When we try to wrestle security from life, we often get pinned. Joe Chisholm offers us this:   Dee Hock (1929-2022) wrote:    “Life... more

Frequent collaborator and fellow recoverer Julia Heidmann stops by to talk about the role emotional sobriety has played in her... more

Allen, Thom, and Patrick discuss the overwhelm that often occurs as we return to health, and in so doing take... more

Roger Andes returns after a period of recovery to talk with Thom and Patrick about forming a new relationship with... more

Joe C. brings an existential framework to the discussion, which dredges up Patrick’s recent brushes with mortality and Allen’s titanic... more

Acceptance of what is sets us on the road to change. While acceptance of powerlessness over alcohol, our dependencies, or... more

Waiting for the other shoe to drop truly puts our ability to regulate to the test, as it reminds us... more

In filing our claims with reality’s “complaint department,” we discover new ways of getting in touch with our disturbances, big... more

Joe C. and the crew discuss their emerging conception of living responsibly with emotional sobriety. Ultimately, this depends greatly on... more

A quick one this week. Allen, Thom, and Patrick discuss holding onto ourselves when our relationships are in distress, fear... more

Offering help to those in need without losing ourselves is the order of the day. Before giving advice, “knock on... more

Joe C. returns to kick things off with a reading from Gabor Maté’s “The Myth of Normal.” Allen and Thom... more

Allen and Thom return to familiar emotional sobriety territory of living in the pauses and managing our reactions to fears... more

Returning to our definition of a more mature love, challenging not the concept of “self” entirely, but an expanding our... more

Picking up the discussion from last week, in crafting our emotionally sober foundation and cultivating our awareness, what do we... more

Our awareness is what we use to make contact with the world. The quality of that contact will determine how... more

Patrick and Allen deal with their own fears and resentments surrounding the Los Angeles wildfires. Patrick welcomes to the pod... more

Why are some people surpassingly resilient in sobriety, not only restoring to their wellness conditions pre-alcoholism and pre-trauma, but emerging... more

Responsibility creates empowerment. Closing this year of the podcast as we look ahead to 2025, Allen, Thom, and Patrick consider... more

A quick one, before Christmas - Thom and Patrick talk about their sideways shuffle towards emotional sobriety, accepting the things... more

Allen, Joe, and Patrick continue their ongoing discussion of the holiday season, encountering new challenges and opportunities to hold onto... more

Thom, Patrick and Joe bring to the conversation their individual anticipations and dreads of the Thanksgiving holiday to come. The... more

Four of us take stock of our personal arcs towards greater emotional sobriety. Happiness, as Herb Kaighan frames it, isn’t... more

Going into yet another fraught American Presidential election, Allen, Thom, and Patrick discuss their fears and feelings of debt and... more

Friend of the pod Howard Malitz of Seasons of Recovery talks about an extreme test of emotional sobriety on a... more

Joe C., Allen, and Thom welcome author William Schaberg (Bill), author of 30 Things: Practical Advice for Living Well to... more

Joe C., Allen, and Thom read from William Schaberg’s 30 Things: Practical Advice for Living Well to further explore the... more

The fellas discuss the role of anger in emotional sobriety. We also read a thoughtful email from one of our... more

On the journey towards forgiving others, we can’t bypass our grief. Thom, Patrick, and Tom Potash discuss both processing and... more

Allen Berger and Joe Chisholm check in from this year’s ICSAA conference in Orlando, Florida, to relay an anecdote from... more