People First Radio – August 14, 2025People First Radio – August 14, 2025
People First Radio
Singer–songwriter Francis Baptiste shares how addiction, single fatherhood, poverty, and community work inform his album *Lived Experience in East Vancouver*, and why honesty and connection are central to his recovery. The episode also previews a future conversation with lawyer Nicole Letourneau about shifting from denial to a fuller understanding of alcohol addiction and sobriety.
0:00•15 Aug 2025
Music, Addiction, and East Vancouver: Francis Baptiste Shares His Lived Experience
Episode Overview
- Speaking openly about addiction and being “honest and vulnerable” can reduce secrecy and stigma, helping others feel less alone.
- Music can act as a therapeutic tool, forcing people to revisit, analyse, and learn from painful experiences rather than bury them.
- Community spaces like the DUDES Club use a “health through stealth” approach so men can connect, drop their guard, and gradually open up without feeling like they’re in formal treatment.
- People living with addiction, homelessness, or poverty each have unique circumstances; assuming they are simply “lazy” strips them of their humanity.
- Recovery is rarely a single rock-bottom moment; it’s a long, non-linear process that involves repeated effort, setbacks, and patience from both the person and their loved ones.
“Addiction is something that thrives in secrecy and stigma.”
What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? This episode of People First Radio follows one such path through music, community, and raw honesty. Centred on Indigenous singer–songwriter and music journalist Francis Baptiste, the conversation looks at how addiction, fatherhood, poverty, and cultural roots all shape his upcoming album *Lived Experience in East Vancouver*.
Francis is open from the start, joking that his bio calls him a “washed up, divorced, recovering alcoholic and drug addict,” then backing that humour with serious truth. As he puts it, “addiction is something that thrives in secrecy and stigma,” so he chooses to be “honest and vulnerable” in his art and on stage to help other people feel less alone.
You’ll hear him talk about being a single dad, a working musician, and a struggling addict all at once, and how those “very turbulent years” show up in his songs. He explains how performing tracks about trauma can be both painful and “very therapeutic,” because it forces him to face past decisions and learn from them.
Francis also shares his work at the DUDES Club in East Vancouver, where “health through stealth” means men can drop their guard, share a meal, weave cedar hats, or go on cultural trips without feeling like they’re in treatment. Throughout, he pushes back against stereotypes about people in the Downtown Eastside, stressing that “there’s humanity in being homeless” and that every person’s story is different.
The episode previews his singles “Aspirin for the Soul”, “Locked in for Life”, and “Rent Free in My Mind”, threading together addiction recovery, housing stress, and love. It closes with a short preview of next week’s interview with lawyer Nicole Letourneau, who reflects on her own alcohol addiction and the shift from seeing sobriety as deprivation to seeing recovery as gaining a life worth living.
If you’ve ever wondered how art, community, and candid conversation can support recovery, this episode might be the nudge you need to look at addiction — and yourself — a little differently.
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