Michael Shearer

So that was national news.

You know, the son of Bobby Kennedy arrested for heroin.

He went into rehab.

Now, he was not alone in that scene of having a hard drug problem at the time.

It's pretty remarkable what the sort of Kennedy clan went through in the 70s and early 80s.

And shortly after he got out of rehab, his younger brother overdoses at Palm Beach, you know, where the family's gathered for another event.

And so this sort of heavy drug use was a huge cloud over his whole world at the time.

That's right.

He goes every day, he said.

And he went every day when he was running for president.

No matter what city he was in, he would tell his security, you have to find me a meeting.

I need to be able to go.

I asked him how much his recovery affects who he is now.

He said it affects everything.

I mean, I think it is impossible to separate any part of him now from the recovery journey.

Part of it has to do with...

a sort of transparency that people in recovery have.

I mean, the process of going to meetings is telling your story over and over and over again to other people in a way that makes sense and allows you to sort of forgive yourself for the things you've done to other people, for the way you've mistreated other people.

But the way he has come out of that is through...

a sort of, you know, very dramatic storytelling that puts him on a sort of heroic path.