Rise Above with Kevin Lanning

Kevin Lanning
  • 4.8 (269)
  • Personal Journals
  • Updated Weekly

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 that uplift, educate, and inspire. Tune in and discover the strength within you.

  1. 11h ago

    I Was A Police Officer Secretly Addicted To Meth On The Job

    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, what started as a little action turned into compulsively running his account to zero night after night, in debt by morning, doing it all over again. And then, after being prescribed Adderall for ADHD, a shortage left him without his medication — and someone offered him meth, a chemical cousin of the very prescription he'd lost. He describes it as "Adderall times a hundred," and it pulled him into a secret addiction he carried while still on the job. He's candid about the impossible bind so many first responders face: the fear that asking for help means losing everything — the career, the income, the identity — and the culture that told him to shut up, take the next call, and never show emotion. Eventually it all came apart, and Bob got sober in 2025. Now he's turned his pain into purpose with the Behind the Badge Project, using his voice to reach cops, firefighters, and first responders who are silently struggling — before self-destruction, before it's too late. Because the first responder suicide rate is staggering, and Bob believes the system has to make it okay to raise your hand and ask for help. This is a powerful conversation about addiction behind the badge, the cost of carrying trauma in silence, and finding a new identity in service. Sponsored by Caron Treatment Centers My recovery journey began at Caron Treatment Centers, and the care I received there changed the course of my life. That's why I'm proud to partner with Caron. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, Caron has been helping individuals and families find hope and lasting recovery for nearly 70 years. They are in-network with all major insurance providers, and same-day admission is available. ➡️ Learn more: https://www.caron.org/lp/rise-above 📞 Call Caron today: 855-352-0103 Recovery starts with taking the first step. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  2. 2d ago

    I Almost Drank Myself To Death — And My Wife Watched It All Happen

    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 into years of destruction. He walks through the spiral: drinking from the moment he woke up, sipping vodka slowly just to keep it down, multiple trips to rehab, staying merely abstinent without ever doing the deeper work, losing the family business, and the suicidal ideation that convinced him there was no way out. Now two years sober and grounded in his faith, he's honest about all of it — including the damage he did to the people he loved most. Then Katelyn joins. As she puts it, loving someone through addiction is not for the weak. A self-described fixer and problem-solver, she tried to control and rescue her way through it — hiding it from everyone, white-knuckling his recovery, getting her hopes up and crushed with every relapse — until she realized in therapy that she had become just as sick with codependency. She speaks with staggering honesty about learning to separate "sober Brandon" from "addict Brandon," about mentally rehearsing his funeral, about surviving the betrayals of active addiction, and about the moment unconditional love and real boundaries finally broke the cycle. Together, they're a picture of what's possible on the other side — a marriage that didn't just survive, but rebuilt. If you love someone in addiction, or you're the one struggling, this conversation is for you. Sponsored by Caron Treatment Centers My recovery journey began at Caron Treatment Centers, and the care I received there changed the course of my life. That's why I'm proud to partner with Caron. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, Caron has been helping individuals and families find hope and lasting recovery for nearly 70 years. They are in-network with all major insurance providers, and same-day admission is available. ➡️ Learn more: https://www.caron.org/lp/rise-above 📞 Call Caron today: 855-352-0103 Recovery starts with taking the first step. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  3. 3d ago

    This Rehab Will Blow You Away | Inside Caron Treatment Centers In Delray Beach

    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 "rehab." I'll show you the private rooms, the outdoor space and nature that's so important for healing, and the dining hall (the food genuinely blew me away). But the real difference is what happens on the inside: I sat down with Allie, a clinical supervisor who's also a Caron alum with 12 years sober, to talk about how they treat addiction as a brain disease — using brain mapping, neuro-restorative care, and diagnostic clarity to actually get to the root of the problem instead of guessing. The thing that's always meant the most to me about Caron is that they treat the patient like family and the family like the patient. You'll hear that firsthand from a staff member who lost her sister to this disease, was cared for by Caron through that grief, and changed her entire career to come work here. Whether you're thinking about taking that first step yourself, worried about a loved one, or just curious what treatment really looks like — this one's for you. Asking for help is scary. My hope is that seeing what's behind the doors makes it a little less so. Sponsored by Caron Treatment Centers My recovery journey began at Caron Treatment Centers, and the care I received there changed the course of my life. That's why I'm proud to partner with Caron. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, Caron has been helping individuals and families find hope and lasting recovery for nearly 70 years. They are in-network with all major insurance providers, and same-day admission is available. ➡️ Learn more: https://www.caron.org/lp/rise-above 📞 Call Caron today: 855-352-0103 Recovery starts with taking the first step. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  4. 4d ago

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

    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 carried low self-worth into a string of unhealthy relationships. She found escape first in alcohol, then Molly and the festival scene, then ketamine — the drug that became her "I've arrived" moment and eventually pulled her into paranoia, psychosis, and daily use. Then a smoke shop employee handed her 7-OH, telling her it was a natural, over-the-counter fix for her pain. She had no idea she'd just been given what amounts to a legal opioid. She's remarkably honest about what followed: the fast physical addiction, nodding off standing up, the hundreds of dollars a day, and the withdrawals almost no one warns you about — not just the flu-like sickness, but a psychological crash so severe she became suicidal and couldn't be left alone. This episode goes deep on the parts of the 7-OH crisis that aren't in the headlines yet. Now sober alongside her boyfriend, Izzy is part of a growing wave of young people rejecting the party lifestyle — and putting a face to a danger sitting on smoke shop shelves across the country. If you or someone you love is using kratom or 7-OH because it's "legal," this is the episode to hear. This Episode Is Sponsored By NOCD A lot of people who've done the hard work of getting sober still struggle with unwanted, intrusive thoughts that bring guilt and shame and keep coming back. For some people, that may be OCD — and in recovery it often goes unrecognized for years because it can look like anxiety or feel like part of the process. The good news is it's treatable. NOCD is the world's leading provider of OCD treatment, with licensed therapists who specialize in ERP (exposure and response prevention) therapy through live, face-to-face virtual sessions, plus support between sessions. NOCD is covered by insurance for over 138 million Americans. 👉 Book a free 15-minute call at: https://www.treatmyocd.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  5. 6d ago

    Dirty Heads Singer Jared Watson Reveals Addiction To Alcohol, Painkillers & Feel Free Kratom

    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 alcoholism ran in his family, or how genetically loaded the deck was against him. He talks candidly about roughly ten years of back-and-forth sobriety: getting a year, getting a few months, telling himself he could use just one night, and watching that one night stretch into another lost stretch. The bottom underneath the bottom came recently. What was meant to be a single night in Vegas spiraled into the worst year and a half of his life — three rehab stays in six months, full-blown withdrawals within thirty minutes of a drink, pacing himself through a three-week tour just to function, and begging for beers on the flight to treatment. He's raw about what it's like to go through that as a father, the shame that comes with it, and the "feel free" kratom products he calls dangerous and dark. Now a few months into his most honest sobriety yet, Jared has given up the "1%" he always held onto — and he's here sharing it while it's still fresh, because someone else needs to hear it. Sponsored by Caron Treatment Centers My recovery journey began at Caron Treatment Centers, and the care I received there changed the course of my life. That's why I'm proud to partner with Caron. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, Caron has been helping individuals and families find hope and lasting recovery for nearly 70 years. They are in-network with all major insurance providers, and same-day admission is available. ➡️ Learn more: https://www.caron.org/lp/rise-above 📞 Call Caron today: 855-352-0103 Recovery starts with taking the first step. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  6. Sep 4

    I Went To Treatment 13 Times Before I Finally Got Sober

    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 chase. A baseball injury and rotator cuff surgery introduced him to opioids and the euphoria of morphine, and from there his addiction took off. Cocaine became the great love of his life; he describes doing eight balls alone and using around the clock through a chaotic college and fraternity chapter. There were DUIs, a totaled car he somehow parked in the driveway, a night he punched a police officer and ran, and thirteen separate trips to treatment. What finally changed wasn't the consequences — it was surrender. Tyler is honest about how long he faked the steps, manipulated the system, and leaned on his mom to fix everything, until a counselor called him out, a breakup cracked him open, and he cried for the first time in his sobriety. Now sixteen months sober, he works in the treatment field, sponsors other men, and has rebuilt his relationships with his mom and sister from the ground up. This is a story about entitlement, surrender, and the truth that addiction doesn't care how good your childhood looked. Sponsored by Caron Treatment Centers My recovery journey began at Caron Treatment Centers, and the care I received there changed the course of my life. That's why I'm proud to partner with Caron. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, Caron has been helping individuals and families find hope and lasting recovery for nearly 70 years. They are in-network with all major insurance providers, and same-day admission is available. ➡️ Learn more: https://www.caron.org/lp/rise-above 📞 Call Caron today: 855-352-0103 Recovery starts with taking the first step. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  7. Sep 2

    I Overdosed On A Legal Drug From The Gas Station (7OH) And Woke Up In A Coma

    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 kratom, and Ian picked some up at a smoke shop, figuring anything sold legally over the counter couldn't be that serious. He'd taken it only a handful of times. Then came the night that changed everything. Ian and a close friend each took 7-OH, and over the course of the evening his friend stopped responding. Ian describes performing CPR, clearing his friend's airway, and calling for help as his own body was shutting down — until he collapsed in front of the arriving officers and flatlined. Both of them ended up in comas. By what Ian can only call a miracle, they both survived. Now four months clean, Ian has turned that night into a mission. He's testified before his city council, shared his story with local news, and become one of the few young voices putting a face to the 7-OH crisis and pushing to get it off the shelves. This episode is essential viewing for anyone — especially young people — who's been told these products are safe because they're legal. Sponsored by Caron Treatment Centers My recovery journey began at Caron Treatment Centers, and the care I received there changed the course of my life. That's why I'm proud to partner with Caron. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, Caron has been helping individuals and families find hope and lasting recovery for nearly 70 years. They are in-network with all major insurance providers, and same-day admission is available. ➡️ Learn more: https://www.caron.org/lp/rise-above 📞 Call Caron today: 855-352-0103 Recovery starts with taking the first step. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  8. Aug 31

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

    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 Justin moved seamlessly from OxyContin to heroin. He moved to New York City telling himself the problem was geographic — that he'd learn to "drink like a gentleman" — and instead spent the next few years in the darkest, most isolated stretch of his life, secretly using IV heroin while keeping up appearances just enough to avoid the alarms. It all came down when his sister walked into his bedroom and found his works out in the open, and weeks later, when his doctor father spotted the abscess on his hand. In one of the most powerful scenes he shares, Justin describes grabbing his dad by his white coat and telling him he needed him more than he ever had in his life. He detoxed that night and got sober in 2008. Eighteen years later, Justin has spent more than 15 years working in behavioral health — and recently took a leap of faith to build something that didn't exist: The Maze, a first-of-its-kind alcohol-free membership club in New York City, a place to find community and connection without alcohol at the center. This is a story about isolation and belonging, the families who love us through it, and building the thing you always wished existed. Sponsored by Caron Treatment Centers My recovery journey began at Caron Treatment Centers, and the care I received there changed the course of my life. That's why I'm proud to partner with Caron. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, Caron has been helping individuals and families find hope and lasting recovery for nearly 70 years. They are in-network with all major insurance providers, and same-day admission is available. ➡️ Learn more: https://www.caron.org/lp/rise-above 📞 Call Caron today: 855-352-0103 Recovery starts with taking the first step. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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4.8
out of 5
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About

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 that uplift, educate, and inspire. Tune in and discover the strength within you.

Information

  • Creator
    Kevin Lanning
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    344
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2024 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Rise Above with Kevin Lanning

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