New Books in Drugs, Addiction and Recovery
Sep 9, 2026 · 29 min · 15 segments
An account of the North American fentanyl crisis told through stories and photographs of its victims…
Emily DuftonHost
So with your background in fentanyl, you seem like the ideal person to take on a job of steering a project like Lives Interrupted because you have this enormous amount of background information about what has brought us to this current situation.
And now, uh, you're being asked to write about the effects, in fact, the casualties of, of this situation.
There's a philanthropist named John Arsenault who, um, lost his son to fentanyl, and his foundation, called Pact Sapiens, commissioned me to put this book together.
And basically, the idea was that when you hear about the fentanyl crisis and the opioid crisis, it's always this focus on statistics and this many people died, you know, this year, this many people overdosed.
And while it's-- you hear those numbers and it feels tragic, it's not the same as knowing someone, knowing someone's real story.
And so that was the goal with this book, was to use-- You know, it's basically like a coffee t-- coffee table style book, and it's got big, beautiful photos of these victims while they were alive and, and profiles of them.
And so the idea is to present it to this book, to world leaders, to, um, American leaders, health directors, with the goal of getting them to devote more resources to fighting the project-- to, to fighting the problem.
Well, it seems like it's really in line with the talks that you give, you know, on Capitol Hill or around the country, right? Which is like, you can't keep doing the same thing.
Uh, for, I don't know, how many, how many animal metaphors can you use? Uh, so it requires a different response, and here's sort of the same thing.
It's a project where you're presenting the human face of this tragedy and hoping to generate a, a, a different response.
But that's a pretty unique project, right? There's not a lot of-- I mean, there's certainly a lot of ink spilled about the fentanyl crisis and the overdose crisis and the rates of substance use disorder in the United States over the past couple of years.
You know, I focused previously on supply chains like we were just talking about, and this was really focused on the people involved.
And so, you know, it requires a lot of empathy and, um, talking with a lot of bereaved family members, particularly parents.
Um, but you know, you, uh, our spoiler alert is that, uh, you, you were involved with the project too, and so you can answer this question as well, um, about what it was like to interview all these Family members
You contacted me about joining the team, um, and drafting some of these profiles for you.
So with your background in fentanyl, you seem like the ideal person to take on a job of steering a project like Lives Interrupted because you have this enormous amount of background information about what has brought us to this current situation.
And now, uh, you're being asked to write about the effects, in fact, the casualties of, of this situation.
There's a philanthropist named John Arsenault who, um, lost his son to fentanyl, and his foundation, called Pact Sapiens, commissioned me to put this book together.
And basically, the idea was that when you hear about the fentanyl crisis and the opioid crisis, it's always this focus on statistics and this many people died, you know, this year, this many people overdosed.
And while it's-- you hear those numbers and it feels tragic, it's not the same as knowing someone, knowing someone's real story.
And so that was the goal with this book, was to use-- You know, it's basically like a coffee t-- coffee table style book, and it's got big, beautiful photos of these victims while they were alive and, and profiles of them.
And so the idea is to present it to this book, to world leaders, to, um, American leaders, health directors, with the goal of getting them to devote more resources to fighting the project-- to, to fighting the problem.
Well, it seems like it's really in line with the talks that you give, you know, on Capitol Hill or around the country, right? Which is like, you can't keep doing the same thing.
Uh, for, I don't know, how many, how many animal metaphors can you use? Uh, so it requires a different response, and here's sort of the same thing.
It's a project where you're presenting the human face of this tragedy and hoping to generate a, a, a different response.
But that's a pretty unique project, right? There's not a lot of-- I mean, there's certainly a lot of ink spilled about the fentanyl crisis and the overdose crisis and the rates of substance use disorder in the United States over the past couple of years.
You know, I focused previously on supply chains like we were just talking about, and this was really focused on the people involved.
And so, you know, it requires a lot of empathy and, um, talking with a lot of bereaved family members, particularly parents.
Um, but you know, you, uh, our spoiler alert is that, uh, you, you were involved with the project too, and so you can answer this question as well, um, about what it was like to interview all these Family members
You contacted me about joining the team, um, and drafting some of these profiles for you.
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