Sober Sunrise - AA Speaker Podcast

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  Sponsorship Is the Cake - AA Speaker - Chad B. 17.09.2026 41мин

  Chad arrived at his sponsor's door ready to skip straight to Step Four, but a coverless Big Book and the complete Twelve Steps showed him why sponsorship was not merely the icing on recovery - it was the cake. ☀️ 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 Chad shares how his first drink at seventeen made him comfortable in his own skin, then traces the progression from weekend drinking to alcohol in the shower, drinking before work, blackouts, DUIs, and the realization that willpower could not solve his problem. About thirty days sober and certain he would drink again without a solution, he finally asked the AA member who kept checking on him to become his sponsor. Chad arrived for their first session with pencil and paper, eager to begin Step Four, but his sponsor slowed him down and started at the beginning of the Big Book. In this practical walk through the Twelve Steps, Chad describes recognizing his powerlessness in the Doctor's Opinion, turning his fear over to God, inventorying the resentment he carried toward his father, sharing his secrets, and making direct amends. Somewhere in that process, the obsession to drink disappeared. The deepest surprise came with Step Twelve: after receiving a two-year token he never expected to earn, Chad found himself giving one to a man he sponsored and realized that carrying the AA message was not the icing on the cake. Sponsorship was the cake, the icing, and the whole deal. Chad B. from Fairborn, OH speaking at the Trinity Lakeside Group in Dayton, OH - February 6th 2009 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  I Found AA in a State Mental Hospital - AA Speaker - Rachel L. 16.09.2026 53мин

  Rachel entered her first AA meeting in a state hospital furious that they had brought the father of a movie star, then one sentence about an alcoholic seeing the pain in his family's eyes broke through everything. ☀️ 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 Rachel got sober on December 1, 1978, after alcoholism carried her from childhood drinks with her grandmother into street life, trauma, hospitals, jails, family devastation, and a bottom where alcohol no longer stayed down. At a state mental hospital, detoxing in hospital pajamas with a broken denture and dirty feet, she refused an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting until a staff member told her the father of a famous movie star was speaking - and then made attendance nonoptional. The old man opened by calling the room a fine bunch of monkeys, but when he described looking into his wife and children's eyes and needing another drink, Rachel saw her mother's despair and felt something leave her. The speaker was Chuck C., and his message that he needed AA and people like her gave Rachel the first direction she could trust. Twenty-nine years later, after sponsorship, the Twelve Steps, and a life built inside the fellowship, Rachel describes reconnecting with her father, an invitation from her family, her mother's embrace, and the AA members she now recognizes as the hand of the God she had searched for all her life. Rachel L. from Bakersfield, CA speaking at the Saturday Nite Live Group in Santa Maria, CA - March 22nd 2008 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  He Didn't Make Me Famous. He Made Me Anonymous - AA Speaker - Paul O. 15.09.2026 1ч 19мин

  Paul expected God to make him famous enough to win a Nobel Prize. Instead, AA made him anonymous and taught a doctor who entered through the hospital psychiatric ward how surrender, the Steps, sponsorship, and love in action could keep him sober. ☀️ 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 Paul shares a fast, funny AA talk about the strange route from being a physician on a hospital staff to becoming a patient on its psychiatric ward, where attending Alcoholics Anonymous was initially just his way to obtain a pass. He spent seven months coming to meetings before accepting that he was even a little alcoholic, then discovered that meetings alone were not a substitute for working the Twelve Steps. After twenty-two years sober, taking a drink is no longer an active concern, but thinking can still turn any small inconvenience into a carefully nurtured problem. Paul talks about sponsors who do not need to “reek with profundities,” the many competing personalities in his head, the spiritual equality of AA, and the freedom of letting powerlessness remove responsibilities that were never his. His central lesson is that recovery teaches alcoholics to express the love they once tried to suppress with alcohol. Through caring, sharing, listening, service, and making his wife's morning coffee exactly the way she likes it without expecting appreciation, Paul learns the difference between love and barter. The doctor who once imagined winning a Nobel Prize and making God famous instead finds something better: anonymity, usefulness, a marriage approaching fifty years, and the chance to become a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Paul O. from Laguna Beach, CA speaking at the Desert Rose Roundup - May 20th 1989 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  Hopelessness Made the Big Book Exciting - AA Speaker - Lee Y. 14.09.2026 1ч 11мин

  In an Orange County jail library, Lee found the Big Book directly in front of him and discovered on page 63 the same prayer he had been reading before his arrest. Hopelessness finally made AA's program exciting enough to try. ☀️ 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 Lee, sober since November 20, 1984, shares how a thinking problem and complete self-obsession preceded his drinking by years. As a frightened teenager unable to speak to the girl he loved, one bottle removed the fear and sent him onto his grandparents' roof declaring himself ten feet tall and bulletproof. The relief quickly became an unquenchable thirst, and the years that followed brought stealing, broken relationships, failed jobs, repeated incarceration, and moves across the country in search of a fresh start that never lasted. At his first AA meeting in New York, two members gave Lee something he had never heard from his family: "We understand." He was not ready then, but he remembered those words years later in a Florida jail. Weekly AA meetings led him to a jail library, where he found the Big Book, recognized himself in the jaywalker story, and discovered on page 63 the same prayer his wife had once given him. Lee began working the Steps while incarcerated and spent his first two years sober in a correctional facility, where service, prayer, and a small AA group taught him that he could find happiness even in prison. After his release, members surrounded him with meetings, transportation, sponsorship, work, and the insistence that he clean up his past. Through amends, education, service, and years of showing up differently for his family, the man who once believed he was worthy of being despised became someone whose presence brought forty relatives together. Lee's message is simple: AA does not work merely for people who need it or want it; it works for people who do it. Lee Y. from Lake Mary, FL speaking at the Springtime in the Ozarks Conference in Eureka Springs, AR - April 2001 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  The Party Was Over, But I Kept Trying to Restart It - AA Speaker - Bob D. 12.09.2026 36мин

  Bob spent his final three years drinking alone, trying to restart a party that had already ended. After seven and a half years around AA, he finally bought the whole package and discovered that spiritual action worked whether he believed in it or 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://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 Bob, sober since 1978, describes feeling like an outsider long before his first drink at twelve made him feel connected, whole, and finally good enough. Calling himself a "freeze-dried alcoholic waiting for alcohol," he explains how the craving took over from the beginning and how his search for the same effect carried him through drugs, institutions, legal consequences, and repeated attempts to control the uncontrollable. By the final three years, the social magic was gone and Bob was drinking alone, trapped by what he calls psychotic wishful thinking: all the evidence said the party was over, but he remained convinced he could somehow restart it. He had attended hundreds of AA meetings over seven and a half years without surrendering the private belief that drinking could remain his escape if life became painful enough. After reaching a dark bottom and landing in a Las Vegas detox, Bob finally attached himself to members who lived AA's primary purpose, called a sponsor every day, and began taking actions he neither understood nor believed would work. Those actions led him into service, the Twelve Steps, a relationship with God, and a twenty-eight-year process of awakening to other people. Through working with newcomers and hearing Fifth Steps, Bob discovered the comforting truth that beneath the details, alcoholics share the same fear, vacancy, and desire for connection. His message is that AA is "spiritual physics": take the actions, and recovery can awaken the life and sense of belonging alcohol once only seemed to provide. Bob D. from Las Vegas, NV speaking at the Northern Plains Group of Alcoholics Anonymous in Fargo, ND - October 10th 2006 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  When I Got Sober, I Could Finally See the Waltz - AA Speaker - Charlie C. 11.09.2026 1ч 12мин

  Alcohol once made Charlie feel as if ordinary life had broken into a waltz. Through sobriety, the Twelve Steps, and years in AA, he learned to see that same grace without needing a drink. ☀️ 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 storieshttps://sober-sunrise.com/episodes 🧡 Sober Sunrise Merchhttps://sober-sunrise.com/merch 🌴 Sober Sunrise Newsletterhttps://sober-sunrise.com/newsletter Charlie speaks to an Al-Anon audience about the alcoholic's side of isolation, love, and recovery. From childhood he felt "three clicks off center," burdened with potential but unable to turn it into a life. His first real drink dissolved the distance between himself and everyone else, giving him a feeling he calls "there": the illusion of joy, confidence, connection, and accomplishment without having to do anything. Over thirteen years of daily drinking, the mask grew heavier, his marriage collapsed, therapy stalled without honesty, and alcohol stopped providing the relief he kept chasing. Four days after his last drink, Charlie took his newly sober sister-in-law to an AA meeting intending only to drop her off. He returned the following week three and a half hours early because a bottle waited at home, and two members put him to work setting up chairs. That small act became the beginning of service, sponsorship, the Steps, and more than twelve years of sobriety. Charlie also shares how Al-Anon helped him understand the other side of alcoholism, how he made a long-delayed amends to his father at a cemetery, why meditation means staying still long enough to be found, and how recovery taught him that love is not merely an emotion but an action. By the end, the waltz he once saw only through alcohol has become his image for the grace, welcome, and shared movement he finds in Alcoholics Anonymous. Charlie C. speaking at an Al-Anon conference in Minneapolis, MN - May 2001 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  The Shattered House Became the Promises - AA Speaker - David O. 10.09.2026 39мин

  Eighteen months after entering Hazelden, David stood beside his AA sponsor and watched his smiling wife and daughter come up the driveway of what had once been a shattered home. His sponsor looked at him and said, "That's the promises of this program." ☀️ 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 David returns to the Hazelden campus where he began recovery and shares what changed after he arrived there broken on September 13, 2003. Reading from the questionnaire his wife completed during treatment, he confronts the reality behind his selective memory: twenty years of progressive drinking and using, a family forced to organize itself around his behavior, and a trigger list that ultimately amounted to waking up in the morning. He explains why remembering consequences never kept him sober, why he could neither drink nor comfortably live without drinking, and why treatment was only a beginning rather than a cure. Afraid he would drink at the airport after leaving Hazelden, David booked the first flight home before the bars opened, found a sponsor he initially wanted nothing to do with, and began reading the Big Book and working the Twelve Steps. What he discovered was not merely a way to stop drinking, but the spiritual change his sponsor had promised: the obsession lifted, his life became manageable, and the family home once defined by fear began filling again with laughter, trust, and the promises of Alcoholics Anonymous. David O. from Chicago, IL speaking at Hazelden in Center City, MN - April 16th 2005 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  The Traditions Made My Steps Come Alive Again - AA Speaker - Wesley P. 09.09.2026 1ч 7мин

  After years sober, Wesley watched complacency and self-importance drain the life from his AA program until practicing the Twelve Traditions personally made his Steps, his group, and his recovery come alive again. ☀️ 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 Wesley, sober since November 13, 1947, speaks about the Twelve Traditions as a personal way of life rather than rules reserved for AA groups and committees. He begins with the full triangle of Alcoholics Anonymous: recovery through the Steps, unity through the Traditions, and service through the Concepts. After about eight years sober, Wesley began missing meetings, concentrating on work and money, taking credit for other people’s sobriety, and quietly becoming what he calls a know-it-all in AA. His sponsor recognized the slide toward self-sufficiency, but Wesley did not fully recover his enthusiasm until he began applying the Traditions at the "I" level. He explains how common welfare means protecting his sobriety first, how unity requires accepting others as they are, how autonomy means taking responsibility for his own choices, and why self-support, primary purpose, anonymity, and service all belong in everyday recovery. With humor, history, and more than thirty years of sobriety behind him, Wesley argues that no alcoholic ever has it made, old-timers still need Twelve Step attention, and the complete AA program teaches us to live with ourselves, live with one another, and serve without expecting anything in return. Wesley P. speaking about the Twelve Traditions in Pompano Beach, FL - 1978 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  Two Years Sober and Still a Two-Stepper - AA Speaker - Jack H. 08.09.2026 1ч 26мин

  Jack stayed sober for 90 days because someone at his first AA meeting joked that he would save enough money for a good drunk, but the deeper turning point came two years later when an old-timer told him he was still only a "two-stepper." ☀️ 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 Jack shares a funny, blunt AA talk that begins with Tennessee homebrew, Navy court-martials, wartime drinking, a growing business, a frightened family, and Petey, the bourbon-drinking parakeet who became his unlikely drinking partner. He first entered Alcoholics Anonymous on March 17, 1957, stayed dry for 90 days through sheer willpower, and drank again on the 91st day after deciding he had proved he was not an alcoholic. When he returned to AA in March 1958, Jack threw himself into meetings and Twelve Step calls, gathering up alcoholics wherever he found them and mistaking frantic activity for the whole program. At two years sober, a hard-talking old-timer finally told him that he was working only part of Step One and part of Step Twelve. That conversation sent Jack into the Big Book, where he began confronting pride, powerlessness, self-honesty, inventory, amends, prayer, meditation, and the spiritual principles behind lasting sobriety. With humor and hard-earned clarity, he explains why the Fourth Step liberates an alcoholic from himself, why willpower disappears in alcohol, and why the essence of the AA program is ultimately love and service. Jack H. speaking at the Saturday Night Live Friday Night Speaker Meeting - November 20th 1981 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  Help Somebody Before Four O'Clock - AA Speaker - Sarah L. 07.09.2026 53мин

  Early in sobriety, Sarah's sponsor gave her one AA assignment: help somebody before four o'clock. When four arrived, Sarah had done nothing because service was still the most baffling idea she had ever encountered. ☀️ 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 Sarah speaks on "Help Others," the final part of a three-week Big Book workshop built around trusting God, cleaning house, and working with others. She explains how selfishness and self-centeredness became most visible after she stopped drinking, why love alone cannot give another alcoholic the power they need, and how sponsorship helps someone establish their own connection with a higher power. After going through the Steps in a new way with her sponsor, Sarah found people unexpectedly flooding into her life and discovered that having her own house in order gave her both the experience and language to be useful. She talks about urgency with chronic relapsers, meeting sponsees where they are, laying the spiritual toolkit at someone's feet without forcing them to pick it up, and recognizing when she is working harder than the person asking for help. Through an overflowing pot of soup, a conversation about pickles, an impromptu Step workshop in Southern Illinois, and the decision to remain with a hurting friend instead of leaving for a meeting, Sarah expands service beyond formal AA commitments into work, school, family, and every ordinary interaction. Her message is that recovery becomes attractive when the principles leave the meeting room and turn a frightened, disconnected alcoholic into someone present, compassionate, and available to others. Sarah L. from New York, NY speaking on the topic of Help Others at the Westfield Big Book Workshop of the Spiritual Awakenings Group in Westfield, NJ - February 5th 2012 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  Sit Down, Cowboy - AA Speaker - Chris R. 06.09.2026 51мин

  After seven years in and out of AA without losing the obsession, Chris tried to back out of one more meeting - until a 19-year-old member hooked a finger in his belt and said, "Sit down, cowboy." ☀️ 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 Chris shares a passionate and often hilarious AA talk about the difference between attending the fellowship and working the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Raised in the Texas Hill Country with an alcoholic father, he found relief in alcohol at 17 and eventually became a functioning drinker whose life kept narrowing even as he tried therapy, treatment, and years of going in and out of AA. At his darkest bottom, Chris returned to a Big Book-focused meeting but began backing toward the door before anyone could reach him. A young member stopped him with three words - "Sit down, cowboy" - and the group responded with more than slogans: they brought him back the next morning, helped him take the Third Step, started his inventory that afternoon, taught him to pray and meditate, and immediately gave him useful work. Two weeks later, sitting on the tailgate of his truck, Chris realized the obsession had lifted for the first time. He uses that experience to challenge every member to carry a clear Twelve Step message, sponsor others, give newcomers genuine responsibility, and understand that nobody in an AA room is merely there to receive help; each person may be exactly who the next alcoholic needs. Chris R. from Ingram, TX speaking at the Thursday Night Study Group annual spaghetti dinner in Davie, FL - January 29th 2009 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  You're Right and You're Dead - AA Speaker - Scott R. 04.09.2026 4ч 53мин

  Scott turns the AA inventory from a one-time Fourth Step into a daily way of life, using the Big Book to explain why an alcoholic can be completely right about a resentment and still let it take him out. ☀️ 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 Across this nearly five-hour, five-part AA workshop, Scott presents inventory as an ongoing spiritual process rather than a single assignment completed early in sobriety. He compares the familiar version of Chapter Five with language from the original Big Book manuscript, explains the architecture of resentment, fear, and sexual-conduct inventories, and shows how Steps Four through Nine continue through the daily practice of Step Ten. Using stories from marriage, parenting, sponsorship, grief, work, forgiveness, and his own recurring defects, Scott argues that recovery cannot stop at uncovering and understanding the problem; the inventory must lead to application, prayer, amends, changed behavior, and service to another alcoholic. His approach is specific without becoming rigid: write in whatever order makes the work possible, bring repeated problems back through the earlier Steps, and ask what action would replace the defect. The result is a detailed Big Book workshop about moving from spree and remorse into surrender and commitment, allowing inventory to become a crowbar for the problems that emerge in sobriety, and discovering that Alcoholics Anonymous can lead the sufferer into a life larger than the one alcoholism took away. Scott R. from Van Nuys, CA speaking at the retreat "The Inventory Process: A Way of Life" at the High School of Art and Design in New York, NY - October 14th 2001 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  I Caught Fire at Seventeen Years Sober - AA Speaker - Charlie P. 03.09.2026 53мин

  At seventeen years sober, Charlie thought he already knew what AA had to offer - until a nighttime plane crash and studying the Big Book line by line showed him that he had been living on one side of a three-sided program. ☀️ 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 Charlie, sober since March 22, 1985, delivers a funny and direct AA talk about the physical allergy, mental obsession, and spiritual condition beneath his drinking. He remembers discovering alcohol at 16, blackouts, pawn shops, courtrooms, a relapse at ten and a half months, and the promises to his father that he sincerely meant but could not keep. The deeper turn comes years later: although Charlie was surrounded by AA meetings, friendships, and service, he realized he was expecting the benefits of the entire recovery triangle while living almost entirely on its fellowship side. After surviving a nighttime plane crash, confronting the dishonesty and self-will still operating in his life, and following his sponsor into work with other alcoholics, he began studying the Big Book sentence by sentence. What he found was a program he describes as 500 feet deep - one that rekindled his sobriety, transformed sponsorship into the bright spot of his life, and showed him that a spiritual awakening remains available no matter how long someone has already been around AA. Charlie P. from Austin, TX speaking at the North Scottsdale Group in Scottsdale, AZ - November 10th 2007 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  I Went Back to My Neighbor Instead of the Store - AA Speaker - Carla R. 02.09.2026 1ч 20мин

  Carla’s first real turn toward AA came when she went back to her sober neighbor instead of the store and began learning how to live with the head she had to take home. ☀️ 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 Carla shares with sharp humor and honesty about growing up restless and afraid, being institutionalized as a teenager, living on the road, becoming a mother, and watching alcohol defeat every attempt at a fresh start. Her first AA meeting only gave her another idea for controlling her drinking, but eighteen months later a sober neighbor arrived with a Big Book, a Twelve and Twelve, and a story Carla could recognize. After a difficult final withdrawal, Carla went to that neighbor instead of the store, found a home group, got a sponsor, worked the Steps, and felt the obsession begin to lift while making amends. She also speaks carefully about repairing her relationship with her daughter, facing a violent trauma at five years sober, finding a path toward forgiveness through page 67, rebuilding without drinking when sobriety still became difficult, and deepening her practice of prayer and meditation. This is an AA talk about showing up, allowing the awakening to continue, and discovering that the present moment might hold a possibility she once could not imagine: what if this goes well? Carla R. from Tujunga, CA speaking at the Joy of Living Convention in Aspen, CO - October 5th 2013 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  55 Years Sober, 10 Minutes Emotionally Sober - AA Speaker - Mel B. 01.09.2026 1ч 9мин

  After 55 years sober, Mel brings rare firsthand AA history, hard-earned recovery wisdom, and one of the funniest definitions of emotional sobriety you’ll ever hear. ☀️ 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 Mel shares his journey from a fearful childhood in Nebraska and teenage drinking through military service, jail, hospitalization, and the surrender that began his sobriety at 24. He recalls falling in love with Alcoholics Anonymous at his first meeting, learning that sobriety meant facing life rather than escaping it, and remaining close to the fellowship for more than five decades. Mel also opens an extraordinary window into early AA history, including hearing one of the co-founders speak in 1951, contributing to the manuscripts that became Pass It On, spending time at Stepping Stones, and photographing one co-founder at the other’s gravesite. With humor, humility, and stories gathered across thousands of meetings, he explains how gratitude becomes action: receive the message, live it, and pass it on. Mel closes by singing his original tribute, “Once There Were Founders.” Mel B. from Toledo, OH speaking at the Northern Colorado Intergroup "DecaDance" in Fort Collins, CO - February 26th 2006 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  I Called AAA Looking for Alcoholics Anonymous - AA Speaker - Martin S. 31.08.2026 52мин

  After nineteen days alone in a motel, Martin calls for AA help, accidentally reaches AAA, and realizes that tomorrow is too late—he needs the Alcoholics Anonymous solution now. ☀️ 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 Martin delivers a direct and urgent AA speaker talk about the difference between untreated and treated alcoholism. Although he recognized his bottom fourteen years before entering recovery, defiance, arrogance, and contempt allowed him to continue living through chaos, isolation, and loss. His final crisis comes during nineteen days alone in a motel, when he consumes enormous quantities of alcohol but discovers that it no longer provides the escape he needs. Martin mistakenly reaches AAA while attempting to call Alcoholics Anonymous, then calls back and insists that tomorrow is not soon enough. Two AA members arrive, return for four consecutive days, watch him pour away the remaining half-gallon, and become the tour guides for a journey into sobriety. Martin explains why knowledge, love, treatment, meetings, and belief cannot do the work automatically: AA has a solution, but the alcoholic must want it, work the Twelve Steps, seek spiritual power, and participate in recovery. His message is about moving from existence into life, regaining the freedom to choose, helping others, and discovering that what appeared to be his lowest point was actually the high point from which everything began to change. Martin S. from Chicago, IL speaking at Herrington Recovery Center in Oconomowoc, WI - August 20th 2005 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  The 12 Steps Were Numbered for Screwballs Like Me - AA Speaker - Wesley P. 30.08.2026 59мин

  With 32 years sober, Wesley explains why AA’s Twelve Steps must become an everyday way of life—and how success, ego, and complacency can quietly lead an alcoholic back toward bondage. ☀️ 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 Wesley delivers a passionate and humorous Founders’ Day AA speaker talk about the difference between abstinence and genuinely living the Alcoholics Anonymous program. Sober since November 13, 1947, Wesley recalls spending his first four and a half years preaching the Steps to everyone else while continuing to lie, cheat, steal, and harm his family. A direct confrontation from his sponsor sends him back to the Twelve Steps in their numbered sequence and begins the spiritual transformation he had avoided. Wesley also describes how later success tempted him away from meetings and service, allowing self-importance to progress into complacency, apathy, and dependence on himself. Drawing from the Big Book, the Twelve Steps, the Twelve Traditions, AA history, and 32 years of experience, he explains why recovery requires continuing deflation, personal responsibility, unity, love, and service. His message is a powerful reminder that gratitude means giving something back—and that the program works in family life, business, community, and every other human relationship when its principles are practiced rather than merely discussed. Wesley P. speaking at Founders’ Day in Akron, OH - 1979 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  I Asked for a Sponsor and Never Drank Again - AA Speaker - Sean C. 29.08.2026 54мин

  After eight months of repeatedly restarting his sobriety date, Sean asks another man to sponsor him and begins following the Big Book directions that finally make AA a way of life. ☀️ 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 Sean shares a funny, energetic, and deeply moving AA speaker talk about underage drinking, punk-rock identity, and arriving in Alcoholics Anonymous at eighteen without understanding why he could not simply stop. For eight months, he attends meetings, marks days on a calendar, drinks again, and repeatedly starts over. The turning point comes when Sean asks another man to sponsor him and is taken through the Big Book with simple directions: where it says pray, they pray, and where it says write, they write. He describes the men who kept him company through early sobriety, the Steps that introduced him to a practical spiritual life, and the danger of drifting away after success made him believe he had outgrown the basics. Sean returns to the program through renewed Step work, sponsorship, meetings, and service, eventually discovering that there is no “advanced AA” beyond its literature and helping another alcoholic. When severe illness and loss strike his family, the fellowship he once treated as a social experiment becomes the grace that helps him remain present, useful, and sober. Sean C. from Santa Cruz, CA speaking at the 34th Annual All California Young People in AA Round-up in Santa Clara, CA - February 25th 2006 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  I Get to Have Another Day - AA Speaker - Reid M. 26.08.2026 1ч 17мин

  After believing his life was over, Reid finds hope in Alcoholics Anonymous and discovers why working with other alcoholics is essential to his own recovery. ☀️ 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 Reid shares how he arrived at Alcoholics Anonymous after psychiatric hospitalization, broken relationships, and the complete loss of hope. At his first meeting, he recognizes that his real problem may finally have a solution. His sponsor immediately puts him to work helping newcomers, providing rides, studying the Big Book, and making commitments that require him to show up for others. When meetings and service positions alone no longer relieve his despair, Reid returns to the written program and begins carrying its message into a county treatment center. Through intensive work with other alcoholics, he discovers the difference between simply attending meetings and experiencing the spiritual change described in the Big Book. Reid explains why helping another alcoholic remains vital to his recovery and why every opportunity to carry the message gives him another day of life. Reid M. from Greensboro, NC, speaking at the 32nd Annual Ventura County Convention in Ventura, CA - September 4, 2010 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu
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  It’s an Inside Job - AA Speaker - David M. 25.08.2026 36мин

  After years of anger, isolation, and drinking, David discovers that lasting recovery begins with finding peace within through the Steps, fellowship, and service. ☀️ 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 David shares how childhood pain and resentment left him unable to accept the love surrounding him, while alcohol offered a temporary sense of belonging and escape. As his drinking slowly damages his marriage, family, and hope for the future, he reaches a point where he can no longer continue alone. Treatment introduces him to the Twelve Steps, and the West Oak Lane Group teaches him to listen, become useful, and accept unconditional love until he can love himself. Through inventory, amends, faith, Al-Anon, and service to other alcoholics, David finds the inner peace he had searched for throughout his life. Approaching 22 years of sobriety, he celebrates the restored relationships with his wife and children and the freedom of becoming one among many in Alcoholics Anonymous. David M. from Bear, DE, speaking at the 42nd Annual New Hampshire Convention in North Conway, NH - April 12, 2008 Music: Deep by KaizanBlu