Elizabeth F. S. Roberts's IN PRAISE OF ADDICTION with Alissa Quart and Maia Szalavitz

Tuesday, March 24, 2026 @ 7:00pm
Word Up Community Bookshop, New York

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In collaboration with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project

Word Up welcomes professor Elizabeth F. S. Roberts to discuss her new book In Praise of Addiction: Or How We Can Learn to Love Dependency in a Damaged World, a transformative way of understanding addiction--and an invitation to find connection in the pleasures of life we know are bad for us. In conversation with Roberts will be authors Alissa Quart (Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream and Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America) from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and Maia Szalavitz (Undoing Drugs: How Harm Reduction is Changing the Future of Drugs and Addiction)

This event is a $5 suggested donation ticket with 30 max attendees. Please register in advance.

In compliance with Word Up Community Safety guidelines, all attendees for this event must wear a mask inside.

Word Up Community Bookshop is located at 2113 Amsterdam Ave. (& 165th St.) in Washington Heights, NYC. You can take the 1 train to 168th St and the A/C train to 163rd or 168th  St.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Elizabeth Roberts has experienced the suffering wrought by addiction: her sister's destructive alcoholism and dependency on prescription drugs, her mother's hoarding, and her own struggles with binge eating. As for so many of us, addiction brought about self-loathing, reflecting her individual failure to exercise self-control, to keep it together. But during her fieldwork studying chemical exposure in Mexico City, her sense of addiction got turned upside down. She witnessed her neighbors, both young and old, defiantly celebrate their compulsive dependencies on alcohol, drugs, and junk food instead of hiding them in shame. Roberts began to wonder if everything she thought she knew about addiction was wrong.

In Praise of Addiction shares the unexpected journey that led Roberts to a new understanding of addiction. Taking lessons from her years in Mexico City as well as from addiction researchers, harm reduction activists, and scholars of religion, philosophy, and anthropology, Roberts pays close attention to the external forces that so often fuel the damage of addiction. As her neighbors in Mexico City suggest, the adverse health effects brought on by their dependencies on Coca-Cola, processed foods, drugs, and alcohol have more to do with the ongoing effects of the drug war and NAFTA than any personal failings. Taking up this ecological framework, Roberts draws a line between vice that isolates and addiction that connects, a distinction she movingly integrates into her own life and family, making a case for sharing in the pleasures--and suffering--of dependency.

Provocative and deeply humane, In Praise of Addiction invites readers to cast aside the shame, self-hatred, and judgment associated with addiction and discover how dependency can serve as a binding force worthy of our most profound devotion.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elizabeth F. S. Roberts is a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan and the author of God’s Laboratory: Assisted Reproduction in the Andes. Since 2013, she has participated in collaborative environmental health research in Mexico City.

ABOUT THE INTERLOCUTORS

Alissa Quart is the author of five books of acclaimed nonfiction, including Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream and Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America and two books of poetry, Thoughts and Prayers among them. She created and directs the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, a media non-profit. She writes frequently for The Guardian, The New York Times and Time, among other publications.

Maia Szalavitz is the author, most recently, of Undoing Drugs: How Harm Reduction is Changing the Future of Drugs and Addiction, which is the first history of harm reduction in drug policy. Her New York Times bestseller, Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction, wove together neuroscience and social science with her personal experience of addiction. She has written for numerous publications, including the New York Times, TIME, Wired, the Nation, Vice, and Scientific American. 

Word Up Community Safety Guidelines

MASKING POLICY: All attendees ages 2 and older must wear a mask at all times when indoors at the store at Word Up and Recirculation.

CANCELLATION POLICY: Word Up Community Bookshop reserves the right to cancel events for any reason, including but not limited to safety concerns.

CODE OF CONDUCT: Please note Word Up has a zero tolerance policy for harassment or intimidation of any kind during any event, virtual or in-person. Please read our Safe Space Policy for more information. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from the event at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to events@wordupbooks.com immediately.

PHOTOS & RECORDING: Events may be recorded, and video and photos may be posted on our website, social media, and elsewhere. If you would prefer not to be visible, please let a Word Up team member know. 

PRIVACY: Registrants will be added to the Word Up mailing list. Your contact information will never be shared or sold. You may unsubscribe or update your subscription at any time.

PHYSICAL ACCESSIBILITY: Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria is a fully wheelchair-accessible space with one ADA-compliant ramp from the street level to the store. Some of our bookcases and tables are on wheels and can be moved to provide additional access. Our visitor bathroom is wheelchair accessible and gender neutral. Our events are mic'd for sound. Free ASL interpretation is available for most programs upon request; please email events@wordupbooks.com to request interpretation as early as possible. The space is not scent or chemical free but we do our best to minimize the use of chemicals and scents throughout the space and use nontoxic materials whenever possible. If you have specific questions about the space or how an event can be made more accessible to you, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@wordupbooks.com.

Free Lectures & Literature Washington Heights / Inwood

Schedule & Tickets

Tuesday, March 24, 2026 @ 7:00pm · tickets local_activity · add to calendar today 2026-03-24 19:00:00 2026-03-24 22:00:00 America/New_York Elizabeth F. S. Roberts's IN PRAISE OF ADDICTION with Alissa Quart and Maia Szalavitz https://harlemonestop.com/event/34396/elizabeth-f-s-robertss-in-praise-of-addiction-with-alissa-quart-and-maia-szalavitz Word Up Community Bookshop, 2113 Amsterdam, @ W 165th Street, New York, NY, 10032