This week, we sit down with Miss Erica — our first trans guest on the podcast — whose story is one of courage, survival, and the relentless pursuit of a life worth living. She has 11 years sober, relapsed, and now celebrates 9 years sober, and her journey shows that even after a decade in recovery, the disease of addiction can still strike — and still be overcome.

Erica’s first stint in sobriety lasted three years before she stopped working a program. Remarkably, she held onto her sobriety all the way to year 11, even as life got big — she got married, grew her family, and began finding excuses to skip meetings. When her husband relapsed, she fought the temptation to use alongside him for an extended period, but life’s pressures — needing income and a place to live — led her back into old patterns. Returning to work for her old drug dealer, she thought she could control it, but within five minutes, she picked up and started using.

Her relapse was devastating. Erica ended up in sex work, endured abusive fights with her husband, and even set their house on fire while he was asleep — a stark manifestation of the disease that had taken over. Her family stepped in to help, and her husband eventually reached out, wanting things to change. Hitting rock bottom, Erica finally accepted help once more and entered Geary House, where she found exactly what she needed to reclaim her life.

Now, she attributes her sobriety to doing the next right thing even when she doesn’t want to. She shares the story of asking a man to sponsor her — someone she initially found a little annoying — and learning the power of consistency, guidance, and spiritual example. Her relationship with her Higher Power is now the cornerstone of her life, and she will never stop sponsoring others, sharing hope, and giving back to the fellowship that saved her.

Miss Erica’s story is a profound reminder that there is always a solution, even when life feels darkest — and that recovery is not about perfection, but persistence, humility, and faith.

This week, we sit down with Brett — a man whose story shows that sobriety isn’t built on self-knowledge or “doing recovery perfectly,” but on brutal honesty, spiritual awakening, and the willingness to try again after the fall.

Brett will celebrate 8 years sober this January, but his journey wasn’t a straight line. Before this chapter of long-term recovery, he had 22 months sober, doing all the “right things” on paper — meetings, program work, connection. And yet, a single unguarded thought — a mental blank spot — led him into a sudden three-day relapse that changed everything.

He talks about how he’s always known he was an addict. Self-knowledge was never the issue. He knew drugs and alcohol would eventually destroy him… and still, he relapsed over and over. The true struggle was his relationship with a Higher Power — a theme that shows up at every turn in his story. He was drawn to his first sponsor because the man was agnostic, which allowed Brett to question, explore, and slowly form his own understanding of something greater than himself. Looking back, every relapse was tied to a spiritual disconnect, dishonesty with himself, and the people he surrounded himself with.

Brett opens up about going to his first treatment center knowing he could never safely use again, yet still being unable to stay sober. He contrasts that with his 22-month relapse: a moment where, despite doing the work, he picked up — and immediately realized that the drugs no longer numbed anything. For the first time, he wanted sobriety more than the high.

When his girlfriend at the time — now his wife, Samantha — found the heroin, she confronted him head-on and took him straight to detox. When he got out, she told him: We’re doing 90 meetings in 90 days. And she did it with him.

Brett reflects deeply on how the Salvation Army’s six-month program cracked him open spiritually in a way nothing else had. It was uncomfortable, structured, and challenging — but it’s where he finally found a Higher Power that made sense to him. After leaving the program, through his sponsor, he met Samantha. Everyone said they’d take each other out… and instead, they built a family grounded in recovery, honesty, and spiritual growth. Today they are married, raising two beautiful daughters, and living the kind of life Brett once thought was impossible for him.

Brett’s story is a powerful reminder that relapse doesn’t disqualify anyone from long-term sobriety — and that the real miracle happens when the ego breaks, the heart opens, and a Higher Power finally fits.

In this week’s episode, we sit down with Marcus — who recently celebrated eight years clean and sober on October 29th. Standing 6'7" with a quiet strength and deep insight, Marcus shares how his path from chaos and paranoia to inner peace has reshaped how he sees sobriety, self-compassion, and spirituality.

Before recovery, Marcus was driving a beat-up van with expired tags, working hospice while high, and numbing his pain through constant escape. It wasn’t until his sober father called him out that Marcus finally got honest. He walked into an AA meeting with his dad’s contacts — terrified but willing — and started doing everything his sponsor told him to do: 90 meetings in 90 days, daily calls, full surrender.

But early sobriety wasn’t easy. Marcus describes feeling psychotic and suicidal, closing his eyes on the freeway just to feel silence. He was haunted by shame, guilt, paranoia, and hallucinations until his parents intervened and got him psychiatric help. Medication helped stabilize him, but the stigma he faced in recovery made him feel even more isolated. When COVID cut off access to his meds, he turned to veganism, meditation, and spiritual practice — finding healing in mindfulness and compassion.

Now working at The Hoffman Process, an experiential retreat that helps people rewire trauma and cultivate forgiveness, Marcus uses what he’s learned to help others connect with presence and self-acceptance. While he doesn’t sponsor others, he honors his boundaries, protects his peace, and lives by the same mantra that got him through the hardest days:
“One day at a time.”

In this week’s episode, we dive deep with Christian, whose story takes us from military discipline to total chaos — and finally, into recovery and grace.

Christian once did so much ecstasy that he was literally kicked out of the Air Force. What followed was two decades of chaos — cocaine, crack, meth, heroin, and a long list of failed attempts to get clean through everything except AA. College couldn’t save him. Fraternity interventions couldn’t save him. Even outdoor rehab didn’t work. But divine timing and family love kept him alive long enough to find the program that finally stuck.

After being court-martialed and serving six and a half months in the brig, Christian returned home to Huntington Beach determined to start over — but success and busyness led him right back to old behaviors. A relapse, a suicide attempt, and a near-death seizure finally brought him to his knees in 2018.

When COVID hit, Christian found his way back to AA through Zoom in 2021, and this time, something clicked. Under the guidance of a strong sponsor, he began to truly surrender — even taking a year of celibacy to focus on spiritual growth and service.

Today, with four years sober, Christian lives by faith, accountability, and the motto: “What other people think of me is none of my business.” From raves and rebellion to recovery and rebirth, his journey is proof that no matter how far you fall, grace can still find you.

This week, we sit down with Emily — whose journey shows that sometimes the turning point isn't a dramatic bottom, but simply reaching a place where you can’t run from yourself anymore.

Emily came to California from Virginia wrecked by heroin addiction and years of toxic relationships. With nowhere left to turn, she took a desperate flight west with her ex-husband — and by sheer grace, crossed paths with Gene, a man from AA who would become her sponsor, mentor, and anchor. Gene welcomed her into his home and offered not comfort, but structure, discipline, accountability, and a spiritual foundation she’d never had before.

She started over with a get-well job at Fatburger, showed up to meetings every day, and began rebuilding her life from the ground up. And while she struggled deeply to trust women — or trust herself — Emily slowly learned to soften, surrender, and let the program reshape her from the inside out.

A pivotal chapter of Emily’s story came at two years sober, when she lost her brother to addiction — and only months later, her stepmom. She shares the raw reality of walking through profound grief without ever wanting to drink or use, and how the love and structure of AA became the safety net that carried her through. Instead of collapsing, she leaned into service, meetings, and her program — proof that a solid foundation in recovery can stand firm in the hardest storms.

Emily also opens up about how her disease showed up in early recovery — and how she needed someone who wasn’t afraid to tell her right from wrong. Gene gave her truth and tough love; today she has a woman sponsor who guides her with gentleness and compassion. Both styles, she says, were essential to her becoming the woman she is now.

Now building a life rooted in honesty, accountability, spiritual practice, and service, Emily is proof that when you stop running and say yes to guidance — life becomes something sacred, steady, and worth staying sober for.

In Part 2 of Sloan’s story—the first guest we’ve ever needed two full episodes for—we dive into the messy, hilarious, and deeply human side of growing up sober. Sloan got sober at just 16 years old, and in this episode, she opens up about what it was really like to navigate relationships, recovery, and self-worth while learning who she was without drugs or alcohol.

She shares stories about dating house managers in sober living, juggling crushes on friends who lived across the street from each other, and how she used relationships to fill the same void that alcohol once did. When Jimmy asks if she ever told her sponsor about these situations, Sloan laughs and recalls her sponsor’s advice: “You can do whatever you want—as long as you’re willing to accept the consequences.”

But what stands out most is Sloan’s honesty. She talks about how she used to conveniently leave things out with her sponsor, and how every time she finally told the truth, she’d end up on her sponsor’s doorstep—like the time she confessed she was dating someone with 36 days sober and got a literal nipple twist as a lesson in honesty.

Sloan reflects on how the secrets are what separate her from God and her fellows, and how living transparently—no matter how uncomfortable—has become the cornerstone of her sobriety. She also breaks down the importance of daily routine, prayer, and staying grounded in God’s will to keep her ego from spinning stories that feed old behaviors.

We also get into how perception changes in recovery—how the patterns she once laughed off as harmless look different now, and how she’s learned to take accountability for the examples she sets. Sloan opens up about the grief she’s endured in sobriety, including the loss of her best friend, and how service, faith, and fellowship have carried her through the darkest times.

Today, Sloan is a published author and a powerful recovery speaker who travels the country sharing her story and her faith. From dating chaos to divine direction, Part 2 is a powerful blend of laughter, vulnerability, and grace.

🎧 Tune in for a conversation about love, loss, honesty, and what it means to truly grow up in sobriety—one truth and one prayer at a time.

Sloan is our very first guest whose story couldn’t fit into just one episode—because it’s that powerful. She got sober at only 16 years old and will celebrate 14 years on November 1st, 2025. Growing up in Wisconsin, there weren’t any adolescent treatment programs, so her parents did what they could—putting her in hospitals to detox. But even there, something sparked. She picked up the Big Book and saw the word sponsor—and in her young, addicted mind, she thought it meant someone would pay her. She told her parents she had to go to these “meetings” to find a sponsor, thinking she’d stumbled onto a get-rich-quick scheme.

At 15, she walked into her first meeting—a flooded church basement women’s meeting—after having her parents drop her off around the corner. The women there welcomed her with warmth and kindness. Someone got her a cup of coffee, someone offered her a cigarette, and no one told her she was too young. Sloan says what kept her coming back was that “we don’t shoot our wounded”—and that no one ever told her there was a time limit on being an addict or alcoholic.

But it wasn’t a straight line. Sloan did the 30, 60, 90-day dance for a while, facing five felony charges at just 15 for lying about where she was getting pills to sell—“I’ll lie when the truth would’ve served me better.” After being expelled, she ended up at a sober high school where she had to take drug tests to stay enrolled. She managed to get nine months sober before relapsing for two weeks—and she couldn’t drink enough to drown out what she’d learned in recovery. Her last blackout came on Halloween, ending with her stomach being pumped in the hospital. Ironically, her lowest bottom wasn’t the chaos—it was losing her job at KFC. That’s when she surrendered, even if she didn’t recognize it yet.

In early recovery, Sloan was wild—she admits she wasn’t doing the inner work, just showing up and fellowshipping. Her addiction shifted forms: sex, love, validation. Within her first year, she got kicked out of her sober high school after breaking a boy’s nose and managed to get herself blacklisted from all the men’s sober living homes. But she kept showing up—and the women in the program never gave up on her.

By three years sober, her untreated mental health nearly took her life. She put a gun in her mouth, and her mom walked in on her. That moment changed everything. Her sponsor—who had also gotten sober young—started bringing meetings to her in the hospital every week for over a year. Slowly, Sloan began doing the real work: healing, surrendering, and finally building a relationship with God. Her sponsor told her she wasn’t fully in God’s will until she was giving it away—helping others still in the psych ward, just like she once was.

This episode is raw, real, and full of hope. Sloan’s story shows that recovery doesn’t always look pretty—but grace finds us anyway.
🎧 Tune in to Part 1 of Sloan’s journey as we talk about getting sober young, surviving chaos, and finding purpose through pain. (And yes… we end on a cliffhanger that involves a titty twister—Part 2 coming next week!)

Robert just celebrated 11 years sober—and this was his first time ever getting sober. Before that, he had lost absolutely everything he had worked for. When he finally surrendered, he was scholarshipped into a program, and on his very first morning, they took him to a 7 a.m. meeting. He walked in and saw people smiling—truly happy—and in that moment, he was struck sober. He knew deep down that this was it for him.

Robert had tried getting “Jesus sober” before—turning to church, praying for strength—but it never lasted. The second he left, the relief disappeared. But when he walked into AA, something clicked. The fellowship gave him not just sobriety, but a God of his own understanding. Today, he gets on his knees and prays every single morning.

Growing up in the South, Robert never felt safe being openly gay. When he first moved to Thousand Oaks, he feared he’d be the only gay man in the rooms—like he was right back in the South, feeling like the outsider again. But through prayer, faith, and the love of the fellowship, he found belonging and a spiritual home.

When Robert came into the program, he had nothing—no job, no car, no money, and no connection to his family. In that first year, he learned humility, how to ask for help, and how to reach out when he was struggling—and every time, someone in AA reached back. For six years straight, he went to a meeting every single day. “I just wanted someone to point me in the right direction,” he says, “and that direction was always toward God.”

At 13 months sober, tragedy struck when his aunt, uncle, and cousin were killed by a drunk driver. Robert shares the painful realization that he was that kind of drunk driver—and how, by the grace of God, he was sober when it happened. He walks us through how his faith carried him through that unimaginable grief, and how he’s learned to trust that God’s hand is in everything—both the blessings and the heartbreaks.

Over time, his life rebuilt itself piece by piece: a car from someone in the program, a job from another member, reconnection with family, and a sense of purpose rooted in helping others. Today, Robert gives back by showing up for the newcomer the same way people showed up for him.

🎧 Tune in for a powerful and emotional conversation about surrender, faith, and the kind of grace that only comes from hitting bottom and choosing to rise—with God and the fellowship lighting the way.

Alyssa has one year and three months sober—and she’s only 21 years old. She’s Breezy’s grandsponsee, and before getting sober, she had tried a thousand times but never made it past a month of white-knuckling. She’s never had a legal drink, yet her drinking nearly cost her her life. Coming from a family where addiction runs deep, she never saw alcohol as a problem—it was just fun, social, something to take the edge off her anxiety. But it wasn’t long before she was bleeding internally and had burst her small intestine, still drinking through it all.

Her turning point came when her boyfriend, who drank the same way she did, landed in the hospital. For the first time, he said they should go to a meeting. Alyssa told him he should go—but he asked her to come with him. That night, she admitted out loud, in front of a room full of strangers, that she was an alcoholic—and she cried. A group of women surrounded her after the meeting, and one invited her out for tea the next morning. For the first time, Alyssa felt love, connection, and belonging.

At first, she told herself she’d just make it to 30 days. But when she picked up that first chip, the feeling was electric—and she wanted more. The fellowship became her lifeline until she was ready to start working the steps. Over time, she and her boyfriend both got sober together, learning to walk their own paths but also show up for each other.

Alyssa shares what it’s been like getting sober so young—navigating birthdays, social pressure, and learning to love a quiet, peaceful life. When she turned 21, she celebrated by buying her dad a beer—using her ID for the first time in a way that honored her sobriety instead of threatening it. She talks about how she’s learned to move through fear and anxiety by leaning into prayer, calling her sponsor, and doing the next right thing—even when it makes her sick with nerves, like the first time she spoke on a panel.

Life hasn’t been easy in sobriety. Working in memory care, she’s had to face loss often. Her sister’s ongoing addiction has tested her faith—like the time she passed out high in Alyssa’s car on the way to detox. But through it all, Alyssa has stayed sober, found her faith, and started building a life: her first apartment, a car, a promotion, and countless “God shots” that remind her she’s right where she’s meant to be.

🎧 Listen in for a conversation full of heart, humility, and hope—about getting sober young, walking through fear with faith, and finding freedom one day at a time.

Sam has 9 years sober, with alcohol and cocaine as her drugs of choice. While she experienced physical bottoms, it was the spiritual sickness that nearly broke her—the slow erosion of her values, her morals, and her sense of self. She remembers stealing from a friend, blacking out on a family trip to Disneyland, and terrifying her loved ones when she wound up in Long Beach at a stranger’s house. That was the final straw for her family, especially her mom—who told her plainly: you have a problem with alcohol, and you need help.

Her sister didn’t even want to be around her anymore, a loss that would later become one of the biggest blessings in recovery when they rebuilt their bond. Sam reached out to an old friend, whose boyfriend connected her with a treatment program in Villa Park. Her dad picked her up at the airport, and in one of those surreal alcoholic moments, actually stopped at Vons so she could buy a box of wine before going into detox. Sam remembers thinking she could never fathom a life without drinking.

In treatment, everything began to shift. She found her first real friend in recovery—someone who later passed away from this disease—and she met Brett, who would become her husband. Grief could have taken her out, but instead, she leaned on meetings—sometimes two or three a day—and the fellowship carried her through. She also met her sponsor in a moment of vulnerability after making a “fool” of herself at a meeting. This woman related to her instantly and became a guiding light.

At four months sober, Sam started dating Brett. He had only a few more months than she did, and everyone swore they would take each other out. And for a moment, it looked like they might—when Brett relapsed on heroin just shy of two years sober. Sam had 18 months at the time, found his stash in their bathroom, and confronted him. Brett went back to detox, got sober again, and they made the decision to stay together. Since then, they’ve leaned into meetings and the fellowship as the foundation of both their sobriety and their relationship.

🎧 Listen in as Sam shares her journey of honesty, heartbreak, and healing—a story of rebuilding family bonds, finding love in recovery, and discovering that fellowship is the heartbeat of a sober life.