Inside Intervention: Candy Finnigan on Alcoholism, Family, and Recovery

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Inside Intervention: Candy Finnigan on Alcoholism, Family, and Recovery"

Podcast: We're Out of Time
Host: Richard Taite
Guest: Candy Finnigan
Date: December 16, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this deeply personal and candid episode, host Richard Taite sits down with Candy Finnigan, pioneering interventionist and familiar face from the show "Intervention," for an open exploration of addiction, recovery, and the realities of intervention work. Both share intimate stories from their own lives and careers, offering raw insights into the challenges and triumphs within the field of addiction and family healing. The episode is underscored by a theme of authenticity—being true to oneself and showing up honestly for suffering individuals.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Candy Finnigan’s Journey into Recovery and Intervention Work

• Early Days & Personal Experience
  • Candy describes herself as a “good Irish alcoholic” (01:37), admitting to hiding wine in creative places and being confronted by her mother-in-law, a social worker.
  • Her recovery: “I was still high functioning... She [mother-in-law] came to visit and busted me. I hid my wine in the back of the toilet tank. It was always cool, no one could see it.” (02:34)
  • The threat of her kids being taken prompted her to seek sobriety: “She was going to take my kids away. And I'm adopted. Your mother in law taking my kids away.” (02:51)
  • Candy highlights the importance of getting clean early for her children: “So, you got there in the nick of time.” (04:31)

2. Family Impact and Living Amends

• Candy emphasizes the reward of seeing her children thrive: “My kids are spectacular. My daughter is a nurse... My son is another musician.” (03:56)
• Discusses her fear of relapse as a motivating factor: “I was so frightened to ever relapse because I’m the egomaniac and the, you know, wonder woman. And I knew I would never go back.” (04:31)
• “I'm not getting another one of those poker chips. Are you out of your mind?” (04:47)

3. Memorable Interventions

• A Champion’s Story (05:08–14:54)
  • Candy recounts a profound intervention with a former lightweight boxing champion living in a Circle K in New Canaan, Connecticut.
  • Unconventional beginnings: the mailman, not family, requested the intervention (05:46).
  • Humanity and dignity: “The show never meant to embarrass anybody... We kind of let him get acclimated in a hotel and bought him some clothes...” (06:35)
  • Emotional reunions and family healing, including meeting twin sons who hadn't seen him since infancy: “His sons didn’t know his name. They called him Champ.” (07:55)
  • Discovery of a third son, emotional reconnection with family: “He introduced himself and shook hands...and she [his sister] jumped up, bawling, and said, ‘I’m your sister, Evelyn.’” (09:45)
  • Treatment journey: Champ spent 8.5 months at a treatment center for professional athletes, was able to attend his son’s wedding, and began reparative relationships: “He had this cry, this catawaling cry that was so guttural that it was like a primal scream of what he, for an instant, even in his cognitive delay, realized what he'd done to his family.” (10:24)
  • Champ’s final years: He lived about six years post-intervention, dry and trying to make it up to his family: “He kind of didn't remember ever drinking good. But he knew he'd been a bad person and a bad dad, and he tried to make it up to his kids.” (13:31)

4. Richard’s Story of Intervention and “Failure”

• A Personal Failure Turned Inspiration (15:19–20:10)
  • Richard recounts one of two failed interventions—the story of a woman at Tivoli Cove who refused help: “This was the closest thing I've ever seen to a wet brain ever, without being a wet brain. She was gone. And after 25 minutes, I just started hysterically crying.” (18:32)
  • The emotional toll of feeling responsibility: “I told her, I said, sweetheart, I am sorry. I have run out of time, and you are going to die for sure. And I am never wrong about this stuff.” (18:35)
  • Years later, he learns she survived, became a renowned children’s author, and wrote messages to his children in her books: “The dead woman became a world renowned children’s author. And every year she writes a note inside the flap to tell your children who her father is.” (20:01)

5. Reflections on the Calling and Message of Intervention

• Candy and Richard reflect on their roles as messengers, not saviors:
  • “Our life work is helping people who suffer get better. We can't make them better, we can offer them to get better. And our reward is being authentic human beings.” (00:00 and echoed again at 20:19)
  • “Whether you like us or not doesn't matter. We have learned how to be true to ourselves.” (00:00)
  • The unpredictability and power of surrender: “80, 90, 100% of them hear it in that split second of surrender if they believe it.” (20:58)

6. Authenticity and Human Connection

• Candy shares why she avoids websites and is old-school about contact:
  • “I don't have a website because I think they lie... There's pictures of me 15 years ago. Mean, I'm not that, I'm old, so you can go to Candy Finnegan at AOL and get a hold of me.” (21:20)
  • Instagram: “I have Instagram is Irish Stew.” (22:01)

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Notable Quotes

• On their professional purpose:

  "We are the messenger and we have a message. Our life work is helping people who suffer get better. We can't make them better, we can offer them to get better. And our reward is being authentic human beings."
  — Candy Finnigan (00:00, 20:19)

• On family and recovery:

  “So you got there in the nick of time.”
  — Richard Taite (04:31)
  “I would have had to kill him [if my kids ended up like me].”
  — Candy Finnigan (04:07)

• On memorable intervention moments:

  “His sons didn’t know his name. They called him Champ.”
  — Candy Finnigan (07:55)
  “He had this cry, this catawaling cry that was so guttural that it was like a primal scream of what he, for an instant...realized what he’d done to his family...”
  — Candy Finnigan (10:24)

• On the difficulty of letting go:

  “I have run out of time, and you are going to die for sure. And I am never wrong about this stuff.”
  — Richard Taite (18:32)
  “The dead woman became a world renowned children's author.”
  — Patty (Richard’s massage therapist, 20:01)

• On authenticity:

  “I don’t have a website because I think they lie...you can go to Candy Finnegan at AOL and get a hold of me.”
  — Candy Finnigan (21:20)

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Key Moments (with Timestamps)

• Candy’s entry into intervention and recovery: 01:23–04:47
• The “Champ” intervention story: 05:08–14:54
• Richard’s “failure” and its twist: 15:19–20:10
• Reflections on being a helper and messenger: 20:19–21:10
• Candy’s approach to staying reachable and authentic: 21:20–22:07

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Tone and Final Thoughts

This episode is deeply honest, warm, and, at times, heavy with emotion. Candy and Richard speak with a blend of humility, humor, and heartache, revealing their passion for helping others and mourning the cases that didn’t go as hoped. The show closes with both a call to action and a reminder—every addict's life can matter, and the message sometimes lands when you least expect it. The emphasis is always on connection, authenticity, and the lifelong process of recovery for both addicts and their families.

Transcript

[A]

We are the messenger and we have a message. Our life work is helping people who suffer get better. We can't make them better, we can offer them to get better. And our reward is being authentic human beings. Whether you like us or not doesn't matter. We have learned how to be true to ourselves. I have a voice, so do you. If someone has a problem with substance use disorder, please call one call placement, that's 888-831-1581. And if we can't help you, we'll make a referral to someone who can. One call placement is affiliated with Carrera Treatment Wellness and Method Treatment Centers.

[B]

Candy Finnegan, Richard Tate. How are you?

[A]

Well, I think I'm okay.

[B]

So everyone, Candy Finnegan, right, is a world renowned interventionist, but not just a world renowned interventionist. She is what, the first or one of the first?

[A]

One of the first three women interventionists.

[B]

One of the first three. How long you been doing this for?

[A]

32 years.

[B]

32 years. And we do it completely differently. So. But we'll talk about that later. But what I want to hear is, did you have a drug problem yourself?

[A]

I would say it was leaning towards more alcohol, but if you had some drugs, I'd probably use them. But I'm a good Irish alcoholic. Me knee walking, tongue chewing alcoholic, as I used to say. I stopped drinking Jameson's and because people told me I was obnoxious, I don't think so. But I tended to be more maudlin, like I love you so much. One of those which people didn't enjoy. And I went to become a wino. And so I think if I detoxed off of anything, it was sugar because there's so much sugar in wine, right? I was still high functioning. My mother in law was a social worker from Ohio. My husband was from Ohio. And she came to visit and busted me. I hid my wine in the back of the toilet tank. It was always cool, no one could see it. And she caught me and so she was going to take my kids away. And I'm adopted. Your mother in law taking my kids away.

[B]

Your mother in law, good woman.

[A]

Never ever said anything to my husband, her son, right? Because he wasn't raising the kids right. So that's where the journey started.

[B]

What a great woman.

[A]

She was six foot one. My husband, you know, was six, seven. I'm five two, I'm probably five one now. But you know, she, she just wasn't messing around. She was the bailiff, the welfare participant, the divorce investigator. Oh yeah, you were finished in a Small town. Good for you.

[B]

Good for her. Yeah.

[A]

Of dating right outside Dayton and she was not messing around.

[B]

How are your kids today?

[A]

My kids are spectacular. My daughter is a nurse and she just moved back last week.

[B]

I needed a nurse.

[A]

Why didn't you call me From Portland, Oregon. And she moved home with me. And my son is another musician.

[B]

That's fantastic. Yep, that's fantastic.

[A]

And neither one of them belonged to my club because I would have had to kill him.

[B]

Well, also because when you have a mother that you know, you got your shit together when your kid was six.

[A]

Six and three.

[B]

Right. So the three year old doesn't even remember you drinking. And the six year old has an idea, but doesn't really remember. So you got there in the nick of time.

[A]

Well, and I think the other thing too, for me, Richard, is that I was so frightened to ever relapse because I'm the egomaniac and the, you know, wonder woman. And I knew I would never go back.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because I thought, I'm not getting another one of those poker chips. Are you out of your mind?

[B]

Yeah, that wasn't my. As you know, that wasn't my thing. I've had more sobriety dates than there are dates on the calendar. But I want to hear the funniest stories about your interventions, the ones you've done. No names, but I need to hear it.

[A]

Well, I'd have to say memorable. Much more than funny. I had some funny things happen, but one of them was on the show intervention that I had a privilege of being on. And he was a lightweight champion. And he was at this point living in New Canaan, Connecticut at the 7:11. Actually, I think it was the Circle K. And the mailman is the one who asked the show if they would intervene.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Which never we allowed before it had to be immediate family. We actually brought him to where his ex wife and twin boys lived who he hadn't seen since they were 11 days old and he'd had a stroke. Of course not getting any medical care because we didn't think it was fair to not kind of preserve the best of him because he lived on the streets. He basically had no clothes and no shower, no hygiene. So we actually, which was very unusual for us, kind of let him get acclimated in a hotel and bought him some clothes because the show never meant to embarrass anybody.

[B]

No.

[A]

And no.

[B]

It's not Celebrity Rehab.

[A]

Oh, okay.

[B]

I know. Don't even get me going to God. Don't even get me going.

[A]

Yeah. Get me going. So really? What happened was we one of, dude.

[B]

Come on the show and explain yourself. I'm dying to hear it.

[A]

One of the field producers. Kind of acclimated him and made sure he was because he wasn't physically very stable. And so we got him a hotel room, and he got to pick out that cutest velour jumpsuit. I said, are we really gonna live? That was kind of a moss green color. But anyway, he walked in to the. We did a pre intervention. We had his sister. The twin boys. One of them had just graduated from Howard and the other one, Grambling.

[B]

Wait, wait. He had two twin boys?

[A]

Yes. And he hadn't seen him since they were 11.

[B]

God.

[A]

Hold on.

[B]

Hold on for a sec.

[A]

Eleven days old, he hadn't seen him.

[B]

Okay, go on.

[A]

They were so beautiful. One of them was 90% deaf, but he had graduated at the top of Howard University. And his sons didn't know his name. They called him Champ. So we got the boys in. One of them was getting married in three months, and they were 22 years old. And they wanted some kind of lineage. They wanted to know, you know, the mother always never badmouthed him, even though he had left her. And then two days before the shoot, we found another son that lived a quarter of a mile away from the other boys. And they didn't know that they existed. And I don't remember, but I don't think Champ knew that this other boy existed. So we brought him and the boys bonded. Spectacular. So when he walked in and saw these people, he didn't know who they were. It still breaks my heart. And he introduced himself and shook hands. We'd gotten him a cane because he was so unstable, he wouldn't use a walker. And he introduced himself to the boys, and they got up and just melted. And I can't say that he was certainly an alcoholic, but. And he certainly was not cognitively all there anymore. But I don't know whether it was alcohol or the stroke. So he sat down and wanted to tell all of us who he was, which we, of course, never happened in a regular intervention. And there was a woman sitting in a chair kind of to the left. And he got up and said, excuse me, I'm so sorry. I was rude. I want to introduce myself. And she jumped up, bawling, and she said, I'm your sister, Evelyn. I mean, it was just like, what's.

[B]

Going on with him today?

[A]

He died.

[B]

How did it go after that?

[A]

He went to a treatment center in Louisiana that had professional athletes. We always joked because when you drove in, it looked like a moat. And we'd always say, can't leave. There's alligators. And he believed us. And so I felt so badly. He was there eight and a half months, and I think it was not only sheltering him, but it was a safer environment. He did go to his son's wedding, and he. And he had. Richard, he had this cry, this catawaling cry that was so guttural that it was like a primal scream of what he, for an instant, even in his cognitive delay, realized what he'd done to his family to be champion. And so we allowed him. I didn't take him to treatment that day. We allowed him to spend time with his kids.

[B]

Good.

[A]

And we allowed him to spend time with his sister. And then a nephew of his from another sister. He had a large family, and I think they were from Seattle. They came. And so it was like two days of family reunion because he was not used to sleeping in hotels and having soap. But I have to tell you, 90% of everybody that walked into this Circle K in New Canaan, Connecticut, went over and talked to him. He was that special, gave him money and called him Champ. And he'd lost his belt, and he had no idea where. And the show was able to get it replaced. The show was more gentle and kind than probably with anybody else we ever did. And, well, he needed it more. Well, he was. He just couldn't believe what had happened to him because he had been very ruthless, had no money, was running off with women in pink Cadillacs. And, you know, he was. He was small in stature. I'd say he was maybe 5 foot 8. And. But his dad. When he was 6 weeks old, his dad started calling him Champ. So it was one of those situations where he had no choice. He was going to be this. And he started training at six and a half years old to be a boxer. So talk about brain injury. And the punishment was extreme if he didn't win. And, I mean, we found all of this out from his sister. He had no recollection of it, and there wasn't any reason to go back and dig it up. So he lived about. And then after he got out of treatment, he went to live with his sister.

[B]

Oh, that's fantastic.

[A]

And he kind of didn't remember ever drinking good. But he knew he'd been a bad person and a bad dad, and he tried to make it up to his kids. I'm not sure what the extension of the relationship was with the children, with the boys, but I do believe they stayed in touch with him, of course.

[B]

How long did he live after that, do you know?

[A]

I'd say maybe six years.

[B]

So he had six good years.

[A]

Yes. Well, they were good because he wasn't drinking, but.

[B]

Well, they were good because he went ahead and he made his living amends to his family.

[A]

Yes. And they made their living amends to him.

[B]

How so?

[A]

Because he didn't make them proud when he was boxing. Yes. But when he became a homeless vagrant on the street, I think there was a small amount of time they looked for him, but he had nothing left. He was married twice as of once, as a very young man, and then maybe two or three years before he was champion. And that's where the boys came from.

[B]

All right.

[A]

You got to remember, the boys were 21. It wasn't, you know, it had been a long time.

[B]

All right.

[A]

But I think for me, doing what I do, it wasn't like anything else that was ever planned. We, of course, did a pre intervention and I had statements, but when he walked in, I went, we're going to talk from your heart and get rid of that paper. I mean, it was. Because it would have not been sincere to him.

[B]

All right, I'm going to tell you one. I'm going to tell you one. And I was going to do the funny one, but I ain't doing the funny one after that. I'll give you one. I've done about 30 of them, 30 interventions. And I've had two failures. So I'll tell you about one of the failures. You know that early on with Cliffside, I was struggling and.

[A]

Could have fooled me.

[B]

No. Well, that's because every.

[A]

I mean, I know who.

[B]

You're right. But everybody thinks that whatever I do works out and it does. But, you know, it's a struggle getting there. It's a struggle for everybody to start a business from scratch. And, you know, to do a startup, especially in this climate, is very hard.

[A]

And especially where you chose to have it.

[B]

That's correct. And then so I lost my house and a lot of people don't know that. And so I moved my family into a vacant treatment center. We couldn't fill it and we lived there for six months. And that's when I felt such embarrassment and such shame that I started working around the clock. So because of that, we started doing really well and now it was time to move out because I had clients that were supposed to move in and I didn't have a place. So we rented a place and we rented it about 10 miles down the road. So right in between the center and Santa Monica, the midway point. And so I'm on my way there because Dell is telling me, you got to bring the pizzas. Because if we don't bring the pizzas for the workers, they're going to go eat, and then. Or they're going to have to come back tomorrow. And she didn't want them coming back tomorrow, right? So she said, do this now. So as I'm driving with the pizzas, my massage therapist calls, as they do, and she says, sweetheart, I need you to do me a favor. There's a friend of mine drinking herself to death, and I need you to go. And she's at Tivoli Cove. Well, the way God works in my life. I'm driving, and 300, 200 yards to my right is Tivoli Cove. So I look up at my sunroof and I go, I'm gonna get in so much trouble. And. But, you know, it happens. And you go, that's a God shot. So I walk in and I talk to this woman. But I only had 25 minutes. That's all I had. So I go ahead and I said, I get there, and she won't come back with me. She will not come back with me under any circumstances. And, Candy, this was the closest thing I've ever seen to a wet brain ever, without being a wet brain. She was gone. And after 25 minutes, I just started hysterically crying.

[A]

I get it.

[B]

And I told her, I said, sweetheart, I am sorry. I have run out of time, and you are going to die for sure. And I am never wrong about this stuff. And I gave her a huggin a kiss, and I said, I'm sorry, baby. I'm so sorry. And I walked out. Cut to five years later. Patty's giving me a massage, and she says, do you remember that woman that I asked you to help and do that intervention at Tivoli Cove? And I sat up and I looked at her and I said, don't ever bring that woman's name up to me again, ever.

[A]

It felt a failure.

[B]

That woman is dead, and it is my fault, and I do not ever want you to bring that up to me again. And she said, okay, sweetheart. Lay down. Literally 15 minutes later, she says, sweetheart, do you ever read those children's books that I give you every Christmas to read to the kids? And I said, of course. And she says, do you ever look inside of the inside flap? And I said, no, Patty. Why would I do something like that? And she says, oh, sweetheart, you Should. And I said, why's that? And she says, because the dead woman became a world renowned children's author. And every year she writes a note inside the flap to tell your children who her father is. Great, right?

[A]

There you go.

[B]

No funnies. I mean, we're both wrecked. We might as well do so. I'm so.

[A]

Well, the truth of it is, is that we are the messenger and we have a message, but it's a lot of things associate with whether they hear it or not. And I guarantee you, 80, 90, 100% of them hear it and that split second of surrender if they believe it. Our life work is helping people who suffer get better. We can't make them better. We can offer them to get better. And our reward is being authentic human beings. Whether you like us or not doesn't matter. We have learned how to be true to ourselves and our families. And there are few of us left. I have a voice. So do you.

[B]

You are a legend in this industry. My own mind in this industry. And everyone is better for it. How do people find you?

[A]

Oh, I don't have a website because I think they lie. And I.

[B]

It's not that they lie. It's just people don't read them and.

[A]

There'S always mistakes and there's pictures of me 15 years ago. Mean, I'm not that I'm old, so you can go to Candy Finnegan at AOL and get a hold of me.

[B]

Candy Finnegan at aol.

[A]

You can't. You can't tack aol. So I'm still stuck with it.

[B]

Do they have AOL anymore?

[A]

Oh, come on, Richard. Of course they do. But you. It can't be hacked, like Gmail and stuff.

[B]

Do you use MySpace?

[A]

MySpace?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Well, it probably is still up.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

Might be. And I have Instagram is Irish Stew.

[B]

It's Irish Stew because that's what I was.

[A]

And so you. You can find me. You always. If you need me.

[B]

You're not taking selfies and with the big lips and, you know, and singing to the dance songs.

[A]

I can't. I forget how you take selfies. So, no, I'm not doing any of that.

[B]

A girl.

[A]

All right, until next week.

[B]

See you next Tuesday.

[C]

We're out of time. Please subscribe on YouTube. Click the thumbs up and leave a comment. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast and Spotify and leave a rating and a review and share the we're out of time podcast with others you know, who will get value out of it. See you next Tuesday.