Sober Sunrise - AA Speaker Podcast

Épisodes

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  Bottom Is a Feeling, Not a Place - AA Speaker - Frank M. 10.08.2026 2h 38min

  In this AA workshop, Frank says bottom is not a jail cell, divorce court, treatment center, or empty bank account - it is the moment an alcoholic realizes, “I can’t live drinking, and I can’t live not drinking.” ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen 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/appIf 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Frank, nearly 18 years sober, brings courtroom energy, blunt humor, and years of beginners-meeting experience to this two-part workshop on spirituality through the Twelve Steps. He challenges the idea that the purpose of Alcoholics Anonymous is merely to stop drinking, arguing that fellowship, meetings, slogans, and sober time can support recovery but cannot replace the actions in the Big Book. Through his imaginary test-tube exercise, Frank shows how alcohol initially appeared to dilute fear, shame, anger, loneliness, and the feeling of never being enough, before eventually intensifying everything it once seemed to relieve. From there, he describes bottom as a feeling rather than a location, explains why willingness must precede surrender, and presents the first three Steps as simple movements from honest recognition to accepting help. Frank also shares how outward success concealed family damage, secrets, and a deeply punitive idea of God, and how belief gradually moved from the AA group to a sponsor and finally toward a loving Higher Power. His central message is that whether someone has avoided the Steps for three days or 30 years, the grace to begin remains available. Frank M. speaking on “Spirituality Through the Steps” at the Cajun Conference in Lafayette, LA - 1989Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  What AA Gave My Mother Was Half a Quart of Milk - AA Speaker - Billy N. 09.08.2026 1h 11min

  Billy was told at 17 that he might be too cool to get sober; AA eventually carried him through jail and homelessness into Big Book service, family repair, and a life his mother could finally discuss with pride. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen 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/appIf 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Billy, sober since January 5, 1990, grew up in a large Irish Catholic family where alcoholism, fear, and keeping up appearances were woven into ordinary life. His first serious drunk at 13 made him feel comfortable in his own skin, beginning years of violent drinking, repeated visits to Alcoholics Anonymous, legal consequences, a fatal impaired-driving crash, incarceration, and homelessness. Billy describes being the teenager who was too cool for AA, learning recovery language without taking the actions, and nearly walking away after hearing that sobriety earned in jail did not count. A speaker tape inside the correctional facility gave him enough hope to continue. Still an atheist or agnostic during his first five years sober, Billy gradually found a life in the Big Book, the Twelve Steps, corrections work, young people’s AA, and general service. He explains that recovery required more than learning a new way to live - it required unlearning nearly everything he had been taught about manhood, prejudice, pride, and asking for help. Ultimately, it was not the consequences that kept him sober, but the good life that returned a little at a time and allowed his family to heal. Billy N. from Spring Lake Heights, NJ speaking at the 70th "Old Grandad" Conference in Hot Springs, AR - August 20th 2010Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  God Wrote Himself Into My Story - AA Speaker - Norma A. 07.08.2026 51min

  Norma says God wrote Himself into her AA story, turning three years of abstinence without the Steps into a life of surrender, service, and faith strong enough to meet devastating grief. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen 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/appIf 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Norma, 24 years sober, shares how growing up with an alcoholic mother and a rage-filled father carried fear, loneliness, and despair into her adult life. A sober woman she met in a bar led her to Alcoholics Anonymous, but after three years of meetings without a sponsor, the Steps, or a spiritual foundation, Norma discovered that she had found relief rather than recovery. Following a relapse and an abusive marriage, she left with her baby and began rebuilding her life while moving from couch to couch, doing odd jobs, and trusting that the next right action would be enough for that day. The years that followed brought a loving marriage, family addiction, incarceration, her son’s serious head injury and time in foster care, painful estrangement, and repeated lessons in letting go. Speaking only days after the sudden death of her stepson, Norma describes how prayer, service, the Twelve Steps, and the arms of the AA fellowship carried her through circumstances she could never control. This is a moving talk about the difference between abstinence and recovery, surrender without resignation, and finding purpose, power, and peace even when life does not turn out as hoped. Norma A. from Austin, TX speaking at the monthly Austin Citywide AA group in Austin, TX - September 22nd 2007Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  The Captain Who Had to Start From the Ground Up - AA Speaker - Lyle P. 06.08.2026 1h 12min

  Lyle’s last drunk became national news, but the more remarkable AA story is what followed: treatment, federal prison, a repaired family, and an impossible return to the cockpit. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen 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/appIf 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Lyle grew up Irish and Comanche in an alcoholic home, determined never to become like his parents. He built a distinguished career as a Marine Corps aviator and airline captain, but in March 1990 an alcohol-related flight ended with his arrest, national headlines, termination, revoked licenses, a federal conviction, and 424 days in prison. Treatment also forced Lyle to confront the pain hidden beneath years of anger, especially the rage that had separated him from his daughter and son. Through honesty, willingness, reconciliation, and the practical discipline of Alcoholics Anonymous, he began putting his family back together before facing prison one day at a time. After his release, Lyle started with a private pilot’s license and rebuilt every qualification from the ground up. He was eventually reinstated with full seniority, completed his career as a Boeing 747 captain, received a presidential pardon, and learned that his recovery story had been selected for the Big Book. This is an exceptional AA talk about accountability, acceptance, and watching the impossible become possible one step at a time. Lyle P. from Conyers, GA speaking at the 19th Annual Man-to-Man Conference in Lake Brownwood, TX - May 18th 2002 Lyle is the author of “Grounded” on page 522 of the Fourth Edition of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  I Belonged in the Universe Again - AA Speaker - Michael B. 05.08.2026 57min

  At his first AA meeting, Michael looked past seven older men in polyester plaid pants and recognized in their eyes the peace he had last known as a five-year-old sitting in the high grass of the Andes. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen 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/appIf 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Michael shares a funny, thoughtful Alcoholics Anonymous story about growing up gay in a loving and privileged family, spending his childhood in the Peruvian Andes, and becoming a periodic blackout drinker whose life narrowed into violence, loneliness, frightening situations, and serious mental health crises. He arrived at AA intending to get out of trouble rather than stop drinking, immediately judged the seven older men in the room, and then realized he was the most prejudiced person there. What kept him coming back was the unmistakable peace in their eyes. Michael describes the difference between reading about life and living it, memorizing the Twelve Steps and finally taking them, and gradually learning that prayer could mean putting his beliefs into action. With 21 years of sobriety, a writing career, enduring relationships, a young daughter, service in Madison’s AIDS community, and a fellowship that helped him face profound grief, Michael shows how AA returned him to humor, love, usefulness, and the feeling that he belonged. Michael B. from Madison, WI speaking at the 11th Gay/Lesbian Live & Let Live Roundup in Kansas City, MO - September 1st 1991 Recording note: The tape slows down near the end, causing Michael’s voice to sound deeper and distorted. Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  From a Hospital Bed to a Ph.D. - AA Speaker - Dave D. 04.08.2026 57min

  Dave returned to Alcoholics Anonymous at 22 from a hospital bed, unable to move and given little hope, then used the same AA actions that kept him sober to return to college and earn a Ph.D. in engineering. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen 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/appIf 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Speaking with nearly 15 years sober, Dave uses the Big Book chapter “A Vision for You” to explain why hope without action remained only a delusion in his life. He first entered Alcoholics Anonymous at 19, looked around at members decades older than him, and could not imagine what their fellowship could offer a young man who still wanted bright lights and fast times. Three years of painful returns followed, including a relapse in Tijuana after completing only the first three Steps. Back in Maryland, Dave quickly returned to wrecked cars, jail, violent encounters, and the hospital injury that left him unable to move and uncertain whether he would survive. A sponsor carried AA to his bedside, took him through the Big Book and all Twelve Steps, and gave him a new foundation of action, commitment, fellowship, and reliance on God. When Dave regained his physical abilities, that same sponsor told him to return to college and apply the AA approach: arrive early, stay late, sit in front, ask for help, find the winners, and trust God. Dave eventually became the outstanding graduate in his department and continued through a master’s degree and Ph.D. in engineering. He also describes lifelong amends to the grandfather who raised him, learning about the father he lost in Vietnam, helping his mother and his father’s fellow servicemen heal, and becoming the husband and father he once dreamed of being. Dave’s vision of recovery is ultimately larger than education or outward success; it is the character built through consistent action and the willingness to stand near the door so the next suffering alcoholic can find the way inside. Dave D. from Severna Park, MD speaking at Acts of Recovery in Newark, DE - April 9th 2005Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  Match Calamity with Serenity - AA Speaker - Mary T. 03.08.2026 55min

  At 19 years sober, Mary realized she knew the Big Book well enough to keep everyone away from her, and AA asked her to trade a God of reason for a God she could trust as a friend. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen 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/appIf 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Mary, 34 years sober, traces her Alcoholics Anonymous story from a proper but emotionally distant New England upbringing through boarding school drinking, an abusive marriage, blackouts, single motherhood, and a move to Southern California intended to outrun her reputation. Her daughter’s babysitter lived with a woman in AA who quietly watched Mary’s drinking progress for a year and a half before inviting her to an open meeting. There, an old-timer’s story broke through Mary’s defenses, a hug and the words “welcome home” gave her permission to feel, and 17 yes answers on the 20 questions finally allowed her to recognize her alcoholism. Early recovery brought difficult withdrawal, constant meetings, Big Book study, sponsorship, and a woman who called herself Mary’s temporary sponsor for the next 25 years. After moving back to Maine with five years sober, Mary started a Big Book meeting and became deeply knowledgeable about the program, but eventually discovered that knowledge itself had become another barrier. At 18 or 19 years sober, she was more frightened than when she arrived because she could quote the book while keeping people at a distance. Mary describes how teachability, inventory, service, grief work, and an evolving relationship with God changed her recovery again. Her message is not that long-term sobriety prevents trials; it is that a growing spiritual life allows an alcoholic to meet those trials with honesty, trust, courage, humility, and enough reliance on God to match calamity with serenity. Mary T. from Santa Fe, NM speaking at The 42nd Annual New Hampshire Convention in North Conway, NH - April 12th 2008Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  The War Was Over. I Lost. Thank God. - AA Speaker - Rick M. 01.08.2026 44min

  Rick reached Alcoholics Anonymous from a cable-equipped tent beside the Russian River, where even the town drunks had begun looking at him with pity, and discovered that losing the war was how he finally got his life back. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen 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/appIf 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Rick grew up on a small farm in Fortuna, California, surrounded by drinking, family conflict, tremendous freedom, and a determination to grow up and escape as quickly as possible. Drinking and using gradually carried him through school trouble, bartending in the Russian River area, damaged relationships, police encounters, repeated upheaval, and a life in which cars, jobs, homes, and partners disappeared in a familiar cycle. By 1994, he was living in an elaborate tent at Johnson’s Beach with cable television, trying to maintain a job while even the local drinkers began regarding him with pity. A simple observation from someone close to him finally reached a place that years of warnings could not, and Rick asked to attend an AA meeting that night. Treatment counselors told his group of 18 that perhaps one person would make it, so Rick committed himself to meetings, service, sponsorship, fellowship, and a slow paragraph-by-paragraph study of the Big Book. The Steps helped him clean up old harm, reconnect with his family, build a loving long-term partnership, and exchange bitterness for a life he genuinely enjoys. Rick is equally honest that sobriety does not make every day inspirational or his behavior perfect; sometimes the spiritual victory is recognizing a broken filter, making the correction, and remembering that Alcoholics Anonymous asks for progress while insisting that life should still be enjoyed. Rick M. from Santa Rosa, CA speaking at River City Roundup - November 10th 2002Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  The Rottweilers That Kept Me in AA - AA Speaker - Don L. 31.07.2026 1h 1min

  At six months sober, Don had decided Alcoholics Anonymous did not work and was ready to quit; then two loose Rottweilers chased him down a hill, put him completely in the moment, and sent him back to his sponsor and the Steps. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen 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/appIf 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Don, 15 years sober, describes how alcohol once transported him to “the land of I don’t care,” bringing down the wall between him and the world before gradually destroying every plan, relationship, and opportunity he was given. By 25, he knew exactly what drinking was doing to him, but self-knowledge could not protect him from the daily “miracle of three o’clock,” when every promise to stop became a plan to have just a couple. A move from Los Angeles to Boston changed nothing, and the years that followed brought blackouts, jail cells, a missed Christmas flight, family wreckage, and a humiliating realization involving a highly accomplished police dog. Don initially entered Alcoholics Anonymous only to keep his family from throwing him out, but an assigned sponsor taught him that the actions work regardless of his motives. He was sent to 14 meetings a week, put to work setting up and cleaning up, placed on a framing crew, directed into court to face old warrants, and pushed toward the inventory he kept refusing to write. When two Rottweilers interrupted his plan to quit AA, Don finally moved from a program of distraction into the Twelve Steps. Through amends, service, sponsorship, paying back the IRS, rebuilding trust with his mother, and becoming useful in his new fellowship, he discovered that recovery is not merely being saved; its real joy is turning toward the next alcoholic and preserving what was freely given to him. Don L. from Bellingham, WA speaking at the Aberdeen Wednesday Night Group's Quarterly Meeting in Aberdeen, SD - 2006Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  After 46 Years, the Prison Still Smelled Like Fear - AA Speaker - Johnnie H. 30.07.2026 50min

  Johnnie returned to the Folsom cell where he had lived 46 years earlier, then crossed the old mess hall to carry the Alcoholics Anonymous message to 300 prisoners: you don’t have to live like this anymore. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen 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/appIf 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Nearly 45 years sober, Johnnie delivers a funny, forceful AA talk about singleness of purpose, service, sponsorship, home groups, and promises that only materialize through action. He traces his path from drinking at nine, repeated imprisonment, a courtroom collapse, and solitary confinement to the desperate request for God’s help that eventually brought an AA member into his life. That man did not diagnose or condemn him; he said he understood and told Johnnie he did not have to live that way anymore. Although Johnnie studied the Big Book in prison, his sponsor taught him how to live it by arriving early, staying late, washing cups, sweeping floors, making coffee, helping newcomers, and showing up consistently for a home group. He also remembers losing a possible opportunity with the St. Louis Cardinals because drinking took over again, returning decades later to his former Folsom cell, and carrying the message to hundreds of men sitting where he once sat. Through family loss, business failures, depression, and difficult sober years, Johnnie found his safe harbor in meetings and service. His conclusion is that sobriety itself is not the final payoff; the payoff is watching another person return from the land of the living dead and seeing the light come back into their eyes. Johnnie H. from Los Angeles, CA speaking at "The Promises and Service" 2-day convention in Stockholm, Sweden - May 29th 2004Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  I Don’t Drink Alcohol, I Drink Life - AA Speaker - Lila R. 29.07.2026 58min

  Lila arrived at a basement meeting called the Hole in the Ground planning to stay for a few weeks; 25 years later, she is still learning that the hardest spiritual practice is sometimes to do nothing and wait. ☀️ Sober Sunrise AppListen 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/appIf 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Lila marks 25 years sober with a funny, spiritually direct AA talk from a smoke-filled convention in Reno. She remembers dressing up for the Hole in the Ground in Huntington Park, shaking so badly she could barely control her coffee, and expecting to stay only long enough to recover her health, clean up her surroundings, and put her life back together. Instead, old-timers who cared only whether she wanted sobriety taught her to keep coming back, read the Big Book and Twelve and Twelve, find God, and pay attention to the thinking that begins long before a relapse. Between jokes about casinos, near beer, missing jelly donuts, and long-term members surviving one another, Lila traces how the Steps moved her from fear and control toward honesty, hope, faith, willingness, humility, compassion, and service. Her point after a quarter century is simple but demanding: the outside life can look complete and something may still be missing, so recovery keeps asking her to stay present, make room, and trust that she never has to face life alone or take another drink. Lila R. from Santa Monica, CA speaking at We Are Family in Reno, NV - October 2nd 1994Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  Thank God It Didn’t All Happen in the First Year - AA Speaker - Pat L. 28.07.2026 55min

  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 AppListen 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/appIf 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://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, 2006Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  Your Misery Is Refunded at the Door - AA Speaker - Eileen F. 27.07.2026 55min

  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 AppListen 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/id6770203116If 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://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, 2008Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  The Fourth Step Is an Inventory of Who I’m Not - AA Speaker - Scott L. 25.07.2026 1h 57min

  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 AppListen 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/id6770203116If 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://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  
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  The Fellowship I Never Knew I Craved - AA Speaker - John S. 23.07.2026 1h 8min

  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 AppListen 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/id6770203116If 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://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  
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  The Fourth Dimension Is Love and Service - AA Speaker - Chris S. 22.07.2026 59min

  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 AppListen 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://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  
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  Whatever Time I Have, I Have This Program - AA Speaker - Dennis M. 21.07.2026 36min

  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 AppListen 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://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  
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  The Book Hasn’t Been Wrong Yet - AA Speaker - Bart R. 20.07.2026 56min

  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 AppListen 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://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  
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  The Question Only AA Could Answer - AA Speaker - Jack K. 19.07.2026 1h 15min

  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 AppListen 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://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  
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  I've Been on This Cloud for 17 Years - AA Speaker - Perry W. 17.07.2026 59min

  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 AppListen 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 ArchiveHundreds of AA speaker tapes and recovery stories:https://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://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