deceiving, chronically unfulfilled and unsatisfied bots programmed to lie to ourselves above all else, and to avoid feeling guilt or sh...
May 02, 2025•28 min•Season 1Ep. 169
This week I talk about Freud's love of cocaine, the historical legacy of Freud's cocaine use, and the cultural changes that have occurred since then in relation to cocaine. The stories we tell about drugs impact the experience we have when we consume them, but Freud wasn't dealing with a century of propaganda. He was, in many ways, creating some of the original stories about cocaine that others would tell later on. But his positive stories were largely erased when cocaine was outlawed in the ear...
Apr 25, 2025•15 min•Season 1Ep. 168
This week I dive into some of Trump's recent comments about "Venezuelan gang members" and the USA's legacy of dehumanizing people based on their drug use. I discuss Rodney King, Joaquín Guzman aka "El Chapo," George Floyd, dehumanization, Hannah Arendt's Banality of Evil , the art of shilling for Trump (aka "minionism"), and lots more. You can find clips and images of the "Venezuelan Gang deportations" here. Support the show...
Apr 03, 2025•24 min•Season 1Ep. 167
This week I share a conversation with one of my students, Madeline Grace/Levin, who is creating a podcast of her own called Dependence . I will update this episode description with a link to her podcast when it's live, but in the mean time I thought I'd share a cool conversation we had last week. We talk about religion, drugs, addiction, Michel de Certeau, neoliberalism, atheism, 12-step programs, chihuahuas, spirituality, Trump Derangement Syndrome, religion as a drug, and lots more. You can fi...
Mar 27, 2025•45 min•Season 1Ep. 166
This week I sat down to record a conversation with my dad, Steve Boyce. We talk about my childhood, his first marriage to my bio-mom, addiction and drug use in his life, what I was like as a kid, cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, and religion (plus more). Support the show
Mar 11, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 165
This week I talk about the kratom wars: the argument over whether kratom is a deadly drug or a miracle cure (or somewhere in between). While some states are currently trying to ban kratom, others are working to make it easier and safer to get. Meanwhile, the federal government has been a bit all over the place on it, and with Trump 2.0 gathering early steam by pandering to Project 2025 nationalists, it's hard to say what attempted legislation might materialize in coming years. So let's talk abou...
Mar 04, 2025•25 min•Season 1Ep. 164
This week I tackle some of the questions and comments I've been getting over the last couple months. I talk about Trump's neoliberal agenda, his capture of the Evangelical Right, Consistency and Accountability in both criminal justice and religion, and I clean up some of what I may have missed during the last few episodes I've done on these issues. This episode was mostly unscripted and it's all over the place, but hey, some people enjoy rants, so if that's you, have at it. Support the show...
Feb 21, 2025•37 min•Season 1Ep. 162
This week Dr. Christy Perez (C Dreams) is back to talk about her new projects, and to be dragged back into old theological debates. We talk about trans rights, Christianity, the capture of Evangelical Christianity by MAGA, expectations for the next 4 years, the anti-fact stance of the recent anti-trans executive order, and we spend way too long spinning our tires trying to figure out which parts of the Bible we should read as legitimate, which parts we should disregard, and how on Earth anyone i...
Feb 14, 2025•1 hr 22 min•Season 1Ep. 162
This week I get back to the heart of the show: drug policy, drug addiction, and drugs. I talk about free will as it relates to the war on drugs, addiction and intoxication, and I dig into genetics, criminal justice, punishment and prevention. The nonsensical notion of free will, which I've yet to hear defined with any sort of coherence, plays no part in addiction, and our insistence that it does has allowed us to construct a culture that maximized both the occurrence and the severity of addictio...
Jan 19, 2025•32 min•Season 1Ep. 161
This week I talk about coffee: the history, the pharmacology, the politics and the legal battles. I take a dialectical perspective, which just means I focus on both sides of the coffee discussion: it has been blamed for sexual promiscuity and inability to perform; it has been the instigator of both dictatorships and revolutions; it has been labeled both a drug and an anti-drug in different times and places. I also talk about caffeine as a drug and the reason we don't live in a world where we are...
Jan 13, 2025•29 min•Season 1Ep. 160
This week I finally finish the topic a started a few weeks ago: religious trauma and why religion often makes people into worse versions of themselves without them noticing. I discuss two of the most important questions in life: how does one find truth, and how does one decide on morality. And I point out the many ways that religions, particularly Christianity, disrupts the process by which we do both while preventing us from noticing our lack of recipe for finding either one (truth or morality)...
Jan 07, 2025•32 min•Season 1Ep. 159
This week I get back to the roots of the show and talk about drugs, specifically alcohol. How does it work? What does it do in the body? Why is it so popular in so many cultures? How has capitalism both attacked and encouraged alcohol use at various times? Why did prohibition happen in the first place? How did our relationship with alcohol change as neoliberal capitalism expanded? Support the show...
Jan 01, 2025•26 min•Season 1Ep. 158
The title of this week's episode is a shout out to philosopher Bertrand Russell, who wrote a book by the same name: Why I am not a Christian . This week I talk about religion as an addiction, responsible use of religion, how religion often programs people to avoid accountability and double down on things they know are not true, the problem with the Bible and other religious books, and lots more. *Of all the many things people complained about in this episode, there is one error that is worth fix...
Dec 28, 2024•30 min•Season 1Ep. 157
Today's episode includes an interview with formerly incarcerated activist Jeremy Pavlik. Jeremy was incarcerated in Colorado for more than 15 years before his release in 2014. Since then, he has worked with multiple agencies who assist other recently released people trying to get back on their feet. He is currently working to start up his own organization, which you'll hear us talk about today, devoted to fulfilling all needs of recently released people under one roof, from transportation to lic...
Dec 21, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 156
This week friend of the show Meghan Cosgrove stopped by to interview me in our ongoing series about previously incarcerated people who have used education to find a pathway to success. Long time listeners have heard pieces of my story, but I've seldom stopped to dig deep into what happened to me and why my life went the way it went. We talk about prison education, addiction, religious trauma, heroin injection versus snorting, bank robbery, free will, teaching in prison, and lots more. FYI, the 1...
Dec 13, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 155
Today I continue a series of interviews with recently incarcerated people who are doing some great things in the community. Taylor Doucet was sentenced to 28 years in prison for two attempted murderers in 2013. While inside he found a different version of himself and worked to overcome his past. Now he is a peer recovery coach, a personal trainer, and a bad ass academic. We talk about prison tattoos, prison identity, gang life in prison, peer recovery, addiction, the war on drugs, parole, prison...
Dec 09, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 154
This week I host another interview with a previously incarcerated student who is doing some great work in the community. Sean Mueller was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2010 after being convicted of running a "Ponzi Scheme" and losing a few million dollars of investors' money. Since his incarceration, he's worked to become an artist, an author, and an academic; he is currently nearing the completion of his Bachelor's Degree. We talk about capitalism, education in prison, addiction, the cultu...
Dec 03, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 153
This week I share a story from another previously-incarcerated person who is doing some incredible work in the community. Geordan Morris was one of my students in the CU-Denver Strategic Communication program, and since his release earlier this year, he's worked with others who have struggled with addiction, trauma, and incarceration to help them define recovery on their own terms and to embody a better way of life. We discuss stigma, prison education, adoption, addiction, trauma, recovery, free...
Nov 26, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 152
This week I sat down with Colorado's David Carrillo, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole thirty years ago, when he was 19 years old. Since then, David has accomplished some incredible things behind bars. He enrolled in college, completed his Bachelor's and then his Master's Degree, and then got hired to teach for a local college inside prison while he was still incarcerated. We talk about life in prison, drugs in prison, prison education, redemption, identity ch...
Nov 15, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 151
Today is the first episode in a series about people who are justice impacted and who managed to break out of the trap of recidivism. I start with my partner, Dr. Erin Boyce, whose story winds through 20 years, 5 drugs, 4 states and 3 felony arrests. We discuss religious trauma, addiction, role models, prison transports, check fraud, the lost art of gas-and-dash, and we zoom in on education as a way to escape the trap of prison. Support the show...
Nov 09, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 150
This week is about the evolution of drugs and the role of big pharma (#Capitalism) in creating and exploding the war on drugs. From Cannabis to Marinol to Spice/K2... From coca leaves to cocaine to crack... From willow tree bark to Aspirin to Ibuprofen... From eucalyptus to amphetamine to methamphetamine to Adderall... From PCP to Ketamine... From tea to barbiturates to benzos to SSRIs to glutamate drugs... From beer and wine to spirits and liquor.... Something capitalistic has been driving our ...
Oct 30, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 149
Email us at DrJunkieShow@gmail.com Why does everyone in the 2020s seem to have their own version of reality? And why does truth seem to be up for debate in every area? Marshall McLuhan explained why 50 years ago. This week I answer the question, "why don't you host commercials?" I also discuss the larger, related issues of capitalism, neoliberalism, and Marshall McLuhan's claim that the medium is the message as it relates to our current culture of post truth. Support the show...
Jul 26, 2024•24 min•Season 1Ep. 148
Email us at DrJunkieShow@gmail.com This week I talk about Karl Marx's claim that religion is the opium of the masses. I also talk about Friedrich Engels's concept of exploitation by wage labor, Friedrich Hegel's dialectics, capitalism, globalization, and the religious values of different eras (and why they always align with economic values of that era). Support the show
Jun 04, 2024•23 min•Season 1Ep. 147
Email us at DrJunkieShow@gmail.com This week I dive back into some philosophical theory related to why we are so prone to struggle with anxiety, addiction and alienation in today's world. Guy Debord wrote The Society of the Spectacle more than 50 years ago, and in it he explained the current state of so-called "Western Cultures" as having moved from the importance of being to a culture where the importance is on having , and eventually, on to the importance being placed on appearance only (to ap...
May 15, 2024•23 min•Season 1Ep. 146
Email us at DrJunkieShow@gmail.com This week I dive back into some philosophical theory related to why we are so prone to struggle with anxiety, addiction and alienation in today's world. Guy Debord wrote The Society of the Spectacle more than 50 years ago, and in it he explained the current state of so-called "Western Cultures" as having moved from the importance of being to a culture where the importance is on having , and eventually, on to the importance being placed on appearance only (to ap...
May 08, 2024•28 min•Season 1Ep. 145
Email us at DrJunkieShow@gmail.com C. Dreams, Dr. Christina Perez's moniker while incarcerated, joins me today to talk about addiction, recovery, reentry, education, stigma, social movement, reappropriation, colorism, plus she shares her story of doing interviews (including for this show) on a contraband cell phone smuggled into her prison cell. Check out C. Dreams' work at Filter Magazine. You can also find her on Twitter/X @UnCagedCritique. Support the show...
Apr 24, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 142
Email us at DrJunkieShow@gmail.com This week I revisit a topic I've discussed repeatedly on this show: the reported success rates of 12-Step programs like AA and NA. I talk about the reason these programs persist as the norm despite an odd lack of data to verify their success, and I walk through the reasons AA and other 12-Step programs are highly religious while almost always claiming (and appearing) not to be. Read Cochrane's new(er) meta-analysis of 12-step success rates on their website . Re...
Apr 10, 2024•30 min•Season 1Ep. 143
Email us at DrJunkieShow@gmail.com This week I talk about the medication shortages across the United States. Drugs used to treat ADHD, chronic pain, and other conditions have been in short supply lately for reasons unexplained. Different groups have blamed the shortage on one anther: the manufacturers blame the DEA, while the DEA blames manufacturers. But as usual, the problem comes down to a design issue. For more about Assent's issues with the DEA, check out the Reason article, "DEA Shuts Down...
Mar 28, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 142
Email us at DrJunkieShow@gmail.com This week I wrap up a multi-part discussion of Foucault's theories of panoptic power, institutional knowledge, and discourses used to endorse awful ideas and beliefs about drugs and drug users. I also talk about Michel Foucault's car accident while high on opium, the notion of panoptic power, Jeremy Bentham's panoptic prison, discourse, stigma and stereotype. Foucault audio at intro and outro from Century of the Self lecture series. Support the show...
Mar 21, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 141
Email us at DrJunkieShow@gmail.com Captured Words/Free Thoughts is an annual, non-profit publication packed with art, poetry and prose inspired and written inside US prisons. Every year a group of volunteers records some of the submissions in audio form to share with the world. An online version of the full magazine (and all previous volumes) is here . If you or someone you know (in prison or out) would like a paper copy, contact me and I'll make sure to send one out (for free). You can reach us...
Mar 14, 2024•51 min•Season 1Ep. 140
