Us & Them: Heroin — N'ganga Dimitri

In this episode, I reconnect with Dimitri Mugianis, a friend that I met nearly a quarter century ago when we were both playing in the New York City music scene. He was the front man of a fantastic band called “Leisure Class.”  Dimitri was a dynamic performer, charismatic, poetically eloquent and brimming with the energy of a possessed mad man.  He also had a pernicious heroin addiction.

Dimitri has been the subject of several of my radio reports over the years. He was in a piece that I produced for an NPR show and more notably, was part of a This American Life story that was honored with a New York Festivals Awards Gold Medal. Subsequently, Dimitri has been written about in New York Times features, was the subject of “I’m Dangerous With Love,” a feature length documentary and appeared on HBO’s investigative documentary program VICE. 

With the recent resurgence in the use of heroin, I thought it might be informative to revisit Dimitri’s story and examine some of his life’s more recent twists and turns.
 

From West Virginia Public Broadcasting and PRX, this is “Us & Them,” the podcast where we tell the stories about America’s cultural divides.

Subscribe to “Us & Them” on Apple Podcasts, NPR One or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Share your opinions with us about these issues, and let us know what you’d like us to discuss in the future. Send a tweet to @usthempodcast or @wvpublic, or leave a comment on Facebook.com/usthempodcast.

And if you enjoyed this episode, join our community and sustain “Us & Them” with a pledge of support.