A Listener $h!ts himself on a Carnival Ride After Doing Fake Cocaine. PLUS Hasnie the EMT/Belly Dancing Alcoholic, Pills, RecoveryA Listener $h!ts himself on a Carnival Ride After Doing Fake Cocaine. PLUS Hasnie the EMT/Belly Dancing Alcoholic, Pills, Recovery
Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction
TIME STAMPS 00:00 – Dopey intro + setting up Greatest Hits episode 01:19 – Dave introduces Hasi episode + Dopey Wood talk 02:00 – Listener email: “King” dealer story begins 03:43 – King moves to new hotel + gets sloppy 05:00 – Police raid + King jumps out window → brutal injuries 06:09 – King crashes car doing whippets into someone’s living room 07:00 – Spotify comments on Diddy episode 10:36 – Listener comments + recovery shoutouts 12:02 – Ray + Matt on show, Matt wants to relapse 14:16 – Matt talks money stress, toys, relationship tension 16:29 – Matt admits urge to use out of anger 18:41 – Matt calms down, decides not to use 21:03 – Credit card + meth talk + consequences 23:26 – Matt origin story with Dopey 26:13 – Matt buys Ray Taco Bell gift card 27:00 – Talking Matt off the ledge recap 28:34 – NyQuil talk + getting “high” from it 30:58 – Transition to Hasi interview 🎤 HASI INTERVIEW 33:24 – Hasi intro (belly dancer, Albania, Muslim background) 35:45 – Identity, recovery, and representing immigrants 37:57 – Early drinking + chaotic teenage years 40:15 – Cousin dies from heroin + spiritual moment with coin 44:42 – Family background (Albania, Islam, communism) 47:08 – First drunk + dangerous situations with older men 49:34 – Alcohol progression + trauma + first responder work 51:48 – Addiction escalates (pills, alcohol, sex, chaos) 54:09 – Knee surgery → pills → wanting to stay high forever 56:24 – Rock bottom: sends kids away, alone using 58:51 – Decides to go to rehab (moment of clarity) 01:00:57 – Detox + first AA meeting (“jar of awesome sauce”) 01:03:21 – Early sobriety + Gay AA saving her life 01:07:49 – SLAA + using people as substances 01:12:31 – Learning parenting + emotional connection 01:17:15 – Marriage in AA + codependency + divorce 01:21:43 – Getting daughter back from Ukraine during war 01:24:00 – Parenting in sobriety + talking about drugs with kids 01:28:38 – Fear of kids inheriting addiction 01:31:00 – Letting kids have their own experience 01:33:25 – Sobriety allows her to function as first responder 01:35:35 – COVID trauma + staying sober through chaos 01:38:03 – Finding purpose in helping people 01:40:22 – Sobriety, spirituality, and gratitude 01:42:48 – Back to Dave + Ray wrap-up 01:43:30 – Listener email: carnival ride diarrhea disaster
2:01:24•9 Apr 2026
Carnival Chaos, Near-Relapse & a Belly Dancing EMT’s Road to Sobriety
Episode Overview
- Reaching out before using can interrupt a relapse, even when someone feels completely justified in getting high.
- Money troubles and relationship tension are powerful triggers, but they are problems to solve, not reasons to throw away clean time.
- First responders and frontline workers may use substances to cope with trauma, yet recovery can turn that experience into meaningful service.
- Sex, romance and people can become substitutes for drugs; the same recovery tools can be applied to those patterns too.
- Spiritual practice, whether through religion or 12-step work, can support a daily conversation with a higher power and help keep sobriety first.
“I took my sobriety, and I fucking ran with it like it was a football over dead bodies.”
What are the common struggles and victories in addiction recovery? This Dopey “greatest hits” mash-up keeps things raw, grim, and hilarious all at once. You’ll hear everything from a carnival coke mishap to a near-relapse in Iowa, right through to a Muslim EMT and belly dancer sharing how she built a sober life in New York.
The episode starts with Dave reading outrageous listener stories, including “King,” a dealer who jumps out of a second-floor window during a police raid and later drives his car into someone’s living room while high on whippets. That same blend of horror and humour pops up again in Josh’s infamous tale about doing fake cocaine, getting on a high-speed carnival ride, and quite literally losing control of his bowels.
From there, the tone shifts as Dave brings on Ray Brown and Matthew Wiedemeyer Carroll. Matt phones in on the brink of throwing away three years of sobriety over money stress, relationship tension, and buying too many “toys” like dirt bikes and RC trucks. In real time, you’ll hear friends talk him back from the edge, reminding him that using would only blow up his family, his sanity, and his hard-won clean time.
The second half centres on Hazi, an Albanian Muslim EMT who went from pills, blackout drinking, and chaotic sex to eight years sober. She talks about working as a first responder, sending her daughter to Ukraine during her addiction, then flying into a war-torn city in early recovery to bring her home. Her gay AA home group becomes a lifeline, and she explains how AA principles sit alongside her Islamic faith as she rebuilds motherhood, work, and self-respect.
Dark humour, brutal honesty, and real-time recovery support all collide here. If you like your recovery content messy, human, and very real, this one’s worth your time.
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