Addiction is a social disorder, not a substance disorder. It is not about the pleasurable effects of substances. It is about the user’s inability to connect in healthy ways with other human beings. The opposite of addiction is connection.

addiction painJohann Hari spent three years researching the war on drugs. Along the way, he discovered that addiction (to everything from cocaine to smart-phones) is not what we think it is.

In his travels and research he has seen our current methods fail firsthand. He investigated why we treat addicts the way we do and if there might be a better way. As he shares in this deeply personal talk, his questions took him around the world and unearthed some surprising and hopeful ways of thinking about an age-old problem.

Read a transcript of his talk.