Carl Erik Fisher author of The Urge: Our History of Addiction

 Rebellion Dog Radio EPISODE 68 features guest, Carl Erik Fisher. A Columbia University Psychiatrist, host of Flourishing After Addiction podcast, author of THE URGE: OUR HISTORY of ADDICTION, Carl Erik Fisher talks about his research, his work and his lived experience.

Our musical feature on Episode 68 is Goodnight Sunrise with their song debuting 02 22 2022 "One Pill."

Carl Erik Fisher’s search for answers about mental health and addiction hasn’t been satisfied by science and medicine; our trip with Dr. Carl Erik takes us into a journey of history, art and philosophy. Sacred cows and wanting definitions and understandings be damned. 

The Urge illuminates the extent to which the story of addiction has persistently reflected broader questions surrounding being human and care for (and connection with) one another. Fisher introduces us to the people who have endeavored to address this complex condition through the ages: physicians and politicians, activists and artists, researchers and writers, and of course the legions of people who have struggled with their own addictions. He also examines the treatments and strategies that have produced hope and relief for many people with addiction, himself included. Only by reckoning with our history of addiction, he argues—our successes and our failures—can we light the way forward for those whose lives remain threatened by its hold.

The Urge: Our History of Addiction reveals that the idea of disease and disorder is not a 20th century construct...

"In 1606 Parliament passed an 'Act for the Repressing of the Odious and Loathsome Sin of Drunkenness.' Religious writers of the seventeenth century had log been describing drunkenness as a problem of 'addiction': in 1609, the influential Puritan John Downame bemoaned the fates of those who 'addict themselves to much drinking' and lamented how 'many of our people of late, are so unmeasurably addicted to this vice.' Addiction was no longer just an action one did but also a condition: people actively 'addicted' themselves to something, but were also 'addicted' by something else acting on them - like, of course, gin.

Medical writers during the Gin Craze drew on these developments and began using the word 'addicted' to explain the impaired choice of habitual drunkenness..."

Enjoy this interview with someone who I hope will be offering sobering insights into the dialogue of addiction and mental health for some time to come. 

Goodnight Sunrise, one of the most theatrical and engaging live music acts in Toronto, is missing their time on stage but they're "Not Dead Yet," as their last pandemic song reminded us. We always close with something musical and today it's their 2022 02 22 release "One Pill." Some acts I see in a lot of festivals and clubs I go to, seem to find it difficult to replicate on stage what they created in the studio. Goodnight Sunrise might have the opposite challenge: putting in a mp3 what we experience with their live performance. "One Pill" may have cured that problem for them. The song has some of that live energy. 

It's a contemporary sounding song that draws on some great influences: An 80's list-song about craving altered states, Huey Lewis, "I Want a New Drug"; or an even further throw-back like the retro-psychedelic movement, these new-agers may still be humming the 1960's Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane anthem, "Go Ask Alice."

Here are the lyrics ...

One pill to make you stronger 
One pill to wear you ou

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