If you've ever assumed sobriety would turn you into a calm, well-adjusted person who makes good decisions and drinks green juice while journaling at sunrise, Sara Christine Berelsman would like a word. We talk about drinking, bipolar disorder, shame, marriage, motherhood, writing your way through the hard stuff, getting judged by small-town boss babes, and why telling the truth can be terrifying but also deeply useful which is pretty much our brand around here. 

Sara is the author of My Last Rock Bottom and can be found on her Facebook page Sara Christine Berelsman.

Please check out this episode and more on our YouTube page at Drunk-ish

Tanya J is back for Part Two, and I would strongly suggest listening to Part One first unless you enjoy walking into the emotional equivalent of a movie halfway through and asking, “Wait, why is everyone crying?” Tanya’s story goes from sober parties and family Thanksgiving to grief, trauma, motherhood, court, recovery, and the very rude discovery that life does not stop being life just because you quit drinking. We talk about staying sober when “all bets are off,” and why playing through the drink is not just a slogan — it’s survival.

This week on Drunk-ish, I’m talking with my friend Tanya J, whose sobriety story does not begin with teenage keg stands or dramatic college beer pong. Her drinking took off later, wrapped up in marriage, wine with dinner, perfectionism, parenting, adoption stress, family chaos, and the deeply annoying belief that if you’re the “responsible one,” you must be fine. Tanya shares how fear, control, caretaking, and white wine all tangled together — and how rehab, recovery, sponsorship, and a very inconvenient amount of crying helped her start rebuilding her life. This is Part One, so yes, we are making you come back.

This week on Drunk-ish, I’m trying something a little different: a topic episode instead of one guest story. I’m joined by Casey McGuire Davidson and Sara Kaufman-Bradstreet to talk about getting sober after having kids, what our children remember — or thankfully don’t — and how we talk to teenagers about drinking, weed, driving, consent, and all the fun topics that make parenting feel like a hostage negotiation with snacks. We also get into mom wine culture, shame, sober sex, and why quitting drinking didn’t make us less fun — just less likely to fall asleep mid-sentence. Or mid-other things.

You can find sober mentor and podcaster Sara Kaufman Bradstreet at @No_more_wasted_days

and host of the Hello Someday podcast, Casey McGuire Davidson at HelloSomedayCoaching.com

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This week I’m talking with my Rob Hill, who has 45 years sober and somehow manages to make attempted childhood sibling murder, lesbian bar fights, therapy, motorcycles, and spiritual awakening feel like one very eventful coffee date. Rob takes us from feeling different as a kid, to drinking early, to getting sober, relapsing once, crawling back, and building a life she still loves showing up for. It’s funny, wild, moving, and also a pretty great reminder that recovery doesn’t have to look perfect to be real.

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This week I’m talking with Josh Welch, a criminal defense lawyer, husband, dad, and person in recovery who has been through it — rehabs, relapses, shame spirals, rebuilding, and the occasional very bad idea involving a tallboy immediately after treatment. You may also recognize him as a frequent guest on his wife's podcast, I've Had It. Josh talks about getting sober after years of addiction, how becoming a father changed what he was willing to fight for, why perfection in recovery can be a trap, and how shame can keep people sick and the radical concept of not beating yourself to death for being human.

This week, I’m talking with my friend Cindy — no last name, because we are classy and mysterious like that. Cindy takes us from growing up in Mississippi, to 1980s New York, to getting sober young, to the complicated, sneaky way pain pills pulled her back into addiction after years in recovery. We talk about shame, secrecy, chronic pain, AA, bad boy choices, schoolteacher glamour, and the miracle of finally telling the truth when pretending has become a full-time job. 

Join us on YouTube to see Cindy's array of cool glasses!

This week I’m talking with Kira Reed, and wow, we get into it. We talk about the kind of childhood stuff that follows you around, getting launched into adulthood way too early, and the many extremely bad ideas that can grow out of trying to outrun grief. Kira talks about her path from wild 80s partying into heroin addiction, getting sober, relapsing years later through prescribed muscle relaxers, and what it takes to come back again. We also talk about motherhood, secrets, honesty, and why so many of us are determined to parent nothing like we were parented.  

Please check out these episode over on YouTube

Stefanie decided to take a week off from guest stories to argue about AA with her friend Tamara Mello, who is sober but also takes the occasional gummy, which according to some corners of Sober Facebook means she is not sober, which means she should probably turn in her badge. Wait, nobody gave her a badge. That's the whole problem. They talk about the imaginary sober rule book nobody can find, the 17-cups-of-coffee defense, the people who think antidepressants are cheating, and Stefanie's full-body confession about the time she got nitrous oxide at the dentist and spent the whole drive home wondering if her sober friends would judge her. 

To follow (and connect with) Tamara go to her IG @TamaraMello

Check out her amazing jewelry collection at Etsy.com/shop/GreyByTamaraMello

Stefanie sits down with her neighbor Josh Sautter, who broke his ankle and his leg riding a drunk electric scooter on New Year’s Eve and then called his mom from the hospital at 7am on January 1st. Classic. Josh got sober that week. From there things could only go up. We hear about meeting his wife because the world was ending (Covid, specifically), and somehow going from hosting a neighborhood pie eating contest so grotesque they had to downsize the Costco pies to running for Congress. 

Find Josh at JoshSautterforCongress.com

Follow the show on YouTube for a look at Josh's baby face at YouTube