Dopey 581: Zoe Hansen; Heroin, Sex Work, Shooting Speedballs, The Chelsea Hotel & Dying in Nancy Spungen’s BedDopey 581: Zoe Hansen; Heroin, Sex Work, Shooting Speedballs, The Chelsea Hotel & Dying in Nancy Spungen’s Bed
Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction
Full Episode Timestamps 00:00 Dopey intro song and sponsor read (Oro Recovery) 02:17 Dave opens show / Friday Dopey begins 02:45 Single parenting chaos, school pickups, tutoring, dance class disaster 04:40 Dave announces Dopey Recovery Short Film Festival 05:05 Anonymous listener email begins 05:30 Listener discusses early internet porn, chat rooms, compulsive sexuality 09:30 Shame, addiction, therapy, SLAA, suicidal thoughts 11:50 Dave responds compassionately to the email 13:00 Mountainside sponsor read 14:13 Wild voicemail about Alzheimer's patient triggering dope-fiend memories 14:50 Cocaine psychosis story: naked with fork hunting bugs 16:00 Friend arrives wearing pheasant hat selling condoms 17:00 Dave awards Dopey socks / talks sticker contest 17:45 Braeburn sponsor read 18:50 Spotify comments from Andy Dick episode begin 19:00 Fans call Andy annoying / praise interview / criticize Dave 21:10 Listener celebrates one year sober 22:00 More reactions: brain injury, chaos, comedy, body-shaming comments 24:30 Marilyn Manson talk / Tim Ryan mention 26:00 Jake from West Virginia update 27:00 Workit Health sponsor read 28:30 Patreon comments on Andy Dick episode 31:00 Dave introduces Zoe Hansen 32:35 Zoe Hansen interview begins 33:00 Zoe married to Jerry Stahl / memoir Going Down in Gotham 35:00 Zoe grew up in Chelsea, London in wealthy dysfunctional home 36:30 Kicked out of boarding school / no emotional support at home 38:00 Punk rock London / Sex Pistols era / King’s Road 39:00 Started using weed, speed, heroin young 40:00 First heroin shot at 15 42:00 Why UK heroin was tar / heady vs NYC powder heroin 43:00 London in the early 80s: punk, homemade fashion, rebellion 45:30 Moves to NYC at 17 / hair salon in Soho / MTV styling 47:00 Finds heroin on Lower East Side again 47:45 Enters escorting and sex work to pay for habit 49:00 Why sex work felt empowering and like family 50:00 Brothel culture / women supporting each other 51:30 Brothel rates, tipping, best clients 52:30 Why she preferred brothels over escorting 53:00 Police raid story 54:00 Realizes client was undercover cop 55:00 Jailed in The Tombs / secretly takes methadone pills 56:00 Brothel cast of characters 57:00 Finger condoms / client requests / hygiene tips 58:00 Legendary nymphomaniac coworker Lena 59:00 $200/day heroin habit 1:00:00 Lower East Side heroin blocks and stamps 1:01:00 Romanticizing old NYC decay 1:03:00 Katz’s bathroom junkie stories / Gringo mention 1:04:00 NYC nightlife in late 80s / afterhours scene 1:05:00 Andy Warhol wig haircut story / celebrity access 1:06:00 Speedballing begins around age 20 1:07:00 Isolated Hell’s Kitchen apartment / brothel then shoot all night 1:09:00 Sugar daddy doctor enters picture 1:10:00 Doctor gives cars, houses, money, support 1:10:30 Chelsea Hotel era begins 1:11:00 Learns she’s sleeping on Nancy Spungen bloodstained mattress 1:14:00 Cocaine overdose / dies for 3 minutes 1:15:00 Tunnel of light near-death experience 1:16:00 Wakes blind / doctor revives her 1:16:45 Wicca, spirituality, nature, healing energy 1:18:00 Another overdose vision: Indian market 1:19:00 Chelsea Hotel nostalgia and decline 1:20:00 Doctor sends her upstate to detox 1:21:00 Brutal detox / clonidine / Xanax withdrawal 1:21:20 Upstate relapse, drinking, opening Wiccan/fetish clothing store
2:00:37•1 May 2026
Heroin, Brothels and the Chelsea Hotel: Zoe Hansen’s Wild Road to Recovery
Episode Overview
- Sex work can feel safer and more structured than street-level survival when addiction drives financial desperation.
- Heroin and cocaine speedballs rapidly escalated Zoe’s habit and led to multiple overdoses, including a near-death experience in the Chelsea Hotel.
- Running brothels gave structure and income, but unaddressed trauma and alcohol eventually pushed her back into heavy use.
- Using while parenting brought intense shame, but intervention, hospitalisation and relocating to a safe environment helped her stop.
- Daily qigong, spirituality and simple consistency have become key tools in staying sober and feeling present in her own life.
“"When you first came here, you had had your soul taken from you. But now I can see that you've gotten it back."”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation with writer and long-time “dopey OG legend” Zoe Hansen gives a raw, darkly funny, and very human answer. The episode kicks off with Dave’s trademark Friday chaos, a heavy anonymous email about compulsive sexuality, and a wild voicemail involving cocaine psychosis, bug-hunting with a fork, and a friend in a full pheasant hat selling condoms.
Dave responds with calm honesty, stressing that sexual compulsion doesn’t make anyone “a bad person” and that they’re “very welcome in our audience,” setting a compassionate tone before things get truly wild. Then Zoe arrives. She talks through growing up in posh-but-loveless Chelsea, London, finding punk, speed at 13, heroin at 15, and moving to New York “to get off heroin” only to fall in love with the Lower East Side dope scene instead.
She describes working as a sex worker and madam in 80s–90s New York, the camaraderie in brothels, and why sex work felt “very empowering” compared with the coldness of her upbringing. Her stories range from funny to chilling: overdosing on speedballs, seeing a tunnel of light, living and nearly dying in the Chelsea Hotel bed where Nancy Spungen bled out, and running multiple brothels while trying to manage a $200-a-day habit.
The hardest part comes later, when she speaks about using while a mother, a suicide attempt, and being handcuffed to a gurney in Gracie Square before flying to Los Angeles to get clean. Now sober since 2018, Zoe talks about qigong, spirituality, and rebuilding a close relationship with her son. This one’s for anyone who appreciates brutal honesty, gallows humour, and recovery stories that don’t tie everything up in a neat bow.
What part of Zoe’s story hits closest to home for you?
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