Audrey and Patrick welcome Melanie C. to talk about second chances, disillusionment with electoral politics, and Michael Clayton. Covid lockdown, parental support and medication-assisted treatment helped Melanie find recovery from a fifteen year opiate addiction. Reading Edward Said in college began her education on Palestine and her advocacy for humanity and liberation.

We shouldn’t demand that revolution and resistance come in the ideological manner we prefer. We aren’t okay with our comfort coming at the expense of human lives. As a practice, Melanie suggests that when it comes to social and political critique, we also put mirror on ourselves: how are we contributing to our communities, to our civics, beyond posting?

Follow Melanie on Twitter: @benzostraydogs

Her Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/benzostraydogs/

Opening quote by filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, about Starship Troopers

Anna Scanlon’s Substack: https://substack.com/@rockfoils

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

• (00:00:00) - "War makes fascist of us all"
• (00:00:51) - Mad Max and Fury Road: Cinephile Talk
• (00:03:57) - The Pit Fanatic On ER
• (00:07:49) - I Run Into Former Employee From My Heroin Addiction
• (00:14:09) - Bipolar patient's struggle to quit smoking after 30 years
• (00:16:22) - Melanie on Her Own Sobriety
• (00:23:19) - Anti-Israel People on the Democrats
• (00:30:45) - Members of the DSA Get Involved in the Resistance
• (00:38:02) - Gen Xers on the 2020 election
• (00:39:00) - George Clooney in '
• (00:44:03) - In The Elevator With Michael Clayton

Nick Casaccio joins us to talk about Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine and its twin dynamics of alcoholism and codependency, relating Mark Kerr’s struggles to our own recoveries. Addiction has a habit of migrating, and we discuss how gambling, shopping, and relationships have taken our stories down new rabbit holes. Nick finished school while he was in treatment more than thirteen years ago, and through Covid, bodybuilding, relationship struggles and physical ailments has continually offered himself in fellowship.

The ultimate purpose of celebrating recovery milestones is to inspire newcomers and share our experience strength and hope to those who still suffer.

Opening clip by Mark Kerr, from a 2009 interview

Episode cover art by Perry Kneisel

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

• (00:00:00) - A Men's Stag Birthday Bash
• (00:05:42) - How I Learned To Stop Drinking Alcohol During My Dark Times
• (00:11:08) - Gambling Helped Me Finish High School
• (00:17:18) - Casinos are a Bad Place for Gambling Stars
• (00:22:36) - Bipolar Patient Nick On His Spending Sprees
• (00:26:19) - The Smashing Machine: Ending Explained
• (00:27:13) - The Importance of 'The Codependent'
• (00:34:16) - Bipolar patient celebrates her 10th birthday

Audrey welcomes another wounded healer to Outside Issues: spiritual advisor Matthew Blankinship, who helps professionals and peers get stronger in their 11th Step. To become an expert in any field, Matthew believes ten years and ten thousand hours are required, to graduate from “digging the ditches to building the high rise.”

After a traumatic brain injury, paralyzed muscles and Vegas nerve severance (among other injuries), Matthew dedicated his life to healing at age 33, beginning his life anew. Divine wisdom - which aided Matthew in his own recovery as it helps Audrey recover from trauma and grief - is something with only light in it. It works for everyone.

Our highest and best goods project outward to people and the planet. Politics at their best, can be an extension of this. Mental health care and a spiritual practice give us the tools to keep ourselves in check so we can then help others.

Follow Matthew on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattblankinship

Opening clip by Brad Dourif and David Milch

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

Filmmaker and humanist Anna K. Scanlon joins the pod to talk about her recovery from hopelessness, which has led to a great period of creative synthesis culminating in “Toss Up,” her recently-completed film inspired by a career working on political campaigns.

Anna's recovery came from a lot of places, notably a nudist resort in Mexico where she found herself after Bernie’s 2020 campaign hit the rocks. With her inspiration she pairs a capacity for forming strategies and executing plans. Moreover, her recovery’s focus on “romanticism rather than reason”, on love instead of anger, has given her a new lease on life.

Anna’s Substack: https://substack.com/@rockfoils

“25 Propositions about the New Romanticism” by Ted Gioia: https://substack.com/home/post/p-184683172

Opening clip by Wagner Moura via ACLU

“You read something which you thought only happened to you, and you discover that it happened 100 years ago to Dostoyevsky. This is a very great liberation for the suffering, struggling person, who always thinks that he is alone. This is why art is important.”

― James Baldwin, Conversations with James Baldwin

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

Audrey and Patrick welcome Minneapolis native and clinician Brian Dyke to talk about community responses to state violence. The joy in working with recovering people in these tough times can be found through helping them discover their inherent sense of individuality. Looking towards the future and continued ICE occupation in Minneapolis and other American cities, we must remember: these things will only continue to happen as long as they’re allowed to happen.

Opening clip and quote by Ilhan Omar, U.S. Representative for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District

U.S. Citizens Testify About DHS/ICE’s Use of Violent Force: https://www.youtube.com/live/UagENT1CAP0?si=D2_DhzlAA7Mgvn5Y

The Paramilitary ICE and CBP Units at the Center of Minnesota's Killings: https://www.wired.com/story/ice-cbp-srt-bortac-units-immigration-operations/?utm_brand=wired&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=aud-dev&fbclid=IwY2xjawP048NleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeR8OQvx5qLqSWcxMLq9EARy9T9RjzUAlf3hE3z65GFLQVJuMvmX6ySK-Nrn8_aem_jFvtTipjPFexdNQl4BdOJA

The Execution of Alex Pretti Broke Me: https://youtu.be/nDEAWxG7Bq8?si=uKTHrze3yEn-vRMP

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

• (00:00:00) - ICE's violent occupation of American cities
• (00:00:44) - Protesters Throw Dildos at Law Enforcement
• (00:06:00) - Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges on ICE infiltration
• (00:09:03) - Social Workers on the City's Emotional Weight
• (00:13:03) - Minnesota doctor on the treatment business
• (00:14:58) - Medicaid cuts in Washington state
• (00:19:24) - Tom Brokaw on 12 Step Practice
• (00:23:09) - Clinical psychologists talk about the politics of their patients
• (00:31:23) - Minnesota resident on ICE's response to North Minneapolis shooting
• (00:34:42) - The Need for Self-Care

Every member of the Trump administration is an abuser. Audrey and Patrick discuss Trump’s execution of Stephen Miller’s vision in American cities but most recently in Minneapolis with the murder of Renee Good. Today we mull our new reality of a President not just waging war abroad but on his domestic population, with misogyny and white supremacy at the tip of the spear.

Opening clip and quote by Chase Iron Eyes of Ogala Sioux

https://www.fox9.com/news/oglala-sioux-leaders-seek-missing-members-detained-ice-minneapolis?utm_source=chatgpt.com

This Isn’t 2020: https://www.ettingermentum.news/p/this-isnt-2020

The Anti-'Abolish ICE' Crowd is Living in the Past: https://open.substack.com/pub/discourseblog/p/the-anti-abolish-ice-crowd-is-living?r=ffyqp&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

Closing quote by Hasan Piker

• (00:00:00) - American Indian members held by ICE in Minnesota
• (00:00:45) - The Renee Goode Shooting
• (00:07:40) - Anticipating a Civil War with ICE in the Cities
• (00:17:35) - "What Am I Going to Do To Protect My Family?"
• (00:19:59) - Escalation and Deescalation in Healthcare
• (00:21:25) - What a Deescalation Would Look Like for ICE?
• (00:26:22) - Don't Let ICE Agents Go to Your Neighborhood

We share our gratitudes and resentments for the 2025 that was, preparing for the devastation of HR-1/Trump’s Fuckity Fuck Fuck (see episode 2) that is sure to come. Audrey and Patrick welcome social worker Seth Boun to talk about some of his political advocacy, shedding light on the space where social justice and clinical work meet.

In the fight for progress, in the fight for each other’s lives, sometimes we lose. Hope is a verb, as is recovery.

Opening quote by Rob Reiner.

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms Opening quote by Greta Thunberg

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

• (00:00:00) - Why People Do Things They Shouldn't
• (00:00:53) - Seth Boone on Outside Issues
• (00:02:03) - Social justice in mental health care
• (00:07:30) - I'm Not Political but Mental Health Care Is Political
• (00:15:22) - Talking With My Therapist About Mental Health
• (00:16:01) - Beyond the Need for Housing: Social Issues
• (00:19:03) - 2017: Trump's Homeless Executive Order
• (00:26:09) - Losing a Friend To Addiction
• (00:29:07) - On Gratitude for the Year
• (00:32:54) - Thanksgiving Letter: A Year in Recovery
• (00:36:17) - What Pissed You Off This Year?
• (00:39:35) - Thanksgiving 2018: What I'm Grateful For
• (00:45:44) - Seth on His Recovery

Dr. Jamie Marich - clinical trauma specialist, LGBTQIA+ advocate and author of Trauma and the 12 Steps - joins us as we return again to the intersection between recovery and social justice. Audrey and Jamie talk about spirituality, trauma, and the Steps. Is there such a thing as unconditional love? Is there any daylight between helplessness and powerlessness? We submit that there may be spiritual value in praying for those we resent, even Donald Trump.

More about Jamie Marich: https://jamiemarich.com/meet-jamie/

Jamie’s recent Substack: “A Good Clinician is a Good Clinician: A Response to the Department of Education: https://open.substack.com/pub/jamiemarich/p/a-good-clinician-is-a-good-clinician?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms Opening quote by Greta Thunberg

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

• (00:00:00) - Jamie Merrick on Trauma in the 12 Steps
• (00:09:47) - How to Heal an Addict: Healing the Brain
• (00:13:35) - The 12 Steps: Healing From Religious Trauma
• (00:20:50) - Patrick, What's Your Take On Unconditional Love
• (00:23:33) - Forgive and Regret: The Resentment Prayer
• (00:32:33) - Has anything changed about your personal recovery practice or your work?
• (00:36:58) - Have You Redone the 12 Steps?