Rise Above with Kevin Lanning

Welcome to Rise Above with Kevin Lanning. Join Kevin, a former Google executive in sobriety, as he shares inspiring stories of resilience. Each episode features individuals who have faced life’s toughest challenges—addiction, trauma, anxiety, and more—and emerged stronger. These conversations aren’t just about survival; they’re about thriving and finding practical solutions to rise above adversity. Kevin’s own journey through addiction and childhood trauma fuels his passion for sharing stories that uplift, educate, and inspire. Tune in and discover the strength within you.

Latest Episodes:

I'm Exposing The Rehab Scam That's Killing People In Recovery In South Florida Nov 11, 2026

Show notes

Crystal Meliea is back on Rise Above — and this time she’s risking a lot to tell the truth about an industry most people in recovery are afraid to talk about. With nearly 12 years sober, she pulls back the curtain on the business of addiction in South Florida: body brokering, the insurance and call-center schemes, the moving-company scams, and the recovery “influencers” quietly pushing newcomers toward sex work and fraud. She frames it plainly as a warning for the vulnerable people arriving here every day, and for the ones who feel trapped inside it.

Before the exposé, Crystal retraces the story that got her here — a childhood of trauma and violence, the “protector” she became, years of dealing, crack, and meth, and the bottom she hit as a new single mom after her child’s father was taken by the feds two weeks before the birth. She’s honest about the harm she caused, the amends she’s made, the grandmother who stepped in, and the moment in 2015 that saved her life. Today she’s rebuilt everything from a single suitcase into a thriving career coaching men — secretly walking them through their own healing — and a platform she’s using to protect the people coming up behind her.

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I Couldn't Go A Single Day Without Cocaine For A Decade | From Iraq Combat Vet To Cocaine Addict DJ Nov 09, 2026

Show notes

J.R. had two lives most people never see collide. He was a decorated Army soldier — one of the first 500 troops across the border into Iraq during shock and awe, living in one of Saddam’s bombed-out palaces, surviving rocket attacks and losing friends. Then he came home to PTSD, a stack of new diagnoses, and no real plan, and walked straight into the nightlife. Within a few years he was one of the most in-demand DJs in town, pulling $2,500 a night, booking celebrities — and doing cocaine under the DJ booth every single night.

He’s brutally honest about the decade that followed: the money, the chaos, the celebrity benders, and the slow-burn misery of being depressed and suicidal while everyone thought he had it all. He doesn’t dress up the bottom that finally woke him up at 36, or the work it took to climb out — the meetings, the prayer and the gym, the self-development that rebuilt him from the ground up, and the moment a therapist told him to start telling his story. Eight years sober, J.R. is now a present father, a recovery coach who’s helped more than a hundred people, and proof that you can come back from two wars — the one overseas and the one with yourself.

Follow J.R. on Instagram @JHunterCoaching.

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I Robbed My Own Drug Dealers Until One Shot Me | Fentanyl Addiction Nov 07, 2026

Show notes

Larry Chapman had every reason to make it. A 4.2 GPA honor student who graduated two months early, he was the kid everyone thought would be fine. But he was also prescribed Adderall at eight, lost his biological mother to a prison sentence when he was little, and by his late teens was chasing a feeling through weed, Xanax, and cocaine. At 21 he was handed what he thought were Percocets — they were pressed fentanyl — and a two-year double life began that nobody around him saw coming.He holds nothing back about how dark it got: living as a functioning addict while spending tens of thousands on pills, robbing his own drug dealers, breaking into stash houses, pistol-whipping a man for his cash, and finally getting shot in the arm during a robbery — the moment that became his bottom. He’s just as honest about the climb out: a brutal precipitated withdrawal, multiple arrests and detoxing in a jail cell, the fiancée who stood by him when he finally admitted he had a problem, and losing his best friend Adam to an overdose, which sealed his decision to never go back. Three years clean from fentanyl and rebuilding a life he couldn’t have imagined, Larry shares the war stories not to glorify them, but so the person who’s done the same things knows they can still get out.Sponsored by Caron Treatment Centers My recovery journey began at Caron Treatment Centers, and the care I received there changed the course of my life. That's why I'm proud to partner with Caron. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, Caron has been helping individuals and families find hope and lasting recovery for nearly 70 years. They are in-network with all major insurance providers, and same-day admission is available. ➡️ Learn more: https://www.caron.org/lp/rise-above 📞 Call Caron today: 855-352-0103 Recovery starts with taking the first step.

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I Was A College Athlete Who Ended Up Homeless Shooting Heroin Nov 05, 2026

Show notes

Dom Scalzo lived and breathed lacrosse. He was the first kid from his small Rochester high school to go Division 1, chasing a childhood dream of playing at Syracuse — until a nagging injury, a bottle of pain pills, and the slow pull of OxyContin took it all apart. What started as prescriptions became 30 pills a day, then shooting heroin, cocaine, and even vodka, as the identity he’d built his whole life around disappeared.

He holds nothing back about how far it went: getting kicked out of two schools, an arrest that ended his college career, bringing his own mother into the worst part of the city to buy drugs, overdose after overdose, and a stretch living homeless under a bridge in Brooklyn. He also carries the weight of everyone he lost along the way — more than 200 people over the years. This is the story of how a plane ticket from a near-stranger, a blunt counselor, and one simple phrase finally broke the cycle, and the life he’s built in the 14 years since: a father, an endurance athlete who runs 100-mile races, and a coach who helps high-performers rebuild their health and, quietly, their lives.

Follow Dom on Instagram (@dapperdon)

Sponsored by Caron Treatment Centers My recovery journey began at Caron Treatment Centers, and the care I received there changed the course of my life. That's why I'm proud to partner with Caron. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, Caron has been helping individuals and families find hope and lasting recovery for nearly 70 years. They are in-network with all major insurance providers, and same-day admission is available. ➡️ Learn more: https://www.caron.org/lp/rise-above 📞 Call Caron today: 855-352-0103 Recovery starts with taking the first step.

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I Drove The Getaway Car For A Pharmacy Robbery To Feed My Heroin Addiction Nov 02, 2026

Show notes

Dalen McMillon’s story is almost too wild to be real. A bull rider and martial artist as a kid, he became an Army airborne paratrooper before 9/11, then built a glamorous career as a celebrity hairdresser — flying around the world teaching for a major hair brand and making a thousand dollars a day. Then a routine injury and a bottle of pain pills pulled him into OxyContin, and eventually into shooting two grams of heroin a day, despite a lifelong terror of needles.

He holds nothing back about how far it went: dealing out of his home with fifteen families dropping off their prescriptions, driving the getaway car for a pharmacy robbery, a home invasion where his girlfriend and infant son were held at gunpoint, an informant planted in his house wearing a wire, a 140-mph chase fleeing the feds, a DEA raid, and finally becoming a fugitive who got caught by bounty hunters. He also learns a devastating family secret along the way — the truth about how his father really died. This is the story of how a man who was homeless and loading syringes hoping not to wake up clawed his way back: a brutal detox, a thousand meetings in a thousand days, and the life he’s built today — married to his business partner, a proud dad, and nearly 17 years clean.

Follow Dalen’s business, Junk Wax Vintage, on Instagram, Facebook, X and eBay.

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Brandon Kelly on Losing Everything to Fentanyl and Nearly His Arms Nov 01, 2026

Show notes

Brandon Kelly is about to celebrate two years sober — the longest stretch of his life, and something he never believed he’d live to see. He grew up in Hammonton, New Jersey in a loving home, raised by a dad and a stepmom he calls the love of his life, and he was a good student on his way to Rutgers. But he carried a secret about who he was from the age of eight, never felt right in his own skin, and found that the first time he got high at 13, all of it went quiet. That chase would cost him nearly everything.

He’s brutally honest about the slide: Percocets, then shooting heroin, borrowing and stealing until he was kicked out at 21 and not allowed home for a decade. He talks about losing his grandmother while he was too far gone to make it to her funeral, years of homelessness in Camden, and a fentanyl-related infection so severe that seven doctors told him he might wake up from surgery without his arms — and how he got high within an hour of them saving his life. This is also the story of how he finally came back: the shelter that led him to treatment, getting honest for the first time, the service work that rebuilt his self-esteem, and the slow, patient work of making amends and learning to trust his family again. If you’ve ever believed you were too far gone, Brandon is proof you’re not.

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I Was A Straight-A Engineering Student Secretly Overdosing At Parties | Lily Trestan on Overdosing at 21, Getting Sober Young and Finding Her Purpose Oct 31, 2026

Show notes

From the outside, Lily Trestan looked like she had it all together — a private-school kid from Montreal, a straight-A student on track for an engineering career at McGill. Underneath, she was struggling badly, and by her late teens drinking and weed had turned into mushrooms, Ambien, cocaine, and fentanyl-pressed Xanax bars bought off a dealer’s menu. She’s remarkably honest about the double life she kept, the toxic relationships, the isolation, and the night it nearly ended: an overdose on Xanax, cocaine, and alcohol at a party — one that happened to be themed “death,” on the same day she’d signed her life insurance papers.

Lily also opens up about losing her friend Jake, the one person she’d ever been truly vulnerable with, and how his family and his old counselor kept showing up for her in ways that felt like more than coincidence. She walks through the rehabs, the relapses, and the four-day binge that finally became her bottom — and the work that’s followed: getting to a meeting every single night, leaving engineering to study psychology so she can help others, and building the kind of relationships and peace she never thought she’d have. Now a year and four months sober, she wants young women to know it’s possible, and it’s worth it.

My recovery journey began at Caron Treatment Centers, and the care I received there changed the course of my life. That's why I'm proud to partner with Caron.

If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, Caron has been helping individuals and families find hope and lasting recovery for nearly 70 years. They are in-network with all major insurance providers, and same-day admission is available.

➡️ Learn more: https://www.caron.org/lp/rise-above

📞 Call Caron today: 855-352-0103

Recovery starts with taking the first step.

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I Played In The NBA With LeBron...Then Lost It All To Addiction | How Delonte West Found Sobriety Oct 31, 2026

Show notes

Delonte West lived a dream millions of kids chase — a standout at Saint Joseph's, drafted into the NBA at 21, and years in the league alongside legends like Paul Pierce, Gary Payton, and LeBron James. He was, by his own description, sheltered inside the business of professional sports, growing as a player while the rest of life stayed on pause.

When the game ended, everything he'd built his identity around went with it. In this conversation, Delonte is open about the long, slow progression of addiction that followed his career, his diagnosis and lifelong battle with bipolar disorder, and the years he spent cycling in and out of his lowest points — much of it playing out in the public eye in ways that were painful and dehumanizing.

But this episode isn't about the videos the internet passed around. It's about the man behind them, and the work he's doing now. Delonte is coming up on a year sober this December, and he credits consistency, the right medication and treatment, his faith, and the people who never gave up on him. He's found peace in staying in the moment, and he's using his platform to reach the person out there who's still where he was.

#RiseAbove #DelonteWest #AddictionRecovery #NBA #MentalHealthAwareness #RecoveryIsPossible #SoberLife#BipolarAwareness #Comeback #SobrietyJourney #SaintJosephs #Boston #RiseAbovePodcast #KevinLanning#SecondChances #MensMentalHealth #TheManBehindTheVideos #Redemption #YouAreNotAlone #OneMoreThing

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I Was Found In A Coma On The Side Of The Road...No Pulse, No Heartbeat Oct 29, 2026

Show notes

Carrie has 26 and a half years of sobriety — and a story that shows just how far this disease can take someone, even after years clean. Adopted at birth and carrying a deep fear of abandonment, she took her first drink at ten and felt instantly invincible. By 17 she was a daily drinker, and her father loved her enough to sell his own life insurance policy to get her into rehab. She got sober at 24, built a life, got married — and then, after eight and a half years, drifted from her program and relapsed.

What followed nearly killed her. She’s honest about all of it: drinking through an abusive marriage and divorce, the night she got in her car with a plan to end her life, and the overdose that left her in a coma on the side of a road, with police telling her parents she might not make it through the night. This is also a story about coming back — how much harder recovery was the second time, losing and rebuilding the business she loves as a dog trainer, staying sober through the deaths of both her parents, and finally finding the peace she chased her whole life. If you’ve ever relapsed and felt too ashamed to walk back through the door, Carrie’s message is for you: people will embrace you, and it’s never too late.

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I Was A Sex Addict Living A Double Life For 20 Years Oct 27, 2026

Show notes

Ben Brown has seven years of sobriety and one of the most layered stories we’ve had on the show. Born in Brooklyn and raised between two completely opposite households, he grew up never feeling like he belonged — and found that the things that finally got him acceptance, weed at 14, then alcohol, cocaine, and above all sex, became the very things that ran his life for the next two decades. He’s remarkably honest about all of it: the performance anxiety, the womanizing, the BDSM, the love-addict/love-avoidant cycle, and the double life he lived while appearing to have it all together as a New York real estate agent.

Ben also opens up about the wreckage underneath — a chaotic childhood, his father’s long struggle with mental health, and the heartbreak that finally cracked him open. He walks through the string of “God moments” that led him into recovery, the hardcore sponsor who put him through a full year of withdrawal, the 500 days he went without sex as he rebuilt himself from the ground up, and how he finally learned what real intimacy and love actually look like. Today he channels all of it into helping other men through his coaching and his podcast, The Shift.

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