Last Day
This is a show about the moments that change us, fundamentally and forever. Each week, host Stephanie Wittels Wachs (Lemonada’s co-founder and award-winning queen of darkness and light) is sitting down with a new guest to explore happy/sad stories of survival, resilience and transformation. After three seasons of exploring the "last day" of people’s lives in an effort to understand mass epidemics, Steph was ready for a change herself. Some “last days” are hopeful. Some are tragic. But at the heart of every “last day” is also a new beginning. Laugh/cry with us.
Episodes
Stephanie Wittels Wachs is the CEO and cofounder of Lemonada Media, host of Last Day, and author of Last Day: How to Stop Losing Our Loved Ones to the Opioid Crisis. Her younger brother, Harris Wittels - the beloved writer and comedian known for Parks and Recreation and Master of None - died of an opioid overdose in 2015 at 30.
Stephanie tells Zac about Harris's addiction, her family's struggle to understand it, and the moment she...
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September 16, 2026 • 34 mins
Stephen Murray wants to change how we view drug users. After overcoming his own substance use disorder in his early 20s, he went on to save countless lives from overdose as a paramedic. He's now the founder and Executive Director of SafeSpot, the only government-funded overdose prevention hotline in the United States. In this episode, Stephen joins Stephanie to walk through the moments that transformed how he sees recovery and what...
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September 9, 2026 • 59 mins
Stephanie Wittels Wachs and her younger brother Harris were best friends. So when he confided that he was struggling with opioid addiction, Steph believed they’d find a way through it together, like they always had. But Harris didn’t survive his addiction.
Steph immersed herself in research on addiction to better understand what her family had been through. This week, Steph joins Maya to share what she’s le...
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September 4, 2026 • 57 mins
Most friendships start because you have something in common: work, hobbies, fashion, books, sense of humor. But not all friendships are formed because of something wholesome in common. Sometimes, you share an experience so life-changing that you are drawn to each other. That is how, nine years ago, Nora and Steph Wittels Wachs became friends. Steph lost her brother, Harris, to an opioid overdose. Grievers can always find common gro...
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September 2, 2026 • 37 mins
How do we create smart drug education that actually makes an impact on the next generation? After losing their son Charlie to an accidental fentanyl overdose, Ed and Mary Ternan created Song for Charlie to educate young people and their parents about the risks of counterfeit prescription pills and other drugs. In this episode, Stephanie talks to Ed and Marcia Lee Taylor, strategy advisor for the organization, about Charlie's last d...
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August 26, 2026 • 42 mins
What role does connection play in helping us survive life's hardest moments? In this episode, Stephanie talks to Allison Gilbert, a journalist, speaker, and the creator of More Connected, a first-of-its-kind app helping people build deeper belonging and togetherness IRL. Together, they explore what’s behind the loneliness epidemic, how we can embrace the messiness of human connections, and why closeness is an upstream interve...
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August 19, 2026 • 35 mins
When Nadia Bowers's sister Sasha died of fentanyl overdose in 2015, Nadia was seven months pregnant with her first child and had gotten married just six weeks earlier. Suddenly she had to ask herself: how do I go on after the worst thing that's ever happened to me? In this episode, Nadia tells Stephanie how writing her new memoir, Dear Dealer, helped her process her rage, grief, and the anxiety of new motherhood while navigating th...
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August 12, 2026 • 3 mins
Stephanie Wittels Wachs has written a new book, Last Day: How to Stop Losing Our Loved Ones to the Opioid Crisis – and to celebrate, the podcast is back for a four-episode mini-season. In these new episodes, we’ll revisit the opioid crisis with fresh eyes, exploring grief and loss, unconditional love and radical acceptance, connection and reinvention. Stay tuned for episodes dropping August 19th.
Order Steph&rsqu...
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June 24, 2025 • 34 mins
This week we’re introducing you to a powerful new podcast, Senseless with Erika Mahoney. Everything changed one ordinary Monday, when Erika Mahoney’s mom called to say there was an active shooter at the grocery store nearby. In a matter of seconds, ten people were killed – including Erika’s father.
With the high-profile trial of the shooter as a backdrop, Erika speaks to survivors of mass shootings, c...
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June 11, 2025 • 41 mins
Gun violence in America is at a crisis point. It’s now the number one killer of kids and teens – a stat that should make us all pause. But instead of throwing up their hands, healthcare leaders, gun violence survivors, physicians, community members and faith leaders are doing something about it. In this episode, we’re diving into Northwell Health’s groundbreaking Gun Violence Prevention Forum, where they&rsq...
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December 25, 2024 • 30 mins
On this Christmas Day, we’re sharing the last episode of Squeezed, fittingly about the end of life. Alua is a renowned death doula, author, and educator who believes that living fully requires all of us to face mortality head-on. Whether it’s providing support at the bedside or making end-of-life-plans well in advance, Alua works with clients at every stage of life to embrace the inevitable with heart and humor. Death...
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December 11, 2024 • 31 mins
Jessica Guthrie is squeezed. A decade ago, at 26 years old, Jessica unexpectedly became a caregiver for her mom, Constance, who is now living with late-stage Alzheimer’s. Over the years, Jessica has left behind a life in Texas, moved back home to Virginia, and quit her job to focus on caregiving full-time. While so much of her life is on hold, Jessica has gained a lot and found a powerful community of caregivers online. ...
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November 27, 2024 • 30 mins
Sadé is squeezed. Five years ago, she became a first-time parent. She expected her parents to help her out with the day-to-day work. But a series of unforeseen diagnoses left Sadé in an all-hands-on-deck caregiver situation – taking care of a new baby and her aging parents. Sadé is the family’s “Goddess of Efficiency,” and while she’s busy caring for everyone else, her own debilitating health needs oft...
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November 13, 2024 • 30 mins
It’s hard enough being Squeezed. But helping others who are, too? That’s a superpower. And Shilpa is our hero. She’s a mom to one son and also runs CARES, a world-class therapeutic school and rehabilitation program for vulnerable teens at Mount Sinai Morningside, a hospital located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. She supports young people on the rocky road from childhood to adulthood. Bu...
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October 30, 2024 • 30 mins
We’re back to share Episode 3, featuring another person who is feeling Squeezed from all sides. Matt is a native Londoner. He is also single dad co-parenting 11-year-old triplets with his ex-husband in one of the most expensive cities in the world: New York. To be able to afford childcare for all three, Matt had to make a tough choice – job security or spending enough time with his kids?
Squeezed is a Lemonada Media o...
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October 16, 2024 • 28 mins
Hey listeners, we’re back with Episode 2 of Squeezed. This episode features another person who is feeling very Squeezed. Jessica is a stay-at-home mom with three kids under six. She is a former daycare worker who didn’t plan to be a full-time mom, but since money is tight and childcare is expensive, she has no other choice. Jessica fell through the cracks of our system that does not support care workers — but she&...
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October 2, 2024 • 38 mins
Stephanie is off in the exciting (and terrifying) world of book writing. In the interim, we want to share another show that’s near and dear to our hearts. So near, in fact, that it features Stephanie’s entire family! Squeezed, hosted by the incomparable Yvette Nicole Brown (yes, from “Community”), explores the lives of caregivers across America. It’s hard, hard work – but also full of joy and con...
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September 25, 2024 • 48 mins
We did it, y’all. We reached the end of our countdown, which leads us back to where it all began: the very first episode of Last Day, the first-ever Lemonada Media podcast launch. This week, we’re revisiting “Meet Stephanie, Meet Harris (with Sarah Silverman & Aziz Ansari).” Five years later (to the day!), Stephanie returns to the mic to reflect on what we learned that first season and where we’re ...
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September 18, 2024 • 44 mins
Before we finish this countdown to Last Day’s fifth anniversary, we are resharing an episode from season one. This episode was chosen by Lizzie, our Senior Vice President of Growth and Marketing.
Most of us have seen an opioid overdose depicted on TV or in movies, but what happens in real life? On this episode, Stephanie talks to Karen Host, Senior Director at Cataldo Ambulance, and Dr. Jay, an emergency room doctor, a...
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September 4, 2024 • 59 mins
To commemorate Last Day’s fifth anniversary, we are revisiting the season two finale. This episode was chosen by Jackie – one of the first people to work on the show, and a previous Last Day guest herself.
Season 2 Finale! We started this season on a bridge but told you not to get caught up in the romantic notion of saviors and last minute interventions. Suicide isn’t about one moment in time. But if you or...
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