Primary Purpose with Pej

What does it take to turn around a life after nearly 40 years of addiction, homelessness and incarceration? On this episode of Primary Purpose with Pej, we sit down with William Duran, the Flagler men’s program director at Foundations to Freedom, in DeLand, Florida. Born and raised in Kansas City, William grew up idolizing the mob-connected men around his father. He survived a traumatic childhood...

On this episode of Primary Purpose with Pej, we sit down with Joseph Casaceli, founder of Sober Living Companion, for a raw and unfiltered look at 15 years of addiction and the road out. Joseph grew up in the suburbs of Detroit and started drinking vodka and taking pills from his parents’ cabinets at 15. At 17 he shot heroin for the first time and immediately said, “I’m addicted.” What followed wa...

This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej sits down with Sasha who shares his journey through meth addiction, hacking, crime, and prison to recovery and addiction intervention work. Together, they explore family dynamics, why loved ones need to be part of the recovery process, and what it means to rebuild your identity after addiction. This candid conversation connects a remarkable personal story...

This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej sits down with interventionist and recovery expert Chris Howard for an honest conversation about addiction, mental health, intervention, sober living, and what it takes to create lasting change. Chris shares how childhood instability, foster care, poverty, substance use, incarceration, and opiate addiction shaped his life—and how getting sober led him fro...

This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej sits down with Katherine Russell who shares how a devastating car accident and a prescription for narcotic pain medication led to years of addiction—and how she ultimately transformed her pain into purpose. After losing nearly everything, Katherine began rebuilding her life through recovery, Narcotics Anonymous, step work, and community support. Today, sh...

This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej sits down with Laisha Martinez who shares her journey through substance use, X**ax dependency, and three DUIs and the wake-up calls that ultimately led them toward sobriety and a completely different life. Together, Pej and Laisha Martinez explore what it was like to get sober at such a young age, experience emotions clearly for the first time, and learn...

This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej sits down with Danny. He shares how growing up in an abusive household led him to use drugs and alcohol to cope with feeling like he never belonged. After eight years sober—but still feeling restless, irritable, and discontent—he relapsed and remained in active addiction for 15 years. Now celebrating 18 years of sobriety, Danny’s powerful recovery story o...

Jenny Leone lived a picture-perfect life while secretly falling apart behind the scenes. In this raw conversation with Pej, she reveals the hidden addiction, emotional pain and double life that nearly destroyed her—and how recovering out loud changed everything. Jenny opens up about losing old friends after getting sober, discovering that sober dating and recovery can actually be fun, and learning...

This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej sits down with Sam Funger about his years-long battle with heroin addiction, severe mental health struggles, and finding lasting sobriety. Sam opens up about feeling suicidal at just 12 years old, undergoing electroconvulsive therapy, living in his mom’s basement with a needle in his arm, and stealing medication from his dying father after his cancer diag...

This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej sits down with Dr. Nicole Labor to discuss her powerful journey through addiction, recovery, and sobriety. While pursuing her career in medicine, Dr. Labor battled addiction to heroin and crack before ultimately finding recovery and transforming her experience into a mission to help others. Now known as the “Addiction Assassin,” she uses both her medical...

Recovery doesn't just mean leaving addiction behind. Sometimes, it's the beginning of an entirely new life. This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej sits down with Kristy Edwards, a person in long term recovery whose own journey from addiction to stability, purpose, and freedom ultimately led her to helping others find their way forward. Today, Kristy serves as Outreach Coordinating Manager at F...

Addiction treatment is supposed to help people build a life beyond addiction, but what happens when the system itself becomes part of the problem? This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej sits down with psychologist, addiction specialist, and Recover Clarity founder Ben Culler for a powerful conversation challenging how we understand addiction, treatment, and long term recovery. After growing up...

Some losses change your life forever. But sometimes, even through unimaginable pain, a new purpose can emerge. This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej sits down with Maggie Fleitman, a certified grief educator, speaker, and founder of Solace for Hope, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting families who have lost a loved one to addiction or mental health challenges. After losing her oldest son, Mit...

Recovery is about more than simply putting down a substance—it's about changing the way you live, think, and connect with others. In this special solo episode of Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej takes a deep dive into the 12 Steps of recovery, breaking down the principles that have helped millions of people rebuild their lives one day at a time. Throughout the episode, Pej also addresses a common and...

Behind every champion is a battle the world doesn't always see. This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej sits down with MMA legend Mark Kerr, a two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion, PRIDE Grand Prix Champion, and one of the pioneers of modern mixed martial arts. Known around the world as "The Smashing Machine," Mark reached the pinnacle of the sport, but behind the victories was a devast...

Fame doesn't make you immune to addiction, and recovery is possible no matter how far you've fallen. This week on Primary Purpose with Pej , Pej sits down with actor Lillo Brancato Jr. , best known for his unforgettable roles in A Bronx Tale and The Sopranos . Once on the path to Hollywood stardom, Lillo's life took a devastating turn as addiction led him down a road of heroin use, incarceration,...

Addiction doesn't discriminate. This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej sits down with Dr. Kenneth Clark, whose extraordinary journey proves that no matter how successful you are—or how many times you've fallen—it's never too late to rebuild your life. Despite a distinguished career in medicine, higher education, and public service, addiction slowly took everything from him, leading to the loss...

Recovery is about more than getting sober—it's about rebuilding a life when everything has fallen apart. This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej sits down with Dre Ramirez to share her remarkable journey from child actor to addiction, homelessness, and ultimately lasting recovery. Behind what once appeared to be a promising life was a painful struggle that led her through treatment centers, the...

What really happens inside the body brokering industry? In this eye-opening episode of Primary Purpose with Pej, Michael "Solo" Lynch pulls back the curtain on a world few people ever see. After years of living through addiction, incarceration, and some of life's darkest moments, Solo has transformed his life and now uses his experiences to educate others and advocate for ethical practices in reco...

What happens when you've done everything you're supposed to do to improve your mental health—and you're still struggling? This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Dr. David Wiss joins the show to challenge the way we think about anxiety, depression, addiction, brain fog, and emotional suffering. As a functional medicine clinician, registered dietitian nutritionist, researcher, and mental health expe...

What if everything you thought you knew about addiction was incomplete? This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej sits down with addiction medicine pioneer Dr. Peter Coleman, whose work has helped transform the way people approach recovery from alcohol and opioid dependence. With more than three decades of experience and thousands of lives impacted, Dr. Coleman shares the lessons he's learned fro...

Before podcasts, before social media, and before artists had direct access to fans online, Michael Dean was already building communities, creating content, and documenting music history. On this episode of Primary Purpose with Pej, Michael shares his remarkable journey from Seattle's underground hip-hop scene in the late 1980s to touring with influential independent artists, becoming an entreprene...

For years, Sam's life was trapped in a cycle that seemed impossible to break. Addiction, fentanyl, Xanax, jail, treatment centers, relapse, and self-destruction became his reality. Every path he was on pointed toward becoming another tragic statistic, and many people had already written his ending for him. In this powerful episode of Primary Purpose with Pej, Sam shares the unfiltered truth about...

Today on Primary Purpose with Pej, we sit down with Benjamin Lerner, rapper, composer, recovery advocate, and the great-grandson of legendary songwriter Irving Berlin. Behind the music, talent, and family legacy was a devastating battle with fentanyl, heroin, and crack cocaine that nearly cost Benjamin his life. Now sober since 2016, Benjamin has turned his pain into purpose. Through a unique blen...

This week on Primary Purpose with Pej, Pej sits down with Mandi West — a Certified Drug & Alcohol Counselor, Certified Recovery Specialist, and Certified Gambling Counselor with over 10 years in sustained recovery after a 13-year battle with substance use disorder. Mandi shares her powerful journey from addiction to recovery, the realities of rebuilding a life after chaos, and how her lived experi...