Kristen Crisp closes her Author of the Month series with a funny and uncomfortably honest look at what happens when a sober person steps back into a bar. From the awkward mocktail exchange to loud conversations, sloppy behavior, loneliness, aging, sadness, and social pressure, she describes a familiar alcohol-centered world through a very different lens.

Needle exchange programs are often debated from a distance. Michael Cline writes about them from the inside. He remembers using the Lower East Side Needle Exchange during active heroin addiction in the 1990s, learning safer injection practices, accessing clean supplies, and avoiding HIV. His piece is pro-harm reduction, but not simplistic. It asks what these programs can prevent, what they do not solve, and how they could connect more people to recovery.

Addiction medicine can be clinical, complicated, and painfully serious. But sometimes a story arrives that is so human—and so oddly perfect—that it reminds us why the field exists. Dr. Lauren Grawert shares the story of Rick, a newly sober patient whose Antabuse became more than a medication. In one tense marital moment, it became proof, protection, and a turning point in rebuilding trust.