In Conversation: On The Drop: How the Most Addictive Sport Can Help Us Understand Addiction and Recovery

David Sheff is the author of several books, most notably the New York Times bestsellers Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction and its follow up, Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America’s Greatest Tragedy. Beautiful Boy was based on his article, “My Addicted Son,” which appeared in The New York Times Magazine and won a special award from the American Psychological Association for “outstanding contribution to the understanding of addiction.” His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Wired, and many other publications. Sheff is also the founder of the Beautiful Boy Fund, which is devoted to supporting quality, evidence-based treatment for substance use disorders and research to further the field of addiction medicine.

Thad Ziolkowski is the author of Our Son the Arson, a collection of poems; the surf memoir On a Wave, which was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award in 2003; and Wichita, a novel. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Bookforum, Artforum, Travel & Leisure, Interview and Index. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and has a Ph.D. in English literature from Yale University. His most recent book, The Drop: How the Most Addictive Sport Can Help Us Understand Addiction and Recovery (Harper Wave), was published in July and explores the relationship between surfing and addiction.