Flourishing After Addiction with Carl Erik Fisher Podcast By Carl Erik Fisher cover art

Flourishing After Addiction with Carl Erik Fisher

Flourishing After Addiction with Carl Erik Fisher

By: Carl Erik Fisher
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Addiction psychiatrist and bioethicist Carl Erik Fisher explores addiction and recovery from science to spirituality, from philosophy to politics, and everything in between. He interviews leading experts in areas such as psychology, neurobiology, history, sociology, and more--as well as policy makers, advocates, and people with lived experience.

A core commitment of the show is we need more than medicine to truly understand addiction and recovery. The challenges and mysteries of this field run up against some of the central challenges of human life, like: what makes a life worth living, what are the limits of self control, and how can people and societies change for the better? These are enormous questions, and they need to be approached with humility, but there are also promising ways forward offered by refreshingly unexpected sources.

There are many paths to recovery, and there is tremendous hope for changing the narrative, injecting more nuance into these discussions, and making flourishing in recovery possible for all.

Please check out https://www.carlerikfisher.com to join the newsletter and stay in touch.

© 2026 Flourishing After Addiction with Carl Erik Fisher Hygiene & Healthy Living Psychology Psychology & Mental Health
Episodes
  • How a Little Becomes a Lot, with Eric Zimmer

    How a Little Becomes a Lot, with Eric Zimmer
    Mar 10 2026

    Sign up for my newsletter and immediately receive my free guide to the many pathways to recovery, as well as regular updates on new interviews, material, and other writings.

    Today I’m sharing my conversation with my friend Eric Zimmer: author, teacher, person in recovery, and the creator of The One You Feed, an award-winning podcast with more than 50 million downloads and over 800 conversations exploring what it means to live a meaningful life.

    Eric, I should add, is one of the most requested guests for this show—I’m sure this is in large part because of his curious, rigorous, and thoughtful approach to addiction recovery and personal change. We first met shortly after I launched The Urge and became fast friends, so I was happy to have this chance to talk to him ahead of the launch of his new book, How a Little Becomes a Lot, coming out March 31. (I recorded this conversation with Eric a little while ago and held onto it so we could release it around the launch of his new book.)

    Check out my Substack post for more about Eric

    Sign up for my newsletter and immediately receive my own free guide to the many pathways to recovery, as well as regular updates on new interviews, material, and other writings.

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    59 mins
  • What Addiction Science Got Wrong About Dopamine, with Dr. David Nutt

    What Addiction Science Got Wrong About Dopamine, with Dr. David Nutt
    Dec 15 2025

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    Today I’m sharing my conversation with Dr. David Nutt—Edmond J. Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London—one of the most influential and outspoken figures in modern psychiatric research and drug policy. It’s a wide-ranging chat about addiction science, pharmacology, and the past and future of medication development—including his current focus on psychedelics.

    In particular, we turn to the intellectual foundations of addiction science and focus on one of Dave’s core arguments: the field went down the wrong path by treating dopamine as a master explanation for addiction.

    Check out my Substack post for more about Dr. Nutt's work

    Find him on YouTube, Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter/X, and at the charity he founded, DrugScience.org.uk.

    Sign up for my newsletter and immediately receive my own free guide to the many pathways to recovery, as well as regular updates on new interviews, material, and other writings.

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    50 mins
  • BONUS: Can You Become Addicted to AI? A conversation with neuroscientist Tim Requarth on AI dependency, cognitive shortcuts, and what AI is doing to our brains

    BONUS: Can You Become Addicted to AI? A conversation with neuroscientist Tim Requarth on AI dependency, cognitive shortcuts, and what AI is doing to our brains
    Nov 7 2025

    Sign up for my newsletter and immediately receive my free guide to the many pathways to recovery, as well as regular updates on new interviews, material, and other writings.

    This is a special audio edition of my recent Substack conversation with neuroscientist and writer Tim Requarth. The full post—including the video and more detailed show notes—is available on my Substack.

    Neuroscientist, writer, and NYU faculty member Tim Requarth joins me to talk about what "AI dependency" really means. Some behavioral addiction researchers are proposing that "ChatGPT addiction" qualifies as a bonafide mental disorder, while others strongly object! We explore how tools like ChatGPT affect our thinking and attention, and whether AI can actually cause "brain damage"--as recent headlines have claimed. We discuss what happens when people lose trust in their own thinking, why productive struggle matters, and why AI can’t challenge your assumptions the way a real friend would.

    Check out my Substack post for more!

    Sign up for my newsletter and immediately receive my own free guide to the many pathways to recovery, as well as regular updates on new interviews, material, and other writings.

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    1 hr and 29 mins
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