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PODCAST

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning

Welcome toRise Abovewith Kevin Lanning.Join Kevin, a former Google executive in sobriety, as he shares inspiring stories of resilience. Each episode features individuals who have faced life’s toughest challenges—addiction, trauma, anxiety, and more—and emerged stronger. These conversations aren’t just about survival; they’re about thriving and finding practical solutions to rise above adversity. Kevin’s own journey through addiction and childhood trauma fuels his passion for sharing stories that

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All Episodes

116:31

I Never Had An Off Switch With Alcohol....My First...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/10/04

Elena Sanders grew up anxious, highly emotional, and feeling like she never quite fit in — a sensitive kid carrying far more than any child should. By the time she was a teenager, she'd found the one thing that finally quieted her mind: alcohol. She drank alone, blacked out from the very first time, and never had an "off switch." What started as escape spiraled through weed, psychedelics, pills, and eventually cocaine — the first line of which made her think, "I never want to feel any other way."

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60:36

I Had The Corporate Dream Job & A Drinking Problem No...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/10/03

From the outside, Mike Cavallaro had the blueprint: prep school, college athlete, investment banker with the title and the money. But a career-ending back injury stripped away the only identity he'd ever known, and in the years that followed he chased that sense of self through fraternities, bartending, and the high-pressure finance world — numbing the emptiness with weekend benders that got longer and darker every year. It cost him his health, his peace, and two relationships with women he

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74:58

I Was Snorting Fentanyl Every Day...Now I'm 3 Years...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/10/01

From the outside, Mike Van Holderbeke had no reason to end up where he did — a two-parent home, food in the fridge, gifts under the tree, a successful older brother. But addiction doesn't discriminate. What started with weed in seventh grade and a single oxycodone he calls "the warm blanket" spiraled into a full-blown fentanyl and benzo addiction — crushing pills behind the wheel, surviving multiple seizures, losing his best friend to an overdose, and eventually watching 16 officers raid his home

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100:29

Cocaine, Nightclubs & the FBI | Ingrid Casares...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/29

Ingrid Casares lived through the cocaine-fueled Miami of the 1980s, multiple trips to treatment, relapse, fame, the height of the South Beach nightclub scene — and even a federal investigation that brought the FBI to her door.In this episode of Rise Above with Kevin Lanning, Ingrid opens up about discovering cocaine as a teenager, how quickly addiction consumed her life, running away, treatment and relapse, and eventually finding sobriety. Her life then took an unbelievable turn. Ingrid became a

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73:35

I Overdosed on Heroin at 20 | Beauty Queen Reveals...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/27

From the outside, Victoria Treadwell was the picture of the all-American girl — raised on a 295-acre dairy farm in upstate New York, a crowned dairy princess and beauty queen, an honor-society athlete who seemed to do it all. What no one saw was the addiction underneath. Chasing acceptance and drawn to the "bad boy," she was introduced to heroin in a Walmart parking lot as a teenager, and within a year and a half it nearly killed her. In June 2016, at just 20 years old, she overdosed — waking up to

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65:31

I Was Severely Burned In A Fire At 14 | Then The Pain...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/26

William Ellis was 14 years old, a freshman in high school, when gas splashed onto him near a smoldering fire and he went up in flames from the waist up. He survived second- and third-degree burns, skin grafts, and months in a burn unit — but the narcotics that came home from the pharmacy with him started an addiction that would last most of his life. What began as prescribed painkillers turned into selling pills at school, forging prescriptions across four states with his mother, and eventually

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98:33

I Was A Straight-A Student Blacking Out Every Weekend...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/24

Paris Bazley had her first drink at 13 — and blacked out that very first night. From the outside, nothing looked wrong: she was a straight-A student in AP classes, graduated high school two years early, joined a sorority at UCF, and became the bartender everyone loved. Underneath it, she was blacking out almost every time she drank, chasing the next party, and using alcohol and cocaine to fill a hole she'd carried since childhood. She survived a traumatic night at a sorority social and the disbelief

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91:41

My Dad Taught Me How To Do Cocaine At 16 | My Whole...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/22

Cody Ellis grew up as the youngest of three in a small Georgia town, and by the time he was a teenager, addiction had swallowed his entire family. It started when his older brother was severely burned in an accident at eight years old — the pain pills that followed pulled his parents in, and the household never came back from it. Cody watched his mother forge prescriptions, watched his family lose their home again and again, and was handed his first opioids at 13. By 16, his own father was teaching

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75:21

Alcohol Was The Only Thing That Quieted My Anxiety —...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/20

From the outside, Zac Spowart had every reason to be fine — loving parents, a disciplined home, good grades, a heart-surgeon father. But from around 13, he was being crushed by an anxiety so severe he was physically sick, throwing up before school with no idea why. Then he found alcohol, and for the first time the chaos in his head went quiet. That relief became the problem.Zac is honest that his isn't a story of a traumatic childhood — it's proof that addiction doesn't discriminate, and that

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99:59

I Played In The NBA With LeBron...Then Lost It All To...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/17

Delonte West lived a dream millions of kids chase — a standout at Saint Joseph's, drafted into the NBA at 21, and years in the league alongside legends like Paul Pierce, Gary Payton, and LeBron James. He was, by his own description, sheltered inside the business of professional sports, growing as a player while the rest of life stayed on pause.When the game ended, everything he'd built his identity around went with it. In this conversation, Delonte is open about the long, slow progression of

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59:35

I Tried Out For The NFL While Secretly Smoking Crack

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/16

Jerod Thomas grew up in what he calls a "house of horrors" — two alcoholic parents, a father who drank a fifth of vodka a day and turned violent, and weekends spent walking on eggshells. He was dyslexic in an era when no one caught it until his second year of eighth grade, bullied relentlessly, and told by his own father that if he didn't learn to fight, he couldn't stay in the house. Football became the one place the chaos made sense — fast, loud, and violent, just like home.Against every odd,

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119:38

I Survived Jeffrey Epstein And Numbed The Pain With...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/13

Marina Lacerda is a survivor, an advocate, and a mother who spent most of her life carrying pain she was told to keep quiet. Now 6.5 years sober and one year into publicly breaking her silence, she sat down with Kevin to talk about all of it.Marina was born in Brazil and raised largely in New York. From around the age of nine, she was sexually abused by her stepfather — abuse that continued for years while she was made to feel she had to stay silent to keep her family together. That wound shaped

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61:23

I Was A Police Officer Secretly Addicted To Meth On...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/12

Bob Zbikowski wanted to be one thing his whole life: a cop, like his dad. He got there — nearly two decades in law enforcement, including years as a K-9 handler. From the outside he was living his dream. Underneath, he was a first responder carrying the weight of thousands of traumatic scenes with no healthy way to put it down, and a brain wired for addiction he didn't yet understand. Bob is open about the two things that took him under. First, gambling — when New Jersey legalized sports betting,

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104:32

I Almost Drank Myself To Death — And My Wife Watched...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/10

This one is different. Addiction is a family disease — it doesn't just happen to the addict, it happens to everyone who loves them. So in this episode, you'll hear both sides. First from Brandon, who nearly lost his life to it — and then from his wife Katelyn, who lived every moment of it beside him.Brandon Cheek looked like he had it all — a successful business, a family, a life built with his college sweetheart. Underneath was crippling depression and anxiety that a Xanax prescription turned

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19:31

This Rehab Will Blow You Away | Inside Caron...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/09

One of the biggest fears I had before going to treatment — all five times — was the unknown. What is it actually like inside? Will I be comfortable? Will they get to the root of what's really going on? So in this vlog, I'm taking you behind the doors of a rehab to show you exactly what it's like.I got a full tour of Caron's Keele Center in Delray Beach, Florida — one of their two inpatient facilities — and honestly, it feels more like a five-star hotel than what most people picture when they think

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111:59

The Smoke Shop Told Me 7OH Was Natural — It Was A...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/08

7-OH is one of the most talked-about drugs in the country right now — a concentrated kratom derivative sold legally at smoke shops and gas stations, often pitched as a natural remedy for pain. Isabella "Izzy" Saravi is a 26-year-old who got caught by it, and she's here to warn other young people what it actually does.Izzy grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, in a chaotic home — her parents divorced young, her father was, in her words, an abusive narcissist who wanted little to do with her, and she

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62:29

Dirty Heads Singer Jared Watson Reveals Addiction To...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/06

Jared Watson is the frontman of the Dirty Heads — the voice behind songs millions of people have sung along to. He's also, in his own words, an alcoholic who spent more than a decade fighting to stay sober while the disease kept pulling him back.Jared grew up in Southern California surf and skate culture, born in a beach apartment to "cool parents," raised in a world where everything — surfing, fishing, good times, bad times — came with a drink. He didn't know until much later how deeply

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76:45

I Went To Treatment 13 Times Before I Finally Got Sober

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/04

Tyler Bowers grew up in Pennsylvania with what looked, from the outside, like everything — a nice house with a pool, travel baseball, a mom who gave him whatever he needed. But underneath was a kid carrying guilt for his parents' divorce, a complicated relationship with a father who battled his own addiction, and an entitlement he now names as the core of his disease.It started with weed, then a Xanax at a party that blacked him out — and instead of scaring him, it became the thing he wanted to

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40:58

I Overdosed On A Legal Drug From The Gas Station...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/09/02

7-OH is one of the most dangerous drugs almost nobody understands yet — a concentrated kratom derivative sold legally at gas stations and smoke shops, often marketed as a harmless supplement. Ian Crawford is here to tell you what it nearly cost him.A surfer, lacrosse player, and Florida kid whose athletic future was derailed by concussions, Ian had moved through years of experimenting — weed, psychedelics, the festival scene, cocaine — while mostly holding it together. Then a friend mentioned

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71:47

I Was Shooting Heroin and No One Had Any Idea | 18...

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning ·

2026/08/31

Justin Gurland grew up the oldest of four in a close, loving New Jersey family — family dinners every night, a dad who was a doctor and coached his teams, a childhood that looked idyllic from the outside. But Justin always felt a little different, a little black-sheep-ish, and from the very first time he drank at 13, he'd found the feeling he didn't know he was missing.By college at the University of Vermont, the partying had curdled into something darker. His whole crew got hooked on opiates, and

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