About this Episode:
In this episode Ryan shares his journey from being part of the White House staff during the Clinton administration to homeless on the streets of Los Angeles with a ripping heroine habit. He shares his personal struggle with addiction and how he was fortunate enough to get the assistance he needed to get sober and become a leading face and voice of the addiction recovery movement today. Ryan shares his frustration with witnessing many people struggle with addiction and not get the help they need even when they wanted it, including some of his closest friends that would later die from an overdose. This enraged him and fueled him to use his background in politics to start the activism and policy reform work in which he continues to do today!
Ryan also shares what its like trying to maintain recovery during these challenging times in the middle of a pandemic and what he does to make sure he stays on top of his recovery and also what he’s doing to help others in this time of need.
About Ryan Hampton:
Ryan Hampton is five years into recovery from a decade-long opioid addiction and has been rocketed to the center of America’s rising addiction recovery advocacy movement. A former White House staffer under the Clinton administration, he has worked with multiple non-profits and national recovery advocacy campaigns. He is now a prominent, leading face and voice of addiction recovery and is changing the national conversation about addiction.
With content that reaches over 1 million people a week, Ryan is breaking down cultural barriers that have kept people suffering in silence and is inspiring a new generation of people recovering out loud through his Voices Project. He’s also advocating for solutions and holding public policy makers accountable.
He was part of the core team that released the first-ever U.S. Surgeon General’s report on addiction in 2016 and was singled out by Forbes as a top social entrepreneur in the recovery movement. Ryan connects a vast network of people who are passionate about ending the drug epidemic in America. He has been featured by—and is a contributor to—media outlets such as USA Today, MSNBC, Fox and Friends, the New York Times, NPR, HLN, Vice, Forbes, Slate, HuffPost, The Hill, the Wall Street Journal, and others.
Connect with Ryan Hampton:
Website: https://ryanhampton.org
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanjhampton/
