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From the “talented and impassioned writer” (San Francisco Chronicle) of How to Kill a City, a riveting journey that combines Drug Use for Grown-Ups with How to Do Nothing, as it explores our national mental health and drug use crises while also searching for answers as to how we can find a path to collective healing.
Why are so many of us unhappy, anxious, and without purpose? And how can we get better? Several years ago, P.E. Moskowitz had a near-death experience, followed by a nervous breakdown. As they willed themselves back to life using a variety of drugs, both prescription and illicit, they started to wonder: Why are so many of us seeking out these types of interventions to deal with our daily reality?
In Philadelphia, Moskowitz profiled harm-reduction activists and drug users trying to make the drug crisis in Philadelphia less deadly. At Making Worlds, Moskowitz will talk with Philadelphia-based harm-reduction activist and researcher Shoshana Aronowitz about the drug crisis in Philadelphia, the ways capitalism and our punitive justice system have made it worse, and solutions to the massive amounts of harm we see drugs cause in the city on a daily basis. Is there a more equitable way forward for Philadelphia and beyond? What does drug policy look like on a local level when a far-right government is in power nationally? And how can Philadelphians help keep their city healthy and safe at this moment of crisis?
In Breaking Awake, Moskowitz takes us on a kaleidoscopic voyage through our country’s collective mental health collapse, and the drugs we take—from fentanyl on the streets of Philadelphia to SSRIs in the suburbs, to ketamine and LSD in the clubs on New York and beyond—to cope with the gnawing bleakness of our present moment. Moskowitz questions whether drugs can spark liberation or simply quell the pain of modern life. Is it time to view drugs differently?
The book has been featured in Vogue, Interview Magazine, and elsewhere.
P.E. Moskowitz is a writer born and raised in New York City. Their writing has appeared in New York magazine, GQ, The Nation, and many other places. They run a popular Substack newsletter about psychology, psychiatry, and culture called Mental Hellth. When they’re not writing, they’re probably playing tennis, chilling with friends across the city, or watching the Mets lose again.
Shoshana Aronowitz is a family nurse practitioner, researcher, and Assistant Professor at Penn Nursing. Her work focuses on harm reduction, substance use treatment, and addressing racial disparities in healthcare. She provides clinical care at Prevention Point Philadelphia and is a member of SOL Collective, a grassroots harm reduction organization. Dr. Aronowitz holds a PhD in Nursing and a Master's in Health Policy from the University of Pennsylvania.