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Department of Health Services

For Immediate Release

Best-selling author Johann Hari to present county-sponsored lecture on “Rethinking Addiction”

SANTA ROSA, CA | July 14, 2022

Sonoma County residents are invited to hear best-selling author and journalist Johann Hari, who has written extensively on substance abuse and addiction, speak at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts on July 21. The free lecture is being sponsored by the Sonoma County Department of Health Services as well as Directing Change, a mental health nonprofit for students.

Tina Rivera, director of the Department of Health Services, and Jan Cobaleda-Kegler, director of the department’s Behavioral Health Division, will provide opening remarks.

“We are thrilled to have Johann Hari join us in Sonoma County to discuss not just substance use, but the stigma associated with substance use,'' said Director Rivera. “We want to help break down barriers to seeking treatment, and provide education and resources to our community.”

Who: Author Johann Hari 
What: A lecture titled “Rethinking Addiction: Social Recovery in the Age of Loneliness” 
Where: Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa 
When: July 21; 6 to 6:30 p.m. book signing, 6:30 to 8 p.m. lecture 
Cost: Free 
Tickets: JohannHariSonoma.Eventbrite.com

About the author

Johann Hari is the author of three New York Times best-selling books and is an executive producer of the Oscar-nominated movie “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” He studied social and political science at King’s College, Cambridge. His TED talks have been viewed more than 80 million times, and he was twice named National Newspaper Journalist of the Year by Amnesty International. He has also been named Cultural Commentator of the Year and Environmental Commentator of the Year at the Comment Awards.

View event flyer »

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Media Contact: 
Matt Brown, Communications Specialist 
publicaffairs@sonoma-county.org
(707) 565-3040
575 Administration Drive, Suite 104A
Santa Rosa, CA 95403

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