From Opioid Addiction to Becoming the Fastest Marathon Runner in the World - With Ken Rideout

March 11, 2026·1 hr 17 min·5 clips

During opioid withdrawal, Ken Rideout blacked out and stared at his 50th-floor balcony, contemplating jumping.

Shawn starts with rock bottom. He brings in the Patton line about bouncing back, then uses Ken's life to talk about the toughness people often miss in themselves. The tone feels close and unvarnished. Before Ken's story gets specific, Shawn points to the ordinary truth under it: difficulty shows up whether anyone planned for it, and preparation can start with discomfort, honesty, and remembering what someone has already lived through. Ken's story is treated as wild, and that word earns its place here. The excerpt points toward addiction, adoption, and a turning point that pulled private pain into plain view. Ken pushes past appearances. In the peak section, he talks about watches, cars, and expensive markers as a trap when they start doing the work of identity. He still likes nice things. The harder admission is that wanting them can reveal a missing piece that no purchase can fill. Relationships become the real test. Ken points to friends, family, community, and the loyalty that stays close even when a person's choices look scary. Shawn uses that to move into Ken and his wife's path toward parenthood, including trying to get pregnant and deciding early to adopt. The adoption thread hits hard. Shawn says that as their daughter was about to enter their lives, Ken went through something deeply traumatic, and he ties that moment to his wife's incomplete picture of the scale of Ken's addiction. Ken clarifies that she did come to know he was struggling with drug addiction, even if she had not seen the full size of it. The closing beat stays grounded. Listeners are pointed toward Ken's book, but the episode does not sell a clean answer. It sits with pain, status, love, and resilience without pretending the past becomes simple once someone survives it.

As heard by us

A recovery-and-resilience conversation where addiction, family, status, and endurance all press on the same nerve.

Ken Rideout's appearance gives The Model Health Show a recovery story with more grit than a standard performance interview. Shawn Stevenson opens with rock bottom, resilience, and the idea that discomfort can be practiced before life forces it on you, then the conversation turns…

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Why you'd press play

From addiction to a life rebuilt from scratch, Ken Rideout's story -- flat-out crazy, amazing, and beautiful in the host's own words -- will recalibrate yours.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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