When Al Richards sat down with Good Things Utah on ABC4, he was not there to perform recovery. He was there to tell the truth about it. The host introduced him as a man who has built a community providing support, resources, and education to prevent addiction and promote recovery. Al's first answer set the tone for the entire conversation: addiction is addiction, and the brain works the same way no matter what the substance or behavior is.
Al is the host and founder of The Other Side of Addiction podcast. He started it nearly three years ago with a phone, an email account, and a list of people he wanted to reach on Instagram and Facebook. Today, guests come to him from the UK, Canada, and across the United States. Listeners and family members message him asking him to talk to a brother, a son, a husband. The show has become a front door.
Addiction is addiction
On air, Al was asked what kinds of addiction he covers. The answer was simple. All of them. Drugs and alcohol. Gambling. Behavioral patterns that quietly cost people their families and their careers. One of his upcoming guests went to prison because of his addiction. The label on the bottle or the app on the phone matters less than what the addiction is doing to the person and the people around them.
"The brain works the exact same way. It does not matter what the addiction is."
When you love an addict, you can become addicted to their addiction
The most powerful moment in the interview came when Al described his own marriage. When his wife was deep in alcoholism, a friend told him something that he says still gives him goosebumps. You have become addicted to her addiction. He explained how it happens. You love the person. You do everything you can to help them. And it takes a long time to realize there is nothing you can do except give support, because the choice belongs to them.
The host named it for what it is. Enabling. Watching someone you love hurt themselves and stepping in over and over until you are doing more harm than good. Al did not argue. He confirmed it. Education on enabling is one of the reasons coaching exists. Families do not learn this on their own, and most of them are too exhausted to figure it out alone.
PARC: the network Al wished he had
In February 2024, Al started a networking event called PARC, which stands for Prevention, Addiction, Resilience, Community. The reason was personal. There are good twelve step programs that have saved a lot of lives. Al tried one. It was not a fit for him. And then he had nowhere else to go. He did not know what came next.
So he built it. PARC brings together fitness coaches, meditation teachers, mental health professionals, nutritionists, yoga instructors, and recovery centers Al has personally vetted. The point is options. What works for one man does not work for the next. If the first door closes, the second door has to exist.
When the phone rings, what do you say?
Al was told when he started the podcast that people would reach out to him for advice. He did not believe it. Two weeks before the interview, a woman called him because she had just found out a family member was using. She asked him what to do. Al shares his experience, because that is what he has. He is honest that he has not walked in every set of shoes. But if he can help the people on the other side, the families, the friends, the spouses, that matters.
The stigma
Al admits he used to be one of the people who walked past someone unsheltered and made a comment under his breath. He does not do that anymore. Nobody wakes up one morning and decides to be an addict. Addiction is a slow process and it is almost always a band-aid over something the person has not been able to face. Removing the stigma starts with naming that out loud, on camera, on a morning show in Utah.
Where this goes next
Al Richards is a speaker, a host, and the founder of The Other Side of Addiction podcast and the PARC network. He is also a one to one coach for men who have lost what defined them - their marriage, their career, their sobriety, their sense of self - and are trying to figure out what comes after. If something in this interview hit you in a place you have been avoiding, that is the moment to do something with it. Start with a free first call. No pitch. Just a conversation.