Detoxicity: By Men, About Men, For Everyone

Robert Brooks Cohen, is a screenwriter, podcaster ( Two Bi Guys ), and the author of the new book " Bisexual Married Men: Stories of Relationships, Acceptance and Authenticity ". In this episode of Detoxicity, Rob shares his journey of self-discovery and acceptance as a bisexual man. He discusses the challenges faced by bisexual men and the shifting attitudes towards bisexuality in society. Rob em...

Nick Gordon is a veteran music executive and is also the owner and proprietor of Love, Velma , a music and lifestyle venue in Ellenville, NY. Over the course of our conversation, Nick traces his history in the music industry and discusses how he's managed a lot of the potentially damaging habits that come with the rock and roll lifestyle. He also discusses the importance of community (y'all know t...

Content warning: Graphic discussions about physical and emotional abuse, and suicide. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 1 in 3 women is a victim of physical intimate partner violence at some point in their life. Sadly, I don't think that's a surprising statitistic. What you might find surprising is that 1 in 4 men is a victim of physical intimate partner violence. I wo...

I do most of the sourcing when it comes to finding guests for the show, but every once in a while a friend surprises me by saying "hey, I'd like to be a guest". That was the case with my dude Almar Reyes, who I've known for something going on twenty years via the internet. Almar is a Bay-Area based veteran of the tech world, and is most recently adjusting to life as an empty-nester after raising t...

Chris Loper is a habit coach based in the Pacific Northwest. What is a habit coach, I bet you're asking. Well, listen to the episode and it'll all be explained to you :-) Chris is also a self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie and we talk about how his penchant for thrill-seeking led him down a bad path, only to come to a head after a near-death experience. His journey from there to here is also documen...

I am absolutely thrilled to welcome Dave Holmes to the podcast. You might know Dave as an MTV VJ and host of TRL, you might know him as an author (his memoir, Party of One , is excellent), you might be familiar with his work as an actor, podcaster, even as an advice columnist. Dave's relatability and his pop culture obsessiveness have contributed to a decades-long stint in the public eye. Our conv...

Bill Harrison is a licensed therapist working in the Chicago area. He specializes in men's issues, and works primarily (although not exclusively) with creatives/people in the arts. Bill has also spent many years working as an artist himself. Prior to devoting himself to mental health, he was a successful gigging musician. Our conversation follows Bill's journey from traveling troubadour through hi...

Grammy nominated singer/songwriter YAWNYBLEW visited us for Episode 134 , and folks enjoyed our conversation so much that I got several requests to bring him back. Well, what our listeners want, our listeners get! My second conversation with Yawny focuses on the ups and downs of the music industry and how he has struggled to maintain mental health practices due to the stress of having to survive a...

This episode features my friend Sonny Harding. He's based in the Atlanta area, and in addition to being a drummer and a fairly new Dad, he's also a high school teacher. Education is a profession that fascinates me, and I ask Sonny how he picked that as a vocation and we also talk about the generational divide that naturally exists between teachers and students. We also go into some depth about Son...

Hi everyone! This episode features counselor/therapist Tommy Mattera, who is based out in California. He specializes in men's work, helping men through issues with relationships, anxiety, depression and raising families. I'm endlessly curious about what drives mental health professionals to choose their work, and Tommy talks about the experiences that led him to pursue mental health as a vocation....

Luke Wesley initially appeared on Episode 109 , but our conversation felt unfinished in a lot of ways. We've hung out a couple of times in the year since recording, and finally got it together to press the record button. What came out is a really transparent, sometimes funny, sometimes dark conversation about loss--loss of connection (due to the pandemic and loved ones moving away), loss of income...

I've had a few coaches and mental health practitioners on the show over the years, but few have seemed as genuine as Gregory Flynn. Based in Seattle, Greg is the host of a podcast called "The Bind" and co-founded The Seattle Men's Circle, which started right as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in 2020 and continues to this day. Greg and I talk about his journey and how it continues to this day, we...

I say this all the time, I know: this is a good one! Micah R is the host and creator of a YouTube series called Realistically Free .  He and I initially connected for an episode of his podcast, and we talked for two hours and change. Then the internet ate it. I hate the internet sometimes. We then talked for almost two hours for Detox. Thankfully a) the internet didn't eat it this time and b) I wa...

Our latest conversation is with actor, writer and author Edward Miskie, who is based in New York City. Edward hightailed it out of his rural Pennsylvania town almost immediately after graduating from high school not only because he wanted to pursue a career in theater, but because he was outed by a church elder when he was still a teenager. He never looked back, and has sustained a career as an ac...

CW; descriptions of physical and sexual assault. This episode features an interview with Tyler Gobble, an artist based in Indiana. Tyler and I chat about his rural upbringing and the positives and negatives that come with that. We go in depth about his experiences with bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, and we talk about how those experiences have shaped his relationships over t...

My guest for this episode is entertainment lawyer Tyrone Scott. We've had this chat on the books probably since late 2020, and I'm glad we were finally able to make this happen. Tyrone was brought up as a military brat, all over the US. He was inspired to study law by an episode of "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" and moved to NYC the day after passing the bar to pursue his career. There have been a...

Hi Folks! this episode features coach & creator Ahmad Jooma , who I believe is my first guest from the UK! One of Ahmad's missions is to help young people conquer fear by using art, and one of the ways he does so is via his character "Shook Man". He and I chat about the origins of this character, as well as his own journey to self-confidence. You'll hear a lot of very familiar Detoxpod buzzwords l...

This episode finds me chatting with Larry Jaffee, who started and runs an initiative called Making Vinyl, which focuses on the manufacturing and upkeep of vinyl production in the music industry. Larry also wrote a book called Record Store Day: The Most Improbable Comeback of the 21st Century, about the re-emergence of vinyl records over the course of the last fifteen years or so (something I, as a...

Hey Everyone, this week's episode is a chat with musician (and my former co-worker) Sean McNamara. Sean and I talk about culture shock (he grew up in suburban Connecticut and went to college in New Orleans), grief and loss (his mother passed away when he was in his early twenties), dad rock (Sean is a white guy in his early thirties--i feel like that demo splits into three camps: hip-hop fan, Wilc...

Johnny Gonzalez is an L.A. based/NYC born multi-disciplinary artist. He is Grammy nominated for his work with H.E.R. and currently co-hosts a podcast called "BIIGGER Than Our Dreams", based on his experiences being a plus-sized queer POC artist. I was fortunate to guest on an episode a few months back. Johnny and I talk about the masculine/feminine dynamic in queer culture and "signaling"/stereoty...

Benny Benack III is a trumpeter and jazz/standards vocalist originally from Pittsburgh PA and now making his home in Harlem, NYC. He's built up quite a following over the years, and has a new album scheduled to be released this spring. Benny takes us through his childhood, where he almost seemed pre-ordained to be a musician (most of his family works somewhere in music). We talk about jazz's reput...

This week's episode features someone who does interviews for a living, journalist Adam Bernard. Adam and I met many years ago when I was doing the PR thing professionally and reaching out to music bloggers. His Adam's World blog is still very much active. He's one of the Last of the Mohicans when it comes to music bloggers. More germane to this interview is the fact that Adam is a testicular cance...

In this episode, I have the pleasure of talking to one of my favorite human beings, Orie Givens IV. Orie is the director of communications for an LGBTQIA+-related non profit and I originally befriended him because of his work as a producer and host of the radio show Queer State of Mind , which airs every Saturday on Radio Free Brooklyn from 12-2 PM Eastern. Orie has had a long career in broadcast...

My intention wasn’t to post two episodes dealing with sex and relationship therapy back to back, but…here we are. Mike Guichet is a psychotherapist specializing in sex therapy. He’s based in Northern California, which appears to have a booming need for practitioners! Mike and I met five or six years ago at a conference in Toronto, and our conversation covers not only why he does what he does for a...

James Ferrigno is a dating and relationship coach based in the San Francisco area. His practice is largely centered around authenticity, which sadly isn’t something that gets touted as leading to success in the dating world. I do a bit of digging into what led James to this work, as he has a pretty rich background that precludes his career as a coach. From there, we really focus on connection and...