My Brother Died of a Heroin Overdose with Stephanie Wittels Wachs, Harris Wittels, Grief, Recovery | Wednesday DoseMy Brother Died of a Heroin Overdose with Stephanie Wittels Wachs, Harris Wittels, Grief, Recovery | Wednesday Dose
Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction
Timestamps 01:15 – Welcome to the Wednesday Dose of Dopey 01:37 – Recovery means resetting the system 04:02 – Hunter Biden attention, DopeyCon and free Narcan 04:55 – Kevin’s cocaine-piss burial on acid 11:26 – Nelson Ledges Quarry Park insanity 13:52 – Patreon comments, Heart Attack Doug and Dolly Parton 16:12 – Spotify comments and anxious attachment 20:58 – Stephanie Wittels Wachs joins the show 23:16 – Redesigning the Dopey studio 31:29 – Grief, helping people and Snoop Dogg reading Last Day 35:50 – Why Stephanie still has skin in the addiction crisis 38:11 – Remembering Harris Wittels 40:34 – Harris’s childhood comedy obsession 42:58 – Doing whippets, mushrooms and acid together 45:18 – Did Phish change Harris’s drug use? 47:20 – Addiction, extremism and Stephanie’s work addiction 49:34 – Harris reveals his $4,000-a-month pill habit 52:02 – Rehab, heroin and the Pete Holmes interview 53:20 – Harris’s death and the failure of the “rehab fixes you” idea 55:41 – Family boundaries and the search for solutions 58:05 – How Stephanie became radicalized by harm reduction 01:00:32 – Kimber’s life-saving SafeSpot call 01:02:42 – Drug policy in Portugal, Switzerland and America 01:05:05 – Supervised consumption and the Dopey injection-site idea 01:07:28 – Keeping people alive on their own timeline 01:09:50 – Grief as a room inside a growing house 01:12:12 – Meaning, purpose and allowing grief to exist 01:14:31 – How loss created a greater appreciation for life 01:16:44 – Stephanie’s verdict on Dopey—and podcast video 01:18:59 – SafeSpot, Last Day and closing thoughts 01:20:46 – Listener cover of “Good So Bad” Five ad-break spots 11:26 – After the cocaine-piss burial voicemail 20:38 – Before Stephanie’s interview 38:11 – Before the conversation turns directly to Harris 53:20 – After the video interruption and before discussing his death 01:07:28 – After the supervised-consumption discussion
1:24:02•2 Sept 2026
Grief, Heroin, and Dark Humour: Stephanie Wittels Wachs on Losing Harris and Staying Alive
Episode Overview
- Recovery is framed as constantly ‘resetting the system’, with the freedom to start the day over as many times as needed.
- Real connection in small, honest meetings – even in the rain – helps people share the messy truth rather than a polished version of recovery.
- Shame and secrecy around drug use increase the risk of fatal overdose; talking openly and keeping people close can keep them alive.
- Harm reduction measures such as supervised use, overdose hotlines and carrying naloxone are presented as practical ways to prevent deaths.
- Grief doesn’t disappear, but channelling it into purposeful work, creativity and family life can shift it from pure despair to a different kind of strength.
“Overdose is preventable. Like there are things we can do.”
What emotional and inspiring tales of recovery are out there? This midweek instalment of Dopey brings the usual mix of filthy humour, brutal honesty and unexpected heart, then shifts into a powerful conversation with writer and producer Stephanie Wittels Wachs. Things kick off with host Dave grumbling about his podcast gear before realising it’s a neat metaphor for recovery: sometimes you just have to "reset the system" and start again.
He talks about outdoor meetings in the rain, free Narcan and fentanyl test strips for anyone who needs them, and reads listener emails and comments that swing from Dolly Parton tributes to anxious attachment and the fear of losing friends.
You’ll also hear a wild listener voicemail dubbed the "cocaine piss burial" – a chaotic mix of cocaine, acid, boxed wine and a symbolic ‘goodbye’ to drugs in the woods – which somehow still lands in that classic Dopey zone of dark, stupidly funny honesty. The tone shifts when Stephanie joins.
She and Dave banter about redesigning the studio, plants, wallpaper and podcast video, before moving into heavier territory: her brother Harris Wittles, his heroin use, multiple rehabs and eventual overdose. Stephanie talks about writing her first book in the nine months after his death, starting the Last Day podcast and Lemonada Media, and how her thinking has changed over time. She’s frank about boundaries, harm reduction and policy: "Overdose is preventable.
Like there are things we can do." They talk about safe-use hotlines, supervised consumption, carrying naloxone and why shame and secrecy kill people. Stephanie also shares how grief reshaped her life, work, and sense of meaning, and how she still finds ways to laugh. If you’re living with addiction, loving someone who is, or just craving honest talk with some gallows humour, this one asks hard questions and still leaves room for hope.
What might it change about the way you see people who use drugs?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.