About this episode

Damon Watson shares his journey from a successful career to addiction and eventual recovery, highlighting the impact of personal loss and the support that helped him rebuild his life.

Damon Watson did everything right. Harvard-Westlake prep school. Princeton, where he was a national debate champion. Harvard Law School. A career as an intellectual property litigator at Latham & Watkins, one of the biggest law firms in Los Angeles. On paper, his life was the American dream. Then five people close to him died in six years — his mom, his dad, his grandmother and more. His marriage fell apart. And the man who had been so terrified of becoming his alcoholic mother that he was the designated driver all through college took his first drink at 30, right after graduating law school. From there it moved fast: ecstasy at the clubs, then cocaine, then crystal meth, and finally a needle in his arm. Damon lost everything. He ended up homeless on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, shooting heroin and meth, fighting for his life, cycling through LA County Jail on check-fraud charges he committed just to survive. He describes sitting there with a needle in his arm, certain he was going to die in that spot — and something in him refusing to accept it. His way out came through a former debate rival turned friend running for city council, who flew him to New York, put him on her…

People in this episode

Host: Kevin Lanning

Guest: Damon Watson

Topics covered

• addiction
• recovery
• personal transformation
• mental health
• overcoming adversity

Keywords

• addiction
• recovery
• Skid Row
• Harvard Law
• personal loss
• mental health
• transformation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Harvard-Westlake, Princeton, Harvard Law School, Latham & Watkins, New Jersey Reentry Corporation

Places: Skid Row, Los Angeles, New York

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