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Artist Recovery Podcast

Artist Recovery Podcast

Written by: Rich Wright
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Artist Recovery Podcast is Bringing Light to the Darkside of Art. I’m Rich Wright, your host — and here we're redefining recovery as Renewal, Resilience and Creative Transformation. Because for artists, it’s more than survival… it’s Remembering.
This show is about the real journey of being a working creative — the highs, the lows, the pivots, and the reinventions that shape who we are. Together we’ll explore how setbacks can spark transformation, how loss can open new paths, and how resilience fuels the heart of every artist’s story.
If you’ve ever faced doubt, setback, or the call to reinvent yourself, you’re in the right place. Let’s recover — and create — together.”


Want to be a guest on Artist Recovery Podcast? Send Rich Wright a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/artistrecovery

© 2026 Artist Recovery LLC Art Hygiene & Healthy Living Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Spirituality
Episodes
  • Artist Recovery Podcast S2 Ep. 22 | From Boxed In to Breaking Out: Cathelina Duvert's Story

    Artist Recovery Podcast S2 Ep. 22 | From Boxed In to Breaking Out: Cathelina Duvert's Story
    May 29 2026
    What happens when the people who are supposed to guide you tell you that you don't belong? For author and educator Cathelina Duvert, that question became the seed of a lifetime of creative recovery, deep self-discovery, and ultimately, a debut novel born from the pain she refused to keep carrying alone.In this episode of the Artist Recovery Podcast, Rich Wright sits down with Cathelina Duvert, a Hofstra University graduate, award-winning author, mental health advocate, and seventh and ninth grade ELA teacher from Queens, New York. Her debut novel, The Box, explores identity, depression, and resilience, and it carries the weight of everything she once kept hidden.Cathelina opens up about growing up Haitian American in a strict Queens household, being a twin who felt perpetually in the shadow of her sister's social world, and discovering early on that writing was the one place she felt truly herself. From stapling together handmade books for her father to read, to carrying a green notebook filled with forced rhymes and secret poems, her creative life was always burning underneath the surface, even when no one around her could see it. A guidance counselor told her she was wasting her money applying to Hofstra University. She got in anyway, and in her very first semester, earned straight A's for the first time in her life.This episode goes deep into the moments that shaped her: the childhood anxiety that went unnamed for years, the sexual trauma at age twelve that became the hidden root of her depression, the sister who ultimately saw her struggling and pushed her toward therapy, the Manhattan publishing world that lit her up creatively and socially, and the slow, deliberate process of transferring her pain onto the page by giving it all to her main character.Cathelina also shares the story of founding a creative writing club at her school, applying for a grant, and guiding her students through publishing their own book, Masquerade of Lies, and what it felt like to watch their faces the moment they saw their names in print.This is a conversation about the audacity to create when the world has told you not to, the healing that lives inside the writing, and what it means to finally give your story permission to exist.Topics Covered:~Growing up in a strict Haitian American household in Queens, NY~Early signs of creativity, anxiety, and introversion~Being told by educators you don't belong, and proving them wrong~Discovering a new way to study and earning straight A's at Hofstra~Childhood sexual trauma and its connection to lifelong depression~Writing as therapy, healing, and identity~Self-publishing The Box and navigating the indie literary world~Founding a student creative writing club and publishing Masquerade of Lies~The audacity creatives need to share their work with the worldConnect with Cathelina:Website: https://cathelinaduvert.comLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathelina-duvert-b95b97304Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cathelinaduvertFB: https://www.facebook.com/TheBoxTheBookTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@UCmXCJwm_yFyx-bumAZh1J7g Youtube: @CathelinaDuvert Join Podmatch: https://www.joinpodmatch.com/artistre...Dyslexia Classes: https://www.skool.com/dyslexia-classes#ArtistRecoveryPodcast #CreativeRecovery #CreativeBurnout #DepressionAndCreativity #WritingAsHealing #BlackAuthors #IndiePublishing #SelfPublishing #HaitianAmericanAuthor #WomenWriters #MentalHealthAndCreativity #IntrovertCreator #AnxietyAndCreativity #DebutNovel #TheBoxNovel #CreativeWritingTeacher #LiteraryFiction #CreativeWritingClub #ChildhoodTraumaAndCreativity #OvercomingSelfDoubt #CreativeConfidence #ImposterSyndrome #SensitiveCreative #WritingPoetry #FindingYourVoice #FirstGenerationCollegeStudent #Storytelling #AuthorsWhoTeach #WomenInLiterature #CreativeHealingJourney #BlackWomenWriters #InnerChildCreativity #richwrightartist #richwrightunlimited #richwrightunltd #beaguest #podmatchguest @PodMatch_com ​Support the showAlways remember, Listen to your Heart and Be Kind to Your Mind! -Rich WrightFollow us here: https://www.theartistrecovery.comJoin the Community: https://www,artrecroom.comListen Weekly at: https://www.artistrecoverypodcast.comConnect:InstagramFacebookXTikTokLinkedin
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    1 hr and 44 mins
  • Artist Recovery Podcast S2 Ep. 21 | From CNN to Fiction: John DeDakis on Writing, Grief & Healing

    Artist Recovery Podcast S2 Ep. 21 | From CNN to Fiction: John DeDakis on Writing, Grief & Healing
    May 22 2026

    What happens when a 25-year CNN veteran, a former White House correspondent who interviewed both Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, a decorated thriller novelist, and a grief-through-writing advocate all walk into the same conversation? You get John DeDakis — and one of the most unexpectedly profound episodes of this entire season.

    John is the creator of the acclaimed Lark Chadwick mystery suspense series, a six-novel run with his latest, Enemies Domestic, taking the grand prize at the Chanticleer International Book Awards. He's also a highly sought-after writing coach, manuscript editor, and workshop leader — but none of that is the real story. The real story is how a shy, self-described "scaredy-cat" kid from La Crosse, Wisconsin became someone who has spent his life excavating the human condition — one story, one question, one grief at a time.

    In this episode, Rich and John go deep — not just on craft, but on what it means to be a man who listens, feels, and heals.

    In this conversation:
    ~Growing up in La Crosse — a stable, love-anchored childhood and why John says he was "born on second base"
    ~How the Vietnam War, the draft, and a campus radio station at the University of Wisconsin set his entire trajectory
    ~Enlisting to avoid the draft — and landing in Germany where his very first interview was with Alfred Hitchcock
    ~ 25 years at CNN and what it really felt like inside The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
    ~ Why journalism was the perfect fit for a man who didn't want to pick a side — and why that matters more now than ever
    ~ The origin of Lark Chadwick — a 20-something female protagonist written by a man, and what writing her revealed about gender, safety, and emotional intelligence
    ~ What men get wrong about women — in relationships, in the room, and in conversation
    ~ The powerful truth that "women are always playing defense" — and why every man needs to sit with that
    ~ Grief as a creative catalyst — from witnessing a fatal car-train collision at age nine, to his sister's suicide, to losing his son to a heroin overdose
    ~ Why writing is not just craft — it's catharsis, and how mining your pain produces your most authentic work
    ~ The memoir — Plot Twists: A Memoir on Writing and Living — coming later in 2026

    Connect with John:
    Website: https://johndedakis.com
    Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-dedakis-4b09a34
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dedakisjohn
    FB: https://www.facebook.com/john.dedakis

    Join Podmatch:
    https://www.joinpodmatch.com/artistrecovery

    Dyslexia Classes: https://www.skool.com/dyslexia-classes

    #ArtistRecoveryPodcast #CreativeRecovery #MentalHealthForCreatives #JohnDeDakis #CNN #ThrillerAuthor #WritingCoach #LarkChadwick #GriefAndWriting #WritingTherapy #MensMentalHealth #MenAndGrief #MaleEmotionalHealth #EmpathyForMen #FemalePOV #WritingFiction #CreativeHealing #GriefProcessing #BeYourOwnAdvocate #TherapyForMen #SuicideSurvivor #CreativePivot #TransferableSkills #PlotTwistsMemoiir #JournalingForHealth #SubconsciousWriting #StorytellingTherapy #CNNInsider #WolfBlitzer #richwrightartist #richwrightunlimited #richwrightunltd #artistrecoverypodcast #beaguest #podmatchguest #WhiteHouseCorrespondent #ReaganInterview #AlfredHitchcock #VietnamWarDraft #ArmyJournalism #EnemiesDomestic #ThrillerWriting #WritingAcrossGender ⁨@PodMatch_com⁩ #WomenAndSafety #RelationshipsAndListening #LoveIsAChoice

    Support the show

    Always remember, Listen to your Heart and Be Kind to Your Mind! -Rich Wright

    Follow us here: https://www.theartistrecovery.com
    Join the Community: https://www,artrecroom.com

    Listen Weekly at: https://www.artistrecoverypodcast.com

    Connect:

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    1 hr and 59 mins
  • Artist Recovery Podcast S2 Ep. 20 | From Addiction to Agency: Grant Curtis's Creative Comeback

    Artist Recovery Podcast S2 Ep. 20 | From Addiction to Agency: Grant Curtis's Creative Comeback
    May 15 2026

    What does it look like when a creative director loses everything at the height of his career and builds something better on the other side of sobriety?

    In this episode, Rich Wright sits down with Grant Curtis, founder of Curtis Creative Agency and United Headwear, for a raw, unfiltered conversation about addiction, identity, and the grit it takes to start over with clarity.
    Grant spent nearly 16 years inside a growing apparel brand in Tacoma, Washington, working his way up from screen printer to creative director after getting his foot in the door at 19 years old, lying about knowing how to screen print on day one, and figuring it out before Monday morning. That kind of resourcefulness carried him through two decades of building other people's brands, until the day they laid him off just 7 months into his sobriety. $60,000 in debt, a mortgage to cover, and a newly clear head, Grant chose to build rather than break.

    Rich and Grant go deep on what it really means to recover, not just from substances, but from the version of yourself that you outgrew. They talk about cocaine addiction and the financial wreckage it leaves behind, how early sobriety and a layoff happened in the same season, why athletics became Grant's anchor instead of a coping mechanism, and how the gym, running, and cycling became the discipline that holds everything together.

    Grant shares the story behind United Headwear, originally called United by Sobriety, a headwear brand born out of a creative gap in the market for sober culture, and the honest reality of rebranding when your first instinct was bigger than your bandwidth. They also dig into the quiet power of the founder's story, the creative perfectionism that holds artists back, and why building in public from the ground floor is what creates real community.
    This episode ends with one of the most unexpected moments of the season. Grant reveals that his sobriety date is September 25th. His baby's due date is September 24th. And the number 4 has been his lucky number since his soccer days.

    Connect with Grant:
    Website: https://www.curtiscreativeagency.com
    Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantalexcurtis
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curtiscreativeagency
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curtiscreativeagency

    Join Podmatch:
    https://www.joinpodmatch.com/artistrecovery
    Dyslexia Classes: https://www.skool.com/dyslexia-classes

    #SobrietyRecovery #AddictionRecoveryStory #CreativeEntrepreneur #GraphicDesignerCareer #BrandBuilder #CreativeDirectorJourney #SoberLifestyle #CocaineAddictionRecovery #ApparelIndustryCareer #HeadwearBrand #ScreenPrintingCareer #ArtistRecoveryPodcast #SobrietyAndBusiness #BuildingABrandFromScratch #AthleticDisciplineSobriety #GymAndRecovery #AAAlcoholicsAnonymous #LayoffAndEntrepreneurship #SoberCreative #UnitedHeadwear #CurtisCreativeAgency #RecoveryPodcast #PodcastForCreatives #SobrietyMilestone #FounderStory #ProductDevelopmentApparel
    #richwrightartist #richwrightunlimited #richwrightunltd #grantcurtis

    Support the show

    Always remember, Listen to your Heart and Be Kind to Your Mind! -Rich Wright

    Follow us here: https://www.theartistrecovery.com
    Join the Community: https://www,artrecroom.com

    Listen Weekly at: https://www.artistrecoverypodcast.com

    Connect:

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    Show More Show Less
    3 hrs and 8 mins
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