The official kickoff of the holiday season, Turkey Day, can be tricky. Especially the first one.  Family, friends, food, and often a lot of booze. What could go wrong? Lisa ended up flat on her back beneath a green bean casserole. Anna spent her first sober Thanksgiving freezing to death in a motorhome in a San Diego parking lot. (True!)

Check out all things Lisa and all things Anna.

Just because we’re sober doesn’t mean we don’t still want to have fun wherever we hang out. But being comfortable in bars and clubs isn’t automatic. Lisa took a pass for a long time and only goes on rare occasions. Anna spent her first year sober as Premiere magazine’s “Party Girl,” which involved going out every night among the shiniest of people and the most open of bars. Amazingly, the experience only enhanced her commitment to sobriety more.

Check out all things Lisa and all things Anna. 

Legend has it that drugs and alcohol have spawned some great works of art, including books. But evidence shows that numbing ourselves out actually stifles creativity. Anna and Lisa talk about what it was like to first feel that spark and flow of an idea without the booze. Anna was terrified that just sitting in front of the computer was going to trigger cravings and was shocked to discover that writing was actually a million times easier sober than high. Lisa felt it straight out of the detox unit.

Check out all things Lisa and all things Anna. 

It’s bound to happen. At some point in our early or not-so-early sobriety, something is likely to trigger that overwhelming feeling of anxiety or even panic. Maybe it’s in a situation we’d drink our through or maybe it’s out of nowhere. For Lisa, it was the latter. For Anna, smoking cigarettes eased her newcomer sobriety—until she realized it was only exacerbating the issue.

Check out all things Lisa and all things Anna. 

Our first vacations in sobriety should be occasions to relax and let loose. And ours were! Just not without some pre-planning and flexibility on the fly. Anna found herself abandoned in the woods when she tried to find a meeting in New Zealand while Lisa found sober support in the City of Lights.

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Let’s get straight to it. Sober sex for the first time is a big deal! Some of us had never even done it before. We talk about our experiences – from what we were told to what we expected, and what it was actually like. Lisa had an eventful trip to Utah and Anna, well, let’s just say she ignored all that advice about not dating for the first year.

Check out all things Lisa and all things Anna.

Picking up where the original Recovery Rocks left off, this next era of the podcast is all about how we make the most of our lives in sobriety. Co-hosts Lisa Smith and Anna David dig into all the beauty, mess, creativity, laughs, tears, and joy of leaving the booze behind. 

We’ll kick it all off with some of our own stories, how we bonded ten years ago, and a series on our “sober firsts.”

Check out all things Lisa and all things Anna.

What would the last Recovery Rocks episode be without a focus on music? Tawny and Lisa talk all about the role music plays in their recovery and their lives in general. Tawny talks about seeing some of her favorite bands over the summer as research for her next (music-themed!) book project. The ladies extend all their gratitude and love to the listeners over the last seven years. Stick around on this feed for Sober Living, the new podcast Lisa will co-host with OG recovery queen, Anna David.

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Tawny and Lisa talk with their friend Chris Marshall, the creator of Sans Bar, the first non-alcoholic bar in North America. Sans Bar broke new ground in creating IRL sober spaces and providing support for soberpreneurs. They talk about how getting sober is an act of liberation, and Chris shares how his sobriety has led to all kinds of personal revelations and creativity. They also talk about his memoir, Faster Than Light. 

Music Minute features Vivaldi’s “Seasons,” Mozart, Laufey’s bossa nova, and alt country

Order The Sobriety Deck 

Listen to The Sobriety Deck Playlist by Hannah Gardner

Order Tawny’s book, DRY HUMPING: A Guide to Dating, Relating, and Hooking Up Without the Booze

Subscribe to Tawny's newsletter, "Beyond Liquid Courage"

Order Tawny’s new NA drink, (parentheses)

Purchase Lisa’s memoir, Girl Walks Out of a Bar   

Laura Silverman, cartographer and creator of Zero Proof Nation, a global map of non-alcoholic bars and bottle shops, joins Tawny and Lisa for a stroll down memory lane. They talk about the non-alcoholic drink movement and how far it has come in the last seven years. 

Music Minute features outlaw country music, Emily Nenni and Joshua Hedley

Sign up for Laura’s Substack 

Find Laura on Instagram and LinkedIn 

Check out Clean Cause 

Order The Sobriety Deck 

Listen to The Sobriety Deck Playlist by Hannah Gardner

Order Tawny’s book, DRY HUMPING: A Guide to Dating, Relating, and Hooking Up Without the Booze

Subscribe to Tawny's newsletter  "Beyond Liquid Courage"

Order Tawny’s new NA drink, (parentheses)

Purchase Lisa’s memoir, Girl Walks Out of a Bar