The Opioid Crisis and Chronic Pain

A viewer of our show named David Miller sent me this message (somewhat condensed):

I just found your show on Netflix, and I loved it until I got to the episode on drugs. Specifically, the section on OxyContin. It really, really pissed me off. While I agree that we need to find better and safer alternatives, this drug has been heavily misrepresented. 

In the real world, people with chronic pain problems (like me, and my parents) require it just to be able to function. I’m unable to work, cook, or even shower due to the extreme pain I’m in 24 hours a day. Without OxyContin I’m plagued by chronic fatigue because it takes so much energy just to be alive. 

Taken appropriately, it’s basically impossible to become addicted.

Lawmakers would have us believe that prescription opiates are a gateway to abuse and heroin. The reality is that heroin addicts only seek (or buy) prescription opiates when they’re unable to get heroin. Why would they? Heroin is fifty times stronger than OxyContin and actually SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than it too.

I’d like to thank David for his message. When we did our 2016 segment on how pharmaceutical companies created the opioid crisis, the narrative that unscrupulous doctors who got patients hooked on their drugs was widely reported. In the time since, it’s become clear that this narrative was not entirely correct.

While Big Pharma is absolutely culpable for causing the crisis, the blame put on doctors and patients has resulted in many people with chronic pain being unable to fill their prescriptions because of the unfair presumption that they might abuse them. A particularly good piece of journalism on this topic is The Pain Refugees, by Brian Goldstone in Harper’s; it is a harrowing account of patients who suddenly lose access to the only treatment that works for them. That is wrong, and unfair.

While I don’t think the evidence bears out David’s assertion that there is no connection between prescription opioids and addiction, I do wish that our segment had focused less on the behavior of individual doctors and patients, and kept the spotlight on the corporations that are truly to blame. Were we to do this topic again, knowing what we do today, we would have approached it a bit differently. 

Why You Don’t Own Your Tech

Here’s the segment from last night’s Adam Ruins Tech on how tech companies use software and restrictive licenses to make sure that you don’t really own the gadgets you buy from them. 

Thanks so much to Kit Walsh, Staff Attorney at the EFF for appearing in this segment and helping us think through this issue. And I’m grateful to Andra Whipple and Mervyn Degaños for their fantastic writing and research on this episode; not to mention the inimitable Krys Marshall for bringing digital assistant Cori to life.

Raphael Bob-Waksberg and I Interview Each Other for the Talkhouse

It was a rare pleasure to sit down with my old friend, comedy partner, and former roommate Raphael Bob-Waksberg for the Talkhouse podcast.  Raphael and I were in a comedy group called Olde English together for many years; he went on to create Bojack Horseman, and I went on to do all the things you probably already know about if you read this website. 

In the podcast, we talked about what it was like to work together creatively at a young age, spill the dirt on our joint living situation (including our truly bizarre system for doing the dishes), and Raphael asked me some of the best questions I’ve ever been asked about Adam Ruins Everything in an interview. We got personal! Check it out.

Mattresses Are One Big Rip-Off (Plus Behind-the-Scenes!)

From Adam Ruins Sleep, here’s our newest segment: Mattresses Are One Big Rip-Off. Thanks to Brian Frange and Kate Doyle for their wonderful work on this piece; plus appearances by human sparkplug Arden Myrin and slimeball Ben Rameaka!

If you enjoyed this segment, check out this wonderful oral history Paste’s Alexis Gunderson wrote chronicling our creative process as we made the episode. It features accounts from head writer Alison Zeidman, head of research Natalie Shure, Executive Producer Jon Wolf, and myself.

New Adam Ruins Everything Segment – Everyone Leaves Black People Out of the Gun Debate

Adam Ruins Everything is back with all new episodes airing every Tuesday night at 10pm on TruTV! And you know what that means — new full segments of the show are going up on YouTube! This first is from our season premiere, Adam Ruins Guns: “Everyone Leaves Black People Out of the Gun Debate.”

I’m incredibly proud of this segment, and am enormously grateful to Rasheda Crockett, Sam Roudman, head writer Alison Zeidman, head of research Natalie Shure, and the rest of our creative team for doing such amazing work with one of the most difficult topics we’ve ever done. Not to mention the funny and heartfelt performances by Punkie Johnson, Landry Allbright, and Rick Overton, and Tim Wilkime’s fine directing. Hope you enjoy, and come back every week for more new episodes!

My Interview with Larry King

It was a great honor to appear on Larry King Now and be mercilessly grilled by the broadcasting legend himself. Larry is a great sport, and I had a blast. Check out the interview above!