Sober Sunrise - AA Speaker Podcast

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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