Sober Sunrise - AA Speaker Podcast

Pat’s recovery did not arrive as one tidy awakening. It unfolded through hard-won amends, fatherhood, sponsorship, 25 years of meetings, and a trip to Akron he finally bought as a gift to himself. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 https://sober-sunrise.com/app If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Pat, sober since September 17, 1981, gives a raw, funny, deeply personal AA talk about growing up in a multigenerational alcoholic home, carrying childhood trauma, and becoming convinced he would not live past 20. Alcohol and drugs shaped nearly every decision until a final morning of desperation led him to ask God for help, enter a psychiatric ward, go through detox and treatment, and reach Alcoholics Anonymous. Pat admits that he initially stayed sober while making up his own rules and waiting for everyone around him to change. Over time, the Steps, sponsorship, fatherhood, amends, and acceptance began changing him instead. He describes the final amends that helped him forgive his dying father, learning to love his sons without trying to control them, and discovering a God he could reach without borrowing anyone else’s definition. For his 25th sobriety anniversary, Pat canceled a large party and bought himself something he had almost never allowed: a gift just for him. That gift was a trip to Akron, where Dr. Bob’s home, grave, and hospital chapel turned AA history into a personal spiritual experience. His message is that recovery kept unfolding long after the first year. Pat L. from Saskatoon, SK, speaking at the Nipawin Roundup in Nipawin, SK, Canada - December 2, 2006 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

At 17, Eileen stood at the edge of AA waiting for someone to sell her on sobriety. The pitch never came. Instead, the people, the Big Book, and the work asked her to risk the one thing she already had: her misery. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sober-sunrise/id6770203116 If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Eileen, sober since November 24, 2002, shares how drinking at 11 became daily use, legal trouble, probation, a short stay in rehab, dropping out of school, and arriving in Alcoholics Anonymous at 17 certain she was too young and too different to belong. Meetings alone did not change her. After another drunk and a blunt conversation with a sober woman, she asked for a sponsor, read the first 164 pages of the Big Book in a day, and began taking the Twelve Steps. Eileen describes the obsession lifting, the honesty required in inventory and the Fifth Step, repairing relationships through amends, and learning that keeping people at arm’s length also kept love out. She talks honestly about dishonesty that returned in sobriety, the importance of telling a sponsor the truth, and the daily action that transformed her relationship with her family, AA, and God. The teenager who arrived nearly homeless and unable to stay in school became a trusted aunt, a sponsor, a longtime employee, a university student, and a woman beginning a new career. Her message is simple: she could not think herself into right living. She had to do the work. Eileen F. from Belleville, MI, speaking at the Thursday Night Speakers Meeting in Monroe, MI - May 15, 2008 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Scott thought the Twelve Steps looked like punishment until a sponsor showed him that Step Four was not a life story or confession, but a way to lay down what had been blocking him and discover who he was not. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sober-sunrise/id6770203116 If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Scott, sober since June 28, 1984 and a member of the Back Room Group in Nashville, turns an extended Fourth Step workshop into a funny, line-by-line tour of the Big Book. He begins with the first three Steps and the difference between intention and decision, then explains why Step Four is not about writing a life story or cataloging every bad act. In his reading, inventory is a series of lists, observations, and prayers covering resentment, fear, and sexual misconduct. Scott explains why he works down the page, limits each resentment cause to 19 words, uses three 30-minute sessions to defeat perfectionism, and treats writing as preparation for observation, responsibility, prayer, and forgiveness. Along the way, he connects fear to self-reliance, sponsorship to practical action, service to freedom from self, and spiritual growth to becoming God-centered rather than self-centered. Audience questions bring out additional lessons about long resentment lists, the Fifth Step, choosing a sponsor, willingness, and helping newcomers. This is a detailed and unusually approachable Big Book workshop about facing and removing the things that block us from the sunlight of the spirit. Scott L. from Nashville, TN speaking in Daytona Beach, FL - 1999 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

John came to AA expecting lessons in social drinking and discovered something far bigger: people who taught him how to live, stayed close when life became frightening, and gave him a place he never knew he had been searching for. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sober-sunrise/id6770203116 If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter John shares a fast, funny AA speaker talk about the stories an alcoholic mind can turn into truth. Sober since December 19, 1982, he looks back at ranch life, rock-band ambitions, morning barrooms, and the day he finally became willing to ask for help. He arrived believing Alcoholics Anonymous would teach him how to drink like other people, then met sponsors and old-timers who showed him that recovery was not just about quitting alcohol. It was about learning how to live, repair a marriage, accept direction, show up for others, and keep coming back. With his funny “Apples Anonymous” explanation of the physical allergy, John makes the obsession and first-drink problem easy to understand. He also speaks honestly about financial collapse in sobriety, the danger of trying to recover without a sponsor, a cancer diagnosis that brought him into the present moment, and the family member who corrected his thinking when he began minimizing his past at eleven years sober. This is a memorable message about humility, sponsorship, fellowship, one day at a time, and protecting AA for the people who will need it next. John S. from Montana speaking at the Northern Plains Group Second Anniversary in Fargo, ND - May 6th 2001 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Chris shares a fast, funny, and brutally honest AA talk about blackouts, fear, meetings, relapse, the Big Book, and what it actually means to be rocketed into the fourth dimension. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sober-sunrise/id6770203116 If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Chris shares his Alcoholics Anonymous story around the Big Book phrase “rocketed into the fourth dimension,” tracing the three dimensions of fear, alcoholism, and untreated recovery that came before real spiritual change. He talks about drinking from age 12, blackouts, craving, chaos, relapse after treatment, suicidal desperation, and coming back to AA still full of fear and self-centered anxiety. The turning point comes when he stops simply attending meetings and starts working through the Big Book, inventories, amends, and the practical mechanics of the Twelve Steps. Chris describes how the “scared kindergartner” inside him began to heal, how taking others through the book deepened his own recovery, and how Alcoholics Anonymous shifted his perception from selfishness and self-centeredness into love and service. This is a funny, sharp, Big Book-centered AA speaker tape about spiritual living, recovery, and the real meaning of the fourth dimension. Chris S. from New Vernon, NJ speaking at Acts of Recovery in Baltimore, MD - November 15th 2008 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Dennis shares a funny, honest, and deeply human AA story about drinking, drag, drugs, treatment, coming back to Alcoholics Anonymous, and finding a program he could rely on when life got real. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sober-sunrise/id6770203116 If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Dennis shares his Alcoholics Anonymous story with humor, honesty, and a lot of personality, starting in small-town Nevada, growing up feeling different, finding alcohol in high school, moving through Reno’s bar scene, drag shows, drugs, treatment, relapse, and finally giving AA one more real try. He talks about trying to separate drugs from drinking, not being able to imagine life without alcohol, walking into a small meeting in Reno, deciding to do what AA people told him to do for six months, and eventually having a spiritual awakening he cannot fully explain. Dennis also shares about being diagnosed with HIV early in sobriety, losing friends, relying on the program through more than just drinking problems, and carrying the message in his own way by showing others that it is possible to live, serve, laugh, and simply not drink anymore. Dennis M. from Reno, NV speaking at We Are Family in Reno, NV - October 1st 1994 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Bart R. shares about getting past meetings alone and actually living the program: taking the Big Book seriously, working the steps, making amends, practicing 10 and 11, and carrying the message to the next alcoholic. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sober-sunrise/id6770203116 If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Bart R. from the Primary Purpose Group in Long Island, New York speaks at the Vision for You group in Union, New Jersey, sharing his experience with alcoholism, relapse, the Big Book, sponsorship, amends, prayer, meditation, and service. Bart talks about drinking from a young age, feeling apart from people, getting sober through meetings without really taking action, and eventually finding the kind of recovery that came from reading the first 164 pages of Alcoholics Anonymous and doing what they say. He shares how his sponsor helped him see the truth of alcoholism, how the Third Step decision changed his direction, how amends kept showing up in real life, and why the first eleven steps make it possible to carry the message in the Twelfth. The heart of this AA speaker tape is simple and strong: this is a design for living, the book has not been wrong yet, and when one alcoholic carries the message to another, the fellowship can grow up around them. Bart R. from Long Beach, NY speaking at the A Vision For You group in Union, NJ - June 28th 2007 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Jack K. shares the kind of AA story that starts long before the first drink: lonely, separate, different, angry, and afraid, then drinking like it was the answer until it nearly took everything. What lands hardest is his description of AA’s power: people who can answer the question you haven’t even asked because they’ve been there too. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sober-sunrise/id6770203116 If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Jack K. from Los Angeles shares a powerful Alcoholics Anonymous story about growing up lonely, separate, different, angry, and afraid, finding alcohol at 16, and quickly discovering blackout drinking, rage, drugs, jail, and the desperate search for something that would fix him. He talks about Dr. Silkworth’s description of alcoholism, the simple truth that when he took a drink he wanted another one, and the way AA reached him when his wife called for help and another alcoholic named Bud picked up the phone. Jack’s story moves from hopelessness and self-destruction into identification, sponsorship, family healing, and the quiet miracle of sober members who had “been there” before him. The ending is especially beautiful as he reflects on the huge gentle eyes and loving hands that helped him begin to heal in Alcoholics Anonymous. Jack K. from Los Angeles, CA speaking at the NCC Summer Conference in San Jose, CA - June 11th 1982 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Perry shares a high-energy AA talk about early drinking, jail, desperation, sponsorship, working the Steps, and the joy of staying on the pink cloud for 17 years. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sober-sunrise/id6770203116 If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Perry shares his experience as an alcoholic, beginning with his first intentional drunk at 11 years old, blackout drinking, juvenile institutions, jail, burglary, repeated chaos, and the family wreckage that followed him into adulthood. He talks about the moment when a gun threat and his daughter’s fear gave him a sudden glimpse of what his life had become, the prayer that followed, and the people in Alcoholics Anonymous who took him in, sponsored him, worked the Steps with him, and showed him how to live. This AA speaker tape is funny, intense, and full of gratitude, moving from desperation and self-destruction into a recovered life of service, family, work, travel, prayer, and real joy. Perry’s message is clear: the program of Alcoholics Anonymous gave him a life beyond anything he could have imagined, and the best years are still ahead. Perry W. from San Jose, CA speaking at the Saturday Night Live, San Jose, CA - October 14th 2005 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Freddie’s story looks at AA as a matter of life and death, and at the responsibility that comes with being given a life back. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, save favorite speakers, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sober-sunrise/id6770203116 If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Freddie shares an emotional AA speaker talk about alcoholism, loss, gratitude, family, sponsorship, and the simple responsibility of keeping Alcoholics Anonymous available for the next person who needs it. He remembers coming in sick, hopeless, and unable to live the way he was living, then describes the people he watched die from alcoholism and addiction, the mother who prayed for him for years, the father who got his son back, and the wife and children who became part of his sober life. Again and again, Fred returns to the same question: what is the price tag for a life given back? This is a heartfelt recovery story about meetings, service, prayer, family repair, and why the doors of AA matter. Freddie G. from Cleveland, OH speaking at the Superior Group in Cleveland, OH - September 30th 2008 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Iron Mike shares a raw and funny AA talk about prison, violence, relapse, oddballism, grace, and the Alcoholics Anonymous life that gave him a home, a family, and a way to be useful. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Iron Mike shares his experience as an alcoholic, from growing up around Pasadena and Houston, taking his first drink young, going to reform school and prison, living without an address, and cycling through jails, detoxes, relapse, and rough bottoms before finally finding a life in Alcoholics Anonymous. With humor and blunt honesty, he talks about violence, fear, feeling like an outsider, the meetings and old-timers that kept pulling him back, the Wheelhouse, the Legacy Club, sponsorship, working the Steps, and learning how to stay instead of run. This AA speaker tape also carries a powerful message about grace, service, family restoration, and becoming the son, brother, sponsor, and member of AA that he never knew how to be on his own. "Iron" Mike P. from Baycliff, TX speaking at the South East Texas Area Convention in Beaumont, TX - January 2006 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

This sponsorship workshop looks at what it means to help another alcoholic without becoming their therapist, lawyer, doctor, guru, or Higher Power. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, save favorite speakers, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Myers shares a direct AA workshop on sponsorship, working with others, and keeping the work simple enough to actually do it. He talks about the fear many sober members carry around sponsorship, the temptation to overcomplicate the steps, and the danger of turning AA into therapy instead of action. Using Big Book passages, AA history, and his own experience, Myers lays out a practical view of sponsorship: qualify the alcoholic, move through the steps, help them become reliant on God rather than the sponsor, and get them carrying the message as soon as possible. This is a strong, old-school AA talk about responsibility, humility, service, and getting off the sidelines. Myers R. from Dallas, TX speaking at the Simple Not Easy group's 1st anniversary on Sponsorship in Cambridge, MN - June 17th 2007 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

This Step One talk looks at the difference between consequences, control, and the deeper problem of not being able to stay stopped. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, save favorite speakers, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter In this AA step meeting, the speaker walks through Step One with a direct focus on powerlessness, the allergy, the obsession, and the difference between a hard drinker and a real alcoholic. He talks about being able to stop for a while but not stay stopped, hearing mixed messages in early sobriety, and finally understanding why the first drink was the real problem. Using plain examples from his own life, including the poison ivy comparison, he explains why consequences alone could not keep him sober and why the solution had to involve the 12 steps, spiritual change, sponsorship, and action. This is a practical, Big Book-centered talk for anyone trying to understand what it means to be powerless over alcohol. Brian B. leading a meeting on step one at the Bottom Line Group in Pomano Beach, FL - May 2nd 2005 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Chris R. shares a direct and powerful AA talk about why meetings alone did not treat his alcoholism, how the Steps changed everything, and why newcomers need more than slogans. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Chris R. shares his experience as a recovered alcoholic, talking about alcoholism as a physical craving, a mental obsession, and a spiritual malady that meetings alone could not fix. After years of trying to stay sober in Alcoholics Anonymous without really working the program, Chris describes the suicide attempt, the Big Book meeting, and the people who finally carried a clear message of recovery to him. He talks about being pulled with a vision of what life could look like through the Twelve Steps, doing a Third Step Prayer, starting inventory, answering phones, being useful, and realizing two weeks later that the obsession to drink had been lifted. This AA speaker tape is funny, blunt, and full of urgency, with a strong message about carrying the actual solution, getting in the trench, and helping people recover instead of only telling them to keep coming back. Chris R. from Ingram, TX speaking at the Truro Roundup in Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada - July 25th 2009 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Don’s sponsor handed him a card that said “Big Book Will Travel,” and that old AA spirit runs through the whole talk: show up, carry the message, and give away what saved you. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, save favorite speakers, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Don shares an old-school AA talk that weaves early Alcoholics Anonymous history with his own story of drinking, lying, family damage, and final surrender. He talks about the first meetings in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the fragile beginnings of AA on the West Coast, and the people who kept showing up because they needed each other as much as the newcomer needed them. Then he turns to his own life: drinking through military service, hiding behind success and performance, sending two wives toward Al-Anon before he ever got sober, and reaching a January 15, 1985 bottom where he could not get drunk and could not get sober. In treatment, an old sponsor with a “Big Book Will Travel” card pointed him toward prayer, inventory, the ABCs, service, and the kind of life Don calls the fourth dimension: a place where God provides what is needed when we stay close and do the work. Don B. from Pleasant Hill, CA speaking in Oyster Point, CA - September 30th 2004 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Cliff says alcohol gave him eight minutes where the black rock in his belly went quiet, but AA taught him a different way out: service, laughter, and giving away what saved him. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, save favorite speakers, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store If you enjoy the app or find it useful in your recovery, a quick rating or review on the App Store would mean a lot and helps more people find Sober Sunrise. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Cliff shares a sharp, hilarious, and painfully honest AA talk about being a “functioning alcoholic” who almost died while still going to work, winning speech tournaments, and looking nothing like the park-bench alcoholic he thought he had to become. From his first drink at 16 to blackouts, fights, daily drinking, teaching school while dying inside, a surf shop with 15-martini sunsets, hot vodka in the glove compartment, and a family pushed into chaos, Cliff’s story keeps circling one truth: alcohol gave him a few minutes of relief from the black rock in his belly, then took everything else. His bottom came when his teenage son told him life was beautiful without him in the house, and the surrender came later on a beach-house floor with the Big Book open to page 63. Through sponsorship, service, Al-Anon, laughter, and the Steps, Cliff found the promises coming true and learned that the feeling of uselessness and self-pity disappears when we see how our experience can benefit others. Cliff R. from Oceanside, CA speaking at Specific Group, Las Vegas, NV June 22nd 2000 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Robi shares a funny, honest, and deeply moving AA talk about untreated alcoholism, the spiritual malady, amends, sponsorship, and the miracle of being ready when grace shows up. ☀️ Check out the New Sober Sunrise App! Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Robi shares her experience as a recovered alcoholic, beginning with the hopelessness, spiritual malady, and loss of choice that brought her to Alcoholics Anonymous. She talks about coming into AA sick, broken, and out of options, learning that simply removing alcohol was not enough, and finding freedom through sponsorship, truth-telling, inventory, amends, prayer, meditation, and working with other women. This AA speaker tape moves from raw honesty and humor into powerful recovery moments: being present with her mother at the end of life, walking through amends without unfinished business, and later having her daughters return to her life when she was finally spiritually ready to receive them. It is a strong message about not faking recovery, staying active in the Steps, and finding the kind of freedom where we no longer have to face life alone. Robi S. from Ventnor City, NJ speaking at the Absecon Speaker Group in Absecon, NJ - October 30th 2013 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Peter M. shares a powerful AA talk about being recovered, hitting the bitter end, and finding a solution far deeper than simply putting the plug in the jug. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Peter M. shares his experience of alcoholism, recovery, sponsorship, the Twelve Steps, and the spiritual awakening that changed his life. Sober since June 23, 1988, Peter talks about the back hallway moment that became his bitter end, the pain his alcoholism brought to his family, the treatment centers that could not solve the real problem, and the people in Alcoholics Anonymous who carried a clear message of recovery to him. He challenges the idea that “not drinking” is the whole program, pointing instead to amends, prayer, meditation, service, sponsorship, and the power found through working the Steps. This AA speaker tape is direct, spiritual, and deeply personal, with a strong message about moving from untreated alcoholism into recovered life. Peter M. from Union, NJ speaking at the first annual Sobriety Omaha Style in Omaha, NE - June 23rd 2007 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Scott says alcohol made life switch from black and white to color, but 19 years later the effect he keeps coming back for is his mother’s respect, his son’s trust, and the Steps working in real life. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Scott shares a raw, funny, and deeply alive AA talk about fear, blackouts, homelessness, jail, treatment, denial, and the long fight against the idea that he was different from everyone else in the rooms. He remembers the first drink changing everything, the obsession with that feeling, the lies he told himself before picking up again, and the day he finally saw that liquor had become his master. In recovery, the same man who once could not buy a soda starts rebuilding through sponsorship, inventory, amends, service, family repair, and the steady voices of AA people who told him the truth. With 19 years sober, Scott talks about his mother respecting him again, his son trusting him, sitting with his sister as she died, getting help from other alcoholics, and learning to love the effect produced by the Steps more than the effect produced by alcohol. Scott S. from Winston-Salem, NC speaking at the Unity Club Saturday speaker meeting in Winston-Salem, NC - March 24th 2007 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Keith says he used to think he had 20 relationships, until he realized he had one relationship 20 times. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Keith, sober since May 13, 1973, shares a thoughtful and funny AA talk about relationships, isolation, emotional immaturity, sponsorship, marriage, friendship, and learning how to grow up inside Alcoholics Anonymous. He talks about coming into AA at 29 but feeling emotionally 15, treating people like cut-out figures in his life, needing to be different, plotting revenge, stalking instead of dating, and slowly discovering that sex, attention, and control were not the same thing as real relationship. Keith moves through the lessons AA taught him about discovering who he is, accepting who he is, and then forgetting himself through service and availability to others. He also speaks about covenant, marriage, his wife Julia, children, siblings, sponsorship, motives, and the sacred responsibility that comes with the people God places in our lives. It is a mature, honest AA talk about moving from isolation into connection, and from self-centered need into love, responsibility, and usefulness. Keith L. from Wilmington, NC speaking about relationships at a 12 step workshop given by Mike W. - May 3rd 2002 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Pat says his wife went back to work and told him they were going to build their lives stick by stick. In sobriety, that is exactly what happened. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Pat shares an honest AA talk about losing jobs, family, housing, self-respect, and freedom to alcoholism before finding a sponsor who came to the county jail to “see a drunk” and took him into Alcoholics Anonymous one meeting at a time. He talks about workhouses, homelessness, failed attempts at responsibility, a marriage damaged by drinking, the fear and anxiety that followed him into early sobriety, and the old-timers who put a finger in his chest while also showing him how to change. Pat also shares how the steps, sponsorship, meetings, prayer, and the example of other sober men helped him become present for his wife, children, work, union responsibilities, service, and eventually a daughter who found her own way into AA. It is a grounded, grateful story about rebuilding a life slowly, staying close to the people who tell the truth, and protecting the self-respect that sobriety gave back. Pat P. from Cleveland, OH speaking at the C.A.H. group in Euclid, OH - December 21st 2008 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Ed learned from Chuck C. that what we came to AA looking for, we were already looking with. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Ed M., sober since January 5, 1971, leads a funny, blunt, and deeply spiritual Mother’s Day retreat on alcoholism, emotional maturity, spiritual sobriety, and living the Twelve Steps in every area of life. He shares his own story of early drinking, violence, resentment, faith, amends, forgiveness, ministry, family pain, and the surprising life AA opened up for him, then moves into a practical look at powerlessness, surrender, inventory, anger, defects of character, and the need to keep applying the program beyond alcohol alone. With stories about Big John, Clancy, Chuck C., treatment-center confusion, carrying the message through tapes, forgiving the men involved in his father’s murder, and learning to stop living from old “ones,” Ed keeps returning to the same simple point: the answer was never missing, but the application has to become real. Parts 1-3 of Ed M. from Davenport, IA speaking at a Mothers Day Retreat - 2006 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Father Vaughn says the dirt is beautiful, because out of the pain, wreckage, and defeat of alcoholism, something living can finally grow. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Father Vaughn shares a funny, forceful, and deeply spiritual AA talk about alcoholism, recovery, freedom, grace, and the lived experience of the Twelve Steps. With stories from his life as a priest, hockey player, drinker, and longtime worker with alcoholics, he talks about the conflict between behavior and values, the danger of cheap grace, the importance of laughter, the need to stop being spectators in recovery, and why the steps have to be internalized rather than merely observed. He digs into surrender, self-acceptance, the Fourth and Fifth Steps, forgiveness, sexuality, shame, love, service, and the sacred responsibility of carrying a message that may be the only “big book” another suffering person ever reads. It is a lively, old-school AA talk about becoming fully alive, letting grace work through the wreckage, and learning that out of the dirt can come flowers. Father Vaughn Q. speaking at Comox AA Rally in British Columbia, Canada - 1999 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

After years of running, surviving, and trying to escape herself, Carla found something in AA she never expected: the ability to be awake in this moment. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Listen to Sober Sunrise AA speaker talks anytime, track your sober time, take a daily pledge, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 Sober Sunrise App - Apple App Store ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Hundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Carla, sober since September 25, 1987, shares a powerful and deeply human AA talk about growing up in instability, discovering early that alcohol could do something for her she could not do for herself, and trading away pieces of her life for the effect it produced. She talks about running away, juvenile halls, psychiatric hospitals, damaged relationships, motherhood, sponsorship, inventories, amends, trauma, forgiveness, and the slow rebuilding of a life inside Alcoholics Anonymous. Carla also shares how AA helped her become present for her daughter, her mother, her family, her sponsors, and the people who now need what she was freely given. With humor, honesty, and a lot of grace, she points toward the simple miracle at the center of her recovery: waking up, staying close, and learning to live fully in the moment she used to spend her life trying to escape. Carla R. from Tujunga, CA speaking at the 60th Gopher State Roundup in Bloomington, MN - May 26th 2013 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Tom had years in AA, thousands of meetings, and still drank again. Then one Big Book talk in treatment finally explained what he had missed. ☀️ Sober Sunrise App Track your sober time, take a daily pledge, listen to trusted AA speakers, use beautiful home screen widgets, and keep recovery support close throughout the day. 📱 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sober-sunrise/id6770203116   ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter   Tom shares a direct and hard-hitting AA talk about starting to drink at a young age, living restless, irritable, and discontent without alcohol, spending years around Alcoholics Anonymous, and still missing the core of the program. He talks about treatment centers, discussion meetings, slogans, “thinking through the drink,” long stretches of meeting attendance, and the frightening moment when all of that still failed to keep him sober. In treatment after his relapse, Tom finally heard the Big Book explained in a way he says he had never heard in thousands of meetings: the physical allergy, the mental obsession, the spiritual malady, and the need for a spiritual solution followed by carrying the message to others. He gets into why meetings are not the solution by themselves, why working with other alcoholics matters, why delaying the steps can be dangerous, and how taking the steps quickly changed his life into one built around service, sponsorship, and watching other alcoholics recover. Tom P. from Dallas, TX speaking at the Casa Group of AA in Dallas, TX - November 27th 2006 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Grant hit the end of half-measures with one desperate thought: he didn’t want to meet God with alcohol on his breath. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Grant shares a funny, painful, and deeply honest AA talk about growing up alone in a rigid military home, losing his athletic future to a brain tumor, taking his first drink at 17, and slowly crossing the line from controlled drinking into hiding beer in spare tires, wrecking cars, damaging his family, and trying to manage alcoholism his own way. He talks about white-knuckling, coming to AA, continuing to drink between meetings, and finally reaching the kind of pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization that made him willing to do whatever it took. Grant also shares powerful moments from recovery: hearing that God would not bring him into a room with the answer just to deny it to him, finding a sponsor, taking the steps, making peace with his father, discovering the truth about his childhood, and becoming a man who could love, forgive, and be useful. Grant P. from St. Paul, MN sharing his story at the St. Paul open speakers meeting in St. Paul, MN - January 2007 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Paul says he was not there at the birth of Alcoholics Anonymous, but he was there at the christening. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Paul K. shares an old-school AA talk with 46 years of sobriety, reflecting on early Alcoholics Anonymous, Dr. Bob, the Oxford Group influence, the Four Absolutes, sponsorship, surrender, inventory, amends, traditions, and the spiritual simplicity he saw in the fellowship’s early days. He talks about coming into AA when it was already “in place and working,” being sponsored through direct action, taking the Third Step on his knees in front of the group, using honesty, unselfishness, purity, and love as guides for inventory, and learning through painful amends that restitution could become an act of love. Paul also speaks tenderly about his wife, their shared sobriety, and Dr. Bob’s final message to keep the program simple: love and service. Paul K. from Akron, OH speaking at the Deep South AA Convention in New Orleans, LA - April 8th-10th 1988 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Arnor says AA can feel like an invisible rowboat: it may not make sense at first, but you still have to get in and row. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Arnor K. shares a sharp, funny, and unconventional AA workshop talk on carrying the message, working with newcomers, and why intensive work with other alcoholics became the missing piece of his own sobriety. He talks about coming into AA angry, defensive, and unimpressed, reading the Big Book to find loopholes, learning from people who did not want to do the work but did it anyway, and discovering that sobriety was not just about fixing himself. Arnor digs into Chapter 7, the practical meaning of “intensive work with other alcoholics,” the difference between sounding like an expert and gaining a drunk’s trust, why perfection is not required to help someone, and how the recipe of AA only comes alive when it is actually baked into action. It is a restless, funny, thought-provoking talk about getting off the receiving end of AA and becoming part of the work. Arnor K. from Oslo, Norway speaking about carrying the message at the June NOLA workshop in New Orleans, LA - June 28th 2015 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

DeAndre thought he already knew enough about the first three steps. His sponsor heard two sentences and saw the dry drunk coming. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter DeAndre, sober since May 29, 1991, shares a funny and direct AA talk about sponsorship, connection, accountability, and the danger of trying to run the show alone. He talks about leaving psych rehab, meeting his first sponsor Dennis, thinking he had already handled the first three steps, and slowly learning that real sponsorship meant letting another alcoholic see through his fear, resentment, secrets, and self-deception. DeAndre gets into the “stomach steps” of four through nine, looking for cosigners instead of direction, drifting from a sponsor, coming back, sponsoring others, staying available without playing God, and why helping another alcoholic keeps his sobriety from feeling shallow. Deandre M. from Lancaster, CA speaking at the 12 suggestions meeting in Hermosa Beach, CA -  June 21st 2006 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

In the finale of the Joe & Charlie Founders' Day series, the written inventory becomes admission, willingness, amends, daily practice, and a message carried to someone else. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter In this final combined session, Joe and Charlie take the Fourth Step inventory into Steps Five through Twelve. They explain why self-appraisal alone is not enough, how admitting the exact nature of our wrongs begins clearing away what has blocked us, and how willingness in Step Six leads to the humility of Step Seven. From there, they move into the amends process, including becoming willing, making direct amends carefully, and allowing changed conduct to repair the past. Joe and Charlie then show how Steps Ten and Eleven keep inventory, prayer, and meditation active in daily life before bringing the workshop home with Step Twelve. The result of the first eleven Steps is a spiritual awakening, but the responsibility that follows is just as important: practicing these principles and carrying the message to the next alcoholic. Joe & Charlie speaking in Laughlin, Nevada, circa 1998 - "The Big Book Comes Alive" workshop tapes - Parts 9 & 10: "Steps 5, 6, 7, & 8" and "Steps 9, 10, 11, & 12" Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Lou walked into his first AA meeting wearing one black shoe and one brown shoe, and heard something no one had told him in 28 years: “Welcome, you’re in the right place.” ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Lou, sober since November 16, 1963, shares a rapid-fire, Big Book-centered AA talk about growing up in New Brunswick, running across Canada, landing on Vancouver’s skid row, and returning to a family home with the utilities disconnected, furniture repossessed, and debts owed to 51 places. The morning after his last drunk, he heard that his drinking days were over, called AA from a neighbor’s telephone, and was visited by two men, one only 21 days sober. Lou talks about being confronted as a phony, making direct amends without loopholes, repairing his relationship with the mother he had harmed and left as a teenager, learning prayer, meditation, inventory, financial responsibility, and service, and building a joyful life with Linda. From skid row to helping hundreds through racing-industry recovery programs, his message stays simple: recovery is found in changing our reaction to life, carrying the message, and holding hands before someone is lost. Lou F. from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada speaking at Comox AA Rally in British Columbia, Canada - 2000 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

In Part 8 of the Joe & Charlie Founders' Day series, Joe and Charlie slow down and make the Fourth Step practical instead of mysterious. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter In this session, Joe and Charlie work through the Fourth Step inventory in detail, using the Big Book's business inventory comparison to explain why the work is written, factual, and practical. They break down the meaning of a searching and fearless moral inventory, explain moral as truth rather than shame, and walk through resentments, fears, harms, and the instincts that get threatened. They show how resentments, fear, guilt, and remorse can block a person from God, and why the inventory is not about writing a life story or punishing ourselves. Part 8 is one of the most useful workshop sessions because it turns Step Four into something a newcomer can actually sit down and do. Joe & Charlie speaking in Laughlin, Nevada, circa 1998 - "The Big Book Comes Alive" workshop tapes - Part 8: "Working the 4th Step" Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Steve attended meetings almost every morning for 100 days, but without a sponsor or the Steps, he was stone cold sober and slowly losing his mind. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Steve, sober since July 27, 1996, shares in Reykjavik about arriving in AA under court order, sitting beneath the coffee machine at his first meeting, and planning never to return. Instead, he attended that same meeting for nearly three years, initially hearing only that he should avoid drinking and keep coming back. At 100 days sober, alone on a business trip and mentally unraveling, Steve stood over a hotel minibar before returning home and making an elaborate plan to disappear using 13 old passports. One expired tourist passport and one more meeting placed him in front of a sponsor who immediately began taking him through the Steps. Inventory exposed the fear and resentment separating Steve from his father, while amends taught him to listen, become present for his dying mother, and finally love his disabled daughter without resentment. Steve connects those experiences to sponsorship, complete honesty, prayer, service, and the moment another recovering father was restored to his own son. His message is direct: meetings help us find one another, but the program of action is in the Steps, and desperation can become the gateway through which grace finally reaches us. Steve L. from Redondo Beach, CA speaking at the Road to Recovery conference in Reykjavik, Iceland - September 17th 2010 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

In Parts 6 and 7 of the Joe & Charlie Founders' Day series, willingness becomes action as We Agnostics leads directly into How It Works and the Twelve Steps. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter In this combined session, Joe and Charlie begin with We Agnostics and explain why the Big Book does not demand a particular religion, a polished understanding of God, or perfect belief. Instead, it asks whether the alcoholic can become willing to seek a power greater than human power. From there, they move into How It Works, the wording and development of the Twelve Steps, and the difference between reaching conclusions in Steps One and Two and making a decision in Step Three. They break down will as thinking and life as action, explain why self-will cannot solve a problem rooted in self, and show why the Third Step decision must immediately be carried into inventory. Parts 6 and 7 form the bridge between understanding the problem and beginning the practical program of action. Joe & Charlie speaking in Laughlin, Nevada, circa 1998 - "The Big Book Comes Alive" workshop tapes - Parts 6 & 7: "We Agnostics" and "How It Works" Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

John spent years believing he was unwanted because he was Indigenous, uneducated, poor, and unable to speak the way other people did. AA taught him that none of those things had robbed him of life nearly as much as refusing to accept himself. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter John shares how he arrived at his first AA meeting at 28 after seven years on Skid Row, unable to read or write, living in a mission, and interested mainly in the free coffee and donuts. A lawyer greeted him at the door, introduced him to people who treated him with care, and gave John his first experience of belonging sober. Although the desire to drink disappeared, loneliness, fear, and isolation returned after several years because he still had no program for living. A Step meeting and an unlikely friendship with a priest challenged John to become teachable, stop blaming his identity and circumstances, and begin where he was with what he had. From one underpriced house-painting job came a room of his own, a ladder, a business, a driver’s license, an 11-passenger station wagon, a wife, six children, and a life spent helping others. John’s message is not that AA turned him into somebody else, but that honesty, faith, and the Steps finally taught him to stop fighting the person he had always been. John  V. from Berlin, MA speaking at the 1st Atlantic Summer Roundup in Moncton, NB - June 23rd 1989 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Karl called his father, a minister and theologian, expecting him to explain God. His father gave him a much shorter answer: God is whatever got you to those people, so do what they say. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Karl, sober since January 21, 1987, shares a rapid-fire AA talk about growing up in Borneo, blacking out from his first drink at 11, earning ten college credits in three years, dealing drugs, living on the streets, and joining the Navy to escape people he owed. His drinking followed him into military life, where he drove through a guard shack, repeatedly drank on Antabuse, landed in jail, and was finally sent to treatment under threat of the brig and a bad-conduct discharge. At his first AA meeting, one sentence described the condition he could never explain: his mind would have killed his body, but it needed it for transportation. What followed was a weekend of meetings, a recovering alcoholic waiting for him aboard his ship, nightly Big Book study in the battery shop, inventory, difficult financial amends, an honorable discharge, and a return to college. Karl explains how meetings, the book, and service became recovery, unity, and service in action, and how loading newcomers into a broken Volkswagen taught him that helping someone else could improve his life before the car even left the parking lot. Karl M. from Covina, CA speaking somewhere in Texas, sometime in 1994 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Paul went to AA for seven months with no intention of becoming an alcoholic. Then he attended one meeting too many, caught himself laughing with everyone else, and never drank again ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Paul, sober since July 31, 1967, shares a wonderfully funny AA talk about being a doctor who could diagnose everyone except himself. After weight loss, convulsions, headaches, and a growing sense of insanity convinced him that he had a brain tumor, alcoholism landed him in the psychiatric ward of the hospital where he practiced medicine. He first attended AA to satisfy his psychiatrist, kept returning because his wife enjoyed the meetings, and finally discovered that the laughter, Steps, meetings, and fellowship were reaching him despite everything he thought he knew. Paul talks about the noisy committee in his head, giving God a 51 percent controlling interest in his life, assigning God the worry while he handles the work, redoing the Steps, carrying the message, and learning that sobriety requires both meetings and action. At the heart of the talk is the point of the V: accepting that he was alcoholic changed the entire direction of his life, because acceptance did not mean approval. It meant facing reality and finally having a choice. Paul O. from Laguna Beach, CA at 19th Everett Conference - November 28th 1997 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Michael knew he was alcoholic for twelve years before AA, but the part that changed his life was learning what came after putting the drink down. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Michael, from Montana, shares a direct and thoughtful AA talk centered on Step One, especially the unmanageability that remained after alcohol was removed. He talks about years of drinking Granddad in private, blackouts, hiding car keys from himself, waking up afraid of what he might have done, time behind bars, wrecked cars, hospitalizations, and the slow degradation that made him believe he did not deserve to sober up. After court, treatment, relapses, early sponsorship choices, and the death of a friend, Michael describes the moment he got on his knees with other sober men and finally asked for the compulsion to be removed. From there, he walks through why every Step after Step One deals with the same deeper problem: resentments, fear, selfishness, sexual behavior, sponsorship, amends, and becoming a builder instead of a destroyer. This is a strong tape for anyone who has heard “I’m powerless” but still wonders what AA means by “my life had become unmanageable.” Michael McK. from Whitefish, MT at Kalispell, MT May 17th 1998 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

In Part 5 of the Joe & Charlie Founders' Day series, Joe and Charlie dig into the strange mental blank spot that makes the first drink possible again. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter In this session, Joe and Charlie walk through More About Alcoholism and the Big Book's deeper explanation of the mental side of the disease. They break down the obsession that says someday we will control and enjoy drinking, the illusion and delusion that return after consequences, and why knowledge alone does not protect the alcoholic from another first drink. Using the Big Book examples of the man of thirty, the jaywalker, and Fred, they show how the alcoholic can be sane in every other area and still have no effective mental defense when the thought of a drink returns. Part 5 sharpens Step One by showing that the problem is not only what happens after drinking starts, but the mind that keeps taking us back to the first drink Joe & Charlie speaking in Laughlin, Nevada, circa 1998 - "The Big Book Comes Alive" workshop tapes - Part 5: "More About Alcoholism" Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Daniel says he spent his drinking years chasing the perfect level, but every time he found it, he flew right past it. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Daniel, from Benton, Arkansas, shares a funny, raw, and deeply alive AA talk about getting sober young after alcohol and drugs took him from anxiety and feeling different into blackouts, jail, withdrawal, rage, and wanting out. He talks about his first drink removing the knot in his gut, the daily chase for the “perfect level,” and the morning of August 8, 1998, when he asked God to let him die or give him help. What came next was detox, treatment, and three AA members who shook his hand, told him they were glad he was there, and carried a message real enough to give him hope. From there, Daniel walks through the Steps, sponsorship, inventory, amends, young people’s AA, service commitments, the recovery-unity-service triangle, and the joy of watching other alcoholics come alive. By the end, his message is simple: there is no advanced AA, service keeps the structure standing, and if God has a plan for your life, make it count Daniel E. from Benton, AR speaking at Arkansas Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous in Morrilton, AR - October 7th 2005 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

In Part 4 of the Joe & Charlie Founders' Day series, Joe and Charlie explain the two powers in There Is A Solution: the fellowship that holds us and the spiritual experience that changes us. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter In this session, Joe and Charlie walk through There Is A Solution as the Big Book's answer to the problem laid out in The Doctor's Opinion and Bill's Story. They focus on the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, the phrase "we of Alcoholics Anonymous," and the strange but beautiful fact that people who normally would not mix can find a common solution together. They also make the larger point that fellowship alone is not enough for the real alcoholic. The chapter points toward the vital spiritual experience, the difference between the hard drinker and the real alcoholic, and the need for both support and a program of action. Part 4 is where the series starts to move from identification into the actual answer: not many solutions, but one common solution that can be lived. Joe & Charlie speaking in Laughlin, Nevada, circa 1998 - "The Big Book Comes Alive" workshop tapes - Part 4: "There Is A Solution" Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Jerome says he was not a has-been, but a never-was, until AA gave him a design for living that took him from Skid Row and institutions to sobriety, family, education, and useful work. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Jerome shares a vivid AA talk about growing up in South Central L.A., taking his first drink before a high school record hop in the summer of 1962, and discovering that alcohol seemed to make him able to act, perform, and stop caring what anyone thought. That first drink became a long collapse through homelessness, hospitals, arrests, mental health treatment, Camarillo State Hospital, and repeated attempts to explain away what alcohol kept doing to his life. On June 6, 1973, after one more jail cell and one more broken return home, Jerome walked into an AA clubhouse at 9604 South Figueroa and finally listened like only the dying can hear. In this talk, he tells how no-nonsense AA people, sponsorship, faith in action, work, school, fatherhood, forgiveness, and the simple design for living in Alcoholics Anonymous helped him become the man a psychiatrist once said he could never be. Jerome S. from Corona, California Speaking at the Santa Barbara AA Convention, September 23, 2000 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

In Part 3 of the Joe & Charlie Founders’ Day series, Joe and Charlie walk through Bill’s Story as the first full example of alcoholism, identification, and recovery in the Big Book. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter In this session, Joe and Charlie show why Bill’s Story comes so early in Alcoholics Anonymous: not as biography alone, but as identification. They trace Bill W. from early success, ambition, Wall Street, drinking in the jazz places, and the crash of 1929 into the progression of alcoholism - when drinking stopped being exciting and became necessary. They connect Bill’s repeated failures to stay stopped with Dr. Silkworth’s explanation from The Doctor’s Opinion, then follow the turning point: Ebby’s visit, the simple religious idea, the practical Oxford Group actions, and Bill’s sudden spiritual experience at Towns Hospital in December 1934. By the end, Joe and Charlie make the central point clear: Bill did not just learn about alcoholism, he had old ideas replaced with new ones, and almost immediately began thinking about how to help other alcoholics. Bill’s Story becomes the bridge from powerlessness to hope, and from hope to a design for living that works in rough going. Joe & Charlie speaking in Laughlin, Nevada, circa 1998 - "The Big Book Comes Alive" workshop tapes - Part 3: "Bill's Story" Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

In Part 2 of the Joe & Charlie Founders’ Day series, Joe and Charlie explain why The Doctor’s Opinion is one of the keys to understanding alcoholism itself. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter In this session, Joe and Charlie walk through Dr. Silkworth’s explanation of alcoholism: the body that reacts differently to alcohol, the physical craving that starts after the first drink, and the mind that eventually forgets the consequences and reaches for alcohol again. They break down the difference between craving and obsession, why the word “allergy” confused so many alcoholics, and why the Big Book says the body of the alcoholic is as abnormal as the mind. By the end, they connect The Doctor’s Opinion directly to Step One: if we cannot safely drink because of the body, and we cannot stay stopped because of the mind, then we are powerless over alcohol. They also point toward the answer: the psychic change produced through the Twelve Steps, where peace of mind, serenity, and usefulness begin to replace the restless, irritable, and discontented condition that once drove the first drink Joe & Charlie speaking in Laughlin, Nevada, circa 1998 - "The Big Book Comes Alive" workshop tapes - Part 2: "The Doctor’s Opinion" Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

In honor of AA’s 91st Founders’ Day, we’re sharing the legendary Joe & Charlie Big Book workshops in order, from AA history through the Steps, over the next 10 days. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter In Part 1, Joe and Charlie begin with the history behind Alcoholics Anonymous and the Big Book, starting from the Foreword to the Second Edition and the first AA group in Akron, Ohio in June 1935. They walk through Bill W., Dr. Bob, Ebby Thacher, Dr. Silkworth, the Oxford Groups, the early shape of the program, and why understanding the history makes the book easier to understand. This opening session sets up the pattern they return to throughout the workshop: what the problem is, what the solution is, and the practical program of action that carries the message Joe & Charlie speaking in Laughlin, Nevada, circa 1998 - "The Big Book Comes Alive" workshop tapes - Part 1: "AA History" Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Geoff says his first sponsor warned him that until he shook hands with the real version of himself, he would be working the program on the wrong guy. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Geoff walked into Alcoholics Anonymous on Christmas Day in 1978 after years of jail, drinking, using, fear, and desperation. In this AA talk, he shares the sponsor who almost refused to work with him, the inventories that forced him to meet the real Geoff, and the life that opened up when he began doing the work. He also talks honestly about drifting away after years sober, building a big life with a tiny program, relapsing before his 20th AA birthday, and coming back with no days. What follows is a moving story about sponsorship, service, prayer, prison panels, spiritual experience, and the discovery that God was never found alone, but in the spaces between one alcoholic and another. Geoff C. from Valley Village, CA speaking at the Third Tradition speaker meeting in Studio City, CA - November 14th 2007 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Chris used to know exactly where the serious AA people were, and he knew exactly how to avoid them. When he finally meant business, those “fanatics” were the ones he went looking for. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Chris, sober since November 19, 1998, shares how drinking took him from a 14-year-old waking up in a sand trap after 11 beers to school trouble, DUIs, work camps, prison, parole violations, detox, and finally the Okaloosa County Jail facing years behind bars. He talks about hearing the AA message long before he was ready, keeping it in his back pocket for “if it ever gets bad enough,” and finally reaching the point where there was no door number three. This is a rough, funny, gratitude-filled AA talk about singleness of purpose, strong sponsorship, a serious home group, following directions, doing the steps, carrying the message into detox and corrections, and finding out that the people he once dismissed as losers and fanatics were exactly the people who could help save his life. Chris S. from Ft. Walton Beach, FL speaking at the 17th Annual Southeast Louisiana Spring Roundup in Covington, LA - May 27th 2006 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Scott could fly supersonic jets, but he could not outfly alcoholism. By the time AA found him, the dream job, the willpower, and the John Wayne act had all stopped working. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Scott, sober since June 28, 1984, shares a funny and deeply serious AA talk about drinking as a young Air Force pilot, flying high-performance aircraft with hangovers, losing the greatest job he ever had, and finally landing in treatment outside Atlanta. He talks about the “John Wayne syndrome,” the first drink that made him feel tall enough and smart enough, the treatment-center moment where he cried out for forgiveness, and the unanswerable question that made him realize he did not know how to keep himself sober. From there, Scott gets into the Big Book, sponsorship by assignment, the difference between fellowship and program, jail and prison service, fourth-step forgiveness, family pain, and the kind of spiritual life that lets him say his wager is too high to treat recovery like a buffet. Scott L. from Nashville, TN speaking at Maryland State Convention in Hagerstown, MD - June 13th 2002 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Chris says treatment was only the discovery that a solution existed. The real change came when AA, sponsorship, and a God she could not yet name reached into the prison she had built around herself. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Chris shares how drinking began at 11 and followed her through blackouts, self-reliance, family pain, treatment, and the wreckage that finally made AA possible. She talks about treatment as discovery, not recovery; why “putting the plug in the jug” was only the beginning; and how sponsorship, inventory, amends, and carrying the message helped her move from ego and fear into love and God. This is a direct, deeply AA-centered talk about surrender, spiritual awakening, and the simple recovery arithmetic Chris learned: one alcoholic with another alcoholic means God is in the room. Chris H. from Cleveland, Ohio speaking at the Memphis Group in Cleveland, OH - October 18th 2008 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Adam went through treatment 28 times before a sponsor cut through the badge of honor: it did not make him an alcoholic. It meant he had paid half a million dollars for a Big Book. ☀️ Sober Sunrise Episode Archive More AA speaker tapes and recovery stories: https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Shirts, mugs, and recovery-inspired gear: https://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletter Weekly AA speaker picks, recovery reflections, and updates: https://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Adam spent 17 years in and around Alcoholics Anonymous, picking up chips, coming to meetings drunk, cycling through treatment centers, and still not understanding why alcohol was not really his problem. In this sharp, funny AA talk, he breaks down the difference between the fellowship and the program, the problem drinker and the real alcoholic, and the outer wreckage versus the inner spiritual condition that kept taking him back. Once a sponsor took him through the Big Book and into action, Adam found the missing link in inventory, service, sponsorship, and carrying the message to another alcoholic. Adam T. from Los Angeles, CA speaking at Recovery On The Rock in Hamilton, Bermuda - November 28th 2014 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu