PODCAST · health
AA Recovery Interviews with Howard L.
by Howard L.
Alcoholics Anonymous members from around the world share their awesome stories of experience, strength, and hope with interview host Howard L.
Episodes
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Marianna L. -Sober Since December 1991
From alcoholism, homelessness, and despair to more than three decades of sobriety, Marianna L. shares a remarkable journey of recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous. Sober since 1991, she speaks candidly about the challenges and promises of long-term sobriety, the spiritual principles of AA, and…
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Paul D. – Sober Since July 1984 (Encore Episode)
Paul’s liver disease, the result of years of heroin use and heavy drinking, nearly killed him three years ago. With no liver function and two failed transplants, survival seemed impossible. A last-minute transplant, more surgeries, and 17 days in ICU gave Paul another chance. Today, he credits…
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Ryan A. – Sober Since April 2017
Ryan grew up in a chaotic home where addiction was a best-kept secret. As an only child, Ryan’s family had also moved more than ten times by the time he was 12. Dealing with the constant loss of whatever brief friendships he experienced, the impermanence of his relationships fueled not only...
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Ray G. – Sober 20 Years
“Crazy Ray” G. shares his remarkable journey from a booze-soaked, drug-addled life and mounting DUIs to recovery. After years of failed attempts and a final shot at redemption, Ray found AA. Twenty years later, he’s sober, grateful, and dedicated to a life of maximum service.
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Tilda B. – Sober Since February 1994
Tilda B. shares how AA carried her from alcoholism in London to lasting sobriety in Kenya, proving that recovery, fellowship, and hope truly have no borders.
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Gary G. – Sober Since February 1983
Growing up amid music, success, and the chaos of an alcoholic home, Gary followed a path that led from the music business to alcoholism. After years of failed attempts to quit on his own, a chance encounter with a sober friend led him to Alcoholics Anonymous. In this inspiring episode, Gary…
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Chris S.- Sober Since June 2009
Some alcoholics drink hard from the start. Chris S. didn’t. He rarely drank until his early 40s, despite a lifetime of loneliness, low self-esteem, and quiet emotional pain. But when alcohol and cocaine finally entered his life, they seemed to offer everything he had been missing—until they…
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Jeff A. – Sober Since December 1992
Jeff’s drinking took hold in his late teens, fueled by isolation, low self-esteem, and a lack of purpose. As alcoholism and work addiction consumed his life, his marriage began to collapse. Faced with an ultimatum and urged by a therapist, he turned to Alcoholics Anonymous. Though the marriage...
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Maryrose M. – Sober 5 Years
In this episode, guest Maryrose M. shares her journey to sobriety, detailing how alcoholism developed later in life despite earlier signs of its growing impact on her life. After facing escalating binges, blackouts, and deep self-reproach, she embraced a well-worked AA program to achieve over…
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Corby M. – Sober Since Sept. 2020 (Encore Episode)
Corby’s story is one of pain, relapse, survival, and redemption—an honest reminder that alcoholism can reemerge even after meaningful time in recovery. After entering AA in 2017, Corby later faced a devastating relapse when prescribed pain medication for severe back problems gradually led him…
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C.T. – Sober 37 Years
C.T.’s story begins with loss and instability— Like many recovering alcoholics, C.T. grew up in a fractured family. His mother died when he was five and he’d never met his biological father, early family contention centered on where C.T. should stay. He never knew why his grandparents didn’t take...
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April T. – Sober Since March 2019 (Encore Episode)
April T., experienced the kind of nightmare that recovering alcoholics refer to when we say, “There, but for the grace of God, go I”. April’s road trip of terror began while drunk during a 4-hour drive on a major interstate. Halfway into the trip, while drinking vodka from a plastic bottle, she...
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Rudy T. – Sober 27 Years
This episode is another deeply personal story—one that reflects the courage it takes to face alcoholism head-on and the transformation that becomes possible through recovery. My guest, Rudy T., has been sober for 27 years. What he shares is not just a timeline of events, but a lived experience of...
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Julie R. – Sober 7 Years
Like many I’ve had the privilege to interview, today’s guest, Julie R., took her first drink at 14 and felt immediate relief from fear, sadness, and anxiety at home. Her early binge drinking didn’t stand out much in high school or college, but it quietly laid the groundwork for deeper struggles...
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Craig S. – Sober 4 Years
Craig came to AA later in life, getting sober at 63. For years he appeared to manage his drinking while building a highly successful business and providing a rich lifestyle for his family. But alcoholism is patient—and progressive. As control slipped and cocaine entered the picture, the...
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Amy B. – Sober Since October 2018 (Encore Episode)
Amy’s fascinating story is one of early exposure to her father’s alcoholism and her mother’s active involvement in Al-Anon. But her parents also divorced when she was very young and she and her sister were shuttled back-and-forth to fulfill the terms of joint custody. Like many adolescents of...
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Kirkland V. – Sober Since February 2005 (Encore Episode)
Kirkland’s family of origin was a difficult place to grow up. Alcoholism was rife and the cause of constant stress and chaos. Wracked with fear and isolation, he inevitably turned to alcohol and marijuana for solace. It didn’t take long for the disease of alcoholism to take hold and thrive....
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Gerry R. – Sober Since January 1990 (Encore Episode)
Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Gerry’s road to utter ruin began with pot, pills, and intravenous drug use at 15. Living as a heroin addict for the next ten years, his sordid lifestyle supported his addiction until he was able to stop heroin through methadone treatment for the next ten years....
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Kelvin S. – Sober Since September 2017 (Encore Episode)
Kelvin's life was defined and dominated by booze and drugs. Though there are similarities to other sobriety tales, many parts of his story contain things that most alcoholics must be referring to when they say, “There but for the grace of God go I” or “That could have been me”. Drinking, smoking...
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Sarah M. – Sober Since May 1996 (Encore Episode)
Sarah’s remarkable story begins with a relatively happy childhood in a family with little connection to alcohol. While other addictive behaviors may have been present, Sarah experienced issues with anorexia and bulimia years before her first drink. It manifested into feelings of low self-esteem…
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Dan C. – Sober 3 Years
Dan C.'s story challenges conventional wisdom about alcoholism and recovery. We often think of alcoholism/addiction as a young person's struggle, a disease that wrecks lives early and publicly. But what happens when a cunning, baffling, and powerful disease lies dormant for decades, only to…
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Kyle G. – Sober Since January 2019 (Encore Episode)
Kyle’s hard-fought battle with addiction and alcoholism was one he thought he could win on his own. He even managed to stay dry without AA for five years. But they were miserable years packed with trouble in every aspect of his life. So, back to drinking he went for ten more years, during which…
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Patrice T. – Sober Since January 1979 (Encore Episode)
Patrice T. has known alcoholism from both sides—first as the child of an alcoholic, and later as an alcoholic herself. For a time, her drinking overlapped her father’s struggle, until both of their lives were transformed by sobriety. Patrice grew up amid the turmoil of her father’s disease, yet...
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Robert H. – Sober Since November 2001 (Encore Episode)
Robert got sober when he was just 13, after a brief, but vicious, struggle with alcoholism and hard-drug addiction. Twenty-two years later, he’s a living testament to what long-term recovery in AA can mean for those who get sober young. Robert’s family tree was infested with alcoholism, so his…
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Victoria H. – Sober Since January 1992 (Encore Episode)
Victoria started drinking early to deal with the strife of abuse she suffered as a child and the trauma she experienced at 15 witnessing the aftermath of a bloody massacre in the Philippines. Living with the shock and horror were more than enough propel her alcohol-dominated life for the next 20...
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Jackie B. – Sober Since October 2015
Jackie's story illustrates one of the most cunning aspects of alcoholism--the erroneous belief that going to AA meetings without necessarily doing the work is enough to stay sober. In Jackie’s case, she had survived her dysfunctional family and alcohol-infused failures at higher education, only…
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William B. – Sober Since June 1999
William’s story speaks to the devastating effects of alcohol on a life already afflicted with mental health issues. Raised in a drug-infested part of London, William describes his childhood as horrible amidst family members who were sex workers. Rather than be shielded as a child from this...
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Bob W. – Sober Since July 1999
A Viet Nam veteran from a family fraught with alcoholism, Bob’s post-war progression into the disease of alcoholism accompanied a long and hard-driven business career in the banking industry. But, by the time he had raised three children and accumulated a great deal of material success, Bob’s...
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Tom W. – Sober Since January 1995 (Encore Episode)
Incredibly, Tom hadn't had a drink in over nine years when he joined AA. He was "dry", but his behavior during those years was every bit as alcoholic as if he’d been drinking the whole time. Growing up in a very dysfunctional home, Tom’s early life was fraught with daily fear, shame, and lack of...
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Rosemary B. – Sober Since October 1980 (Encore Episode)
Rosemary started drinking at age 6 with a sip of beer. But unlike other children, whose experience with beer was an occasional sip, Rosemary's beer drinking became an everyday occurrence. Her parents, distracted by their own severe alcoholism, allowed her to continue drinking daily from age 6…
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David D. – Sober 9 Years
My guest on today’s episode of AA Recovery Interviews is David D., a man whose story of descent into alcoholism—and steady climb back through the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous—reminds us that no one is immune to the reach of this disease. Born into a relatively normal family and raised in a...
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Courtney P. – Sober Since July 2014 (Encore Episode)
Courtney’s backstory is not dissimilar to those who grew up in tumultuous families in which alcoholism was present. The seeming frivolity and celebratory aspects of drinking cloaked the actual dysfunction that was occurring in the family. By the time she was drinking on a regular basis in her...
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Jimmy G. – Sober 7 Years
A "Man of the Cloth", Jimmy G.'s earliest aspirations were to be in service to the Episcopal Church. Though strict in many ways, when it came to drinking, Jimmy and his friends found plenty of opportunities to raid liquor cabinets across their neighborhood. By his teens, Jimmy was outdrinking his...
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Matt J. – Sober Since May 2014 (Encore Episode)
Matt J. describes his family tree as “littered with problem drinkers”, of which he became one all too quickly. As an only child, Matt grew up in a home where verbal and physical abuse reigned supreme. By the time his parents got divorced, his coping mechanisms included locking himself in his room...
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Ron B. – Sober 43 Years
Today’s podcast is my interview is with Ron B., a man whom I’d just met at a Friends of Bill W. meeting on an enormous cruise ship earlier this year. As we had both attended floating AA meetings before, neither of us was surprised when the two of us were the only attendees. After talking for a...
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Ray O. – Sober Since April 2009 [Encore Episode]
Ray’s difficult road to sobriety was paved with many failed attempts to get sober over the years. Each attempt was thwarted by the belief that his situation was somehow different than the people he met in 6 different treatment centers and sporadic AA meetings. The similarities of his loneliness…
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Justin M. – Sober Since June 2020 (Encore Episode)
[This is an encore of Episode 84 originally released June 29, 2022] Alcoholism nearly ended Justin’s marriage and his career as an airline pilot. Then he found sobriety and recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous. Raised in a family rife with alcoholics, Justin’s role model was a father who suffered…
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Nadia S. – Sober Since August 1980
Nadia's personal story was published in the 4th Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous in 2001. She’s the first AA member I’ve interviewed whose backstory can be read by anyone with a Big Book. Combined with today’s interview, Nadia’s story comes alive in many ways, beginning with her emigration from...
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Kristina C. – Sober Since August 2018 (Encore of Episode 74)
By age 15, Kristina had already been in treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, self-harm, and a suicide attempt. It took another 14 years for her to find lasting and contented sobriety in AA. Kristina’s struggles with addiction, alcoholism, and mental illness began with a difficult childhood.…
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Richard B. – Sober 2 Years
Richard's life-long battle with alcoholism was abated for nearly two decades in AA. But he let up on his Program and ultimately relapsed on "thimbles" of moonshine in a Mississippi bar. His drinking resumed and he quickly found himself back in the same alcoholic quagmire that AA had extricated…
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Ted O. – Sober 42 Years
Welcome back my friends to AA Recovery Interviews. I’m your host, Howard L. and I’m an alcoholic, sober since January 1, 1988, one day at a time. I’m grateful you’ve joined us. AA Recovery Interviews is the podcast where Alcoholics Anonymous members from around the world share their timeless and...
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Richard B. – Sober 2 Years
Richard's life-long battle with alcoholism was abated for nearly two decades in AA. But he let up on his Program and ultimately relapsed on "thimbles" of moonshine in a Mississippi bar. His drinking resumed and he quickly found himself back in the same alcoholic quagmire that AA had extricated…
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Nancy K. – Sober 53 Years
Nancy K. is an extraordinary woman whose 53 years of continuous sobriety is a stunning achievement built upon the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Growing up in a home dominated by a violent alcoholic father, Nancy started drinking at age 12 to quell the constant fear and self-loathing…
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Susan D. – Sober Since January 2003 (Encore Episode)
Ever meet someone in an AA meeting for the first time whom you can just tell is working a good Program? My guest on today’s show, Susan D., is that kind of person. When she first attended a Tuesday meeting that I’ve been going to for the past 15 years, she showed up early with the countenance and...
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Vicki A. – Sober Since April 2002 (Encore Episode)
Marijuana was Vicki’s primary addiction along with alcoholism. Like a lot of us, she smoked pot much more frequently than she drank, but ended up in AA just the same. The hauntings of a painful childhood in a dysfunctional family, fractured by her parents’ divorce when she was young, created...
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Jeff B. – Sober Since October 2017 (Encore)
Jeff B. reached the pinnacle of Major League Baseball, but alcoholism ultimately cost him his career, marriage, and peace. After years of failed attempts at sobriety and nine desire chips, he finally surrendered—and found lasting freedom in AA. His powerful story of defeat, redemption, and…
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Sabine H. – Sober 2 Years
Joining me from Copenhagen, Denmark, Sabine H. grew up in a culture in which alcohol is both ubiquitous and deeply ingrained in social life. She never considered drinking as the cause of her problems until well into her forties. By then, the ruinous effects of her drinking had supplanted Sabine’s...
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Sam H. – Sober 38 Years
With his life in tatters, Sam's entrée into Alcoholics Anonymous literally came down to a coin flip. Heads, he’d go AA. Tails, he’d put a bullet through his head. Such an abject choice was the culmination of a life largely ruined by alcoholism. Sam was penniless, homeless, and suffering from...
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Jay S. – Sober Since May 2003 (Encore Episode)
Jay’s foray into alcoholism stemmed from a difficult childhood in a home where his father drank, and fear and confusion reigned. By the time he started drinking in his early teens to quell the fear and ease his dissonance, he had set the pattern for a life of alcoholic behavior. Dishonesty and...
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Howard L. – Sober 37 Years – Celebration of 175th Episode
This is the 175th interview in the AA Recovery Interviews podcast series. This milestone episode celebrates the success of this podcast in touching so many peoples’ lives around the world over the past 4 ½ years. Its impact on listeners has been nothing short of astonishing. I invite you to…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Alcoholics Anonymous members from around the world share their awesome stories of experience, strength, and hope with interview host Howard L.
HOSTED BY
Howard L.
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AA Recovery Interviews with Howard L. currently has 279 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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Alcoholics Anonymous members from around the world share their awesome stories of experience, strength, and hope with interview host Howard L.
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AA Recovery Interviews with Howard L. publishes regularly with 279 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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AA Recovery Interviews with Howard L. is created and hosted by Howard L..
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