Shows / Rise Above with Kevin Lanning
Rise Above with Kevin Lanning
Welcome to Rise Above with 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…
Episodes
Rise Above with Kevin LanningMy Heart Stopped From A Fentanyl Overdose & I Woke Up From A Coma Having To Learn To Walk Again
If you caught Brenda Zane's episode a few months ago — the mother who shared the harrowing story of her son's addiction and near-death — this is that son. Enzo…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Was Spending $300 A Day On 7OH....Legal Gas Station Hero!n
Nick Thornton grew up outside Portland, Maine, raised by his grandparents after his mother's addiction pulled her out of his life. He was warned early that…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Was Doing Cocaine Every Single Day For 3 Years & Had A Seizure At My Desk....and I Kept Using
From the outside Gregg looked like he had it handled — a family, a career, a wife he'd known since middle school. Underneath it he was doing cocaine every…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningHe Was Drinking Every Day & Ready To Give Up | The One Thing That Gave Him Hope
Pete Kuc was living a life that looked like the movies. A young real estate hotshot in northeast Florida, he was making a fortune, flying on private jets to…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningFrom Cooking Meth at 19 to Finding Sobriety | Colton's Recovery Story
Colton's addiction began long before adulthood. By 17, he was injecting drugs. Before turning 20, he was cooking meth, living in violent drug houses, escaping…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningHe Went From Princeton & Harvard Law To Shooting Heroin On Skid Row
Damon Watson did everything right. Harvard-Westlake prep school. Princeton, where he was a national debate champion. Harvard Law School. A career as an…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningPrescribed Xanax at 14: How Addiction Led to 8 Arrests, Jail & Recovery
Haley Ragsdale grew up outside Nashville in the wealthy town of Franklin, a scared kid with crippling anxiety, insomnia, and a phobia of vomiting so severe it…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningAddicted To Oxycodone At 15... Heroin On The Streets By 20
Clint Pitre was raised by his grandparents in Deltona, Florida, a Jehovah's Witness household where he always felt like something was off. By middle school he…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Was A Pastor Secretly Addicted To Sex & Affairs While Preaching Every Sunday
Jason Lyles was adopted at 14 days old and raised in a strict Southern Baptist home. He read the Bible cover to cover by age eight and felt called to ministry…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningThe Dark Reality of Alcoholism | My Battle with Alcohol Addiction, Blacking Out & Horrific Detoxes
Laura Tomana appeared to have it all—a successful career, a thriving social life, and a bright future. Behind closed doors, however, alcohol had taken over her…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Went From The MVP Quarterback to Shooting Heroin | How I Found Sobriety and Changed My Life
Tommy Lyons grew up between Brooklyn and Staten Island, a fearful, introverted kid with a nervous disposition who found that drugs made him feel like he could…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningA Surgery Led To My Painkiller Addiction | What My Life Looks Like 8.5 Years Sober | Vlog Ep. 3
Rise Above | Vlog Episode 3 A routine shoulder surgery is where my painkiller addiction began. This is what my life looks like 8.5 years sober. In this vlog…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningA Heroin Addict's BRUTAL Lifestyle | Losing My Arm, Arrests and How I Found Sobriety
Mike Debany was a fast-talking sales guy living what looked like the good life in South Florida — a fiancée, a baby on the way, money in the bank. Underneath…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Lost My Job, My Wife & My Son To Alcohol & Oxycodone
From the outside Nick Johnsson had it all. Born in Sweden, educated in Australia, and based in Southeast Asia, he spent a decade climbing the corporate ladder…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Was A High-Functioning Drinker Who Hid It All | Losing My Mom, My Marriage & My Hair
From the outside Christie Green looked like she had it all together. A successful career, a wide circle of friends, the person who sent the thank-you cards and…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Was Drinking A Handle Of Vodka A Day & Making $50K A Month Online At 18 | Getting Sober At 21
Makenzie Raine had her first panic attack at seven. She never felt comfortable in her own skin....paralyzing anxiety, constant fear, neurodivergence nobody…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningShe Started Smoking Meth At 15 | From 20 Years Homeless & Prostituting Women To 7 Years Sober
Betty Guadagno was born into a long line of addicts — poverty, chaos, eviction notices in red envelopes, and sexual trauma she carried as a small child. By 11…
Rise Above with Kevin Lanning"I Was Cut In Half On Impact" | Pronounced Dead 3 Times, A 3.5 Week Coma & I Performed Surgery On Myself
Jerry Lucey beat opioid addiction in 2018. Then in 2020 a motorcycle accident cut his body open from his heel to his chest. He was pronounced dead three times…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Drank a Liter & a Half Of Vodka Every Night & Still Told Myself I Didn't Have A Problem
Matthew Polimeno was six years old when he climbed into his mother's bed and woke up next to her body. She had gotten sober through AA. Then a car accident led…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Was Drinking So Hard I Couldn't Get Out Of Bed | From $100K A Week Steroid Empire To Prison
Ryan Root was a skinny kid from upstate New York who got picked up by girls at 13 and couldn't grow facial hair at 28. Doctors dismissed him. So he went to the…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Shot Fentanyl Until I Was Completely Unconscious | Jail, Losing My Daughter & How I Finally Got Sober
Brittany Ellis grew up in a small town in South Georgia watching her parents drink & party. It wasn't until her oldest brother poured gasoline on a bonfire at…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Shot Heroin With USB Cords Tied To My Arm After 2 Tours In Afghanistan | 7 Years Sober
Johnny Schrey grew up in West Boca watching his two older brothers destroy their lives with drugs. He told himself he would never be like them. By 25 he was…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Found Out I Was Adopted At 13, Got My First DUI At 18 & Did 4 Months In Jail | 3.5 Years Sober
Rise Above | Adam Vohra's Story Adam Vohra grew up in Connecticut ....a kid of color in a Jewish day school who always felt different. At 13 he found out why…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Blacked Out Every Night While Running The San Francisco Bureau of HuffPost | Highrise Suicide Attempt and How I Got Sober
Carly Schwartz had a career most journalists only dream about. Running the San Francisco Bureau of HuffPost at 26. On the leadership team of one of the biggest…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Drank A Bottle Of Scotch Every Night | From Alcoholic Depression to 39 Years Sober | Suebelle Robbins
Suebelle Robbins had a life that looked like a movie. Playboy Bunny by night, first grade teacher by day. Travel escort taking groups to Hawaii and…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningInside A Chicago Street Junkie's 20-Year Spiral | 3 DUIs, Heroin, Cook County Jail & Finding God
Mike Supak was a Division 1 track athlete. He never touched a drop of alcohol in four years of high school. He was structured, dedicated, trustworthy — the…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Was Taking 10 Xanax Bars A Night At 17, Stabbed A Woman At 37 Weeks Pregnant & Sat On A Sidewalk Ready To Die | 11 Years Sober
Crystal Meliea grew up alone on 183 acres of North Carolina mountain property with a narcissist mother who left her unsupervised with music industry men in Los…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Made My First Million On Wall Street At 28 & Was Broke & Addicted To Opiates By 30
TJ DelVecchio was a Division 1 baseball player at Providence College who walked onto Wall Street during the dot-com boom and made his first million dollars by…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningInside A Functioning Mom's Secret Alcoholism | My 30-Year Battle With Alcoholism
Kyle Garges had everything — a loving husband, a beautiful daughter, a career in advertising sales, and a life that looked perfectly put together from the…
Rise Above with Kevin Lanning7-OH Pills Destroyed My Life | The SHOCKING Truth About 7-Hydroxymitragynine Addiction
You can buy it at a gas station. It's sold next to energy drinks and lottery tickets. And it almost destroyed Matt Dean's life. Matt Dean had already been…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Was Held Hostage By The Cartel In Mexico | Inside A College Addict's Spiral
John Luedke had it all on paper — a scholarship to Michigan State, a successful father, a big house, and every material thing a kid could want. But underneath…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Was A Teacher With Two DUIs | 30 Years of Alcoholism & Finding Sobriety
Elisa Nicole Saunders was a Palm Beach County schoolteacher, standing in front of classrooms every day — and quietly drinking and drugging her way through 30…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Was Ordering Fentanyl Off The Dark Web In College | Gambling, Xanax & How I Got Sober
Jordan Freeman had everything going for him — loving parents, a spot at one of the top business schools in the country, varsity baseball, and a bright future…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Did Neurofeedback for Anxiety, Stress & PTSD — Here's What Happened | Compassion Behavioral Health
I went inside Compassion Behavioral Health (CBH) headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to experience neurofeedback firsthand — and I vlogged the whole…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningHe Overdosed, Died 3 Times & Woke Up an Amputee | Now He Has 14 Years Sober
Kevin Parker had everything stripped from him — his health, his freedom, his leg, and nearly his life. After a night that started with a family intervention…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningFrom Eating Disorder to 30 Years in Recovery: Trauma, EMDR & Healing
In this powerful episode, I sit down with Rachel Pappert Docekal, a recovery advocate and executive at the Hanley Center in West Palm Beach. Rachel opens up…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningShe Married a Drug Dealer in Vegas While Running From Cops | Cocaine Addiction, a Federal Raid & Getting Sober
Courtney Janssen grew up in a farm town outside Chicago watching domestic abuse and drinking become "normal." By 12 she had her first drink. By her twenties…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningThrowing Up Blood & Still Drinking | Stage 4 Cirrhosis, Liver Transplant & 19 Months Sober
Chelsea Garber was diagnosed with Stage 4 cirrhosis of the liver — and kept drinking for nine more months. After losing her son, battling drug addiction…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Survived Iraq…Then Crystal Meth Nearly Destroyed My Life | 5 Felonies, Combat Trauma & Finding Sobriety
Marine Corps veteran Spencer Jones opens up about surviving combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, battling trauma after leaving the military, and falling…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningInside a Heroin Addict’s BRUTAL Lifestyle | Joining a Gang, Attempted Murder, Prison & Sobriety
Robert Cruz shares his unbelievable story of addiction, gang violence, prison, armed robbery, and ultimately redemption. After losing his brother at 13, Robert…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Was Drinking a Bottle of Vodka a Day at 20 | Inside a Young Alcoholic’s DOUBLE Life
Alkhuzama Zaini shares her powerful story of alcoholism, blackouts, college addiction, mental health struggles, and finding sobriety at a young age. From…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Was an IV Fentanyl Addict | Heroin, Felonies & How I Finally Got Clean
Kyle Caughman grew up in a small town with a great family, played sports, and had no trauma… but one decision changed everything. What started with pain pills…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Was Binge Drinking & Doing Coke… But Was High Functioning | Getting Sober Without a Rock Bottom
Rachel Hechtman opens up about her journey from binge drinking, cocaine use, and crippling anxiety to nearly 5 years of sobriety. Unlike many addiction…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningAddiction Q&A: Rock Bottom, Relapse, Triggers & Sobriety Truths
In this episode, I sit down with Karina Miesner for a raw Q&A covering the most asked questions around addiction, relapse, and sobriety. We break down real…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningShooting Heroin in Kensington | I Took a Bus 5 Hours a Day to Get High… From a Normal Childhood
Lauren Gaffney shares her raw, unfiltered story of addiction, trauma, and recovery. From a “normal” childhood in the suburbs to taking 5-hour bus rides into…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningAddicted at 11: Crack Took Everything From Me | Robbing Dealers, Prison & Finding Sobriety
Chris Stroud started using drugs at just 11 years old… and by 17, he was hooked on crack cocaine. What followed was decades of chaos — robbing drug dealers…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningA Hollywood Producer’s SHOCKING Addiction to Xanax & Oxycodone
Tyler Ramsey had it all… working on Baywatch, MTV, Survivor, and building a career in Hollywood. But behind the scenes, he was spiraling. What started with…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Stole an Entire Pharmacy for Drugs | How Heroin Took Over My Life
Ryan Moyer had a key to a pharmacy… and one night, he used it to steal the entire narcotics closet. What started with prescription pills turned into a…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Thought Prison Was My Only Way Out | How Addiction Led Me to 15 Years in Prison
Jason Brewer’s story is one of the darkest we’ve ever shared. After experiencing severe trauma as a child, Jason spiraled into addiction, violence, and…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningNavy SEAL to Fentanyl Addict | K9 Attack, Tased, Lost Everything… Then Got Sober
Taylor Cavanough was living the dream. A Navy SEAL. Deployed overseas. High performer. But behind the discipline… was chaos. After a violent arrest where he…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Couldn't Stop Using… Even When I Knew It Would Kill Me | Fentanyl Addiction
Graham Reid was living a double life. What started with pills and partying quickly turned into a full-blown opiate addiction — smoking 30s, chasing dealers…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Hid a 10-Year Drug Addiction From My Wife | Blackout, Lies & How I Finally Got Sober
Matt Robinson lived a double life for over a decade. Behind the scenes, he was battling a severe drug addiction… while his wife had no idea. It started with a…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Was Drinking Vodka All Day | Car Crash, Hidden Addiction & How I Finally Got Sober
Megan’s addiction didn’t look obvious at first. She had a job, a family, and a life that seemed “normal” on the outside… but behind the scenes, she was…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningMy Son Was Doing Fentanyl at 16… I Had to Let Him Go to Save His Life
Brenda Zane was a successful advertising executive living what looked like a normal life—until her son’s addiction turned everything upside down. From early…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningHeroin Was Killing Me | I Smuggled Drugs into Rikers Island & Nearly Died
John Rokee’s story is a terrifying look at the lengths an addict will go to maintain a "perfect" life. By day, he was a high-earning union steamfitter. By…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningInside A 14-Year-Old Stripper’s Brutal Addiction | Meth, Overcoming Cancer & Sobriety
Kim House’s life story sounds like a movie script, but the trauma was all too real. After fleeing an abusive home at just 14 years old, Kim found herself…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningI Blacked Out at 16… Then Tried to End It All | How I Rebuilt My Life in Sobriety
Molly Haneke opens up about her journey from early self-harm and blackout drinking at just 16, to hitting a breaking point that landed her in a mental hospital…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningFrom Combat Hero to Homeless Addict: An Unbelievable True Story
Sean Young survived three deployments to Afghanistan, saw his brothers-in-arms blown up in front of him, and lived through a childhood that sounds like a…
Rise Above with Kevin LanningFentanyl Nightmare in Kensington | I Witnessed Hell
Cassidy’s story is one of the darkest I’ve ever heard. She grew up in a good home, loving parents, big family… and still addiction found a way in. One pill…
Rise Above with Kevin Lanning"I Didn’t Want to Exist Anymore" | She was the #1 European Tennis Pro But Her Mental Health was Secretly Unraveling
Ema Burgic was the #1 ranked junior in Europe, a standout star at Baylor, and a professional tennis powerhouse. On the outside, her life looked perfect: a…