Nothing’s Off the Table with Louis Ruggiero

Louis Ruggiero welcomes Karina Miesner for a raw conversation about alcohol addiction, alcoholism recovery, and what it took for her to rebuild her life after nearly drinking herself to death. Now nearly 2 years sober, Karina works in the recovery field and shares what life after alcoholism actually looks like.  This is an honest alcoholism recovery story about shame, relationships, family, addiction treatment, learning to accept help, and discovering that some of the greatest rewards of sober living are the simplest parts of everyday life. 🔔 Real stories. Raw comebacks. Nothing’s off the table. I sit down with people who’ve faced...

Louis Ruggiero welcomes his wife, Mia Ruggiero, for one of his most personal conversations yet.  For the first time, Mia shares what Louis’s addiction recovery looked like from the perspective of the person standing beside him through alcoholism, drug addiction, repeated relapses, broken trust, and eventually gambling addiction. The conversation also explores the hidden nature of gambling addiction, the loneliness families experience, the importance of boundaries with an addicted spouse, and what actually helped Mia begin trusting Louis again. 🔔 Real stories. Raw comebacks. Nothing’s off the table. I sit down with people who’ve faced it all: addiction...

Louis Ruggiero sits down with Mike Shooty to discuss Mike’s journey from alcoholism, repeated relapses, DUIs, damaged relationships, and losing his will to live to nearly four years of recovery. The conversation explores the moment Mike finally surrendered during treatment, how recovery helped rebuild his relationship with his daughter and family, and why honesty, community, and asking for help became essential to his new life. 🔔 Real stories. Raw comebacks. Nothing’s off the table. I sit down with people who’ve faced it all: addiction, loss, redemption—and came out stronger. These are unfiltered conversations about resilience, recovery, and finding...

Louis Ruggiero sits down with John Rokee to trace his journey from childhood pain and early substance use to severe addiction, rehab, legal trouble, and a near-death experience that ultimately changed the direction of his life. John explains how drugs initially gave him relief from loneliness and insecurity, but eventually became something he could no longer control. The conversation then goes deeper into what happened after the substances were gone. John discusses replacing drugs with other coping behaviors, eventually turning to therapy, somatic trauma work, personal development, spirituality, and AA to address the fear and unresolved pain underneath his...

They know everything about you. That's not a conspiracy theory — it's the business model. In this episode, I sit down with Jonathan Cohen, award-winning historian and author of Losing Big: America's Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling — one of the leading voices examining how legalized sports betting exploded across America and what it's really costing us. Jonathan isn't in recovery. He's a scholar. And what he's uncovered studying DraftKings, FanDuel, and the sports betting industry confirms everything those of us in recovery have lived firsthand. We get into: ▶ How sportsbooks hire armies of PhD psychologists to engineer addiction into their apps —...

Louis Ruggiero welcomes Corey Warren for a raw conversation about addiction recovery, heroin addiction, alcoholism, relapse, faith, and what it actually takes to rebuild your life after hitting rock bottom. Corey opens up about his drug addiction and the beginning of his sobriety journey. The conversation also explores faith and recovery, community, accountability, and the deeper changes required to build a meaningful life after addiction. Louis shares parts of his own experience with gambling addiction, including massive financial losses and how gambling became intertwined with drugs, alcohol, and relapse. This episode is an honest look at drug addiction recovery...

He didn't leave his house for a year. Smoked weed, watched shows, and told himself he was fine — while his whole life sat on pause. In this episode, I sit down with John Scafiddi Jr — co-host of The Journey podcast and founder of the clothing brand At War, built on one idea: we're all at war with something. This isn't my typical recovery episode. John's story isn't about a substance taking everything — it's about the quieter battle so many men are fighting right now: depression, isolation, comparison, and a phone that makes everyone else's life look perfect while yours falls...

He walked into Parx Casino with a school bag full of money that wasn't his. 35 minutes later, it was gone — and the casino's response was to offer him a free hotel room. In this episode of Nothing's Off the Table, I sit down with Danny, a compulsive gambler nearly two years into recovery, for a raw conversation about gambling addiction and what it really costs. We go deep on his last bet, the decade of lying that kept his gambling addiction alive, what it did to his marriage and his relationship with his brother, and how Gamblers Anonymous, rehab, an...

In November of 1987, Dan Ryan was a broken man. He'd spent most of that year living between crack houses, under bridges, and in the back of a friend's van. He hadn't seen his children in a year. He'd robbed his own mother that summer. This was a man who once managed on Wall Street — climbing the ladder, doing well — until addiction stripped everything away. When he finally got a shot at help, he missed the bus to the shelter. And in that moment of defeat, the demons called him back. He returned to the crack house that same day, on h...

Westley Morris was supposed to be a farm boy. His family still owns a 500-acre working farm in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Instead, addiction took him to the darkest corner of America — the open-air drug markets of Kensington and North Philadelphia — where he watched people overdose and die on the sidewalk and wondered how any of it could be happening in this country. His last day using was December 22, 2012. What got him out wasn't willpower. It was his sister — 30 days clean herself — asking one question: "Are you ready?" She drove him to his first meeting, where 30 strangers stood up one by one and...

Jonah Marais of Why Don't We sold out Radio City Music Hall before he could legally drink. Behind the boy band fame, chart hits, and millions of fans was a kid taking shots before shows just to get through the tour — until the blackouts, a psychosis episode, and a 5150 psychiatric hold nearly ended everything. In this episode of Nothing's Off the Table, Jonah opens up about his last day drinking, the pressure of staying relevant as a 20-year-old selling out arenas, the night he was hospitalized, and the moment he finally got sober. Now 800+ days sober, engaged, and releasing ne...

Tyler Ramsey was living the dream on paper — a Wall Street career that started at Bear Stearns, a sprint to Los Angeles, a family, a future. Underneath it all, he was drowning in alcohol and drug addiction. Then came the day that shattered him: a weed gummy fell out of his pocket, and his 3-year-old daughter ate it. While his wife raced their unresponsive daughter to the hospital, Tyler had — hours earlier — checked himself into rehab, not even knowing what had happened at home. That phone call changed everything. In this raw, unfiltered episode of Nothing's Off the Table, Tyler...

Ashley Moore survived things most people wouldn't. Addicted to heroin and speed almost immediately after her first use, she spent 9 years in the grip of it — cycling through 25 treatment centers, stealing from her own grandmother, and eventually selling drugs to fund a habit that kept dragging her deeper. She went in and out of jail, did 14 months locked up in California, and still, in her own words, nothing brought her to her knees. Then came the relationship that nearly killed her. He took her phone, robbed her twice — once at gunpoint, once with his hands — turned her own connects agains...

Eugene K. was a New Yorker with a bookie in his pocket. Sports betting, casinos, roulette at 18 — and a family lineage of compulsive gambling he didn't learn about until his twenties. By October 23rd, 2021, he was crying in a locked bathroom with a plan to end his life. Instead, he drove home and told his wife everything. What happened next is one of the most powerful recovery stories we've ever had on Nothing's Off the Table. She kicked him out. Eight days into recovery, she called him home and handed him a pizza box — and what was inside changed his...

Sal walked into his first Gamblers Anonymous meeting at 18 years old — in 1986. He answered 18 out of 20 questions "yes." He'd already battled a serious cocaine addiction at 16. And he still spent decades in and out of the rooms before finally placing his last bet on August 29, 2018. In this raw episode of Nothing's Off the Table, Sal opens up about the SHOCKING reality of long-term gambling addiction: how he relapsed after 4 solid years of recovery, why gambling addiction is an EMOTIONAL disease and not a financial one, and the "dimmer switch" effect that made everything in his life go dark the mo...

Garet grew up in Santa Monica with no education, no voice, and nowhere to put the anger. So he did what addicts do best — he silenced it with drugs and alcohol. What followed was a nightmare most people don't survive: shooting heroin, years living on the streets, and landing on a Level 4 prison yard, one of the most dangerous places in the California prison system. In this raw, unfiltered episode of Nothing's Off the Table, Garet takes us through his last day using, his worst day behind bars, and the moment everything finally changed. Today, he's 13 years sober, a fa...

Sam Favata was a professional baseball player with a promising career — until a devastating injury changed everything. What followed was a gambling addiction so severe it spiraled into a $32 million Ponzi scheme, more than $10 million in gambling debts, and 33 months in federal prison. In this episode of Nothing's Off The Table, Sam opens up about his rise through pro baseball, the beaning injury that derailed his career, how sports betting with an infamous bookie escalated from a hobby to a compulsion, and how he used his own mortgage company to fund his addiction — defrauding over 200 investors before it all came...

At 30 years old, Adriana was in a coma with liver failure and cirrhosis. Doctors read her last rites and her family signed a DNR. She survived — then went back to drinking anyway. In this episode of Nothing Is Off the Table, Adriana shares her raw, unfiltered addiction recovery story: how alcoholism started at 15, drinking a handle of Tito's vodka a day, relearning how to walk and read after liver failure, the relapse that cost her her job, the moment her mom caught her drinking, and the two-and-a-half week blackout bender that finally sent her to rehab. Now sober, she op...

Cormac is an Irish-born fitness coach, model, and former Love Island USA cast member — and he's now nearly four years sober. In this raw, no-holds-barred episode of Nothing's Off, he sits down to share the full story behind the highlight reel. We get into his last drink at his brother's wedding in Australia, just months after losing his father. His battle with cocaine, Adderall, and alcohol that dropped his weight to 162 lbs. The suicidal thoughts that started at 21 and the multiple rock bottoms that followed. And the moment he watched himself on national TV and realized he hated the pe...

Adam Joseph spent over a decade as a compulsive gambler — losing $5,000 to $10,000 a week, blowing $20,000 in a single 15-minute blackjack session, and hiding it all from his wife for the first 10–12 years of their marriage. To everyone around him, Adam was the responsible one: a business owner, a baseball coach, active in his church, a devoted family man. Nobody suspected that "Adam's dirty little secret" was quietly gambling away a fortune. In this raw episode of Nothing's Off the Table, Adam takes us from the very beginning — a $100 bet on a golf course at 21 — through casino floors, sportsbooks, relapse after re...