How Two Guys Changed Recovery in Tennessee - Will Taylor and Ben Stewart

Will Taylor got sober on Halloween 2013. His explanation: he was "too pretty to go back to prison." He walked into a courtroom, told a judge he was a drug addict, and asked for a shot at treatment instead of a cell. What happened next — the people who showed up, the 16 months he spent in transitional housing, the work that built slowly around him — is the reason Recovery's New High exists today.

Alongside Will is Ben Stewart, a policy veteran who helps make sure recovery has representation where it matters most: in legislative chambers and government offices where decisions get made about funding, housing, and what "recovery" even means.

Together they run 67 certified recovery housing partners across Tennessee, over 1,200 beds, and distributed more than $150,000 in housing vouchers last year alone. They've worked to shape legislation that protected small recovery housing operators from being regulated out of existence. And they're just getting started.

This conversation covers the difference between treatment and recovery, why the disease of addiction is fundamentally a disease of isolation, what accountability really looks like as an act of love, and what community-centered recovery actually takes to build from scratch.

The Way Podcast — stories of recovery, faith, and second chances.