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Welcome to An Atheist Reads the Big Book of AA Episode 31! In this episode I cover step twelve: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs AND tradition twelve: Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.  I also talk about the future of the podcast.

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Welcome to An Atheist Reads the Big Book of AA Episode 30! In this episode I cover step eleven: Sought through prayer and medication to improve our conscious contact with god as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out AND tradition eleven: Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio. and films.  I also talk about dealing with feelings of violence in the face of a troll.

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Welcome to An Atheist Reads the Big Book of AA Episode 29! In this episode I cover step ten: Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it AND tradition ten: Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.  The stoic ready does a great job leading into these two by bringing up the concept of living outside of the feelings of anger and hate.  This is further explored by looking at emotions as the chemicals they are and how important regulation is over supression.

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Welcome to An Atheist Reads the Big Book of AA Episode 28! In this episode I cover step nine: made direct amends to such people wherever possible, expect when to do so would injure them or others AND tradition nine: AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.  This rounds out the last of the action steps before getting into the maintenance portion of the program of AA.  For me this was the most difficult to digest but over time I have learned that this step can be taken in smaller chunks and with the right guidance has done more to help me in the long run than many of the ones before it.

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Welcome to An Atheist Reads the Big Book of AA Episode 27! In this episode I cover step eight: made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.  And tradition eight: Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers. The stoic reading reminds us to try and find beauty in the smallest and simplest of places.

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Welcome to An Atheist Reads the Big Book of AA Episode 26! In this episode I cover step seven: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings and tradition seven: Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions. Both steps come from a place of humility but step seven takes a little digging to get to the meat of it.

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Welcome to An Atheist Reads the Big Book of AA Episode 25! In this episode I cover the 6th Step: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.  While god isn't necessary, coming to terms with the need to remove attachments to personal traits that are causing harm is.  The 6th tradition keeps AA from becoming a sellable brand that, at one point, was almost slapped on educational pamphlets put out by big alcohol.  Despite the episode coming out on the 4th I choose to read January 1st from the Daily Stoic to commemorate the start of a new year.

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Welcome to An Atheist Reads the Big Book of AA Episode 24! In this episode I cover the 5th Step of the traditional steps: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.  While myself, and may like me, may choose to omit the notion of god from this step, I feel it is a powerful process to share what came from the 4th step with another human.  More importantly is the process of being honest with ourselves as objectively as possible. Tradition 5: Each group has but one primary purpose - to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers. Many have used this step as a reason to bar people from sharing about drugs in meetings and I think it's missing the point to do so.  This tradition has kept money seeking and other forms of corruptible behavior out of the groups.  

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Welcome to An Atheist Reads the Big Book of AA Episode 23! In this episode I cover the 4th Step of the traditional steps.  Of all the steps in AA program this step remains, to many, the most difficult and the most important.  While the steps have been translated and transposed to fit all sorts of different programs and beliefs Step 4 remains largely unchanged.  Tradition 4 encourages meetings to be their own thing - within reason and while supporting AA as a whole.  This has helped keep AA versatile and adaptable over time.

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Welcome to An Atheist Reads the Big Book of AA Episode 22! In this episode I cover the 3rd step: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.  This step can be a sticking point for a lot of folks, believer or non, and I hope I'm able to unpack it in a way that people can approach this a little differently.  Tradition 3, however, is one of the most important tradition to maintain the integrity of the AA program and its meeting spaces.  It also has a lot to do with the inclusive nature that AA is supposed to uphold.  While true, this chapter has some rough spots that I take issue with.

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