Sober Sunrise - AA Speaker Podcast

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 G., a recovered alcoholic who went from militant atheism to seminary after deep step-work. He recounts chasing blackouts as escape, confronting spiritual sickness, and doing rigorous 12-step work. Short, vivid stories trace resentments, powerful sponsor moments, bold amends like returning ancient library books, and how willingness led him into spiritual service and study.

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