Todd Marinovich: The Superstar Quarterback Who Lost Himself In Drugs & Found Himself In Love

What happens when love arrives with conditions attached—when approval must be earned through achievement, when your very existence feels contingent on performing well enough to matter?

Performance-based love is a particular kind of prison. And for those raised within its walls, the trajectory is often predictable: succeed brilliantly while suffocating internally, then self-destruct in ways that baffle everyone watching from the outside.

My guest today is Todd Marinovich, a former NFL quarterback whose fall from grace became a cultural touchstone for the costs of performance-based love and generational trauma. If you’re in my general age range, you grew up watching his trajectory—one of our generation’s most promising athletes who became a cautionary tale about perfectionism and poor parenting. Marketed by Sports Illustrated as “America’s first test-tube athlete,” Todd was raised from his first breath by his father in an unprecedented experiment—a lab designed to optimize every single facet of his life. Every variable controlled in pursuit of creating the perfect quarterback.

Today, we discuss:

• Engineered From Birth to Be the Perfect Quarterback
• Survival Through Substances: Starting at Age 15
• The Jugular Vein: When Every Other Vein Had Collapsed
• Why His Father’s Approval Paradoxically Ended His Career
• From Perfectionism to Self-Compassion: The Long Road

For those who prefer a visual experience, the conversation is available on YouTube. As always, the audio version streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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Peace + Plants,