The Flu Bug Strikes! | Sam Quinones on the Opioid Epidemic

The Politics Guys

Michael Baranowski

Politics, News

4.5 • 772 Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2018

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, disaster struck The Politics Guys. Well, okay, maybe not disaster exactly, but a truly nasty flu bug felled Trey late in the week. We'd planned to have Trey run the show along with a special more far left than Mike guest co-host, but that all fell apart when Trey's thermometer hit 105 yesterday afternoon. (He got some good drugs and is feeling slightly better today.) Mike and Jay had planned to take the week off and so neither of them was ready to do anything but provide off-the-cuff, uninformed opinions. (Yes, we realize that sometimes it seems like they do that every week, but trust us, they spend a lot of time preparing.) And so, instead of throwing together some shoddy instant-analysis of the news (which you can get *so* many other places) we decided instead to run Mike's recent talk with San Quinones about the opioid epidemic. Sam lived for 10 years as a freelance writer in Mexico, where he wrote his first two books, returning to the U.S. in 2004 to work for the L.A. Times, covering immigration, drug trafficking, neighborhood stories, and gangs. In 2014 he resigned from the Times to return to freelancing, working for publications including National Geographic, the New York Times, and Los Angeles Magazine. He's the author of three books, including [Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic](https://www.amazon.com/Dreamland-True-Americas-Opiate-Epidemic/dp/1620402521/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1517072560&sr=8-1), which appeared on numerous 'best book of the year' lists and won the National Book Critics Circle award for nonfiction. He's spoken about the crisis in many venues, including Marc Maron's WTF and Russ Roberts' EconTalk (two of Mike's favorite podcasts), and he recently testified on the opioid crisis before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee. **The sponsors of today's show are:** **Dollar Shave Club**. Get the Dollar Shave Club Starter Set for just five buck by going to [dollarshaveclub.com/TPG](https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/TPG). **Policy Genius.** Life insurance and more in minutes. Check it out for free at [policygenius.com](http://www.policygenius.com) **DaVinci.** Great, affordable meeting rooms in cities across the country. Go to [davincimeet.com/TPG](http://www.davincimeet.com/TPG) and, for a limited time, get 50% off your first purchase. **Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible**. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to [politicsguys.com](http://www.politicsguys.com) and click on the Patreon or PayPal links.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-politics-guys/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the politics guys. I'm Michael Baranowski, a political scientist at Northern Kentucky University.
0:29.2	My guest today is journalist and author Sam Cignones.
0:34.7	Sam lived for 10 years as a freelance writer in Mexico, where he wrote his first two books,
0:39.1	returning to the United States in 2004 to work for the LA Times covering immigration, drug trafficking, neighborhood stories, and gangs. In 2014, he resigned
0:45.5	from the Times to return to freelancing, working for publications including National Geographic,
0:50.6	The New York Times, and Los Angeles Magazine. He's the author of three books, including
0:55.6	Dreamland, The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, which appeared on a lot of best of the
1:01.7	year book award lists and also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction.
1:08.6	He's spoken about the crisis in many venues, including interviews
1:12.0	on two of my personal favorite podcast, Mark Maren's WTF and Russ Roberts, Econ Talk, and he
1:18.8	recently testified on the opioid crisis before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
1:24.2	Committee. Sam Cuyonis, welcome to the show. Great to be here, Mike. Thanks for
1:29.1	how on me. You know, before we get to the opioid crisis, I'd like to ask you about your time in Mexico.
1:35.2	You know, many Americans, I think, have some pretty strong views about Mexico, especially when it
1:41.4	comes to issues like immigration gangs and drugs.
1:45.4	But, you know, not many Americans have spent much time in that country, let alone the decade
1:49.8	that you've lived and worked there.
1:52.0	And so I was hoping you could tell me a little bit about why you went to live in Mexico
1:56.6	and what you learned from the experience and how it's informed your writing?
2:01.4	Well, I went down there really because at first I went down there just to study
2:06.4	a little Spanish.
2:07.1	My Spanish was rudimentary and I wanted to improve it to become a better reporter.
	...

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