About this episode

Nephi Craig discusses his memoir and the connection between indigenous food, recovery, and mental health.

Host Andrew Camp interviews Nephi Craig, executive chef of Café Gozhoo on the White Mountain Apache Tribe, relapse prevention specialist, and founder of the Native American Culinary Association, on the release of his memoir Our Knives Will Save Us . Craig describes writing the book as a tool about the “ingredients of a chef,” linking his 15 years of sobriety, relapse history, and healing to cooking and indigenous foods. He explains how kitchen discipline and mentors shaped him, why indigenous cultivars and foodways connect to public and mental health, and how colonization’s violence and intergenerational trauma relate to addiction and health disparities. Craig details Café Gozhoo as a recovery-oriented, clinically designed, non-hierarchical kitchen emphasizing excellence, work-life balance, and Native values, discusses NACA’s grassroots impact, and answers food questions, including avoiding snake and bear, loving pho, and naming a last meal featuring Apache racket bread. Nephi Craig is the executive chef of Café Gozhóó in Whiteriver, Arizona, on the White Mountain Apache Tribe, and an advanced certified relapse prevention specialist (ACRPS) and behavioral health technician (BHT)…

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