The History of Harm Reduction with Maia Szalavit

Thursday, May 5, 2022, 2:00-3:30 pm: The History of Harm Reduction with Maia Szalavitz

Presenter Bio: Maia Szalavitz is the author, most recently, of Undoing Drugs:  The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and the Future of Addiction, which is the first history of the movement to focus drug policy on minimizing harms, not highs. She is also contributing opinion writer for the New York Times.

Her previous New York Times bestseller, Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction wove together neuroscience and social science with her personal experience of heroin addiction.  It won the 2018 media award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Her 2006 book, Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids, was the first to expose the damage caused by “tough love” youth treatment and helped spur Congressional hearings.

She has also authored or co-authored five other books, including the classic on child trauma, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, and has written for numerous publications including TIME, Wired, and Scientific American.  She lives with her husband and two squeaky cats in New York City.