David Manheim, a recovering heroin user who once waited tables at Katz’s Delicatessen, has built Dopey into a podcast about drugs and recovery. The show began in 2016 as a pair of friends trading dark jokes about their drug use. Manheim has run it alone since his co-host Chris died in 2018.
A friendship that began in rehab
Manheim, who goes by Dave on the show, met his co-host Chris at a Connecticut treatment centre in March 2011. They kept their last names private, a common practice in 12-step programmes. They launched Dopey in January 2016. At that point Manheim had less than six months of sobriety, and Chris had less than two years.
The original format was loosely modelled on The Howard Stern Show. The two traded drug stories and initially left out recovery stories, which they considered boring. The show drew about 40,000 downloads a month, and its fans began calling themselves Dopey Nation, according to the podcast’s documented history.
Manheim later changed course because he worried the show was glorifying drug use. Recovery stories became a bigger part of it, he told the Park Record.
The loss that changed the show
In July 2018, Manheim told listeners that Chris had relapsed and died. Chris had been prescribed painkillers after an injury and returned to heroin and other drugs. The Hollywood Reporter reported that he died of a fentanyl overdose after four years of sobriety.
Manheim kept recording, including an episode on the night of Chris’s wake. Downloads increased after news of the death spread and again after This American Life aired a segment about the show in February 2019.
“When Chris died, everything that was cute about the show went out the window, and it became about survival and trying to stay alive,” Manheim told the Park Record.
Celebrity guests and a deli connection
Manheim has sometimes found guests by approaching them in person. The Wall Street Journal reported that he was working as a server at Katz’s when he spotted Jamie Lee Curtis and ran out the back entrance to greet her as she left.
Curtis initially declined an invitation because the show combined comedy with addiction. She agreed after Manheim told her she could be as serious as she wanted, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The podcast revisited her 2019 interview in an October 29, 2026, episode. Its description recalls an improvised recording setup in Manheim’s attic and a conversation about opioid addiction and recovery.
Manheim also approached Marc Maron outside Katz’s and invited him in for a platter of deli meats. Other guests have included Dr. Drew Pinsky, Margaret Cho, Michael Imperioli, Artie Lange and Billy Strings.
Growth beyond the microphone
By February 2023, Dopey had passed 400 consecutive weekly episodes and nine million downloads, according to its documented history. Manheim also hosted DopeyCon, a live storytelling event sponsored by Mountainside, the treatment centre where he met Chris.
He has appeared at the Park City Song Summit since 2022. The Park Record reported that he interviewed Chuck D, Grandmaster Flash and DMC there in 2023.
A living-room approach to recovery
Manheim says he aims for a living-room atmosphere in his interviews, with guests sometimes going deeper than they expected. He told The Hollywood Reporter that he wants Dopey to show that recovery can be fun while discussing dangerous experiences from the safety of sobriety.
