{"id":89041,"date":"2020-04-25T02:29:56","date_gmt":"2020-04-25T08:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/journalist-tackles-recovery-in-new-podcast\/"},"modified":"2020-04-25T02:29:56","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T08:29:56","slug":"journalist-tackles-recovery-in-new-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/journalist-tackles-recovery-in-new-podcast\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalist tackles recovery in new podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cBack
\u201cBack From Broken\u201d host Vic Vela tells stories of recovery in his new podcast.<\/span>Hart Van Denburg\/Colorado Public Radio via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yet, when he speaks about his journey, brutal honesty has to be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy path to recovery consists of me telling the truth,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s what connects with people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vela is the host of the podcast \u201cBack From Broken,\u201d<\/a> produced by Colorado Public Radio. The podcast premiered Feb. 21 and has risen up the podcast charts.<\/p>\n

The podcast is about recovery, and Vela says everyone knows someone who struggles with addiction or mental health issues or a physical ailment that has dramatically changed their life.<\/p>\n

This show is a place to regularly showcase courage and what it takes to come back, he says.<\/p>\n

The journey for Vela to get to \u201cBack From Broken\u201d has been full of the highest of highs and some rock-bottom lows.<\/p>\n

\u201cSix years ago, I was hiding behind dumpsters smoking crack,\u201d Vela says. \u201cNow, I\u2019m sober and I\u2019m helping people. It\u2019s very strange hearing from people that I helped. I\u2019m not too far removed from remembering the places I\u2019ve been.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBack From Broken\u2019s\u201d first three episodes featured Vela hosting with guests such as musician Anders Osborne, Major League Baseball\u2019s David Mellor and WNBA alum Chamique Holdsclaw. The first season will consist of 10 episodes.<\/p>\n

This April 3 episode is Vela telling his own story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that we could get something interesting out of these interviews,\u201d Vela says. \u201cIt helps to have empathy in having these conversations. I think once they realize that I\u2019ve been through the same thing, they open up. That makes for a better conversation and the journey in finding out how to recover. It\u2019s a process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vela has long been a storyteller.<\/p>\n

During his tenure at Albuquerque Journal North<\/em> in Santa Fe from 2007 to 2012, Vela covered crime in northern New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a heavy subject, and I wasn\u2019t doing well,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was at a time, I was still drinking and using drugs and not dealing with the behavioral issues. I was the poster boy for a functioning addict.\u201d<\/p>\n

After moving back to Colorado, Vela hit rock bottom. As he began recovery, the seed was planted about a year ago for what has become \u201cBack From Broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been thinking about the podcast for a while,\u201d he says. \u201cI was looking to see how could I utilize my experiences as a journalist and someone in recovery. We\u2019re so caught up in COVID right now, that I wanted to get back to talking about mental health and addiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vela, who is now a Colorado Public Radio news host, said that while he was planning the podcast, the biggest obstacle was getting people to tell their stories when there really wasn\u2019t a definite format.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the production standpoint, the biggest challenge was asking people to be part of a show that didn\u2019t exist yet,\u201d Vela says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t point them to a website. It was the first season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from the podcast, Vela spends a lot of his time speaking at health conferences, as well as remaining active on social media \u2013 where he often tells his story.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy recovery has been to be as honest as I possibly can,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not only to help others, but to keep myself accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBack From Broken\u201d host Vic Vela tells stories of recovery in his new podcast.Hart Van Denburg\/Colorado Public Radio via AP Yet, when he speaks about his journey, brutal honesty has to be there. \u201cMy path to recovery consists of me telling the truth,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s what connects with people.\u201d Vela is the host of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-89041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89041"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=89041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}