The Cocaine Episode with Ingrid Casares, freebase, making Sex with Madonna, Miami, Club Life, Addiction, Rehab, Recovery

This week on Dopey’s Greatest Hits, Dave looks back on one of the most unforgettable interviews in the show’s history with Miami nightlife legend Ingrid Casares. Before the classic conversation begins, Dave recaps the incredible success of the inaugural Dopey Recovery Short Film Festival, from a nearly sold-out crowd and appearances by James Frey, Kevin McEnroe, Aaron Carr, Ray Brown, Pete the Plumber, and more, to his early morning appearance on Good Day New York. He thanks everyone who attended, promises an even bigger festival next year, hints at a future DopeyCon in the same theater, reads listener emails and Patreon comments, debates Tesla versus ska music, and shares plans to keep releasing daily episodes while his family heads out on vacation.

Then comes one of Dopey’s all-time greatest recovery stories.

Ingrid Casares tells the unbelievable story of growing up in Miami, discovering cocaine in the early 1980s, repeatedly trying rehab before she was ready, stealing an ounce and a half of cocaine from a college dealer, becoming a drug mule between Miami and North Carolina, freebasing across the Southeast, surviving terrifying cocaine paranoia, and eventually finding recovery.

She explains how sobriety led her into the music business, introduced her to Sandra Bernhard and Madonna, and eventually helped launch the legendary Miami clubs Liquid, Bar Room, and Joy, helping transform South Beach into an international nightlife destination. Along the way she shares stories involving Sean Penn, Whitney Houston, Donald Trump, the Versace era of Miami, celebrity excess, relapse, prescription opioids, alcohol, and ultimately finding lasting recovery after decades of chaos.

It’s one of the wildest cocaine stories ever told on Dopey—and one of the most honest conversations about relapse, reinvention, fame, and recovery.