Neil Scott is producer/host of Recovery-Coast to Coast, the National Podcast, featuring interviews with many prominent people in recovery, including Betty Ford, Judy Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Bonnie Raitt, and others, as well as everyday people in long-term recovery. Neil has been in the field of addiction for 50 years.

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Q. If you are in recovery, what was your drug(s) of choice and when is your sobriety date?

A. I am not in personal recovery, however I have spent the last 50 years in the field of addiction. I attend open AA meetings monthly and always have. I have dedicated my life to carrying the message of hope and the promise of recovery. AA is the true heartbeat of long-term recovery!

Q. What do you like most about 12-step meetings?

A. The availability, openness, honesty, and vulnerability of a caring community focused on achieving and maintaining long-term recovery.

Q. Do you think addiction is an illness, disease, a choice, or a wicked twist of fate?

A. It is clearly and unequivocally a disease; a treatable disease from which men and women can and do recover! Alcoholism was first recognized as a disease by the American Medical Association, not in the mid-50s, as many suggest, but in 1967. A year prior, at the Mental Health committee meeting, during the AMA’s 20th Clinical Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, the committee stated that  “it ranks closely behind heart disease, cancer, and mental illness as one of the nation’s major health problems.”  The report concluded, “Alcoholism is a disease that merits the serious concern of all members of the health professions.” And it was in 1967 at the 21st Clinical Convention in Houston, Texas, November 26-29, 1967, that the official resolution was introduced by the Colorado delegation and adopted by the AMA, stating that alcoholism is “a complex disease and as such recognizes that the medical components are medicine’s responsibility.”

Q. Who is your favorite celebrity in recovery?

A. It would have to be for First Lady Betty Ford. I had the privilege of visiting with Mrs. Ford in 1982 at her home in Rancho Mirage, California. As editor of  ‘Alcoholism & Addiction Magazine, I was writing a cover story on Mrs. Ford and her public recovery from alcoholism. I recently found the audio tape from that interview 43 years ago, and featured it on my podcast ‘Recovery Coast to Coast.’ (https://www.recoverycoasttocoast.com/a-rare-interview-with-betty-ford-smashing-stigma-with-style-and-grace/)

Q. If you ever retire, would you prefer to live by the ocean, lake, river, mountaintop, desert, or penthouse?

A. I can’t imagine myself retiring, but if I did, it would be to a quiet village by the ocean where I would live in gratitude, far from the maddening crowd, continuing to write poetry.

Q. How do you measure success?

A. Not by accomplishments, but by connection with others.

Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?

A. People who speak before listening, who judge without knowledge, and respond without understanding.

Q. If you had an extra million dollars, which charity would you donate it to?

A. I would divide it among various addiction treatment organizations.

Q. Who has been the biggest influence throughout your life?

A. Personally, my children, whom I have learned many lessons from, have suffered failed lessons with, and eventually learned new and important lessons. 

Professionally, R. Brinkley Smithers, the architect of the modern alcoholism movement. His heart-prints are everywhere in the early years of the alcoholism field. He was a mentor to me teaching through his actions.

Q. Who made you feel seen growing up?

A. My Aunt Betty and my close friends.

Q. From what school of thought or teacher did you learn the most from?

A. The teachings of St. Francis.

Q. Where are you from and where do you reside now?

A. I was an only child, born in Providence, Rhode Island to a mom and dad who eventually died of alcoholism. I now reside in Seattle, Washington.

Q. What major event or realization shaped who you are?

A. Discovering a passion for radio broadcasting.

Q. If you were giving a dinner party for your 3 favorite authors, living or dead, who would they be?

A. Mary Oliver, Jimmy Carter, Rod McKuen and Leonard Cohen.

Q. What is your Astrological sign?

A. Pisces.

Q. What is a phrase that has kept you afloat during hard times?

A. It is impossible to be grateful and unhappy at the same time.

Q. What’s your concept of a Higher Power?

A. A wonderful and universal guiding force that I can rely on for strength and support. 

Q. What book(s) have you read more than once?

A. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, The Bible, and “Drunks and Other Poems of Recovery” by Jack McCarthy.

Q. If you could give advice to your younger self what would it be?

A. Look back, but don’t stare.

Q. Is there anything you do that seems mundane on the surface but has turned out to be sacred for you?

A. Writing poetry.

Q. When did you realize you were a grown-up?

A. I have certainly grown old, but I am not sure I have grown up.

Q. What books are you reading now?

A. Tibetan Peach Pie (Tom Robbins), Hurdle-isms (Clint Hurdle), and Nightshade (Michael Connelly)

Q What is your favorite App?

A. Waze!

Q. Are you binge watching any TV series?

A. Loudermilk, Shrinking, and The Man Inside.

Q. Who is your favorite performer, living or dead?

A. Leonard Cohen.

Q. What are some of the most memorable songs in your life?

A. ’Be Your Own Best Friend’ by Ray Stevens, ‘We Are Each Other’s Angels’ by Chuck Brodsky; and ‘Slides”’by Richard Harris.

Q. What is one word you would use to describe yourself?

A. Emotional.

Q. What is your favorite city?

A. Paris.

Q. What is your favorite hotel?

A. West Side YMCA in New York City.

Q. What is your favorite restaurant?

A. A three-way tie: The Met Grill in Seattle, In ‘n Out (California and beyond), and Katz Deli in New York City.

Q. What is your favorite cuisine?

A. A tie: Italian and Iranian.

Q. What is the best and or worse piece of advice someone has given you?

A. Two pieces of good advice: Treat others as you would like to be treated . . . and ‘don’t let the old man in!

Q. What is the best piece of advice you’ve given someone else?

A. Be on time most of the time, the rest of the time, be early!

Q. What is one thing that always makes you smile?

A. A beautiful sunrise.

Q. What was the proudest moment in your life?

A. Personally, being a dad. Professionally, there are three: producing and co-hosting the first Alcoholism Telethon in Santa Barbara, California with Dick Van Dyke in 1976, receiving the 2024 NAATP Michael Q Ford Journalism Award, and having a collection of audio interviews that I conducted with baseball greats who are in long-term recovery. That collection is now permanently housed in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

Q. What is your favorite compliment to receive, and why?

A. That I have truly helped someone, for it is in helping others that we grow emotionally and spiritually.

Q. What is a style trend you wish would come back?

A. Honesty, integrity, and kindness to one another.

Q. What do you love most about yourself?

A. Compassion and empathy.

Q. What are five things you always carry with you?

A. Memories, dreams, thoughts, wishes and occasional regrets.

Q. What is your biggest fear?

A. To die alone.

Q. Where do you go when you’re seeking solitude?

A. Inside my mind and heart. I have been writing poetry all my life. Poetry is where I go to be alone.

Q. What is your biggest regret?

A. Wasting so much time along the way of life.

Q. What is something you are currently curious about?

A. The role of AI in our society moving forward.

Q. What book would you most like to see turned into a movie or TV show that hasn’t already been adapted?

A. Any of the JP Beaumont books by NY Times best-selling author JA Jance. Beau is a former police detective and a character in long-term recovery. 

Q. What is the hardest amends you’ve ever had to make?

A. To my much younger self.

Q. Where did you go wrong?

A. Too numerous to mention.

Q. Where did you go right?

A. Encouraging people in recovery to ‘recover out loud’, providing a beacon of hope for those still in the darkness of addiction.

Q. What is something you’ve learned about yourself in the last six months?

A. That life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes!

Q. How important is human connection?

A. Human connection is essential to long term survival.