Welcome to the first of what we hope will be many episodes of Two Drunks With a Mic. I guess we’ll call this one episode zero. We want to take the opportunity in our first installment to simply let everyone know what inspired this project, what to expect from the program in the future, some of our goals, and some key ways you can help support the cause as we strive to remain addicts helping addicts.

When I first brought this concept to my friend, Randy, 5 or 6 weeks ago, and asked him to co-host with me, it wasn’t a podcast that I had in mind. It was a Youtube channel. I’d been watching a few of my favorite channels on a pretty regular basis and was intrigued by the sphere of influence that many of them had. And generally, in a good way.

The comment sections of many were filled with messages from people letting the host know that they were gonna step out and follow their inspiring footsteps. People were laying aside their fears of failure and jumping in head first; Creating their own channels and trying to make a go of it; Bringing their spin on a topic into their sphere of influence.

A light bulb came on for me.

But the thought that I had wasn’t, hey how can I get me some of that Youtube fame & fortune? Or any type of fame for that matter. What inspired me the most was the change that I saw transpiring in people’s lives due to a constructive influence. In a world that is seemingly being fueled by perpetual negativity, it was kind of nice to see. This inspiration got me thinking. It got me really digging into some questions that I’d not asked myself in a long time. What do I have to offer my fellow man? I mean really offer.

If I were to create a channel, what does an almost fifty-year-old, middle class, alcoholic, stay at home dad have to offer? I must have asked myself that question 20 or 30 times over the course of a week or so and every time I asked, I drew a total blank. But the question kept nagging me. And when the answer did finally come, I found that it had been in front of me the entire time.

I’m an alcoholic. But more than that I’m an alcoholic that lives a successful life in recovery. This has very little to do with of my own effort I’ll admit...but it's my life nonetheless. And I’m grateful to be where I am today because it wasn’t always so.

And that is the idea that I took to Randy. Let’s build a Youtube channel to try and help other addicts and people whose lives, though maybe not addicts themselves, are affected by addiction. Let’s bring them some hope. He was in. After all, he agreed, we didn’t get to where we are on our own. Someone had helped us along the way. Let’s pay it forward.

The actual idea of maybe doing a podcast instead of a Youtube channel was given to me by my brother-in-law when I called him to ask his advice on the type of equipment I would need to create a well-produced channel. At that point, I knew less about podcasting than I did about creating videos. And I knew absolutely nothing about video.

Interested by the idea, I did a little more research. At the end of it all, it seemed like podcasting made more sense for a couple of reasons but mainly it came down to the fact that it is much less expensive to buy a microphone or two instead of all of the equipment needed to produce a decent video.

So who are the two drunks with a mic? Well, Randy isn’t with us today so I can only speak for myself.

My name is Ian Bond and as I mentioned a minute ago I’m an alcoholic. But more than that I am an alcoholic that lives a successful life in recovery. I admit it again that this fact has very little to do with much of my own doing...but it’s my life nonetheless. And I’m grateful to be where I am today because it wasn’t always so.

Up until 8 years ago, I’d spent nearly 29 years living the life that I wanted to live all the while leavi...