What if everything you think you know about addiction is wrong? Johann Hari's personal journey into the heart of the war on drugs led him to ask this question and to write the book that gave rise to his viral TED talk, viewed more than 62 million times.

Johann Hari is a best selling author of many books like Chasing the Scream, the War on Drugs, Lost Connections, Stolen Focus, and Magic Pill - The extraordinary benefits and disturbing risks of new weight loss drugs.”

We previously released an episode with Kate DeAraugo about her personal experiences with addiction and today we wanted to look at addiction a bit more broadly and unpack how it comes about and why so many of our loved ones are battling with addiction or substance abuse issues.

We spoke about:

• The difficult narrative of loving an addict and not knowing what to do to help

• The story of what causes addiction isn’t accurate

• Why blaming it all on biology isn’t helpful, nor is blaming it all on personal choices

• Policies based on shame and punishment make addiction worse

• How much control we actually have over our own willpower

• People with ‘addictive’ personalities

• The money-happiness trap; the hedonic effect

You can find all of Johann’s books and further information at his website.

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