october, 2025
Event Details
Dr. Melody Glenn’s Mother of Methadone traces the intertwined stories of two physicians—half a century apart—whose work reveals both the progress and persistent failures in addressing opioid addiction.
Glenn, once an emergency physician frustrated by the revolving door of opioid-dependent patients, experienced a shift in perspective while working at a methadone clinic. There, she saw firsthand the effectiveness of harm-reduction treatments and began asking why they weren’t more widely used. Her research led her to Dr. Marie Nyswander, who in the 1960s co-developed methadone maintenance as a treatment for heroin addiction.
Through interviews, historical documents, and media accounts, Glenn reconstructs Nyswander’s legacy and examines the political, social, and racial dynamics that undermined broader adoption of this treatment. She also reflects on her own path in addiction medicine, confronting questions of bias, ambition, and the role of physicians in public health crises.
At a time when the U.S. continues to grapple with opioid and fentanyl use, Mother of Methadone offers an informed look at how stigma and policy have shaped the medical response to addiction—and what might be done differently.
About the author
Dr. Melody Glenn is a Tucson author and addiction and emergency physician at The University of Arizona. Her first book, Mother of Methadone about the work of Dr. Marie Nyswander and Dr. Glenn’s own work battling the opioid epidemic a half a century apart, will be published by Beacon Press in August. While a Tin House Workshop Alum with an MFA in prose from Mills College, she also conducts research and serves as the medical director for both the inpatient addiction medicine consult service and an outpatient addiction clinic. Her work has been supported by the DeGroot Foundation, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and an El Sur artist residency, and her publications have appeared in both medical and literary journals, and she speaks nationally on addiction.
