Sober Sunrise - AA Speaker Podcast

Jim S. from Indianapolis, IN speaking at the Bagdad Retreat in Bagdad, KY - May 28th 2005 Visit our merch and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Jim reflects on his lifelong progression of alcoholism—from a 14-year-old chasing connection, to a Vietnam medic drinking to numb trauma, to a husband losing himself inside rage, fear, and emotional absence. His story highlights the life-altering moment when Al-Anon and AA slowly brought spiritual change into his home, leading him back to sobriety after disastrous controlled drinking attempts. Through step work, deep amends, and a profound awakening sparked by service, sponsorship, and facing the Vietnam War Memorial, Jim discovers a God of transformation. Despite heart failure and the loss of his former identity, he continues living with purpose by helping others, proving that recovery reshapes a life far beyond alcohol. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

🎄🧡Merry Christmas Sober Sunrise family🧡🎄 Bill L. from Dunellen, NJ and Mike L. from West Orange, NJ speaking at a workshop titled "Maintaining Conscious Contact During the Holidays" in Albany, NY - December 7th 2002 Visit our merch and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Bill & Mike's full weekend workshop on “Maintaining Conscious Contact During the Holidays,” where they lay the spiritual foundation for the entire series by addressing untreated alcoholism, the spiritual malady, and why sobriety without inner change leads to misery; through Big Book references, lived experience, and practical guidance, they emphasize that true recovery comes from maintaining conscious contact with a Higher Power moment by moment, especially during emotionally charged times like the holidays, highlighting how spiritual fitness, service to others, and living Steps 10–12 daily restore peace, sanity, and freedom long before the festivities even begin. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Join Bart R., a seasoned member of Alcoholics Anonymous, as he shares his gripping journey from chronic relapse to lasting recovery. Bart candidly discusses the importance of fully committing to the Twelve Steps and the transformative power of sponsorship. He highlights his struggles with alcoholism since childhood, his encounters with the system, and his eventual surrender, which led him to a life rich in service and spirituality. By embracing a truly engaged recovery, Bart found joy and purpose, proving that AA can be vibrant and fulfilling.

Todd M. from Cleveland, OH speaking at CorkNBottle group in Cleveland, OH - August 6th 2007 Visit our merch and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Todd shares a deeply moving story of transformation, describing how a life marked by fear, homelessness, drug trafficking, international arrest, and years of chaos was gradually rebuilt through the love, structure, and spiritual principles of Alcoholics Anonymous; guided by sponsors who taught him trust, service, and humility, Todd learned to let go of the scared child inside, embrace gratitude as action, and grow into a man capable of friendship, purpose, global amends, and emotional honesty—showing that with God, the steps, and the fellowship, even a life once shattered can become one filled with dignity, usefulness, and grace. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Elizabeth M. from Kahaluu, HI speaking at the Hawaii Annual Convention in Honolulu, HI - November 1st 2012 Visit our merch and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Elizabeth shares a powerful journey of transformation through Alcoholics Anonymous, describing how a childhood sense of emptiness, early drinking, crime, incarceration, and the devastating loss of her children led her to a bottom marked by despair, homelessness, and repeated arrests, until a moment of surrender in 1999 opened the door to recovery; through AA, she found not only sobriety but identity, purpose, and belonging, rebuilding her life through service, sponsorship, and deep spiritual growth, ultimately becoming a trusted servant within the AA structure, regaining her legal rights, earning college degrees, building a respected professional career, and raising children with love and responsibility—her story stands as a living example that freedom from the bondage of self is possible, that past actions do not define a person’s worth, and that a life once ruled by chaos can be transformed into one of service, dignity, and profound gratitude. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

John N. from Lehman, PA and Joe Z. from Berwick, PA doing a Big Book study at the Men's International Convention in Scranton, PA - April 2008 Visit our merch and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Joe & John's "We Agnostics" Big Book workshop share centers on the life-or-death realization that lack of power—not morality, intelligence, or willpower—is the alcoholic’s true dilemma, as Joe and John recount how their alcoholism utterly defeated them until desperation forced an open mind toward a power greater than themselves, dismantling long-held prejudice about God and replacing it with lived evidence found in AA meetings, sponsorship, and action on the Twelve Steps; through surrender, disciplined application of the steps, and a willingness to “lay aside prejudice,” both men describe being restored to sanity, freed from obsession, and rocketed into lives marked by dignity, usefulness, emotional sobriety, and spiritual growth—personal accomplishments measured not in status or possessions, but in sustained sobriety, healed families, the ability to help others recover, and daily freedom from the drink that once ruled their lives, proving that belief follows action and that a new way of living is available even to the most hopeless alcoholic. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Subscribe to Sober Sunrise on YouTube 🧡 Sober Sunrise YouTube Bill D. from Franklin, NC speaking at the 34th LA State Convention in Baton Rouge, LA - July 11 1992 Visit our merch and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Bill shares a hilarious, hard-won AA story that moves from “drinking member” denial to lifelong recovery, built on radical honesty (“I can’t promise forever—only today”), relentless service, and the humbling truth that sobriety is always a daily reprieve—not a trophy; he explains his simple (but not easy) formula—Don’t Drink / Work With Others / Change Yourself—and backs it with lived proof: sobriety since May 29, 1953, learning to “touch someone on the shoulder,” carrying the message into correctional institutions, and surviving crushing losses (his wife’s sudden death, later losing his job) without picking up, ultimately rebuilding a joyful life through the Steps and spiritual growth rather than self-will. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Marsha S. from Austin, TX speaking on the topic of "Convincing the prospect" at the Nosara Big Book Workshop in Nosara Playa Guiones, Costa Rica - March 25th 2012 Visit our merch and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Marsha shares about growing up in chaos, building a respected career in law, and losing everything to alcoholism before discovering a deeper surrender that changed her life forever. She describes how sponsorship, real honesty, and a renewed relationship with God helped her rebuild her family, reclaim her purpose, and turn her past into an asset for helping others. Her journey shows the life-changing power of the Big Book, a spiritual awakening, and the freedom found in carrying the message to the next suffering alcoholic. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

Jay S. from Redondo Beach, CA speaking on the topic of Varieties of Spiritual Experience at the Fellowship of the Spirit South in Lafayette, LA - April 3rd 2011 Check out our merch and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com Jay S. shares a powerful look at AA’s spiritual roots—connecting William James, Carl Jung, and the Oxford Group to the modern miracle of recovery—while telling his own story of sobriety since 1979 and a recent near-death medical scare that became its own spiritual experience. He shows how real change isn’t about white-light moments but about the fruits: transformed lives, restored families, and the simple daily miracle that we didn’t drink today. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu

"Blind" Dave A. from Austin, TX speaking at the Frisco Group in Frisco, TX - December 8th 2008 Check out our merch and help support the channel🧡 Sober Sunrise Merch Visit our website - Sober-Sunrise.com In this powerful talk, Dave shares how true recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous is not found behind a podium but in living the Steps daily—especially Step Three—by turning one’s entire life over to God through service to others, illustrating through deeply personal stories how fear, financial insecurity, and life’s “dismal afternoons” were repeatedly relieved when he resolutely helped another alcoholic, kept close to his Higher Power, and cleaned up the past, leading to sobriety, spiritual growth, restored serenity, strengthened marriage with Norma, and a lived experience of the Big Book promise that when we prioritize our primary purpose, we are “in tow” and our lives are managed in remarkable ways beyond our own planning Music: Deep by KaizanBlu