No Easy Fix | 2. Tolerance

Radio Atlantic

The Atlantic

Politics, Society & Culture, News

4.3 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

At the onset of the AIDS crisis in the early 1980s, U.S. cities began trying new ways to stop the spread of infection among drug users. Ideas that were first seen as radical, such as needle exchanges, quickly caught on—because they worked. San Francisco is one of the first places where such programs took root. Now it’s one of the places questioning whether they should still exist. This is the second episode of a new three-part miniseries from Radio Atlantic, No Easy Fix, about what it takes to escape one’s demons. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at ⁠TheAtlantic.com/listener⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What if you could listen to all your books, docs, PDFs, and articles as if they were a podcast?
0:05.5	Well, you can. With the 11 Reader app, you can turn anything into natural sounding voice.
0:10.9	Like this one, download 11 Reader for free on your favorite app store today.
0:18.0	This is Radio Atlantic. I'm Hannah Rosen.
0:21.3	Today, we have the second episode of No Easy Fix.
0:25.1	Our three-part series about why San Francisco, one of the world's most innovative cities,
0:30.2	can't seem to solve the very visible problems of homelessness and addiction.
0:35.2	If there was any series of tasks I could go through
0:39.7	to get my best friend back, I would go through hell.
0:44.3	Last week we met Evan, who finally made the decision
0:47.4	to try and get off the streets.
0:49.4	Yeah, I'm like falling apart.
0:50.8	And I'm in a way, I'm kind of glad because it's kind of making me turn to, like,
0:57.7	to stop. If you missed episode one, I highly encourage you to go back and listen. This week,
1:05.3	Evan takes his first steps towards recovery, just as the city's mayor starts to implement a less-tolerant approach.
1:13.8	Reporter Ethan Brooks takes it from here.
1:22.9	Before Evan's life began to look how it does now, before spending all day and all night chasing
1:28.2	fentanyl, it looked pretty normal.
1:31.1	For a lot of people who are addicted and living on the street, this is not the case.
1:35.5	Even the idea of a stable life is kind of an abstract thing.
1:39.5	But Evan had a good job.
1:40.9	He worked for his friend Joe in Northern California.
	...

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