In my inbox yesterday: 1) a note from the PR team for Alex Gibney’s upcoming doc for HBO, The Crime Of The Century, that included HBO’s official trailer;
2) a note from our esteemed contributor Susan Howard, remarking on the pleasant surprise of A Death In Mud Lick’sBest Fact Crime win at the Edgars, which neither of us had predicted; and 3) an invoice from the publishers warehouse where I get new stock for Exhibit B., letting me know that Patrick Radden Keefe’s Empire Of Pain is winging its way to my shelves.
Do any and all of these belong on a prospective opioid-crisis “syllabus”? And what other properties would you add? The jury’s still out (as it were) on the Gibney as of this writing, but I would add, just for starters, last year’s Frontline episode, “Opioids Inc.”; Beth Macy’s Dopesick; and, if you want a sneak of the Radden Keefe, his 2017 piece on the Sacklers, which made me abusive towards the physical New Yorker in which I was rage-reading it.
Please add your must-reads/must-watches/must-listens in the comments! (And if you find yourself tempted to purchase some of the reading mentioned, step on over to Exhibit B. Books and use the BestEv15discount code at checkouton any of the tomes mentioned…or any other tome that strikes your fancy! Good alllll weekend so take your time.) — SDB
I'm very interested in articles (or other media) about the predatory crisis recovery centers that don't do much more than babysit and rake in the insurance money. I think I read this one, but I'm out of free New Yorker articles for the month, so I can't be totally sure this is the one I read.
I should have noted that Intervention over the last few years is, in the episodes featuring heroin addicts, functionally a documentary about this issue/its aftermath. - SDB
Huh, it's a real documentary. I have to admit, I've only seen it attached to tweets by "@greatrighthope" (everything you need to know in 15 small characters) to try to convince people not to get vaccinated.
Two of the frequently cited books in Empire of Pain (which I finished this week and is phenomenal) are Dreamland by Sam Quinones and Pain Killer: A "Wonder" Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death by Barry Meier (NXIVM completists will recognize Meier as the author of the NYT investigative piece that signaled the beginning of the end for Keith Raniere). Dreamland is really essential I think. I haven't read Meier's book, but I think I will do so as it seems like an important work. In addition, in an author talk I watched with Patrick Radden Keefe he recommended In Pain: A Bioethicist's Personal Struggle with Opioids by Travis Reider and so I've got that one on my to-read list.
I'm a big believer in teaching/learning through novels and other fiction, so I'd add Long Bright River by Liz Moore. Brilliant book about how opioids are devastating families, communities and institutions.
I'm very interested in articles (or other media) about the predatory crisis recovery centers that don't do much more than babysit and rake in the insurance money. I think I read this one, but I'm out of free New Yorker articles for the month, so I can't be totally sure this is the one I read.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/21/my-years-in-the-florida-shuffle-of-drug-addiction
I should have noted that Intervention over the last few years is, in the episodes featuring heroin addicts, functionally a documentary about this issue/its aftermath. - SDB
This was one!
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/magazine/kensington-heroin-opioid-philadelphia.html
The Pharmacist on Netflix
Huh, it's a real documentary. I have to admit, I've only seen it attached to tweets by "@greatrighthope" (everything you need to know in 15 small characters) to try to convince people not to get vaccinated.
I'm slowly making my way through this book: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1496-rx-appalachia and I think it's a pretty good look at a slightly different side of the opioid crisis.
Two of the frequently cited books in Empire of Pain (which I finished this week and is phenomenal) are Dreamland by Sam Quinones and Pain Killer: A "Wonder" Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death by Barry Meier (NXIVM completists will recognize Meier as the author of the NYT investigative piece that signaled the beginning of the end for Keith Raniere). Dreamland is really essential I think. I haven't read Meier's book, but I think I will do so as it seems like an important work. In addition, in an author talk I watched with Patrick Radden Keefe he recommended In Pain: A Bioethicist's Personal Struggle with Opioids by Travis Reider and so I've got that one on my to-read list.
The American Rehab 8-part series on the Reveal podcast starting July 4th, 2020. Really, really good.
I'm a big believer in teaching/learning through novels and other fiction, so I'd add Long Bright River by Liz Moore. Brilliant book about how opioids are devastating families, communities and institutions.
Dopesick by Beth Macy
Also: a NYT article on the Sackler family, might be below in comments already.