After Hours with Jimmy Thistle

Episode 87 | Janey Lee Grace — Wham!, Cola Boy & the Elephant in the Room Nobody Told Her AboutJaney Lee Grace grew up in Nottingham, got into music in her teens, and somehow navigated the drug-soaked world of touring bands without falling too far in — largely, she thinks, out of fear. She had no safety net. Nobody was coming to pick her up if it went wrong. So it didn't go wrong. Not yet.She toured with Mary Wilson and the Supremes, then Wham! — she's in the documentary, a young woman in her early twenties watching George Michael become a superstar from the wings. She had a top 10 hit in 1991 with Cola Boy, played a warehouse rave in Venice that felt like being Madonna for five minutes, worked with Boy George, Kim Wilde, Matt Bianco, and Chris Evans at BBC London and Virgin Radio. Then she landed at Radio 2, where she'd stay for 23 years.In between all of it, she wrote a book called Imperfectly Natural Woman — 20 years ago — that made her the queen of holistic living. Coconut oil. Soap nuts. Natural deodorant. Organic everything. She talked about it on national radio to millions of listeners. And she stepped around the elephant in the room every single day, because alcohol was her treat. The one thing that didn't fit the brand. The one thing she couldn't touch.She mentioned it to a GP once, on the way out the door, a classic doorknob moment. The GP looked at her, said she seemed fine, suggested an alcohol-free day and a glass of water between drinks. Janey walked out relieved. That kept her stuck for five more years.In late 2017, a producer handed her a copy of Claire Pooley's The Sober Diaries ahead of an interview. She glanced at the back, realised Claire was just like her, and knew. She didn't read it until after Christmas — she didn't want to spoil the holidays. On the 30th of January 2018, she started the book and quit the same day.The first two months were rough. Leg cramps, terrible sleep, emotional chaos, shame she couldn't explain. She told nobody except Claire. She navigated a Radio 2 Christmas party, awards evenings and functions without telling a soul she'd stopped drinking. At two and a half months she sat in a car park outside a Club Soda event for twenty minutes before she dared go in. At three months, on her birthday, she went to a sober rave at the Ministry of Sound at 6.30 in the morning and thought: I get it now.At eight months she posted her coming out video on YouTube. She expected backlash. Every message said welcome to the club.In 2019 she did a TEDx talk called Sobriety Rocks Who Knew. She'd forgotten there'd be a live audience. Five people pulled her aside at the break and said: you described me exactly. Can you help? She founded the Sober Club that September. She's now a sober coach trainer, still doing BBC local radio, still championing the imperfectly natural life — with the elephant finally out of the room.One word for her life now: freedom.You can find Janey on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/janeyleegrace?stkn=MXY1NTJyc3d3MTB2NQ==The Sober Club at:https://www.thesoberclub.com/And Janey's books:https://amzn.to/4qV1Kvohttps://amzn.to/4yIPIIzhttps://amzn.to/4i9MicGMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 86 | Laura Van Antwerp — The Pinky Promise, the Ski Town & 172 Miles on the Tahoe Rim TrailLaura Van Antwerp is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, public speaker, social media influencer and adventure junkie with a passion for helping people get outdoors and live their best life without booze. As featured in Backpacker magazine, Laura is the Founder and CEO of YSP Adventures, which organizes adventure retreats, courses, and workshops to help sober and sober-curious people build confidence, find connection and HAVE FUN without booze! She is the hilarious personality behind @yoursoberpal on TikTok and Instagram, and the bestselling author of “Your Sober Pal Sobriety Affirmation Deck,” which features 50 funny and motivational cards to uplift and comfort people in their sobriety journey. Additionally, Laura is a backpacking and hiking guide with the Tahoe Rim Trail Association, a regular guest speaker at the University of Nevada, Reno, and the recipient of the 2022 Windfeldt Inspire Award.You can find Laura on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/yoursoberpal?igsi=YjA2YjB4NDBidzJyLaura's website is at:www.yoursoberpal.coyspadventures.comLaura's Linktree:https://linktr.ee/yoursoberpalBlackout - Sarah Hepolahttps://amzn.to/4zLCFHhRecovery Elevatorhttps://open.spotify.com/show/51g2uQIwCFuJ2igFSWxn0P?si=231a2d61c399410fMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 85 | Richard Chapman — £2,000 a Day, a Drug Cartel & the Finance Director Who Got Clean in the Rehab That Saved HimRichard Chapman grew up in Bradford, the youngest of three, with a father who was an HSBC area director, a grandfather who was a West Yorkshire police superintendent, and a home where the tea had better be on the table or things would get thrown against the wall. His dad was beloved by everyone who worked for him. Richard's experience was slightly different.He found his outlet on a rugby field — playing for Yorkshire at fifteen, inflicting as much violence as legally permissible on anyone in front of him — and left school with two O-levels and a desire to work on a building site. His dad sent him to Midland Bank instead. In a suit from Marks & Spencer. At 18.He turned out to be brilliant at it. Which his dad, now area director, deeply resented having to ring and confirm every Friday.At 29, a man with tattoos on his head offered Richard a line of cocaine in a bar in Guiseley. He'd never touched it before. He bought £500 worth the next day, in a Burberry duffel coat, in a pub called the Living Rooms. The man with the tattoos became his best friend for the next seventeen years.By the end, Richard was spending £2,000 a day on cocaine, sitting in Leeds car parks trying to run his banking team through a Blackberry, checking into hotels for the night and ordering seven more grams, laundering money for a drug cartel, defrauding his parents of £150,000, taking a £50,000 mortgage out in his wife's name and walking from his hotel in Scarborough to a drug deal with one flip-flop on and a sock.His 11-year-old son sent him a text from the next room. He drove home. He walked into rehab on the 5th of April 2020 with three grams left and snorted the lot before he walked through the door.Now six years clean. Finance director of Ark House — the rehab in Scarborough that got him well. Five boys. A dog. A view of the sea. One word: peaceful.In-Recovery is on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/in_recovery_podcastYou can find them at:https://arkhouserehab.co.uk/podcast/The Bag Lady Doc:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596767/Wet House Doc:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF5wNsfKo84My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 84 | Sarah Rusbatch — Grey Area Drinking, Mummy Wine Culture & the Morning Her Daughter Asked What Happened to Your FaceSarah Rusbatch grew up in Scotland in a household where alcohol was simply part of life — grandma offering sips of wine at nine, her dad's beer froth, men in kilts addressing the haggis on Burns Night. By the time she was fourteen and had moved to five schools in eight years, alcohol was the answer to a question she hadn't quite formed yet: how do I fit in?She went to university in Hull, got deep into the nineties dance scene, moved to London, climbed the career ladder in recruitment — where in 1997 the fourth stage of every job interview was a pub session with tequila shots to see if you could handle your booze. She wore her capacity for alcohol as a badge of honour. She was lit up like a Christmas tree the moment she had a drink, and she didn't stop until the sun came up.Then came the baby, the move to Perth with no friends and no family, the loneliness that nobody talks about when everything on paper looks perfect, and a bottle of wine a night that slowly became the only thing in her toolbox. In 2017, she fell at a party, smashed her face, and was woken the next morning by her five-year-old daughter standing beside the bed asking what had happened to her face. There was dried blood and congealed vomit around her mouth.She did 100 days sober. She went back to drinking. She was back to exactly where she'd been within a month. She tried again. And again. Until 2019, when she finally understood it wasn't a her problem. It was alcohol.Now seven years sober, Sarah is one of Australia's leading grey area drinking coaches, the author of Beyond Booze, and the host of Stronger Bolder Wiser. She works with women aged 40 to 65 who are ready to change their relationship with alcohol — and she does it with a directness and warmth that makes this one of the best conversations we've had on the podcast.You can find Sarah on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/sarahrusbatchSarah's other links here:https://www.instagram.com/sarahrusbatchSarah's 100 things to do instead of drink:https://www.instagram.com/sarahrusbatchSarah Rusbatch - Beyong Booze:https://amzn.to/3U1EHmoSarah's Stronger, Bolder, Wiser - Podcasthttps://open.spotify.com/show/0NgeQwAek802stoj6ZfzYmSoberful Podcast:https://open.spotify.com/show/0Xll4Cyn6m18n5p24FXdhEMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 83 | Sarah Drage — The Doctor, the Car Keys & What Happens When You Finally Get Your Dad Back and then lose him again...Sarah Drage grew up in West Yorkshire, the eldest of three daughters to a man who was, by her account, genuinely ahead of his time — forward thinking, emotionally open, taking his girls to business meetings in the nineties, teaching them to be independent and articulate and to challenge the world around them. He also drank. Not obviously at first — whiskey, a glass here and there — but enough that Sarah noticed, from a young age, that there were two versions of her dad. The one she adored. And the one she tried to avoid.By the time she was a teenager she knew what it was. She tried everything. She poured his drinks down the sink and topped bottles up with water — not knowing that removing the alcohol from a physically dependent person could trigger a fatal seizure. She tried confrontation. She tried tough love. She tried overachieving, becoming the first in her family to go to university, as if her own success might give him a reason to stop.In 2015, after a family holiday where he arrived drunk and volatile, she gave him an ultimatum: rehab or no contact. He agreed. He detoxed. He got sixteen months sober — the best sixteen months the family had had in years. She got her dad back. Then his father died. And within four months so did he.Thirty hours after being admitted to A&E, at 59 years old — one week before his sixtieth birthday — Steve Drage was taken off life support. He didn't recognise Sarah in the wheelchair. He asked if she had his car keys because he wanted to check the girls were okay.Sarah is now a NACOA ambassador, a social media manager and one of the most honest voices on what it means to grow up in the shadow of a parent's addiction. This episode ranges from the mechanics of alcohol dependency to social media addiction, emotional resilience, the manosphere, and why she now believes stigma was never really the problem.You can find Sarah on Insta at:https://www.instagram.com/sarah_drageYou can find Nacoa at:https://nacoa.org.uk/The Lancet report by Professor David Nutt (2010)https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61462-6/abstractInside the Manosphere - Louis Therouxhttps://www.netflix.com/watch/81920687My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 82 | Michael Kiernan — The Wrong Number, the Guinness World Record & the Cold Water That Changed EverythingMichael Kiernan grew up in Crosshill, a small town where everybody knew everybody and especially knew your family. Good childhood, strong women, a mum and a gran raising him — and then a stepdad who came into his life at eleven and whose surname he briefly took on. He got his first job, met the wrong crowd, had his first drink at seventeen — a bottle of Thunderbird downed at a party — and promptly fell asleep. It barely registered. What registered was the weed he was introduced to at work shortly after, and the week in Blackpool in 1991 that changed his personality permanently.One disco biscuit on a dance floor in Sequins, every night for a week, washed down with everything else going. He came home a different person. His first full-blown panic attack sent him to bed for months, cost him his job, introduced him to beta blockers and codeine. And in codeine, he found something. An opiate that was socially acceptable, prescription-grade, and brilliant at making everything stop.For the next thirty years, Michael was what he calls the undercover addict. Always had heavier users around him to compare himself to. Still holding down jobs, still keeping up appearances, still the driver because his substance of choice wasn't alcohol. Weed to start the day. Speed to stay up late. Valium to get to sleep. Codeine for the pain — first from arthritis in his hips, then for everything else. At his worst he was 22 stone, eating two tubs of Ben & Jerry's a night, binge eating fruit and veg to lose weight while still medicating everything with pills, not caring whether he woke up in the morning.Then COVID. Made redundant. No pretence of going to work. Forty to fifty dihydrocodeine a day. And one afternoon outside a health centre, rattling, out of prescription, running through his options — he scrolled to H on his phone meaning to call someone he knew who used heroin. He called his mum instead by accident. And he stayed on the line.Now in recovery. Guinness World Record holder — two hours and five minutes buried in snow in shorts at Glenshee. Founder of Flowstate Experience, a cold water and ice therapy community in Scotland. Partner, radio show host, ice bath evangelist. One wrong number from a completely different life.You can find Michael on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/michael_flowstate_experience_His website:https://www.facebook.com/share/g/19YCYLESpp/?mibextid=wwXIfrAnd the radio show:https://www.instagram.com/michael_flowstate_experience_?igsh=MXZ5MXFrOG5lenB0aw==Links to the 2 Flowstate films that inspired Michael:https://youtu.be/dftQD_EEcgg?si=e2o95sFcmuRnHWtUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvuCViWPlZYMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 81 | Ashley Baker — Rocket Fuel at 13, Death Metal in Dubai & 17 Years Sober His Own WayAshley Baker was born in the UK but never lived there. He grew up in Dubai in the late seventies and eighties — before it was trendy, when it was still mostly desert — the only child of an English mum who'd stayed after his dad left when he was four. She tried to take her life twice before he was old enough to understand why. He grew up with four languages, an Arabic school, a private English school, and by thirteen, a can of Fosters nicked from his parents and a plan to be the coolest kid on the 31st floor of the Hyatt Regency.The plan involved rocket fuel — everything in the drinks cabinet mixed into a 1.5 litre water bottle, downed on a dare in front of his friends. He fell into the pool, woke up the next day still drunk, got on the school bus, and everyone applauded. That was it. He was the man. He never really stopped drinking after that.At seventeen his family moved to Germany, where he discovered that you could buy alcohol in supermarkets at sixteen and that every death metal bar in Stuttgart was open until dawn. He got an apprenticeship as a chef — the one job in the world where drinking before a shift was not just accepted but culturally expected — and spent the next fifteen years being the best and worst version of himself simultaneously.By thirty-one he was drinking two bottles of wine before he could get out of bed, going to his neighbours to ask if they had any wine left, and shaking so badly he had to medicate the withdrawals with more alcohol just to get upright. He went to rehab twice — the first time he left after two weeks and was back drinking within a week. The second time it stuck.Seventeen years sober. Fully tattooed. Qualified addiction counsellor and sober coach in Stuttgart. Completely at peace. And still listening to death metal.You can find Ash on instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/ashleybaker.sobercoach?igsh=dnJobnFnZXdsNHRnand his Linktree at:https://linktr.ee/ashleybaker.sobercoachThe Power of Now - Eckhart Tollehttps://amzn.to/4gZ0eWsBoiling Point - Stephen Grahamhttps://amzn.to/4pPYWiLMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 80 | Scott Murdoch — Four Cans in the Fridge, the Marathon des Sables & Running to the First MinisterScott Murdoch grew up on the schemes of Loch Lomond — grey houses, young teams, a school that got burnt down so they learned in caravans — and moved at thirteen to a nicer part of town where he suddenly realised other people's parents had Ferraris. His gran died of alcoholism at 58 looking about 80. His dad drank every day. His mum put up with it because she'd grown up in it too. As a kid, Scott knew that if his dad had four cans of beer in the fridge at home, the evening would be okay. If he went to the pub with his friends, it was best to hide under the covers and wait for it to pass.He left school with a C in PE and a C in Music — both on performance marks alone, because he never bothered sitting the written exams. Drank in the park, caused trouble, got himself a reputation and wore it as a badge of honour. At 21, something shifted. He made two Google searches on the same day: being the child of an alcoholic, which is when NACOA appeared. And what is the toughest race on earth, which is when the Marathon des Sables appeared. Six marathons across the Sahara Desert in five days, 50 degree heat, sandstorms, a medical tent where people's feet were degloved from the sand. Scott decided he was going to do both.It took him eight years. He went back to college, got straight A's, went to university, got straight A's again and won the court medal — the highest academic award for business at his university. Retrained, found a job he believed in, started working with NACOA, ran the Marathon des Sables in April last year for the charity, then ran 100km from Glasgow to Edinburgh through the night without sleeping to hand a letter from a grieving child to John Swinney, Scotland's First Minister.Now 60 days out from attempting a Guinness World Record — two marathons in two time zones on the same day in Samoa — with Callum Best, Ian Stringer and Josh Connolly, all children of alcoholics, all NACOA ambassadors. The goal: to fund a national schools education programme so that children like Scott never have to count cans in silence again.You can find Scott on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/scott1murdochand you can donate to his Chasing Yesterday Marathons here:https://www.instagram.com/scott1murdoch?igsh=MWhkMG01OTltdmo4OA==My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 79 | Paul Drayton — Ride or Die Trying: Beach Blanket Babylon, Two Brain Operations & the Love Story at the Heart of It AllPaul Drayton grew up in Sunderland — doors unlocked, family holidays, a dad who ran his own petrol station, a childhood he describes as idyllic. His first real taste of alcohol was chocolate liqueurs at his grandmother's, and he loved the feeling from the start. Not that he became a big drinker early — quite the opposite. As a teenager he was the designated driver, ferrying his friends to gay bars in his little box Astra while they drank cider and he listened to Erasure.Then came London. Drama college. Beach Blanket Babylon, where the tips sometimes came in wraps and the shift ended at 3am and the mornings brought in with Bloody Marys to take the edge off. The trendy bars of the nineties. A life built around parties, people and performance. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, a relationship that would define the next decade of his life — with a man who became, over time, one of the most recognisable faces in Britain, while Paul quietly built everything around him and slowly stopped being Paul.By 2015 he was at home alone with the dogs, self-medicating sciatica with alcohol, going to neighbours' houses to ask if they had any wine left. The drinking went from functioning to dependent. A drink driving incident that Paul still doesn't believe tells the full story ended up in court and in the tabloids. Two lots of brain surgery for a chronic subdural haematoma. A divorce. A month in rehab. And through all of it — all of it — he stayed sober.The book — Ride or Die Trying — is at its heart a love story. Paul talks about the dogs who kept him honest, the 274 days that ended with champagne at a wedding, the ADHD diagnosis that finally made his whole life make sense, and what it means to finally be somebody again on your own terms.You can find Paul on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/pauldrayton1His website:https://pauldrayton.co.ukand you can buy his book, Ride or Die Trying here:https://amzn.to/4pguaPPMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nigel Jones is the founder of the 9KM BY 9AM health and wellbeing platform, an accredited life coach, sober coach, hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner, and the author of the best selling QUIT DRINKING book Walking Back To Happiness: The Secret To Alcohol-Free Living & Well-being.After recently reaching 2,000 alcohol-free days, Nigel has become known for his practical, no-nonsense approach to personal transformation and identity change. In this episode, he shares how stopping drinking wasn't the biggest challenge - rebuilding himself was. We explore why alcohol promises what sobriety delivers, the power of small habits, how to break free from old versions of yourself, and why lasting change happens when you stop focusing on willpower and start changing your identity.Drawing on his own journey and his work with thousands of people looking to improve their wellbeing, Nigel explains why becoming alcohol-free is about far more than removing alcohol. It's about creating a healthier, calmer, more authentic version of yourself and building a life you no longer want to escape from.LINKSWebsite - https://www.9kmby9am.com/My Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DLPH36R3/ Alcohol Free Coaching Programmes - https://www.9kmby9am.com/coaching/alcohol-free-coaching/Coaching Testimonials - https://www.9kmby9am.com/coaching/coaching-testimonials/Newsletter - https://www.9kmby9am.com/latest-news/newsletter/ Professional Bodies https://general-hypnotherapy-register.com/nigel-jones/ Professional Bodies - https://anlp.org/members/nigel-jones Feel Good Hour  - https://www.feelgoodhour.com Podcasts - https://www.9kmby9am.com/about-nigel/podcasts/ TRY MY AI LIFE COACHhttps://www.9kmby9am.com/about-nigel/ai-coach/ My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 77 | Dan Sheridan — Big Dan Stella in a Straight Glass: Cirrhosis, a 20% Chance & the Liver That Changed EverythingDan Sheridan grew up in Harwell, Oxfordshire — a village with five pubs and a club, a dad who was his hero, and a first attempt on his own life at 22 that he talked his way out of in front of a psychiatrist and never went back to. He became a dad at 19 to a woman sixteen years his senior, never found his footing, and spent the better part of two decades hiding behind a personality so large that the people who loved him genuinely couldn't believe he was suffering. Big Dan. Stella in a straight glass. Never drunk in public — just absolutely hammered at home at two in the morning, singing Adele, dancing to Happy Hardcore and hoping his eyes wouldn't open again.When his liver finally gave out the signs were there for years — size fourteen shoes on a size twelve man, legs that were just blocks of water, blood in places blood shouldn't be. He was diagnosed with cirrhosis in 2019 and that night went on Facebook Live to announce he was going to be the first person to cure the condition. Then bought 18 tins of Stella.In 2020, during COVID, he had a catastrophic GI bleed and decorated his house in blood. He was given a 50% chance of surviving the night. He was thinking about the lager in the fridge. The next morning a doctor told him he had a 20% chance of making it through the next hour — then the ward doors burst open and he went down fast. He woke up in ICU unable to remember his address.What followed was three years of transplant lists, stomach drains, weekly breathalyser tests, encephalopathy so severe he rang friends to tell them he was playing Ronnie O'Sullivan at Twickenham while using a fork to call Domino's. Then a TikTok video. Then a comment. Then a message. Then a phone call. Then Claire.On 1,111 days sober, he got a call on a Saturday — we don't normally ring patients on a Saturday, Dan, but we've got a liver for you. Three years ago on the 4th of June. He thanks that man every single day.You can find Dan on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/danman147On TikTok at:https://www.tiktok.com/@mrssheridanshusbandMum, can you Lend me Twenty Quid - Elizabeth Burton-Phillips MBEhttps://amzn.to/4vDciB7Basketball Diarieshttps://amzn.to/4wfkB63My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 76 | Brad McLeod — The Million Dollar Man: Running from everything, Drug Trafficking & the Moment Everything ShiftedBrad McLeod was born in Canada, one of twins, to a sixteen-year-old mother still living with her own parents. By the time he was six the family had relocated to Waco, Texas, and the stability he'd known at his grandparents' hands had gone. The anxiety started early. The ADHD diagnosis followed. The suspensions. The arrests. The psychiatrists, the counsellors, the pharmaceuticals — Prozac, Wellbutrin, Adderall, all of it. By sixteen he was in a lockdown treatment unit in Knoxville, Tennessee — transported there by a private security company after refusing to go voluntarily, running through a beehive and a barbed wire fence at a highway rest stop on the way.He did a year in that program, came out the other side with a college acceptance and a car his parents had scraped together to buy him. Six months later he was sitting at a poker table when someone pulled out a pain pill and asked if he wanted to try it. He didn't know what an opiate was. He found out fast. The pills ran dry and the heroin came. He got robbed at gunpoint. He lost the apartment, the car, the college place. He got arrested again — drug trafficking charges — and when he stepped off a plane to visit his family, the police were waiting. A year in jail. Deportation. A lifetime ban from the United States.He came back to Canada with a suitcase on his brother's floor, walking two hours each day to collect his methadone prescription, earning ten dollars an hour cash doing yard work for his parents just to cover the script. It was watching a girl's face light up to see him as he sat handcuffed in the back of a police car that finally made something shift — not the arrests, not the jail, not the deportation. Just one face in a car park.Now sober, Brad runs the Sober Motivation Instagram, hosts his own podcast and has built one of the most active recovery communities online. His grandfather used to call him the million dollar man — for all the money spent trying to fix him. These days Brad's spending it differently.You can find Brad on Insta at: https://www.instagram.com/sobermotivationBrad's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/SobermotivationThe Podcast: https://shows.acast.com/sobermotivationThe Website: https://www.sobermotivation.comand the App! https://www.sobermotivation.com/?fbclid=PAVERFWAShEIpleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAaeM4yWqIsLZX4WK2KIXxKLT_V16Zhy9KUX7HmMZpj2VYfL9IZKO_NUeosKkGw_aem_uLKEHdE2U-8PLJXYvYoGeQDreamseller - Brandon Novak - https://amzn.to/4guPmz3My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 75 | William Porter — Alcohol Explained: Iraq, Cointreau at Dawn & 12 Years on the Other SideWilliam Porter grew up in Raynes Park, South West London — fine childhood, nothing dramatic — started drinking at 14 in a park with a friend and a bottle from the off-licence. It was a non-event. But the culture of the 90s, the lads, the music, Oasis, TFI Friday, all of it normalised getting absolutely hammered as a personality trait. By the time he’d done university in Cardiff, law school in Guildford and landed a paralegal job in London, drinking was simply what you did.Then at 26, half drunk on the sofa watching TV, an advert for the Territorial Army came on. He joined the Parachute Regiment reserve, quit drinking for three months to get through P Company selection, and passed. Then in 2005 he got mobilised and deployed to Iraq. In the build-up training, wracked with anxiety about what was ahead, he found the one thing that made the terror go away — a half cup of coffee filled up with Cointreau each morning, then drinking steadily through the day whenever he wasn’t training. Iraq itself was completely dry for six months. He came back thinking the enforced detox had fixed it. It hadn’t.By his early thirties — married, two young sons — the pattern was drinking heavily from Friday lunchtime through the weekend, waking at 3am to drink himself back to sleep, dragging himself into work Monday and doing nothing, then cramming the week’s work into three days. In February 2014 he crawled out of five days of constant drinking and made the decision to stop. Cold turkey, three days of hell, and then — slowly — the realisation that what he’d thought was him at 100% was actually him at 60%.He wrote Alcohol Explained in 2015, one of the most widely read and recommended books in the sobriety space, explaining the science, psychology and mechanics of alcohol addiction in plain language. Now 12 years sober, running three miles every morning, and navigating a difficult divorce without reaching for a bottle.You can find William on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/alcoholexplained?igsh=MXU1NGk1bGdhMW9sZw==Check out his website at:https://alcoholexplained.comDemon Coperhead - Barbara Kingsolverhttps://amzn.to/4uFt026The Outrun - Amy Liptrothttps://amzn.to/4fQ2ApOThe Outrun - Filmhttps://amzn.to/4ede45tAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/43HL3ZyMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 74 | April (Sally Sober) — From Whistler Snowboarder to 42 Days in Hospital: The Full StoryApril grew up in London, Ontario — good grades, scholarship to university, full of creative ambition. She was the weird middle kid who painted her nails black and hung out with the art kids, and found her first real confidence at 19 when she discovered alcohol above the campus pub. What followed was a decade that looked brilliant from the outside: five years in Whistler snowboarding six days a week, a ska band in Vancouver, a career in travel sales, nightclub promoting. Work hard, play hard — always in balance, always functioning. Then COVID happened.Locked down with a partner who also drank heavily, no job, liquor stores open from 7am, the balance tipped. By the time things opened up and the relationship ended, April was drinking alone to fall asleep and waking up at 2am to do it again. Loneliness was the trigger — it always has been. When a family member flew out and saw what her life had actually become, that was the moment things had to change.What followed was a two-year cycle of getting sober, hitting a milestone, telling herself she’d been sober long enough to have just one — and relapsing. Four times. Each time the withdrawal was harder because she knew what was coming. Then this February: almost five months sober, Valentine’s Day, her friend cancelled at the last minute, a bottle of wine at home, a long weekend, the old crowd, and eventually — through a chain of events she can’t fully discuss for legal reasons — 42 days in hospital with emergency surgery. She lost her job. She couldn’t eat or drink anything for two weeks. A nurse left a bottle of water on the counter and she lay there staring at it, lips cracked, not allowed to touch it.Now two months back and 111 days sober, April — who started her account as Sally Sober before going by her real name — talks about finally knowing who she is without a drink, the opposite of addiction being connection, and why this time genuinely feels different.You can find April on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/sobergalproblems?igsh=MTY1OHRtaW04ZmR3MA==My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 73 | Ross Powell — Jersey, Ketamine & Running Ultras: How £100K, a Van Crash & 18 Hours in a Cell Finally Broke ThroughRoss grew up on Jersey — nine miles by five — in a house where his dad drank heavily from Friday to Sunday and family life happened around arguing and alcohol. There was no one kicking a ball about with him, no male figure showing up for things. So Ross found his people outside, got easily led, got into trouble at school, and by 13 was paralytic at a New Year’s Eve party wondering why people kept telling him the next day about a version of himself he didn’t recognise. That version, he’d eventually realise, was his dad.Through his twenties he worked as a maintenance carpenter, drank every weekend to blackout, and smoked weed daily. Then after COVID he inherited £100,000. Within 16 months it was gone — all of it snorted or drunk, surrounded by people who appeared when the money did and vanished when it didn’t. He had over 30 Monday no-shows at work in a single year. Ketamine became his midweek go-to. He crashed a van while on it with friends in the back, tried to do a runner, got caught, and spent 18 hours crying in a cell. The fine cleared his bank account. He was close to prison.What pulled him back was running. He went from never running in his life to a sub-four-hour marathon in four months — then an ultra of 100K in Austria. Each time he cleaned up something would bring him back: a funeral wake, a friend saying you’ve done so well, the cogs of the old life turning again. Three pints at a pub and he felt nothing but shame. He left with his mum.Now approaching a year sober on Jersey, training for ultras, in a relationship with a woman who used to take drugs just to try and fit in around him, Ross talks about what sobriety actually is: not becoming a better person, but stripping back to your raw, honest self with nowhere left to hide. His word for life now: magical.Ross is on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/rosspowell__?igsh=MWliZHk0aDd5M2N4Mw==The Daily Stoic - Ryan Holidayhttps://amzn.to/4vduoZFCan't Hurt Me - David Gogginshttps://amzn.to/4vmeXyDTOMU - The Open Mic Unfiltered Podcasthttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tomu-the-open-mic-unfiltered/id1822149303My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us Fan MailEpisode 72 | Jessica White — Sexier Sober: The San Diego Coach Who Quit Without Trying & Never Looked BackIn this bright, sharp and genuinely thought-provoking episode, Jimmy sits down with Jessica White — sober coach, host of the Sexier Sober podcast, and professional organiser based in Carlsbad, California — whose story of growing up in a high-functioning drinking household, nine years of blackout drinking, and a moment of quiet moral clarity that ended it all without drama or rehab is one of the most distinctive the podcast has featured.Jess grew up in San Diego in a well-meaning, loving family where both parents had substance issues — managed, high-functioning, never chaotic — but emotionally distant. She absorbed drinking as the normal currency of connection: football parties, family gatherings, the way adults loosened up and let go. A sensitive, neurodivergent kid who felt something was always slightly wrong with her, she couldn’t wait to find what would finally make her feel okay. At 14, she found it — blacked out the first time, threw up, and couldn’t wait for the next one.For nine years, Jess drank hard and largely had fun — social, energetic, the life of every party. She chose UC San Diego deliberately, a school full of serious students, because some part of her knew she needed that counterweight. She graduated with good grades. But outside the library, Thursday through Sunday, she was blacking out consistently, waking up with no memory of whole nights, doing things she’d never do sober, saying things she’d never say, sleeping with people she’d never have chosen — and rationalising every single time that next time she’d moderate.The moment that broke it wasn’t dramatic. It was a Tuesday night, Taco Tuesday, with a younger colleague who looked up to her as a role model. Jess had two or three drinks, remembered nothing, lost her phone, was driven home drunk by the person who called her a mentor. The shame wasn’t about the hangover. It was about the profound split between who she was performing herself to be and who she was actually showing up as. Out of alignment. Out of integrity. Done.That was July 8th 2020 — two weeks before Jimmy’s own sober date. She never craved it again.What makes Jess’s story distinctive is the path she took before that date. Three years of internal work — meditation, journaling, visualisation, studying how she worked. Six months of treatment at Rogers Behavioral Health for depression and anxiety — not for alcohol. A growing circle of people who were living differently and reflecting back to her what was possible. By the time she put down the drink, the work was already done. The alcohol just stopped fitting the life she was building.Now nearly five years sober, Jess runs Sexier Sober — one-to-one coaching, a podcast, and a community membership — built around the radical idea that sobriety isn’t the goal. The goal is becoming so clear on who you are and who you want to be that alcohol simply stops making sense. Effortless sobriety, she calls it. Not easy. Just inevitable.You can find Jess on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/jessmariewhite?igsh=MTdhMnJpeTE2cWdmbA==And her Linktree:https://linktr.ee/jessMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us Fan MailEpisode 71 - SimonIn this episode, Jimmy sits down with Simon, a 36-year-old Glaswegian stonemason and business owner who grew up in the drinking culture of the West of Scotland. Simon shares his honest journey from teenage blackouts and festival benders, to using alcohol as a stress coping mechanism when launching his own business — and how his wife Katie’s gentle nudge finally pushed him toward lasting sobriety. Now 10 months in and doing the inner work through therapy, Simon’s story is a powerful reminder that sobriety isn’t about white-knuckling it — it’s about understanding yourself.Simon is a stonemason living in Glasgow.For most of his adult life, he found himself drifting into moments where he’d imagine a sober life. He always wanted to get there, but never quite knew how. How would he fit in? How would he function without a drink?In 2020, he started his own business. That became the final straw that broke the camel’s back. His drinking had been creeping up for years, and things were starting to unravel. Work, relationships, life, all of it felt heavier.In July 2023, at the end of a music festival, he told his wife he’d had enough.Since then, he’s had periods of sobriety, some longer than others. But now, 8 months in, something feels different. Alongside therapy and a deeper understanding of himself, this time feels real.You can find Simon on Instrgram at:https://www.instagram.com/simon.is.sober?igsh=MThzNml6NjJ3N3Judw==Simon’s Just Giving Page:https://www.justgiving.com/page/katie-simon-arran?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=WA&fbclid=PAVERFWARixVhleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAaceN9IlkXqO6zmeAbDJlraesiRvBGZeXdBDA45sp5-SC65n0lD-tw2x2aHh3Q_aem_zA-QpmtZqZzd2eVvYm5G8AAndrew Huberman - Podcast Episodehttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/huberman-lab/id1545953110?i=1000744781362My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 70 - Abi KingIn this powerful episode of After Hours Guys, Jimmy sits down with Abi King, a sober coach and host of the Sober Connection Podcast, now based in New Zealand. Abi opens up about her journey from teenage binge drinking in 1990s England to four years of hard-won sobriety — and everything in between.Abi is originally from the UK, but now lives in New Zealand. Mum to 3 teenage girls, she spent most of their childhood buying into the 'mummy wine' culture, rushing bedtime so she could get to the couch and her bottle of wine (or 2). After one of her daughters told her they didn't like the sound of her voice when she was drinking, Abi decided to quit, thinking it would be easy. It took 4 years of constant stop-starting but she got there in the end. Now over 4 years sober, she's finally become the mum she always knew she should be. She now educates people on alcohol-related issues through her 1:1 coaching and her own podcast, The Sober Connection. You can find Abi on instagram:https://www.instagram.com/levelup.withabi?igsh=MTdmbTBlN3k0NzM1bA==30 Days to Freedom by Abi Kinghttps://subscribepage.io/30-days-to-freedom-resetThe Sober Connection Podcasthttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-sober-connection/id1809595582Mrs D is Going Without - Lotta Dannhttps://amzn.to/4dUyOOkBoing Point https://amzn.to/4wXOlFJThe Virtueshttps://amzn.to/3PMbiuQMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 69 - Emma NewmanIn this deeply honest episode, Jimmy sits down with Emma Newman, a 10-year sobriety veteran who got sober in 2015 — before sober coaching existed, before quit-lit flooded the shelves, before Instagram accounts made recovery feel possible. Emma’s story is one of the most relatable on the podcast precisely because there was no dramatic rock bottom. No intervention. No ultimatum. Just a quiet, growing certainty that alcohol wasn’t serving her anymore.Emma quit drinking over ten years ago, long before sobriety became a trend or a wellness choice. Back then, choosing not to drink often raised eyebrows, and the only visible routes were AA or rehab. Emma chose neither, instead carving out her own path—without quit lit, podcasts, or a sober community to lean on.By day, she’s a mum to two teenagers (and two cats) and works for a disability charity. In her spare time, she’s become a passionate advocate for alcohol-free drinks, supporting the category from its earliest days. Today, Emma is a regular judge of alcohol-free categories and writes about non-alcoholic drinks, bringing both lived experience and a sharp critical palate to a category that’s come a long way since she started.You can find Emma on instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/emma_sobersonic?igsh=MXVhY2JraXdodWhzbw==And Emma’s linktree at:https://linktr.ee/emma_sobersonicLove Sober Podcasthttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/love-sober-podcast/id1379018341The Outrun - Amy Liptrothttps://amzn.to/4wZI4JBWild - Cheryl Strayedhttps://amzn.to/3RTyLuyDry - Augusten Burroughshttps://amzn.to/3PU8T19Wintering - Katherine Mayhttps://amzn.to/4wOYPqKMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 68 - Adam BurgIn this compelling episode, Jimmy sits down with Adam Berg, a government affairs lobbyist and mayoral appointee from Denver, Colorado, whose polished professional exterior hid nearly a decade of secret, escalating alcohol abuse. Adam’s story is a masterclass in high-functioning denial — working with US senators, building a career in law and policy, all while hiding bottles in his car, refilling them so nobody would notice, and drinking every single night.Adam Burg lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife and their dog, Ruby. His sobriety date (May 20, 2022) marks a turning point that came after more than a decade spent cycling through alcoholism, stuck in the all-too-familiar limbo between wanting change and not knowing how to reach it. Eventually, something shifted. Adam made the decision to confront his illness head-on. He asked for help, committed to recovery, and began the hard, daily work of rebuilding his life with honesty and intention. Today, that same journey has become a source of purpose. What once held him back now fuels his ability to connect with and support others facing similar struggles. His story is one of resilience, accountability, and the belief that change is possible for anyone, one day at a time.You can find Adam on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/sober__traveler?igsh=MW41bjFvczd2cnBlaA==Unexpected joy of being sober - Catherine Greyhttps://amzn.to/4uLnmM0Recovery Elevator - Podcasthttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/recovery-elevator/id971959728My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 67 - Laura McKowenIn this landmark episode, Jimmy sits down with Laura McKowen — bestselling author of We Are the Luckiest and Push Off From Here, co-founder of one of sobriety’s earliest podcasts, and one of the most important voices in the modern recovery movement. With nearly 11 years of sobriety, Laura’s story is equal parts raw, literary, and profoundly hopeful.Laura is the author of the bestselling memoir We Are The Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life and Push Off From Here: Nine Essential Truths to Get You Through Life (and Everything Else).Her work explores the intersection of addiction, recovery, emotional sobriety, and the complexities of relationships. She has written for The New York Times and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The TODAY Show, and more.In 2020, she founded The Luckiest Club, a global sobriety support community, and she writes Love Story, a popular Substack newsletter about sobriety, relationships, and writing. She is currently working on her third book.Laura lives with her daughter on the North Shore of Boston.You can find Laura on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/laura_mckowen?igsh=MjBnbDE5eHExbjY2And all Laura’s other links on Linktree:https://linktr.ee/laura_mckowenWe Are The Luckiest - Laura McKowenhttps://amzn.to/43CQRDLPush off From Here - Laura McKowenhttps://amzn.to/435OMjtJohn O’Donohue - The Inner Landscape of Beautyhttps://open.spotify.com/episode/4gzzImBlp1rDvtzMg03g6E?si=MUtEe9SsQA2fGx2J4lDezASentimental Valuehttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt27714581/?ref_=ext_shr_lnkDrinking: A Love Story - Caroline Knapphttps://amzn.to/3Puk9kMMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 66 | Nikki Pears — 5 Years Sober, One Drink, and Back to Square One: Why Putting Down the Bottle Is Just the BeginningIn this raw and deeply honest episode, Jimmy sits down with Nikki Pears — South African-born sober coach, nervous system specialist, and founder of Mommy Is Sober — whose journey through addiction, relapse, rehab, and ultimately real recovery is one of the most layered and instructive stories the podcast has ever featured.Nikki grew up in Johannesburg feeling lost, socially anxious, and like everyone else had been given a manual for life that she never received. Her first drink at 17 — sneaked in the bushes outside an Italian club — felt like the solution she’d been searching for. The anxiety melted away. She became the life of the party. She finally felt like she belonged. That feeling became the compass she chased for the next two decades.Through veterinary nursing school in South Africa, where she became the first woman accepted into the Vets’ drinking club and students hooked each other up to saline drips to cure hangovers before morning lectures, to falling in love in Mozambique and building a successful scuba diving centre on the beach — Nikki’s life looked extraordinary from the outside. Beautiful home. Thriving business. A loving husband who knew when to stop. Three kids. And inside, a hole in her soul that no amount of alcohol, success, or sunshine could fill.The drinking got worse. The rules — only wine, only after six, only on Fridays — never lasted. She missed her flight to rehab three times because she needed one last party first. She eventually checked herself in for what she thought would be four weeks. She stayed for six. And it worked — for two years. Then she stopped going to meetings, decided she’d cracked it, and white-knuckled the next three years in a state of furious, emotionally volatile, exhausting dry sobriety — still carrying every unprocessed feeling, just without the numbing agent. After five years, she picked up a drink. Within weeks it was worse than before rehab.What finally worked — and what makes Nikki’s story genuinely different — was going inward. Nervous system regulation. Learning that she’d spent her entire life in fight-or-flight mode, suppressing every emotion since childhood, and that sobriety without inner healing is just white-knuckling in slow motion. Now four years into what she calls her real recovery, Nikki coaches women online through @mommyissober, helping them regulate their nervous systems so alcohol loses its grip — not through willpower, but through genuine inner peace.You can find Nikki on instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/mommyissober?igsh=MWh1Zno3ZXUyc2hlOA==And Nikki's website is here:https://mommyissober.live/The Surrender Experiment - Michael A. Singerhttps://amzn.to/4dYoZijMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 65 | Ashley Howard — The Secret Drinker Nobody Suspected: A Straight A Student, a Fitness Coach & 3 Years SoberIn this compelling episode, Jimmy sits down with Ashley Howard — certified recovery coach, life coach, and health and fitness entrepreneur from South Carolina — whose story of secret, private drinking behind the perfect public image is one of the most quietly relatable the podcast has ever featured.Ashley grew up in Pennsylvania as the daughter of a hard-working single mum who was rarely home. A straight A student, a sports star, always ticking the boxes — and from age 14, secretly drinking at parties on weekends, then going home and sliding back into her model student life as if nothing had happened. Nobody suspected a thing. That pattern — performing perfectly in public while crossing lines in private — would define the next two decades.By 19 she was arrested for underage possession of alcohol. By 21 she had a DUI. Both were brushed under the carpet. She got the job anyway, met her husband on a work trip, built a thriving fitness coaching business, had two children — and quietly, steadily, shifted from social weekend binge drinking to something far more private and deliberate. Her happiest time of day became when her whole family was asleep and she could finally drink the way she actually wanted to drink. Two, three, four drinks every night, alone on the couch, protecting the image of the health and fitness coach who had it all together.Then in one year, Ashley lost her brother to drug complications and her father to lung cancer from 40 years of smoking. Two deaths from preventable causes. And still she didn’t connect it to her own relationship with alcohol, because she told herself: I don’t do drugs. I don’t smoke. It took nine more years.The turning point came on a trip to Scotland for a wedding — watching a friend who’d always been a big drinker thriving without alcohol and still being the life of the party. The voice in her head got loud. She came home, got through Christmas with family, and on January 8th 2023, sat down on the couch, turned to her husband, and said the words she’d been terrified to say out loud: I want to be done with alcohol forever. I’d like your help. They cleared the house that night.She used the 75 Hard fitness challenge as her public cover story while she quietly did the inner work. Six weeks later she posted her story on Instagram. Then a few reels went viral — five million views — and her inbox was flooded with people saying this is my story too. She got certified as a recovery coach, built a free online community, and now helps women who look exactly like she did: healthy, driven, successful on the outside — and secretly dependent on alcohol to get through the night.You can find Ashley on Instagram at:https://amzn.eu/d/074zO5jEAnd her website at:https://www.ashleyhowardcoaching.comSober Motivation with Brad McLeodhttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/sober-motivation-sharing-sobriety-stories/id1650658049Annie Grace - This Naked Mindhttps://amzn.to/4u1tK0nAnnie Grace - The Alcohol Experimenthttps://amzn.to/43zCwrILaura McKowen - Push Off from Herehttps://amzn.to/4uG2mGBMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 64 | Dawn — Soberfish: The Pioneer Who Changed What Sobriety Looked Like OnlineIn this warm and wide-ranging episode, Jimmy sits down with Dawn, the woman behind Soberfish — one of the earliest and most influential sobriety communities on the internet. Now approaching a decade sober and working remotely from a beach in Thailand, Dawn’s story is a masterclass in what happens when you finally put down the bottle and let your real life begin.Dawn grew up in North London before her family relocated to Poole, Dorset when she was 16 — uprooting her from everything she knew at exactly the wrong age. That need to fit in, to be accepted, to belong, became the engine that drove her drinking from her teens through her 20s and 30s. She was always the one who got the sickest, always the last one standing, always the one with no off switch — drinking a bottle of wine a night from her early 20s, celebrating weight loss with a Chinese takeaway and more wine, and letting generous friends with deeper pockets fund nights that went far longer than they should have.What made Dawn’s story different from many was the absence of the traditional rock bottom. She never got married, never had kids — and while her friends naturally slowed down when life took over, Dawn had nothing to pull her back. She drank through her 30s feeling like a failure for not meeting someone, not realising that the drinking itself was why people kept drifting away. By her early 40s she was overweight, a heavy smoker, and exhausted.Then in summer 2016 a before-and-after photo of people who’d quit drinking appeared in her Facebook feed. She hadn’t searched for it. She just saw it, looked in the mirror, and decided to give herself a year off — mainly to lose weight and quit smoking, fully intending to drink again. She got ill in November, accidentally got a head start on sobriety, and by six months in, knew she was never going back.With almost no sober content online at the time — just a handful of Facebook groups and Becks Blue — Dawn started sharing her story publicly to lighten the load of her “boring” new life. What she got back changed everything: thousands of messages from people saying I’m just like you — people who didn’t identify as alcoholics, who’d never googled sobriety, but who saw themselves completely in her words. Gray area drinking before anyone called it that.Now nearly 10 years sober, six stone lighter, non-smoking, running a membership community and coaching practice, and living her dream of working from the sunshine, Dawn is living proof that sobriety isn’t the grey, boring compromise society told us it was. It’s everything else.Catch Dawn on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/soberfishie?igsh=ZjVwbjJqaDJmczR3or on Facebook at:https://www.facebook.com/share/18vvijBris/?mibextid=wwXIfrDawn's Linktree:https://linktr.ee/Soberfish?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAdGRleAQqhjhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAadjo2U7bFrRAONzzbycrGG000G7TntaAHX6KJAa7Y141EdsrbGnDAFn3jmhLw_aem_NIEBd5DpI53j1Sa6L4HNPQAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4dF6xw7Glorious Rock Bottom - Bryony Gordonhttps://amzn.to/4u40nukMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 63 | Mikey Banks — From Cocaine Debt, Violence & Planning His Own Death to 4 Years Clean⚠️ Content warning: This episode contains discussion of addiction, violence, debt and suicide.In this searingly honest and deeply moving episode, Jimmy sits down with Mikey Banks — Aberdeen joiner turned recovery advocate and founder of the Better Together Ball — whose story goes further into the darkness than almost any guest the podcast has featured.Mikey grew up on a council estate in Aberdeen, loved and cared for by his parents, causing mischief, playing out late, and finding alcohol at 12 or 13 — not because he loved it at first, but because he needed to belong. By the time he started his joinery apprenticeship at 16 he was drinking with men twice his age. Then cocaine arrived, and everything changed. Unlike alcohol, the first line of coke told him: this is it.Through his early 20s, Mikey held it together. Working, paying bills, holidays, cars — the facade of a functioning life. But the cocaine use grew, the money ran out, and his bright idea to start dealing to fund his habit quickly spiralled into thousands of pounds of debt to dangerous people. By 26 the wheels had come off completely. He was using several grams a day, stealing from everyone he loved including his father’s treasured £9,000 watch which he sold for £400, manipulating his parents, lying to his wife, and driving to his dealer’s house before work each morning just to be able to function.The violence came next. Drug dealers gave him a choice: take a beating or watch them do his house. He took the beating. Four men stamped on his head, kicked out five of his teeth, spat on him and laughed. His first thought when it was over? I need to get drugs. He walked to a shop, cleaned his face, and went to score.By March 2022, aged 32, Mikey had had enough. He wrote individual letters to his wife, his children, and his parents, left them neatly on the bedside table, left his phone behind, and walked out with a pocket full of drugs and a pocket full of drink — heading for a bridge over the River Don. Nineteen hours later, five minutes from the bridge, police found him. A female officer put her arms around him and said thank God we found you. It was the first act of pure kindness he’d felt in years. That moment cracked something open.Recovery wasn’t linear. Relapses at 11 days, then 54 days. But on 15 June 2022, he used for the last time. Nearly four years later, Mikey is clean, sober, rebuilding his marriage, present for his three children — and carrying the ashes of his best friend Blaine, who died by suicide 54 days into his own recovery, around his neck as a daily reminder of why he does what he does.Now building the I Am Movement and organising the Better Together Ball charity event for suicide prevention, Mikey is one of the most powerful voices in the recovery community — not because he has a certificate, but because he’s lived every word of it.Find Mikey on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/mikeybanksrr?igsh=cjdqbGVwcTY1YW0xMikey’s I AM movement:https://ko-fi.com/s/08ce0f2ede?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAVERFWAQfukxleHRuA2My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 62 | Rachel Sereni — From Watching Her Mum Die of an Overdose at 16 to Co-Hosting a Recovery Podcast: The Ratchet Rachel StoryIn this raw, emotional and ultimately triumphant episode, Jimmy sits down with Rachel Sereni — co-host of the Rock Bottom with Ryan podcast — whose story of generational addiction, childhood trauma, and hard-won sobriety is one of the most layered the show has ever featured.Rachel grew up in South Florida watching her mother — addicted to opioids and benzos — nod out on the sofa with lit cigarettes in her hand. As a five-year-old, Rachel was taking her baby sister’s dirty nappies off because nobody else was. Walking across roads alone to get cookies from the clubhouse because she was hungry. Her father eventually fought for custody — no small feat for a man in Florida in the mid-90s — and won. But Rachel’s mother kept coming back into her life, erratic and unreliable, until the day before her death when she offered Rachel a handful of coloured pills from her pocket at a shopping mall. Rachel was 16. The next day was the last time she saw her mum alive. That night, she got the call to go to the hospital. The nurses hadn’t cleaned her up. Rachel collapsed.Grief, abandonment and the search for belonging set Rachel on a path of drinking, benzos and ecstasy through her late teens, surrounded by people far older than her who should have known better. By 19 she was stealing and watering down her dad’s alcohol. By 21 — legally able to drink for the first time — she’d just given birth to her son Gabriel. He went to the NICU for ten days. Her first thought? We’ve got a free babysitter. Let’s go play beer pong.What followed was years of blackout drinking, getting barred from bars, fighting strangers and — as her alter ego Ratchet Rachel — becoming physically abusive to her partner Carlos. A DUI ended that relationship. A new one with John, who moved in fast and tried to keep up, slowly watching Rachel deteriorate: 221 pounds, sleeping all day, no job, their home a mess. On their seven-year anniversary she promised him a nice dinner and drank herself unconscious instead.His ultimatum came the next morning. Ten days later, Rachel drove to a parking lot with a bottle of Pinot Grigio, two shots of banana liqueur, and a tube of toothpaste as her alibi. She got halfway through the bottle, threw it across a field, collapsed on the tarmac screaming, and that was it. Her surrender moment. She went home, got on the scales (221 lbs), started a new job, and got sober — all on the same day.Now approaching two years sober, Rachel has lost 80 pounds, is present in her son’s life, co-hosts one of recovery’s fastest-growing podcasts, and is getting married on her exact two-year sobriety anniversary. On her future mother-in-law’s deathbed, she made a promise to stay sober. She’s keeping it.Catch Rachel on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/realtalkwithrachieRock Bottom with Ryan Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/rock-bottom-with-ryan/id1827151504Mel Robbins - Let Themhttps://amzn.to/4wYTrBqDr. Anna Lembke - Dopamine Nationhttps://amzn.to/4dGYAGYMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 61 | Natalie — From Brooklyn Moonshine & Croatian Moonshine to Cocaine, Custody Battles & 3 Years Sober: A Story of SynchronicityIn this extraordinary episode, Jimmy sits down with Natalie — a first-generation Croatian American from Brooklyn, New York, whose recovery story is unlike any other on the podcast. It spans moonshine at age seven, a supernatural premonition that saved her life at ten, ecstasy, cocaine, a toxic divorce, a restraining order served on her last day of rehab, and a grandmother who died at 5:55pm on 11/11 — and whose passing became Natalie’s rebirth.Growing up in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, alcohol was never a problem in Natalie’s family — it was a ritual. Every September her Croatian family would make wine and Rakija, a 150-proof moonshine so powerful you’d feel it in your chest from a single piece of fruit soaked in it. Her first sip of Hennessy and Coke came at age seven from a great-uncle who loved her. She climbed a ladder to the roof singing. She was hooked on the feeling long before she knew what that meant.At ten, a force she still can’t explain physically held her down in the back seat of her brother’s car — preventing her from climbing to the front passenger seat moments before another vehicle’s grill came crashing through exactly that spot. Her brother pulled glass from his hands, crying. “How did you know?” She didn’t. She just knew.Diagnosed with depression, anxiety and rage at 12, Natalie witnessed a murder on her corner at nine, grew up without a woman figure to guide her, and found alcohol, ecstasy, pills, quaaludes, acid, ketamine and eventually cocaine in quick succession through her teens and twenties. She crashed her car outside a police precinct in Coney Island at 20, stone drunk, and charmed her way out of an arrest. She was always the ringleader. Always the one who didn’t know when to stop.A nine-year relationship and brief marriage brought a period of relative calm — until it fell apart. Then a second marriage, two daughters, a COVID baby born mid-pandemic and sent home from a C-section in 24 hours, postpartum depression, and a marriage imploding around her. Natalie found herself waiting every night for her children to fall asleep so she could drink herself into a stupor, cut lines of cocaine, and clean the house alone in the dark. She was self-harming. She was having heart palpitations. The alcohol stopped working. No matter how much she drank she couldn’t feel anything — so she’d add more cocaine, and feel her heart racing towards a heart attack instead.Then her grandmother — who had helped raise her — died on All Saints’ Day at exactly 5:55pm. 11/11. The angel number for divine guidance. 5:55 — the number for change. Natalie didn’t grieve. She collapsed. And then she surrendered.She checked into rehab on November 28th 2022, excelled — they called her Little Miss Sunshine, she organised karaoke every day — and on her final day before discharge, was handed a restraining order from her ex-husband. She went to jail in February for sending a text. She lost her job of 11 years. Her ex lived in her father’s house for 17 months while she fought for custody from her childhood bedroom in Brooklyn.And through all of it — shMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 60 | Ash Shepherd — 5 Months Sober, a River at 3am & Why the Mummy Wine Culture Needs to StopIn this warm, honest and deeply relatable episode, Jimmy sits down with Ash Shepherd — 34-year-old project manager, young mum and founder of the Booze Free Sparkle Instagram — whose story of grey area drinking, a 10-month sobriety attempt, relapse and finally finding her day one over a roast dinner she couldn’t eat is one of the most universally recognisable on the podcast.Ash grew up in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire — quiet, bookish, nervous — and discovered alcohol at 15 outside Tesco with her friends, waiting for strangers to buy them Lambrini. She felt confidence for the first time. She also felt shame for the first time, dreading school on the Monday morning. Both feelings kept coming back for the next 18 years.From 17 to 19, living in a little cottage in Tewkesbury with a flatmate who matched her drink for drink, Ash’s party house became the social hub for everyone who hadn’t gone to uni, had no real goals, and was just plodding along drinking. Vodka after work became normal. So did walking home alone at 3am — including the night she fell down a riverbank in her going-out clothes, clawed her way back up through nettles, soaking wet and freezing cold, and carried on to her boyfriend’s house.Through her 20s, Ash settled into a pattern: Thursday night wine on the sofa, Friday hangover at her desk, Saturday binge, Sunday dying in bed. Her husband — sensible, moderate, with an off switch she never had — watched her consistently push past her limits every single time. When he went to bed, she’d stay up drinking alone. The hangovers started lasting a week. The shame never really left.At 25, a colleague recommended The Rise of the Sober Istas by Lucy Rocca. Ash read it, felt something shift, joined an early online sobriety community and started blogging. That was the first seed. It took another eight years to fully germinate.She did nearly 10 months sober in 2020 — set up a page, posted daily, was genuinely proud. Then the 30th birthdays started. She had one drink at a party, decided she was cured, deleted the sober page, and was back to square one within days. The lesson that stayed: never delete the page.A pregnancy gave her nine months of enforced sobriety she secretly loved. Then eight weeks after her daughter arrived, a hen party. Then Cheltenham Races — out from 9am, paralytic by afternoon, a blackout argument with a friend she can’t remember, a mortifying apology the next morning. Then a Mexican night out with margaritas that ended in the worst argument she and her husband had ever had — over nothing that would have mattered sober.Her actual day one came on a beautiful sunny Sunday, throwing up in the toilet, sat at a pub table in front of a roast dinner she couldn’t touch, and thinking quietly: what am I doing to myself? That was it. 137 days later, she was on the podcast. She’s now adopted rescue chickens, taken up running and joined a running group — and is posting daily on @BoozeFreeSparkle about why mummy wine culture isn’t cute, it’s damaging.You can find Ash on Insta at:https://www.instagram.com/boozefreesparkleMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 59 | Alex Leigh — From 90s Supermodel to Hiding Wine Bottles in Greece: A Story of Glamour, Grief & Getting SoberIn this dazzling and deeply human episode, Jimmy sits down with Alex Leigh — one of Britain’s top lingerie models of the 1990s, FHM’s top 100 sexiest women, a fixture at the most exclusive parties in London, and the woman who was secretly counting down to 6pm every night to open her first bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.Alex’s story starts with loss. A perfect childhood ended at seven when her father died of pancreatic cancer aged just 43. Her mother relocated the family to Mallorca, where Alex endured relentless bullying, had to translate her homework through three languages every night until 1am, and protected her grieving mother from the truth by pretending she loved every minute of it. When they moved back to Manchester, she channelled all that bottled-up pain into becoming a rebel — bunking off school, smoking behind the church, and getting into the Hacienda at 14 because she was already six foot two and blonde.At 16, a brother’s friend suggested modelling. Within months she was in London — a 16-year-old girl placed by her agency into a flat with a male photographer in his late 40s, with no chaperone, no advice about taxes, no instructions of any kind. Just dropped into the deep end of an industry where cocaine wasn’t offered, it was simply assumed. Bowl full of it at every party. Everyone doing it. No other way to be.The money came fast and hard — lingerie campaigns, FHM, travelling the world. And so did the chaos. Alex went from photo shoot to after party to plane to next city, frequently still drunk from the night before, stinking of fags and booze, wondering how she was getting away with it. She had a penthouse in Kensington, a driver, a Bulgari perfume box permanently stuffed with cocaine, and absolutely no idea how to manage money. Then the 2008 credit crunch arrived and she and her then-husband lost nine properties overnight.The second chapter brought Greece, a new relationship, two daughters — and a slow, secret slide into nightly bottle-of-wine drinking that became two bottles minimum, buying from different shops so nobody noticed the volume, padding her shopping so the bottles wouldn’t clink, hiding extras around the apartment. Until St. Patrick’s Day three years ago, when her mother took her daughter away and called her a disgrace. Alex woke up the next morning, hungover, sobbing, about to reach for a glass of wine to feel better — and in that moment thought: that’s it. I need help.She called AA in Greece. A kind man answered. She sobbed. He told her she wasn’t alone. She went religiously for a year. And then she moved on — because the best thing about recovery, she says, is that you finally get to live forward instead of back.You can get Alex on her Insta at:https://www.instagram.com/alex.leigh2.0?igsh=MW5lNDRycGg3NjgxbQ==And the rest of her links on linktree:https://linktr.ee/alexleigh2.0?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=17960b0f-56c9-4594-8528-f694d5c11340Veronica Valli - Soberful https://amzn.to/4dD5NrsRussell Brand - Recoveryhttps://amzn.to/433YuTyMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 58 | Kaitlin Reeve — From Sitting on a Window Ledge at Nine to Nearly Three Years Clean: A Story of Escapism, Danger & RecoveryIn this searingly honest episode — released on Kaitlin’s birthday — Jimmy sits down with Kaitlin Reeve, founder of the Sober as a Mother Focused Instagram and one of the most unflinching voices in the UK recovery community. Kaitlin’s story spans childhood trauma, drug-induced psychosis, kidnapping, and the quiet moment in her garden that finally changed everything.Kaitlin grew up unhappy — a child who never felt okay, who escaped into fantasy, books, films and food before she had words for why. She was drinking at nine, allowed to get drunk at 13, and watched the adults around her become happier, calmer and less shouty when they used drugs and alcohol. The message she took from that? When I’m a grown-up, that’s what will make me happy.At 16 she had her first line of cocaine in a penthouse on High Street Kensington, surrounded by people she’d only ever seen in magazines. A girl from nothing, suddenly rubbing shoulders with Hollywood. She associated cocaine with glamour, freedom and escape — the antidote to every moment she’d spent feeling less than. She embraced it completely.What followed was years of escalating use: being locked in trap houses, kidnapped, nearly raped twice, and finding herself in the home of an international sex trafficking gang — all of which she shrugged off because the good still outweighed the bad. A controlling, abusive relationship followed. Then a period of sobriety, then relapse triggered by her body going into fight-or-flight shutdown so severe she couldn’t go to the toilet without cocaine. Then drug-induced psychosis — hearing things, seeing things, a size 4-6 frame barely eating or sleeping.The end came not with a dramatic rock bottom but with a quiet moment of exhaustion in her garden in late August 2022. Sick and tired of being sick and tired. She Googled 12-step fellowships, put on full makeup and her best outfit so nobody would think she was that bad, walked in — and by the end of the meeting said: Hi, I’m Kaitlin, I’m an addict. Her clean date is 6th September 2022.Nearly three and a half years on, Kaitlin sponsors other women, maintains her daily prayer and meditation, and uses Sober as a Mother Focused — a beautifully named Instagram — to share the reality of recovery for mothers without tips or preaching. Just her story, honestly told.You can find Kaitlin on instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/soberasamotherfocusedand on Tik Tokhttps://www.tiktok.com/@soberasamotherfocusedAddicted to Recovery Podcasthttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/addicted-to-recovery/id1727956037Rachel’s Holiday - Marian Keyes https://amzn.to/4dJD2rGAgain Rachel - Marian Keyeshttps://amzn.to/431tjbBOne Day https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16283804/?ref_=ext_shr_lnkThirteenhttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt0328538/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug statshttps://ourworldindata.org/grapher/substances-risk-factor-vs-direct-deathsMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 57 | Cameron Kidd — From Waking Up in a Jungle Tuk-Tuk to 14 Months Sober in Copenhagen: Jersey Boy Finally Finds HimselfIn this warm, funny and deeply honest episode, Jimmy sits down with Cameron Kidd — Jersey-born, Copenhagen-based podcaster and host of TOMU: The Open Mic Unfiltered — whose story of binge drinking, blackouts, ADHD and finally getting sober at 34 is one of the most relatable the show has featured.Cameron had a decent childhood — loving parents, good school — but his parents’ move to France at 16 without really consulting him sent him into a spiral of resentment and freedom. Spat on and called an English pig at the French college, he was back on Jersey within days, living between his auntie’s house and a mate’s farmhouse with a bar downstairs, huge fields and summer bonfires. His own mini festival, every weekend. Ecstasy, weed, alcohol — and none of it feeling like a problem because everyone around him was doing the same.Through his twenties Cameron moved around constantly — Jersey, Glasgow, Thailand, back to Jersey, Copenhagen — chasing fresh starts that always ended the same way. In Thailand he woke up alone in a tuk-tuk in the middle of dense jungle on New Year’s Day with no memory of how he got there. He checked himself over, found his way back, and went out the following night. In Glasgow he woke up with the top of his ear hanging off and no idea how. He came home from a beach party with his hand badly burnt — found by friends trying to cool it in the sea, then wandering off, ending up at a corner shop where a stranger looked through his phone and called his dad. He had his jaw broken and didn’t go to hospital for two days because everyone told him he was fine.The blackouts became total. Every single time he drank, he remembered nothing — just fragments. He’d wake up and scan the room, reading the energy to figure out what he needed to apologise for. Until a night out in Copenhagen when a stranger approached him in a pub: “You don’t remember me, do you? You took me and the boys around the whole city, showed us an incredible night.” Cameron had no recollection of any of it. That was the moment that really scared him.The end came after a big night last October. He turned up at his girlfriend’s door wrecked, broke down completely — I’ve had enough, I don’t want to be here anymore, I’m tired — and she gave him an ultimatum. He went to KKUC, a Danish substance abuse programme, and it was there they asked: “Have you ever been tested for ADHD?” He hadn’t. He got the best grade of his life. The relief — and the grief — of finally understanding why he’d always been this way was overwhelming.Now 14 months clean, medicated for ADHD, living in Copenhagen with his girlfriend and hosting his own podcast, Cameron is slowly learning who he is without alcohol. The hardest part? Someone once asked him what he enjoys — and he had no answer. But he’s finding his way back to the curious, excited boy he once was. One day at a time.Follow Cameron on Insta:https://www.instagram.com/tomupodcast?And all of Cameron's other links here:https://linktr.ee/tomupodcastMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 56 | Anna Donaghey — The Advertising Insider Who Sold Alcohol to a Nation, Drank Herself Sober & Wrote the Book on Rethinking DrinkingIn this sharp, revealing and genuinely thought-provoking episode, Jimmy sits down with Anna Donaghey — sober coach, podcast host of The Big Drink Rethink, author of What Are You Thirsty For?, and former senior advertising executive who spent 25 years helping the alcohol industry grow.Anna’s story begins unremarkably — a good childhood near Bristol, parents divorced at 16, first drink at 14 through a slightly older boyfriend, the usual combination of rebellion, escapism and enjoying the feeling. Brighton University, a course that took her to Turin, a taste of Italian wine culture, and a graduate scheme at Rover that would set the trajectory of everything that followed.It was on the factory floor at Rover in Birmingham that Anna first understood what her drinking was really about — fitting in. Shoulder to shoulder with brilliant, salt-of-the-earth workmates who poured out of the production lines at noon on Fridays and drank until they couldn’t stand. A home counties girl who could sink eight pints and still win at darts. They loved her for it. She loved them for accepting her. It felt like belonging.That need for belonging followed her to London, to advertising agencies in Soho, to client lunches that turned into client evenings, to fridges full of Stella Artois that opened at 6pm, to airport lounges and expense accounts and the seamless social world of agency life where work and drinking were completely indistinguishable. For over a decade, she was one of the best in the business — and she sat in boardrooms with the biggest alcohol companies in the world, helping them figure out how to create new drinkers, convert existing ones, and — most sinisterly — draw in younger audiences without technically breaking the rules.She would never have worked on a cigarette account. She’d have stood up and said no. But she worked on alcohol. She just didn’t know the difference yet.Six years ago, with no dramatic rock bottom and no catastrophic crisis, Anna simply looked at her life and saw two futures. One where she carried on and didn’t reach old age. One where she stopped. She stopped. And discovered that sobriety isn’t a destination — it’s a gateway.Now a sober coach, author and podcaster, Anna has flipped the question the recovery community usually asks. Not “how bad is your drinking?” but “is your life good enough?” Because if you’re a heavy drinker and your life isn’t where you wanted it to be, the chances are alcohol has far more to do with that than you realise.Buy Anna’s book - ‘What Are You Thirsty For? Rethinking Alcohol and The Life You Want’Amazon: https://amzn.to/4dFc7P7Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/what-are-you-thirsty-for/anna-donaghey/9781915780607 Connect with Anna:Website: thebigdrinkrethink.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/annadonagheyInstagram: instagram.com/bigdrinkrethinkMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 55 | Emily Chadbourne — 7 Years Sober in Melbourne: The Woman Who Stopped Before Rock Bottom & Wrote Down Every WinIn this warm, honest and deeply insightful episode, Jimmy sits down with Emily Chadbourne — personal development coach, sober advocate and Melbourne-based expat from the South West of England — whose story of grey area drinking, isolation in outback Australia and a meditation that changed everything is one of the most uniquely told recovery stories the podcast has featured.Emily grew up near Glastonbury with parents who modelled a healthy relationship with alcohol — sherry on Sundays, gin at Christmas, nothing more. There was no trauma, no family history of alcoholism, and no obvious reason. Just a classic 1990s teenage girl sneaking cider in Somerset parks, a university degree she could have aced but didn’t bother to, and a hospitality career in London that put her shoulder-deep in a world where every meeting, every celebration, every Tuesday was a drinking occasion. She was fun, efficient, capable — and always the last one standing.At thirty, she moved to Airlie Beach in Queensland with her boyfriend, and everything fell apart. Not dramatically, but quietly. The scaffolding of identity — her career, her friendships, her sense of significance — was removed, and she discovered she had no idea who she was without it. She drank every night. Alone. In the heat. In a town that closed at 8pm.Melbourne was better, but the drinking didn’t stop. Working for herself as a coach, with no office hours and no colleagues to moderate around, she started buying two-for-twenty at the bottle shop after lunch meetings. Half a bottle by 7pm. A bottle with dinner. That unopened second bottle waiting when she got home. Three and a half bottles between lunch and bedtime, and never visibly drunk. Hiding empties from her housemates. Telling herself it was fine.Then 2017 arrived like a wrecking ball. Her mum died of cancer. Her business collapsed. Her boyfriend left — and was in a new relationship with one of her best friends within weeks. She drank from coffee cups so her housemates wouldn’t see. She drank in the morning. She drank at her dad’s house by sneaking to his spirits cabinet between toilet trips.The Sri Lanka trip was the turning point. On holiday in paradise, Emily couldn’t be present for a single moment — every thought consumed by when the next drink was coming, how to get someone else to suggest it, how to engineer the beer before the train without being seen as the one who needed it. She came home, went back to the UK, and did the same thing with her sisters. On the flight back to Melbourne she decided: when this plane lands, that’s it.A business mentor asked her to identify one thing holding her back. She begged internally for it not to be alcohol. Of course it was alcohol. That night she went out, got blackout drunk, and remembers nothing of her last ever drink. The following Sunday she walked into her first AA meeting.What happened next was remarkable. Emily told everyone immediately — using the label of alcoholic not out of shame but as a strategic firewall so she could never quietly slip back. She wrote down every single good thing that happened asMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 54 | Adrian Cox — Clarinet, Bad Manners & 12 Years Sober: The Jazz Musician Who Left Home at 15 and Didn’t Stop Until His Hip CrumbledIn this extraordinary, funny and deeply moving episode, Jimmy sits down with Adrian Cox — jazz clarinettist, Bad Manners veteran, sober advocate, and one of the most uniquely entertaining recovery stories in the podcast’s history.Adrian’s story begins at 15 in Burgess Hill, near Brighton — already playing the clarinet professionally at gigs since he was 12, already smoking and drinking in parks, already the kid who brought a bottle of whiskey to every party. At a festival in Butlins, Bognor Regis, a trombone player spotted him and sent a postcard to his sons: met a lad, got no brain, but by chance plays the clarinet, call him. Within weeks, Adrian was on tour, dropped back for his English GCSE, and then called up to join the band full time. He left home at 15, moved to Totnes, Devon — and never really stopped moving for the next two decades.Living with musicians twice and three times his age, with no parents, no bank account and no instruction manual for adulthood, Adrian fell into a world where cooking sherry by the river at midnight was completely normal. In the first month in their flat, he and his bandmate Russell cleared 80 litres of sherry. By 18, he was getting kidney pains. By 21, a swollen liver — and a doctor telling him to stop. He did, for seven months. On the way home from his follow-up appointment, he stopped at a pub. Within weeks he was back on three bottles of wine and ten pints of Guinness a day.Then came London, a heavier drinking band, a marriage, a divorce, and in 2007: cocaine. Which led, inevitably, to Bad Manners — the UK’s most legendary party band, where waking up on the American tour bus at 3am to drink a bottle of tequila before going back to sleep was just what Tuesday looked like.The reckoning came on 27th March 2014. The night before his hospital appointment — where a doctor would tell him he had avascular necrosis caused by alcohol, where the blood had thinned so much it had stopped feeding his bones and the ball of his hip had partially crumbled away — he had the biggest drinking night of his entire life. A box of wine, ten pints of Guinness, three bottles of champagne, five grams of cocaine. He’d had so many near-misses he’d developed a special outfit to wear drinking near hospitals: a Ben Sherman poppered shirt (easy to open for an ECG) and slip-on shoes. He’d been admitted multiple times. This time the doctor told him: stop, or lose your legs.He stopped. A Swedish concert-goer paid for a private hip replacement. And then cocaine took over completely — until he gambled his way to £138,000 in online winnings, spent it all within weeks chasing the same feeling, and ended up £87,000 in debt to Buster Bloodvessel of Bad Manners, spending months living a double life before a breakdown in Edinburgh and his girlfriend’s phone call ended it.Cocaine stopped in 2016. MDMA in 2018. But it wasn’t until February this year — now 12 years alcohol-free, living in rural Sweden with his girlfriend and her two boys, with a driving licence, a residency permit, a limited company and a meditation book — that AdrianMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 53 | Amy Devine — From Newbury Council Estates to Peru: 3 Years Sober, Ayahuasca & the Serbian Housemate Who Changed EverythingIn this warm, wide-ranging and genuinely one-of-a-kind episode, Jimmy sits down with Amy Devine — sobriety mentor, breathwork facilitator, founder of Numb No More and the Sober Sisterhood Breathwork Circle — speaking from her home in Pisac, Peru, surrounded by mountains. Her story spans council estates in Berkshire, 11 years teaching in Beijing, a broken elbow on a COVID flight she can’t remember, and an ayahuasca ceremony that finally showed her why she’d been drinking in the first place.Amy grew up in Newbury — Irish parents, violence, dysfunction, and alcohol as the central currency of family life. Her parents split when she was six. Summers in Ireland, school in England, a house fire that moved the family to a council estate a week before Christmas with nothing. She was 11 when she had her worst drunk — stolen South African port with a girl her mum had banned her from seeing, found lost on a roundabout by her little brother’s teacher. By 14, drinking four or five cans a night was simply what she did.Through college and a sociology/criminology degree at Chester — chosen almost by accident when her insurance pick got in and her first choice didn’t — Amy somehow held it together academically while drinking daily. After graduating with a 2:1 she neither expected nor remembers quite earning, she moved to Beijing to teach English, intending to stay a year. She stayed eleven.Beijing was electric, chaotic and — for foreigners — consequence-free. Drink for free in bars, ride your scooter drunk through traffic, no rules and always someone to go out with. Through Beijing, Vietnam and back to Beijing, Amy’s drinking escalated through her twenties and early thirties. She developed a pattern: hold it together just enough for work, drink the rest of the time.The nadir came on a COVID-era flight back to China. She’d been on a 10-week binge in India, drinking to manage withdrawal in the mornings, bribing strangers to get alcohol through quarantine. She drank most of a box of wine in duty-free before boarding, mixed it with Valium, and woke up in Beijing with a sore elbow and no memory. Strangers told her she’d been dragged to the back of the plane for refusing to wear a mask. The bruise turned black all the way down her arm. She’d broken her elbow. She didn’t stop drinking.Back in Beijing, a Serbian housemate sat her down: “You’ve got a drink problem and you need to sort it out.” It was the first time anyone had ever said it directly to her face. That led to AA in Beijing — a warm, safe expat meeting full of people who’d been sober 16, 20 years — and six months of genuine recovery. Then Christmas came, and she thought she’d learned enough to moderate. She relapsed for a year and a half.The second attempt was different. A dry November led by a therapist friend inspired by This Naked Mind. Then January 1st, 2022 — online AA, a new sponsor, and at six months sober: ayahuasca. The plant medicine took her back through her childhood, showed her exactly why she’d been drinking, and removed any remaining desire for alcohol. She told her AA sponsor. She wasMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 52 | Alicia Butler — 173 Days Sober, a Viral Day One & Why ‘You Don’t Have a Problem’ Are the Most Dangerous Words in RecoveryIn this warm, funny and deeply honest episode, Jimmy sits down with Alicia Butler — the woman whose raw, tearful Day One Instagram video went viral and has been inspiring people to get sober ever since — for a conversation about grey area drinking, gym culture, champagne budgets and the slow creep of something that nearly cost her everything.Alicia grew up in Darlington, County Durham — a good childhood, loving family, no obvious trauma. Her uncle was an alcoholic, and she wonders now about addictive genetics, but at the time she just thought she liked champagne. What began as an after-work culture in London — where even people who lived an hour away never went home, they just stayed in the pub — slowly became a bottle of wine a night at home. Then two bottles. Then champagne instead, because she preferred it. Then Aldi started selling Prosecco for £9.99 a bottle, and that was that.The creeping nature of Alicia’s drinking is what makes her story so relatable. She was still going to the gym. Still working. Still functioning. Her nutritionist kept telling her to cut down on alcohol and she kept refusing — so instead she worked out a calorie budget that excluded food so she could keep her bottle of wine a night. She’d hide bottles in the boot of her car at parties so nobody else could drink them. She’d sometimes finish the last inch of last night’s bottle in the morning. And still, somewhere in her head, she didn’t think she had a problem.Then she went to an alcohol support group. She told them she was drinking a bottle of wine a night, sometimes two. They laughed. “That’s nothing,” they said. “You don’t have a problem.” She walked out thinking she had a green light.The piece of paper she found during a clear-out said it all: written in 2017, it was a mood board with a list of goals, and at the top: Avoid booze. She’d known for seven years. Her mum had asked her to stop drinking on her deathbed fourteen years ago. She still couldn’t manage two days.The suicidal episodes — leaving the house with a knife, lying by the canal, smashing a picture frame over her husband’s head — she hadn’t connected to the alcohol. It was just her emotions. Just her anxiety. Just a bad night. Until she did.What finally worked was Instagram. Day One. She sat in her bedroom, pressed record, cried, and uploaded it. It went viral. Suddenly there were thousands of people saying me too. She couldn’t go back — not just because she didn’t want to, but because she’d told everyone, and the accountability was the lock on the door.Now approaching 200 days sober, Alicia is a different person: sleeping well, managing stress, driving herself home from parties at midnight with a cup of tea in mind, and posting every day for the people who are still on Day One wondering if it’s worth it.Find Alicia on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/champagnetochangeDavid Nutt - Drink:https://amzn.to/3PMPfEiLouisa Evans - Becoming A Sober Rebel:https://amzn.to/4wYkDAdMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 51 | Jimmy Thistle — The Host’s Full Story: From Vodka at Dawn to 5 Years Sober on the Isle of ManAfter 50 episodes of interviewing others, Jimmy Thistle finally sits in the guest chair — interviewed by his wife Jen — and tells his full story for the first time on his own podcast.Jimmy grew up in Eaglesham, a village outside Glasgow, in a mostly happy childhood with an older brother, a mum who worked hard, and a dad who left when he was six. No major trauma. No clear reason. Just a 14-year-old who had his first proper drink with his brother one night and loved it immediately — the confidence, the escapism, the feeling. From there it was Diamond White in the woods, vodka and iron bru, and a creeping realisation that while his friends had an off switch, he simply didn’t.Through Aberdeen, London, Cambridge, York and the Isle of Man, Jimmy’s story is a masterclass in what the recovery community calls geographicals — the belief that moving somewhere new will fix what follows you everywhere. Bar work, bank jobs, photography, sales roles. A DUI. A photography course where he got triple distinction. A pub he took over near Sheffield that ended with the police, a friend crashing his car, the owners taking his laptop as collateral, and him driving home without a back windscreen. A codependent relationship where they were both drinking a bottle of whiskey each per night. A spontaneous midnight drive to Stansted, a drunk flight to Mallorca, a mugging that cost him his laptop and camera, and a rescue by his brother.The final stretch was the darkest. Drinking vodka before he’d opened his eyes in the morning. Sitting under the Humber Bridge in his car, telling his partner he was going to work. Losing job after job. An intervention by his family. Twenty-eight days in rehab — three days before COVID lockdown. Fifty-five days sober. Then back on it with a vengeance. His friend locked him in the house and he found a hidden door behind a bookcase. He bought alcohol-free beer as a cover story in case someone knocked. His mum measured 40ml of vodka eight times a day on doctor’s orders while he slipped out between doses to top up from the shop.Finally, a hospital detox on the Isle of Man with Librium. Then 100 meetings in 100 days. Then a cottage in the hills, a gardening business, a photography revival, a podcast, peer mentoring, sober coaching training — and Jen.This is Jimmy’s story. And now, nearly six years on, he’s never felt more certain of one thing: he’s done.My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us Fan MailEven more amazing and incredible guests coming your way in 2026!From heartbreaking stories to triumphs and hope, you wont want to miss out! Get ready on New Year's Day 2026 for the first episode drop! Support the showMy Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://a.co/d/0854fIb6This Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://a.co/d/0gy6mT9ZA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://a.co/d/0jdcIjGbDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/My Instagram is:https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmyAnd you can find all my other links at:https://linktr.ee/jimmythistleBuy me a coffee…https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmytAlcohol Explained - William Porterhttps://amzn.to/4uMmkyBThis Naked Mind - Annie Gracehttps://amzn.to/4eC6L6zA Million Little Pieces - James Freyhttps://amzn.to/44jOV3iDonate:https://motiv8.im/donate/https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.