The Shane Vitko Podcast | The Hard Way Home

In Episode 12 of The Shane Vitko Podcast, I sit down with my good friend Jack Campbell, retired NHL goalie, for something completely different. Instead of walking through Jack’s hard way home, we recorded immediately following Jack’s first real breathwork session and unpack what actually comes up when the body finally lets go. Jack opens up about the pressure of always performing, never cracking,...

In Episode 11 of The Shane Vitko Podcast, Shane sits down with his best friend George Wozniak, now CEO of Ryan Aviation Group. The two got sober together in Los Angeles, and this one is a full-circle conversation about what it really takes to rebuild a life after addiction. George takes us back to Minnesota, growing up around recovery, family interventions, and the early warning signs he didn’t un...

In this episode, I sit down with Sabrena Morgan for a conversation that doesn’t flinch from the reality of addiction, eating disorders, incarceration, and survival. Sabrena shares what it was like living a double life long before drugs entered the picture, how control, body image, and trauma shaped her choices, and what it meant to finally lose everything in a very public way. This isn’t a story a...

In this episode, I sit down with Joanna Miranda, a single mom of five and a health and fitness coach, for a conversation that doesn’t look away from the damage addiction leaves behind. Joanna shares what it was like to love a man who was struggling, navigate military life, and carry the weight of decisions no spouse ever wants to make. This isn’t a story about fixing someone. It’s about what happe...

Ronnie Costa joins The Shane Vitko Podcast for a brutally honest conversation about what happens when the streets raise you, violence becomes currency, and survival turns into a full-time identity. Ronnie grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, surrounded by mob culture, reputation, and a pressure cooker standard of what it meant to be a man. He talks about chasing respect, earning a name, and how cr...

Former NHL All-Star Sheldon Souray joins The Shane Vitko Podcast for a raw conversation about how quickly life can unravel when identity, pain, and access collide. Sheldon opens up about a progression most people never see coming. Pills that started as “just in case” turned into daily survival. What felt controlled became brutal. Relationships fell apart. Self-respect disappeared. And the lie that...

In this episode of The Shane Vitko Podcast, I break down why sobriety isn’t proven by days counted, but by patterns changed. Early recovery can make you want praise and trust fast, but real accountability is earned quietly over time. I talk about rebuilding trust, stopping performative sobriety, and why consistency matters more than announcements. If you’re in early recovery or trying to repair da...

In Episode 5 of The Shane Vitko Podcast, Chaos to Creativity, I sit down with Boston graffiti artist Jason “Jay Mac” McDonald, better known in the streets as BACK. We talk about growing up on Section 8, a mom in addiction, bouncing from city to city, and what it does to a kid to always feel like the outsider in towns where everyone else has two parents and hockey gear. Jay walks through the first...

In Episode 4 of The Shane Vitko Podcast, “When The Fog Lifted,” I go back to the moment everything cracked open for me. The first time I ever did breathwork, something shifted. Not dramatically, not with fireworks, but in a quiet way that made me think maybe I wasn’t doomed. Maybe there was a shot at something better. That moment of clarity was the first break in the chaos I’d lived in for years....

In Episode 3 of The Shane Vitko Podcast, “The Price of Rage,” I talk about the years where anger ran my life and the damage that came with it. From school suspensions and fights to boot camp, deployment, and the fallout in my relationships, I break down the truth behind living with a short fuse. Rage didn’t make me strong. It made me isolated. It made me unpredictable. It pushed away the people wh...

In Episode 2 of The Shane Vitko Podcast, “The War Within,” I talk about the fight most men never speak about — the battle between who we show the world and who we really are underneath the armor. For most of my life, I thought strength meant shutting up, stuffing emotion, and muscling through anything that hurt. That mask kept me alive in the environments I grew up in… but it also kept me from kno...

In Episode 1 of The Shane Vitko Podcast, “I’m Done Wishing,” I talk about the years I spent telling myself I’d start again “someday” — and why that day finally came. I break down what pulled me off the path, what happened after Deviant Gentlemen, and the exact moment I realized I was done waiting for permission to rebuild my life. This first episode sets the tone for The Hard Way Home — honesty, r...