A Long Road Home Benjamin Shapiro

Hart Bothwell is a singer/songwriter that grew in an upper-middle-class suburb south of San Francisco who now drives for Uber & Lyft driver in North Carolina. After admitting to his family that he had an opioid addiction, Hart bravely and openly walks us through his recovery and how he reestablished his sense of self, his relationships with his family, and love for music.

Hart Bothwell is a singer/songwriter that grew in an upper-middle-class suburb south of San Francisco who now drives for Uber & Lyft driver in North Carolina. In this episode, Hart details the life of an addict, how it affected his relationships with family and music, and what led to him bottoming out. 

Hart Bothwell is a singer/songwriter that grew in an upper middle class suburb south of San Francisco who now drives for Uber & Lyft driver in North Carolina. At an early age he was forced to deal with the divorce, depression, and social anxiety that lead him into an an opioid addiction which almost ruined his life. Hart bravely and openly walks us down his path into and out of addiction and explains how his sense of self, relationships, and love for music have been shaped by his struggles and recovery.

In this, our third and final episode, Charles tells us about when he decided to attempt to successfully escape North Korea. While most of our story to this point has been a centered around Charles’ struggles, today we’re going to tell you about his miraculous departure from North Korea and his adjustment to life in the United States.

In this, our second episode, of our first season, Charles tells us about his relationship with his estranged father, how he was recaptured by the North Korean government, why he ended up working in a coal mine, and what life is like as a homeless child in North Korea. It's an amazing story, so let's get to it!

In every season of A Long Road Home, we’ll feature a story of an individual who works in the on-demand economy and has overcome adversity to be where they are today. In our first season, we tell the story of Cheol "Charles" Ryu, who is a refugee from North Korea. Against all odds, Charles has survived being abandoned by his family, becoming a prisoner of the North Korean government, and being an indentured slave in a coal mine. He daringly escaped from North Korea when he was 17 and now lives in the South Bay, where he works for Lyft and studies software engineering.