Where Have I Been?

Where Have I Been?

What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? Here, Sony Perlman steps out from behind his usual interviewer role and goes solo, opening up about where he’s been and why his focus has been all-in on a project he cares about deeply: The Village, a Jewish recovery-focused residential community.

Across a winding story that begins in 1998, he shares how a lifelong obsession with fairness and helping the "people that people have given up on" drew him into addiction work, Our Place, and eventually to building long-term community support for those with severe trauma and low success rates in traditional rehab. You’ll hear him explain how many interventions offer "very, very strong... temporary solutions" but rarely create lasting change.

Sony reflects on earlier attempts to build such a community, including the powerful yet short-lived Arena Sober Living, and the grief and guilt he carries after its closure. From there, he describes starting again—multiple times—until The Village grew into several men’s houses and a newly opened women’s house, where, as he puts it, "the community is alive.

It’s electric." He’s candid about the emotional toll of separating from Our Place after 25 years, the stress of taking full responsibility for funding and running The Village, and how hard it is for him to ask for help.

Yet his message is hopeful: "I have seen so many people who people have labeled as hopeless do incredible." His talking-dog joke lands a gentle punchline about how absurd it is to give up on people while being amazed by lesser miracles.

If you’re drawn to community-based recovery, long-term healing, or just need a reminder that "every one of our people… deserves the best chance to have the best life," this one might leave you asking: who in your life needs to be seen as that “talking dog” of possibility?