Recovering addicts start Wagner-based talk show to set life-changing examples for others

May 1—WAGNER, S.D. — On Friday nights at The Lighthouse Church in Wagner, three friends with similar life journeys are sharing their stories of addiction as they try to help pull others out of darkness.

It's a topic they each know plenty about. Leon Flying Hawk, of Wagner, and Rosezena Zephier, of Lake Andes, are both recovering addicts. Flying Hawk has been clean from drugs for 14 years and Zephier for three years. The two met in Alcoholics Anonymous.

While Derrick Marks, of Wagner, has never struggled with addiction of any kind, he grew up with family members who had addictions.

All three are members of the Yankton Sioux Tribe and they have teamed up for a talk show about drug addiction. The show, titled Recovery Warrior Talk, raises awareness and confronts drug addiction through meaningful conversation and interviews. The show airs every 8 p.m. Friday on both Facebook and YouTube. The show is not yet formatted as a podcast, although that's in their plans.

Flying Hawk was the one who originally got the idea for the show. After being asked to do public speaking events ocassionally sharing his story, Flying Hawk wondered about the possibility of sharing his voice with even more people. He approached Marks, who he knew from church, with the idea back in January. He knew Marks was good with technology and owned his own media company, Marks Media.

"I wanted a way to give back," Flying Hawk said. "I wanted to put myself and my experience out there for others to learn from."

Marks agreed that using media to reach people has been great, and the more ways to do so, the better. He feels that Flying Hawk and Zephier are the perfect hosts for the show.

"Leon and Zena are living walking proof in our community on what recovery can look like," Marks said. "Their lives have been radically changed and they are honest with viewers in their struggles, in their recovery, in their current steps. That is the kind of transparency people need."

What started out as Flying Hawk and Zephier sharing their stories turned to exploring various topics each segment and bringing on guests willing to speak in a variety of lengths of recovery. The show hosts say while at first they had to ask people to appear on their show, people now approach them asking to come on.

"I've never had to look for people to bring on to the show," Zephier said. "I've never had to go searching."

They highlight guests from all different walks of recovery, hoping to bring different perspectives as they talk about issues such as how to reach family members with addiction, how to approach an intervention, how to get started in the recovery process and what to do if an addict relapses, among others.

"If we don't talk about it, how can we change anything?" said Flying Hawk.

So far the duo has published 14 sessions online. The first show aired Jan. 19. Five months in and they've perfected their format, which is always take one: no editing.

"What the viewer gets is just us and our guests in real time, being our true selves," Flying Hawk said. "If I had something like this when I was using, maybe I would have gotten clean sooner."

After two months of production, the trio added to their reach. Marks stepped out from behind the scenes at the end of March and started a show of his own called, "Recovery Warrior Family." As producer, Marks was noticing that a majority of those engaged and watching the show weren't people in recovery but instead were family members of addicts.

In his show, he is the host and spends segments visiting with family members of those who have struggled or are struggling with addiction.

"Having personal experience myself from my childhood into my adult years of living with addicts, my mother was an alcoholic and my brother has dealt with addiction for 15 years, this seemed like a natural fit as a way to reach more viewers," Marks said.

Recovery Warrior Family airs at at 7:30 p.m. on the first Monday of every month.

At the heart of both shows is the hope of being a resource for those not only battling addiction but also their friends and family, and the community as a whole.

"That's how sobriety works, it needs to be the entire family investing in it," Marks said. "Sobriety in the family is heathy families and healthy homes and helping others."

The trio has hopes for the show as they continue on. They want to get a website up and running and they would like to get some Recovery Warrior merchandise made to sell and distribute. But more importantly they want to make a difference in the often dark and dangerous world of recovery.

"2% is the turnaround rate for meth users, those who fully recover," Zephier said. "We are hoping to change that."