Episode 165 • Adventures in Spirituality, and the Opioid Crisis in Rural America, with Hanna Seariac

Nate and David open the show discussing the neurology of character change, then interview journalist Hanna Seariac, who has spent 2024 investigating the fentanyl crisis in rural Utah. Drug overdose deaths in Utah involving opioids have doubled in the last five years.   In the first article of her series, “The rural Utah community at the crossroads of the fentanyl epidemic (https://www.deseret.com/politics/2024/08/10/fentanyl-crisis-in-rural-utah/),” Hanna explores small towns that have seen the devastation of opioid addiction and fentanyl first hand. How did we get here? What can be done to stop this horrifying epidemic from destroying more lives and families?   Hanna searched through years of data and interviewed more than 20 people connected to the crisis, including those in recovery, former fentanyl distributers, law enforcement officials and recovery specialists.   With the second article in the series, Hanna speaks with five Utahns who have nearly lost everything to fentanyl (https://www.deseret.com/utah/2024/08/10/drug-addiction-recovery-in-utah/) and how they have managed to rebuild their lives and find the strength to not only overcome addiction, but to help others. Books referenced by Nate in this episode are Renovated, by Jim Wilder and Dallas Willard, The Master and His Emissary, by Iain McGilchrist, Banana, The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World, by Dan Koeppel