How does opioid addiction and recovery work?

This seemed like a timely topic, given the recent spike in heroin overdoses in MA.  My housemate Tammi Kozuch works at the Holyoke Health Center, so I talked with her and two co-workers, Gene DiVincenzo and Liz O’Dair, about their work in the suboxone program there.

Whether it’s food, clothing, or lottery tickets, how do we decide what to buy?  Or what we want?  I asked about 20 random people around town their thoughts on this.  It sounds like we’re generally pretty impulsive – and the advertising industry gambles $180 billion a year to shape our wants.

My good friend and housemate Alex Jarrett talks in depth about some of his consumer decisions.  Other featured voices include Nao, Stan-the-Fixit Man, and Joanna V.  For me, I try to answer two questions before buying anything:  Where did it come from ?  and Where will it go?

The last quarter of the show is highlights from a presentation about refugee resettlement by Deirdre Griffin, New American Program Director at Jewish Family Services in Springfield.  The presentation was at the Friends Meeting House in Northampton last Saturday.  The event was prompted by the current Syrian refugee crisis.  For more info, or for ways to volunteer, go to  http://www.jfswm.org/healing-world/refugee-services

This week the international climate talks are being held in Paris.  Here in Northampton, around 250 enthusiastic climate change fighters marched and rallied the evening of Sunday, November 29th.  The first half hour of the show is from this march and rally.  Probably about 20 different people from the community speak about their passions, to the eager cheering of an engaged (and chilly) crowd.

The latter part of the show is me narrating as I bike from downtown to the new Northampton Community Rowing docks on the Connecticut River  north of Damon Rd.  I attempt a spontaneous visit to the Coca-Cola plant,  and take a ride down the memory of Lane Construction.