Celebrating Four Years Sober: Paulina Pinsky on Capitalism, Creativity & How Quitting Cannabis Changed Everything

Save 10% on your next Fleshlight with promo code 10PRIVATE at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fleshlight.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. For the 241st episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes writer, educator, and friend of the podcast Paulina Pinsky. In this deeply personal conversation, Paulina reflects on her journey to four years of sobriety, unpacking how her relationship with cannabis moved from magic to medicine to misery. She talks candidly about addiction, creativity, eating disorders, wellness culture, capitalism, and the quiet ways substance use can become normalized—especially when it’s framed as harmless or even healing. Paulina shares the pivotal rock bottom moment that led her to quit, including a harrowing situation at an Alabama gas station, and explains what it actually takes to rebuild a thriving life, identity, and creative practice on the other side of addiction. For more from today's guest, Paulina Pinsky:

You can listen to Celebrating Four Years Sober: Paulina Pinsky on Capitalism, Creativity & How Quitting Cannabis Changed Everything online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Celebrating Four Years Sober: Paulina Pinsky on Capitalism, Creativity & How Quitting Cannabis Changed Everything is an episode from Private Parts Unknown (FKA Reality Bytes) by Courtney Kocak.

This episode is 57:30 long.

This episode was published on Jan 7, 2026.

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