Recording intelligenceAI-generated brief · check the source for context

Joanna Warner's Recovery Journey

1:53:15 recording · EN · 2 speakers

Listen to the original

Listen to the episode

Brief overview

Joanna Warner traces addiction, grooming and street prostitution in Blackburn to a life rebuilt in recovery.

  1. Addiction outran every instinct for survivalAfter being strangled and assaulted in bushes she went straight back down the beat and got into another car while the attacker was still loose.
  2. The police punished her instead of protecting herTwice she rang them in fear for her life and was told to fuck off before they arrested her for prostitution.
  3. Recovery was a decision, then years of workA relapse in rehab, a detox, NA, therapy and a degree turned into seven and a half years of pushing past her comfort zone.
Executive Summary AI
  • The host introduces Joanna Warner, brought to the podcast by mutual friend Billy Moore, for a story covering drug addiction, grooming and prostitution.1:38
  • She grew up on a Blackburn council estate with an alcoholic father who was permanently kicked out when she was five, took the children on shoplifting trips, and was found dead in his flat at 47 when she was 17.7:14
  • She started smoking crack and heroin at 17, stopped while pregnant at 20, relapsed three or four months after her son was born, and was on a methadone script by 21, collecting it with her son in the pram.11:19
  • At 22 she went down the beat for drug money, charging 20 pound for sex, taking on five or six men in vans and bedsits, and was told to fuck off before being arrested for prostitution when she called police after a knife was held to her throat.27:21
  • After nine months of torturous withdrawals she came off everything in February 2019, and now runs a dog van, does CrossFit, tells her story in schools and prisons, and graduates from her criminal justice degree in September.1:08:16
Key Quote
“so yeah you get you get treat like you're the absolute scum of the earth”
— Joanna Warner35:47
Key Quote
“I just had no self-respect.”
— Joanna Warner38:36
Key Quote
“So I learned that my boyfriend was my pimp and was with him for nine years.”
— Joanna Warner46:18