Who this episode is for:
- Anyone who’s ever woken up wondering how the hell they survived their 20s
- Former party girls turned spiritual gangsters
- People in recovery who still laugh at their darkest stories
- Anyone with complicated daddy issues
- Midwest transplants trying to make peace with the lack of decent tacos
- And most importantly: the still-struggling, the not-yet-sober, the ones who think it’s too late—this one’s for you

Addiction, Grief, and Grace with Rene Hudson

Rene Hudson didn’t just dip her toe in the chaos—she cannonballed straight into it. In this raw-as-hell episode, Chris, Zoe, and (MIA) Jeff sit down with Rene, a certified SoCal wild child turned St. Louis recovery badass, to unpack a story that ricochets from beach bonfires and punk shows to addiction, grief, and spiritual rebirth.

This isn’t some sanitized, “I found Jesus and now everything’s fine” kind of thing. Rene brings the real: pierced nipples as teenage rebellion, doing shots and hitting rock bottom, crashing on a boat with no working toilet, and falling into a love story that ends in heartbreak and hard lessons.

You'll hear about her fast spiral into addiction, her time as the life of the party in OC’s house scene, meeting her late partner Noah (who moved in after one night and never left), and how she went from vodka breakfasts to full-body baptisms at The Gathering.

The crew veers off course plenty—talking bridges, airport food etiquette, Sergeant Sausage the male stripper, and Nicholas Cage melting down at Newport bars—but it always comes back to the raw truth of recovery, trauma, and what it means to rebuild a life from scratch.

This one’s funny, heartbreaking, weird, and wildly human. Just like Rene.

00:00 Shoutout to the sponsors
02:59 Bridge drama and Midwest geography lessons
06:07 Boomers, Gen Z, and Y2K brain damage
08:57 Growing up in SoCal
11:58 St. Louis nice vs. California real
15:01 Bonfires, beach boys, and busted boat toilets
18:04 Nick Cage is a freak and we love that for him
18:55 Con Air, In-N-Out, and late-night cravings
21:19 Airport food shaming and clean eating confessions
24:41 Real ones go to church
27:56 First time telling the whole damn story
33:37 Turning the wreckage into something valuable
39:36 Military childhoods and doing it all yourself
42:01 Teenage love, heartbreak, and “marriage?!”
45:55 Nipples pierced out of spite
48:50 Party girl era unlocked
54:59 It starts out fun—until it’s not
01:00:02 Running from everything
01:02:59 A brain full of chaos
01:04:57 Moving to Florida, still running
01:06:55 Relationships, broken and breaking
01:10:01 Losing Noah
01:16:58 Grief, relapse, and trying to survive it
01:20:21 Family pain and recovery roadblocks
01:24:11 Putting the pieces back together
01:26:40 Finally giving recovery a real shot
01:27:25 Why extended care isn’t optional
01:31:40 Love, support, and the shit that saves us
01:33:20 The slippery slope of sobriety
01:39:25 Finding your people
01:42:11 Helping others = healing yourself
01:46:55 It gets better—but not by accident

Check out the recovery community that helped change Rene’s life:
👉 https://gatheringnow.org/recovery

Sponsored by
🛡️ McKelvey Insurance – https://www.mckelveyins.com/
💡 LightSource Psychotherapy – https://findyourlightsource.com/