Sober Sunrise - AA Speaker Podcast

Don walked into a Cleveland AA meeting shaking too hard to sign a raffle ticket, until a man from the back of the room signed it for him and said the two words he had never found anywhere else: “we understand.” We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Join the free Sober Sunrise Newsletter for the week’s speaker episodes, channel updates, and a few extra AA happenings. ☀️   Weekly Newsletter Don starts as a 15-year-old grocery-store kid who found a voice in booze, wound up in the Army instead of jail, came home with war stories, and eventually landed in Rosary Hall still convinced drinking was not the real problem. In this rough, funny, old-school AA talk, he remembers the people who fed newcomers, paid utility bills, sat up all night with suffering alcoholics, and taught him that AA is action. Don is blunt about anonymity, sponsorship, amends, resentment, and the Big Book, but his point is simple: the book matters, but it never welcomed a newcomer, made a 12-step call, or sat beside someone who needed help. Don C. from Garfield Heights, OH speaking at Saturday Nite Live SE at Marymount Hospital in Garfield Heights, OH - February 13th 2003 - Don's sobriety date is February 11th 1968 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Pasha used to hide in a closet dreaming of Vermont because she thought God was there, then found out years later that the God she was looking for had been reaching her through AA. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Join the free Sober Sunrise Newsletter for the week’s speaker episodes, channel updates, and a few extra AA happenings. ☀️   Weekly Newsletter Pasha opens this talk scared in a bathroom, trying to calm herself down before stepping in front of the room, then reaches back to the child who hid in a closet and dreamed of Vermont as a place where God might be waiting. She thought she belonged in Al-Anon, landed in treatment, and ended up in a Fort Lauderdale halfway house where her bed had burned before she arrived and rain hit the couch she slept on. Through structure, sponsorship, the Big Book, a Third Step prayer on the beach, motherhood, nursing, and the slow work of becoming herself, Pasha shares how AA gave her the key to the prison she had been living in. Pasha R. from Hinesburg, VT speaking at Florida Roundup in Miami Beach, FL - March 18th 1993 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Tim left Louisville in 1966 as an all-state basketball player with a college scholarship, then came home four years later carrying a lie only his mother knew. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Join the free Sober Sunrise Newsletter for the week’s speaker episodes, channel updates, and a few extra AA happenings. ☀️   Weekly Newsletter In this three-part Vancouver men’s retreat talk from 2009, Tim shares how alcohol took over the life of a Kentucky basketball player who once thought the plan was college, law school, Congress, and maybe even the White House. Instead, he came home from school living a lie, became a teacher and coach who could barely show up, lost credibility with his family, and spent years starting over until April 12, 1990, when an AA meeting directory in his desk finally became the way out. Tim’s story moves from ego, dishonesty, and broken relationships into sponsorship, family healing, daily step use, and the simple instruction that changed his life: do the stitches and leave the patterns up to God. Tim H. from Louisville, KY speaking at the 21st Annual AA Fall Mens Retreat in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - September 19th 2009 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Chris thought his first Fifth Step meant reading someone every ugly thing he already knew about himself, until the Big Book showed him that inventory was supposed to reveal the pattern underneath it all. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Join the free Sober Sunrise Newsletter for the week’s speaker episodes, channel updates, and a few extra AA happenings. ☀️   Weekly Newsletter Chris opens up Step Five by admitting his first attempt was basically a life story, a shame dump, and a walk in the park with a sponsor who mostly wanted to walk his dogs. Later, after learning how to do inventory from the Big Book, he found out Step Five was not about confessing every bad thing he already knew. It was about seeing the exact pattern underneath his resentments, fears, and conduct so he could start getting free. With blunt humor and no patience for overthinking, Chris makes the case that AA is not a debating society - it is a program of action. Chris S. from New Vernon, NJ talking about step 5 at a Big Book study in Winston-Salem, NC - 2010 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu    

Paul got sober in 1947, spent his first year convinced he had the program figured out, and then a friend told him he hadn't missed something in the program - he'd missed the whole program. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Join the free Sober Sunrise Newsletter for the week’s speaker episodes, channel updates, and a few extra AA happenings. ☀️   Weekly Newsletter Paul shares from nearly six decades sober with old-timer humor, Navy stories, professional wrestling, and a hard message about what actually treats alcoholism. He talks about getting sober in 1947, hearing Bill Wilson speak, making delayed amends, reworking inventory, and watching people change through honest fifth steps and direct restitution. At 83, Paul is still working the steps every week and making the case that meetings are good, but the steps are the program. Paul M. from Chicago, IL speaking at a half-way house fundraiser in Chicago, IL - May 14th 2005 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Andrew came into AA feeling awkward, young, and afraid of being seen, then found that service gave him a way to belong without having to become somebody else. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Join the free Sober Sunrise Newsletter for the week’s speaker episodes, channel updates, and a few extra AA happenings. ☀️   Weekly Newsletter Andrew shares about getting sober at 17, learning to live without alcohol as his solution, and slowly finding his place in AA through sponsorship, meetings, amends, and service. With dry humor and a deep love for the fellowship, he talks about general service, corrections correspondence, carrying the message, and how showing up for AA gave him far more than the relief he first came looking for. Andrew W. from Missoula, MT speaking at the 60th Gopher State Roundup in Bloomington, MN - May 25th 2013 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Charlie loved AA from the start, but eventually learned that meetings, friends, and fellowship could not replace the spiritual experience the book was pointing him toward. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Want to receive all the speakers from the last week + some fun other AA happenings? Join the Sober Sunrise Newsletter! Weekly Newsletter Charlie shares with humor and Big Book conviction about getting sober, drifting on fellowship alone, and later realizing that outwardly looking fine was not the same as staying spiritually fit. He talks about sponsorship, working the steps from the book, getting honest about what was blocking him, and finding new life in carrying the message to other alcoholics. Charlie P. from Austin, TX speaking at the Bridge to Shore group in Austin, TX - January 1st 2006 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Shelly thought she had only handed God the drinking problem, until one long day in the steps showed her how much of her life she was still trying to manage herself. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Want to receive all the speakers from the last week + some fun other AA happenings? Join the Sober Sunrise Newsletter! Weekly Newsletter Shelly shares about getting sober young, falling in love with AA before fully working the program, and the day her sponsor walked her through the steps fast enough to save her life. With sharp Big Book experience, funny real-life details, and a deep focus on action, Shelly talks about inventory, amends, sponsorship, and learning that God could handle far more than she was willing to hand over. Shelly S. from Portsmouth, NH speaking at the 70th "Old Grandad" Conference in Hot Springs, AR - August 20th 2010 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Wayne spent five years drinking his way through AA meetings before his sponsor casually mentioned the program works better if you don't drink - and what happened next almost got one of them killed. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Want to receive all the speakers from the last week + some fun other AA happenings? Join the Sober Sunrise Newsletter! Weekly Newsletter Wayne was living in a dumpster behind a bar in Illinois when his dad found him and closed the lid. A bartender sent him to a basement AA meeting where an old-timer grabbed him and wouldn't let go - not through five years of drinking in meetings, not through a gunshot, not through a psych ward. Wayne fired his sponsor after year one, sponsored himself into a seven-year depression, then finally did the steps the way they're written and went from the bottom of the barrel to graduating a police academy. Wayne B. from Santa Monica, CA speaking at ORC 2000 Program - March 1st 2000 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu    

Bart spent eight years in AA meetings without raising his hand once - until someone's sponsor made him so angry from the podium that he showed up at the guy's store the next morning ready to fight, and walked out two hours later with a sponsor and a big book.We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Want to receive all the speakers from the last week + some fun other AA happenings? Join the Sober Sunrise Newsletter! Weekly Newsletter Bart came into AA in 1987 and spent eight years going to meetings without ever working the steps, raising his hand, or getting a sponsor. He was so shy people offered him cash just to say his name. In 1995 he heard a speaker talk about being recovered, happy, and free - and it made him furious. He showed up at the guy's store the next morning to confront him, and two hours later he was reading the Big Book for the first time. Three months in, his sponsor sent him to work with a guy from a rehab who wanted to kill everyone in the room - and Bart watched him recover. That changed everything. Bart R. from Long Beach, NY speaking at the Airmont group's 13th anniversary in Airmont, NY - July 18th 2008 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

 Mickey spent 40 years changing his perception of reality any way he could - starting as a kid in northwest London who took a dump in a confessional, and ending as a blackout drinker who woke up walking down a street in Spain after a night out in London. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch  Mickey B. breaks down the first three steps with the kind of clarity that made him one of the most quoted speakers in AA rooms worldwide. He draws a sharp line between admitting you're an alcoholic and fully conceding it, explains why "powerless over people, places and things" has nothing to do with the program, and walks through what hitting bottom actually is - an inside job, not an outside circumstance. This is a two-part workshop recorded in Copenhagen in 2009. Mickey B. from London, UK speaking about steps 1, 2 and 3 at the Men Among Men Group's first conference in Copenhagen, Denmark - August 8th 2009 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Frank quit drinking for 13 months without ever stepping foot in an AA meeting - by the end he was choking a stranger in an office and throwing groceries across a store before someone finally told him his problem wasn't drinking anymore, it was living. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Frank grew up in small-town Illinois, joined the Marines at 17 because he was too scared to go to college, and spent the next two decades fighting, drinking, and walking through everyone's life. After the Marine Corps, the police department, and a real estate fortune he drank away, he ended up homeless and dying - and his parents had him committed. He white-knuckled 13 months with no meetings and had a nervous breakdown before someone finally told him drinking wasn't his problem anymore, living was. Frank J. from Sherman Oaks, CA speaking at the Chippewa Valley roundup in Eau Claire, Wisconsin - 2001 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Peter went through seven treatment centers, lived on the streets of Lower Manhattan, and cursed God with everything he had - then begged Him for help from the same hallway a few weeks later. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Peter grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, lost his mother to the disease as a kid, and chased alcohol from age 14 through seven rehabs, the Brooklyn waterfront, and the streets of Lower Manhattan. His dad kept showing up - locking the door one day, coming back to rescue him the next - until the night he drove back from South Jersey on a gut feeling and found his son running the streets. Peter got sober in Minnesota in 1988 and built a life on continuous step work, prayer, and meditation that goes far deeper than just not drinking. Peter M. from Union, NJ speaking at the Gopher State Roundup in Minneapolis, MN - May 29th 2005 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Frank is a recovered attorney with 30-plus years sober who still writes a full Fourth Step inventory every single year - and he brought his latest one to the podium to read it out loud. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Frank is a Colorado lawyer who stole from clients, blacked out through court appearances, and played bar games that made him sick to his stomach once the fog cleared. Decades sober, he still does the steps annually and walked the room through his latest written inventory column by column - resentments, ego, and the amends that came out of it. This is a nuts-and-bolts Big Book talk from a guy who treats the steps like power tools, not theory. "Big" Frank M. from Denver, CO speaking at Top O' Top Roundup - October 10th 1996 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu    

Chris walked out of a 28-day rehab with every reason in the world not to drink and didn't make it five minutes off the train before he was in a bar. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Chris  spent 17 years drinking a fifth of vodka a day while climbing the corporate ladder in management consulting. After a blackout car accident that killed another person, he cycled through mental wards, detoxes, and rehabs - still unable to stop. It took getting dragged out of a hotel by fellow AA members, doing his steps in the back of a parking lot, and eventually working his program from inside a prison cell to finally build the spiritual foundation that keeps him sober today. Robert "Chris" P. from Newark, NJ speaking at the Spiritual Awakenings Group in Bernardsville, NJ - January 22nd 2008 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Jay P. spent a year and a half making coffee, cleaning ashtrays, and giving speeches he stole from other people's meetings - until someone told him he was a phony and about to get drunk. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Jay grew up in Cleveland, bouncing between reformatories before his first drink at 13 changed everything. He burned through the Navy, the Merchant Marine, and a marriage before landing on a stranger's doorstep 1,200 miles from home. In AA he did all the right things for a year and a half - then a fellow member called him out, he cracked open the Big Book, and four days later his life was different. Jay P. from Myrtle Beach, SC at Northern Illinois Area Spring Conference - March 22nd 1997 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Don went to 18 asylums and spent two years believing AA couldn't work because he was simultaneously too magnificent and too terrible — until they told him the Big Book isn't a philosophy, it's an instruction manual. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Don grew up on a tobacco farm in Kentucky, fell in love with the honky-tonk heroes in the beer joints at age seven, and chased that image for 25 years through law school, a destroyed practice, and a car wreck at 130 that broke both legs and separated his pelvis. His brain would tell him AA couldn't work because he was too complex — and in the very next heartbeat tell him it couldn't work because he was too broken. He believed both every time. When he stumbled back to the door they said he'd been criticizing the literary style and quoting the book while he was dying — and that sobriety is a doing process, not a learning process. He did the steps like taking penicillin: didn't understand it, didn't believe it, did it anyway. Nine years sober he was still miserable until he realized he'd been trying to put out a fire with gasoline — treating a self-centered illness with more obsession on self. Today every crazy idea he's ever had introduces itself as common sense, and the only therapy for not wanting to do the right thing is doing it anyway. Don M. from Louisville, KY speaking at the North Dakota Northern Spring Roundup in Grand Forks, ND - 2001 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Ken spent 18 months going to AA meetings without believing he was an alcoholic — until a sponsor showed him that one drink meant he couldn't keep a promise to himself, and everything clicked. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Ken started drinking in a park on the south side of Cleveland at 15 and loved bars so much he bought one. He danced through seven DWIs and a vehicular homicide charge without anyone ever addressing his drinking, called home every day at 3 saying he'd be there at 3:30, and never once made it — because one drink turned into the whole night every single time. He went to AA on a court order, led meetings before he even thought he was an alcoholic, and spent 18 months faking it until a sponsor in the back of the room stood up and said "keep doing what you're doing and you'll be drunk in two weeks." That man became his sponsor, handed him a card with a dime taped to it, and told him to find three people to learn from — one for the program, one for God, and one for fatherhood. Today Kevin's been married 48 years, raised two sons who show up for their mother every day, and says AA won't make you wealthy but it gives you riches nobody can take away. Ken B. from Parma, OH speaking at the C.A.H. group in Euclid, OH - December 28th 2008 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Tim was 38, sleeping under a freeway bridge, and begging for wine money when his mom said she couldn't watch him die — today he runs the same central office where a stranger once welcomed him in without flinching. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Tim showed up drunk at his mother's door at 38 years old and told her not to worry — she told him she couldn't watch him die and gave him twenty bucks. He spent half on wine and half on a bus ticket back to Sacramento. When a drinking buddy suggested Santa Barbara, they got separated on arrival and Tim went looking for him at AA, where a woman at central office treated him with a kindness he never forgot. Today Tim runs that same office. He takes meetings into a level-three prison yard where lifers carry the message to men who can't leave their cell block. He held a sponsee's hand as he died surrounded by an AA meeting at his bedside. And one afternoon he answered two phone calls — a sober woman who needed someone to talk to and a young woman who couldn't stop drinking — and connected line one to line two, because that's how it works the best. Tim W. from Santa Barbara, CA speaking at the Third Tradition Speaker Meeting in Studio City, CA - May 1st 2005 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Don P. has been sober since 1967, served as a world trustee of AA, and says the greatest promise of the program isn't that you'll stop drinking — it's that you'll become useful. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch In this two-part weekend talk, Don P. shares over 30 years of sobriety with the depth of someone who died on Christmas night 1967 and woke up in a body that wouldn't quit. He found a dollar in the snow on Christmas Eve, bought a nine-foot tree for a seven-foot ceiling, and his little boy wrapped everything in the house in blue paper towels because there was nothing else. His father met him at the door and said his mother couldn't stand watching him die — then snuck them into the basement anyway. He got sober in a penitentiary where smiling inmates with numbers on their chests read him the Big Book and told him to shut up and listen for five weeks. Years later on an airplane, he watched a flight attendant pour wine and his mind said "that looks good" with no thought of alcohol at all — and a prayer started in him that he didn't start. Today he reads the Big Book out loud to people because that's how it was brought to him, and he says if you want to get closer to God, get closer to His children. Don P. from Aurora, CO doing a step workshop in Slidell, LA - December 5th-7th 1997 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Jack H. has been sober since 1958, drank with a parakeet named Petey who learned poker language, and says he's still got every defect of character he was born with — he's just learned what to do with them. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Jack started drinking Tennessee homebrew at nine, joined the Navy at 18, got court-martialed three times before he was 21, and convinced his wife he owned a $2 million tobacco plantation when he didn't have $15. He drank with a parakeet named Petey who learned every word from the poker table, got stepped on flat at 250 pounds, and was revived by a jigger of whiskey — Petey died with two years sobriety. Jack did 90 days in AA the first time, drove to his sponsor's house to announce he wasn't an alcoholic, hit a car on the way home, and spent nine months back out before the program stuck. He's been carrying drunks under both arms ever since, says he's still a proud egotistical rebel, and closes with the story of a young Indian who got kicked off the reservation and came back in a Cadillac — "How?" "Chapter Five." Jack H. from San Jose, CA speaking at the 14th Reno Spring Festival in Sparks, NV - May 10th 1985 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Frank was born in a mental hospital, drank for 23 years to silence the feeling that he was an intruder in every room he walked into, and one hot day in June 1970 the words "Alcoholics Anonymous" entered his mind and he was able to act on them. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Check out our lighthearted sober t-shirts and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Frank  drank to smash his five senses as fast as he could — his favorite drink was always the next one. He never measured a drink, never counted a pill, and took Ritalin at cocktail parties to postpone blackouts so he could stay conscious a little longer. He changed jobs every 24 months when the lies caught up, ran from anyone who loved him, and treated his psyche like California fault lines — ignoring the pressure until something cracked. One June day in 1970 the words "Alcoholics Anonymous" came into his consciousness and somehow he was able to act on them. He's been sober ever since, and says he needs AA more today than when he walked in — not just to stay sober, but to stay emotionally sober, because he can't stay happy on yesterday's spiritual awakening. Frank M. from New York, NY speaking at Florida Roundup in Miami Beach, FL - March 18th-21st 1993 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Jan walked into AA court-ordered with spiky hair, told them she wasn't like them, and left — then came back when they were right. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Jan was an egomaniac with an inferiority complex who gave her neighbor F's at age six just to feel powerful and bit a piece out of someone in a blackout rage in high school. She walked into AA, said "I'm court ordered," told the one woman who approached her to get out of her face, and left. When she came back, a sponsor who called her a sorry son of a bitch wouldn't even let her lie about where she ate lunch. He taught her things that aren't in the Big Book — how to show up when you say you will, how to be present, and how to be a mom. Today she teaches theater, has a husband and four kids around the table, and says the spark is brighter now because it's not her own. Jan E. from Lafayette, LA speaking at the 3rd Anniversary of the Big Easy Group in New Orleans, LA - April 1st 2012 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

David A. has been sober since 1967 and once fell into an open grave drunk at a funeral he was supposed to carry — this two-part step study is old-school AA at its finest. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive In this two-part step study, David A. walks through all 12 steps the way they were taught in the early days — as the diagnosis, the prescription, and the medicine. Sober since 1967 out of the Preston Group in Dallas, he got drunk getting dressed for a funeral, drove to the cemetery early, and slid into the open grave with two folding chairs while the procession arrived. His sponsor had him take his fifth step at 51 days in a men's room — tell God at the ceiling, tell yourself in the mirror, then come tell me. The 12-step calls are legendary: a naked man with a carbine, a granddaughter found in jail faster than the FBI who later called him from law school graduation, and a wife he got off the phone in 30 seconds flat so the husband's eyes finally opened. Old-school Texas AA storytelling with every step covered. David A. - "A Pathway Through The Steps", 12 Step study recorded at the Memphis Bluff City Fellowship Convention 1997 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Ben built a 300-can beer shrine at age seven, called his sponsor from a snowmobile race with a beer in his hand, and walked past his own mother on the street for eight years — until Alcoholics Anonymous became the last house on the block. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Ben grew up in Jamestown, North Dakota building a 300-can beer shrine at age seven and stealing drinks from the basement to make his paper route go smoother. His first real drunk on black velvet ended with him puking blood and swearing to God he'd never drink again — then chasing that feeling through 24 arrests and a cocaine habit he swore he'd never have. A guy he used to party with took him to a Monday night group where young guys wore suits and ties, and Ben thought it was ridiculous until he realized they had something he didn't. He got a sponsor, called him from a snowmobile race VIP suite with a beer in his hand, and that three-day run turned out to be his last. Today he's rebuilding the relationship with the mom he walked past on the street for eight years, and his son never has to wonder where he is. Ben H. from Jamestown, ND speaking at the Northern Plains Group of Alcoholics Anonymous in Fargo, ND - April 4th 2006 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu    

She blacked out her past, faked her own death to escape charges, and faced 10 years in prison—yet what finally broke her wasn’t jail… it was the unbearable pain of not drinking and not recovering. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Pattie’s story is a powerful testament to how far a person can fall—and how profoundly they can rise when they surrender; from a blackout drinker who consumed anything containing alcohol, lived in chaos, and rationalized her way through arrests, violence, and broken relationships, she transformed into a woman of deep honesty, service, and spiritual grounding through the 12 Steps, proving that true recovery isn’t about becoming perfect but becoming real, learning to act her way into right thinking, and allowing others to walk with her through fear and pain; her greatest accomplishment isn’t just decades of sobriety since October 4, 1975, but the life rebuilt through those principles—including raising a son who found his own recovery and giving her the ultimate gift of becoming a grandmother—showing that what once felt like life falling apart was actually life falling into place. Patti O. from Laguna Niguel, CA speaking at the 46th Tri-State Convention in Mt. Vernon, IL - November 4th 2006 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu    

He wasn’t a failure—he was successful, respected, and “smart”… until alcohol slowly took everything, leaving him homeless, hopeless, and completely powerless over a mind that kept telling him he’d be fine. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober Sunrise Episode Archive Chris B delivers a deeply impactful breakdown of the first three steps by sharing how his life spiraled from a promising Wall Street career into blackout drinking, crime, and complete personal collapse, ultimately revealing that alcoholism isn’t just about drinking but a deadly combination of a physical craving and a mental obsession that removes choice entirely; through surrendering his ego, abandoning self-reliance, and learning to trust a Higher Power in action—not theory—he found lasting sobriety and purpose, emphasizing that true recovery comes not from thinking or talking about the steps but living them, and that the greatest transformation in his life has been moving from self-centered survival to helping others, which he identifies as the real key to freedom, fulfillment, and a life worth living. Chris B. from Riverton, NJ speaking on the topic of "Trust God" at the Sea Isle Big Book workshop in Sea Isle, NJ - September 25th 2011 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Mike was five years sober, going to 10 meetings a week, and completely hollow inside — until the man he disliked most in AA told him he'd missed the entire recovery program. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️ Sober Sunrise Speaker Archive Mike did Alcoholics Anonymous the way he did college — signed up for everything, bought the books, threw them in the closet, and started partying. Five years sober, he had the meetings, the service, the sponsees, and was dying of untreated alcoholism in a room full of people who looked happy. The man he disliked most in AA told him something that cracked everything open: sobriety isn't your solution, it's your problem. You've been sober thousands of times — you can't stand life sober. A sponsor named Don told him to pray "God, please teach me about love" and Mike called back two weeks later furious because the only woman he liked had left town and his blood pressure meds made him impotent. Don said the prayer wasn't "God get me a woman." Over the years that prayer unfolded into falling in love with his son, restoring friendship with his ex-wife, and finding Linda — a woman who wrote out the primary purpose for their relationship including the clarity of the diamond. When she died of a stroke, he thought the prayer was over. Then he discovered the next lesson was letting the people of AA love him back. Mike L. from Indianapolis, IN speaking about steps 10 & 11 at the Stateline Retreat in Primm, NV - December 12th-14th 2008 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

David spent every Saturday planning how to drown himself and 22 years smiling and saying "I'm fine" — until a sponsor gave him two lines to say to his son and everything cracked open. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com David shares a clear and deeply relatable story about living most of his life believing he simply wasn’t good enough, constantly trying to fix himself by changing external circumstances while never understanding the role alcohol played in his thinking and behavior. For over forty years, he cycled through jobs, relationships, and self-improvement attempts, convinced that if he could just try harder or be different, everything would finally fall into place. It wasn’t until entering treatment and being introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous that he first encountered the idea that alcoholism is a disease rather than a personal failure, a shift that changed everything. Through the Twelve Steps, David began to understand that relief didn’t come from fixing himself, but from accepting his condition, surrendering his own solutions, and learning a new way to live rooted in honesty, humility, and connection with others in recovery. David L. from Holly Springs, NC speaking at the 28th Gopher State Roundup - May 25th-27th 2001 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Peter went through seven treatment centers, got drunk two days after the fifth one, and was dying in a hallway on the Lower East Side before he found a sponsor who disturbed him on the question of alcoholism and handed him the book. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Peter is not here to make you comfortable. He went through seven treatment centers and got drunk two days after spending nine weeks in the fifth one. His family thought he was beyond help. He made a plea to God in a filthy hallway on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and got put on a path he's walked for over 18 years since. This is a teaching talk — Peter walks through steps one through seven with the precision of someone who's reworked them many times and believes contemporary AA is handing newcomers a death sentence with "don't drink and go to meetings." He breaks down why the problem is in the mind but the solution isn't, why the fourth step inventory is perfect when you let God write it, and why "Father save me from me" became the truest prayer he's ever said. He's the speaker for the person who's done everything AA told them to do and still can't figure things out.  Peter M. from Union, NJ speaking at the Primary Purpose Group in Lynbrook, NY - August 3rd 2006 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Tami went to treatment to quit drugs but told her husband she'd leave the car at 65 mph if he suggested she quit drinking — then a tin cross, Psalm 23, and Board 23 started connecting dots she couldn't explain. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Tami chased a euphoric feeling from her first sip of Purple Passion at 12 and spent the next two decades building a life that looked fine from the outside — husband, four kids, ten years at Ford — while the drinking came first every single time. She put beepers on her beer because she kept losing it, sought out what she thought was cocaine at 36 with two babies at home, and developed drug-induced schizophrenia taking pictures of electricity in her attic. Her sister had a church praying for her. At Valley Hope she lied her way to a tin cross, then felt a pang of guilt that wouldn't leave — so she went back to chapel for real and heard Psalm 23 for the first time. She was in Room 23. Months later she threw a vial of dust into the river from Board 23. A year after that she heard Deuteronomy 9:21 — "I crushed it into a powder as fine as dust and threw it in the stream" — and pulled her van over sobbing. Today the pink cloud hasn't left and her little girl thinks the Lord's Prayer starts with "Our Father who draws in heaven." Tami F. from Olathe, KS speaking at NE Johnson County group in Overland Park, KS - July 9th 2010 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu      

Mike was a street drunk, a junior high dropout, and a petty criminal who once demanded 100 cheeseburgers at hammer-point — until a guy named Dan shook his hand, took him to meetings every night for six months, and showed him the book that changed everything. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Mike grew up watching his mother drain a bottle of whiskey she'd promised to pour out, got thrown out of Catholic school at 10 by a nun who told him to leave and don't come back, and took that as God saying the same thing. He spent his drinking years sleeping in strangers' unlocked cars, breaking into basements looking for a place to sleep, and getting hauled into court for crimes so absurd the whole room laughed while he stood there shaking. He once tried to rob a liquor store, saw a sign about mandatory five-year sentences, and bought a six-pack instead. A guy named Dan showed up at his door, shook his hand, and took him to meetings every night for six months. Mike read the Big Book under a kitchen table in a cockroach-infested apartment and fell in love with it that first night. At three weeks sober, Dan told him to go talk to a newcomer — and when their hands touched, Mike stopped being a useless human being for the first time in his life. He had Dan as a sponsor for all 31 years, told him he loved him at the VA hospital, said save me a seat, and walked out. Dan died two days later. Mike M. from Brunswick, MD speaking at the Rosemont Group, Frederick, MD - July 20th 2009 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu    

After years of drinking, hiding, and trying to outsmart alcoholism, Tony K. found hope through his sober brother, a first AA meeting he didn’t want to attend, and a program that changed his life. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Tony K. shares a raw and funny story of how alcohol became the answer to pain he could not face, beginning at 17 after family upheaval and quickly turning into a full-speed descent that left him isolated, angry, and spiritually empty. Even though he swore he would never become like the alcoholics in his family, drinking gave him instant relief, false confidence, and a way to numb everything he could not handle, until it slowly tore his life apart. The turning point came through watching his older brother change in Alcoholics Anonymous, then finally saying yes to a meeting himself, where one person simply listened and gave him hope. From there, Tony found sponsorship, worked the steps honestly, and discovered real freedom through inventory, truth-telling, service, and staying in the moment. It’s a powerful young-person sobriety talk about fear, ego, brotherhood, and what happens when someone finally becomes willing. Tony K. from Auburn, CA speaking at the ACYPAA roundup in Sacramento, CA - April 5th 2008 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu      

Damon was a militant atheist who chased blackouts as his only escape from a life he didn't want — the steps didn't just get him sober, they sent him to seminary. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Damon was spiritually sick long before alcohol showed up — the ruined relationships and lost jobs were already happening. When he found what booze could do, he chased blackouts six or seven nights a week because they were the closest thing to not existing without having to die. When that stopped working, he crawled into AA and almost walked right back out after hearing people with decades who sounded just as miserable as he felt. A sponsor who pounded the table about doing more showed him the book, and Damon walks through all 12 steps across four sessions with the precision of someone who thinks his way into corners and had to think his way out. From the claw in Union Square that was really trying to lead him somewhere better, to returning a box of stolen library books so old they couldn't scan them, to spontaneously grabbing his shoes and running out to church with his father for the first time — the man who would have taken his own life to avoid anything religious ended up in seminary, not because he found a belief system but because the steps gave him an experience he still can't describe. Damon G. from Bay Shore, NY. Four night step-work covering all 12 steps at the Primary Purpose Group in Seaford, NY – February 5th thru February 26th, 2011.  Music: Deep by KaizanBlu    

Josh got sober at 19 after a carbon monoxide attempt, a psych ward, and getting fired twice from the same job in 24 hours — and discovered that the same program he came to as a last resort became the first place that ever felt like home. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Josh was adopted from the Philippines, took his first drink at 10 — vodka and Kool-Aid at a party where he told a cop his name was Richard Head and walked free — and chased that moment for nine years through heroin, a psych ward, solitary confinement, and a carbon monoxide attempt where strangers found him moments before it was too late. He got fired twice from the same job in 24 hours, came to in the Mojave Desert, and walked into AA at 19 because he figured if sobriety didn't work the pain would finish him off. At six years sober he went back and made amends to the people who saved his life — the woman behind the desk started crying and said "no, it was you." The kid who never had a home finally found one. Joshua H. from Toronto, Ontario, Canada speaking at the 2007 Arizona State Young People's Conference in Pheonix, AZ - November 24th 2007 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Steve B. never got one sober day before AA, tried his own plan of drinking three days and giving four to the program, and 28 years later still has a voice in his head trying to talk him into one drink — but the steps gave him something the voice can't touch. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Steve B. loved AA from the minute he walked in — but that didn't stop him from trying his own plan first, drinking Friday through Sunday and giving Monday through Thursday to the program until the Sunday bled into Monday and the whole thing collapsed. He got sober in 1979 with World War II vets who had third-grade educations, did the steps out of the book exactly the way they said, and discovered that the guy with 30 days was his real hero, not the old-timers talking quantum physics about the traditions. At 16 years sober, his wife was cheating at the wedding and the bomb went off — he walked into his home group shattered, and a one-year-old arm came around his shoulder and nobody asked what step he was on. Today he sponsors guys, moved across the country for a ninth-step amend that turned into a whole new life, and closes every talk by reminding you that God gives everything back — but it's never yours again. Steve B. from Mount Kisco, NY speaking in Copenhagen, Denmark - August 21st 2007 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Larry T. started drinking Four Rose Whiskey at 11, bounced around with lowriders, and spent seven years walking into AA for cake and walking back out — until a Montana cowboy told him to get his own rusty rear to the meeting and everything changed We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Larry grew up in a small California house with a speed-fueled mom making afghans and a happy drunk dad sneaking through his bedroom window in refinery boots. He found alcohol at 11 and it shut off everything that made him feel different — but the window it opened got smaller every time he drank until there was no window left, just an obsession that maybe this time it would open again. He tore through lowrider bars, jails, a state hospital, a year in the penitentiary, and seven years of walking in and out of AA without ever touching the program. The Montana cowboy who kept showing up finally told him to walk himself to the meeting — and Larry walked 10 miles to get there. He made amends to the father he once hit and became his best friend, had Thursday chili with him until the day he died, and now dates his mom every week. When his daughter sat across from him covered in piercings and tattoos and asked what he was looking at, he said the most beautiful little girl he'd ever seen — and he learned that in meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. Larry T. from Los Angeles, CA speaking at the Aberdeen Wednesday Night Group's Quarterly Meeting in Aberdeen South Dakota - 2007 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu    

Susan D. survived four treatment centers where everyone agreed her case was too special for the regular program — until a man with an eye patch told her the truth and she worked the steps like everyone else. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Susan grew up in a house where her father gave her alcohol as a child, her mother gave her Valium so she could walk straight, and they called the crawlspace under the floor "bad girl jail." Down in that hole she'd dream about wood floors, a garage door that goes up and down, and being a mother where no child would ever be afraid. She lost her father, brother, and mother to tragedy before adulthood. Susan spent her adult life drinking without missing a single day, lying about everything, working in a psych hospital while hiding her own drinking, and cycling through treatment centers where everyone agreed her case was different. She drank a child's wart remover on a choir tour because she couldn't go a day without alcohol in her body. After her last crisis flatlined her in a treatment center, she called the one place with a man who'd told her the truth — and on the 11th day, they let her come back. She sat on the front row, worked the steps like everyone else, and discovered that none of what happened to her had to keep her sick. Today she lives in a house with wood floors and a garage door that goes up and down, and she flew to Ukraine to adopt a little girl who doesn't have to be afraid. Susan D. from Dallas, TX speaking at the 20th Annual Singles Conference in Lake Murray, OK - September 4th-7th 2003 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Dave M. entered a monastery to become a priest, fell in love with alcohol on his first beer, and spent the next decade hiding bottles behind medicine cabinets, teaching religion drunk, and dragging himself across the floor for one more broken bottle — until AA taught him to stay in God's wheelbarrow. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Dave grew up a scared, scrawny hillbilly kid in Pennsylvania who fantasized about killing his abusive father and ran to the Catholic church because it was the only safe place he knew. He packed himself into two A&P shopping bags and entered a monastery to become a priest — and fell in love with alcohol on his very first beer, dancing through the halls in his underwear at 3am. He hid bottles behind the medicine cabinet wall, taught high school religion on tranquilizers, and spent years cycling through psych wards with his wrists slit. At his worst he was dragging himself through 17 cats' worth of filth to break a Stoney's bottle on the fridge drawer handle and drink it with glass cutting his lips. They pronounced him dead twice. An old-timer gave him a gold watch and told him to talk to God for 15 minutes a day in an empty chair, and another told him step three was simple — just stay in God's wheelbarrow no matter how shaky it gets on the wire. Today the man who once fantasized about his father's blood on his hands got to clean him, feed him, and love him before he died. Dave M. from Painsville, OH speaking at the Collinwood Liberty Group's 59th Anniversary meeting in Cleveland, OH - March 20th 2009 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Robbie went from federal prison at 18 to getting kicked out of his own AA club at three months sober — until a pig farmer from Michigan took him home and said someday you're going to be somebody. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Robbie grew up loved in a Catholic family in Philadelphia, fit in everywhere, and started drinking at a Yes concert in eighth grade. Within a few years he was giving himself raises at a federal bank, got arrested by the FBI at 18, and spent the next five years cycling through jails, prisons, psych wards, and the streets. He cut his arms open in a prison hole and woke up tied to a bed with cameras on him — and still wasn't done drinking. When he finally crawled into an Alano club in Kalamazoo, Michigan, they kicked him out at three months for his attitude. A pig farmer named Don C. walked out behind him, put him in his truck, and said welcome home, son. Nine months later Robbie was sober, working, and building a life. At six years he called his mom and asked if he could come home for Christmas — she said they were just waiting for him to ask. His dad knelt down and handed him an Eagles jersey with his name on the back. Today Robbie sells cars, sponsors men, served as a delegate, and has a daughter whose picture is all over his Big Book. Robbie W. from Vineland, NJ speaking at the Aberdeen Wednesday Night Group's Quarterly Meeting in Aberdeen, SD - 2007 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

A law professor who lost everything sat in a wet, smoldering chair planning his revenge — then a sponsor with one rule changed everything: if it's not in the Big Book, it's not important. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com This isn't a typical AA story — it's a former law professor walking through steps one through three with the precision of a courtroom argument and some of the funniest stories you'll hear from any podium. Ray O. was the youngest tenured law professor in America, sitting in a chair he'd set on fire and wet in the same night, planning exotic legal revenge on everyone who'd wronged him. His sponsor John had one rule: if it's not in the Big Book, it's not important. Six months into sobriety, Ray sat down at his desk one morning and realized he hadn't thought about a drink — and that was the moment power became real, not because someone explained it but because he experienced it. From there he builds the clearest explanation of the first three steps you'll find anywhere: powerlessness needs power, power needs an open mind, and the third step is just deciding whether you're going back or staying here. Ray O. from Miami, FL doing a step workshop in Grant's Pass, OR - July 1991 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Frank J. went from Marine sniper to homeless with everything he owned in a cardboard box in a stolen car — and 13 months without a drink, with no meetings, he was choking strangers and throwing eggs across grocery stores. AA didn't make him a different person. It taught him to stop acting like the one he was. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Frank grew up in small-town Illinois, won nine varsity letters, quit high school two weeks before graduation out of pure fear, and joined the Marines at 17. He became a morning drinker before he turned 18, did two tours in Vietnam as a sniper running on 151-proof rum, and came home so broken he pulled a gun on his wife while his daughter stood between his legs begging him to stop. After losing everything — the police career, the real estate money, the wives, the kids — he ended up homeless and dying of cirrhosis. They strapped him to a hospital bed for ten days, then dropped him at an AA meeting. But the real story is what happened at 13 months without a drink and no program: a nervous breakdown, a man choked over a partition, and eggs launched across a grocery store. An old-timer told him drinking wasn't his problem anymore — living was. Today his three daughters have degrees and careers, one named her son after him, and Frank will tell you straight: it's not because he's a good dad, it's because AA taught him how to be one. Frank J. from Sherman Oaks, CA speaking at the South Coast speaker meeting in Laguna Beach, CA - September 8th 2010 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu  

Chris L. spent four years sober in AA without taking the steps and almost died of untreated alcoholism — then a phone call, a big book, and three other desperate women changed everything. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Chris grew up with a mind that told her she was never enough and always too much, found alcohol at 14 and chased three minutes of bliss for the next 20 years through blackouts, broken bones, psych wards, and a string of marriages. At her worst she was hallucinating, questioning her four-year-old son each morning about what she'd done the night before, and choosing the bottle over feeding him. She got sober but spent four years white-knuckling it on fellowship alone until her mother died of the DTs and Chris hit bottom on her bedroom floor at four and a half years without a drink. Four women opened the Big Book to page one and started doing what it said — three of them are still sober. Today her teenage son asks the drunks to pray for his friends because he grew up watching his mom love strangers in her fellowship. Chris L. from Coshocton, OH speaking at the 19th Hiawathaland Get-Together - October 2007 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

D.J. got busted with two felonies in a parking lot while lecturing his wife — court-ordered into AA, a no-nonsense sponsor and a moment in a 7-Eleven changed everything. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com DJ grew up crawling out of his skin, moved from upstate New York to South Texas at 13, and found alcohol the first night out at a reservoir. It worked so well he never stopped — through 20 years of whiskey, meth, a rock and roll career, and a marriage he wrecked one broken promise at a time. He got arrested in an HEB parking lot with two felonies and a seven-year-expired license, still convinced his wife was the problem. Court-ordered into recovery and facing prison, he couldn't make it across town without three beers. A sponsor laid out the symptoms of alcoholism so clearly that DJ finally saw he was a time bomb — and 44 days into working the steps, he walked into a 7-Eleven and felt good in his own skin for the first time in his life without needing to change a thing. On the day he was getting evicted, he chaired a meeting instead of sharing his problems, and a newcomer handed him the exact solution he needed. D.J. S. from Ingram, TX speaking at the Lufkin Group's 56th anniversary in Lufkin, TX - June 4th-5th 2004 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

The 12 Steps were written in 40 minutes on a cot under the stairs — but the ideas in them had been circulating for decades. This AA history talk traces every major passage in the Big Book back to the Oxford Group books Bill Wilson and the early members were actually reading. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Jay S. gives a deep dive into exactly where the Big Book came from, he traces specific passages from Alcoholics Anonymous back to Oxford Group literature that was on the bestseller lists in the 1920s and 30s, showing how books like "I Was a Pagan" and "For Sinners Only" and the teachings of Sam Shoemaker fed directly into the language Bill Wilson used. He walks through the night Lois Wilson stormed into the living room and told Bill he was going to get drunk because he'd forgotten the God that got him sober — and how Bill went to his cot under the stairs and wrote the 12 Steps in 40 minutes, stopping at 12 because it was good enough for the guy from Galilee. Along the way you get the real story of how the fellowship got its name from a wet brain at Bellevue who kept mumbling "anonymous alcoholics," and Sam Shoemaker's posthumous letter comparing the writing of the steps to Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. If you've ever wondered what the early members were actually reading and talking about, this is the talk. Jay S. from Redondo Beach, CA speaking on the topic of "How AA Really Started" at the 2000 South Bay Roundup - May 2000 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Keith L. is one of the funniest AA speakers you'll ever hear — but underneath the stories about mutant rosary beads and grocery store meltdowns is a man who begged God to save his premature daughter and was drunk in 12 hours. From a $11-a-week room to studying in Paris seven months sober, AA gave him everything. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Keith L. is one of the funniest AA speakers you'll ever hear — but underneath the stories about mutant rosary beads, grocery store meltdowns, and screaming at a Fulbright Scholar through jail glass is a man who begged God to save his premature daughter's life and was drunk in 12 hours. He grew up scared in a big Irish Catholic family, joined the Marines at 113 pounds, and drank his way through every opportunity he touched until he ended up on Skid Row in Washington D.C. with nothing left. An old man at the door of his first meeting promised he'd never have to drink again, and Keith took that promise and ran — through a disastrous first 12-step call, a sponsor who sent him to Paris at seven months sober, and a lipstick message on a bathroom mirror that changed his life. Today he carries Sister Victoria's prophecy from high school detention — that he'd go around the world telling God's children how much he loves them — and a 23-year chip buried with his mother. Keith L. from Wilmington, NC -  23rd Annual San Diego Spring Roundup in San Diego, CA - April 22nd 2000 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Sandy B. flew fighter jets in the Marine Corps with one hand on the ejection seat, built an entire world out of stories that weren't true, and spent 40-plus years in Alcoholics Anonymous learning that recovery isn't about adding anything — it's about dismantling everything you made up. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────── We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com ──────────────────────────────────────────────────── Sandy B. grew up terrified in a Connecticut Catholic church, convinced God was out to destroy him, and carried that fear straight through Yale, the Marine Corps, and a fighter pilot career that ended when withdrawal symptoms at 30,000 feet forced him to fake an oxygen emergency. Decades later, the radar operator from that final flight showed up at an AA meeting in Oxnard and told Sandy the real story — that his squadron loved him, fought to keep him flying, and never saw him the way he saw himself. That moment captures the whole point of Sandy's talk: we build an entire world out of stories we tell ourselves, live inside it like a bird in an egg, and then blame everyone else for how dark it is. Through the steps, that shell starts to crack and light gets in — but the real challenge is whether we're willing to come all the way out or just settle for a comfortable view. Sandy got sober in 1964 and spent over four decades proving that the program isn't about becoming a better version of yourself — it's about letting go of the version you made up in the first place. Sandy B. from Tampa, FL speaking at the 63rd anniversary of the Alexandria group in Alexandria, VA - November 28th 2007 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────── Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Rick spent years trying to build his empire, control every outcome, and force life to go his way — until AA taught him that the things he needed most only showed up when he stopped chasing them. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Rick walked into AA after decades of big-shotism — buying houses to impress people, stealing anything he could get his hands on, and bulldozing through relationships to get what he wanted. He took and took until there was nothing left, not the business, not the house, not the wife and kids. In sobriety he discovered that every cliche he heard in meetings needed to be tested against the actual book, that sponsorship built on dependency was dangerous, and that spiritual growth had nothing to do with addition — it was about subtraction, letting go of what he wasn't so what he actually was could emerge. When he finally stopped forcing outcomes and focused on giving through 12-step work and meetings at the mission, jobs started showing up without him looking, cars appeared when he needed them, and raises came before he even started work. Rick's talk is a sharp, honest breakdown of how controlling your life is the biggest roadblock to recovery — and how the things worth having only come when you stop trying to grab them. Rick B. from Minneapolis, MN speaking on the topic of "Roadblocks to Recovery" at The Firing Line Group of Alcoholics Anonymous in Saint Paul, MN - January 1st 2009 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Vince spent three and a half years sober in AA without taking a single step, lost his medical license stealing Demerol, and ended up in an $11-a-week room before a prayer on his knees and a sponsor with an impossible bus route gave him his life back. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Vince came from a privileged Irish Catholic family in New Jersey, sailed through school on brains alone, and destroyed every opportunity he touched — four Jesuit prep schools, an Ivy League degree he walked away from, a Navy commission he tanked, and a brand-new medical career he blew up by stealing narcotics from his own emergency room. After his first AA meeting in 1965, he stayed sober for three and a half years without taking a single step and watched himself get sicker while everyone around him got better. The bottom finally came in a series of disasters so absurd they sound like fiction — fired from a drill press job, living above a casket room, stealing a hearse, and driving the wrong way down Pacific Coast Highway in a blackout. Sober again and living in an $11-a-week room in Costa Mesa, Vince got on his knees one night and said the only prayer he had. A sponsor put him on a bus up Wilshire Boulevard every day for eight months with nothing but an eight-dollar allowance and a story to tell, and on the day he finally gave up, he ran into the one man who could give him his career back. Today Vince carries a recovery built on the steps he once dismissed and a marriage he says he loves more than life itself. Vince Y. from Upland, CA at Orange County AA Convention, Costa Mesa, CA - March 3rd 2002 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Tom I. found Alcoholics Anonymous inside a Michigan penitentiary and built a recovery so powerful that the prison system hired him back — 44 years later he says this was his finest year yet. We just launched our new Episodes page — search hundreds of AA speaker meetings by topic, speaker, or step ☀️  Sober-Sunrise.com Tom I. started drinking at 16 and tore through eight years of escalating chaos — demotions, firings, jails, blackouts, and a trail of overrated first impressions followed by spectacular self-destruction. It all came to a head when he struck and killed two people while driving in a blackout and woke up in jail not knowing what he'd done. Sentenced to 5 to 15 years in Michigan State Penitentiary, he walked in believing he'd never come out alive. A rookie social worker pointed him to the prison AA group, and a speaker named Shy Walker gave off something Tom had never encountered — a signal of life from a man who'd been where he was. Over three and a half years behind bars, Tom found the first power he ever believed in inside that group of 300 convicts, wrote his first inventory on the edge of his bunk, and conceded to his innermost self that he was an alcoholic. Two months after release he was back inside as a volunteer sponsor, then hired into the prison rehab system, and eventually offered the warden's chair — an ex-con running the institution. Now in his 44th year of sobriety, Tom says without a trace of cheerleader talk that this has been his finest year in AA. Tom I. from Southern Pines, NC speaking at the Edisto Roundup - April 7th 2001 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu