I Was Filming My Brother’s Wedding as a Gift — Got Drunk, Deleted All the Footage & Ended Up Doing Drugs With Homeless People on the Streets of Ottawa

Episode 43 | Tom McLeod — 3 Years Sober: The Toronto Filmmaker Who Almost Partied Himself to Death & Found Out Rooms Full of People Who Did the Same Are Actually Pretty Entertaining Tom McLeod grew up in Calgary — an unpopular kid who had his first drink at 14 at a cool party and immediately chose it. Within weeks he was the guy who could out-drink everybody. Skateboarding made him popular; alcohol made him feel like a superpower. By his apartment years he was drinking every day, adding cocaine, becoming a bike messenger in Vancouver and making documentaries while running on fumes. At 28 he tried sobriety — made it a few weeks, relapsed at his brother’s wedding where he deleted all the footage, ended up doing drugs with homeless people on the streets of Ottawa and punched his dad. He knew it was wrong every single time for the next 11 years and kept going anyway. COVID finished the relationship, finished the work and nearly finished him — sleeping less and less, more and more drugs, a last bender of nearly two weeks without sleep, liver damage, a heart he thought was about to give out. He spotted a sober friend on Instagram from his eyes alone. Messaged him at 2am. Went to a men’s AA meeting. Heard a guy talk about robbing a bank in the 70s and thought: why didn’t anyone tell me this is where the answers were? Went out for one more bender. Then walked back in. Three years later he’s directing again, dating someone healthy, making a content series called Practically Sober, and learning that rooms full of people who almost partied themselves to death are actually pretty entertaining. Follow Tom on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/practically.sober TikTok is here: https://www.tiktok.com/@practically_ sober Augustan burrows - Dry https://amzn.to/4a5LJM3 Recovering out loud - Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/recovering-out-loud/id1804098190 28 Days - Sandra Bullock film https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0191754/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk Practically Sober - Youtube https://youtube.com/@practicallysober?si=p6Z9ou3UFYtVthbW My Instagram is: https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy And you can find all my other links at: https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle Buy me a coffee… https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmyt Support the show My Instagram is: https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy And you can find all my other links at: https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle Buy me a coffee… https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmyt Alcohol Explained - William Porter https://a.co/d/0854fIb6 This Naked Mind - Annie Grace https://a.co/d/0gy6mT9Z A Million Little Pieces - James Frey https://a.co/d/0jdcIjGb Donate: https://motiv8.im/donate/ https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ My Instagram is: https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy And you can find all my other links at: https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle Buy me a coffee… https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmyt Alcohol Explained - William Porter https://amzn.to/4uMmkyB This Naked Mind - Annie Grace https://amzn.to/4eC6L6z A Million Little Pieces - James Frey https://amzn.to/44jOV3i Donate: https://motiv8.im/donate/ https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.