Podcast: Everything You Know About the 'Opioid Epidemic' Is Wrong

By Cameron English and ChuckDinerstein — Dec 26, 2025

The story everyone knows about the opioid epidemic goes like this: Big, bad Purdue Pharma aggressively marketed its potent painkiller OxyContin, hooking legions of unsuspecting Americans on the pharmaceutical equivalent of heroin. It's a compelling tale—and it's wrong in almost of its particulars. Let's take a closer look.

Image: ACSH

Join Cameron English and Dr. Chuck Dinerstein on Episode 150 of the Science Dispatch podcast as they discuss:

A Tale of Two Graphs – Why the Four-Phase Opioid Story Falls Apart

America’s overdose crisis isn’t the simple story we’ve been told for years. A new investigation reveals how two key graphs — one famous, one ignored — shift entirely the way we understand what happened, why deaths keep rising, and why current policies continue to fail. This op-ed explains why the familiar “four-phase opioid epidemic” narrative collapses under scrutiny.

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Cameron English

Director of Bioscience

Cameron English is a writer, editor and co-host of the Science Facts and Fallacies Podcast. Before joining ACSH, he was managing editor at the Genetic Literacy Project.