In recent years, there's been an increase in overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids and cocaine. Is this phenomenon mostly driven by unsuspecting cocaine users getting spiked drugs? Or are people intentionally using more than one substance to get high? From member station WNYC, Caroline Lewis investigates.

Madelyn Joseph first joined Fountain House, a social club for people with mental health issues based in Midtown Manhattan, because she needed a way to fill her time. She had dropped out of college at SUNY New Paltz and wasn’t working. “It was not really good to have too much free time,” said Joseph, 25, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, ADHD, anxiety, PTSD and autism.

After Hurricane Sandy, local residents sought to rebuild the local economy on the Rockaway peninsula as well as the homes that were destroyed.

VICE writer Caroline Lewis explains in her recent article that now many DIY cultural spaces are trying to pivot from the underground to the mainstream in order to survive. She asks, “Can they fix their finances and legal status without letting The Man get them down?” We find out on this episode of The VICE Guide To Right Now Podcast.

Caroline Lewis explains on Brian Lehrer why the hospitals that served the hardest hit communities during the pandemic are the most precarious and the most at risk for closure.

A dawn concert series at the DIY space and artist collective known as the Silent Barn created a new soundtrack for waking up in Brooklyn.

Most barriers to accessing COVID-19 vaccines in New York City have come down, even on Staten Island, where there’s no public hospital, and it took months of advocacy to open a city-run hub on the South Shore. But ongoing reluctance to get the shots has emerged as a key hurdle that New York, and the country as a whole, must overcome to control the pandemic. Caroline Lewis discusses what's holding some people back--and what can change their minds.

Caroline Lewis has been a frequent guest on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC talking about her health care reporting for the project #PriceCheckNYC and responding to listeners' comments and questions about the health system. Listen to past segments here.